Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Lets Do This Shit!
2. REMEMBERING MONDAY
Today of all the days of my life, I actually wanted to get out of bed.
It was almost six in the morning when the sunlight filtered through the holes and tears in the moth eaten curtain that I had hauled out from an old box of linen that had found stashed back behind an old gramophone and a box of twenty or so vinyl records from way back when music didn’t come in Mp3 format. Try say that to yourself with one breath.
I must have been on some form of drug that prevented me from being a normal sixteen year old kid because this was not a normal hour to be waking up.
Looking out the window I saw that the rain from the previous day had completely gone, there was not a drop to be seen falling from the sky. The sun had just risen and the birds were singing. I dressed in some shorts and a singlet and put on my running shoes.
I pulled my iPod from my backpack and plugged my ears up.
Mother Jane was in the shower when I emerged from my roof top sleeping quarters.
If I wasn’t careful I would probably end up like her… this early morning charade me made me queasy.
I stepped out the front door and breathed in the surprisingly warm morning air. It was still crisp and had the smell of spring with it, but it was light and summer was on the way!
I started running down the road. The music beat was in rhythm with my footsteps on the asphalt.
There was literally the same house copied and pasted constantly for nearly the whole street. It was only about half a kilometer long (yeah bitches I'm metric!), curving into a park at the end of the street. I ran around the footpath that made up the perimeter around the park. There were the classic oak trees scattered through the park, the playground for the wee ones, and the baseball diamond in the far north of the field. I watched my surroundings as I ran and I noticed that I wasn’t the only early morning jogger. There was a freakishly old man with a backpack who looked like he did nothing but run.
I stopped to stretch underneath a lamp pole before I started home again.
Home?
I did kind of like it here. There was good food and my room was cool; my own little sanctuary in this town that had been plucked straight from ‘Stepford Wives’.
A woman with a dog briskly walked past me and smiled nicely I smiled back and took off again.
Almost half way back my iPod died from a low battery. I stop and pull it out of my ear, while I’m winding the wire around the console. I decide to walk the rest of the way and scope out the neighbor hood.
The apple green grass on all of the lawns sparkled with the light reflecting from the dew drops.
“Zillah!”
I spun on my heel quickly.
Three guys were jogging behind me, the tallest of the trio had his hands cupped around his lips and he called my name again.
It was restaurant boy.
I smiled and waved. He and his friends ran up.
“So you live around here?” his voice was incredulous, and one of his friends snorted.
I ignored the snide.
“As a matter of fact I do. Do you?” I mocked his skeptical tone.
He nodded and pointed to the house directly across from mine.
Oh joy this was going to be a fun three months… yeah right.
“And so do these guys.” He motioned to his wing men.
“Shaant Hacikyan” the boy on the left put his hand out.
“Zillah Smylee.” I shook his hand and when he smiled his green tinged hazel eyes smiled too. He was not quite as tall as Gabe, He had soft, wavy brown hair that hung over his eyes slightly so that he had to keep tossing his hair out of the way, and he was cute!
The same went for the other one.
He had olive skin, he was fairly shorter than the other two but he was till taller than me.
“I’m Alex DeLeon, I believe that you are my next door neighbor.”
I smiled widely and shook his hand too.
So much for this street being a retirement Village, there was more youth next door than there was in elixir of life.
The boys walked me home, and Gabe said that they’d knock on my door when they were ready to go to school. Apparently there was only four of us that actually got up in the morning, but there were about three others that all met up at the bus stop.
Seven kids around my age on the one street. This was legendary history in the making.
I re-entered the house to the smell of pancakes.
I showered and dressed again.
Mother Jane was at the table with the paper and a coffee in her robe. A stack of food was set for me and I tucked in.
“How’d you make the pancakes appear?” I asked between bites. I was dreading the noises my tummy would have been making all morning until I could get my hands on some food. I mean we even had maple syrup for goodness sake!
“Did you get a good scope of the neighborhood sweetie?”
I clenched my teeth. I could handle, Honey and Darling… But sweetie? pukes
“Uh… yeah, sure… Mommy.”
She made a face, “sorry Zillah.”
I nodded. It was what I did. I barely spoke and I nodded.
