Chapter 11 of Feather Strings

(a/n: SORRY SORRY SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN LIKE TWO WEEKS OR SOMETHING. I JUST STARTED HIGHSCHOOL AND IT'S A REALLY BUSY PROGRAM, AND LIKE I SAID BEFORE, I CAN ONLY WORK ON IT ON WEEKENDS. SO SOMETIMES IT MAY BE TWO WEEKS. I DID NOT ABANDON YOU. Anyroads, I've gotten over 1000 hits and almost 300 hundred views from people from America to France to Singapore, so thank you guys, thank you so much. It made my day! Love you all! Thank you! Also, from the songs in the chapter that I wrote, the only one in which I'm posting the complete lyrics is Crack. All the other ones, I'm either posting the first verse and/or part of or the complete chorus.)

(Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Nor do I own any of the songs and their lyrics except for the 'seaweed' 'little white lies, big green eyes' 'spiders, my symphony' 'love of my lies, come to kill me watch me die' 'lost between the lines' and 'a crack' which I wrote. I know it sucks, but I wrote it a 2 a.m and I'm no song writer. I'm a writer and a poet.)

I have to admit, I was nervous as hell. At the last minute, we wanted to change our line up of songs,we had to add songs, as the band was going to be late, prepare an encore just in case, practice and do a sound check. And on top of it all, we had to ad lib the dialogue as in 'Hello Malibu! We are...'. Ugh. So much work formal few songs.

So there I was, admiring the beautiful guitars. There were two electric guitars to chose from and one acoustic. My fingers hovered over the shiny black one, sleek like a cougar or some sleek, svelte black wild cat. I wanted that guitar so much. Such an amazing lovely darling. Sadly, I already looked to emo. And hanks to Nudge, I also had my hair parted to I had emo sidebangs. Enough black, enough emo. So I settled for the other guitar. It was less mesmerizing, but definitely a load cooler. It was black and white checkered, with part of the Union Jack in the lower right area. It was pretty sick, and made my outfit less dark, so I was less heart-broken about leaving Hans Garret Whillem Johnson the Eigth. Yes, that's what I had named him. It was more suited for the guitar I had chosen, but it was better than Fang, which was more suited for the Black Beauty.

"Hurry up and pick the damn guitar!" An impatient Iggy cried from the stage. I quickly grabbed the checkers guitar and ran from my spot backstage to the stage.

"Okay," Fang spoke up. "We need to double check the song list we're doing, espicially since we have to change the lineup. Dawn, can you write down the song names for us?" Dawn nodded eagerly, a pen ready in her hand.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, so first we will begin with an introduction of our song 'Seaweed', which I sing. After that, we'll do a short introduction, then do 'Little White Lies, Big Green Eyes', which you'll sing, Fang. 'Symphony; My Spiders', where I do back-up. Some goes for 'Lost Between The Lines' and 'Love of My Lies, Come to Kill Me, Watch Me Die'. By the others, I figure we'll do Fang singing Pierce the Veil's 'The New National Anthem'. I'll sing 'Fences', by Paramore. by Every Avenenue, Fang'll sing 'Eyes of the Zero', by Black Veil Brides: 'The Morticians Daughter', which I will do on acoustic. By Thousand Foot Krutch: 'Bring Me To Life', which Fang will sing along with Serj Tankian's 'Lie, Lie, Lie', and System of A Down's 'Ego Brain'. In that order. Do you have that Dawn?" I asked. Dawn nodded and grinned gratefully at me before I continued. "To make up for the band, we'll do Fang singing 5FDP's 'Over and Under It' and Nickelback's 'Burn it to the Ground'. Fang will have me for back up vocals for 'Prayer of the Refugee' by Rise Against and 'Left of Center' by Serj Tankian. Fang will be singing solo for SOAD's 'Chop Suey' and I'll be solo for Joan Jett's 'Bad Reputation. Is that good?"

Dawn nodded enthusiastically. "If needed for an encore, you're doing 'Young' Hollywood Undead, 'The Kids Aren't All right' by the Offspring, 'The Good Life by Three Days Grace,'WhAt You Want' by Evanescence and the other one, right?" She confirmed, being cautious not to mention the song. I nodded. "Okay, then. I'll leave you guys to practice and we'll do the sound check right before the show.

...

...

