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Part Three
Sleep. I want sleep. I rub my eyes. So tired…so boring….gonna fall asleep on the desk. My head starts drooping…
Ow! I glared at Erin, who had painfully pinched my arm. She only gave me an innocent look. I returned my attention back to Mr. Louis, rubbing the sore spot.. He was still droning on and on about guitar history. It was September 29th, and Mr. Louis had decided that our first month of guitar class should be devoted to the history of the instrument.
“How can you play the guitar, without knowing the HISTORY behind it?” he had asked us on the first day of class.
I thought he was a bit of a loon, but he was pretty nice and a good teacher. Thank God though that this was the last class of the day. Math had been killer the previous period.
I groaned inwardly at the amount of homework we had received for that class, and how little time we would have to do it, considering Erin and I had to go to work today.
“….Green Day.”
I suddenly snapped back to attention. There was a lot of excited muttering around the room. I looked frantically at Erin.
“What did he say?” I whispered.
“Sssshh. Listen,” she said.
“Calm down, everyone. Yes, starting next month, I will be looking, and listening, to your playing. I will select one, and only one, person to do this. You must impress me, and really want to do this. The student I choose will be going on a one month road trip, I guess you could call it. You will be performing with Green Day at various concerts on the American Idiot tour. It’s a great way to get some publicity, and get a feel for the stage. Plus, you get to learn from experienced musicians,” Mr. Louis said. He had everyone’s undivided attention. He smiled around the room.
“Now, I would recommend that you be able to sing as well as play the guitar. I will place a sign up sheet out side of my door. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. You can go,” he said, as the bell rang.
Holy shit, that would be cool, I thought as people rushed out of their seats and out of the door to place their names on the sign up sheet.
Think about it. Performing live with Green Day in front of a cheering crowd? Getting to play with some of your idols? Sharing music and songs, memories and laughter? With Green Day. I wound my finger around my mother’s silver chain.
I was definitely not going to sign up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I just don’t get this!” Erin said, shaking the paper furiously in front of her face.
“Well, don’t ask me for help. Math isn’t exactly my thing either,” I said, pulling the sleeves of my sweater over my hands. It was still fucking cold up here. Erin sighed, frustrated, as we walked to the front door of Strings Guitar Shop.
“Hey Mr. Beech,” I said, heading inside.
“Hello girls,” he said from behind the counter.
Erin and I headed into the back room. We had received a shipment of new acoustic guitars and had the responsibility of mounting them on the wall for display.
“Ooooh. Shiny,” I said, looking down at the polished wood of the box I opened. Erin laughed.
“So,” she said, pulling out a guitar and hanging it on the wall carefully, “What do you think about this Green Day fiasco?”
I shrugged.
“I noticed you didn’t sign up,” she said.
I shrugged again. She sighed.
“ Don’t make me ask the obvious question. You’re in love with Green Day. Why didn’t you sign up?” she asked.
“Um. I just don’t think it’ll do me any good. It won’t really improve me much…seeing as I know their style and how they play and stuff…,” I said lamely, slitting open another box.
Erin put her hands on her hips.
“Riiiight. You don’t wanna go on tour with Green Day. I hear you, you know. You cry at night. Tell me, why is it that you get phone calls all the time, glance at your caller I.D., scream in frustration, and never pick up?” she asked suspiciously.
I ripped open the box violently.
“Be careful Karla! Those things are expensive!” Mr. Beech yelled from the counter.
“Yeah, sorry,” I called back.
It was true. Everyday, or every other day, I would get a phone call from either Mike, Billie Joe, or Tre. I ignored them of course, I never picked up. Every time I talked to Diana, she would tell me that she would transfer all the things I told her to Billie Joe, to keep him updated. I was starting to get seriously pissed at her, so I told her that I was doing horribly and everything and everyone sucked here. She must have believed me, because since then, the phone calls had increased. And I had cried myself to sleep nightly for good reason. I was just realizing now what Billie Joe had taken away from me.
“Come on, tell me,” Erin whined. I rolled my eyes at her.
“Fine. You want the truth?” I asked her seriously. She nodded her head eagerly.
“Okay, but you’re not gonna believe me…,” I said.
I told her everything, and twenty minutes later, I finished putting the last acoustic on the wall and looked at a thoroughly shocked Erin. It was a hard story for me to recount. It made me realize, painstakingly, that I missed my mother greatly. I had had her back for once in my life for a few short moments. She had told me that she loved me, missed me…said she was sorry. All I ever really wanted. She had been back to get me. She had been back to be my mother.
“Are…are you serious?” she asked.
“Yup. Told you you weren’t going to believe me,” I said.
Erin just shook her head.
“No, I believe you. It’s just….wow. You’ve actually met them,” she said, still awed. I rolled my eyes at her, as we headed back into the front room and sat down behind the counter.
“You girls look after the store, I’ll be back in half an hour. Gotta go get dinner or else my wife will kill me,” Mr. Beech said, grabbing his coat.
“We’ll be fine. See ya later,” Erin told him. He nodded and headed out the door. We were silent for a few minutes as I pulled out my Science homework. It was an easy fill in the blank worksheet with our vocabulary words. I finished it in five minutes. I then reluctantly slapped my math homework on the counter top.
“Let’s fight that together,” Erin said, smiling.
I nodded, and she pulled out her own homework and we began milling over the goddamn numbers. …I hate numbers.
“Ooookay. But, if that’s right, then if you check it, you get…this. And that isn’t less than or equal to the quotient. That doesn’t make sense,” I said, after ten minutes. Erin sighed and chewed the end of her pencil.
“Well, maybe if you do that…was this what she did on the board?” Erin asked, writing down more numbers.
“I have no clue,” I said, abandoning my homework and looking at our shiny new collection of Gibson Acoustics.
