Adopted (Book 1) *EDITING*

Chapter 14: Rock You

After we hopped back into the car, we drove back to the venue for the band meeting, sound check, exc. Brendon was feeling a lot better so he can perform. The band meeting went well, it was just us talking about what set we would perform. I easily learned the rhythm parts for the songs. Then there was sound check, my favorite part of preparing for the shows. All we do is mess around almost to the point we break out instruments and laugh our asses off. But time passes by fast and before I knew it someone opened our dressing room door and yelled "10 minutes to showtime!" My stomach did a backflip. Then the adrenaline kicked in. I was about to perform in front of a little less then half my school and I'm gonna rock. The first night we were in Seattle, when we performed there were only a few people I saw from my school. Probably because it was a school night. I'm gonna show them my inner self.

I walked over to my duffle bag that held one set of clothes and my makeup bag. I grabbed the set of clothes and walked over to the small bathroom that all dressing rooms have. I wiggled into my red skinny jeans and slipped on my mindless self indulgent shirt. I grabbed my straightener and straightened my semi long black hair. I then grabbed my waterproof eyeliner that Brendon convinced me to buy. I have to say, I'm pretty good with eyeliner. Ryan Ross good. I smudged it a little so it would look cool. I grabbed some mascara and made my eyes look cool. I look like a badass emo chick. After finishing my makeup, I speed walked out and grabbed my boots and my leather jacket with spiky shoulders. After slipping them on, Brendon tossed me my earpiece.

"I see you finally found your onstage look." He said, smiling as he tied his shoe. I giggled a little. Looking in the mirror, I put the earpiece in.

"Yep." I say popping the p at the end. Heavy eye makeup and tight pants are my thing. My mirror looking was interrupted by someone barging in to the room "5 minutes! Everyone backstage!" They shouted. My heart is pounding out of my chest with nerves, excitement, and fear. I mean I'm about to perform in front of a little less then half my school. We pushed through the door and into the hall. I walked next to Dallon.

"So what song are we covering tonight?" I say looking up to him as we walk. He smiles.

"We are covering song." He say poking me on the side of my head. "Dingus". I giggle a little.

"Well are you gonna tell me what song?" I say punching him is the stomach lightly. "Dum dum."

"You'll see." He says laughing a little. I groan and fast walk to Brendon who looks down at me and smiles.

"Daaaaaddddd." I whine, grabbing his arm and wiggle it. "Dallon won't tell me what song we are coverinnngggg." He giggles and so does Dallon.

"Dallon stop being an asshole to my daughter." He says. "To be honest, we don't know." He says as we walk. "We will just have to see." Before I could respond, we were backstage. "Ok guys." He paused and looked at me. "And little woman. We are gonna go out there and play and we are gonna play hard right?" He said slightly raising his voice. We all made noises. We do this before all of the shows. "Group hug!" He said and pulled us all in. I giggled as we patted each others backs. We pulls away and all high fived. A staff member handed me my guitar. I smiled and took it. Brendon walked out and the crowd went wild. Then walked out Dallon, Dan, and Kenny. The crowd stayed at the same volume.

"Hello everyone!" Brendon said happily. "So as you can see I am feeling way way better." He said, walking around the stage. Then see stopped and looked around."Wait... We are missing my beautiful daughter. Syd, why don't you come out." I smile and walk out. The cheering got louder, a little louder then Brendon's. What the hell? I waved and looked around. After I walked to my mic, I spoke up.

"Hey everyone! This is weird, I see a lot of familiar faces." I made eye contact with a few of them. They looked actually pretty nice for once. "So before we get started, we want to make an announcement." The crowd settled down. "I'm going to start playing rhythm guitar for the band!" The crowd went wild. "That makes me one of the youngest guitarist to be an a popular band in America!" Everyone cheered. "Well enough of that, let's get this show started!" I shouted. This is gospel started playing and a pranced around the stage, I was like a mixture of Frank Iero and Lynz Way. I'm hyper but not too hyper. I stay in one area most of the time. I sing the backup vocals strongly along side my dad and my two brother-like best friends. As I played I looked around the crowd. Suddenly, my eyes caught sight of a familiar face, the face of a boy who was actually paying attention to my school speech. There stood Charlie next to his bitchy girlfriend. I made eye contact with him and kept staring. He stared back and smiled, qlmost as if he was apologizing for all the mean things he had said to me when I attended his school. I smile back and walk over to my mic and continue singing.

About 6 songs in, I looked down at the set list that was taped the to ground in front of one of the amp. It read that the seventh song was going to be The green gentleman. Karen favorite song...

I walk over to my mic and take a sip of water. My voice is getting a little horse. After swallowing I speak up. "Ok this next song is for my best friend back in Los Angeles Karen." People started cheering "miss you Kar bear." We started to play. I found Charlie's face again. He stood still in my crowd and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled and continues playing. His girlfriend was glaring at me.

After playing two more songs, it was time for a cover, the last song of the night. The cover we didn't know what to do for. We all stepped away from the mics and tuned up out instruments. I walked over to the dead mic. "Guys we need to decide like right now." They all looked at me. Kenny walked over and spoke up.

"Guys why don't we play We Will Rock You?" He said taking a sip of beer. I didn't know how to play it. Before I could decline, Kenny spoke again "ok let's play that. Crap. I run over to Brendon and say what song we are singing, he smiles and noddes.

"Yeah but I don't knew how to play it." I say looking down at my guitar.

"Do you know the words?" He says. I nod. "Ok then give me you guitar, you sing." My mouth drops open. "Come on kid." He said nodding down at my guitar. I sigh and take it off, he grabs it and puts it on.

"Ok everyone, this is going to be our last song tonight." Everyone groaned. "Ah none of that. This last song it going to be sung my beautiful forest flower, Sydney." The crowd cheered. We cut the lights and got into position. We waited a while before starting the drums and the lights flashed back on. I had my back to the audience. Stomping and clapping my feet to the beat. Everyone screamed when they noticed what was happening.

"Buddy your a boy make a big noise playing in the streets gonna be a big man some day you got mud on you face." I held my mic to the crowd and they shouted back "YOU BIG DISGRACE!" I giggle and sing back, "kickin' your can all over the place singing. WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU! Sing it." I held my mic to the crowd. The sang back the lyrics. I look around the giant venue while I sing. So many familiar faces were smiling back at me. They were happy for me. I sang the rest of the song proudly and loudly. Then in the blink of an eye I was walking off stage, leaving the people I knew behind. Walking back the the dressing room with my family. I definitely rocked them.