Author's note: Sup? Back to the grind, I am. Feels weird to think I'm starting from scratch, although not 100% of course.

Before the chapter begins, I'll say that honestly? I'm kinda reluctant to do this, but hopefully the feeling gets nullified sooner rather than later. I mean, I didn't think I'd ever finish Ten Seconds To Love, so starting a new story feels... odd, hahaha!

I guess what I'm trying to say is, while I'm glad to be at this after a break... I have my doubts. If a chapter doesn't work out or, say, needs to be reworked on, I'll spare some time to fix it up, as I wish to improve upon the foundation of Ten Seconds To Love. I'm sorry if that slows down chapters, but in return, I hope to make better chapters! :)

Oh yeah, speaking of that, SPOILER ALERT YO! This story takes place AFTER Ten Seconds To Love, so reading this story first will make no sense, heads up there my friends.

Anyways, Narrator! Get in here and start the story!

Chapter 1: Live To Win

Welcome back my old friend! I presume you're curious, or worried, or a mix of both as to what has occurred to our wonderful, loveable, and ridiculous people of the cul-de-sac? Rest easy, as today, all your questions shall get their answers, and you might even learn something new along the way. Regardless, let's start our new adventure!

It's been a nice, relaxing 2 and a half weeks since the romantic, dramatic, and humorous events of before. Many things have since occurred with our couples, be it romantic couples, or platonic couples. Luckily, the bonds between everyone has not worn off at all, in fact, growing more and more each passing day.

Starting off with Ed and May, the most gentle of their respective crews, the two of them have since grown to love each other's company to the point where May would often join Ed around 7:30 PM up until 10:30 PM, and watch many "very-well" produced monster movies. On the weekends, sometimes they'd wake up to each other sleeping on the others shoulder, much to their embarrassment. Or, for May, the scolding of her sisters and her mother.

Ed had gotten the feeling of something more than a best friend feeling for May. He couldn't describe it very well, other than the word "love". Surprising, ain't it? Anyways, while he had wanted to express this someway somehow... no matter how hard he tried to think of a solution or idea, nothing resonated with him, as he has never felt this way about anyone else in his life. He is determined however, as sooner or later, he'll find a way.

Little does Ed know, May feels the same way. The more that she hangs out with him, her emotions start to bubble up, and want to express themselves towards the large Ed-boy. However, just like Ed, May doesn't know the best way to express herself, without the amorous display of affection she used to do back in the day. Yet again, like Ed, she is determined, to find someway.

Next up, with the cul-de-sac's more unbelievable couple, Double D and Marie. The two of them have still shared their romantic bond since the day that they've decided to move on from their past, and make a new begin. Marie would commonly surprise Double D, by entering (or as Double D would put it, breaking into) his house through windows, or pretending to have left, then hide in a bush, and scare him. As it happens, one time, Double D had once tried to ensure Marie would leave, but considering how it was the weekend, and not very late, and he wasn't doing anything huge, she wouldn't exactly take it. Marie ended up "convincing" Double D by, to no one's surprise, making out with him for 15 minutes. Either way you spin the dice, the two of them still have their fair share of moments together, with their fellow friends, and many other things.

As for the cul-de-sac's aggressive couple, Eddy and Lee, it's a whole another story. No not that kind! For the former, the first few days were somewhat awkward to admit that he was now dating her, but the more time that passed by, the more that he treated the whole relationship as normal. As for the latter, she was in a similar boat, finding it hard to believe herself, but slowly but surely, the two of them have been managing to talk with one another, and get to know each other better. However, to everyone's surprise, arguments were still as common as ever!

Even with that being common, Eddy has found himself in a sea of confusion; he wishes to bring Lee onto a date, but seeing as he keeps using the reason of "being busy", and changing plans, he wonders if she's still even interested. Luckily for him, she has been waiting patiently for the day when he would take her on a date. The location is of literal irrelevance to her, as long as she gets to spend time with him, all is well. A thing Eddy has to keep in mind is, delaying won't last forever, and so, his personal quest right now is to get everything sorted perfectly!