“Did you meet anyone on your jog?”
I nodded, “The Pizza place family lives across the street, and a guy called Alex lives just there.” I pointed through the kitchen window to his house… that I could see.
It was so unnerving living so close to people. I mean sure, I had lived in an apartment and a flat and a few other houses, but there was more than a wall dividing the space between the windows in places like that. This was just down right strange and I was complimenting my bedroom choice for like the millionth time because of it.
Jane looked like she still had something to say. She always looked like that when I showed that I was actually listening to her or that I was conversing.
There were so many hidden agendas with my mother that I barely knew who she was as a person. All I knew is that for no decent reason that she could explain, we moved ridiculous amounts of places I impossible amounts of time and never once did she ask me if I wanted to.
I didn’t know any grandparents, cousins, aunts or uncles.
It was me and Jane; it had been my entire life.
There was an awkward silence where I got myself a drink of water from the tap and stared out the kitchen window, right into Alex’s.
I scanned over the three faces that I was almost familiar with in my head. They were all really gorgeous. Maybe this town was more like Stepford Wives then I thought.
I couldn’t imagine Gabriel as a robot though.
I gazed off in space for a long time, humming to myself the song that I didn’t get to finish hearing before my iPod died this morning,
Something in my line of vision distracted me. It was Alex, he was in his kitchen window as well, waving to me.
“I think we should plant some hedges, and some trees, or build a fence.” I said sipping on my water; ignoring the distracting neighbors.
“I thought that too. This whole street is very open.” At least the woman wasn’t completely mad.
At eight fifteen, the doorbell rang. It chimed a huge deep bell sound right through the whole house. I bet it probably knocked dead spiders from their sill in my attic.
“Thanks for the mysterious pancakes.”
“Have a nice day Honey.” Her watery eyes smiled warmly at me.
I headed to the front door. I knew she cared about me. But sometimes it was too much effort to care back.
I opened the door to Gabriel and Alex.
“Are you ready?” Gabe asked stepping back so that I could leave the doorstep.
“I think so. What do you think I’ll need?”
He shrugged.
“Depends what kind of student you are.” Alex said.
“Zed grade. I fail everything.”
They both snorted.
“You’ll fit right in at Barrington High then wont you?”
Shaant lived two doors down from Gabe, I started to worry that my road facing window might expose me to these guys one morning when I was getting changed… note to self—don’t ever get changed by the window.
Shaant was all energy when the walking bus picked him up. Then the four of us walked down to the end of the road where there was a bus shelter. Three girls sat under the roof chatting carelessly about some nonsense when we arrived.
Gabe introduced me.
“Girls, meet Zillah. Zillah, meet the girls Sharlot, Cass and Hayley.”
Sharlot was the timid looking one in the middle with dark hair and cute freckles. She had the coolest pair of skinny jeans I had ever seen in my life.
Think paint ball on white.
“Holy crap I love your jeans!”
She smiled, “thanks, I designed the pattern myself.”
Cass—which I learned later was short for Cassadee, had straight hair that framed her small little pale face. Her hair had so many different color streaks in it, and Hayley had the most intensely red hair possible to get from a bottle.
They all seemed like a pretty chilled out crew, and I almost slotted in perfectly. They all talked amongst themselves while we waited for the bus to come.
I fingered my bus ticket; it was the only piece of mail that I had received before we moved. We had to buy it over the internet so that it would arrive in time before we left that address.
We usually just have a post office box that Jane empties twice a month, but since we had moved states form Arizona to Illinois, we didn’t have any postage here just yet. I think the only thing Jane looked out for was her monthly check, and I only looked out for something that would save me, and a birthday card.
It was strange how he knew where to send them.
“Don’t stress too much, Barrington High is just like every other school on the planet.” Alex whispered in my ear. He had broken from his little trio to come and talk to me.
“I’m not stressing. I’m just deciding something.”
I was. I was deciding who I wanted to be this time. Did I tell them that my father was an astronaut and that I was going to die in eight months from some strange disease that my brain surgeon mother is currently trying ot find a cure for?
No, that one would be too hard considering the proximity of the neighbors, in a neighborhood like this people would talk.
It had to be me, what could I be?
