Author's Note: Sorry about the slight wait with this chapter, I've been having a bit of trouble writing the Prom, since I've never been to one (Actually the last "proper" school dance that I've been to was when I was in the fifth grade. My year 12 dance wasn't overly impressive and I don't have any particularly strong or memorable moments from it to draw on. So yeah, slightly stuck on how to write it which is annoying. Anyway, this is a filler chapter, very short, but still hope you all enjoy.

Chapter Eleven

You know there are two sides of the coin to staying up all night practising. The upside, you learn all the songs that you wanted to play at the prom. However the downside is that you're dog-tired when morning comes, going to sleep at nine-thirty in the morning, with the plan of waking up again at around three in the afternoon to get in some more practise in and to just give yourself enough time to get organised… but in actual fact you don't wake up until like, five o'clock in the evening.

"Fuck." I swore when I finally stirred myself awake at half past five Saturday evening. "Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!"

"Sorry, mate, can't help you, don't swing that way." Felix replied groggily from where he was asleep on one of the sofa's that was down in the basement.

"Shut up, Felix!" I growled before kicking him in the gut to get him to wake up completely, "Get up!"

"Wha? Officer, I swear to drunk that she's eighteen!"

"FELIX! GET UP!" I yelled, not even bothering to be amused by what he was babbling, instead, I kept on kicking him in the gut, causing him to yelp loudly.

"Geez, what's your problem?" Felix grumbled once he was awake… ish.

"Get up." I replied simply.

"But it's only five-thirty Michael!" Felix whined as he looked down at his watch. "We have plenty of time. Prom isn't until eight, dude." He said before trying to roll over and get back to sleep.

"No, we don't!" I snapped as I shook him back awake, "Dude, seriously, get up."

"Why?" This was Boris asking. He was peering out of his sleeping bag, looking a lot like blonde possum with braces.

"Because we have to get over there and set up everything! They're not going to do that for us, we have to do it, which means we have to pack everything up from here, take it over there, and set back up again. And they're also expecting us there by six!"

"Where is 'there', by the way?" Paul asked sounding puzzled as well as groggy from where he was sticking his head out of his sleeping bag.

"Huh?"I asked him intelligently.

"You never actually told us where the Prom is now taking place." Paul said as he pulled himself free of his sleeping bag and started to get himself organised. He was the only one though, the others were staying firmly in their sleeping bags, Trevor wasn't even awake yet, even with all the noise that we were making around him.

"Um, the Empire State Building."That got them moving.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Felix yelped, rolling over so fast off the sofa that he actually fell off it and onto the basement floor with a thud.

"Nope. And Felix, we've been through this, I don't swing that way." I said to him sweetly. He made a rude hand gesture which made me grin wider, "nope, sorry, still don't."

"Moscovitz, shut up and get your ass moving before I kick it." Felix warned me with a growl as he got out of his sleeping bag and started moving for his drum kit, a look of dread crossing his face at thought of moving it.

He wasn't the only one. We were all dreading the thought of packing it up and driving it to the Empire State Building, getting it up to the observation deck where the prom is going to taking place and setting it all up again.

But somehow we managed to do it. Somehow we managed to pack up all our instruments and getting them all into Felix's and Trevor's cars, get to the Empire State Building by five to six and where able to get up to the Observation Deck by five past six. It's amazing really, that we got there in such good time, what with all the squabbles that went on. The most memorable squabble of all was between Felix and Trevor. Everyone seemed to become wide awake after I revealed that the prom had been moved to the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building. All except Trevor, whom has to be kicked awake by Felix, who was probably out for some revenge for being kicked awake by me earlier and since I was already awake, Trevor was the next best thing. That is until Trevor grabbed his ankle just as Felix was about to kick him again, giving it a firm yank so that Felix lost his balance and was sent crashing to the concrete floor. This of course caused Felix, once he regained his breath to lunge at Trevor and all up took about five minutes to separate their half-hearted fight.

"Make out later, pack up now." I yelled at them, which of course had them trying to beat me up and… Yeah, so you see, we made very good time considering.

But still even with our good time, it didn't save us from Weinberger, who met us upon our arrival to the Observation Deck, screeching.

"Where have you guys been?" Lana shrieked at us as we came in, carrying our instruments.

"Kid, chill already, we're here now, so get over it." Felix replied as he walked past her with a part of his drum kit.

Lana stared after him, her mouth hanging open in disbelief at his attitude towards her, clearly not used to anyone, in particular a male, treating her as if she was beneath them or that she wasn't considered hot by them.

She glared furiously at me as I past her, as if I had purposefully ruined her night by being here.

I grinned back at her causing her to make a furious huffing noise as she swung around and stalked back to where the rest of the Prom Committee were standing (and not doing anything, I might add) and watching us with resentful eyes.