And finally, onto to the heavy metal couple! Chris and Skylar have still been connecting strong as ever, with the two of them unsurprisingly having long conversations about heavy metal, whether it'd be around songs, artists, or albums! Of course, Skylar still does her occasional "alluring" moments with Chris, much to the latter's embarrassment; still not being used to these actions. If anything, he takes it as her way of showing "appreciation", even if it is rather unusual. Among other things, Skylar has been spending more with Chris outside of school, getting to know his parents more, with him also getting to know her parents a bit more. However, neither of them have discussed whether or not they wish to make themselves an official couple, seeing as they've put that more on the back of their minds, and would prefer to give each other time.

Every story has its beginnings, so, now, onto the present day! Currently, it is 6:30 PM on a nice, clear Thursday afternoon, on September 10th. The boys have gathered at Eddy's garage, practicing songs for a possible future performance. This isn't the first time they've practiced; they've been practicing for 2 weeks a handful of random songs, such as "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, "Battery" by Metallica, and "United" by Judas Priest. Thanks to the prior experience of practicing a song, the boys improved their strategies in a handful of ways; for one thing, they printed the musical tabs for the guitar and bass, along with skipping through the songs to find out what part someone might be struggling with, instead of playing the song over and over, making it mind-numbing.

The boys had generally stayed the same in appearance; Ed still wore his signature green jacket on top of his red and white striped shirt, accompanied by his simple hair style, blue pants and black shoes aswell. Double D, while he would alter between his clothing appearance occasionally, he still kept his standard orange shirt, purple shorts, and black shoes as a whole. However, he still kept his hat on him wherever he went, as he prefers to keep what is beneath it a secret, not feeling comfortable sharing it with anyone else. (aside from Ed and Eddy, who already know due to an accident)

With Eddy, he had decided to keep his yellow shirt with a red stripe along it, however he currently is wearing a grey jacket on top of it, thinking that it looks good on him, along with wearing his usual cyan jeans and red shoes. Lastly, with Chris, he is wearing a black shirt with the cover art of the album "Persistence Of Time" by Anthrax, black pants and black & white shoes, along with keeping his hair in a long and loose manner, although he got it cut recently so that it didn't pass his shoulders, preferring it that way.

As it happens, currently Eddy is practicing the vocal delivery for the song "Children Of The Damned" by Iron Maiden, as he was not used to the vocals done by Bruce Dickinson. On top of this, he struggled with trying to hold a note, but something he learned after many failed attempts was that he was more effective if he chose to hold the note using his chest more, and less his throat. It progressed slowly, but surely he would get there. Another important change the crew made was to have a second guitarist for the rhythm part, which meant Eddy take the roll of said guitarist, as it would help Double D out; not having to take in mental note both the rhythm and lead guitar for the songs they played. Although Eddy prefers just singing, if it helps the crew, it helps.

"Man, how does this guy sing this stuff?" questioned Eddy, amazed at the vocals.

"Well, it's magic of Bruce my friend." responded Chris, chuckling a bit, before saying, "But for real, it's something that you learn, you don't just get it the first time. Well, maybe if you had prior experience, but even then it's unlikely."

"Chris does bring up a good point Eddy, the key to achieving this is to be persistent and most importantly, intelligent with your choices." said Double D.

Ed then drops his 2 cents onto the conversation, saying, "You can do it Eddy!"

Although he appreciates the support, Eddy responds with, "Let's just start the song again, I think I got a better hand of it this time! We're gonna make bank if we can play this!"

"Why do you say that Eddy?" asked Double D, with a confused expression on his face, and on the others.

