A/N-This chapter shall be forever known to me as the blackout chapter, since most of it was written longhand at my kitchen table in the middle of a blackout.
Thanks to projectfreq91, JacokNortovc, Hottie12345k, itsmariscul, and maria.boom.baby. for reviewing. Special thanks to maria.boom.baby. for adding this to her faves!
Also, thanks to JacokNortovc, projectfreq91, Hottie12345k for reviewing my DYMM one shot, 'The Honorary Trumpet'.
I don't own the lyrics.
Chapter Twelve-Party Surprises And Conversations
Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed.
Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
It's The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
Rachel and I sat around outside waiting for everyone to show up. Being boys (well, most of them), they were probably going to be late or get lost, regardless of how many times they've come over to my house. James was the first one to show up, walking through my backdoor after talking to my mom and getting drooled on by my sister. He cleaned up decently, I must say. My sister thought so also, because she was now outside staring at James. He looked at her with an amused smile and waved.
"I see you sister still has the hots for me." He said. "But then again, who wouldn't?" He smiled cockily at me. Rachel threw a full can of soda at his head. Have I mentioned how much I love my best friend?
"Oww…hey you don't play trumpet!" James said, pointing at Rachel.
"Yeah we know, but in our freshman year she spent more time hanging out with the trumpets then her own section so we made her an honorary trumpet." I informed him. This was the kind of stuff he missed out on when he was wherever-he-was. I still haven't found out where he went. Every time I asked he would change the subject. Eventually, I just decided to forget it.
Adrianna was the next to arrive. She looked nervous, and I could only guess that this was her first party with kids older then her. She put her stuff down and made her way over to where we sat.
"Hey," She said softly. Adrianna needed to come out of her shell. Lessons with her have been dominated with trying to get to play forte consistently.
"Hi!" Rachel yelled. She used to be quiet in her freshman year, but then when she started hanging out with the trumpets more, she came out of her shell and became indefinitely hyper in public. James nodded in her direction. I stood up so she could have my chair and be more comfortable around everyone. She was going to be one of the only freshmen here, and the only female underclassman besides Gen. She took my seat and looked up at me, grateful. I headed inside to see who else had come-Brian, a trumpet player in my grade, and Gen, a sophomore mello were standing around in my kitchen. Showing them outside, I ran to get the door for a small gaggle of underclassmen that were pounding at the doorbell. Never before had I wanted to kill that stupid chime, but now I realized how annoying it truly was. Letting the freshies in, they bolted for the backdoor and dog-piled into the pool. Silly freshmen. Figuring that everyone else could just see themselves in, I went back into the yard to see how much destruction the freshies had wrought. In only five minutes of being outside, they were already using the foam noodles to beat themselves silly.
It looked like fun.
After telling everyone who didn't know where the bathrooms were, I lead the girls upstairs so we could change without getting walked in on. Avery was pretty mad when I told her to get out of her room for a few minutes so Rachel could change, but she got over it fairly quickly when I told her that if she went downstairs she could see James without a shirt on. She bolted from the room. My sister is very simple.
The four of us walked back downstairs to see all the guys in the kitchen eating. There was food going everywhere. Adrianna's eyes went large for a moment, and Natalie, Gen and I had a laugh, remembering our first time seeing teenage male brass players eat. They were messy, to say the least. Somehow, the four of us managed to sneak out into the back yard with plates loaded with chips and tomato pie without getting mauled by the boys and we found a nice place to sit down in the grass. The dogs ran over to us and tried to lick our plates. I picked up Cadence, my dachshund and sat her down next to me. She laid down and tried to get our attention. I threw a chip to get Bilbo to go away; the massive yellow lab bounded away after it, his nose to the ground and trying to find it.
The boys all ran out of the house at once, jumping and slamming into the pool. They picked up their noodles and continued their fight; they had yet to notice us sitting there. I stood up and put my plate down on the table, away from the dogs. I peeled off my t-shirt and jumped into the water, landing on someone. When I came up, a miffed looking James was treading water only a few inches away from me. He swam in front of me and moved in so close to my face that I could see every freckle on his nose. He was close. Too close. My heart beat faster; I knew what James could do. And I knew he wouldn't be afraid to do it in front of the rest of the guys. Underwater, his hand brushed mine. He moved even closer to me…
SPLASH.
