"I'm so nervous!" I giggled. I tugged at the waist of my pants and bit my lower lip. We were in our dressing rooms, backstage of the Molson Centre. It was the last of our three shows in Montreal. The others had gone perfectly, but for some reason, I was more nervous for that show than the others.

"Yeah," Katie nodded, "I can't believe I'm so nervous for a show!"

"I don't think I've ever seen you guys this nervous since our first Battle of the Bands!" Michelle added.

I looked in the mirror again, just to make sure I looked ok. I was wearing tight black hip huggers, a midnight blue tank top with the AC/DC logo on it with a black netted top underneath it and black leather boots. My hair was perfectly straight and Billy added temporary midnight blue streaks to it. My make-up was only lip-gloss and lots of liquid eyeliner. Not only do I love it, but so does Billy, so, I usually wear liquid eyeliner.

"Girls, there are 10 minutes left until show time," Dewey popped his head into the room, "Katie, start tuning your bass. Singers, make sure your voices are ready. Now, I'll go make sure the guys are ready." With that, he left us alone again.

Tomika and Alicia always practice together so they sat down on the floor and started practicing. I prefer to practice alone, as Tomika and Alicia both know from previous experiences, so I sat down on one of the squishy red beanbag chairs and started singing scales. I felt a pair of arms come around behind me and whisper "Hey baby," into my neck. I turned my head.

"Hi Freddy," I grinned as I kissed him on the cheek, "What are you doing here? Isn't Dewey going to start harassing you about getting your drums ready?"

"Yeah, but I don't care," he smiled as he brushed a strand of my hair away from my face, "You're more important."

"Am I really?" I asked.

"Yeah," he nodded, "And I've been feeling a bit neglected lately. It seems like you're hanging out with that Joel guy more than me!"

"Are you jealous?" I teased.

"Yeah," he nodded seriously.

"Don't be," I smiled as I kissed his forehead. He gave me a slow smile. Just then, we heard a voice yelling, "Freddy Jones, where the fuck are you? Get your ass here right now!"

We looked at each other and said, "Dewey."

"I guess I should go before Dewey stabs somebody," Freddy grinned.

I nodded, "See you in a few minutes." He nodded and left.

That left me sitting down, alone, thinking. Maybe Freddy was right to be jealous. I was spending quite a bit of my time with Joel. It's not that there's anything going on with us though...at least, not to me.

"Come on girls! It's show time!" Dewey yelled from outside the room.

"That's our cue," Katie grinned. I nodded and followed her out of the room to the stage with Alicia and Tomika behind us. As soon as we were out of the room, we heard roars of "School of Rock, School of Rock, School of Rock!"

Near the stage, Dewey and the guys were waiting for us. As soon as they saw us, they ran on stage. We followed. Once we were on stage, the crowd exploded in applause, hoots and whistles. When I looked at the huge audience as I walked to my place with the other singers, I remembered just how much I loved doing this.

"Are you ready to rock?" Dewey yelled from his place, center stage with a freestanding mike and holding his guitar. The crowd went ballistic!

Dewey turned to us, "Let's give them what they came here for!" With that, the drumming for our newest song, a remix of "I Love Rock and Roll" started. It wasn't like Britney Spears' version, because that scared me. It was more rock, less slut.

AT THE END OF THE CONCERT, 2 HOURS LATER

"That was our show!" Dewey yelled. By that time, the groupies, the roadies and the rest of the gang was on stage too.

"Now, you've heard enough from me so.... here's a word from everyone in the band!" Dewey yelled as he walked off stage. Zack took the mike.

"Hi everyone, salut tout le monde, we hope you enjoyed our show! You better have or we're never gonna come back here again," he winked at the crowd. I heard about half the girls in the crowd shriek.

After a few more people, it was my turn. I stepped up to the mike and tucked a stand of my hair behind my ear. By that time, I had untied it and it was all wavy and falling around my shoulders.

"Hey people," I giggled, "Thanks for coming. We had a blast up here and it's all because of you! Rock on! Allô tout le monde ! Umm, merci pour avoir venue ! Nous nous sommes amusé beaucoup, et c'est grâce à vous ! Rockez juste qu'au bout!"

I blew the crowd a kiss and then ran off stage laughing with my hair flying behind my back like long gold ribbons.

