Beacon High and what changed me

Chapter VIII

"I don't want to tour this world alone, anymore..." Chloe strums the guitar. "I want to have someone to call my own, forever more..." Lyle and Skyler occasionally play their instruments. "I don't want fame and fortune, anymore..." Chloe carries on strumming. "All I need is someone, that's all I'll live for..." I smile. "Well, incomplete... but we can do this! With four heads working on one song, we're bound to get this finished in no time!" My phone vibrates, and I check it. A Text from Brendan. "Want to meet me at the Riverfront later?" I smile and text him back. Chloe chews the end of her pencil trying to think of something to add to the song, or even a title. I pour her some coke from the Garage Fridge and sit down next to her. "Maybe a certain secret recipe will help miss Chloe Anderson to be struck with inspiration." She takes it and has a sip, followed by scribbling into our lyrics book. "Don't you think that it's boring how people adore you?" She takes another sip. "Don't you wish they'd see you as a human, as a person, just as you?" After one glass of coke is finished, we have some more lyrics. I knew that this would go swimmingly. My phone beeps. And then Chloe's. And then Lyle's. And then Skyler's. I check mine to find a threat from Amelia. Threatening to have our instruments destroyed unless we pull out of the battle of the bands. "Did we all just get the same message?" Everybody nods. "She can't do that. It's destruction of property. She could never go through with it. Anyway, who's up for a smoothie later?" We all nod.

~~~~

"So anyway, to cut a long story sho-" Chloe never cut the long story short. Because as she opened the garage door, she found our instruments vandalised. The drumsticks snapped, the guitar strings cut, the keyboard's keys ripped out and the microphone stand bent out of shape. "Oh, fuck." I slowly fall to the ground. "There's no way we can compete now! Amelia's going to win and I'm going to look like a complete failure to Brendan and all of Beacon High!" Skyler puts his hand on my shoulder. "Calm down, dear. We have spare drum sticks, spare guitar strings, those keys can be put back in pretty easily, and I bet you that we can bend that microphone stand back." Lyle looks like he's glowing. "We're not going to let her take us down!" Chloe lifts an eyebrow whilst cradling her injured guitar. "How exactly do we plan on not failing?" Lyle smiles. "Simple. We remove our name from the list. Then, a day later, we put down ourselves under a code name. Like, Lemon Lime & The Woodland Peaches. Then as members we write stuff like, Lemon Lime, Woodland Rose, Woodland Cherry, Woodland Pear or something like that." We all nod. "Sounds great." I walk over to the table and start writing. "I'm not at all like you, I tour the world alone, but I don't want to anymore, because I'm bored the the bone, but maybe we can meet halfway and become inseparable..." I stare at the ceiling, begging for ideas. "I want to be seen, not as a star but as a human being..." I sigh. Lyle coughs. "Well, I've got to go now..." Lyle taps on his watch. "Got a dentist appointment in a few minutes and I need to catch the bus." He says goodbye and leaves. Shortly afterwards Skyler leaves too, citing homework as an excuse. I sit around with Chloe for a moment as we wreck our brains for ideas until my phone buzzes with a message from Brendan. I excuse myself and say goodbye to Chloe. I walk out of the garage and Chloe closes the Garage door. I walk up to the bus stop and wait for a 45 bus to take me to the Riverfront. I wait and wait, and the bus finally arrives. I get on and stare out of the window as the leaves fall from the trees. Truly, a majestic sight. The bus turns a corner and I think about what to do next. Shall I report Amelia? Then again what could happen, she might just be told off. Not that any teacher would believe me. I think it really would just be the best if we do what Lyle suggested. The bus eventually arrives at the Riverfront and I get off, seeing Brendan at the bus stop. "Hey Brendan! How are you?" He smiles. "Great, what about you, Penelope?" I blush slightly. "I'm great too. How was your day?" We walk towards the fence at the river bank. "It was fine, didn't do much, to be honest. I did homework, practised some football, that was it. What about you?" I sit down next to him on a bench. "Well, I did homework and then practised with my band. The strangest thing happened. We left for like a really short time, and as we come back, our instruments were all broken!" Brendan frowns. "That has got to be Amelia. Nobody else would do that." We stare across the river. "Well, to be honest I kinda expected that from her. She's always kinda a sleaze. How does she even have friends?" I shake my head. "Some wish to keep their brain usage as low as possible, and she offers a great opportunity for that." He laughs. "Yeah, so true. Want to come to the next football game and watch me?" I nod. "Yeah, wouldn't mind at all. I might even cheer a little." He tries to suppress a laugh. "I'm serious, Brendan. Maybe I'll go 'Go Home Team!' or 'Yay Sports' or something." He laughs. "Yeah Penelope, you'd be the least enthusiastic person there since the guy that sat down and played on his Game Boy." I watch some houseboats pass by. "You know, some say that football players are steel covering velvet. You seem like the opposite... and I like that. All those boys showing their quote on quote 'manliness' by doing insane shit, talking loud and acting like total douchebags - they're never gonna get a girl like that." Brendan chimes in. "Yeah, a lot of the footballers are like that. It's a shame that they can't just be themselves." I shake my head. "I dread to imagibe that that's their true self - some douchebag." He smiles. "You know, they say that most girls are obnoxious. That they're sneaky, that they go behind your back, that they never care for you. To be honest, that's not the vibe I get from you either... It's like this 'they' is a really inaccurate source of information." I wave my hand. "Who is this 'they' and why were they allowed to live? I mean, people talk, of course, but sometimes they come up with the dumbest ideas I have ever seen. Like that guys and girls can never get along. Or that you can only be 'manly' if you assert your 'dominance' over women. To be honest, meanwhile in reality it's not even attractive. It's just annoying, like some kid desperately begging for attention." Brendan nods. "Yeah, it really does come across like that. Even to me, and I'm a guy, shouldn't I be sticking my manliness into everyone's face like some over the top attention whore? I mean, my god, the guys even growl at each other and break into like bear fights occasionally. Like they have the natural urge to be the most animalistic they can or something." I turn around and stare at his face. "You know, somehow we drifted into like pseudo-psychological rambling there. Wanna grab a starbucks?" Brendan nods. "Yeah, sounds great." I smirk. "But this time I'm paying."

