Chapter 12
Charlie POV
Sitting in the car on the way to my brothers funeral with his casket trailing behind us isn't the most comfortable ride I admit. I sat quietly not fidgeting or playing with my sticks for the first time, I just looked out the window thinking of Tommy. I know it sounds lame but I know that he'd want me to move on so I'm able to have fun with my life. Right now I think I need some closure, I'm not going to move on or forget him but I'll be able to feel him looking after me.
As soon as we were out of the car my mom started to instruct people of the placement of each flower vase should be. I just sat down in a chair zoning out while looking at the stage. The casket was slowly moved onto the stage by two men that I didn't recognize and the lid wasn't removed and behind it there was a big hole ready for my brother to be buried in. There was a podium on stage for us to speak our last few words for him and many chairs in front of the stage for friends and family.
My mother eventually sat down in her black dress with a plain, expressionless and tired face. I could see that her eyes were puffy and red and her face had more wrinkles showing up from the stress and lack sleep. My father sat beside her rubbing her back but a few minutes later family, family friends, or Tommy's or my friends started to arrive so they got up and started greeting. Of course I had invited Mo, Olivia, Stella, Wen and well ya Scott but as each one of them showed up I noticed that of course Scott had brought Victoria. I was okay with that even though she was my ex-girlfriend but I didn't invite her.
I did a bro hug with the guys and gave all the other girls hugs too but Mo's lasted the longest. They all dressed appropriately in black and Stella was even wearing a dress which I'm sure Mo forced her into. My mother greeted her friends with a smile but eventually broke down when she greeted Tommy's friends. Eventually everyone arrived and sat down, Tommy's friends, and our family members were in the front with my Lemonade gang behind them.
My dad started his speech up since my mom was too teary, "Hello everyone, I'd like to talk to you as friends and family of Tommy." He nodded at us, "I think that we all know that Tommy's death was unexpected but today I want to talk about how he was a great son. Even though his grades weren't so great this year, and yes I know that Charlie I just want to wish him well. I would also like for him to know that his soccer playing was superb and even though sometimes it mattered more than his studies he still managed to balance them out and be able to get into a wonderful college.
He looked straight at mom and I, I'm pretty sure he was tearing up which is really rare, "I want him to know that we will continue to remember him forever, even when his mother and I are old or gone. Even then his brother will remember him. He cast a forever shadow with great pain and sorrow that will cause much melancholy. Sometimes we will break down and block each other out but I'd like to ask each and every one of you to help us go on with life. I'd most importantly like for my wonderful son to know that I'm not the happiest father in the world but I'm a pretty proud loving father. Thank you everyone, now if my wife would come up to the podium and say a few words."
She walked up slowly and my father stood behind her for reassurance as she blew into another tissue. She looked straight at the crowd with her red puffy eyes, seeing her like that I wanted to look away but I stared at her full on and made myself listen to my mom's pain.
With a deep breath she started to speak, "hello everyone, as the mother of the son who has passed on I'd like to say just a few words about something different than my husband. This may sound like ranting but for me I need some of you lucky people to understand my pain. I could ask for help or talk to people but for now I'd like to tell you this." She paused for a second.
"My son was a wonderful man, he was the boy who made me a proud mother. All those years I've spent loving and caring for him have been thrown away. Of course he was a wonderful man but now that he's gone I don't know what to do. Of course I could shut down and throw my life away, but I won't because I still have my wonderful blessed other son that I will still take care of and love. I'm sorry if these words weren't what you expecting but I feel that I should show the situation that I'm in as a mother." She stepped off the stage with everyone pretty shocked she's never really had a fiery, angry side.
My dad doesn't look shocked but disappointed, I'm pretty sure this was what he didn't want my mom to do. I walked up ready to speak about my brother, I didn't prepare anything because I cried every time I tried to. So as I looked at the crowd of black people who it was just a blur so as I spoke into the mike I just started with an ummm.
I spotted Mo and looked straight at her who gave me a reassuring thumbs up, "Hey everyone, I know that my brother leaving is sort of a shock but today I wanted to tell you about the fact that he wasn't just a brother but many other things. For me he was a pain in a butt, to my parents a perfect child with perfect marks and was great in sports."
I looked straight at Victoria and continued, " I used to hate him growing up, being compared to him was always self degrading, he always did everything better than me, sports, marks, teachers always recognizing him as the best and me as "Tommy's brother."