"Because this song takes effort to perform, right? If we do it right, and the best we can, we'll be stars at the end of the day! Am I right or am I right?" explained Eddy. In response, Chris couldn't help but slap himself in the face while laughing a bit, Double D only adopted a face of wonder, and Ed sat there thinking aswell.

"I suppose there's some form of validation in that statement, however it's up to us to make sure we're well prepared in that event!" stated Double D.

"Yeah yeah, let's get started already!" exclaimed Eddy.

With that, Double D and Eddy both get their guitar picks, and begin playing the opening to the song, with Chris, using his fingers, playing the bass to back up the guitar, after which Ed began playing the drums. All three of them play a very mellow, calm and clean section of the song. After 30 seconds, Eddy began singing the opening lyrics, "He's walking like a small child, but watch his eyes burn you away..."

After singing the two lines that followed those set of lyrics, he gets to the 56 seconds part, where he sings the line "children of the damned" repeatedly, four times more specifically, along with the guitars becoming more prominent and louder. While not exactly on the level of Bruce Dickinson's vocals, it was still a noticeable improvement in Eddy's mind, as he didn't feel his voice giving up midway through holding a note, or losing breath, making him exhausted.

At the 1 minute and 26 seconds mark, Eddy returns to the normal vocal delivery, with him and his friends going back to the original opening tone of the song, mellow and calm. Although not having trouble remembering any words, Eddy still did his best to maintain his energy and delivery for the entire song, wanting to sustain its original melody.

Reaching the 1 minute and 52 seconds mark, Eddy repeats the title of the song another four times, managing to hold the notes relatively successfully, while playing the guitar tabs accurately to the song. On Double D's perspective, he was impressed by how much Eddy had improved his ability to sing, compared to the relatively simple singing he did previously on their first ever performance.

Now at the 2 minutes and 21 seconds mark, which indicates the halfway point of the song, the rest of the crew begin the transition into the song's more up-tempo section, with Chris and Ed picking the pace with his bass playing and drumming respectively, plus Double D and Eddy holding a tab or two with the guitar. Eddy also begins singing the set of lyrics for the section, "Now it's burning his hands, he's turning to laugh..."

After Eddy sings the set of lyrics in the section, at the 3 minute mark, Double D began playing the parts leading up to the solo, and... voila! Begins playing the solo very accurately to the original recording, from the notes and down to the speed, with the other 3 keeping up the pace with the solo. Double D manages to wrap up the solo after 42 seconds, after which Eddy began singing, "Oh oh" in a held-out manner, similar to an opera singer, except less high-pitched of course.

Onward to the 4 minute mark, Eddy sings the last set of lyrics, "You're children of the damned, your back's against the wall...", with all four of them maintaining a normal pace, with the exception of Ed, having the drums go at the pace similar to a horse gallop. Once Eddy says the final line of the lyrics, the ends the song by singing, "children of the damned", in an epic manner, and with that, they all play the final wrap up for the instruments, and that's the song!

Once they finish up the song, the four of them share a high-five, before Chris says, "Dude! You really showed off your abilities today my guy! I'm impressed!"

"Thanks brother, all of you aren't faltering either. Looks like we're getting closer and closer to being able to perform that in front of our audience soon!" said Eddy, in an ambitious manner.

"Certainly appears to be the case Eddy, let's hope that it remains that way." stated Double D, glad for his best friend.

"Eddy is good!" commented Ed, in a silly tone of voice.

"Thanks guys! It's a part of the charm I got, I would know, haha!" responded Eddy.

After Eddy finishes his statement, the four boys hear clapping not too far away, only 9 feet away from them, and who could possibly be clapping? Well, it's none other than Lee, Marie, May, and Skylar, who decided to see what the lads were doing, and saw that they were playing a song, so they decided to let them shine on, and see what they could do.

In terms of appearance, on Lee's perspective, she had decided to adopt a long sleeve red shirt, accompanied by a pair of navy blue jeans, with a black belt to accompany it, along with brown shoes to top it all off. She still kept her hair largely hanging on top of her head, not really finding any desire to change it, nor reason as a matter of fact.

