"Yo E, you gotta play that Marvin Gaye sample jawn. They're gonna go crazy for it." said a guy with dreads, holding an empty cardboard box. He unfolded it and made it flat on the sidewalk.
"Depends on if X wrote anything to it." A larger guy said, standing behind turntables and some speakers.
"Uh... Sound check, sound check." said the smallest one, talking into the microphone he was holding. His voice ran through the speakers.
"Come on X, you can't freestyle something off the dome?"
"No I wrote a verse I ju.. hold on..." The guy holding the microphone said. Noticing Becky, Bayley, and Charlotte approaching with instruments.
"What the hell?" The larger one asked.
"Becky, what are you doing here? What's all this?"
"Hey Xavier. Guys, this is Xavier, Xavier, this is my sister Bayley, and her friend Charlotte."
"You just made two false statements." Bayley said.
"Shut up." Charlotte muttered, elbowing Bayley in the ribs.
"Joking... I like to joke around with them like that." Bayley said, with a fake smile, trying to ignore the pain.
"Uh, nice to meet you guys... what are these instruments for?" Xavier asked.
"Well... We kinda need like $80 in the next 3 hours or so. And I was wondering if we could set up and perform here?"
"You know what, I'll talk to 'em and see what-"
"Ladies, ladies, how are you? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kofi, but you can call me Special K. And I'm am the BEST break-dancer in ANY of the five boroughs. Over there on the turntables, that's Big E. This right here is my man X Factor. E spins the beats, X drops the rhymes, and I get the crowd hyped. And we are, THE NEW DAY!"
"NEW DAAAAAAY!" Big E shouted, with a smile.
The girls chuckled.
"Kofi, this... this is my girlfriend, she knows who we are. Anyway, she was wondering if uh... if you guys could just fall back today, and let them set up here, they kinda need some real quick cash."
"Whatever man, you ain't even write the new verse yet anyway." Big E said.
"No, I wrote it, I definitely wrote it."
"Spit it, then." Kofi said.
"What?"
"Spit the verse. Big E, drop that beat."
"No, let's, let's not. I don't wanna hold Becky and her friends up."
"No it's fine, go ahead babe." Becky smiled.
"Nah, cause... it's... it's really long, so..."
"Yeah, sure it is. You girls need anything else?" Kofi asked, with a laugh.
"Umm... That microphone and those speakers." Charlotte said.
The guys began setting the girl's instruments up, and moving their own set up out of the way.
"What the hell are we gonna play?" Bayley muttered.
"You know 'Nature Boy'?" Charlotte asked.
"Everyone knows 'Nature Boy', Charlotte."
"Okay, we'll start there and just come up with songs from there."
"Change the lyric to Nature Girl." Becky said.
Charlotte and Bayley both turned to her.
"That's a really good idea." Charlotte smiled.
"It's not bad." Bayley shrugged.
"...Nature Girl... I really, really like that." Charlotte said, her smile becoming even bigger.
"Cause I'm a wheeling, dealing, kiss stealing, limo riding, jet flying, stylin' and profilin' Nature Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirl!"
As Charlotte sang the last line of the song, the group of about 8 people that had stopped to listen began clapping.
"What do we have?" Charlotte asked.
"Eleven bucks." Xavier said, looking into their money box.
"Well, what now?" Bayley asked.
"...you guys know 'Space Mountain'?" Charlotte smiled.
"Yeah." Bayley said.
"No." Becky replied.
"You don't know 'Space Mountain'?" Bayley asked.
"I'm not a big Four Horsemen fan, I prefer the Freebirds to be honest."
"Well, just keep time." Charlotte shrugged.
Becky began playing a generic drum pattern.
"Yeah, a little slower though... perfect."
It was 6:45 PM. Sasha sat on the sidewalk, outside of the music store, watching people enter and exit. Just then, an older woman stopped and looked at her.
"Excuse me young ma'am, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine, I'm just waiting for somebody." Sasha said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, have a good day!"
"You too." Sasha said, with a fake smile.
"People probably think I'm homeless." Sasha muttered to herself.
Just then, she saw Charlotte, Bayley and Becky walk past her, excitedly counting their money.
"2 and a half hours, $93 bucks!? We need to perform downtown more often!" Charlotte said, as the girls laughed, walking into the store.
Sasha sighed, bored.
"If someone doesn't walk out of this fucking store with a gold guitar case, I'm gonna go insane." Sasha said, aloud, to herself.
"I never knew you played guitar." Bayley said.
"I don't." Charlotte confessed.
"WHAT!?"
"But I can learn a song or two by Saturday. Trust me."
