Welcome to the Family

The sound of shouting and people jumping around startled me awake. I sat up as fast as I could but then remembered I was in a bunk that was close to two feet tall as I hit my head against the ceiling of my bunk and the bottom of what was Kyle’s bunk. Pain instantly shot through me as my head throbbed. I sat back against my pillow slowly, realizing what had just happened and grunted in pain.

What the hell was going on in the other room? I wanted to find out but I also really didn't want to move. Even breathing seemed to hurt me. I sat there for a minute, letting the pain soak in, taking its time to fade away. I sat up in bed as slow as possible, holding my hand against my forehead where it smacked against the ceiling. My world started to spin, causing me to feel dizzy and nauseous at the same time. I think I'm going to puke.

"Yes!" I heard someone shout from the front room. "In your face!" By then I could tell it was Cody playing some violent video game. I didn't know who he was playing against but I felt sorry for them. Cody was very competitive, even when it came to real life.

I stood up from my bunk, but then instantly regretted it when the nausea came at me even worse, but as I stayed still for a moment, the feeling became numb and I could actually breathe. I started to walk, hoping I could make into the bathroom. My feet were failing me as I tried to get one in front of the other. Right, left, pause. The dizziness wasn't going away and now I felt the horrible pain in my skull. I had to try again because my bad luck proved it as such luck by compelling me into having to get up and use the bathroom. Right, left, right, okay, here we go. I was walking.

I opened the door into the living room and kitchen area. To my left was the mini fridge, counter and the sink. The bathroom was at my right with the door shut and the light turned on. Someone was using it…damn it.

I leaned a hand against the door and rested on it. "Who’s in here?" I asked every one that was sitting at the living room area around the TV. Blake was the only one without a controller in his hand but he was busy looking at his iPod to hear me and Cody and Will were staring at the screen intently.

Brian looked up from mindlessly watching them play. He looked around for a second and then back at me. "It’s rather Kyle or Steve." He said shrugging. Steve was one of our roadies that were going to start sharing the bus with us. Especially for when the other bus that was filled up with the rest of our technicians and stagehands got too full. I didn't even know he was on here yet. I figured it wasn't going to be too busy for them since all they had to do for our small band was help set up the equipment because we weren't playing arenas or anything like that yet, but that was something I was definitely looking forward on.

I knocked on the door, hoping it was Kyle so I could actually yell at someone.

"Yeah?" I heard his voice from the other side.

"Hurry the hell up, I'm dying here." I groaned.

He scoffed. "Just a second, damn. I'm in the middle of something here."

I growled and walked over to the table and booth seat that was on the left side of the room if you were facing the front of the bus. I put my head in my hands to stop the spinning and softly moaned in pain.

"Well it looks like someone got on the wrong side of the bunk." Cody said, pausing the game and stood up, walking over to the sink and got something to drink.

"Hey, I was still playing here." Will complained from the opposite side of the room, waving his controller around to get Cody’s attention.

Cody snickered. "You can hold the hell on, I'm thirsty."

Blake looked up at me. "You okay Chels'? You look really bad."

I sat up and leaned back against the seat. "Thanks, I was kind of going for a, ‘you look pretty today’ but that’s cool, whatever." I said, not being able to stop the sarcasm from seeping out.

He chuckled. "Sorry. I meant that as though you look sick."

I sighed and closed my eyes for a short moment. "I'm fine, I guess. I just really have to pee."

"Oh, well, you know we still have that pickle jar in the fridge if you want to use that. It still has some juice in it, though." Cody chortled from behind me, thinking he was being funny.

I looked back at him over my shoulder and glared. "Are you kidding? I drink that juice."

He made a face. "Disgusting."

"That, you are," I mumbled.

The bathroom door opened then and Kyle stepped out. "Now was that so hard? All you had to do was wait two-"

"What the fuck took you so long? I about pissed my pants and threw up everywhere." I growled and stood, making my way over to the bathroom.

"Chill, I was shaving." He said, looking back at me.

I scowled. "You were in there shaving, taking your time while I had to fucking pee? You could have at least waited five freakin’ seconds while I used the damn bathroom." I said, slamming the door shut.

"Well someone’s irritable this morning." I heard him mumble from in the other room.

"I heard that!" I shouted back.