Rachel surfaced, glaring daggers at James. He seemed to snap out of his trance and he swam away, red faced. Rachel paddled over to where I was. My hands were clenched in fists. I was furious. Why does he think he can kiss me every time he sees me?!
Well you almost let him.
He surprised me!
C'mon Syd-stop letting him do this to you! Go enjoy your party!
Yes ma'am!
"You okay? I saw everything." Rachel peered into my eyes, as if trying to see what I was thinking. It was a good thing she couldn't-she'd probably have me committed if she heard my brain feuding with itself.
"Yeah I'm okay. Thanks." I smiled gratefully at her. I know she didn't believe that I was alright-I didn't even believe that I was alright-but she didn't say anything else on the subject. She reached over and handed me a noodle.
"Go beat the crap out of him. It'll make you feel so much better."
Rachel certainly knows me better then myself. I happily took the noodle, whacking Brian in the back of the head as I went.
The party was slowly wrapping up. A few of the people who could drive had left, so it was Rachel, James, the underclassmen and I. We sat around talking and hanging out in my basement. A few of the freshies found my Guitar Hero stuff, and begged me to play. Of course, I let them. Guitar Hero was one of few multi-player games that I had, and I welcomed them to it. James kept trying to get me alone to talk (or so he said), but Rachel kept getting in between us, pulling me away from him. Every time that she did that I reminded myself that she was getting an amazing birthday present. Rachel was a lot of things-clarinetist, pianist, actress and a girlfriend, but first and foremost she was my best friend. I owed a lot to her-especially now, as she's saving me from another confrontation with James.
James. His name made my skin crawl, it made me want to run away across the border and never come back, but most of all it made me hurt. It reminded me of all the good times-and all the bad times-we've had, but it reminded me that we can never go back to what we were all those years ago. When boys had cooties and your parents were your biggest heroes. We're too big now, too big to be 'just friends'. It must have happened somewhere in between learning that we couldn't fit in the play pen at McDonalds and the time he came back. It made me sad.
Finally, everyone cleared out, with Rachel the last to leave. We hugged, and she made me swear that I would call her tomorrow. As if I needed reminding. We talked on the phone nearly every day, most of the time it was about nothing. Rachel picked up her keys and beeped as she pulled out of my driveway. I watched her leave from the window, waving the entire time.
I started picking up stuff down in the basement, with my iPod blaring from my speakers and my PS2 still running. I shut off the game system and decided, after looking at the couch longingly for several minutes, that I would lie down for a little bit.
"Hey there, wake up sleepy-head!" I was pulled from my slumber by a cheery, booming voice. I would know that voice anywhere.
"Grandpop!" I cried, jumping off of the couch and disentangling myself from the blankets. "What are you doing here? What time is it?" I asked him after giving him a big hug.
"Did you forget what day it is?" He asked, feigning sadness.
"Um…yes?"
"I live here now!" He said, his wrinkled face lighting up. I was confused for a moment, but then I remembered-today was Grandpop's official moving in day. I hugged him again, breathing in the smell of wood and valve oil.
For the past few weeks, my brothers and I have helped Grandpop move his stuff into his room, which used to be the attic. We cleaned it out and turned it into a nice little space for him. It was repainted and we bought rugs for the wooden floors. Last weekend my older brother Danny and I lugged up a wardrobe, a dresser, his bookshelf, and a small desk. I spent a lot of time repainting the furniture for him. It looked as if it hadn't been done for nearly twenty years. Over the last few days, Grandpop's stuff arrived in boxes with Dad when he came home from work. I took it upon myself to put my grandfather's entire book collection on the shelves and put all his music into neat piles on the desk. My grandfather had been a music teacher for many years, but he also wrote a lot of music. Most of it was theory work, but there was music in there too. He wrote a book on music theory back in the seventies. I have one of the first copies of the book. It was the copy that Grandpop gave to my grandmother. It was really helpful in my first two years of music theory, and it'll probably help me out even more this year in A.P. Music Therory III.
