A/N: Title, Disclaimer, and Summary are all in part 1. This is the Friday
after Jack shows up. I'm not going day by day. That would make it over a
hundred chapters and I really don't feel like writing it all...So...I'll just
skip to the important bits and we'll be on our way. Something I noticed, I
put random references to the actors/actresses movies in here...I did not know
I was doing that...
Friday afternoon at 5:00, the Black Pearl was deserted. Jack walked in and looked around. Randy and Steven were in a dark corner tuning the bass and Steve's guitar. Over by the soundboard, Nick and Brad were discussing the stage setup with the sound tech. Jack shrugged and walked towards Randy and Steve.
"Hey," Steve said, by way of greeting.
"Hey," Jack returned. "So it's a ten song set, right? Originals and covers?"
"Yeah. 3, 5, and 9 are on there," Randy answered. '3, 5, and 9' were the reference pages for the songs.
Jack grimaced. "As long as he just gives the name of the songs, I'm fine."
Steve smiled. "You haven't heard the rest of it. Brad just added '45' to the program. You're gonna get the spotlight."
Jack didn't say anything; he just shot a death glare at Brad, who waved back happily.
"How's the new school?" Randy asked.
"Forget the school," Steve was smiling an awful lot. "How're the girls?"
"Anorexic bimbos," Jack said straight-faced.
"Aw," Randy sighed. "C'mon man! It can't be all that bad!"
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "There has to be at least one!"
Jack just grinned to himself and started tuning the guitar.
"That's cold man," Steve whined. "Damn that's cold."
"Lizzie, girl, I swear," Ana Maria was in the middle of a rant. "If you don't take me- I have to hear this band!"
Ana Maria broke off into screaming Spanish obscenities, and Lizzie held the phone as far away from her ear as she could.
"Ana," she started.
Ana Maria didn't pay any attention to her. "Ana," Lizzie tried again. Ana Maria didn't even pause. "ANA!"
"What?!" the girl still wasn't quite calm, but that would have to do.
"You're coming with me," Lizzie told her. "Even if the band is great, I'm not going to be able to stand more than about five minutes of the Harpies by myself. Get your party clothes on and head over here."
"I'll be there in ten minutes," Ana said as she hung up.
Lizzie shook her head and hung up the phone. Ana would take twenty minutes, at least. She had plenty of time to eat something and call Harpies One and Two to see where they were going to meet.
Back at the Black Pearl, it was still almost an hour until the doors open and there were a few last minute sound checks and arguments to go through.
"So," Brad was saying. "We're just going to do the songs one right after the other? Boom, boom, boom?"
"That depends on the order you want to do 3, 5 and Darkness in," Steve put in. "If you do them one right after the other, there's barely any time to adjust the mike stands and switch the guitars-" He broke off as Jack walked over to where his mike was set up, grasped the locking clutch, twisted it, and lowered it to the right height.
"Name of the song and saying it's an original should work," Jack announced.
"So," Brad said again. "3, switch the guitars, 5, you," he pointed to Steve, "get ready for Darkness, Darkness, swap the guitars again, 45?"
"Sounds alright to me," Randy answered.
"I think the sound tech's getting anxious," Jack said, looking over at the tech. "That or he's having a seizure."
"He wants to do a sound check," Brad said, annoyed.
"Ah," Jack sighed, grinning.
"So, anyway," Josie had not stopped to breathe since meeting up with Lizzie and Ana. The Harpies had insisted on doing everyone's make-up. Why they needed make-up at a club, neither Ana nor Lizzie knew, but they just shrugged and went along with it. "My cousin's boyfriend is a total jerk, but he's the bouncer for tonight, so if we want in without paying the cover we're going to have to do some major pouting."
"Three-fifty to get in is, like, so over-charging," Kate agreed.
'Or,' Lizzie thought. 'We could just let you two do the Valley Girl act and get in that way.'
After the doors opened there was twenty minutes of DJ'd music before the band went up. The extra time was to allow the tech to make sure there wouldn't be any of the annoying squeaks and squeals that were feedback. So far everything was going great. The band went onstage, plugged in the instruments, and turned on the amps.