On Marie's side of things, she had decided to wear her usual attire of a sleeveless black shirt, green jeans and black shoes, although she had decided to add a white flower to her hair; something she picked up as a way to pay tribute to when she dressed up for Double D the first time they met. Marie still has her hair swept to the side, covering her right eye, as while her hair has grown quite a lot, and she wishes to change her style one day, she hasn't really gotten any good ideas for WHAT style yet.

Next, with May, she had decided to grab a grey jacket and wear it on top of her pure white shirt, and change from her red shorts into brown jeans, preferring to alter her appearance than the usual, although she still kept her brown shoes and yellow socks. Her hair still remained the same, as long and loose as ever, receiving a cut here and there, but nothing that made it noticeably shorter.

Lastly, Skylar had grabbed on a black shirt with the logo of "Black Sabbath" on it, with a sleeveless grey vest on top of it, making her appearance very "tough" looking. She had also worn black pants, with her white shoes accompanying them aswell, along with keeping her hair in a small ponytail as she normally does.

All four of them go over inside the garage to join the lads on their little practice session, and to see if they could join in on said practice.

"Great job you four! Really putting in the effort, you guys are!" said Marie, while shooting a grin towards Double D, making him go slightly red in the face.

"Wait, when the heck did you guys come over?" asked Eddy, confused of how they suddenly showed up out of nowhere.

"We caught ya before good old Double D did his fancy playing! Looks like you've been singing like an angel there honey!" responded Lee, laughing a bit, making Eddy roll his eyes slightly.

"Then again, we were quite concentrated on ensuring that we were practicing to the best of our abilities, so it's no wonder why we didn't see you four!" commented Double D, after which Marie goes up to him and kisses him for around 5 seconds on the lips, and smiles toward him.

"Welcome in ladies! Hello May!" said Ed, with his usual dopey smile.

"Hiya Ed, how are ya?" responded May, joining Ed near the drum set.

"It's good, practicing with my best pals a song to play. Oh boy, it's almost ready! Oh yeah, happy to see you and your sisters here." explained Ed, afterwards giving a hug to May, in which she returns the favor, getting a warm feeling while doing so.

"Eddy, do you have extra chairs for our, umm... guests?" asks Chris towards Eddy, changing his wording as to respect everyone's privacy. Also to not embarrass himself aswell, something he won't admit.

"Yeah, hold your horses ladies! I'll get them for you four." said Eddy, going inside to get some leftover chairs for their new guests.

Meanwhile, Chris turns toward Skylar, and unsurprisingly, she has adopted a look that looks like she's in a romantic mood. Needless to say, Chris couldn't help but chuckle a bit, after which he says, "Nice to see ya. Didn't expect to see you come with them."

"Was hanging out with them while you were here, playing very well I might add. Nice job love, you really showed off!" said Skylar, making Chris feel embarrassed. She notices this, and goes over to punch him lightly in the arm, while laughing a bit.

Eddy comes back from the inside of his house, and sets up the chairs for the ladies, and all of them sit in a line in front of the garage door area, while sitting around 3 feet away from the lads. Afterwards, Lee asks all four of boys, "So, you boys got any more songs you wanna try out? I'm sure we'd love to see it and hear it, right girls?"

All three of the other ladies say a variation of yes, and Eddy responds, "Alright fine, just give us a moment. Although, honestly, I'm not sure if I can sing another song, especially after that ridiculous Iron Maiden one."

"Well, you don't wanna disappoint your girlfriend!" said Marie, with the last word being said in a long, drawn-out manner, making everyone laugh a bit.

While unwilling to admit it, Eddy couldn't help but feel as though he HAD to do something now, but what song could they perform in order to appease them? Adding onto this dilemma, Eddy's voice isn't exactly beaming with joy to go again. Ultimately, he manages to come up with an idea that, while is improvised, should still work.