After a minute of standing in front of the toilet, thinking I was going to puke, I walked back into the living room and sat next to Will on the right side of the room.

He scooted away. I guess he was afraid I was going to bite his head off or something.

"What’s wrong with you?" Kyle asked, sitting at the table, far away from me. Cody was back on his game but everyone else was staring at me as if my head was about to explode. I was never like this, not even around my time of the month. I'm usually a very sweet and gentle person, so seeing me like this must have been scary, or amusing in Cody’s case.

I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I just had a very…rude awakening this morning." I said, trying not to glare at Cody.

"What happened?" Brian asked, seeming like he generally cared.

I rubbed my forehead. "Well I was in a peaceful sleep when I heard stomping and someone shouting from in here, startling me awake. I quickly sat up and hit my head against the ceiling of my bunk. It was all Cody and Kyle’s fault."

"What?" They both asked at the same time.

"Well if it weren't for Cody shouting and Kyle’s bunk being there, I wouldn't be in this pain."

"Hey, I can't help that I get over excited when I'm kicking Will’s ass." Cody said, punching at the control buttons of the game.

Will scoffed. "Whatever, I so beat your ass at that last game." He said, also still playing.

Cody rolled his eyes. "Ooh, one game out of ten. Good for you, William."

"Hey, don’t call me that!" Will said, quickly looking away from the TV and back again.

"And I can't help that my bunk was built over yours. You can't blame me for that." Kyle said, ignoring them and taking a sip of what I guessed was coffee.

"Whatever, all I know is that this headache is killing me." I said, leaning back in my seat and rested my head against my hand.

"Want some Advil?" Brian asked me.

I nodded and gave him a pleading pout. He stood, got me the two aspirins and a cup of water and brought them over to me. I took them and handed him back the glass.

"Take that, William!" Cody shouted, throwing his whole body around as if he were in the game.

"I said don’t call me that, damn it!" Will shouted.

"Fine…Wilfred." Cody smirked.

"Okay, that’s it. I'm done." Will said, throwing his controller on the couch and walked over to the fridge. He opened it and skimmed over its contents. He pulled out a Snickers bar he had hid up inside it. He started munching on it and sat back down next to me but sat a little closer this time now that I was calmer.

"Oh you big bab-where the hell did you get that?" Cody asked as he saw Will with the candy bar.

Will briefly at Cody's curious expression. "I-uh…Ooh, what’s that?" He said quickly, pointing up at the TV screen.

Cody spun around to see what he was talking about. Will made a run for into the back room before Cody could even turn back around. I couldn't help but laugh, even though it caused me pain.

"What-Hey! Get your ass back here, damn it!" Cody shouted and ran after him. "I want that candy!" He said, disappearing into the other room.

"So," Brian said, following them with his eyes, leaning forward against his knees and then looked back at me. "Are you feeling any better?"

I sat up slowly. "Yeah, I guess. I don’t feel as lightheaded."

He nodded. "Good. So, are you feeling up to performing later today?"

I stood up quickly. "Oh, God. I totally forgot about today’s show!" I ran my fingers through my hair. "What am I going to do? I need to practice. I have to do my warm ups. What am I going to wear?"

Blake and Brian both stood up from the couch. "Whoa, chill Chelsea, we still have time. It’s only 11:47. You have time to do everything before the show. Just relax." Brian said, holding up his hands to get me to calm down.

Blake nodded. "Yeah, and besides, you and I can go in the back and practice if you want and don’t worry about what you are going to wear. You’ll look great no matter what." He said, making me blush a little but I took in the compliment.

"Thanks you two and that would be great." I looked at Kyle. "Do you want to practice too?"

He looked up from his cup. "Huh? What?" I guess he was zoning out. He seemed to do that a lot.

I chuckled. "Blake and I are going to go in the back and practice, you coming?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I’ll be in there in a minute. I'm just going to get my bass from the trailer." He said, finishing off his coffee and stood.

"Yeah, and I'll need my guitar." Blake added.

"Bring both your electric and acoustic." I said before the started to leave. "I want to show you guys a song I've been working on in my head lately. I don’t have any lyrics to it yet, but I have a couple of chords down. I want to know what you think."

Blake nodded. "Okay. We’ll be back." With that, they went out the door to get their instruments.