The only hitch would come if Brad decided to do a speech. Brad was horrible at speeches, apparently he'd figured that out and decided to skip it, simply saying 'hi' and introducing the band and the first number, a cover of Chevelle's "The Red." It seemed to be a popular song.
"Guys," Ana Maria said. "The doors opened 45 minutes ago. If this is anything like most of the other bands, the set will be half over."
"Aaack!" screeched Josie, who was working frantically on Lizzie's make-up, her own was already done. "Kate! Hair! Now!"
Ana Maria smirked as Lizzie glared at her; Ana had already had her hair and make-up done and was actually rather pleased with the results.
Her hair was pulled back into some sort of bun/ponytail, on her eyes there was light eye shadow and a bit of glitter, they had used a shimmering red lip-gloss, and, to complete the look, they had brushed a shimmer-powder over her face. Overall, it was a nice look, she'd probably never wear it again, but it was nice. It went well with the pale blue fitted pants and slightly darker halter she'd picked to wear.
Ana looked back at Lizzie. They were apparently trying to turn her into some sort of Gothic princess. Dark eye shadow, deep red lipstick, mascara, more mascara, and some sort of sort of pale powder had already been applied. Behind Lizzie's head was a flurry of movement as Kate twisted and pulled and braided her hair into an intricate bun.
It was her own fault, Ana Maria figured. Lizzie had chosen blue-black pants and a black halter as her outfit, and the Harpies eyes had lit up at the chance to break out the dark make-up.
"Alright," Josie announced. "You're done. Let's go."
The Harpies excitement was underscored by the look on Lizzie's face when she saw what they had done. It was a look of grudging respect mixed with shock, immediately followed by another glare at Ana Maria.
Ana just grinned and followed the Harpies out.
Walking into the club the girls noticed two things. One, Ana Maria was right, the set was almost half over and two, there were three guitarists, and one of them looked very familiar.
The one that looked familiar was hard to place, mainly because they could only see the top of his head. Lizzie noted that the acoustic he was playing might look weather beaten but the sound was excellent.
"I can't believe, in you," the singer was almost whispering. "I can't deceive, yeah, I can't, stay afloat." The song faded out and the applause faded in. A quiet thank you was said and the singer looked at the second guitar player. The guitarist nodded and the singer moved back to the mike.
"I'm gonna let the guy to my left take the mike for a while," the singer announced. "He's going to do a cover of a song by Disturbed, called 'Darkness'."
Lizzie smiled. She knew the song and she knew that Ana knew it. It was one of her favorites, mainly because the only things to it were an acoustic guitar and the singer.
"Don't turn away," the second guitarist had a clear, strong voice that fit the song. The familiar guitarist knew what he was doing and had changed key and begun the accompaniment before the first word had been sung. "I pray you've heard the words I've spoken."
Many people had heard the beginning of it and figured it was a slow song, there were about ten couples dancing now.
Lizzie and Ana watched as two guys, probably brothers, maybe best friends, came up to Josie and Kate. After a few words, they were on the dance floor. Lizzie and Ana Maria exchanged looks and went to find a table.
The table they found was a good one. The table was hidden slightly in the shadows, close enough to the stage to give them a good view, and they could see the door.
"Then I let the darkness cover me," the singer continued. It was about the middle of the song. "Denied everything, Slowly walk away, To breathe again, On my own, On my own, On my own."
Lizzie smiled as the pace of the song picked up slightly, the guitar becoming louder.
Ana Maria looked at Lizzie. "Whoever that guy is, he has nice hands."
"You and the hands," Lizzie sighed, the first thing Ana noticed about guys was their hands. "And the feet!"
"Hey!" Ana sounded indignant. "Hands and feet aren't the only things."
"Oh, no," Lizzie grinned. "There's also the butt, the voice, the hair-" Lizzie broke off as Ana took a swat at her. "But, you're right. He does have nice hands."
"Slowly walk away," The song was almost over. "To breathe again, On my own, On my own." As the final chord faded out the familiar guitarist walked offstage for a moment and the first singer reclaimed the microphone.