"True that... but since I need to not blow up my voice, Chris! You wanna sing something?" stated Eddy, making Chris widen his eyes, not believing what he just asked.

"WHAT?! Dude! YOU'RE the vocalist! Not me!" exclaimed Chris, not really wanting to sing.

"Come on! You know these songs better than everyone except maybe your girlfri- I mean, Skylar! Sing something, I wanna hear what you can do man! Also, if it helps, Double D is too scared to sing at all, and I don't even know if Ed can sing." responded Eddy, trying to avoid his accidental slip up.

"Don't think I didn't catch that. Besides, if you don't want to sing like Dio, or Rob Halford or something, pick something EASY for god's sake! I might add on that your voice can't possibly be that strained, because trust me, Iron Maiden wouldn't get through a quarter of their shows if Bruce felt tired after the fourth song." explained Chris.

"He's right you know." said Skylar, jumping into the conversation. "Why don't you play something that's more calm and not overly aggressive? You blokes surely have learned one like that."

"I mean, listen, maybe I'm just not used to this stuff about performing songs back to back, but... come on Chris!? You got something for us to play?" asked Eddy.

"For god's sake, FINE! Ugh, will... hmm..." said Chris, pausing to think of what song he could sing in a respectable manner. Good? Debatable, but it's all a matter of perfecting his voice, and not missing lyrics or anything of the sort.

"How does 'Paranoid' from Black Sabbath sound to you? You've heard that plenty of times, and it's not the hardest song ever, musically or tone-wise." responded Chris.

"Works for me. Ed! You ready!" said Eddy, after which Ed responded by giving a thumbs up. Eddy then tells the girls, "Hope you four are ready!"

"Gentlemen, while I can appreciate the occasional heavy metal masterwork, must we only play that? After all, don't you think the dark themes of these songs will be unsettling to some?" stated Double D, earning an annoyed look from Eddy and Chris.

"Oh no, anyways, get ready, Paranoid it is I guess." said Chris, completely ignoring Double D's concern, which the latter wasn't exactly happy about, adopting an annoyed expression; however Eddy couldn't help but laugh at that dismissal.

After a couple seconds of checking their gear, Eddy starts playing the iconic guitar riff from Tony Iommi, after which around 6 seconds, the other three lads beginning to start playing their own parts to the song. After another 6 seconds, Chris begins singing the lyrics, "Finished with my woman cause she couldn't help me with my mind..."

At the 24 seconds mark, the lads simply play the instruments for a bit, however after 12 seconds, Chris launches into the next set of lines, "All day long I think of things, but nothing seems to satisfy...". Once he sings that set of lines, he tells the middle line of the song, "Can you help me?! Occupy my brain! Oh yeah!"

1 minute mark now, and the lads are still playing well, seeing as how the song doesn't deviate much instrumentally, in comparison to other more complex songs of Black Sabbath. Regardless, after around another 12 seconds, the next set of lines is sang by Chris, "I need someoneto show me the things in life that I can't find...".

Once those lines are said, Double D launches into the solo, which isn't as long as the previous song they played, 25 seconds in total. As soon as the solo is wrapped up, the lads keep on playing the song as normal, then Chris goes into the second to last set of lyrics, "Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry...".

At the 2 minutes and 10 seconds mark, the lads have one last set of lyrics, which Chris sings after 11 seconds, "And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state...", and once those lyrics are all sung, the crew plays the instruments one last time... and that's the end of the song!

The girls clap at the end, with Marie adding her whistling as an bonus on top, to the embarrassment of Double D, but he couldn't help but laugh a bit about it. Over with May, she was clapping very rapidly for Ed, in which the latter responds by giving a big smile toward her direction, which couldn't help but give May a warm sense of happiness.

