November 1, 2015

Hudson House

9:39 A.M.

Painfully bright, golden sun shone through bedroom window, slithering through a slim crack between the curtains and cascading across the bedroom directly towards Tim's face. The boy scrunched up his face and rolled away from the light, but the beam of warm sun had already done its damage – he was now awake, and not likely to fall back asleep any time soon. Tim groaned and squinted towards the alarm clock sitting on his bedside table. Might as well get up, he thought to himself, noting the time.

Tim wasn't necessarily an early riser, but it was already later than he would usually sleep in on the weekend. He and his friends hadn't gotten home until late the previous night, though, and if not for the meddlesome sun, he could probably have stayed in bed another hour or two. Oh well.

The events of the previous night came rushing back to Tim. The performance. The agent. The long drive home with his friends, all laughing and screaming and imagining what it would be like if Tim were to make it big. It all felt like a wild dream, but…

No, the crisp, white business card sat squarely on the table, just where he had put it down before drifting off to sleep. Sure enough, a talent agent had seen Tim's band and liked them so much, he would offer them a contract. It was a crazy opportunity – and yet completely real, and completely true. If only high school would hurry up and end, he could be on his way.

Tim quickly threw on a pair of jeans and an old, baggy t-shirt before running downstairs, taking care to grab the card along the way. He'd gotten home so late the previous night that he hadn't had the chance to share the exciting news with his parents; both had long been asleep by the time Wanda's cramped sedan dropped him off on the corner. He couldn't wait to see their faces when he told them.

In the kitchen, his mom and dad both sat at the table, a steaming mug of coffee in front of both. Andrea was playing in the living room, in clear sight of both, and Tim mentally let out a sigh of relief. He'd have their full attention when he gave his announcement, it seemed.

His mother gave him a warm if sleepy smile. "Good morning," she said before giving a large yawn. "I didn't think we'd see you this early."

"What time'd you get in last night? 2? 3?" His dad chuckled softly. "I remember staying up that late on the weekends. That was a long time ago now."

"Something like that," Tim replied, sitting down across from his mom. In his pocket, he could feel the firm corners of the card digging into the thick denim of his jeans. "So, I was hoping we could talk-"

Tim's mother sat up straight. "Yes, that reminds me! I was able to confirm with Dr. Molloy on Friday, and she'd be more than happy to have you intern with the advertising department this summer. I'll get you her details later, it'd be great if you could give her a call and let her know your availability."

"Dr. Molloy…" Tim had entirely forgotten about the possible internship his mother had suggested at her office. Dr. Molloy was apparently the head of advertising, and his mom had suggested his artistic talents might be a good fit for the work she and her team did. It had sounded like an interesting enough opportunity – before his band got spotted by a talent agent and potentially offered a once in a lifetime contract.

Tim's father interrupted his thoughts. "And Berkeley called this morning," he commented and took a sip of his coffee. "We can tour the campus on Friday, if you're still interested in seeing the campus. We thought it might be nice if we all took the day off, checked out the campus, maybe spent the weekend in the city. Andrea would love the museum, I bet."

"Berkeley…"

"We'll have to stop by the beach," Mrs. Hudson added. "We can enjoy the last of the warmer weather before autumn sets in."

Tim was at a loss for words. In his excitement about meeting the agent the night before, he had somehow forgotten just how much his parents had been looking forward to his professional, serious, college-bound future. How was a band and a record deal meant to fit in with any of their plans for their son?

He hurriedly climbed out of his chair and grabbed an apple for breakfast. "I'm going to Arnold's," he murmured before racing out the door, leaving his parent's concerned faces to watch the screen door slam closed.

His mother shook her head slowly. "He's really going to miss summer, I suppose."

"Won't we all?"

November 1, 2015

Arnold's Basement

10:24 A.M.

Wanda jabbed her finger into the side of the still figure currently face down on the sofa. "Uh… He was okay when we left him, right?"

Tim moaned.

