A/N: I know, Frank-and-Len splitting story was mentioned in other fics. But that is my vision...


Chapter 3. Collide

(Early evening that day...)

"Sorry, Len, but despite you being my only brother, I can't take this anymore!" said Frank. Brothers were looking angrily at each other. They had a quarrel – the first big quarrel in their life, without, of course, dishes smashing and chairs throwing, but it was a really unpleasant surprise. It was disappointing – they had lived side by side (literally, hah) ever since they were born, and now...

"Why are you treating Misery like that? She's our friend. So we shouldn't let her down. You know how easily you can offend a person", added Frank, trying to move his head as far away from Len's as possible.

"You're getting more sentimental, brother. I have nothing against Misery, but... The first day've gone without a result, so I'm just trying to be a realist and to look in the eyes of truth... We have only two days for rehearsals – and you know what that means!" Len sounded unusually sensible.

"Oh yeah, time. The eternal problem", Frank answered with irony. He was pitying the unlucky girl, and wanted to give her a chance. But now he was too indignant to speak to Len as brother to brother; they both were sorry for not having an ability to go far away from each other and to slam a door behind them...

Len voiced their common thought: "For the first time in my life I wish we were separate".

"Yeah, I wish I could be alone", Frank knitted his eyebrows. There was a fleeting moment of silence.

"And you – and you just don't understand the real meaning of winning!" Len exclaimed suddenly.

Frank raised his voice, too: "You think that it's all about winning! I've never thought that you can be such a..." He couldn't find the suitable word.

Thunder was rumbling somewhere in the distance, clouds were covering the sky. Two ex-best friends, who had always been together, now were looking angrily at each other, wishing to be alone. Well, that should have come in the end, anyway – if you live with someone who is always in front of your eyes, it will start to annoy and irritate you. And one day you won't be able to resist speaking your mind and you'll remind him every little slips and big blunders, ascribing to him sins that he'd never done... That's why partings are even useful between close friends, but they may cause horrible impression.

All happened in one moment – lightning blinded them, strange noises started to grow; and when all of a sudden brothers separated, firstly they didn't even understand what's just happened. Then they looked at their sides and teared clothes and realized what was wrong. Frank and Len clutched at each other tightly and yelled: "We are going to die!!"

***

Len was sitting on the sofa with his eyes widely opened and shouting: "What we gonna do now?" Frank was near him, clasping his head and repeating: "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no". Then they grabbed each other and cried in chorus: "Forgive me, brother! I know it's because of our quarrel!" The argument was forgotten – now they were united by common shock. Irremediable happened – now they were searching for a way to correct it. Not that they had a particular reason to wish to return in common body, it was just so habitual state for them that they couldn't part with it. But deeply inside they understood that nothing too bad has happened and they could live with it like everyone else.

"OK", said Frank in trembling voice, "OK. We just need to stay calm".

"Yeah..." drawled Len. "We should have some sleep. Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow and realize that it was just a nightmare..." And he fell asleep immediately.

Frank took a telephone and started to dial Misery's number to tell her everything, but then hanged up the receiver. He moved his fingers – it was a strange feeling of total control over the whole body. Frank put his head on the pillow and fell asleep, too.

(Morning next day...)

Ruby opened her eyes, yawned and looked at the clock. Six o'clock! Why did she wake up so early? She yawned again. Wait a minute... it's not her bedroom! Where's she? Ruby looked around and laughed. Nothing to worry about – she simply fell asleep in the great hall! And not only she – Skullboy and Doom Kitty were there, too.

"Morning, guys! Time to wake up!" Ruby clapped her hands.

Skullboy murmured: "But Ruby, it's only six o'clock. Why should we get up so early?"

"If we wanna do a perfect show for the Musical Festival, we should do a lot of work!"

Skullboy's stomach roared. "OK, but lets have breakfast firstly".

They went to the dining room and found Iris there, as full of energy as usual, jumping on her springs. "Hi, guys!"

"Hi, Iris!" said Ruby. "How's the work going?"

"What work?" Iris somersaulted. "Oh, decorations?" Jump. "Great!" Jump, jump, jump. "They'll be finished very... aaaaaah!" She shrieked, pointing somewhere at the door, and fell down, but then stood up immediately: "I'm good... and you two are not!" she said, referring to Frank and Len, who were standing at the entrance. Everyone turned to them. Skullboy said "Oooh" and whistled, and Ruby asked: "What happened to you, guys?"

