The sound of the bedroom door closing woke Bayley up. She looked at her clock.
"She really has to go pee at 2:30 in the morning?" Bayley asked, to no one.
Bayley was laying still, unable to go to sleep. When she started to fall asleep, she had a scary realization that woke her back up. It was 3:08, and Becky still hadn't returned to the bedroom. She slowly got out of her room and made her way to the bathroom, before knocking on the door.
"Becky? Everything okay in there?"
She got no response.
Bayley sighed and opened the door. The light was off and the room was empty.
"I don't have time for this." Bayley groaned, heading back to her bedroom to sleep.
Her alarm rang at 6:30 AM. As she turned the clock off, she woke up to find Becky, in the bed next to her, fast asleep.
"What the... was I dreaming?"
Bayley looked at the ceiling in deep thought.
"There's no way... I got out of bed and everything..."
She looked suspiciously at the orange-haired, 17-year old Irish girl, that apparently was her future sister.
"You're hiding something..." Bayley said, to Becky's unconscious body, before getting ready for work.
Charlotte was in her bed, asleep, until she was woken up by her phone ringing. She read the screen. It read, "THE BO$$ - Mobile." She answered it.
"Hello?" Charlotte yawned.
"Hey, when are we practicing?" Sasha asked.
"Uh... whenever uh... whenever Bayley gets off work."
Charlotte looked at the clock and realized that it was 9 in the morning.
"Okay, where are we gonna practice?"
"How about your... whatever you call that room in that abandoned building."
"My office." Sasha said.
"Right, right... Do you like... live there?"
"Of course I don't live there. There's no running water, no food. What did you think I was a homeless person?"
"I mean... you were sitting outside the store, then you took my guitar to an abandoned building, and you were kinda just chilling there."
"Well... a week ago, I kinda got into a fight with my dad, and he kicked me out of the house."
Charlotte gasped.
"He what!? How old are you!?"
"I turn 18 in a few days."
"WHAT KIND OF FATHER KICKS HIS 17-YEAR OLD DAUGHTER OUT!?"
"It's okay, when he goes to work, Mom sneaks me in to take showers and stuff. And to get food and money."
"Do you need a place to stay?"
"No, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Anything I want, I can get it... I'm good. Call me when it's time to practice. I'll be here. Bye."
"Bye." Charlotte said, unwillingly.
"I feel so bad for..."
Charlotte didn't finish her sentence, realizing that she didn't know the pink-haired girl's actual name.
"...the boss."
She lazily dialed Seth's phone number. Seth answered after a few rings.
"Hello?"
"Hey, you never called me back... what happened last night?"
"The party got busted. The cops took Dean."
Charlotte's eyes got huge.
"Oh my god, why!?"
"No one knows."
"I hope everything works out okay. It's probably just a misunderstanding or something."
"...yeah..." Seth said, deciding not to mention the backpack.
"We'll have to hang out another time." Charlotte said, through the phone.
Seth smiled, as Roman sat, waiting for Seth to unpause their video game.
Just then, the two guys heard a piercing ringing sound.
"Is that your phone?" Seth asked.
"No, it's coming from the backpack." Roman said, pointing at the mysterious burgundy backpack in between them.
"Hello?" Charlotte asked.
"Hold on Charlotte I gotta call you back."
Before Charlotte could say say goodbye, Seth hung up the phone and opened the backpack. He pulled out a phone that had a generic green case.
"Dean's phone has an Arkham Asylum case. What the hell is this?" Seth asked.
"Answer it?" Roman shrugged.
"Hello?" Seth asked, putting it on speaker.
"Who is this!?" They heard a low, angry, Hispanic voice ask.
"Uh... who is this?"
"Did you get this phone out of a burgundy backpack!?"
Seth and Roman looked at each other, freaked out.
"...how did you know?"
"Look, you perros need to take this bag back to wherever you found it."
"I... I don't know where it came from, my friend Dean just handed it to me and-"
"DEAN!? Where the hell is he!?"
"...jail I guess?"
"JAIL!? Maldita sea! Hunico, el idiota mierda blanca fue detenido y se entregó a la mochila a alguien!" the man yelled, shouting the last part to whoever was in the background.
"Uh, sir I... I don't speak Spanish."
"Do you know what's in that backpack?"
"N... No sir, and I don't wanna know. I'm just holding it until Dean gets back next week."
"For your sake, I hope you're right." The man said, hanging up.
"Okay, so we're officially getting rid of this and the phone." Roman said.
"Agreed." Seth said, dropping the phone back into the backpack and zipping it closed.