DA checked her watch. "It's been… 8 hours. What could possibly have happened in 8 hours? Literally all he's had time to do was sleep!"

"Who knows? Good thing we're all already here, though, right?" Wanda proudly beamed. "Guess I did good being too lazy to drive you guys home."

"You keep telling yourself that…" Keesha stretched her aching limbs, sore from a night of little rest curled up on the sofa in Arnold's basement. Would it really have been that much trouble for Wanda to drive them home the night before? Then again, given Wanda's usual disregard for the gang's well-being, she wasn't sure why she had ever expected anything more.

The bickering around him finally catching his notice, Tim briefly lifted his head, revealing his distraught face and red, tired eyes. "I'm a disappointment and I'm going to crush my parents' spirits." He dropped his head back on the plush cushion.

"Okay? That's like, old news," Wanda shrugged, falling back onto the unoccupied couch opposite of Tim's. "I disappoint my parents at least once a week and you don't see me freaking out about it."

Keesha narrowed her eyes at the girl. "His parents still have hope for him, though."

"Oh." Wanda considered the point. "That's different, then."

Tim rolled onto his back, listlessly staring at the ceiling above. "I can't run off and play music after I graduate," he moped. His tone was distant and soft; he was apparently completely oblivious to Wanda's unhelpful contributions. Though Wanda appeared irritated at not having provoked more of a response from her friends, she remained quiet for the time being.

Phoebe knelt beside the sofa to pat him on the shoulder. She wished there was more she could do to cheer up her friend, but it was difficult to break through to Tim when he got into one of these moods. Still, she had to try; she couldn't stand it when one of her friend's was upset. "But you love preforming…"

"I'm meant to go to a good school, get a good job, be the responsible big brother that Andrea can look up to and the son that they get to brag about at work. Rock star-dom doesn't fit in with the plan."

Wanda brushed her hair behind her shoulder, bored by the mopey conversation. "I'm pretty sure Andrea would much rather have a rock star for a brother," she pointed out. "But hey, if you're so upset about it, Wanda has the perfect solution!"

Tim raised a brow, and immediately the rest of the friends began to protest. "Whatever she says, she's wrong!" DA insisted desperately. "Don't let her lead you astray!"

"She thrives on stupid ideas!"

"One time, she suggested I murder someone! And I almost did!"

"She should be called Wan-don't, not Wan…do? Wan-da? Wando…" Carlos pursed his lips in thought. "Hold on, I can come up with something better than that…"

Tim raised a hand, silencing the cries of dismay in an instant. "Guys, I know Wanda is a sociopath. And I know that her plans are always bad, and sometimes illegal. But…" he took a second to build his nerves. "…I think I want to hear her out."

"Hell yeah!" Wanda cried, punching the air. All around, the remaining friends simply surrendered, crestfallen. With a burst of energy, Wanda leapt over the coffee table and fell into the seat beside Tim. "Okay, so the way I see it, you wanna play music, but you also want your parents to be proud of you, right?"

"Uh-huh?"

Wanda grinned. "That's easy peasy! You just need to reinvent yourself!"

DA's mouth fell open. "For the love of- Wanda, Tim's already learned this lesson!"

"And now's he's about to unlearn it!" Wanda grabbed Tim by the shoulders and stared intensely into his eyes. "Tim, hear me out: you just need to make yourself a parent's worst nightmare! I'm talking chains, leather, punk music playing in the background when you walk into a room – the whole damn thing! Then, when you do run off to play in your band to impress Mr. Fancy talent agent man, they'll just be grateful that you're not living in their basement doing drugs anymore! Plus, Andrea's going to think you're such a badass that it's ridiculous. It's a win-win!"

Tim turned to look at DA, and the blonde threw up her hands in defeat. "No, no way! I'm not doing this again. If you want to go be an idiot, go be an idiot – I have better things to do."

"Do not," Wanda chimed in, garnering a glare from DA.

After a brief moment of consideration, Tim turned back to Wanda. "Okay, I'm in. Reinvent me."