I looked around the club as people began to stream in before our opening act. The place was way cooler than expected. The place was pretty huge. On the first level, there Was shiny silver tiles on the floor. The walls were painted black, or were left paintless. In the far corner, there was a bar and a several dozen tables and chairs. In the few dozen yards in front of the stage, there was just the silver tile dance floor. The stage was elevated a good six feet above the floor and it was shaped like the beginnings of a pyramid. The second level was the coolest. There were a few rows of chairs lining the walls, with a zig zag stair case against the wall to reach them. The coolest part though, were the cages. Across the club, there were about a dozen cages hung from the ceiling and partially supported by pillars, ranging from big to small. Most had tables with a few or several chairs set up inside them, but one or two had nothing. Jake had explained that the cages were for brave patrons who had a little cash for spare. They could rent out the cages and eat there before the show, hang out there for the show, and if the cage had nothing, dance or what ever. Which was frigging cool.

Most of the people who streamed in were wearing a lot of black, but not all heavy goth, so we dressed right. Five minutes after the time we were supposed to start, Dawn and Jake's brother, Gavin, who was wearing a dusk tee shirt (which we also now had six of). I stood nervously backstage. Our rehearsal had gone well, but we had little time and I was really nervous. I stood on one side of Iggy, and Fang on the other. Things were still a tad awkward between us, only worsened by Nudge, and we had gotten into a little argument backstage. Knowing how stubborn we both are, we weren't really speaking.

"Hello, Dusk people!" He shouted into the mike. "Tonight, before the band plays, I'd like to introduce to you a new band that we acquired to open at last minute. I had the luck to listen to them, and I have had the luck to hear them practice! You guys are in for a great night! Give it up for Wings Etc.(Etcetra)!". With that, Gavin stepped away from the microphone and motioned for us to go onstage.

We stepped onstage, and Iggy was guided to the drums, Fang stood behind one microphone, while I grabbed my guitar from it's spot on the floor and made sure it was hooked up to the amp before slinging it over my shoulder and stepping up to the my mike. Fang and Iggy gave me a nod, so I began to ad lib. "Hey...! What city are we in?... I'm just joking! Hello, Malibu!" I began. There was a small wave of laughter throughout the crowd. "We're Wings Etc., and we're obviously here to play for you. I'm Maximum, yes that's my real name, but call me Max unless you want to wake up sprawled over the boarder of Timbuktu and Nowhere missing several teeth and a kidney." More laughter. "This is Fang, he's really not talkative, but you won't see that tonight. Finally, we have Iggy, who is our amazing drummer! The most amazing part? He's blind! Occasionally, you may see Iggy's and mine little sister, Nudge come up to help us with back up vocals, piano or violin. The first few songs are our own, so I hope you guys enjoy those especially. Thank you!" With that, we launched into 'Little White Lies, Big Green Eyes'. (I'll spare you excess reading, and only give you some of the lyrics to all of the songs.) Fang, for the seemingly mind reading genius he is, could seem to figure out which Red-Headed Ex and Beeyotch of his the song was about. Snicker.

And he was singing about her without knowing.

(Three Days Grace-Esque Song) "Please continue with your destruction/Make people ignore your evil for your seduction/A fatal attraction/the pain of others is your satisfaction/telling ovbious little white lies/ forgiven, forgotten for big green EYES!"

I did several wicked guitar riffs with Iggy's amazing drumming before Fang launched into the chorus.

"she grows a garden full of thorns/ and affixes them to her tounge/ it doesn't matter who you are/ or where youre from/ if you're there when she needs it/ she'll lash venom at anyone/...so you better sleep with one eye open, cuz as soon as dawn has broken- you. are. dead." Wow, Fang was a really good vocalist. At the end of the song, Fang finished and gave me a knowing glance before I launched into 'Seaweed', in which Fang didn't sing.

(Song is Paramore-Esque) "Don't let them think you're just another fish in the sea, baby baby, you're seaweed!" I sang the rest of the song, before we moved onto 'Spiders, My Symphony', where Fang and both sang together and reminded my a bit of Silverstein's 'Burning Hearts' in acoustic.

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words/ but a heart holds a million more/so she sits alone in her room, pining away/ wishing there was some one to hear what she has to say/ but theres no one there at all/ except for the spiders on her wall! / ...so she..begins to sing/ her!/ Spider symphony!"

Then we played "Love of my Lie, Come to Kill Me, Watch Me Die", which only I sang. It had the essence of evanescence. Tee hee. Anyways, it was kind of influenced their music.

"love of my lies/ come to kill me and watch me die/ Just don't forget who you are along the way/ because I don't care what they say/ I can bring you down whatever you do/ I will make you drown/ ...choking upon your lies/ a lovely demise/ the love of my lies/ lord of the flies/"

And our last song written by us, 'Lost Between the Lines' which Fang sang, but I did a lot of backup. I really liked this song, because Iggy and I had written it after seeing a show on refugees and get to present it at a school charity assembly. Nudge was also up for this one a lot for the background piano, more than some of the other songs, so it felt more like a complete band.

