Alrighty, here's chapter six.

Sorry I'm updating semi-late-ish today. I woke up at 10:30 AM this morning and just could not get into the writing mood until a couple hours ago. Hopefully this lives up to your expectations for this chapter.

It's short. Unsettlingly so. But I just couldn't get inspired to write anything more and the story sort of found its' own natural stopping point and I didn't want to fight it, so...yeah.

About the song lyrics...if they're wrong, please let me know. I was literally typing the song out as I listened to it, so there's a very real possibility that what I have written is completely wrong.

But, hey, if you notice a typo, please be nice about it. I'm having one of those days. Gimme a break.

Okay. I don't own Danny Phantom or anything else you recognize in this chapter.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the latest installment of All Around Us.

Wow, that was lame.


All Around Us

Chapter Six: That's What You Get

August 20, 2012


One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
- Bob Marley


When Sam arrived home from school, she sprinted up the stairs and activated the ghost shield. The boys - the band, she thought disparagingly - was due over in ten minutes. Sam dumped her backpack on her bed and extracted her phone from her pocket just as she recieved a text. From Danny.

Where are you?

Sam grimaced. She had run straight out of gym to the parking lot, peeling out of her parking space and racing home before Danny and Tucker even had a chance to get out of their last classes. She bit her lip guiltily and shoved her phone in the drawer of her desk. I'll talk to him later, she thought.

A distant knock at the door jolted her out of her thoughts. She shook her head and dashed out of her room, bounding down the stairs and just barely beating her butler to the door. She yanked it open and smiled at David, who was examining the brass knocker in the center of her door. Tarlton and Nate stood just behind David; Nate appeared to be messing with Tarlton. They all looked up, however, when Sam opened the door.

"Hey," She said, stepping aside as they traipsed in. She glanced out in the street after Tarlton dragged his bass in, looking both ways for any sign of Tucker's car. She felt a wave of reassurance at her lack of findings, and closed the door. She paused, staring at the doorknob thoughtfully, before locking it.

The boys were already in the music room, David and Tarlton setting up their guitars, Nate twirling a drum stick between his fingers absently.

"Alright, we still have a lot to do before the first audition," David said as Sam closed the door to the music room. She turned and raised an eyebrow. "We still have to practice and figure out what song we're even doing."

"Oh. Right." Sam shook her head, crossing the room and taking her place on the piano bench. "So."

It was David's turn to arch an eyebrow at Sam. "Do they know?" He asked, nodding to Nate and Tarlton.

"Do we know what?" Nate asked curiously. The drumstick flipped out of his hand and landed with a muffled thump on the thickly carpeted floor. Sam paid no attention, though; she was busy glaring feircely at David.

"Nothing." She muttered. "Let's just get this over with."

"That. Do they know that you 'hate music'?" He punctuated the last two words with air-quotes. Nate and Tarlton whipped their heads toward her, mouths agape in shock.

"Is that true?" Nate asked incredulously.

"You hate music?" Tarlton asked in disbelief, forgetting to be nervous again.

Sam felt her nostrils flaring. She exhaled through her nose noisily. "Does it matter?" She asked sharply, flipping a piano book open with an excess amount of force. "That's not what this is about, is it? I'm doing this for extra credit. I want to get into Penn State, and that ain't gonna happen unless I have an A average. An A average ain't gonna happen unless I get extra credit in Lancer's. Extra credit in Lancer's ain't gonna happen unless we win this stupid contest." She crossed her arms defiantly, avoiding Nate and Tarlton's gazes. "Besides, you're the last person that should be talking about being honest with people."

David, much to Sam's disbelief, shrugged. "They know I'm gay." He said dismissively. "I told them earlier. Turns out, they don't care."

Sam narrowed her eyes at Nate and Tarlton. "Traitors," She muttered under her breath.

"How can you hate music?" Nate asked, ignoring her anger. Sam looked down at the keys of the piano, suddenly feeling ashamed. "Music is...it's amazing. I just...I don't understand."

"It's not that hard to understand, music just gets on my nerves." Sam said shortly, glancing up at the ceiling. Maybe this was a mistake, she thought miserably.

