Funky Drummer Demons – A Newsies Winter Drumline Story
Chapter 4 – Going Psycho
By: Vennie and Shorty

"I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem." – Unknown



Saturday dawned way too early. Vennie jumped out of her bed. Those damn Villagers still hadn't learned. They had stopped being up until all hours of the night, but they were still the last to bed. Every night she could hear them talking in the living room.
"Men..." She grumbled through her teeth. Grabbing her slippers, she slid them on her feet and walked down to the large bathroom. She found her things and fumed her way through her morning routine. Finishing, her feet carried her back to the room she shared with Shorty. The morning was half over, but Ven had to be at work in an hour.
Vennie walked down to the living room and found her boots exactly where she had left them last night. This was new.
Usually they were not "exactly where she had left them". Once they had been under the couch cushions, another time they had been thrown over the ceiling fan. She had been forced to find her boots every morning since the Villager boys had moved in. And they were never in the same spot.
Ven looked around the living room. Spot was at the counter talking something over with Kid Blink. Mem was lying on the couch and Jack was in one of the large chairs, picking his fingernails with his teeth.
She looked down tentatively at the pair of boots. She nudged one with her toe. Nothing moved in it. She picked up the other and looked inside it. There was nothing in it.
Sighing, she set it down and pulled in on to her left foot. "I might have been wrong about them." She thought. Shorty had told her about the scene in the stairway, but Ven still needed to see proof. "Maybe the Villagers can be subdued."
She picked up the right boot, the one she had prodded with her foot, and pulled it on. An icy cold wetness flooded the inside of her boot. Jack, Kid Blink and Spot started to howl themselves hoarse with laughter. Vennie screamed in outright rage and tore the boot from her foot. Water streamed out of it, carrying several pieces of red rubber with it. The water balloon had been stuffed into the toe of the boot.
Vennie stood up straight and looked hard at the three laughing faces. A growl escaped her throat and she tore off after them, one foot in a boot, the other slapping wetly against the hard floor of the kitchen in a sock.
The three Village boys ran for their lives. Vennie had snapped. She ran after the offenders like a madwoman. It might make her late for work, but she didn't care. Today, she would end this.
Jack and Spot had made it to their room, but just barely. The door was already locked by the time got there. But Blink's room was farther down the hall and he didn't make it. Vennie caught him by the back of the collar and yanked him back. He landed on his back, gasping as the air flew out of her lungs. Ven sat on his chest, pinning him to the floor.
"YOU! I have a life to live! And you and your friends insist on making my life HELL!" Each word was accented by a blow to Kid Blink's head. "What the hell are you all doing here anyway?! We had enough people in the drumline, but NOOO! You had to come in waving your sticks like raving idiots!" She was past reasoning now. The punches were starting to take their toll on Blink. "Just leave me alone! You men are all the same! Just stop with all th...!"
A hand clamped itself over her mouth and someone physically pulled her off Blink. Blink sat up and wiped blood from his nose and mouth, his eye wide, black now, staring at the girl who had beat him better than most boys.
The Ryan yanked Vennie to her feet, pinned her against the wall with his body and shook her by the shoulders.
"Ven!" What the hell are you doing?" The Ryan said, trying to talk some sense back into her. An angry rumble shook Ven's chest. She worked her foot between them and pushed him away with a kick of her leg, slamming him into the hallway wall.
"Just back off, Ryan!" She shouted over her shoulder as she stormed into the living room and grabbed her soaked boot. She jammed it on to her foot and tied it quickly. The door rattled on its hinges as she slammed it on her way out.