"What time is it?" I asked him.
"Not sure, exactly. I don't that your parents are up yet, but that's okay. Gives me time to raid the fridge." He winked.
"Have you got anything in your car that you need to bring in?"
"Yeah, but that can wait a bit. You were asleep on the couch, you've gotta be sore." He said, looking at me. He said down at the place I once was asleep on. I stretched out a bit. Sure, my neck was a bit stiff, but after stretching it didn't feel so bad.
"How's your knee?" He asked, looking at my leg.
"Eh, same old, same old." I said off-handedly. I always had weak knees, and last year during a drumline show I tripped on the tarp. The knee I landed on hasn't really been the same since. The doctors didn't know what was wrong with me, so I always had to watch out for it and wear a knee brace if I was marching.
"Is everything alright? You seem quiet." Grandpop was another person who knew me more then I did. It's getting annoying-living in a person who didn't know who she was.
"Well, there's this boy…" I trailed off, not really knowing what to say. It wasn't everyday I talked to my grandfather about boys.
"Oh, well I used to be one of them once. Do you want to tell me about it?"
"See, he moved away a few years ago and dated my arch enemy right before he left. And he was my best friend. Now he's back, and says he's sorry for everything and he also said that he loves me on top of that. I just don't know what to do!" I practically exploded. To my surprise, Grandpop smiled.
"That sounds familiar."
"Familiar?! What are you talking about?" I know that my life has turned into one of Avery's soaps, but I didn't know that it was that obvious! (Or that my grandfather watched soap operas).
"That's pretty much how your grandmother and I were." He had a wistful look on his face. It was the look he got whenever he started to talk about Grandma. He was so in love with her.
"What?!"
"It's true Sydney. I'm not proud of it." He looked remorseful. "Your Grandma and I weren't always in love. Well at least she wasn't in love with me. There was a time that I thought she hated me-and then she confirmed it. We were always rivals in band, even though we didn't play the same instrument. I always loved her though, even when we were little. But I always said the wrong thing or acted the wrong way. I hurt her." He looked downright miserable. It killed me to see him like this. I really wanted to give him a hug.
"Then I did the worst thing I could have ever done-I dated her arch rival. She was a majorette. Pretty, too. But she had nothing on Elizabeth. Elizabeth was an angel. I didn't know that she hated Elizabeth, and that Elizabeth hated her. So basically, I made things worse between us. She wouldn't look at me, not even to glare at me. Elizabeth was furious, the girl was happy, and I was miserable.
"Then I dumped the girl and begged for Elizabeth's forgiveness. I didn't know why she was so mad. Turned out she liked me all along, but she was too proud to admit it!" He smiled at the story's happy ending. "See Sydney, you're not the only one with that same problem. It happens all the time." He looked at me happily. My mind was in a whirl. So Grandpop and Grandma were like the fifties version of James and I? But they ended up married…and I can't see that in James and my future. All of a sudden I had a vision of me in a white dress…no! Bad brain, very very bad!
"Well Sydney, those boxes aren't going to move themselves. We'd better start getting them inside." Grandpop stood up and clapped his hands onto my shoulders.
"You're a smart girl, Sydney. I'm sure you'll figure out everything between you and James." I nodded numbly and watched him head up the stairs. Then I remembered something.
"Grandpop, wait!" He turned around. "Yes?"
"How did you know it was James?" I asked. He smiled wisely at me.
"Who else would it be? And besides, he was standing outside when I pulled in, with a handful of pebbles trying to find your window. I asked him who he was and he remembered me from when you two were little. He told me everything about you two and what's happened with you both. I advised him against the pebbles. I did the same thing once to Elizabeth's window," He grimaced, "And I couldn't sit down for three days." Grandpop turned around and headed back up the stairs. I stayed in the basement for a minute thinking about what my grandfather told me. Then with a grin on my face, I ran up the stairs to help him with the boxes.
A/N-Longest chapter to date yay me! Leave a review if you want to!