"We still don't know ourselves!" said Len.

"But I think we just started to think in the opposite directions", added Frank.

"Cool!" said Iris.

"Hah, maybe. And where are Poe and Scaredy? I thought they're early birds".

"Yesterday they went to buy a new drum kit and they haven't returned yet", said Ruby alarmingly.

"Don't worry, Ruby", said Skullboy, pouring out the coffee into little cups. "You know Scaredy – he just didn't want to travel in the dead of night. Soon they'll come back. Come on, everyone, help yourself with coffee". But cups cracked and crumbled, that could mean only one thing...

"Hi, Misery!"

"Hi". She padded closer to them. "Did you guys change somehow?"

"We separated", said Frank.

"Oh. Really. Can anyone prompt me what my reaction should be?" she said, without addressing to anybody exactly.

"Well, we must go now", said Frank. "There's only one right thing to do for us – practice, practice and practice".

Len picked up a tray with a coffee pot and sandwiches: "We'll take this. If you see Scaredy, tell him that we're waiting for him for rehearsal".

After they left with Misery, Skullboy said in silience: "Weird things happen, nah? Erm... Who wants a cup of coffee again?"

***

The time for dinner has come, and Skullboy and Ruby were still in the dinning room, sewing the costumed after Skullboy's sketches. They looked upset with something, the same as Frank and Len, who came into the room and sat at the table. All four of them looked up and said in chorus: "Bad news, guys".

"You go first", said Frank. "I suppose your news are more important then ours".

Ruby laid the costumes aside: "Actually, they're not so bad, it's just a little addition to the contest... I'm sure you'll pass it easily..."

"Ruby wants to say", intervened Skullboy, "that before you sign up at the contest, you'll be attended by a jury, and he'll decide either you're going to take part in the Festival or not".

"A jury? What the heck!" groaned Len. "Now we definitely won't be able to win... Of course, Misery's improving, I admit it, but it's not enough for winning".

"That's our bad news", sighed Frank. "By the way, has anybody seen Scaredy? We've been waiting for him for the whole morning".

Ruby opened her mouth but didn't say anything, 'cause they heard noise outside and someone's panting and knocking at the door.

"Here they are!" exclaimed Skullboy. Everyone turned to look at the entrance and saw Poe and Scaredy dragging a new shiny drum kit. Well, Scaredy was dragging it, while Poe was flitting around and giving useful advices: "Little bit left, my boy... No, not so much... Now push it gently... Alright!"

Scaredy leaned against the drums, breathing heavily. "What a nightmare!" he said.

"Hi Poe, hi Scaredy. Why have you been there for so long?" Ruby asked.

"Dear Ruby, we stayed there for so long because of important events, about what I'd like to tell you now. With great pleasure I want to declare", he made a dramatic pause, "that I was chosen to be a compere on the Musical Festival!" Everyone exchanged glances. "Oh, firstly he didn't want to take me, but when I told him about my past – about my presence on various Gloomapaloozas and about my studying in Oxford – he simply had no choice. And when I told him about my ancestors..."

"Wait, Poe! By 'he' you mean 'he'? A jury?" asked Skullboy.

"Yes, a master and an organiser of this Festival. Weird man, I can say..."

"Oh, tell us about him!" asked Frank. "Is he strict? Mad? Scary?"

"Scary?" said Scaredy. "He's the most frightening person I've ever seen! He's like an evil dwarf – with eyes as big as plates and skin like it's burnt on the sun. And he has an enormous wart on his nose!" Scaredy shuddered.

"Hmmmm.... Mayde a bit exaggerated, but the main idea is right", said Poe.

"I reckon the appearance hasn't got any influence on person's character", said Ruby calmly and went to the kitchen – it was her and Skullboy's turn to cok the dinner.

"You know, Ruby", he said all of a sudden, stirring a soup with a spoon, "I think I finally understood what's the meaning of life".

"Oh, and what is it?" asked Ruby, preparing the tureens.

"I think the main purpose of life is to figure out who you are in the right time." He picked salt and pepper ans added them generously to the soup. "Now the problem is to understand who I am – and it'll be the meaning of life".

