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Aronnax leaned her head against James as they stood on the sidewalk in front of their apartment building waiting for the tour bus to show up.

"Are you asleep?" James asked after a while.

"Mmhmm," Aronnax murmured. "What time is it?"

"6:13."

"It's too early to be up," she said, and groaned.

"Maybe if you'd gotten some sleep . . . why was the light on in your room all night?"

"Seriously," she said, and stood upright. "Just because you're three years older than me doesn't give you the right to parent me."

"Three and three-fourths."

"Tomayto, tomahto." She yawned.

The tour bus pulled onto their street, its horn honking frantically.

"They're here," James said, slinging a duffel bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah, that's the last thing I heard before I went deaf," she said, bending down to pick up her own duffel bags. "Okay! Okay! God! Stop with the horn already!"

The door opened, and Ryan, their third bandmate, poked his head out and grinned. "Good morning, gorgeous."

"Hey," James said.

"What's so good about it?" Aronnax grumbled, dragging herself onto the bus.

"Typical Ren," Ryan said as James boarded the bus.

"You have no idea," James said. "I had to go in there and wake her up because she didn't even hear her alarm going off."

They followed her to the back of the bus, where she tossed her bags in a closet and plopped down on a couch.

"The neighbor was banging on the wall, the alarm was so loud," James continued.

Ryan chuckled. "You could sleep through a world war, couldn't you?" he said to Aronnax as he sat down next to her.

She yawned.

"Guess who we're picking up?" Ryan said.

"I'm guessing our touring guitarists?" James said.

Since their band only had three members — Aronnax on vocals (she could also play keyboards and drums, but she never did it live), James on backup vocals and bass, and Ryan on drums — they needed at least two guitarists to perform with them live.

"Yeah," Ryan said, as Aronnax leaned her head against his shoulder with her eyes closed, "but guess who's coming back."

"Joel?"

"Yeah, Joel's coming, too."

James looked at Ryan and snickered derisively. "God, not him."

Ryan nodded. "Yeah. Tyler's back."

"Tyler's back?" Aronnax sat up. "I hate that guy. All he ever does is talk about his stupid wife. I swear, there's a big, empty space in her head where her brain should be."

James and Ryan laughed.

"Tyler's not that bad," Ryan said.

"Well, yeah, he's a good guitarist, I'll give him that," Aronnax said. "But seriously . . . he just needs more of a life."

"Now she's awake," James said, sitting on Aronnax's other side.

"And regretting every second of it," she said. "Hey, can we stop at McDonald's or someplace? I'm freakin' starving."

"If you'd gotten up earlier, you could have eaten before you left," Ryan said.

"You know," said Aronnax, pulling herself up with a groan, "I really hate it when you guys try parenting me. It's not fair. Just because I'm the youngest and the only girl doesn't mean anything."

"Actually, yeah, it kind of does," said Ryan.

"And you're not the only girl," James said.

"Tell me Tyler's stupid wife isn't joining us."

Ryan laughed. "No. We've got another stop to make before we pick the guys up."

"Well, great," she said, and headed for the refrigerator. "Can we stop somewhere after that? I'm starving."

"So you said," Ryan said.

"There's nothing to eat in here," she said, after examining the refrigerator's contents.

"Why does that surprise you? There never is," James said.

"Well, there should be," she said. "How far until the next stop?"