When I got off stage, I was met with tons of high-fives. Freddy grabbed me by the waist and swirled me around in the air. He kissed me on the lips. I kissed him back for a second and then broke away giggling.

"Wooh!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"My ears," Freddy smirked as he covered his ears.

"Sorry," I blushed.

"You guys rocked!" Dewey cried as he came to us and held up his hands for another round of high-fives. We smacked his hands as hard as we could.

By then, we had all finished talking to the crowd. We were all standing together in a big bunch. The groupies were jumping up and down, the roadies and tech guys were pumping their fists, the rest of the singers were bumping hips, the band was playing the air version of their instruments (Zack is the craziest air guitarist ever), Summer was dancing and Billy was shaking his booty. I know that it's a scary thought. As for me, I was just standing there, in Freddy's arms.

My hair is a mess. My face is red. I'm sweating like crazy. My fingers have blisters. I'm having the time of my life! I wouldn't give this up for anything! I thought excitedly as I grabbed Freddy's shoulders and kissed him. It was a short kiss, a spur of the moment kind of thing. I pulled away. Freddy was grinning smugly.

"What?" I asked as I put my hands on my hips and did the "Bitch Pose".

The Bitch Pose was something that the band came up with together. We noticed how all the really bitchy girls at school seemed to have the same stance. With Katie as their model, they came up with the ultimate Bitch Pose. It took an hour and Katie nearly pulled her hair out from frustration, but we finally had it.

The Bitch Pose was one hip jutted out (preferably the right one), arms crossed tightly to the chest, eyebrows arched, chin up defiantly, lips in a pout and head slightly tilted. Yup, we put a lot of thought into that.

Freddy laughed and shook his head. I punched him lightly.

"Marta," Dewey called me. I looked at him.

"There's someone here for you," he grinned. I looked searchingly around him.

"You came!" I grinned as I hugged Joel, who stepped out from behind Dewey.

"Yeah," he nodded, "You were great!"

"I know," I smiled mischievously.

"You know what?" he asked.

"No, what?" I asked as I tilted my head a little and flashed one of my famous "Innocent Girl" smiles.

"Tomorrow, I'm bringing you guys to the one of the nicest places in the entire city," he grinned.

"Oh really," I arched my eyebrows.

"Really," he nodded, "It's all the way in the east end of town, but it's gorgeous there. I promise." He smiled and put his right hand over his heart.

I wonder why a nice guy like this doesn't have a girlfriend yet. I thought. It's strange because he's so incredibly friendly...and he's cute too...

THE NEXT DAY

"Oh my god," I gasped as I hopped out of the van. Joel had driven us to the "secret location". It was gorgeous!

There was a beautiful chapel with a few other religious buildings around it. The chapel isn't the most beautiful part. Right next to it, there's a small park with a path. Along the path, there are little stone things that show the steps of when Jesus was crucified. There are tall, beautiful trees everywhere, the grass is fresh and there are little squirrels running everywhere.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Katie grinned. I nodded furiously.

"Are you talking about yourself again?" Zack teased Katie as he hugged her shoulders.

"Hi Zack," she smiled.

"What were you girls so interested in just now?" he smiled.

"Just commenting on how pretty it is here," I shrugged. I tugged at my jean jacket. I was wearing red running shoes, a jean mini skirt, a red t-shirt and my jean jacket. I had a red bandana in my hair.

"Oh," he nodded.

"What were you up to?" Katie asked him as she broke away from him. She was wearing white capris, a yellow tank top with the Superman logo and yellow running shoes. She had side parted her short hair and clipped one side back with a white barrette.

"Oh, I wasn't doing much of anything actually," he shrugged. A section of his hair fell in his eyes.

"Where's Freddy?" I asked.

"Oh, he's still in the van. Dewey's telling him off. You know, because of that little stunt he pulled with the vodka," Zack explained, "He'll be here in a second." I nodded. No sooner had the words come out of Zack's mouth, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around. You have a thousand guesses who it was and the first 999 don't count.

"Freddy," I giggled as I hugged him.

"Hey Blondie," he greeted me, "Why don't we start walking?"

"Sure," I nodded. The rest of the gang, including Dewey and Joel, were far up ahead of us. While we were walking, Freddy and I decided to sit on a bench for a bit.