While DA smacked her forehead at the predictably-stupid decision, Keesha simply smirked. "Well, I guess I'd better come along, huh? It'll be just like the old days."

"Only twenty times dumber because we should all know better by now," DA remarked bitterly. "But I'm guessing no one cares about that, am I right?"

"You are indeed!" Amused by DA's frustrated complaints, Wanda jumped to her feet and pulled Tim off of the sofa. "So, it's decided – let's get going! To the mall!"

After Tim, Wanda, and Keesha trampled out of the basement, DA sat down in Wanda's abandoned seat with a huff. "I can't believe they're doing this crap again! Seriously, has Wanda just run out of original bad ideas? Must we start cycling through the old ones?"

"The real question is why Tim would even go along with it," Carlos considered. "Didn't you end up slapping him last time?"

"You'd like to get slapped by DA, huh?" Ralphie snickered to himself. When no one replied, he quickly glanced around the basement. "Damn, no one's left to appreciate that sick roast. This sucks."

Phoebe, naïve to Ralphie's less-than-wholesome comment, returned her attention to DA. "Look, we all know that listening to Wanda is usually a bad idea, but can you imagine what Tim must be feeling right now? It's terrifying to know that you might be hurting someone you care about."

Ralphie crossed his arms. "You weren't worried about hurting anyone when you dragged us around the desert in third grade."

Arnold shot Ralphie a harsh look. "That's not what she meant. Letting someone down, hurting them emotionally… That's a different kind of hurt than getting sweaty in the desert. People don't get over that quickly."

Face red, Phoebe turned her gaze away from the rest of the group, focusing instead on the wood grain pattern of the coffee table. Suddenly, she too wished Wanda had just driven them home the night before.

November 1, 2015

Walkerville Mall

11:05 A.M.

"So, which studded leather jacket are you thinking?" Wanda asked, holding up two options for Tim to compare. "And no pressure, but please decide quickly before my freakin' arm's fall off."

Tim gazed at the two jackets forlornly, unable to feel enthusiastic about the decision. "I don't know… Maybe the first one?"

Wanda shook her head. "Wrong. We're going with this one," she insisted, tossing the second jacket at Keesha for safekeeping.

Indifferently, Keesha watched as the leather jacket fell to the group in a heap. "Oops, I missed," she deadpanned.

Wanda narrowed her eyes. "Ha ha, very funny. How many times are you going to do that?"

"Who can say?" As Wanda snatched the garment from the floor and resumed her search of the store for anything that she deemed dark, edgy, or otherwise un-parent friendly, Keesha directed her attention to the boy lost staring in the mirror. "You don't seem to be very into this."

Tim jumped at the sudden comment. He spun around and, upon realizing only Keesha stood before him, he allowed himself to relax once more. He forced a smile onto his face. "I'm not sure this is the right store, that's all." Keesha's eyes bore through his phony grin, and soon his shoulder's fell. "Okay… Maybe I'm not sure about Wanda's plan. I mean, I got slapped last time I did this."

Keesha nodded along knowingly. "Sure, sure. Have you maybe considered not doing everything Wanda suggests? Just a thought."

"She seems pretty sure that this'll work," Tim replied, sticking his hands into his pockets. "And what else am I supposed to do?"

"Confront the problem head-on? Talk to your parents about your feelings? Be honest about your emotions for once?"

"Not a chance," Tim snorted. "You should have seen them this morning – they're so happy. They're proud of their smart, responsible kid with his bright future and unlimited potential, and they're proud of themselves for raising that kid so well. If I let them down…" Tim's forehead creased as he considered the thought. "I don't want them to think they messed me up, or that there're going to mess up Andrea, or that I'm not grateful for all their support, or-"

Keesha placed a finger over Tim's lips, having heard enough of his rambling to last a lifetime. "There's a chance you're overthinking this, Tim." Once Tim gave up on continuing his rant, she dropped her hand and smirked. "They're your parents. They just want you to be happy."

"And what if my happiness has to come at the cost of their own?"