"For our last number," the singer began. "We're going to do another cover. Our other guitarist," he turned in the direction the guitarist had gone. "Get back up here, our other guitarist is going to take over for this one. The last number is by Shinedown, it's called '45'."
Lizzie didn't recognize the title of the song, but Ana was grinning. Lizzie figured she had two things to look forward to now, finding out who that guitarist was and hearing another good song. The guitarist walked back on stage, sans guitar, shot what must have been a glare at the singer, and walked up to the mike. His hands were constantly moving now that he didn't have the guitar, and Lizzie figured it was either anxiousness or a habit. Lizzie's eyes narrowed when she noticed that he stayed just to where his face was shadowed enough to where she couldn't recognize him.
The second guitarist started a lead in and the enigma grasped the microphone, still staying in the shadows.
"Damnit," Lizzie growled. "Move."
"You can keep doing that forever," Ana smirked. "That guy is never going to move."
"Oh," Lizzie answered. "Well, excuse me if I haven't resigned myself to not recognizing him."
"Send away for a priceless gift," the enigma sang quietly. "One not subtle, one not on the list, Send away for a perfect world, One not simply, so absurd, In these times of doing what you're told, You keep these feelings, no one knows-"
"He's good," Ana Maria acknowledged. "Very good."
"What ever happened to the young man's heart," Onstage, Jack was mentally running through everything he would do to torture Brad for this. "Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart," Right now, Jack figured making him listen to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake was high on the list.
"And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45," Jack sang, hardly noticing Steve's echo of "45". "Swimming through the ashes of another life, No real reason to accept the way things have changed, Staring down the barrel of a 45."
"Y'know," Ana Maria said slowly. "He really reminds me of the new guy, Jack."
"He does," Lizzie agreed. 'Jack? Honestly. Next she'll be saying he looks like Johnny Depp.'
" Send a message to the unborn child," the enigma interrupted. "Keep your eyes open for a while."
"And during the last song," Ana Maria continued. "He reminded me of Roux, from Chocolat- What are you looking for?"
Lizzie seemed to be searching the ceiling. "I'm looking for the flying pig," she answered.
"Shut up," Ana said sweetly.
"In a box high up on the shelf, left for you, no one else," the song continued. "There's a piece of a puzzle known as life, Wrapped in guilt, sealed up tight."
"Hi girls," came Josie's voice. "Having fun?"
"Yes," Lizzie answered. "We just cannot figure out why that guitarist seems so familiar."
"Oh," Josie sighed. "Well, Kate and I were gonna go get a couple sodas. Anybody thirsty?"
"Yeah," Ana said. "I'll take a Coke." Ana smiled when the Harpy made a face.
"Sprite or 7-Up or water," Lizzie sighed. "Whichever one they've got."
When the Harpy moved away, both Ana and Lizzie turned their attention back to the stage.
"What ever happened to the young man's heart," 'Two choruses and one more verse,' Jack thought. 'Then you can go yell at Brad.' "Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart, And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45," Jack amused himself by imagining that Steve's echo was 'Brad's gonna die,' instead of '45'. "Swimming through the ashes of another life, No real reason to accept the way things have changed, Staring down the barrel of a 45"
"I like the song," Lizzie said.
"Yeah," agreed Ana. "But I've never seen a band do a cover of it, hardly anyone else seems to have heard it."
"Everyone's pointing their fingers," Brad, who had gone down into the crowd to get a better look at the stage, frowned. Turning, he saw where the man controlling the stage lights was and walked towards him. "Always condemning me, And nobody knows what I believe."
"Hey," Brad began. "Could you bring the lights up on the guy who's singing? A lot of people were wondering-" He let the sentence hang as the man nodded. "Thanks," Brad grinned. Jack might kill him for this, but boy would it be worth it.
"I believe," Jack finished the last verse and Steve was just doing the lead in to the chorus when the lights came up. 'I'M GONNA KILL HIM!' was all that was running through Jack's mind at the moment.
Back at the girls' table, Lizzie's jaw dropped slightly, as did Ana Maria's.