"I can't wait for my dance lessons to start again," I said as we sat down.

"Do you mean those lessons every Tuesday evening?" he asked, "The ones where you need a partner, social dancing."

"Yeah," I nodded, "My partner, Alex, is really nice. We're totally in synch when we dance. It's creepy how our timing is always perfect."

"I remember when I watched your show last spring. You were really good," Freddy commented.

"Now Freddy, you know very well that flattery gets you everywhere," I teased.

"Yeah, umm, I kind of have to go to the bathroom. I'm going to look for it, ok?" Freddy stood up. I nodded.

After he left, I sat down alone for a bit and then Joel came to sit down next to me.

"What are you doing alone?" he asked as he frowned.

"Oh," I shrugged, "I'm just waiting for Freddy. He went to the bathroom."

"Ah, I'll wait with you then," he said. I nodded.

"It's amazing how close you guys are," Joel commented, "Not just you and Freddy, but the whole group. I mean, you know each other so well, it's scary."

"I know," I nodded, "We weren't really that close until we met Dewey though. It's thanks to him that I'm best friends with Katie, that Freddy's my boyfriend, that I can ask Summer advice on anything, that I can talk to Zack like a second brother..." I trailed off and sighed.

"Yeah," he nodded, "I think that you'd still be friends with them if you hadn't met Dewey. You're one of the nicest girls I've ever met."

"Really?" I looked straight at him.

"Yeah," he nodded and blushed.

I laughed, "It's funny when you blush. You look so shy and sweet." He turned even redder. I laughed again.

"You look pretty when you laugh," he grinned, his face still red.

"Thanks," I smiled.

"You shouldn't thank me. It's the truth," he shook his head.

"Still," I answered.

Before I knew what was happening, I felt myself pulled into his kiss. I was scared, but in a good way. I kissed him in return and didn't hold back at all. I felt his arms wrap around me and I didn't resist. He felt warm.

What am I doing? The voice in my head pounded. All the same, I didn't pull away. I kissed him harder instead. I let him embrace me; I let him caress my hair and my back; I let him push his tongue into my mouth.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Why in the world would anyone think I did?

Thank-you's:

Xobadrhymer03: Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't know what else to say!

Pyro and rock 'n' roll babe: Excellent work, my good Watson! LOL. Yeah, I think we understand that much now. That's really the name of a subway? Cool.

Crazy Chica 91: What the hell am I doing reviewing my own story...and then answering it? Lord, I'm an idiot!

Luv 4 jon 4 evr: Who exactly is "Jon"? Anyway, about Johnny Ramone, I was so depressed! I've got a little memorial to him glued in my school agenda. I look at it every day!

Wyverna: I get what you mean. Unfortunately though, yes, Joel does like Marta.

Super Monkey289: I don't have the c.d. but I could download whatever you want to show me! Tell me what it is! Now, I'm curious. I love all Bowling for Soup songs, but my favorite ever is "Summer of 69". I'm obsessed!

Tawa: Thank you, my dear friend! Sorry my Mom wouldn't let me straighten my hair!  I tried, but she said "NO!"

Sandy-Pandy: No biggie. Thanks though!

zaris azira: Thanks a lot! Cool name. Try saying it three times fast! LOL.

HyperActiveSpaceMonkey: Thank you, oh hyperactive one! Your praise flatters me! No, really, thanks!

Tawa (again...): Oy! I. HATE. ENYA! Anyway, yeah, I wish I were the one punching the almighty evil one. I modeled her after someone. ahem bitchy girls from camp ahem Fine, don't forgive Freddy. More hot guys for me! LOL.

Random Comments: Hey everyone! It's almost Halloween! Yay! What are you all dressing up as, if you're dressing up at all? I decided to surprise everyone and go Goth. Nobody would ever expect me to do that, which is exactly why I chose that costume!

Anyway, I was wondering a few days ago, what would Freddy look like if he shaved his head? If anyone has any idea, let me know because it's really been bugging me!

Now then, this is your cue to press the review button and tell me what you think. Then, I get an e-mail that tells me what you think and I get hyper. When I get hyper, I write more! Review, my evil little minions, or I'll set my secret weapon on you!