Though personally I don't know what they're all complaining about, since, from what I can see, beside from the refreshments table that was set up at one end of the deck, they haven't done much for all their self-importance.

I mean, they were acting as if they were the ones who had organised the prom to be moved here once it was cancelled, not Mia and her grandmother.

"Let it go." Paul said when he noticed where I was glaring, "They're just petty little girls."

I pulled a face at him, but did as he said and helped Felix set up his drum kit, while the prom committee thankfully disappeared, presumably to spend the next two hours with their dates before coming back here.

"Well, that's done." Felix said in relief that we were all feeling, because despite the fact that basically all of us didn't really want to be here, the thought of us making fools of ourselves at our very first big gig because we weren't set up properly was something that none of us wanted to happen.

"I'm heading home." I said stretching my arms above my head.

I received several weird looks for that.

"To change." I added with a roll of my eyes.

"Oh, right, yeah." The rest of them looked down at their own clothes.

"Are we allowed to be dressed in casual clothes at the prom if we're in the band?" Paul asked. He sounded a little worried, but then Paul has always be something of a worry-wart.

I shrugged.

"I honestly don't care. I wouldn't be if weren't for Mia."

"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for Mia." Felix pointed out, but his tone was teasing so I knew he wasn't overly bothered by the whole playing at our prom thing.

"Do you need to come with?" I asked Boris, but he shook his head as he looked up from his mobile, which he had been texting on for several minutes.

"I just texted my Dad and he said he'd bring my suit over for me. He'll be here in ten minutes."

"Cool." I said, mildly wishing my parents would do that sort of thing for me. Thought thinking about it, they probably would, if I asked them.

I said bye to the guys, promising I'd be back as soon as possible before heading home as fast as I possibly could.

I managed to get home in good time, shooting past Mom, Dad and Lil, saying a quick hi to each of them. I had a lightning fast shower before getting dressed in my god awful suit, which I swear Pavlov was laughing at me when he saw me in it.

He wasn't as warm with me as usual; probably grumpy because I hadn't been home for almost twenty-four hours and he had been stuck with only Mom, Dad and Lil for company (he's fine with Maya. Maya, he loves. My parents and Lil? He tolerates them if he has to). God, help me (and Pavlov) for when I'm away at college.

I'll have to talk to Mia and see if she can come over and visit him throughout the week, because if anything will help ease his anger at me for abandoning him while I'm at college, it's Mia. She honestly is his most favourite human in the whole world!

"Cutting it a bit close, don't you think?" Dad said as he looked at the kitchen clock as I came to say bye to them all when I was ready to head back.

I laughed without humour as I looked at the clock too. Twenty past seven… crap and I still needed to get back there.

"You overslept didn't you?" Mom asked with a knowing look in her eyes.

"Me? Oversleep? Don't know what you're talking about Mom. Anyway, I gotta go. See you all later." Mom rolled her eyes at me.

"Anyway have fun." Mom said while Lil simply slunk back in her chair, sulking.

"Yup. Bye!"

And with that, I was out the front door at a run, Pavlov barking miserable behind me. I am so going to have to make this up to him.

Anyway, I actually decided to cut my looses and take a taxi back to the Empire State Building, knowing that even if I did run it all the way back, I'd be late, so a taxi was my best bet. Which is odd, consider this is New York and its infamous traffic jams, even at this time of night, they're still horrible, but with the strike going on, barely anyone is bothering to leave their homes, so surprisingly I actually got back to Empire State Building in good time, with almost twenty minutes to spare.

It's strange, with only twenty or so minutes to go until prom official starts, I actually found myself feeling, I guess not excited about it, but I was anticipating it.

I wasn't filled with a sense of dread at the thought of the next couple of hours of my life being taken up by my high school prom, but rather, while I still wasn't quite looking forward to it, I had a feeling of anticipation at the thought of playing for a large and very real audience.

Yes, there is the very real fact that I'll know everyone that I'll be playing in front of; Richter and his cronies, people who were in my English, Trig and Chemistry classes, people who I had known for four years. But while I do feel a sense of nervousness, I also felt surprisingly calm… for the moment.

Plus there was one upside to coming to the prom that I hadn't remember or even thought of until Boris showed us the corsage that he somehow managed to buy for Tina without any of us noticing, explaining that flowers and ribbon were almost the exact same shade of light purple as Tina's dress. It was then that I remembered one of the ultimate upsides to going to a dance.

Seeing Mia in a dress.

I had completely forgotten about this little fact about dances and now that I remembered it, I found myself actually looking forward to the prom, if only so that I can see Mia in a dress and to play my very first big gig.

Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all.