~~~~

"I've got a great idea that'll mildly bemuse everyone from our audience!" Chloe digs out a piece of paper showing diagrams. "So basically, we do a song with a bit of a giant presentation. My idea was for me and Penelope to be lowered from the ceiling, wearing large wedding dress-like dresses, and then we start singing... The guys of course, wearing tuxedos, and halfway through, we rip the dresses off to reveal jeans and a shirt, sort of like a hidden personality thing." I stare at Chloe with extreme amusement. "Reality Check, Chloe: This isn't Broadway, this is Beacon High's Western Hall. And for the dress things, I doubt it's doable. Great idea though, buy we'd have to talk to the theatre group to see if we have that kind of stuff here." Lyle nods. "Yeah, and to be honest, I'm not really into layered stripping." Skyler laughs. "Oh please, Lyle, you won't be naked." Lyle sneers. "You'd like that, would you not?" Chloe grins. "If you two can stop making sweet sweet love, we can carry on with battle of the bands contest suggestion whatevers." Lyle and Skyler stare at Chloe disapprovingly. "Chloe, we're not gay." Chloe shrugs. "Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, I had thought of something else. We start off with a record playing some old-timey music with a large picture of a grandpa, then we bust through the picture and start playing, at which time the record stops. Any thoughts?" I nod. "Good idea, but the large picture? Not sure the school newspaper's printing facility can handle it though." The bell rings and we rush off to the next class.

~~~~

"To be honest, Brendan, I don't know if we can do this. I mean, you're an american beauty, and I'm just... an american... psycho or something." Brendan turns towards me. "Penelope, first of all, I'm Canadian, second of all, you most certainly are not a psycho. You know that bullshit of 'Our kind does not mesh' or 'We can't be together because don't know, that's pure and utter bull." Now that's an odd fire in Brendan's belly. "Penelope, I swear, if it works out with us, I'll be the best boyfriend you could ever ask for." Now, that's real sweet. But odd, in the middle of Southwark Boulevard, one of the most frequented shopping streets, but to be honest, I learned to not give a damn years ago. "Brendan... that's so nice. I didn't expect that. What gave you this fire?" He smirked. "A certain ex of mine, Miss Amelia Rothkirch. Won't leave me alone about anything I do or anybody I meet. I swear, today she came up to me just to complain. She used to be nicer, funnily enough, but now, everybody on the football team wants to go out with her just because she looks a total skank. Those low-cut skirts the cheerleaders wear? She made that the uniform. Just so she could look, ahem, 'Hot' but to be honest, to a disillusioned guy like me, she just looks like a bit of a whore." I stand around a bit, a little shocked by the sudden language from the normally calm Brendan. Did she kick him in the nuts today or something? "Brendan, that's a sudden bit of language, isn't it?" He breathes in. "Yes, it is, and I'm sorry, but when someone annoys me a lot I get a little fired up, I'm sorry." We walk down Southwark Boulevard and turn the corner into Carlton Avenue, another highly frequented shopping street. "Want to maybe grab a burger? I know junkfood isn't good for muscles, but hell, you practice so very often with those weights at school, I dare say your abs shall stay chiseled." He laughs. "Yeah, why not, I should reward myself sometimes."