"And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45," 'Brad's gonna die,' Jack mentally sang along with the echo. "Swimming through the ashes of another life," It was interesting, Jack noted, that when the lights were up, you couldn't see faces only figures. " No real reason to accept the way things have changed," and that one figure at the back looked a lot like Ragetti. "Staring down the barrel of a 45," Jack held the note, reminding himself the entire time of how much he'd like to throttle Brad.
The song finished, the lights went down, and the band started getting the instruments and amps offstage and where they could be loaded up into Nick's van.
"Brad," Steve said with a smile on his face. "I think you're dead, man."
"Probably," Brad smiled back. "But it was worth it."
"Still," Randy broke in. "Hell hath no fury like Jack Sparrow scorned."
"It's like woman scorned you moron," Steve told him.
"Whatever."
Jack walked, really it was more like stalked, out to the front of the building, intent on getting himself something to drink. The interesting thing was, the angrier he was, the more pronounced his swagger was.
"Jack!" the voice sounded rather like Ana Maria's.
'Oh shit,' Jack stopped and turned. "What're you doin' here?"
"I came with Lizzie," 'Double shit.' "Nice drunk impression by the way."
Jack shot her a glare, a 'get-to-the-point-soon-or-I'll...do-something' glare. She ignored it.
"Anyway," Ana started again. "We have a table over in the corner if you'd like to come sit with us."
"No thanks," Jack forced himself to smile. "I have a lead singer to kill."
"Fun," Ana smiled. "See you at the study group tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
Ana turned on her heel and walked back over to the table.
Jack started walking towards the 'bar', if it could even be called that, when he noticed a scraggly blond figure waving him over. 'This is gonna be a long night,' Jack thought walking towards Ragetti.
"Whaddaya want?" Jack didn't know he could growl. 'Must try that more often,' he mused looking at Ragetti's reaction.
"Grapple's here," Ragetti almost whimpered. 'Really, must try growling more often,' Jack forced his features to remain straight.
"And what has that got to do with me?"
"He's a little drunk."
'And the shit keeps coming.' "Alright," Jack said aloud. "Where is he?"
Ragetti pointed somewhere over Jack's shoulder and Jack turned around to see if he could find this 'Grapple' character. It didn't take him long. A staggering, literally, 6'2" man with the remains of a black mullet kinda stands out. Jack turned back to Ragetti. "And what am I supposed to do about," he gestured wildly, "that?"
"Uh," Ragetti paused, considering, "don't let him hurt anyone?" That said, Ragetti half walked, half bolted, to the far corner. Jack sighed and stalked off towards Grapple. Of course, it's rather difficult to follow anyone in a huge room with more then two hundred people and five fog machines, so he just followed the voices, specifically the badly slurred, slightly Australian one.
"Crap," Ana Maria stated.
"What?" Lizzie asked.
"Don't look now, but there's a drunk quarterback headed over here."
"Crap."
"Well put."
"'Lizabeth, baby," even though Lizzie knew he was mainly sober, Grapple could still pass for being smashed.
"Go away, Mick," there was only the slightest tremble in Elizabeth's voice.
"Ouch, baby," Grapple shrugged it off. "Baby, please come with me to the dance."
'Thin ice, Lizzie, thin ice.' "No Mick," Lizzie tried to stay calm. "I'm not going with you."
Jack was about four feet away, but even from there he could see Grapple's hand twitch slightly before flying up to backhand Lizzie. Thankfully, she saw it too and moved away to where his class ring only just caught her eyebrow.
"Bitch," Grapple slurred before attempting to hit her again.
Catching his hand, Jack startled him. "That's not very nice," Jack was furious but was doing a damn good job of hiding it.
"Who the hell are you?" Grapple questioned when Jack let go of his hand.
Jack narrowed his eyes. "Smith, or Smithy if you like. Now, if you'll be so kind as to show yourself the door?"
Grapple snickered, "This your new lap dog?"
"I'd get the hell out of here," Jack's voice was a deadly whisper. "That is, if you don't want to be thrown out. Savvy?"