Seth's cell phone rang. Neither Seth, nor Roman recognized the number.
"Hello?" Seth asked, putting this call on speaker as well.
"Seth. What's up, man?" Dean said, nonchalantly.
"Dean, what the fuck is in that bag?"
Roman elbowed him.
"Dude, calls in jail are recorded!" Roman said.
"Oh, nah, I'm not on a jail phone." Dean said, with a laugh.
"What?" Seth asked, confused.
"Bro, you can get ANYTHING in jail."
"Look. We just got yelled at in Spanish, over the phone, because of whatever's in there."
"Bro, bro. Seth. Just take a deep breath. Relax. I'll call up Papá De Drogas and let him know what's going on. Just make sure you don't lose what's in that backpack."
"Dean, you need to explain to US what's going on." Roman said, getting annoyed.
"Look, all you need to know is, if you two lose that bag, I'm dead, you're dead, your family's dead, your dog's dead, Del Rio will kill everyone."
Seth and Roman looked at each other once again, unable to tell if Dean was using his trademark dry sense of humor, or if they were in actual danger.
"I gotta go, but trust me, I'll be outta here in 7 days. They got nothing on me. Peace, guys." Dean said, hanging up.
Around 2:30 PM, Sasha sat in her office, with Becky and Bayley.
Becky's drumset and Bayley's keyboard were already set up. The guitar that was technically Charlotte's was laying in it's case, on the ground.
"So... I understand we're supposed to call you 'The Boss', but... Is the 'the' always necessary? Can we just call you 'Boss' in certain instances? Like, if I'm talking to Dad and I'm like 'Hey, I'm going to go hang out with The Boss', that sounds normal, but like, if I'm trying to get your attention or I'm talking to you, and I'm like, 'Hey, The Boss, you wanna go to the movies?', it sounds kinda stupid, ya know?"
All Bayley could do was chuckle at Becky's question. Sasha held an unamused facial expression.
"That accent..." Sasha said, emotionlessly.
"You like my accent?"
"You sound like a deaf British person with a frog in your throat."
Bayley covered her own mouth, as she cracked up. Becky became visibly offended, and a bit embarrassed.
"That's not a compliment." Becky said, as if it wasn't obvious.
"I know." Sasha said, coldly, before looking out of her window for any signs of Charlotte.
Sasha looked down at the last text she received from her. It read "on my way", and was sent about 13 minutes ago.
"Is Trust Fund usually this late?"
"I just met her yesterday." Becky shrugged.
"I mean... I don't really know her. All I know is she's Ric Flair's daughter and she can sing." Bayley said.
Sasha sat down, and the three girls waited a few more minutes, before Charlotte and Dana entered the room, with a blue guitar case.
"Sorry I'm late, guys." Charlotte said.
"Um, who are you?" Sasha asked.
Dana looked a bit confused by Sasha's hostile greeting.
"Uh... this is my best friend, Dana... she plays bass guitar." Charlotte said, with a nervous smile. In her head, she counted down to Bayley's inevitable response.
"You told me I was gonna make $400. At this rate, by Saturday, we'll be an 8 person band and we'll be making $100 a piece!" Bayley protested.
Charlotte sighed.
"I was gonna call us the Four Horsewomen." Sasha said.
"The Four Horsewomen! I like that!" Dana said, smiling
"Yeah, I liked it too until there was five of us."
"There were 5 members of the Four Horsemen too!" Charlotte pointed out.
"JJ Dillon did occasion keyboard work. He was only in like 2 songs, and he wasn't even on the cover of the album." Sasha said, opening the golden guitar case from last night.
"Well, we can be the Four Horsewomen Plus 1." Dana said, taking her guitar out as well.
"You're really lucky that the bassline in Nature Boy is so iconic... and you better be able to play it." Bayley said, getting behind her keyboard.
"Nature Boy is literally the only song I can play."
Bayley and Sasha both had the same look of confusion as Dana laughed.
"If you can only play one song, you don't 'play bass guitar'. You're just a person that can play Nature Boy on bass." Sasha said, almost a bit offended at Charlotte introducing her as someone that plays bass.
"Okay look, Dana isn't the best bass guitarist, but we need that bassline, and she can play it." Charlotte replied, eager to defend her best friend.
"We'll find out I guess. Becky, start us off." Sasha shrugged.
"One... two... one, two, three, go!"
Sasha began playing the opening riff. Once her solo part was finished, Becky, Bayley, and Dana joined in, playing the parts that led up to Charlotte's first verse. Dana smiled as she proudly played the repetitive, simple bassline, while the rest of the girls continued, unimpressed.
