Chapter 9
We all boarded our hippified bus to drive over to Melody's. Qaasim sat next to me, trying to get a hook up with Melody's sister. Little did he know she was seven.
"So Alex, does Melody have any sisters?"
"Yeah, she does." I replied, knowing where the conversation was going.
"Is she cute?"
"Adorable." She was the cutest seven year old I've ever met. Except for me when I was seven.
"Is she single?"
"Yep. As far as I know."
"Do you think she'll like me?"
"Yup." I was trying not to laugh.
"What color hair does she have?"
"Red-brown." I held my laughter in.
"Will she go out with me?"
"Maybe. If her mom approves."
"Oh, she will." He said confidently.
I didn't respond, as Cooper told us we were there.
We all got out of the bus, crowding our way onto her doorstep. The closest person to the doorbell rang it, as we were greeted by a little girl with red-brown pigtails.
She screamed as she saw us, and slammed the door in our faces, running up the stairs.
"MOMMY! THE NAKED BROTHERS BAND ARE AT OUR HOUSE! ALL OF THEM! MELLIE! THEY'S HERE! ITS THE NAKED BROTHERS BAND! ALL OF THEM IS HERE!"
We all looked at Qaasim and laughed as someone spilled out "There's your date."
Qaasim frowned. "That is not funny. Alex, why didn't you tell me she was seven?"
"You didn't ask her age." I replied, as the band started laughing.
We were re greeted when Melody opened the door. "Sorry about that." She apologized. "My sister didn't know I knew you guys. Come on in."
"It's alright. It's happened before. Except last time one of us walked away with a broken nose." Last time we randomly surprised someone, they were shocked to see us, and they slammed the door, and lucky me was just a little bit taller than the doorknob, and the person slammed the door in my face, breaking my nose.
"Luckily," Melody called out to the upstairs " she's going to go out with Julie tonight."
"No way hosé!" Melody's sister shouted back. " I'm staying right here to play with you guys."
"For the last time, we aren't going to be playing." Melody told the annoying smaller sized girl.
"Yuh huuuh!" she said, pestering Melody. " We're all gonna play Naked Brothers Band."
Melody's face turned beat red, and pulled her sister aside. We could all hear the loud whisper. "Did you have to mention that when they are here?"
"But, I wanted to show them my collection." She said, putting on an obvious about to cry look. "Or I'll tell mommy it was you who broke Mama's vase. " She threatened.
"But it was you!" Melody threw her hands on her hips, "and besides, I doubt they want to see a doll collection of themselves."
"We're dolls?" I asked confused. I looked at the rest of the band, hoping for some explanation, and no one knew how to respond. The only doll I knew of that was inspired by us was that one trying to promote milk. But they were sent back due to their love of Nat.
"Yeah." Melody said, going back to fighting with her sister. I could already tell Melody wasn't as sweet at home like she was at school. Oddly, I liked that. It was so unMelody, it was Melody.
"But who will she believe?" The younger girl questioned, smirking.
"You," Melody said, voice dulled. Her anger level started to rise again. " because you're a fucking spoiled brat."
"Yep." The younger girl smiled her innocent smile. " Because Mommy loves me best."
Melody rolled her eyes. "Because she carried you for nine months. So, of course she's attached to her only blood related daughter."
"Um, we're still here?" I said, letting them know that the band was, in fact, hearing all of this.
"Sorry Alex." Melody said sighing. "This'll take just a minute."
Melody ran upstairs and all we heard were some voices talking, and an obvious whine. After ten minutes of what seemed to take forever, Melody came back downstairs.
"She's going to take Hannah to a movie. So, we'll have the house to ourselves." Melody told us, as grins spread across the bands faces. "However, she did tell us that we can't enter any bedrooms, and to clean up any messes we make. And if the neighbors call to complain, we're all dead."
We heard more whining and crying as Julie came down the stairs with Melody's sister. "But I wanna stay with them!" She whined, starting to sob. "Th-the Naked Brotherrs Band's here. I wanna stay with them." She said, still crying.