I rolled my eyes, "Being part of Lemonade Mouth had made me be better in music but my parents never cared about it as much. This last year we finally got along, the one time I thought I was totally screwed, he came to the rescue. He told me if I wanted to go to Juliard or a music school I'd have to tell mom and dad. We did together and that is one of my greatest memories of him, not the best soccer player or the best at school but someone who loved and cared for me. I'll absolutely miss him his cocky and funny attitude and I'll never forget how many things we were supposed to do together. Thank you everyone for listening, I hope you remember my brother and how wonderful he is."
I bowed walked off the stage and sat down beside Mo, she gave me a bouquet while she was blowing her nose. Lastly my brother's best friend Andrew walked up to the stage and started his speech.
He tapped the mike testing it making a loud noise, "Hey guys, I never thought my best friend that I've known since secondary school would be gone so quick. I mean there are so many things we were going to do together. Especially since he's my roommate in university and yes I'm talking about the parties and our adventures."
"I didn't think it would end this way, I mean I was supposed to be his best man on his big day and yes I called that position Charlie." We all chuckled as the tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes, "I'm not going to bore you and say all of the great memories I had with Tommy but I will say that I was fortunate to have one of the most memorable best friends I have ever had and I will never ever forget him. Thank you everyone."
He made a teary eyed smile at the end and sat down behind me. I gave him a pat on the back and told him he was wonderful. It was short and straight to the point, I'm feeling very fortunate for my wonderful friends who support dad got up and told everyone to stand around the casket but in an orderly fashion. Everyone was quiet as we gathered around the casket.
As my father, me and Andrew lowered the casket my mother covered her eyes and started to cry. Everyone lined up to say there last few words and put flowers on his casket. My mother went first, and wasn't able to look so she just put her flowers on the casket and walked away. I said, "I'll miss you Tommy" in a hushed tone. Mo put her arm around me and we walked away together.
I didn't catch what the others said but I didn't really care. The flowers piled up and the dirt too, I didn't feel anything except for Mo's comforting arm around me keeping me warm. The wind gushed by everyone but I could feel Mo shivering so I took my jacket and put it around her.
I decided to ask her a simple question, "hey Mo?" She looked at me with a simple face, "mhmm." Huddled together in front of the casket while everyone started to say their condolences for my family I asked her a simple question, "will you go to the dance with me on Friday?" She smiled at me, "of course Charlie." I said one more thing though, "as our makeup date?" She nodded and I smiled holding her close to me.
Stella POV
I looked at Mo and Charlie as I went to my mom's car. If I heard right Charlie just asked her to the dance on Friday so I'm pretty sure she'll get a ride back from his parents. Olivia and Wen are coming with me so they followed closely behind me, Scott is getting picked up by his dad with Victoria since we're pretty far away from home. I got in with Olivia sitting in the front and Wen in the back, I started up the car and we were cruising down the highway back to Wen's house. It was pretty silent until Wen got out of the car and gave a kiss on the cheek to Olivia saying he'd see us tomorrow.
I banged my head on the steering wheel and when I looked at Olivia she looked at me strange. Ugh couples everywhere! I know you'd think that I don't need a boyfriend but as a girl who has had a couple of crushes before, its kind of hard to see couples around me all the time when none of them liked me back.
Olivia with Wen, now Charlie and Mo, Scott and Victoria UGHH! Surrounded by couples, "Hey Stell you okay?" Olivia looked at me concerned, "Ya just really sad for Charlie and really tired." I drove away from Wen's house who was only a couple minutes away from Olivia's, "Oh maybe you should take a nap, you're going to that choreography/dance class tonight right?"
I stopped at the stop light and looked at her, "who says I'm going there? I have to be with Ray bleh." My perfect acting again she sighed, "Ya but Ms. Reznik wants you too and it could really help with our dances for the songs. Not that your choreography isn't good, it's just when your dancing it makes you happy and you know that."
I sighed she had a point, "fine!" We turned on the radio and the rest of the way which was like 2 minutes we sang along to the song that was on and as Olivia got out she waved bye to me. I waved back doing a u turn and driving back to my house. Home is great sine I'm actually really tired so I'm going to take a nap.
Time skip
I parked my car in last spot in the parking lot and quickly got out, rushing into the building. When I enter my breath is literally taken away it's huge with like 3 levels and each one has two rooms. I get to the top level and I see Ray and Shania stretching with a couple of other students. I drop my bag near a chair and wave high at Shania who just waves at me and continues to stretch.
Guess she's having a bad day? Ray says hey and introduces me, there's a dude named David with dark brown hair and a girl named Gwen with fiery red hair. The rest I just forgot, anyways I stretched while he introduced me to them and then our instructor who is dressed in pretty young clothes came in.