'barely escaped the confines, bit now he's trapped in the vines, escaped so many times, now she stuck behind enemy lines, futures entertwined in the same story, lost between the lines.'

After that, we moved onto the music of the other bands. Fang rocked 'A New National Anthem', but stood uselessly as I sang 'Fences'. I mean he didn't look useless, he went offstage and probably pigged out, but it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. Fang was less of a 'hinderance' as he sand 'Eyes of the Zero', and once again left the stage as I sang 'The Morticians Daughter' on the other guitar. That was definitely a crowd pleaser. We finished the whole set, then went on to the encore. Finishing that, Fang and Iggy left the stage, leaving the instruments, which were to be remove by the stage crew during the thirty minute intermission between the main set and us. Now was the time to decide. I looked over to where Dawn and Jake stood at the edge of the stage, and they gestured wildly with their hands to continue. I pulled up the stool that was by the acoustic, which I also grabbed.

"Uhhh... Hey, again." I said, sitting down, all my former confidence replaced with shyness. "This was a song I found. Not sure who wrote it. But it was nice, so here you go. Our -er, my- last song of the night." I picked up my guitar, acutely aware, without looking back, that Fang and Iggy were looking at me with curiosity. Even if Iggy couldn't technical look. I began the play the fist few chords.

(the morticians daughter esque, because its a ballad)[guitar only](guitar intro)

'I thought that life was as normal as could be/ and I never noticed the shell around me/ closed from the world/ but out in the open/ but now that I know/ I sing words unspoken/ CHORUS: I build these walls around myself/ and I never did realize/ but now I wonder how/ you pulled the mask away from my eyes/ you saw through my disguise/ Consoling me/ saying a crack is not the end nor is it sinning/ to look at it as a new try, a beginning/ there/ the universe turned a lighter shade of black/ all more right with one single crack./CHORUS: I build these walls around myself/ and I never did realize/ but now I wonder how/ you pulled the mask away from my eyes/ you saw through my disguise/you gazed at me with your bruised eyes/ and for a second, I think it will be alright/ but everything isn't fine/but I can try/ I can try/ I can try to take it brick by brick/ make it better bit by bit/ fight our fights/ no fight or flight/ and still arise a mile high/FINAL CHORUS:I build these walls around myself/ and I finally realize/ no longer do I wonder how/ you pulled the mask away from my eyes/ you saw through my disguise/ but came only to empty eyes... Only to empty eyes...'

The crowd was silent for a moment after finishing, before standing and clapping. Yay. A standing ovation. What does ovation even mean? Why the heck is it called an ovation?

"Thank you guys so much!" I mumbled shyly after the applause had wound down. Yeah, I know the song didn't have a hugely happy ending, but I wasn't a sucker for happy endings, unless me or a character I absolutely LOVED was involved. For example, I would be sad if I or, say, Homer Simpson, Max (from Max &Ruby) and Gazzy died, but not if Harry Potter and Edward Cullen died. Actually, I'd be kinda happy if Edward Cullen died... Anyways, I was trying to get across that sometimes, no matter how good it seems, it's so easy to become even worse than before.

Yeah, I wrote the song, but I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know who wrote it. The Max I know doesn't write that crud.

Fml.

Fml.

Fml.

And while I was back stage facepalming, Gavin went up onstage.

"That was pretty rocking, wasn't it? And Max totally shredded on the guitar, while Iggy pounded those drums! I think with all the awesomeness, I may just need a new mic, guitar and drums, because they were on fire!"

The crowd laughed.

"Ugh. I know. Lame. But Wings. Etc. was pretty awesome weren't they?"

The crowd cheered.

"Okay, since the band is running a little late, how about before the intermission, we have one last song?"

I wanted to say no, because I was still embarrassed by the last one, and my fingers were raw and bloody, but not painful, from accidentally rubbing on the strings a few times, but Gazzy, Angel and Nudge pushed me up to join Fang and Iggy, who had already gone one.

Fang looked at me and mouthed 'Lost in You',pointed to him, then me, then touched his throat. I nodded and told it to Iggy. We were going to do a duet of lost in you because from all the loud singing and occasional singing that we weren't used to, out throats hurt. I sent a mental note to Angel to get us lozenges and polysporin now so we could have it at the end of the show.

I gave a one, two, three que for Iggy, than began to play the opening riffs.

(A/N: Stoping it here. Hurr.. The song will be epic.)