"We'll talk later," Grapple said to Lizzie, it seemed that the immensely dense Mick Grapple finally got the point. Save your ass to fight another day, hopefully not anytime soon.
Friday afternoon at 5:00, the Black Pearl was deserted. Jack walked in and looked around. Randy and Steven were in a dark corner tuning the bass and Steve's guitar. Over by the soundboard, Nick and Brad were discussing the stage setup with the sound tech. Jack shrugged and walked towards Randy and Steve.
"Hey," Steve said, by way of greeting.
"Hey," Jack returned. "So it's a ten song set, right? Originals and covers?"
"Yeah. 3, 5, and 9 are on there," Randy answered. '3, 5, and 9' were the reference pages for the songs.
Jack grimaced. "As long as he just gives the name of the songs, I'm fine."
Steve smiled. "You haven't heard the rest of it. Brad just added '45' to the program. You're gonna get the spotlight."
Jack didn't say anything; he just shot a death glare at Brad, who waved back happily.
"How's the new school?" Randy asked.
"Forget the school," Steve was smiling an awful lot. "How're the girls?"
"Anorexic bimbos," Jack said straight-faced.
"Aw," Randy sighed. "C'mon man! It can't be all that bad!"
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "There has to be at least one!"
Jack just grinned to himself and started tuning the guitar.
"That's cold man," Steve whined. "Damn that's cold."
"Lizzie, girl, I swear," Ana Maria was in the middle of a rant. "If you don't take me- I have to hear this band!"
Ana Maria broke off into screaming Spanish obscenities, and Lizzie held the phone as far away from her ear as she could.
"Ana," she started.
Ana Maria didn't pay any attention to her. "Ana," Lizzie tried again. Ana Maria didn't even pause. "ANA!"
"What?!" the girl still wasn't quite calm, but that would have to do.
"You're coming with me," Lizzie told her. "Even if the band is great, I'm not going to be able to stand more than about five minutes of the Harpies by myself. Get your party clothes on and head over here."
"I'll be there in ten minutes," Ana said as she hung up.
Lizzie shook her head and hung up the phone. Ana would take twenty minutes, at least. She had plenty of time to eat something and call Harpies One and Two to see where they were going to meet.
Back at the Black Pearl, it was still almost an hour until the doors open and there were a few last minute sound checks and arguments to go through.
"So," Brad was saying. "We're just going to do the songs one right after the other? Boom, boom, boom?"
"That depends on the order you want to do 3, 5 and Darkness in," Steve put in. "If you do them one right after the other, there's barely any time to adjust the mike stands and switch the guitars-" He broke off as Jack walked over to where his mike was set up, grasped the locking clutch, twisted it, and lowered it to the right height.
"Name of the song and saying it's an original should work," Jack announced.
"So," Brad said again. "3, switch the guitars, 5, you," he pointed to Steve, "get ready for Darkness, Darkness, swap the guitars again, 45?"
"Sounds alright to me," Randy answered.
"I think the sound tech's getting anxious," Jack said, looking over at the tech. "That or he's having a seizure."
"He wants to do a sound check," Brad said, annoyed.
"Ah," Jack sighed, grinning.
"So, anyway," Josie had not stopped to breathe since meeting up with Lizzie and Ana. The Harpies had insisted on doing everyone's make-up. Why they needed make-up at a club, neither Ana nor Lizzie knew, but they just shrugged and went along with it. "My cousin's boyfriend is a total jerk, but he's the bouncer for tonight, so if we want in without paying the cover we're going to have to do some major pouting."
"Three-fifty to get in is, like, so over-charging," Kate agreed.
'Or,' Lizzie thought. 'We could just let you two do the Valley Girl act and get in that way.'
After the doors opened there was twenty minutes of DJ'd music before the band went up. The extra time was to allow the tech to make sure there wouldn't be any of the annoying squeaks and squeals that were feedback. So far everything was going great. The band went onstage, plugged in the instruments, and turned on the amps.