"If they really love you – and they do – then they'll appreciate the honesty. It's always better to be honest about what you want, even if it's not what a person wants to hear."

Tim furrowed his brow. "You sound pretty sure of that. You speaking from experience, or…?"

Keesha was taken aback by the question. She certainly hadn't been expecting to have the conversation turned around on her like this; but why was she so sure of herself on this matter? "Well… I-"

"I thought so." Tim glanced around the store until he spotted Wanda's approaching form, a collection of suitable clothes piled up in her arms. "Look, I figure I might as well give this a try. What've I got to lose? I can't do nothing, Keesha."

Keesha felt frozen to her spot, even as she listened to Wanda suggest visiting the tattoo parlor and Tim agree to the plan. Why had Tim's comment shaken her to the core like it had?

Watching Tim and Wanda walk away side by side, Keesha wondered if there weren't some reason she had decided to join them that day, something she wouldn't even admit to herself. Reluctantly, she pulled out her phone and began typing on the device. She knew what she had to do.

November 1, 2015

Street

11:22 A.M.

Despite the objectively pleasant weather as he walked home alongside his friend, Carlos couldn't shake away the uncomfortable air that had descended around him. DA was still in a frustrated mood, and the heavy silence was becoming quite unbearable for him to take. He knew that trying to chat with the blonde when she was irritated was in every sense like poking the sleeping bear, but he couldn't bite his tongue for any longer – he hated the quiet.

He cleared his throat. "So… November's a weird name for the eleventh month of the year, huh? It's like, what the heck, Gregorians, am I right?"

''It used to be ninth on the old Roman calendar," DA huffed disinterestedly, still fixated on her more relevant frustrations. "Who cares? Our friends are morons doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over until the end of time anyway."

Well, at least she was talking now. That was an improvement… Kind of. Carlos braced himself before responding. "Okay… Sure, yeah. But that's a given, right? What's the big deal? It's not our problem."

DA was quiet for a while, and Carlos prepared himself for the fiery lecture that sure to come. But to his surprise, when the girl next spoke, her voice was notably calmer than it had been. "I suppose you're right…"

"That can't be comfortable for you."

"No kidding." She smiled softy at the comment. "It's just annoying. I thought I really got through to Tim last time he tried to reinvent himself, but apparently I'm not as inspiring as I thought."

"I think you're plenty inspiring," Carlos answered casually. He failed to notice the tint of red that spread across DA's cheeks as he spoke. "And as for the others… It's their own fault if they don't listen to you, not yours. Maybe you just have to let them figure things out for themselves."

Shaking the blush from her cheeks, DA huffed and sped up her pace. "Well, it just so happens that our friends suck at figuring things out."

DA stormed off ahead, leaving Carlos stammering in her wake. "I, uh- huh?" He scratched the back of his neck. "What does that mean?"

November 1, 2015

Tattoo Parlor

11:27 A.M.

"This place has really gone downhill," Wanda pointed out as Tim admired the images lining the walls. "It's way cooler now!"

Tim simply shrugged in response. In truth, he still wasn't sold on this plan of Wanda's, and a tattoo seemed like a fairly permanent response to his temporary freak-out; still, Wanda seemed confident in her idea, and no one else was suggesting anything better. Besides, some of the pictures on the wall were truly impressive. It might be cool to get one put on his body.

Forever.

He shoved aside the skeptical voice in the back of his head. Now was not the time to chicken out.

Fortunately for that voice, his morning was suddenly interrupted when the tattoo parlor's front doors were slammed open.

"Tim!" A shrill voice shrieked, accompanied by the sound of thudding footsteps. Tim spun around to the source just in time for a firm hand to slap him on his cheek. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

For a second, Tim was too shocked to string together a response. His hand rushed to his stinging cheek, cradling the bright red skin from further harm. "J-Janet?"

Janet crossed her arms indignantly, her foot tapping on the floor furiously. "Tattoos? New clothes? Reinventing yourself? Were you seriously not going to consult me about this?"