Bayley rolled her eyes, as they went and picked out the guitar.
Sasha sat for several more minutes. Just then, Charlotte, Bayley and Becky walked out of the store. Charlotte was carrying a gold guitar case.
"Holy shit, that's it!" Sasha muttered under her breath, her eyes getting huge.
Sasha's heart began beating fast, as the girls began to walk by her.
"Wait." Bayley said.
"What?" Charlotte asked.
"We should give this woman the rest of our money." Bayley said.
Sasha looked confused for a split second, before realizing how homeless she looked, just sitting outside of a store in New York City.
"Here you go, ma'am." Charlotte smiled, holding out a 10 dollar bill to Sasha. Sasha smiled and stood up.
"Wow... thanks, that's so nice, but... I think I'll just take this instead."
Sasha immediately grabbed the guitar case and began running.
The three girls just stared at each other in shock, before chasing after her.
"HEY! HEY SOMEBODY STOP HER!" Charlotte yelled, chasing her down the busy sidewalk. Sasha made a turn down an alley. Once the girls made it to the alley, Sasha was sitting at the top of a fence. The guitar case was already on the other side of it. She jumped down, to the other side, picked up the guitar case and kept running.
"I'll follow her, it looks like she's headed towards Main Street, you guys get to Main Street and see if you can corner her." Charlotte said, climbing the fence to go chase her.
Bayley and Becky began running out of the alley, and back down the sidewalk.
Sasha layed on top of the guitar case, out of breath. She heard footsteps running up behind her.
"Fuck!" Sasha said, standing back up, picking up the guitar case, and running again.
"GIVE ME MY FUCKING GUITAR BACK!" She heard Charlotte yell, from about 35 yards behind her.
Sasha managed to run across Main Street through the open window of an abandoned apartment building. Before Charlotte could cross the street, the nearby traffic light turned green, and cars began flying down the street.
"This can't be happening. This cannot be happening." Charlotte said, putting her hands on her head, unable to cross the busy street. Just then, Bayley and Becky came running towards her on the sidewalk.
"Where'd she go?" Bayley asked.
"Into that apartment building. That place is huge, she could be anywhere."
"Charlotte I'm... I'm so sorry, this is my fault." Bayley sighed.
"No, it's not. She was waiting outside of that store for a reason. She wanted to rob someone. That's not an impulse decision you just make. Look, at the next red light, we're crossing the street and getting that guitar."
"What if she's dangerous?" Becky asked, nervously.
"Becky's right, I don't know about this." Bayley said.
"SHE'S about to be in danger. I'm getting my guitar back, either you're coming with me or you're not."
"We could call the police!"
"You know how many robberies go unsolved in NYC, Bayley? Did you notice that nobody helped us when we were chasing her? Nobody cares. If we want this guitar back, we have to get it ourselves."
The light turned red, and traffic stopped. Charlotte ran across the street. Becky and Bayley looked at each other before reluctantly following her.
The walked into the dark apartment, using the flash on their phone for lights. They managed to make it to some stairs.
"Think she's up here?" Becky asked.
"She has to be, there's nothing down here." Charlotte said.
They walked to the second level, seeing a dim light shining from under one of the doors. They walked over to the door and shined their flash on it. The words "THE BO$$'s OFFICE" were written in gold spray paint.
Charlotte kicked the door open to see Sasha, sitting in the room, on the guitar case. There was nothing else in the room besides an old bed, a lamp, and a couple of outfits in an open closet.
"Look. Just give me the guitar, and we won't throw you out of the window." Charlotte said.
"You look familiar." Sasha replied.
"What?"
"You look like the singer from the Four Horsemen, but slightly less manly."
"He's my father... wait... SLIGHTLY!?"
"Yeah, just a tad less."
"Look, we worked our asses off for that guitar and you're gonna give it back to us." Bayley said.
"Why don't you go get some of daddy's money and buy a new one?"
"Give me my guitar right now!"
"Or what? What are you guys gonna do, beat me up?" Sasha asked, standing up, with a smile.
"Don't test me." Charlotte said, with a scowl.
"Hit me, Trust Fund. Go ahead. Right here." Sasha said, pointing to her chin.
Charlotte slowly made a fist.
"What are you waiting for? Come on."
Charlotte nervously gulped.
"Play something." Becky said.
Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha all turned to her, confused.
"What?" Sasha asked.
"Becky what are you talking about?" Bayley asked.
"Well, she stole the guitar for a reason, obviously. I wanna hear her play something." Becky shrugged.
"No, this isn't America's Got Talent, I don't care if she can play it, it's not her's. It's MINE! I need that guitar and I need it now!" Charlotte said.