Julie shook her head. "It won't be fun. They are going to watch some boring movie and then go home. We'll have more fun." Julie walked Melody's sister outside, shutting the door, bribing her along the way.
Melody smiled. "She's gone."
"Let the party begin!" Thomas called out, in that same 'prepare for battle' voice.
And that's what happened.
The first part of the party was a slight blur, probably because I was busy chugging down as many lemon-lime sodas as I could in five minutes.
I'm proud to say I didn't beat my childhood record of twenty sodas.
I'm also proud to say Melody didn't notice the cans lying on the floor. I guess she was too busy popping tubs of popcorn. She got those large movie theater sized tubs, and was spending forever on popping them, but then, each member of the band is used to getting food cooked to perfection.
Twenty minutes later Melody set the tubs down in front of us, and turned the movie on.
"What are we watchin?" I asked, digging into my popcorn.
"Alex, you know me better than that. Whats my favorite book?"
"The Outsiders?" I asked.
She nodded." That, is what we're watching."
I had this strange feeling that the movie was going to be a chick flick. I don't know much about the book, but it sounds girly.
It turns out however, it wasn't the least bit girly. It was actually a pretty good movie. There was violence, there was action, and just enough romance for the girls to like. We went halfway through the movie before everyone starting acting all zoned out, and stopped watching.
We all noticed how Nat fell asleep on Rosalina and Thomas and David still had their buckets of popcorn filled up near the top. At this point the only people paying attention to the movie were the girls, so the rest of us all eyed our half filled popcorn buckets.
Without hesitating, we all picked up our over buttered popcorn, dumping it all on Nat, the popcorn getting stuck on his clothes, and in his hair. He still didn't wake up, as we dumped the rest of Thomas' bucket of popcorn on his head.
Nat finally awoke after someone dumped their coke on his head. Of course, due to the fact that he was sleeping on Rosalina, she got soda all over her outfit. She jumped up, screeching.
"You guys are so immature." She said shaking off the access soda from her hair, each of us getting sprinkled with soda. "Hey Melody?" She asked stepping over the rest of us.
"Yeah?" She replied, eyes glued to the t.v.
"Do you mind if I use your bathroom?"
"Go ahead, as long as it's just you."
Rosalina grabbed her purse and headed into the bathroom to do whatever girls do in there for fifteen minutes.
Melody turned away from the movie at this part with some sort of sunset, and breathed in, telling me how this was her most favorite poem ever.
I was taken off guard when she turned away from the movie, crawling over to me, and right before the scene ended, kissed me on the cheek.
I can't say I didn't blush, and I can't say that no one noticed. Everyone in the room turned their attention away from what they were doing, and just gawked at me and Melody.
Happy Birthday Alex, I though sarcastically to myself, embarrassed by the fact we weren't alone.
Melody soon turned back to the movie, watching it intensively. I crawled over to the seat next to her, sitting right beside her. As soon as the "scary" part came on screen, she quickly buried her head into my chest.
In the back of my mind, I knew she wasn't scared. I knew she was doing that as a reason to get closer towards me, and I knew there weren't really scary parts in this movie. There was violence, but not enough to be scared by.
Melody turned the movie off a half hour later. She jumped up from where she was sitting, and said in an 'I almost forgot' voice, " I almost forgot, I got you a present." She leaped from her seat, and ran up the stairs.
She came back downstairs ten minutes later, along with Rosalina, who looked refreshed and happy to have soda out of her hair.
"Happy Birthday, Alex." She said cheerfully,kissing me on the cheek again. This time, in a happier, less romantic way.
She handed me the small package.
"Thanks." I smiled, eagerly awaiting to open my package. Everyone crowded around me, as I tore the paper off of a thin paper back book entitled That Was Then,This Is Now.
"It's a really good book, even if you aren't much of a reader." Melody said, smiling. "One of my favorites."
"I'll read it later." I said, forcing a smile upon my lips. I didn't hate the gift, I just wasn't a book person, and she knew that. So why did she give me the gift?
