Disclaimer: You all know the drill. (at least you should by now, but if you don't, I pity you.)
Ampless=Bitter
The next day after school the four were sitting on a bench near the stairs.
"You know guys, I wrote a new song. I'll play it for you when we get to the warehouse. Oh, that's right, I can't. I don't have an amp!"
"Ok, I said I'd pay you back, can't you just let it go?" Lily just got up and walked away. Ray watched her glide down the hallway.
"You know this is your fault." Robbie said to Travis.
"Actually I think the blame should fall on your irrational fear of fake hair."
"DIRTY fake hair." Robbie retorted.
"She 's beautiful when she's ampless." Travis and Robbie roll their eyes.
"Are you ever going to make your move? Ever?!" Robbie inquired. Ray had known and loved Lily since Pre-K.
"I hadn't planned on it anytime in the near-near future..." Ray said almost seriously.
"Well Lily is quite the catch, I'd hurry and woo her a soon as possible before someone else does." Travis stated.
"Any more painfully obvious 'dewdrops of wisdom', Travis?"
"Other than the fact that I'm going to rake in my share of the amp money faster than Robbie? No."
"Oh and how, pray tell, did you plan on paying that share so much faster than me?"
"By hosting an on air auction. I'll sell things in the box from the flea market auction style."
"It's never going to work," Robbie said smugly.
"Well how will you know? You'll be at Mickey's a-slaving away alphabetizing records and cds.
"Ha ha, oh that's funny." If you could wring out the words Robbie had said, the liquid sarcasm would fill an Olympic-sized pool. "Today's my first day, hopefully to the other people Mickey hired are somewhat amiable. The P.A. system beeped to life at its usual time to the dread of the three friends.
"Yo and hello, Cougars, this is Kim Carlyle with the afternoon announcements..."
"Yo and hello, Cougars, this is Kim Carlyle and I'm a loser who loves to kiss Principal Waller's a-"
"Ray...he's right there!" Robbie interrupted. Ray was doing one of his infamous 'Kim-pressions'. It would have been great had Principal Waller not been standing 4 meters away. They sat in an uncomfortable silence until he passed them. He seemed to have something else on his mind.
"Speaking of Waller, what's it like? In his office, I mean. I'm such a good boy, I've never been."
"Yes, well you're asking the right ruffians to describe it." Travis joked. He and Ray had only been once, and it was when they were suspected of being part of the crew that t.p'd the cafeteria early their freshman year. "It's kind of dark, but not dark enough to be sinister, very beige though. Beige and brown."
"Oh and there's the snowglobe."
"Yes, yes. He's got this snowglobe of Roscoe High and he shakes it and he shakes it-"
"Alright, alright, I've heard enough!" He raised his hands in surrender. The dismissal bell rang and echoed throughout the halls of Roscoe High, along with the clamor of conversing students. Robbie said goodbye to Ray and Travis who had to prepare for the auction after the show's regular hours. He walked to his locker and turned and twisted the numbers of his combination lock and familiarly pulled down on the dense metal. It released with a 'click'. He rid his messenger bag of all the unnecessary books and binders and shut the locker door, reattaching his lock. Suddenly, though, he was paralyzed. A girl walked down the hall, only her 'walking' was more like gliding. She was probably 5'5'', about Lily's height. Her skin seemed a luminescent golden sepia color, her long and impossibly small braided black hair swished behind her silently. She had full, pink lips that had been frosted with lipgloss, and beautifully shaped eyes, that looked as though amber gemstones had been placed into them. She met his gaze and smiled shyly, revealing white teeth, perfectly straight. Had he seen her before? She must have been new. She's gorgeous...He snapped back to reality by a hand on his shoulder. He jumped a little in reaction. It was Lily. She whispered in his ear,
"Her name is Marpessa Kingsley. Pretty, huh?"
"Beautiful." Robbie said entranced.
"She just transferred from the States. California, I think. Her family moved here to take care of her grandparents. She really likes music and she does amazing charcoal drawings. She'll only be here until the end of summer, then it's back to Cali for her. She seems sweet though, and smart. She gave Ed and Ted a run for their money in Algebra today, though their tongues were wagging too much to care."