"All of the boys, they try to act like me, all the girls are chasing after me, it comes naturally... yeah it comes naturally."
"Wait, stop!" Sasha said.
Becky, Bayley, and Dana immediately stopped playing.
"What?" Charlotte asked.
"It's flipped, remember?"
"What's flipped."
"We changed it to 'Nature Girl'. You're supposed to sing, 'all of the GIRLS, they try to act like me, all of the BOYS are chasing after me.', remember?"
"Not necessarily." Becky shrugged.
Sasha simply turned to Becky and looked at her.
"Girls can chase after girls." Becky said, shrugging again.
Dana chuckled.
"Talk less." Sasha said, before turning back to Charlotte.
"Alright, Becky, take us from the top." Charlotte said, trying to remember all of the gender related words in the song, and where in the song they appeared.
"One... two... one, two, three, go!"
The backpack phone began ringing again.
"Your turn." Seth said.
Roman sighed, reaching in the backpack to grab the phone. He answered it.
"Hey..." said a seductive sounding female voice into the phone.
"Who's this?" Roman said, slightly interested.
"Alexa. Is this not Dean? Did I call the right number?"
"Uh, Dean's not available right now."
"Wow, sorry to hear that... Um... would you happen to be in possession of his backpack?"
"Uh...yeah?"
"Do you know Dean's prices?"
"Prices?"
"I'll take that as a no. Anyway, he usually charges me about... $5." Alexa lied.
"I'm not following." Roman said.
"Just meet me at the corner of Main and 14th, with the backpack. I'll take out what I need, and give you the money."
"Um... alright cool."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Roman hung up.
"Who was that?" Seth asked.
Roman didn't respond, he just opened the backpack. He pulled out a large brick of cocaine.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Seth said, jumping back.
Roman pulled out several more, before pulling out 2 bags of weed, and several bags of pills.
"Dude, we've been walking around with this shit!?" Seth asked, angrily calling Dean back.
"I just agreed to meet this girl on the corner of Main and 14th..." Roman said, nervously.
"WHY!?"
"I... she... she sounded hot... and I didn't know it was going to be a drug deal!"
Seth hung up the phone.
"Dean's not answering. Put this shit back in that bag, and throw it in your bedroom or something."
"Why MY bedroom!?" Roman asked.
"Because I had it last night!"
"Okay, I'm gonna meet this Alexa girl, get this money, then I'm putting it back."
"You're gonna SELL that stuff?"
"I mean... she's only giving me $5... $5 can't buy a lot of drugs, can it?"
"I don't know! I'm not a drug dealer!"
"You're going with me, right?"
"WHAT!?" Seth yelled.
"What if it's a set up. Haven't you seen movies?"
"Great. Get me killed too."
Seth's phone vibrated, as he received a text message.
"Who's that?" Roman asked.
"It's Dean. He said, 'can't talk right now, guard is too close, if Alexa tries to buy from you, Blue Blowfly is $15 a pill, it's in the bag with the gold star sticker on it.'."
"Text him back and say okay."
"What!? Say okay!?"
"Look, Dean comes back next week. Worst case scenario, we make like 3 drug deals. I mean come on. It sounds kinda fun, and it'll be a hell of a story."
"No, what's gonna happen is, we're gonna sell this girl these pills, and we're gonna put the rest back. Then, we're not answering that phone, and we're not touching that backpack until Dean gets home. THEN, when Dean gets home, we're gonna beat the hell out of him for getting us into this mess."
"Deal." Roman shrugged, putting on the backpack.
Seth sighed and unwillingly followed Roman out of the door.
"Cause I'm a wheeling, dealing, kiss stealing, limo riding, jet flying, stylin' and profilin' Nature Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirl!"
The five girls looked at each other.
"If we play like THAT at the open mic... we're gonna win!" Bayley said.
"Let's practice again tomorrow afternoon. Then tomorrow night, it's showtime!" Charlotte said, with a wink.
"It's so cold tonight. How is this even summer?" Becky said, warming up her arms with her hands.
"I know, right!? Don't you have a heater in here or something!?" Dana asked, looking at Sasha.
"I'm not cold." Sasha lied.
Charlotte remained silent.
The girls stood around a little while longer.
"Welp, let's get outta here. See you guys!" Bayley said, as she and Becky left.
Dana started leaving behind them.
"Charlotte, you coming?" Dana asked.
"Yeah, in a second."
Once Dana walked out of the door and closed it, Charlotte put her ear up to it, in order to hear their footsteps. She waited until they went down the stairs.
"You can stay at my house tonight."