I could be a nerd… I could be one of the skater chicks that people thought was cool secretly but they didn’t say anything, or I could be one of those rock star girls that listened to death metal and ACDC. Yeah, that thought made me smile.
Give it a day Zillah. One days grace of not knowing then snap into character tomorrow morning.
Good plan.
“Deciding what?” gosh he was quite a handsome guy.
“What I should have for lunch.”
He laughed. “Gabe told me that you ate half a pizza last night, its no surprise you have food on your mind.”
“So Gabe talked about me huh?” I looked over to the tall Spaniard and smiled.
To think I thought he was annoying.
“Yeah, when we were running this morning and then BOOM we cross the road and there you were just standing there.”
“Boom. That’s me.”
He studied me. I can't tell you what it was like to be studied by Alex, but there was something about his eyes that made me not mind too much. He had honest eyes… they betrayed a few of his thoughts.
He didn’t know what to make of me… weather to stay close or extend the distance.
“So what’s you’re story Zillah?”
“My story?” I rose my eyebrows.
“Yeah, your story. Where you come from, why’d you leave and why’d you choose Barrington? You know…Your story.” He leaned against the back of the shelter and I kicked the grass with my old sneakers.
“I don’t have a story.”
“Everyone has a story.”
“Not me.”
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”
I sighed. Keen much?
“I suppose my story is just like anyone’s. I came from Arizona because our time there was up; I came here because that’s where my finger landed when I spun the wheel.”
It was my euphemism of saying; I don’t know why the hell I’m here of all places.
He nodded slowly.
“You’re from Arizona huh? I have cousins there. How long were you there?”
I sighed. My one day of grace was being used up before I could set my story straight.
“About four months.”
“That would explain how you have no accent.”
I nodded, “surely will.”
He studied me again. I wanted to know what he was thinking. For once I was the one being studied. I wasn’t noting anything about his character in my mind. I wasn’t even considering it until now.
There’s an idea Zillah, keep your mouth shut until you know these people better.
“So whats your story? I told you mine, now deliver the goods.”
He laughed. “Alright, sheesh, pushy.” He squinted and made a face for his remembering, I laughed.
“Okay, well… ever since I can remember… I’ve lived on this street… in that house, the end.”
I rolled my eyes. “Amazing story you know, you have a way with words, you should publish that one, instant best seller.” [maybe put it on ficwad BOOMTISH!]
He laughed at my summary. “Why thank you—Coming soon to a bookstore near you.” He did this weird little kung fu kick.
“Man, what the hell are you doing?” Gabriel slapped him over the back of the head.
“Advertising.” I answered.
Alex laughed and Gabe gave me a strange look.
“Right… well incase you forgot, there’s that band coming to play at the palace tonight and we’re opening.”
Alex’s eyes popped.
“Dude! I totally forgot! Shit!” he kicked a branch into the bush. “I can't get there; my mom and dad have their stupid ball room dancing classes on Monday nights.”
“Well, you could…catch a ride? I would take you but I’m working tonight until the gig.”
“sssssssssshhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt.” He hissed as Gabe walked back to his previous spot
“What gig?” I asked.
“Oh, these guys from Las Vegas are stopping on their way back home i think and Gabe emailed them if they wanted to do a small show at the Palace, check out the local talent etc. and now I can't make it and Gabe and the guys are going to hate me forever.”
“Chill, Alex. I’ll borrow my Moms car and I’ll take you. Don’t fret. Besides, i love live music”
“Serious?”
“Just as long as I get a decent seat I’m in.”
He leapt like a bunny and almost crushed my ribs in his bear hug.
“I fricken love you Zillah.”
“A little less love would be real nice right about now.” I choked out into his shirt where my face was being squished up.
“Sorry, but thanks. Thanks forever, I promise I’ll pay you back for this.”
I smiled; I think I knew who I wanted to be this time round. Considering how cool all of these guys were right away, I was going to take a crack at being a cool kid myself. But only if that meant being myself. To be honest, I was sick of pretending, these guys liked me for me so far, why change?
I was kind of looking forward to being normal, being able to hang with the people that I thought were cool. Which were usually the indie kids that had ripped jeans and guitars.