I turned to Brian. "You coming to watch?" I asked as I bent down to open a drawer from under the seat, pulling out my special microphone I used to record my singing on the laptop. It was what I was going to use it for right now. I wanted to get down a song I did actually have lyrics to but hadn't quite written the music for, which was why I needed the guy’s help.

He shrugged as I stood and closed the drawer. "I think I'll just stay in here, maybe catch the game."

I nodded. "Okay, well tell Kyle and Blake I'm back here." I said as I walked to the back.

"I certainly will." He said before I entered the bunk room.

I got to the end of the small little hallway and grabbed a hold of the door handle into the back room. I opened the door and the sight in front of me almost made me piss my pants from laughing so hard.

Will and Cody were on the floor, with Cody in a headlock. Cody was struggling under Will’s weight as he pinned him down on the ground. The Snickers bar had been half eaten and was hanging from Cody’s mouth. There wasn’t a lot of space in the tiny room for them to be wrestling, but somehow they managed. Will was basically on top Cody as he tried to grab for the candy but Cody kept shaking his head back in forth to avoid it being taken. I could not stop laughing. I even had to hold onto the door handle for support so I wouldn't fall on the ground and end up in the middle of it all.

"Give it back!" Will shouted, neither of them noticing I was there. "Ne-ver!" Cody choked from the Snickers being in his mouth.

"Damn it Cody, I'm not fucking playing. Now, give it back!" Will said, tightening the headlock around Cody’s neck. Cody started making a gurgling sound so Will loosened it but it was still to where he couldn't escape.

"What the hell is going on?" Someone from behind me said.

Will and Cody stopped fidgeting for a second and looked up to see who had spoken. I spun around to see for myself but as I did, I smacked right into the person’s chest. I rubbed my forehead for a second, backed up a little and looked up to see Kyle. He was holding his bass by the neck in one hand and a can of Coke Zero in the other.

"Ow," He mumbled, grabbing on to the can tighter when I made the contact.

"Sorry," I mumbled back and let him through the door way and into the room.

He walked in, set his bass down on the seat, sat at the computer and sat his drink down. He turned to the guys. "What the fuck are you two doing?"

Will scrambled up from the floor, snatched the candy right out of Cody's clenched teeth and started eating. Kyle just nodded as he understood and kept his cool.

Cody stood up too and grabbed the can. He started to gulp it down.

Kyle scowled. "Hey! Fucking douche, that’s mine!" He said, punching Cody in the stomach and snatched the drink back.

Cody doubled over from the blow and laughed. "What? I was thirsty after eating half a candy bar." He said, glaring over at Will.

Will simply glared back and sat down, finishing off the snack. "Where’s Blake?"

Kyle took a drink and looked back at him. "He ran into someone he said he knew when we were heading for the trailer. They were still talking when I got back on the bus." He shrugged.

Cody turned to me. "Now Chelsea, when you run into somebody, you don’t have to literally run into them. There are other ways of greeting people, you know." He snickered.

"Shut up!" I growled. "At least I'm not a fucking thief!" I said, not knowing how to comeback.

He shrugged. "Better a thief than a klutz."

Now he had three people glaring at him. He looked around at us all, realizing this. He sat down and waited for everyone to get started.

"Okay, sorry I took so long." Blake said, entering the room with two guitars. One was strapped on to him while the other was being carried in his hands. "I just ran into someone."

I saw Cody glance at me and giggled. I kept on glaring. "Who was it?" I asked Blake after Cody quickly avoided my gaze.

He sat down the guitars next to Kyle’s bass. "It was that uh-You know that band that played last night? Paramore, is it?"

I nodded, feeling a little apprehensive. "Yeah?"

"I just saw one of their guitarists, I can't remember his name, and we ended up talking about the show today. He said that his band was actually planning to come down and watch us. Can you believe that? He seemed pretty cool, not really the type who would have it out for any one’s career." He said, looking at me.

I bit my bottom lip. I'm sure he was right. They weren't here to steal whatever spotlight we had, or were going to have. They just wanted to be in a band just like us and have fun. People could like us both, even if we were in complete different genres.

"Well any way, I told him we would probably go see them play in return. Do you guys want to go with me?" He asked us.