Vennie sat at a desk in the back of the museum building. The lights were all off except for her desk light. She was studying a papyrus covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was a description of a Pharaoh's honoring ceremony at the temple of Shekmet. Her fingers worked their way across the ancient paper, eyes studying intently the figures that formed words to the ancient scribe who had copied it.
The text was beautiful. Painted black outlines with gold detail. The sheet was dominated by a picture of Shekmet, the Egyptian goddess of war and destruction. The ancient deity was standing right in the middle of the papyrus, holding a staff in her long-fingered hand. She was starting out straight ahead of her, eyes focused on something the read was not fit to see. The text surrounding her sang her praises, her many titles and names. The small figures declared her immortality. The Pharaoh had honored her with many offerings and sacrifices that day.
Ven shook her head. "Too many hours." She droned to herself. She had been sitting there for the past 8 hours, pouring over ancient documents texts to confirm their authenticity. Two had been fakes today; some idiot trying to make a quick buck.
Forgers just served to piss her off. There were enough real documents to fill her time with. To waste an hour or more on a fake...well those were the nights Vennie went home in a bad mood.
"Speaking of hours..." Ven looked at the clock. 8:30 pm.
"Ahhh, home." She sighed without thinking about it.
The caught her off guard. She had surprised herself. Had she really been excited to go home? She shrugged it off to delusions. She had been sitting for a while.
It was raining now. Clouds had moved in, bringing a heavy rain that had not relented in 3 hours. She had heard it start then by the roar of it on the roof. And Ven had walked to work.
"Well..." she breathed. "Let's get this over with." She stuffed her hands in her pockets and headed down the block.
The sun had just set, leaving only a pale light behind the clouds. And it was only going to get darker. Ven smiled to herself. She liked the rain. Liked the smell of it, the sound of it, and the sight of it as it swept over the streets in curtains. But mostly, she liked the feel of it. The touch of rain on skin and hair was something Vennie loved and she would dance outside in the rain whenever she could. Rain calmed her, but it excited her at the same time.
The street came to a four-way stop and Ven crossed over to the right and continued on the other side. She could see the apartment building ahead of her. It looked sinister in the dark, rainy night. But there was a glow from the upstairs, the drummer's apartment. She could see figures in the window, some running, others just sitting there. She could see head thrown back in laughter, other turned to each other in conversation.
"Crazy people." She said as she shook her head with a smile.
Some people thought Vennie was very strange when she talked to no one like that. But that was part of what made her Vennie. She didn't care what others said or thought about her. She was who she was and nothing anybody said was going to change that.
The ground floor door swung open with a small squeak. Ven smiled to herself again. Shouts were already sounding down the stairway. As much as she would deny it sometimes, this was home.
Vennie had moved out of her family house because she could not stand to be with her mother anymore. They had been fighting with each other since Ven had turned 12, and it had finally reached a point where Ven didn't want to deal with it and stay at the house anymore. So, she had moved in with Shorty to the apartment. Now the apartment was home. She had never felt "at home" anywhere else.
She climbed the stair and pushed open the apartment door. The shouts had intensified in volume and number, and they greeted her when she came in, though none were aimed at her.
"Watch you feet Bourbon! I only got the two I came with!"
"Watch your own damn feet! I swear you've kicked me at least fifteen times tonight alone!"
"Has anyone seen the popcorn? I can't find it anywhere!"
"Don't you touch me!"
"Popcorn is in the cupboard to the right of the sink!"
"Stop picking your nose Demon! That's sick!"
Bourbon kicked mush in the shin and laughed at him. He pushed her down flat on the couch and ran for his room.
Vennie headed for her own room. Someone had stuck a not - so - nice "post it" note on the door. Shorty snatched it from behind her and walked down to the bathroom to do something nasty to that same someone's toothbrush.
Vennie walked in and shut the door behind her. The rain was hammering against the window, distorting the image outside. She saw that there was an envelope on the nightstand with her name on it. Just her name, and her nickname at that. Not her real name, which was Stephani. This person knew her well. And there was no apartment address on it. Just her name.
"Hmmmm..."
Ven picked it up and took out the small piece of paper inside. The note was hand written.

Vennie,
Meet me on the apartment roof at 10:30p.m. I will wait for you.

And that was it. There was no name. A confused look knitted her eyebrows together.
"Who on earth...?" She turned the paper over, to see if there were any clues as to who had written it there. But the back was empty. (A/N: Yes, I do realize that Vennie has not said a complete sentence for about two pages now. But hey, how much would you say under the circumstances?)
"10:30 eh?"