I took one off the wall and strummed it. I tuned it, and started playing around with it.
“Something's On My Mind
It's Been For Quite Some Time
This Time I'm On To You
So Where's The Other Face?
The Face I Heard Before
Your Head Trip's Boring Me”
I sang, sitting down on one of the stools behind the counter.
“Green Day?” Erin asked, smiling.
“What else?” I grinned.
”Let's Nuke The Bridge We Torched
Two Thousand Times Before
This Time We'll Blast It All To Hell
I've Had This Burning In My Guts
Now For So Long
My Belly's Aching Now To Say
Stuck Down In A Rut
Of Dislogic And Smut
A Side Of You Well Hid
When It's All Said And Done
It's Real And It's Been Fun
But Was It All Real Fun?
Let's Nuke The Bridge We Torched
Two Thousand Times Before
This Time We'll Blast It All To Hell
I've Felt This Burning In My Guts Now
For So Long
My Belly's Aching Now To Say”
I smiled slightly, “And now the real fun part,” I said, taking an electric off a rack. I heard the door open. Mr. Beech was back already.
”To say…
You're Just... A Fuck
I Can't Explain It 'Cause I Think You Suck
I'm Takin' Pride
In Telling You To Fuck Off And Die
I've Had This Burning In My Guts Now
For So Long
My Belly's Aching Now To Say
I'm Taking Pleasure In The Doubts
I've Passed To You
So Listen Up As You Bite Thisssss...
You're Just... A Fuck
I Can't Explain It 'Cause I Think You Suck
I'm Takin' Pride
In Telling You To Fuck Off And Die
Good Niiiiiiiiight....”
I finished, hitting the last note, and bowing dramatically to Erin’s and someone else’s applause. I turned to face Mr. Beech to tell him that the new acoustics were worth the money.
Except it wasn’t Mr. Beech.
“Nice. I knew you still loved me,” Billie Joe said innocently, crossing his arms. His right arm was fully healed. I stared at him silently for a second, guitar frozen in my hands.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Weeeeell, I happened to be in town…so I thought I should drop in for a visit,” he said.
“Why? I don’t have anything to say to you,” I said icily, placing the guitar back on the rack.
The door opened again.
“Guess what Billie?! These girls at Earenson are HOT! Have you seen their uniforms??” Tre asked excitedly.
I rolled my eyes at him as he spotted me and froze on the spot.
“Heheheh, Karla, we meet again,” Tre said, smiling slightly. I shot him a glare and stormed into the back room.
I sat down on the cold concrete floor. I pulled my knees to my chest as I listened to Erin outside.
“Uh…I really don’t know what her problem is. But I get the feeling she’s really not happy with you guys,” Erin said slowly.
“Yeah, I gather that much,” Billie Joe said, sighing heavily.
I glanced at my watch. 6:53 p.m. I got off at seven along with Erin. At seven o’clock, another guy from our school would fill in. His name was Jimmy, and I thought he was a total idiot with a big heart. He was head over heels in love with Erin, and I was afraid she was starting to crush on him too. I had affectionately dubbed him “St. Jimmy”.
As if on cue, I heard the door open again, the bell tinkling, and heard Jimmy’s voice.
“Holy shit!”
I cringed. Jimmy knew who Green Day was. He wasn’t in love with them as I was, but he said they had one or two ‘cool songs’.
I picked up my book bag (a.k.a my trusty green messenger bag) and stuffed my homework back inside of it. Might as well get out of here while they were distracted. I walked out into the room again, and headed for the door.
“I’ll see you later,” I said to Erin, as Jimmy was jumping around, begging for an autograph. Billie Joe was trying to get past him, which seemed to be impossible. I ignored them and started up the street.
I guess Jimmy was good for something, I thought bitterly as I looked at the cracked sidewalk. They had no right to come down here now and jump into my life again. Did it ever occur to them that I didn’t want to talk to them anymore? That they brought up too many bad memories? And too many good ones from back home? I thought furiously, cursing each of them in my mind. And Diana, what was she thinking about, relaying all of my personal information to them? Those three probably only had a good laugh about my troubles and inner feelings. I turned a corner and ran head long into someone. They were a lot bigger than me, and I was knocked onto the hard ground.
“Watch where the fuck you’re going,” I growled, trying to stand up. I glared up at a pair of blue eyes. I groaned.
“Someone’s not having a good day,” Mike said, smiling, holding out his hand to me. I ignored it, and pulled myself to my feet. I heard footsteps behind me as I saw Billie Joe and Tre turn the corner. I dusted off my skirt, and started walking again, gripping on tightly to the strap on my bag.
Tre ran up next to me, but I ignored him.
“Why are you being like this?” he asked. I didn’t say anything, just kept walking. I heard Billie Joe’s and Mike’s footsteps behind me.
I knew they weren’t allowed to come onto school property. You were only allowed to enter the grounds if you were a student, a parent or guardian of a student, or had a previous appointment. I would ditch them as soon as I got to the gate.
“Come on. We’re only in town for today, we’ve got to head for Philadelphia tomorrow morning for a concert,” Billie Joe said. I continued staring straight ahead, walking a little bit faster. That’s all they cared about. Concerts. They were only passing through town, and decided to scare the shit out of me for a good laugh. I stayed silent and Billie started getting annoyed.
“What’s wrong?” he asked forcibly, grabbing me by the shoulders and spinning me around to face him. I stared right into his eyes. I gave him a look of pure and utter loathing. He had killed my mother.
I must have scared him a little, because he let go of my shoulders quickly. I turned around and ran the rest of the way up to Earenson, glad to pass through the iron gates. I threw myself onto my bed, and cried myself into exhaustion before falling asleep.