With Lee, she got up from her seat, while still clapping, and gave Eddy a kiss on the cheek, which makes him chuckle and embrace her, although having to tip-toe due to the height difference between him and Lee. Lastly, Skylar flashes Chris the "metal horn" symbol, proud of his vocal and bass performance.

"Nice job love! You're no Ozzy, but that's alright, I still enjoyed your performance nonetheless." said Skylar.

"Thanks, it was actually kinda fun, and I'm surprised I remembered the words. But no complaints here, oh no, haha!" responded Chris, sounding excited based on his tone of voice.

"The topic of the song is rather concerning however, wouldn't you say?" asked Double D.

"True, but then again, Sabbath wasn't exactly known for being all happy and nice. Regardless of that stuff, I still had fun, and it was cool, haha." responded Chris.

"So much for not wanting to sing eh? I told you had it in ya man! Trust me a bit more, it'll do ya wonders." commented Eddy.

Chris couldn't help but laugh at that statement, saying, "Yeah, says the guy who is basically responsible for nearly ALL of his scams or whatever failing in past! That's a good one right there."

"To be completely fair, while that statement holds some value and truth, I must admit even Ed and I had some occasional situations where it resulted in our plans being put in jeopardy." stated Double D.

Marie saw the opportunity for a joke, and said, "Yeah, like that time when you were freaking out with some mini gun equipped with those Canadian squirt guns, and missed every shot!"

The Kankers couldn't help but laugh at that statement, recalling the good old times, although Double D hid his face inside his beanie due to pure embarrassment, while Ed sat there with his usual silly smile, and Eddy adopted an expression of slight anger. Chris and Skylar on the other hand, stood there sort of speechless, not really knowing what to say or do, other than roll their eyes a bit.

"Well, go figure there. Alright, it's been fun hanging out with you all, but I'm gonna go rest at my place. See you all later!" stated Chris, taking the bass off of himself, and placing in a safe spot in Eddy's garage.

However, before he even takes 5 steps, Skylar pulls him toward her, and asks him, "Remember that hangout you promised me at the party? I'm calling it in now, let's do it."

Chris couldn't help but shrug slightly, before saying, "Skylar, I would like to, but I'm tired, and I'd much rather rest for a bit."

Noting his reluctance, Skylar decides to adopt the classic "puppy-face" trick, which results in Chris slapping his forehead. He turns to see all of his friends observing the situation, awaiting for his response. At this point, to him, it appears as though it's now an obligation.

"Well, not only are you doing that trick, but also I bet the sisters are going to vouch for you too aren't they..." said Chris, in an exhausted tone.

The Kankers all say yes, with Marie, in a sarcastic manner, adding on, "Geez, didn't they teach you anything at your martial arts school about respect! Treat your woman right, otherwise ovenmitt here will have to teach you some manners, my god!"

Everyone except Chris laughed at that statement from Marie, but the former couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, but ultimately he dismisses her comment, as he knows it's yet another one of her ridiculous statements. Regardless, he tells Skylar, still adopting that silly puppy face expression, "Alright fine. Let's go, my house is literally right next door anyway."

"Okay then sweetheart, lead the way." responded Skylar, with a subtle grin, making Chris roll his eyes. However, before leaving, he tells the rest of the crew, "Catch you six later then!"

"See ya man!" yelled out Eddy, with the rest of the people in the garage waving to say their goodbyes for now.

"Well, ain't they gonna have a good time! Hahaha!" said Lee, snickering.

"Forget them, what are you boys having in mind? Shall we sing and dance along to your songs now?" asked Marie, smiling a bit.

Double D said in response, "As much as I would like to continue this practice, I would much desire a rest from said activity. Might I suggest watching a nice, calm movie? Or perhaps watching some nice TV?"

"That's fine with me, I need a break from this for a bit too. Let's go everyone!" said Eddy, opening the door for everyone, and going inside himself no less than 3 seconds later to join his friends, and girlfriend, to watch... whatever they decide to watch.