Vennie's lone figure climbed the short flight of metal stairs to the rooftop door. Rain was still falling. It beat an irregular rhythm on the roof above and she found herself tapping a corresponding beat on the handrail.
With another squeak, the door opened on to a flat, gravel paved roof. "Someone needs to oil these doors." Ven was speaking to herself again. "Subtlety is something no one believes in around here."
The metal rigging that dominated the rooftop was almost invisible against the dark sky. She walk towards it, but stopped as a silhouette separated itself from the other shadows.
"What in the name of all that is good left on this earth are you doing up here? No...scratch that...how did you get up here to begin with?" She called angrily at the silhouette.
Vennie was seething inside. The shadow moved and its face came into the light from the still open doorway, but she hadn't needed to see his face to know who it was. She knew from the form and the stance.
The young man was of average height with black hair that fell across his forehead and deep brown eyes. The arms that were folded across the chest were built up, but nothing compared to some of the male drummers downstairs. All in all he looked respectable, but to see Ven's reaction to him you would have thought he had leprosy.
"I came to see you, Ven. Why else would I come?"
"You're here to see me? Why? You left; I got over you. End of story." She snapped at him. "Why the hell are you here" Ven was almost spitting with barely concealed rage.
"I was wrong. I'm sorry. The other girl turned out to be a slut. I wasn't the only one she was 'seeing' at the time."
"Are you blind?!" Ven was yelling now. "She turned out to be a slut?! I could have told you that right from the first time I saw Amy! I mean...how shallow are you, Seth? She waltzes into the school in a short skirt and a top that presses the dress code and you are telling me now that she turned out to be a slut?!" Vennie imitated the girl in question by sticking out her chest and flouncing about. She pretended to drop something while her back was to Seth and bent over to grab it, shoving her rear as far heavenward as humanly possible. Vennie stood up again and stared Seth dead in the eye.
"You left me for that?" She rolled her eyes. "If that is all you are looking for in a girl, you have a sick future ahead of you." She glared hatefully at him. "But answer my first question. What are you doing here?"
Seth sighed and looked down at his feet for a moment. Then he looked back and held Ven's gaze with his own. No matter how much she hated him, he could still command her gaze when he wanted to. She crossed her arms in front of her.
"I want you back, Vennie"
Ven nearly choked, and her eyes bugged. "What is he thinking?!" She thought to herself. But that realized that there was no reason that she should not ask him this herself. She shook her head furiously.
"What are you thinking?!"
"Well...I thought..." he trailed off, staring intently at his feet again.
"You thought what, genius?" she spat angrily at him. "That I would readily say 'yes' so I could watch you 'fool around', as you so delicately put it, with other girls? That I would fall into your arms and cry myself stupid because I was so wrong to let you go in the first place? That I would take your hand and run downstairs to announce 'we're back together' to the others? I don't think so!" She was yelling again. "Grow up, Seth. You have a lot of learning to do yet."
They were both soaked to the bone by now. Water was dripping off of both of their faces and Vennie's ponytail was plastered to her back. She turned on here heel to go back inside, but Seth grabbed her arm. He spun her around and kissed her full on.
Ven was taken by surprise, but that didn't last too long. Reality snapped back into motion. For the second time that day, an angry growl built in Vennie's chest. With all of the strength she had in her, she jerked her knee up into his groin. Stepping out, her right fist slammed into his belly. Seth doubled over, but stood up to look at her. Her eyes burned into his, making sure he heard every word she said.
"You bastard! Don't you dare to ever touch me again!" She paused, her breath coming quick with anger. "Get out of my sight. Its pigs like you that make this world as chauvinistic as it is. Go and find some other girl to hold your hand. Because I want nothing to do with you."
Seth was pissed off and sore, she could see it in his eyes. But he had lost his battle. He turned and walked gingerly across the rooftop to a thick wooden plank that had been laid across the space that separated the apartment from the building next door. It was an old industrial building that had a ladder scaling its outside wall. Vennie saw it now. That was how Seth had gotten up on her roof.
Ven turned again to the door. She was tired and wet. Her night was ruined. There was nothing worse she could have dealt with. She was suddenly feeling spent and drained of all emotion. She put her hand out to catch the doorframe as she stepped inside, but there was already another hand there.
Spot stood in the doorway with his hand in the place Vennie had just tried to put hers. "Perfect. Just what I need now." She spoke no one in particular again. She looked up, as if talking to heavenly spirits. "Thank you whoever did that. I now want to kill you, whoever you are."
"Who much did you hear?" she asked him plainly. It was just a question. Not a demand or a threat. She only wanted to know. Nothing he could say could make this night worse.
"Enough. You know him?" Spot asked in his usual sarcastic tone.
Vennie snorted through her nose. "Knew. Past tense."
She walked past him down the stairs, hoping he would leave her alone. She would lose control over her rage in about two seconds whether he did or not. But she would have preferred to be alone when that happened.
But Spot followed her down the stairs like a lost dog. The two ended up at the counter stools in the kitchen and Ven grabbed a large bottle of Dr. Pepper out of the fridge before sitting down. It was the strongest substance she could get her hands on outside of liquor. They sat down and she slugged back a quarter of the bottle in one hit. Spot looked on, not saying anything. But after about three minutes of this, his curiosity got the best of him.
"So, what happened between you and that guy on the roof? You two were friends or somet'ing?"
"Friends. Huh, I wish it was only friends. And his name is Seth, just...by the way. But to answer your question, he and I dated for about four months. I will admit that it was a good four months and I thought it would last longer." She laughed at herself for every thinking this, took another huge pull from the bottle, and continued.
"He was shy with me at first, but after time he warmed up. And we were fine. Until the day Amy caught his eye. After that first look at her, he was lost. I was forgotten and all he wanted was her. Being who I was at the time, I took it hard. But he didn't care. He was off with Amy, the perfect model of a future college whore. Seth never even looked at me anymore, but I was too mad to even think straight. I swore off men. I hated them and everything they stood for. But after some time, I forgot about him and moved on." Spot started to squirm at the "swearing off all men" part, but Ven only looked him in the eye and smiled in a slightly crooked manner.
A plan was forming in her head. A plan of revenge against Spot for his tormenting her since he had moved in. This was going to be sweet.
Vennie quickly changed her tactics. She plastered a teeth-itchingly- sweet smile on her face and leaned in closer to Spot.
She spoke in a tone that would have anyone within 15 feet bouncing around on a sugar buzz. "But that was a while ago. I want to forget all about it. And you seem to be such a help. Thanks for listening." She leaned in even closer and gently brushed her lips over his in a seductive way. Her eyes caught his in their gaze. She kissed him again, but with a little more feeling behind it.
Spot was taken aback. Was this really Vennie? The Vennie who had just told him she had sworn off all men? But maybe she meant to start again with them. But he was too far into the kiss to really concentrate on anything for over three seconds.