He introduced himself as Mr. Kyong guessing that he's Korean and he told us to get into three lines. He started with some more stretching and then told us to sit down in front of him. Everyone did and so I followed, he welcomed us and then said, "I'm guessing we have a new student. Will you please stand up..." I replied, "Stella, Stella Yamada."
He smiled, "Okay Ms. Stella, usually how this class works is I teach them new hot moves and correct their technique if it's sloppy. Then if it's good I allow them to add their own styles on to them and make them choreograph my dance in their own style. So your practicing your dancing skills if it's sloppy and your doing your thing, I like that freedom. Okay anyways buddy up I wanna test your flexibility."
Everyone groaned, go figure I don't even like it, I got paired with Shania and Ray got David. He told us to put our right leg on the bar and our partner would pull our leg as far as it could go and let me tell you it was painful. Shania didn't go easy on me so I didn't on her, we also lifted our legs up to our heads and that hurt like crazy but let me tell you for someone who hasn't done dancing or cheering for 2 years I was pretty flexible.
He then told us to get back in our lines and he started with some hip hop choreography. My favorite as I danced I felt happy and admired how he moved so naturally. He put us into groups of four and told us to start choreographing our own style into our dances. He'd check on us after awhile, I have Shania, Jay and Ray in my group so we quickly got to work. Here's the problem Ray and I got into a fight about what we should choreograph, Shania just stayed by the back and sat there not really care what we were doing. Jay went around talking to the other groups making a fool of himself while Ray and I argued.
He wanted me to work on my technique and tighten up my quirks and everything. I wanted him to loosen up and go with the flow but he told me that I was wrong and we started to argue. I know we're fighting over something stupid but after he kissed me randomly at our music performances I've been avoiding him. He's acting like it never happened so why should I care, it's like we never even tried to be friends again.
This is just something that I'm really confused about, sometimes I'm not really sure what I feel about him. I mean I should hate him he used to be so horrible to me, to the band and he never tried to support us but instead he put us down. Sometimes I seriously do hate him because his insults do run deeper than he thought and then sometimes he's really nice and we get along but then he goes around being all close with Jules who in my opinion he could do much better. When he's not around her I try talking to him and then sometimes he gets harsh on me and I just feel so confused and unsure so then I don't try and then another time he's so great to me. I'm so confused and I don't want to do so I let my anger out and then we end up fighting like now. I don't know anymore I used to be so sure but lately I'm not sure about him, maybe I do hate him or maybe I don't.
Mr. Kyong told us to stop and told us that he wasn't here to babysit us, he told us if we didn't stop fighting he would split the group in half. We stopped but I glared at him one because his insults really did hurt, he told me that sometimes my dancing looked like garbage cause I didn't have technique. I tried to tell myself that he didn't mean it but sometimes I can't tell anymore but I'm not going to cry. Eventually Shania and Jay took over and choreographed for us as Ray and I followed along without a word. At the end of class Jules came in and planted a big kiss on him, I turned away quickly and picked my bag up. Ray and Jules left before I did with everyone else and I was left alone with Mr. Kyong.
I wanted to leave quickly but Mr. Kyong called back before I got a chance too. "Stella, come here for a moment" ah shit, I'm not scared of teachers but I really don't need him phoning home. "Yes, Mr. Kyong." He turned on the music that we were dancing too and gestured toward the dance floor, "show me your choreography." I sighed put my bag down and danced my entire dance just letting go and putting my anger into it I did some flips which may I admit were still in pretty good shape.
He clapped at the end and said, "I admit you've got some moves but Ray was right in some ways. Don't take it wrong your technique could some work but he could loosen up as well. I'm hoping you two work that out next class." He got up and turned off the light as I followed behind him locking the door, "I can't do that Mr. Kyong, Lemonade Mouth is going on a vacation this summer." He looked at me and said, "fine with me, I'm sure you'll do great choreographing for Lemonade Mouth, you've got some talent but remember to always work at it." He waved bye and left me alone as he got in his car and drove off. I sighed as I was driving home, I felt more and more depressed realizing that the dance was this Friday and I don't have a date. Another thing I'm going to Europe and Ray aren't on good terms. I hope he has a wonderful summer without me and with Jules.
Nothing new no disclaimers other than I don't own Lemonade Mouth. Hope you enjoyed. I also adopted Ggirl16Hunter-DaughterofApollo's story Fearless. Bunch of one shots on the album Fearless, I'm working on posting a new chapter, so read that if your interested as well. Okay enjoy.