Besides, Alex smelt really good, and he was definitely a cool guy.
Today of all the days of my life, I actually wanted to get out of bed.
It was almost six in the morning when the sunlight filtered through the holes and tears in the moth eaten curtain that I had hauled out from an old box of linen that had found stashed back behind an old gramophone and a box of twenty or so vinyl records from way back when music didn’t come in Mp3 format. Try say that to yourself with one breath.
I must have been on some form of drug that prevented me from being a normal sixteen year old kid because this was not a normal hour to be waking up.
Looking out the window I saw that the rain from the previous day had completely gone, there was not a drop to be seen falling from the sky. The sun had just risen and the birds were singing. I dressed in some shorts and a singlet and put on my running shoes.
I pulled my iPod from my backpack and plugged my ears up.
Mother Jane was in the shower when I emerged from my roof top sleeping quarters.
If I wasn’t careful I would probably end up like her… this early morning charade me made me queasy.
I stepped out the front door and breathed in the surprisingly warm morning air. It was still crisp and had the smell of spring with it, but it was light and summer was on the way!
I started running down the road. The music beat was in rhythm with my footsteps on the asphalt.
There was literally the same house copied and pasted constantly for nearly the whole street. It was only about half a kilometer long (yeah bitches I'm metric!), curving into a park at the end of the street. I ran around the footpath that made up the perimeter around the park. There were the classic oak trees scattered through the park, the playground for the wee ones, and the baseball diamond in the far north of the field. I watched my surroundings as I ran and I noticed that I wasn’t the only early morning jogger. There was a freakishly old man with a backpack who looked like he did nothing but run.
I stopped to stretch underneath a lamp pole before I started home again.
Home?
I did kind of like it here. There was good food and my room was cool; my own little sanctuary in this town that had been plucked straight from ‘Stepford Wives’.
A woman with a dog briskly walked past me and smiled nicely I smiled back and took off again.
Almost half way back my iPod died from a low battery. I stop and pull it out of my ear, while I’m winding the wire around the console. I decide to walk the rest of the way and scope out the neighbor hood.
The apple green grass on all of the lawns sparkled with the light reflecting from the dew drops.
“Zillah!”
I spun on my heel quickly.
Three guys were jogging behind me, the tallest of the trio had his hands cupped around his lips and he called my name again.
It was restaurant boy.
I smiled and waved. He and his friends ran up.
“So you live around here?” his voice was incredulous, and one of his friends snorted.
I ignored the snide.
“As a matter of fact I do. Do you?” I mocked his skeptical tone.
He nodded and pointed to the house directly across from mine.
Oh joy this was going to be a fun three months… yeah right.
“And so do these guys.” He motioned to his wing men.
“Shaant Hacikyan” the boy on the left put his hand out.
“Zillah Smylee.” I shook his hand and when he smiled his green tinged hazel eyes smiled too. He was not quite as tall as Gabe, He had soft, wavy brown hair that hung over his eyes slightly so that he had to keep tossing his hair out of the way, and he was cute!
The same went for the other one.
He had olive skin, he was fairly shorter than the other two but he was till taller than me.
“I’m Alex DeLeon, I believe that you are my next door neighbor.”
I smiled widely and shook his hand too.
So much for this street being a retirement Village, there was more youth next door than there was in elixir of life.
The boys walked me home, and Gabe said that they’d knock on my door when they were ready to go to school. Apparently there was only four of us that actually got up in the morning, but there were about three others that all met up at the bus stop.
Seven kids around my age on the one street. This was legendary history in the making.
I re-entered the house to the smell of pancakes.
I showered and dressed again.
Mother Jane was at the table with the paper and a coffee in her robe. A stack of food was set for me and I tucked in.
“How’d you make the pancakes appear?” I asked between bites. I was dreading the noises my tummy would have been making all morning until I could get my hands on some food. I mean we even had maple syrup for goodness sake!
“Did you get a good scope of the neighborhood sweetie?”
I clenched my teeth. I could handle, Honey and Darling… But sweetie? pukes
“Uh… yeah, sure… Mommy.”
She made a face, “sorry Zillah.”
I nodded. It was what I did. I barely spoke and I nodded.
“Did you meet anyone on your jog?”
