Today is the day.

Today is the day.

I wanted to cry at how nervous I felt. I wasn’t ready to leave my home for three months straight; I wasn’t ready to leave the only two people I’ve ever been able to refer to as my parents; I wasn’t ready to leave the very few people I actually felt comfortable around. I wasn’t fucking ready.

“Do you kids have everything?” Rhonda asks us, as we stand in the entryway, trying to keep an optimistic demeanor, but I could see through her; she was clearly just as upset as I was.

My eyes begin to fill with tears, and she notices right away, pulling me into a warm, motherly embrace. She pulls away and smiles sadly, cupping my face in her hands, tears swimming in her eyes; at least hers hadn’t spilled over yet.

Suddenly, Jim clears his throat from behind us. He smiles sadly at us from where he stands in the archway to the kitchen.

“Autumn,” he says, “can you come here for a moment?” I hesitate for a moment before compiling.

I follow him into the living room; he doesn’t sit down on any of the couches, and neither do I.

“I needed to talk to you about your father,” he begins, cutting straight to the point.

“What is it?” I immediately say. He sighs.

“I know I probably should’ve told you this sooner… But your father isn’t just some average Joe,” he proceeds carefully. He sighs again before continuing. “Honey… Your father… You’ve seen him many times before.” I frown slightly.

“I have? Is he like, and actor or something?” He shakes his head.

“Autumn… Your father is in a band.” My frown deepens. “He’s in Avenged Sevenfold.” I have to refrain myself from laughing.

“Right,” I choke out. “Did you really expect me to believe that?”

“No, to be quite honest I didn’t,” he admits. “I wouldn’t blame you, either. I just… I just wanted to give you a heads up so when he picks you two up from the airport, you don’t freak out and, well, think it was some sort of sick joke. Because it isn’t; it’s the truth.”

“Yeah, okay,” I laugh. “My dad is in Avenged Sevenfold, which just happens to be one of my favorite band of all time. Coincidence?”

“A rather freaky one,” Jim shrugs and I just roll my eyes.

“If he’s really one of the guys in Avenged, then which one is he?” I challenge, folding my arms across my chest. He smirks.

“Now, for being a little shit,” he says jokingly, “I’m going to leave that up the imagination.” I scowl, and he laughs before ruffling my hair. His expression turns sad once again, before he too pulls me into a huge bear hug. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“I’m going to miss you, too, Daddy,” I whisper, trying to keep my voice from breaking, thus releasing another wave of tears, which I didn’t think I could handle.

He pulls away, holding me at arms’-length. “My baby girl,” he finally whispers, before gesturing for me to join Gus and Rhonda in the entryway.

Rhonda straightens herself up, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “Are we ready to go?” she asks as we approach.

“I think so,” Jim says, glancing between Gus and I for confirmation. We both shrug, and before we know it, we’re being led out to the car to make the dreaded trip to the Sea-Tac airport.

~

I can barely keep still on during the two-hour flight. While Gus was out like a light immediately after the plane took off, while I was fidgeting in my seat as bad as Dustin after he drinks too much Red Bull.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what Jim had said; that our dad was from Avenged Sevenfold. For some reason, I just couldn’t really decide which one of the guys it could possibly be, however I was able to narrow it down quite easily, really. It had to be Brian, Zack or Matt, since Johnny was too young and Jimmy…

I shake my head rather violently at the thought. I still remember how upset I had been that day; like the whole world was ending. Jim and Rhonda thought I was just being ridiculous, but it honestly felt as if I had lost my best friend. I often like to think that, by some random miracle, that he had been reincarnated into Kennedy, since he happened to be the crazy, fun one of the group. It helps me to not miss him as much.

Anyway, even though I had pretty much narrowed it down, I was still way too anxious to try and go through what I knew about each one of the guys and compare them to Gus and I. Maybe it would’ve been easier if one or both of us had inherited some sort of musical talent, like I had read about so many girls inheriting in the various fan fiction – it was basically like a huge fucking sign screaming “HEY so-and-so IS CLEARLY MY DAD BECAUSE I CAN PLAY THE SAME INSTRUMENT HE CAN PLAY”. Just because they played an instrument, doesn’t mean that gets passed down to you. It’s a learned behavior.

Yet ironically, even though I just sat there, complaining to myself, I still can’t help but wish I knew how to play at least one instrument, so maybe I’d have some sort of hint as to who it could be. Both Gus and I took piano lessons in elementary school, but I hated it and quit in the second grade. Gus however loved playing, but because of sports, he had to quit. I haven’t heard him touch the grand piano in the rec-room in years.

I’m pretty sure both Matt and Brian know how to play the piano, but like I said earlier, instruments are a learned behavior. However, it is entirely possible that some musical talent gets passed on from generation to generation; like whether or not learning the instrument comes naturally.

It certainly did not come naturally to me.

All of a sudden, I hear a cool female’s voice announce that we’ll be landing at LAX in ten minutes. I take a deep breath, still freaking out on the inside. I nudge Gus, who is still sound asleep, to let him know we’re landing.

Getting to baggage claim goes by much faster than I had hoped it would. The only question was, where would we meet him?

“Do you have any idea what he could look like?” Gus whispers to me as we move off to the side, so to stay out of people’s way.

“No idea,” I lie. I begin biting my nails nervously; an old habit of mine that is apparently trying to make a reappearance. Gus chuckles to himself before moving my hand away from my mouth.

“Jesus, Tums; you don’t need to be that nervous,” he laughs. “Don’t tell me you’re taking what Kennedy said the other day to heart.” I force a laugh that sounds like someone is strangling a Chihuahua, which earns a weird look from Gus.

Just then, I happen to glance up, only to see out of the corner of my eye, a rather large man moving swiftly towards us. I look over at him, and immediately I feel like the reality of what Jim had said finally hits me like a fucking freight train.

M-fucking-Shadows was walking straight towards us.

Notes

A/N: So I'm finally getting back into writing this. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to, since the last time I tried writing this, my computer didn't actually save the file like I thought it did. But I finally picked it back up again, and I can definitely say I like what I've written now a whole lot better than before.

Thanks for all the comments and subscriptions!

~WOLFY~