"I don't wanna stay at your house." Sasha said, sitting on the bed.
"Why?"
"I don't like you. We're not friends."
"At least let me bring you a blanket or something."
"I'm fine." Sasha said, grabbing a jacket. She put it on and layed on the old bed.
Charlotte stood still.
"You're just gonna watch me sleep?" Sasha asked, rudely.
Charlotte sighed, leaving the room.
Seth and Roman got back into the car.
"See? Nothing happened." Roman said,
"This time." Seth responded, turning on the radio.
"And I was right. She was hot."
Seth chuckled and rolled his eyes.
"She was okay."
"She's more than okay."
"She's not ugly." Seth shrugged.
"Oh I forgot... you're taken." Roman said, with a devious smile.
"Taken?"
"Yeah... Charlotte?"
"Charlotte's my friend."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, girls and guys can be platonic friends, blah, blah, blah. Save the cliche bullshit. You want her."
"...really really badly." Seth admitted.
"She seems interested in you, but don't jump the gun. Take it slow, but not too slow, where it seems like you're not interested, you know?"
"Why would I trust your girl advice when you've never had a girlfriend?"
"Seth, do you know how many women in the Bronx I've had sex with?"
"See that's the thing. You're good at getting girls to have sex with you, that's not what I want from Charlotte."
"You don't want sex from Charlotte?"
"No I, wait, yeah, yeah! I want sex from Charlotte, that'd be fucking awesome! But I want a relationship."
"Ew." Roman responded, pulling out his phone. Seth rolled his eyes at Roman's childish response.
At 1:30 AM, Becky slowly put on her shoes, trying not to wake up Bayley. She grabbed two cans of spray paint from under the bed, crept down the stairs, and made her way out of the door.
Eventually, she arrived at the train station. About 10 people were already there, spray painting beautiful murals and artwork on the blank areas of the station.
Becky stopped, as she saw a rather short guy, creating a picture of a black, red, and white demon.
"So you're The Demon King!?" Becky asked, excitedly.
The guy turned to her, looking almost equally excited.
"And you're another Irish person!?" He asked.
Becky smiled even harder.
"Wow, this is so cool... not us being Irish, but... meeting you. I love your work."
"Thanks. The name's Finn, by the way." he said, extending his hand for a handshake.
"Becky... I'm Badlass." Becky said, accepting the handshake.
"Ah, I should've known Badlass was from Ireland. You know, I haven't seen much from you around here until a few nights ago. You new around here?"
"Yeah, I just moved to New York like 2 months ago. I used to be up in New Jersey, and before that, I was in Dublin."
"Right, right. You sure seem to love black and orange."
"Well... those are the only two colors that I have." Becky shrugged.
"Why don't you ask someone to borrow some?"
"I'm new here. I didn't want to be rude."
"Everyone would give you some. Your work's really popular."
"It is?"
"Hey guys, this is Badlass!" Finn yelled, pointing to her. The other graffiti artists immediately came over, seeming equally excited to meet her, as she was to meet Finn.
"Wow... I didn't realize you guys liked my pictures so much, I..."
Becky trailed off, as she noticed a picture on the wall, right below her own painting from last night. It looked like glow in the dark paint. It had an array of silver, glittery, shiny dots around it, that resembled diamonds. Inside, was neon green and neon pink letters, that read, "FEEL THE GLOW". Becky couldn't stop staring at it.
"Badlass... you alright?" Finn asked.
"Who made that?" Becky said, pointing at it.
"Oh that? That's Storm. Her paint is really cool."
"Where is she?"
"She's not here tonight. To be honest, I've only seen her once. She's a ghost. No one ever sees her, but she makes her presence felt." Finn shrugged, continuing his picture.
"Well if you see her, tell her Badlass is a huge fan." Becky said, smiling, looking at the picture once more.
"Wanna trade books?"
"Books?"
"Yeah. Here in New York, every artist has a book. Just full of blank pages. You trade books with people, draw or paint something in their book, then you trade back the next time you see them. It's like a cool way to remember artists if you move, or they disappear or something."
"That's really cool... I'll have to get one."
"Well if you get one by tomorrow night, I'll trade with ya." Finn said with a smile.
Becky stood, in shock.
"...you okay?" Finn asked.
"I just... wow... the most popular street artist in New York wants to trade books with me." Becky said, with an enamored smile.
"Who me? I'm just a guy who can paint straight lines... See you around, Badlass."
Becky waved to him, as he disappeared into the night.
After he left, Becky continued to study the bright artwork below her last one.
"Feel The Glow..." she said, almost being hypnotized by it.