"Look, this open mic this Saturday might be my only shot at getting to meet AJ Lee, I'm not blowing it. So if you want the guitar, you're gonna have to take it from me."
Bayley, Charlotte, and Becky all looked at each other.
"You're gonna be in the open mic this Saturday?" Charlotte asked.
"...Yeah." Sasha said, cautiously.
"Okay, conference." Charlotte said, walking out of the room. Becky and Bayley followed her, while Sasha sat, confused.
"Look, should we just let her be a part of the performance?" Charlotte asked.
"She just robbed you! She's probably sneaking out of the window right now!" Bayley exclaimed.
"Let's take a vote. I vote we let her in."
"Well I vote against it."
Charlotte and Bayley both turned to Becky, since she was the tiebreaker.
"I wanna hear her play something, then I'll vote." Becky said.
The two girls sighed at Becky. The three of them walked back into the room.
"Play something for us." Charlotte said, sitting down on the old bed.
"Why?"
"Because we need a guitarist for the open mic." Becky said.
"Oh now I'm supposed to help you guys?" Sasha asked.
"We've been in this room with you for 5 minutes and we haven't killed you yet. As far as I'm concerned, you owe us one." Charlotte said. Sasha chuckled, opening the guitar case.
"This one's just for you, Trust Fund." Sasha said, with a smile and a wink.
Charlotte remained stone faced.
Sasha began to play the guitar solo from the Four Horsemen's song 'Survivor'.
Seth walked away from Charlotte's front door and got back into the driver's seat of his car. Dean and Roman were in the backseat.
"She's not home, and she's not answering my calls." Seth said.
"She stood you up, bro." Roman shrugged.
Seth sighed, and began driving to the party.
Sasha finished playing the solo.
"What's your name?" Charlotte asked.
"They call me 'The Boss'." Sasha said, putting the guitar back into it's case.
"Yeah, sorry, not calling you 'The Boss'. I'm gonna need a name." Bayley said.
"Well you're not getting one. Am I in or not?"
Bayley and Charlotte turned to Becky.
"...play Nature Boy." Becky said, with a smile.
At around 9 PM, Seth was sitting at a table alone, in a dark club, full of loud music and teenagers. Roman was dancing with Brie Bella, after being turned down by Nikki. Dean was somewhere dancing with a random girl he met. Just then, Seth got a call from Charlotte.
"Hello?" Seth asked.
"Seth, I am so sorry! There was... I bought a guitar, and this girl... she stole it, and... it's a long story, but I'm ready. Can you come and pick me up?"
Before Seth could respond, the door at the front of the club was kicked down. Everyone began running and screaming, as the police sirens became loud.
"NYPD! NYPD!"
"Shit!" Roman yelled, running out of the back door of the club.
"AMBROSE! WE'RE LOOKING FOR A DEAN AMBROSE!" an officer yelled, over all the commotion. Seth saw Dean behind the bar and crouched down next to him.
"Dean, what the hell is going on!?" Seth asked.
"Look. I need you to listen carefully. Take this backpack, and run. As fast as you can. Just run, and don't stop." Dean said holding it out to him.
"What? But..."
"NOW!" Dean said, throwing him the backpack.
Seth caught it and took off running.
"HELLO!? SETH!? WHAT'S HAPPENING!?" Charlotte asked, still on the phone.
"I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER, BYE!" Seth yelled, still running. As he hung up and ran out of the club, Dean stood up from behind the bar with his hands up.
"AYE! RIGHT HERE!" Dean yelled. The cops ran over and tackled him, before putting him in handcuffs.
Seth kept running down the street.
"SETH! SETH!" Roman yelled, catching up to him. Seth stopped running.
"Roman!"
"Seth what happened!?"
"They... they wanted Dean... and Dean told me to take this backpack and run..."
"...what the fuck?" Roman asked.
"Look man, I'm going home. I don't know what's in here and I don't wanna know."
"You can't seriously be taking that home with you."
"What choice do I have!?" Seth said, getting into his car. Roman got into the passenger seat.
"Look man, we've both known Dean since birth basically. We know he's crazy, and we know ANYTHING could be in that backpack. I don't think keeping it is a good idea.'
"Well hopefully, when Dean gets to the police station, he'll call me and explain what's going on."
"So what do we do until then?" Roman asked.
"...we keep this backpack with one of us at all times, and we don't say shit to anyone, and we keep it moving. Until further notice."
Roman sighed.
"Sounds like a plan, Uce. Sounds like a plan."
They rode in silence.
"You gonna look in there?" Seth asked.
"Hell no." Roman said, throwing the backpack in the backseat.