(Yay...Shorty's turn! Yeah, for one whole paragraph!)

"Hey, where's Vennie and Spot?" They all looked around, noticing they were missing two of their members. They had gone outside to play in the rain. Literally. A game of mud football was played in the backyard, with the Marshallites against the Villagers. Neither had won on account that the storm was getting worse.
"I haven't seen Ven since she got home from work." They all headed back into the apartment, laughing and playing with each other. Sparks and Swinger stopped stock still, blocking the entrance for the rest.
"Hey, guys, mind moving?" Brownie asked. Then she saw what they were staring at. The rest clamored to see, mouths dropping when their eyes met the couple making out in front of them.
"Spot? And...and Vennie?!"

A movement caught Vennie's eye as she pulled Spot closer. She saw the others standing behind him, watching both of them. "Oh this makes it even better!" she thought as the rest of the plan started to unfold in her mind. This would indeed be the sweetest revenge she could ever extract from anyone. She stopped the kiss and whispered in Spot's ear.
"We have an audience. Can we find somewhere a little more private?" she asked him softly.
Spot jumped at the idea that others were watching. He nodded at her and grabbed her hand, pulling her off the stool. He pulled Vennie behind him through the crowd of other drummers and down the hall to his room.
"Perfect." Ven purred into his ear as she leaned in again. This time Spot took command. He kissed her hard, his hands getting a little free. (A/N: Oh come on! He is from Brooklyn for crying out loud!) Ven just smiled and let him feel around for a little bit.
In the midst of another kiss, Ven swung him down on the bed. She grinned drunkenly down at him as she peeled off his shirt and used it to tie him to the bed frame.
"Ven, what are you doing to me?" Spot asked in a husky voice. He never thought Ven to be this "experienced" in this area of expertise. But if she thought it was good, than Spot was not going to stand in her way. Besides, who didn't like a little kinky play?
Vennie bent down and kissed him again, lingering as her hand found his waistband. "Boxers or briefs?" she questioned playfully. She yanked hard, leaving Spot in her bare boxers tied to the bed.
"Now for my favorite part." She hummed down at him. Spot's mind was racing, trying to figure out what she would do next. But Ven didn't touch him. Instead, she went to the cupboard in his closet and pulled out the Polaroid camera Spot owned. She had seen him use it a few times before and knew where it was.
Standing at the foot of the bed, she clicked a picture and grabbed it at it slid out of the bottom. Aiming the camera again she clicked another, and another, and another.
"I think I have what I need. Sweet dreams." She smiled all-too- sweetly at him and blew him a kiss. "Spot, did you really think I'd do this? I'm a virgin, idiot, and plan to stay one. I can't believe you fell for this or thought I would lower my standards like that!" She laughed full-heartedly before walking out of the doorway and down the hall.
"Ven? Vennie?! What are you doing?! Ven! Come on! What is this?! VENNIE!!" Spot yelled at the top of his lungs, twisting at the shirt hold his wrists to the bed.
Vennie just laughed at her trick as she walked slowly down the hall to her room, holding the damning photos in her hand.

A/N: There you have it! Chapter four of FDD! I did my best to make sure everyone's name was mentioned at least once. Now, review and tell Vennie what a good job she did! She wrote most of this chapter. I on the other hand only wrote about a paragraph. But I was her editor! Now, go review! Oh, and before I forget, anyone who was in this chapter (Sparks, Swinger, Irish, Brownie, Riddle, Mem, Bourbon) please go to this and read through it. Thankies much!