The only hitch would come if Brad decided to do a speech. Brad was horrible at speeches, apparently he'd figured that out and decided to skip it, simply saying 'hi' and introducing the band and the first number, a cover of Chevelle's "The Red." It seemed to be a popular song.
"Guys," Ana Maria said. "The doors opened 45 minutes ago. If this is anything like most of the other bands, the set will be half over."
"Aaack!" screeched Josie, who was working frantically on Lizzie's make-up, her own was already done. "Kate! Hair! Now!"
Ana Maria smirked as Lizzie glared at her; Ana had already had her hair and make-up done and was actually rather pleased with the results.
Her hair was pulled back into some sort of bun/ponytail, on her eyes there was light eye shadow and a bit of glitter, they had used a shimmering red lip-gloss, and, to complete the look, they had brushed a shimmer-powder over her face. Overall, it was a nice look, she'd probably never wear it again, but it was nice. It went well with the pale blue fitted pants and slightly darker halter she'd picked to wear.
Ana looked back at Lizzie. They were apparently trying to turn her into some sort of Gothic princess. Dark eye shadow, deep red lipstick, mascara, more mascara, and some sort of sort of pale powder had already been applied. Behind Lizzie's head was a flurry of movement as Kate twisted and pulled and braided her hair into an intricate bun.
It was her own fault, Ana Maria figured. Lizzie had chosen blue-black pants and a black halter as her outfit, and the Harpies eyes had lit up at the chance to break out the dark make-up.
"Alright," Josie announced. "You're done. Let's go."
The Harpies excitement was underscored by the look on Lizzie's face when she saw what they had done. It was a look of grudging respect mixed with shock, immediately followed by another glare at Ana Maria.
Ana just grinned and followed the Harpies out.
Walking into the club the girls noticed two things. One, Ana Maria was right, the set was almost half over and two, there were three guitarists, and one of them looked very familiar.
The one that looked familiar was hard to place, mainly because they could only see the top of his head. Lizzie noted that the acoustic he was playing might look weather beaten but the sound was excellent.
"I can't believe, in you," the singer was almost whispering. "I can't deceive, yeah, I can't, stay afloat." The song faded out and the applause faded in. A quiet thank you was said and the singer looked at the second guitar player. The guitarist nodded and the singer moved back to the mike.
"I'm gonna let the guy to my left take the mike for a while," the singer announced. "He's going to do a cover of a song by Disturbed, called 'Darkness'."
Lizzie smiled. She knew the song and she knew that Ana knew it. It was one of her favorites, mainly because the only things to it were an acoustic guitar and the singer.
"Don't turn away," the second guitarist had a clear, strong voice that fit the song. The familiar guitarist knew what he was doing and had changed key and begun the accompaniment before the first word had been sung. "I pray you've heard the words I've spoken."
Many people had heard the beginning of it and figured it was a slow song, there were about ten couples dancing now.
Lizzie and Ana watched as two guys, probably brothers, maybe best friends, came up to Josie and Kate. After a few words, they were on the dance floor. Lizzie and Ana Maria exchanged looks and went to find a table.
The table they found was a good one. The table was hidden slightly in the shadows, close enough to the stage to give them a good view, and they could see the door.
"Then I let the darkness cover me," the singer continued. It was about the middle of the song. "Denied everything, Slowly walk away, To breathe again, On my own, On my own, On my own."
Lizzie smiled as the pace of the song picked up slightly, the guitar becoming louder.
Ana Maria looked at Lizzie. "Whoever that guy is, he has nice hands."
"You and the hands," Lizzie sighed, the first thing Ana noticed about guys was their hands. "And the feet!"
"Hey!" Ana sounded indignant. "Hands and feet aren't the only things."
"Oh, no," Lizzie grinned. "There's also the butt, the voice, the hair-" Lizzie broke off as Ana took a swat at her. "But, you're right. He does have nice hands."
"Slowly walk away," The song was almost over. "To breathe again, On my own, On my own." As the final chord faded out the familiar guitarist walked offstage for a moment and the first singer reclaimed the microphone.
"For our last number," the singer began. "We're going to do another cover. Our other guitarist," he turned in the direction the guitarist had gone. "Get back up here, our other guitarist is going to take over for this one. The last number is by Shinedown, it's called '45'."