Everyone shared a look of approval. "Yeah, I guess." Will said, speaking for the ones who didn't.

Blake looked at me. "Do you want to, Chels’?" I guess I didn't have much of an expression of enthusiasm.

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Okay, cool. He said they show at 3:30 on stage 7." Blake said, going to look at the computer as Kyle turned it on and put in the password. We each had a user account but all got on Kyle’s if we wanted to put some of our recordings on there. Of course he never shared the password with us (mostly because of Cody) so we would have to go and get him every time we wanted to use it.

Cody was like your little brother that you just couldn't stand but knew you loved, even if he was annoying and stole your candy. He was always loud, hyper, and usually obnoxious but he was funny and always brought the party.

Will was my best friend on the bus and we always did stuff together, like watch movies or write song lyrics. He was probably the most down to earth person I knew. He was usually always relaxed and liked to have a good time.

Kyle was somewhat quiet like me, unless around Cody, then he would become loud and was almost as crazy. He did like to argue a lot though. He was in the most fights with people when it compared to everyone else in the band. He was generally a nice person. He came off as kind of a snob and a person who didn’t really care, but when he wanted to be, he could be sweet. That was just what he put off as, being the confident, tough guy. He did it pretty well, and sometimes it was hard to see past that, but if you’ve known him for as long as I have, you could see his true side.

Blake was the one who was always smiling and got along with everyone. He was about the nicest person I knew and was probably the most responsible one, when it came to the boys. He was the center of the band, the glue or shall I say, even the double-sided tape. He was close to everyone in different ways. He kept everyone and everything sane and together. Without Blake, I would probably be a mess. He and Will had amazing vocals and were a perfect fit to sing along with me in our songs. They really tied our music together beautifully, as well as Kyle and Cody’s amazing instrument playing.

I wasn't like any of them. I wished I had a little piece of everyone’s personality. I wanted Cody’s humor, Will’s collectedness, Kyle's confidence and I wanted everyone to like me the way they liked Blake. Instead, I was just this lonely, shy and quiet girl who sat with every one off in my own little world. Sometimes I did feel like I really wasn't there, that I was invisible to everyone and I was the less thought about. I wasn't important. They could easily go on without me. Blake or Will could take my place as the vocalist and make it big as a band. I just really hoped that one day that didn't ever happen.

"Alright, what do you want to start with?" Blake asked as he plugged his electric guitar into the computer with an adapter. We didn't have an amp set up back here yet. All we had for now was the laptop we all shared.

The computer made a buzzing sound, telling us the volume was set up pretty high. Blake turned his guitar volume down as Kyle did the same to the computer.

I shrugged. "Do we even make a schedule for our list of songs we’re going to be playing?" I asked, looking around at everyone.

"Yeah, here," Kyle said, printing off a couple of copies of a list of our songs. "I went ahead and put them in order that I thought would sound best." He said, handing them out to each of us. We all looked over it.

"Everyone good with that?" Kyle asked, sounding as if he was weary of hearing a no, not wanting to make another list.

"It’s perfect." Blake said, setting it down next to him and started playing the first cord of the song that was on the top. It was our song What Lies Underneath, track 3 of our debut self-titled album. I was the one who came up with the idea of the song, but I need help with the lyrics, and it wasn’t my department when it came to the music for it. It was kind of slow and steady at first but quickly picked up the pace when it was time for the chorus.

Will started strumming away when the chorus did hit, and Cody kicked in by drumming on a little practice drum with his sticks, adding an amazing beat. I sung when it came to my parts and Blake did back up. Blake had the best backup vocals when it came to the faster and more upbeat songs while Will had a much more gentle tone of voice that went perfectly when it came our softer songs. Kyle plucked at a few strings here and there during the song, but I'm sure he was way more confident with the way he was going to perform, unlike me who knew something was going to go wrong. I was a huge pessimist who constantly doubted myself.

After that, we practiced all of the songs on our list. I at least felt content with the way my voice was sounding and wanted to give it a break for the rest of the day until our show. We were going on at 2:30, and it was now 12:28. We would probably head towards the stage 30 minutes before so we can help set up, even though we have roadies and then do sound checks. By the time we finished, I was grabbing something to eat and was about to get dressed. We were going to go walk around for a while before it was close to being time.

Notes