I nodded, “The Pizza place family lives across the street, and a guy called Alex lives just there.” I pointed through the kitchen window to his house… that I could see.
It was so unnerving living so close to people. I mean sure, I had lived in an apartment and a flat and a few other houses, but there was more than a wall dividing the space between the windows in places like that. This was just down right strange and I was complimenting my bedroom choice for like the millionth time because of it.
Jane looked like she still had something to say. She always looked like that when I showed that I was actually listening to her or that I was conversing.
There were so many hidden agendas with my mother that I barely knew who she was as a person. All I knew is that for no decent reason that she could explain, we moved ridiculous amounts of places I impossible amounts of time and never once did she ask me if I wanted to.
I didn’t know any grandparents, cousins, aunts or uncles.
It was me and Jane; it had been my entire life.
There was an awkward silence where I got myself a drink of water from the tap and stared out the kitchen window, right into Alex’s.
I scanned over the three faces that I was almost familiar with in my head. They were all really gorgeous. Maybe this town was more like Stepford Wives then I thought.
I couldn’t imagine Gabriel as a robot though.
I gazed off in space for a long time, humming to myself the song that I didn’t get to finish hearing before my iPod died this morning,
Something in my line of vision distracted me. It was Alex, he was in his kitchen window as well, waving to me.
“I think we should plant some hedges, and some trees, or build a fence.” I said sipping on my water; ignoring the distracting neighbors.
“I thought that too. This whole street is very open.” At least the woman wasn’t completely mad.
At eight fifteen, the doorbell rang. It chimed a huge deep bell sound right through the whole house. I bet it probably knocked dead spiders from their sill in my attic.
“Thanks for the mysterious pancakes.”
“Have a nice day Honey.” Her watery eyes smiled warmly at me.
I headed to the front door. I knew she cared about me. But sometimes it was too much effort to care back.
I opened the door to Gabriel and Alex.
“Are you ready?” Gabe asked stepping back so that I could leave the doorstep.
“I think so. What do you think I’ll need?”
He shrugged.
“Depends what kind of student you are.” Alex said.
“Zed grade. I fail everything.”
They both snorted.
“You’ll fit right in at Barrington High then wont you?”
Shaant lived two doors down from Gabe, I started to worry that my road facing window might expose me to these guys one morning when I was getting changed… note to self—don’t ever get changed by the window.
Shaant was all energy when the walking bus picked him up. Then the four of us walked down to the end of the road where there was a bus shelter. Three girls sat under the roof chatting carelessly about some nonsense when we arrived.
Gabe introduced me.
“Girls, meet Zillah. Zillah, meet the girls Sharlot, Cass and Hayley.”
Sharlot was the timid looking one in the middle with dark hair and cute freckles. She had the coolest pair of skinny jeans I had ever seen in my life.
Think paint ball on white.
“Holy crap I love your jeans!”
She smiled, “thanks, I designed the pattern myself.”
Cass—which I learned later was short for Cassadee, had straight hair that framed her small little pale face. Her hair had so many different color streaks in it, and Hayley had the most intensely red hair possible to get from a bottle.
They all seemed like a pretty chilled out crew, and I almost slotted in perfectly. They all talked amongst themselves while we waited for the bus to come.
I fingered my bus ticket; it was the only piece of mail that I had received before we moved. We had to buy it over the internet so that it would arrive in time before we left that address.
We usually just have a post office box that Jane empties twice a month, but since we had moved states form Arizona to Illinois, we didn’t have any postage here just yet. I think the only thing Jane looked out for was her monthly check, and I only looked out for something that would save me, and a birthday card.
It was strange how he knew where to send them.
“Don’t stress too much, Barrington High is just like every other school on the planet.” Alex whispered in my ear. He had broken from his little trio to come and talk to me.
“I’m not stressing. I’m just deciding something.”
I was. I was deciding who I wanted to be this time. Did I tell them that my father was an astronaut and that I was going to die in eight months from some strange disease that my brain surgeon mother is currently trying ot find a cure for?
No, that one would be too hard considering the proximity of the neighbors, in a neighborhood like this people would talk.
It had to be me, what could I be?