"You've been listening to the wrong kind of music, then." Tarlton said quietly. Sam met his gaze. "Yeah, okay. Some music is terrible. Most of the popular music is awful. But I don't know anyone who sits through Clair de Lune and says that it's awful at the end. I don't know anyone that listens to Asphalt Cocktail and isn't in complete awe at the end of it. It just doesn't happen."

"Have you ever heard a Panic! At The Disco song?" Nate asked, apparently unphazed by the sudden conviction in Tarlton's tone. "They paint such vivid pictures with their lyrics..."

"You've been jaded," David said softly. Sam blinked, unable to form a coherent argument against them. "You've got to give music a chance. Who knows...you might end up falling in love."

Sam clenched her jaw. Anger washed through her. She almost let them talk her into it. Almost.

"This is for my future at Penn State." She spat. David recoiled. "I do not, nor will I ever, like music. Get used to it."

David stared at her blindly, his fingers tightening around the neck of his guitar. He glanced at Nate.

"I think it's time we show Sam that song." Nate's eyes widened, but he nodded. He pulled his phone out and handed it to David, who began tapping at the touch screen. Sam sighed impatiently, glancing at the clock. They'd already lost ten minutes of rehearsal time.

She froze, however, when a particularly loud and furious guitar chord ripped through the tiny speaker of Nate's phone. David smirked at her and sat the phone on the piano before her, nodding his head to the beat of the choppy chords and pulsating drum beat. Sam felt her mouth drop open at the sound. It was unlike anything she ever heard before. Her heart leapt in her chest as a female voice began to sing:

"No sir,
Well I don't wanna be the blame
Not anymore,
It's your turn
To take a seat we're settling
The final score

And why do we like to hurt so much

I can't decide
You have made it harder just
To go on
And why-hy
Oh the possibilities
Well I was wrong

That's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh-oh oh,
That's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh oh
I drowned out all my sense with
The sound of its beating
And that's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh oh."

The guitar ripped again, drums tearing up the silence and beating into Sam's eardrums. She glance up at David to find him smirking at her, and realized with a jolt that her mouth was still hanging open. She snapped it shut as the girl began to sing again.

"I wonder
How am I supposed to feel
When you're not here
'Cause I burned
Every bridge I ever built
When you were here
I still try
Holding on to silly things
I never learn
Oh why-hy
All the possibilities
I'm sure you've heard

That's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh-oh oh,
That's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh oh
I drowned out all my sense with
The sound of its beating
And that's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh oh

Pain, make your way to me, to me
And I'll always be just so inviting
If I ever start to think straight
This heart will start a riot in me,
Let's start,
Start, hey!

Why do we like to hurt so much
Oh why do we like to hurt so much?

That's what you get when you let your heart win,
Whoa oh oh oh

That's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh-oh oh
That's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh oh
Now I can't trust myself with
Anything but this
And that's what you get
When you let your heart win
Whoa oh oh oh-ho."

The song ended with a resonating guitar chord. Sam blinked in shock. Her heart was thundering in her chest, adrenaline pumping through her veins. The song was fast-paced, the lyrics far more meaningful than any song Sam had ever heard. Not to mention...it was kind of punk-rock. Sam bit her lip. She liked the song. She really, really liked it.

"That's just the beginning." David said, snatching the phone from the piano and tossing it back to Nate. "There are literally thousands of songs out there like that one. Songs with meaning. Not just pop songs written for the soul purpose of getting stuck in your head."

Sam closed her eyes and nodded. "Okay." She said, sitting up a bit straighter and looking at each of the boys in the eye. "Okay, you've got my attention."

"Excellent." David grinned.


One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
- Bob Marley


List of songs mentioned in this chapter that are worth checking out:

1. Clair de Lune (but I'm pretty sure everybody knows this song. It's fairly famous)

2. Asphalt Cocktail (it'll take you directly to the streets of New York City, I swear)

3. Any song by Panic! At The Disco, but specifically The Ballad of Mona Lisa or Build God, Then We'll Talk

4. That's What You Get by Paramore

That's all for now, folks.

- Tori