I didn't speak out my opinion on the gift, and shrugged it off as the rest of the gang and I started to just goof off more. It started out with just random nonsense talking, and ending out to be some sort of wrestling match.
It was getting pretty wild, when Melody pulled me over. "Hey Alex, can I see you outside for a moment?"
"Uh, sure." I walked outside to the front porch with Melody, who had another package hidden behind her back.
"Um, don't be too shocked." She said nervously. "If you don't like them, then I can take them back. I-I know it's such a typical drummer gift, and I don't know if you even like them, but you mentioned them once and-"
I took the package from her, and tore it open. I wasn't surprised they were drumsticks, since she mentioned it was a typical drummer gift.
"Turn it around" She said, as I did as I was told. The results were shocking. In my hands were exclusive, one of a kind drumsticks by the drummer of my favorite band: Green Day. In scribbled messy writing on each drumstick were the words Tre Cool.
"How did? How much? Where? How?" I was at lost for words.
"Don't worry about it, Al. I found them in my attic. My mom was a fan of the band, and well, I knew how much you liked them, so I decided to give them to you."
"Thank you." I said again, not really knowing what to say.
We stood in silence on her front porch, the light flickering above us. We just stood there for about three minutes, not doing anything. We both started pacing back and forth, a little nervous.
And then, out of the blue, it happened. We both leaned in at the same time, and kissed. We kissed for a solid minute, but it felt like longer. And it did feel as great as the lyrics from a romance song described. It was magical, and the sparks did fly Whatever that meant.
Our lips stayed locked, until we both heard the sound of whooping from inside. We broke apart, nervous and jittery, and embarrassed.
After all, it was the first kiss on the lips for the both of us.
Melody started to giggle a little bit, and I still wanted to keep that some sort of private moment between the two of us, before going inside.
"Melody," I asked, getting a nervous feeling inside my stomach. I'm guessing the kind Nat gets when he's with Rosalina. I knew this was a risky question, and I knew there was a small chance. But hey, I don't think I'll ever have this alone time with her again. "Do you want to go to the winter formal with me?"
Melody hesitated. " But that's not until the week before Christmas. It's only November, hardly. Why ask so soon?"
"Well, I know how girls are with finding dresses and stuff.."
"Alex! Don't judge me with them. You know I'm not like those fancy girls."
"I know, but.."
"Okay." Melody smiled.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'll go to the dance with you."
We both didn't say much more and went back inside.
The evening died down after that and not much happened. At ten-thirty Julie came back, and we were all forced to go back home. Our bus dropped everyone else off at their houses, and soon it was just me and Nat.
"What'd Melody get you?" He asked, staring down at my drumsticks, clutched in my hand.
"Drumsticks" I replied, as Nat didn't seem so interested.
"Oh." He said simply, as I grinned.
"Autographed Drumsticks. From the drummer of Green Day."
"Oh wow, really? Cool!" Nat said looking at my drumsticks. The ones that were defiantly staying away from Lucky.
"Yep."
"Thats gotta be one of the most awesome presents a girl's ever gave you."
"Yeah."
"And?"
"And what?"
"How was your first kiss?"
"You saw that? That was a private moment. And besides, it wasn't my first kiss." I lied.
"Really? Who'd you kiss?"
I started naming off random people. "Jesse, Juanita, fans.."
"On the lips. I doubt Juanita would let you kiss her, seeing as she doesn't even like you to hold hands with her."
"Melody." I said softly.
Nat smiled. "It's alright, Al. I was your age when I got my first kiss also. Nothing to be ashamed of."
I don't remember much of what else happened. The last thing I heard was Nat wishing me a happy Birthday again, and then I fell asleep. My twelfth birthday nothing but memories now.
I can honestly say, nothing can beat this birthday.
A/N: Alex's favorite band is Green Day, right? I've read that a million times on a thousand different websites, but I didn't know if it changed or not. Well, Green Day is my favorite band, so um, Yay.
