As I sat staring at the clock during my fourth period, History, I was well and truly close to falling asleep. The only way I could keep myself awake was by tapping my pen on the table, to familiar beats, a habit I’ve had since I was a little kid and one that still annoys the hell out of everyone around me. My teacher continued to drone on about how Senator McCarthy made a fool out of himself on national television. I mean, don’t get me wrong and call me a loser if you will, but I actually love history, and this stuff about McCarthyism and the Red Scare is actually quite interesting in my opinion, just not the way this woman teaches it. It’s a good job I already know all of this stuff; otherwise my finals in a couple of months are going to be hell.
“Oi!” Someone whispered loudly from behind me, throwing a balled up piece of paper at my head. I turned around to see my best friend, James, grinning at me.
“What?”
“Would you stop with the damn tapping?! That’s what a drum kits for!” he hissed at me, still smiling. “And check out that piece of paper!”
I laughed and nodded, putting my pen down. I picked up the piece of paper from the floor opened it out. It was a flier;
They’re Back!
Green Day play their first gig in over two years!
Do not miss it!
Gilman’s. Friday. 7pm till late!
“What the hell?!” I said loudly before clamping my mouth shut. I don’t know why I bothered, the old bat was still babbling, she hadn’t even noticed the extra noise. I turned back to James, whose eyes were wide. “Where did you find this?” I asked him, talking quietly again.
“It was on the notice board by the entrance.”
I screwed the paper back up and shoved it angrily into my pocket. I went back to staring at the clock, but I was now waiting for the bell to ring because I had to make some enquiries.
When it finally did ring the whole class seemed to shoot towards the door, trying to get out as quickly as possible.
“This cannot be right!” I burst out as soon as James and I were outside the door.
“That’s just what I found.” He shrugged.
I stormed quickly down the corridor and very soon I reached the room I was looking for.
“What the hell is this?!” I exclaimed walking up to the desk at the front of the room, slamming the flier down on it. I had checked there was no one else in the room before I walked in, or that could have been embarrassing. I looked my dad dead in the eye and he just shrugged.
“We thought it would be a good idea.”
“But you swore you wouldn’t do this again. Not after…” I calmed down pretty quickly.
“Look kid. I know it’s still hard. And I know what I said. But we miss performing. Can’t you understand that we used to do it so much, that being on stage in front of loads of people just came so naturally to us, that it’s hard to stay away?”
“You’ve managed this long.” I folded my arms. I knew I was being unreasonable, but he knew the reasoning behind my behavior.
“Ok. Look, why don’t we talk about this later? Do you two want a lift home, or are you going to walk?”
“We might as well get a lift. See you later.” I mumbled, knowing he wasn’t going to talk any more about it now.
James was still waiting outside the room when I left, so we walked off and went to lunch. James was used to these situations, and hell, he was used to the oddness of my family.