"But don't you have it sort of... figured out already?" asked Ruby cautiously. "I mean, you're our friend, right?"

"Right, but its not the same without an intention. I can be the artist – look at the costume sketches! – or maybe I'm a cooker... Voila! The soup is ready!" And he went to the dinning room singing quietly "Who am I?". Ruby sighed and thought that she won't stand another Skullboy's leaving if it happens...

Finally they all were having dinner, except Frank and Len, who were scraping in their tureens, looking down.

"By the way", asked Scaredy, "Why Misery hasn't shown up?"

"She said she needed more practice and stayed down there…" replied Len. "Well, she's got the point here".

"Oh, I can't eat", sighed Frank. "If you don't mind we'll go and continue our rehearsals".

"Mmmm… guys? Could you please help me with the drum kit?" asked Scaredy.

"Oh, sure. We'll help", the brothers answered and took the drums from the both sides.

"Let us know when we can come to listen to ya!" smiled Ruby.

"Any time", murmured Len and the three of them headed to the garage. Ruby cried after them: "And don't be afraid of a jury! You'll pass it! Surely!" Len rolled his eyes upwards.

***

They reached the garage, carrying the drum kit. Scaredy was sitting on Frank's shoulder, and Frank was ready to open the door but then in silence a beautiful voice resounded through the garage – it was Misery singing her song. Guys drew forward to look at her from the window.

"Amazing", whispered Len.

"Amazing", echoed Frank.

"Incredible", said Scaredy. "And she didn't break anything". As soon as they entered, Misery stopped singing and looked at them.

"It was beautiful, Mis! Keep going!"

And so she did. It was not, of course, her horrible screaming, but she still couldn't control her voice – it fell and raised and jumped. But it was a lot better comparing to the first rehearsals. Everyone was surprised by how she improved with such a short time.

"Ah, I still can't sing in front of the audience", said Misery sadly. "Maybe, I should give up".

"No, you shouldn't", said Len, whose mind about Misery had changed greatly, and Frank leaned forward and took her hands. "We believe in you, Misery", he said calmly.

"Really. Everything's gonna be fine", said Scaredy and took the drumsticks.

"Alright, let's start!" cried Len and threw up his fist.

There were still only one and a half days to practice for a contest. Music and singing were heard in the garage nearly every minute. They were training so hard they even forgot about eating and right time to sleep. When Ruby came to see them once in the morning, she found them sleeping in various places. Scaredy and Misery were in armchair, bending knees to chins, someone had covered them with a checked rug. Len was lying on the sofa holding a radio, and Frank was on the floor hugging the guitar. Ruby smiled, put a tray with sandwiches on the dusty table and left quietly. They practiced a lot and finally even Misery was satisfied with her work – she was singing clearly now, and music by Len, Frank and Scaredy was perfect. They presented a song to Iris and Poe and deserved applause from them. Of course, the band had some breaks among the rehearsals – they talked a lot and found out that there was a lot of common between four of them. During one of such breaks Scaredy and Misery officially joined the R.I.P. band; they put their signs on a wall-sized R.I.P. poster as the sign of it. Finally the Saturday evening arrived – the last day before they'll present their song to a jury.

It was nearly midnight when Len said: "I think it's enough for today. We need a rest". Scaredy and Misery wished the brothers good-night and made their way to the house. After they left the brothers got prepared to sleep – they slept separately now. Len's place was a sofa and Frank spent his nights in an armchair. Although they were two separate persons now, they didn't do anything on their own. If Len went somewhere, Frank went with him; if Frank wanted to do something, Len joined him. They were always together – even in minutes when there was no need in each other. Frank and Len just haven't got used to their present state yet, and they didn't want to do it. The brothers didn't want to search for a way to return in the common body, but they both agreed that if they find a possibility to do this they won't miss it. Just because it was their habit. But this event was like a start of their adult life – now they couldn't always rely on each other, they gotta be independent and more serious.

"You know, Frank", said Len, "I' not worried at all. I'm sure we'll win this contest, tomorrow jury will listen to our song and…" he yawned, "we'll take part in Festival…"

"Yeah, I'm not worried, too", lied Frank. Of course he was nervous. Poe's words echoed in Frank's head: Weird man, I can say… Weird – what does it mean? What will they face tomorrow?