Lizzie didn't recognize the title of the song, but Ana was grinning. Lizzie figured she had two things to look forward to now, finding out who that guitarist was and hearing another good song. The guitarist walked back on stage, sans guitar, shot what must have been a glare at the singer, and walked up to the mike. His hands were constantly moving now that he didn't have the guitar, and Lizzie figured it was either anxiousness or a habit. Lizzie's eyes narrowed when she noticed that he stayed just to where his face was shadowed enough to where she couldn't recognize him.
The second guitarist started a lead in and the enigma grasped the microphone, still staying in the shadows.
"Damnit," Lizzie growled. "Move."
"You can keep doing that forever," Ana smirked. "That guy is never going to move."
"Oh," Lizzie answered. "Well, excuse me if I haven't resigned myself to not recognizing him."
"Send away for a priceless gift," the enigma sang quietly. "One not subtle, one not on the list, Send away for a perfect world, One not simply, so absurd, In these times of doing what you're told, You keep these feelings, no one knows-"
"He's good," Ana Maria acknowledged. "Very good."
"What ever happened to the young man's heart," Onstage, Jack was mentally running through everything he would do to torture Brad for this. "Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart," Right now, Jack figured making him listen to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake was high on the list.
"And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45," Jack sang, hardly noticing Steve's echo of "45". "Swimming through the ashes of another life, No real reason to accept the way things have changed, Staring down the barrel of a 45."
"Y'know," Ana Maria said slowly. "He really reminds me of the new guy, Jack."
"He does," Lizzie agreed. 'Jack? Honestly. Next she'll be saying he looks like Johnny Depp.'
" Send a message to the unborn child," the enigma interrupted. "Keep your eyes open for a while."
"And during the last song," Ana Maria continued. "He reminded me of Roux, from Chocolat- What are you looking for?"
Lizzie seemed to be searching the ceiling. "I'm looking for the flying pig," she answered.
"Shut up," Ana said sweetly.
"In a box high up on the shelf, left for you, no one else," the song continued. "There's a piece of a puzzle known as life, Wrapped in guilt, sealed up tight."
"Hi girls," came Josie's voice. "Having fun?"
"Yes," Lizzie answered. "We just cannot figure out why that guitarist seems so familiar."
"Oh," Josie sighed. "Well, Kate and I were gonna go get a couple sodas. Anybody thirsty?"
"Yeah," Ana said. "I'll take a Coke." Ana smiled when the Harpy made a face.
"Sprite or 7-Up or water," Lizzie sighed. "Whichever one they've got."
When the Harpy moved away, both Ana and Lizzie turned their attention back to the stage.
"What ever happened to the young man's heart," 'Two choruses and one more verse,' Jack thought. 'Then you can go yell at Brad.' "Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart, And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45," Jack amused himself by imagining that Steve's echo was 'Brad's gonna die,' instead of '45'. "Swimming through the ashes of another life, No real reason to accept the way things have changed, Staring down the barrel of a 45"
"I like the song," Lizzie said.
"Yeah," agreed Ana. "But I've never seen a band do a cover of it, hardly anyone else seems to have heard it."
"Everyone's pointing their fingers," Brad, who had gone down into the crowd to get a better look at the stage, frowned. Turning, he saw where the man controlling the stage lights was and walked towards him. "Always condemning me, And nobody knows what I believe."
"Hey," Brad began. "Could you bring the lights up on the guy who's singing? A lot of people were wondering-" He let the sentence hang as the man nodded. "Thanks," Brad grinned. Jack might kill him for this, but boy would it be worth it.
"I believe," Jack finished the last verse and Steve was just doing the lead in to the chorus when the lights came up. 'I'M GONNA KILL HIM!' was all that was running through Jack's mind at the moment.
Back at the girls' table, Lizzie's jaw dropped slightly, as did Ana Maria's.