"And how the hell do you know all of this?" Robbie asked after taking all of her information in and breathing again.
"She's in my music theory class and in my algebra class, and sits behind me in both. I talked to her. She's seen you in the halls before."
"What did she say about me? Was it good or bad?"
"I can't tell you."
"Ahhh! You are evil, you know that?"
"Ampless equals bitter. See where it fits in? And now I get to watch you suffer. Guilt free." She chimed as she walked away, giggling to herself.
"Oh that was low, Lily Randall. You'll get yours."
"And I'll have my new amp, so it won't matter."
Robbie rolls his gray eyes and checks his watch. It was about time for him to be at Mickey's, so he headed on over. Meanwhile Lily and Travis were waiting for Ray to show up for the show.
"Okay...it's like fifteen minutes before we're on and Ray hasn't even shown up." Lily said, her usual annoyance with Ray clearly showing in her sky blue eyes. Travis, while sorting Robbie's play list, smiled sympathetically.
While watching him work as she pretended to tune her guitar she noticed how intently he was working, how his deep blue eyes focused in on every move he made. Each move seemed effortless and expertly executed. She noticed the surprising bulge of the muscles in his arms as they contracted and released, flipping switches and twisting knobs, placing a cd case here and there. He had a broad chest, which now was laced in a layer of sweat. The air conditioning was broken, and contrary to popular belief, heat didn't seem to want to travel upward. His sandy blonde hair was spiked in its usual funky style. On occasion he ran a hand through it. Lily had never noticed it until then, but he looked like a cross between Johnny Depp and Shane West. Not a bad combination, especially the Johnny part. He was philosophical and unique enough to pull of Johnny, and mysterious enough to be Shane. His parents gave him absolute freedom. They didn't' want to give him boundaries, and let him make his own mistakes. Yet and still he was very smart, and very personable. He had impeccable manners and had a mixed religion of Buddhism and Christianity. Ray would always joke about how he was a freak, but it was only because he would always eat with chopsticks and had many, many sayings and proverbs from Confucius and other ancient wise men memorized. He had lived in London for a while, and attended an academy for gifted students. He was just cool...and hot.
"Something wrong, Lily?" she paused as she realized that he had caught her staring at him.
"How do you...how do you do it? She said in response.
"Do...what?"
"Run this radio station like you do and balance school, and deal with normal crap like that? You seem like you could do it blindfolded with one hand tied around our back."
"Actually I have done it blindfolded, I had both my hands though. I don't know...I guess I spend so much time here, I've become a part of the station itself. School is easier than people think. My grades aren't as good as they could be only because I don't care about them. I just make sure I learn the material I'm being taught. I ace more tests that way. As for home, well my parents are usually there when I need them, but I wish that there was a little more structure in what I do."
"You're telling me that being able to stay out as long as you want anywhere you want, anytime you want isn't a little slice of heaven- sorry Nirvana?"
Travis laughed at her religious mix up. "After a while you miss the nagging to do your chores and the lectures and the punishments. I felt a lack of guidance in my life so I mixed my religions a bit." "Travis Strong, you are an amazing person." "Why thank you, Miss Randall." He said, his eyes meeting hers in an intense gaze. There was something there. Something stringing their souls together. "Did I miss anything?" Ray said as he burst through the door in true Ray fashion. "Ah no..." "Nothing at all." The two said as they quickly reverted back to their individual tasks.
"Are you sure? It's kinda...vibey in here..." he mimed having a metal detector, making the 'pip' sounds as he waved it over the room.
"Pip...pip pip..." he got closer and closer to Lily, "Pip pip pip...pip...pip pip... beep beep beep beep! Oh silly me, this isn't my vibe detector, its my hottie detector. I'm telling you, I'd leave my head at home if it wasn't attached to my shoulders.
"You're sweet." Lily said to Ray. The funny thing is she looked at Travis when she said it. He smiled back knowingly.