I could be a nerd… I could be one of the skater chicks that people thought was cool secretly but they didn’t say anything, or I could be one of those rock star girls that listened to death metal and ACDC. Yeah, that thought made me smile.
Give it a day Zillah. One days grace of not knowing then snap into character tomorrow morning.
Good plan.
“Deciding what?” gosh he was quite a handsome guy.
“What I should have for lunch.”
He laughed. “Gabe told me that you ate half a pizza last night, its no surprise you have food on your mind.”
“So Gabe talked about me huh?” I looked over to the tall Spaniard and smiled.
To think I thought he was annoying.
“Yeah, when we were running this morning and then BOOM we cross the road and there you were just standing there.”
“Boom. That’s me.”
He studied me. I can't tell you what it was like to be studied by Alex, but there was something about his eyes that made me not mind too much. He had honest eyes… they betrayed a few of his thoughts.
He didn’t know what to make of me… weather to stay close or extend the distance.
“So what’s you’re story Zillah?”
“My story?” I rose my eyebrows.
“Yeah, your story. Where you come from, why’d you leave and why’d you choose Barrington? You know…Your story.” He leaned against the back of the shelter and I kicked the grass with my old sneakers.
“I don’t have a story.”
“Everyone has a story.”
“Not me.”
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”
I sighed. Keen much?
“I suppose my story is just like anyone’s. I came from Arizona because our time there was up; I came here because that’s where my finger landed when I spun the wheel.”
It was my euphemism of saying; I don’t know why the hell I’m here of all places.
He nodded slowly.
“You’re from Arizona huh? I have cousins there. How long were you there?”
I sighed. My one day of grace was being used up before I could set my story straight.
“About four months.”
“That would explain how you have no accent.”
I nodded, “surely will.”
He studied me again. I wanted to know what he was thinking. For once I was the one being studied. I wasn’t noting anything about his character in my mind. I wasn’t even considering it until now.
There’s an idea Zillah, keep your mouth shut until you know these people better.
“So whats your story? I told you mine, now deliver the goods.”
He laughed. “Alright, sheesh, pushy.” He squinted and made a face for his remembering, I laughed.
“Okay, well… ever since I can remember… I’ve lived on this street… in that house, the end.”
I rolled my eyes. “Amazing story you know, you have a way with words, you should publish that one, instant best seller.” [maybe put it on ficwad BOOMTISH!]
He laughed at my summary. “Why thank you—Coming soon to a bookstore near you.” He did this weird little kung fu kick.
“Man, what the hell are you doing?” Gabriel slapped him over the back of the head.
“Advertising.” I answered.
Alex laughed and Gabe gave me a strange look.
“Right… well incase you forgot, there’s that band coming to play at the palace tonight and we’re opening.”
Alex’s eyes popped.
“Dude! I totally forgot! Shit!” he kicked a branch into the bush. “I can't get there; my mom and dad have their stupid ball room dancing classes on Monday nights.”
“Well, you could…catch a ride? I would take you but I’m working tonight until the gig.”
“sssssssssshhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt.” He hissed as Gabe walked back to his previous spot
“What gig?” I asked.
“Oh, these guys from Las Vegas are stopping on their way back home i think and Gabe emailed them if they wanted to do a small show at the Palace, check out the local talent etc. and now I can't make it and Gabe and the guys are going to hate me forever.”
“Chill, Alex. I’ll borrow my Moms car and I’ll take you. Don’t fret. Besides, i love live music”
“Serious?”
“Just as long as I get a decent seat I’m in.”
He leapt like a bunny and almost crushed my ribs in his bear hug.
“I fricken love you Zillah.”
“A little less love would be real nice right about now.” I choked out into his shirt where my face was being squished up.
“Sorry, but thanks. Thanks forever, I promise I’ll pay you back for this.”
I smiled; I think I knew who I wanted to be this time round. Considering how cool all of these guys were right away, I was going to take a crack at being a cool kid myself. But only if that meant being myself. To be honest, I was sick of pretending, these guys liked me for me so far, why change?
I was kind of looking forward to being normal, being able to hang with the people that I thought were cool. Which were usually the indie kids that had ripped jeans and guitars.
Besides, Alex smelt really good, and he was definitely a cool guy.
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