"And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45," 'Brad's gonna die,' Jack mentally sang along with the echo. "Swimming through the ashes of another life," It was interesting, Jack noted, that when the lights were up, you couldn't see faces only figures. " No real reason to accept the way things have changed," and that one figure at the back looked a lot like Ragetti. "Staring down the barrel of a 45," Jack held the note, reminding himself the entire time of how much he'd like to throttle Brad.
The song finished, the lights went down, and the band started getting the instruments and amps offstage and where they could be loaded up into Nick's van.
"Brad," Steve said with a smile on his face. "I think you're dead, man."
"Probably," Brad smiled back. "But it was worth it."
"Still," Randy broke in. "Hell hath no fury like Jack Sparrow scorned."
"It's like woman scorned you moron," Steve told him.
"Whatever."
Jack walked, really it was more like stalked, out to the front of the building, intent on getting himself something to drink. The interesting thing was, the angrier he was, the more pronounced his swagger was.
"Jack!" the voice sounded rather like Ana Maria's.
'Oh shit,' Jack stopped and turned. "What're you doin' here?"
"I came with Lizzie," 'Double shit.' "Nice drunk impression by the way."
Jack shot her a glare, a 'get-to-the-point-soon-or-I'll...do-something' glare. She ignored it.
"Anyway," Ana started again. "We have a table over in the corner if you'd like to come sit with us."
"No thanks," Jack forced himself to smile. "I have a lead singer to kill."
"Fun," Ana smiled. "See you at the study group tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
Ana turned on her heel and walked back over to the table.
Jack started walking towards the 'bar', if it could even be called that, when he noticed a scraggly blond figure waving him over. 'This is gonna be a long night,' Jack thought walking towards Ragetti.
"Whaddaya want?" Jack didn't know he could growl. 'Must try that more often,' he mused looking at Ragetti's reaction.
"Grapple's here," Ragetti almost whimpered. 'Really, must try growling more often,' Jack forced his features to remain straight.
"And what has that got to do with me?"
"He's a little drunk."
'And the shit keeps coming.' "Alright," Jack said aloud. "Where is he?"
Ragetti pointed somewhere over Jack's shoulder and Jack turned around to see if he could find this 'Grapple' character. It didn't take him long. A staggering, literally, 6'2" man with the remains of a black mullet kinda stands out. Jack turned back to Ragetti. "And what am I supposed to do about," he gestured wildly, "that?"
"Uh," Ragetti paused, considering, "don't let him hurt anyone?" That said, Ragetti half walked, half bolted, to the far corner. Jack sighed and stalked off towards Grapple. Of course, it's rather difficult to follow anyone in a huge room with more then two hundred people and five fog machines, so he just followed the voices, specifically the badly slurred, slightly Australian one.
"Crap," Ana Maria stated.
"What?" Lizzie asked.
"Don't look now, but there's a drunk quarterback headed over here."
"Crap."
"Well put."
"'Lizabeth, baby," even though Lizzie knew he was mainly sober, Grapple could still pass for being smashed.
"Go away, Mick," there was only the slightest tremble in Elizabeth's voice.
"Ouch, baby," Grapple shrugged it off. "Baby, please come with me to the dance."
'Thin ice, Lizzie, thin ice.' "No Mick," Lizzie tried to stay calm. "I'm not going with you."
Jack was about four feet away, but even from there he could see Grapple's hand twitch slightly before flying up to backhand Lizzie. Thankfully, she saw it too and moved away to where his class ring only just caught her eyebrow.
"Bitch," Grapple slurred before attempting to hit her again.
Catching his hand, Jack startled him. "That's not very nice," Jack was furious but was doing a damn good job of hiding it.
"Who the hell are you?" Grapple questioned when Jack let go of his hand.
Jack narrowed his eyes. "Smith, or Smithy if you like. Now, if you'll be so kind as to show yourself the door?"
Grapple snickered, "This your new lap dog?"
"I'd get the hell out of here," Jack's voice was a deadly whisper. "That is, if you don't want to be thrown out. Savvy?"
"We'll talk later," Grapple said to Lizzie, it seemed that the immensely dense Mick Grapple finally got the point. Save your ass to fight another day, hopefully not anytime soon.