Wanda rolled her eyes and approached the feuding couple. "Chill, Janet. I'm making him cool. You should be thrilled."

"Thrilled?" Janet narrowed her eyes towards Wanda. "You thought I'd be happy about this?"

"No, I didn't even think about what you would say," Wanda replied lightly. "But I'm doing us all a favor."

"No, you're just bored!"

Wanda opened her mouth to fight back, but no words came. She frowned. "Yeah, okay."

Janet returned her attention to Tim, her furrowed brow only deepening as she did. "I expect this from her. But why would you listen to a word she said?"

Tim glanced to Wanda for help, but Wanda only cocked her head. "Huh, why did you listen to me?"

"Go away, Wanda."

"Okie-dokie."

Wanda skipped out of the tattoo parlor, happy for the excuse to escape punishment. Tim sighed. "How'd you know I was here?"

"One of your friends texted me," Janet explained, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled down the screen a bit and showed the message to Tim. "Whichever one has this number."

"Keesha. Figures…" Tim tiredly took a seat in one of the waiting room's stiff plastic chairs. He gestured for Janet to do the same. "Sorry, I should have talked to you before doing anything Wanda suggested."

Janet smirked. "No kidding. So, what gives?"

"I was just freaking out," Tim explained, now embarrassed to relay the story. "I thought my parents would be mad if I took this music thing seriously, then Wanda suggested I just make them more mad so that the whole talent agent thing would seem like good news in comparison… It was a stupid plan."

Janet nodded along. "Incredibly stupid. Why would your parents be upset about a serious talent agent wanting to record your work?"

"It'll delay the whole college thing," Tim replied sadly. "Who knows how long it would take to record an album? I mean, I'd be booked full for months, maybe even longer if it goes well. I'm supposed to be the perfect son and the perfect brother, and if I skip school to be a musician? What am I then?"

"So, you'll take a gap year. Tons of kids take gap years." Janet rested her hand on Tim's knee. "If your music takes off, you pursue it. If not, you reassess in a year and decide what makes sense for you then. It doesn't have to be the end of the world."

"But my parents-"

"Will understand, because they love you and are almost nauseatingly supportive of your hopes and dreams." Janet lifted Tim's chin closer to hers. "And even if they don't support you, I do. So, you're good."

Comforted by the notion, Tim grinned and leaned into Janet's kiss, his anxieties fading away in the process.

Outside, Wanda peered in through the glass panels in the front doors, a grimace crossing her face as the kiss deepened. "Dammit," she muttered, disgusted by the display. It would seem she'd need a new target to mess around with.

November 1, 2015

Keesha's Bedroom

8:51 P.M.

Keesha grabbed her phone from her desk and sent a quick message to Tim. In a matter of seconds, the device lit up as the boy's response came in:

"I'm all good now, thx. Mom & Dad are onboard. Thx for calling in Janet."

She smiled as she read the brief message, relieved to know that the drama of the day had passed. It was reassuring to hear how supportive everyone was being of Tim's post-graduation plans; it certainly gave her the urge to reevaluate her own future.

She put down the phone and looked back to her laptop, the bright screen piercing in the dim evening light. The application for NYU remained blank, calling for her to get to work, but still she couldn't bring herself to get started. Not yet. Maybe not ever?

The campus had been gorgeous. The city was full of excitement and life. She'd even be near family. But Keesha knew that, if she was serious about attending school so far away, her friends were going to be disappointed. Ralphie certainly would.

Ralphie… She spent so long waiting for the boy to finally show his interest, to finally make a move, and now that they were happy hand in hand, would she really consider ruining it all? She heard all the nightmare stories about long distance dating, and he'd made it quite clear that he had no desire to venture so far from Walkerville anytime soon. So, what would become of them? After a year of laughter and romance, was she going to have to end it all?

Keesha shut the laptop for the night, and her room was dim once again. She still couldn't bring herself to get started on the application.

But how much longer could she continue to put it off?