FicWad

“Uncle Frankie!” I yelled, for a 7years old I had a pretty big pair of lungs. Well, that’s what my Daddy told me. Uncle Frankie wasn’t actually my uncle; I just call him that because he’s been Daddy’s best friend for about 15 or so years, I don’t know! They’re both old, so it could be centuries!

“Yeeeess, what do you want, you midget?” He laughed, as he picked me up and span me around. I think he liked me being shorter than him; Daddy and Uncle Mikey always picked on him for being short, so now he could be taller than someone.

“Could you teach me some guitar? I’d ask Uncle Ray, but he’s off out with his… Thing,” I grinned at him, begging for him to teach me. He shook his head and messed up my hair.

“You mean Ace,” He smiled at me, “I’d be happy to. Just lemme get one of Cherry’s guitars,” He leaned over and grabbed a small guitar and a bigger one that said ‘Pansy’ on, in shiny letters.

Thankfully, Auntie Jamia was out with Cherry, Lily and Uncle Frank’s thing. That’s what I called the boys. Uncle Frankie’s thing was called Cole and Uncle Mikey had Pheonix. I think Pheonix is a weird name, they’re not even real! Like unicorns, but Uncle Mikey still insists they exist, I guess I’m just smarter than him.

“Now, Bandit, which way seems comfortable for you?” I held the guitar one way, then the other. It didn’t feel right, so I put it back to how it was before.

“This way,”

“You’re right handed, great, this’ll work better,” He told me. I had no idea what he meant, I already knew I was right handed, so what was the point in that? “Now, which song do you want to learn first?”

“Umm… I don’t know, which is easiest?”

“How about we start with getting co-ordination down, then we’ll do a few chords. I think that’ll be all you’ll need at the moment,” He said. Uncle Frank was so smart, he taught Cherry guitar for almost a year now, with the help from Uncle Ray. Ace was learning too. But I wasn’t really interested. I sang, but no-one ever heard me sing. Well, Mommy did, but that’s because I let her, she told me I was amazing.

Uncle Frank taught me Batman, which was really easy! I picked that up really quickly. And he taught me some chords, they’re quite hard to change from, but he told me I’ll get better.

When Auntie Jamia came home with the twins and the thing, Cherry came into the lounge, with me and Uncle Frank.

“Bandit, why are you holding my guitar?” She asked me. Cherry was really pretty, she looked like Auntie Jamia, with Uncle Frank’s eyes and smile; like Lily. Cole was just like Uncle Frank. I mean, exactly the same.

“Oh, I’m learning some guitar off of Uncle Frankie,” I smiled at her. Maybe she didn’t want me holding her guitar, I felt a little nervous.

“Cool! Then we can play together! That’d be so awesome,” She said. I sighed a little relieved and laughed with her. She grabbed another of her guitars, a wooden one with a hole under the strings, and started playing one of my Daddy’s band’s songs. I think it was Summertime.

“My Daddy wrote that for my Mommy,” I said, with a huge grin. She laughed at me, nodded and carried on. Uncle Frank had left the room to spend time with Cole, so we were alone.

“Do you know the words? You could sing it with me,” I thought about her offer for a moment, bit my lip and decided to give it ago.

“When the lights go out, will you take me with you..?” We sang most of the song together, when Uncle Frankie came in and I panicked. I’d never sang in front of anyone but my Mom, and now Cherry.

Cherry looked at me, obviously wondering why I’d stopped singing, then at Uncle Frankie. He was smiling. Was I a bad singer? I felt sad, suddenly.

“Bandit, was that you?” He asked me. I didn’t want to answer, but Cherry did for me.

“Yeah, it was her. She’s awesome, isn’t she Daddy,” She replied, smiling at me. I smiled back at her, then we both looked at Uncle Frankie.

“I need to call someone…” He mumbled walking out the room. We got up and followed him. “Gerard, it’s Frank. Were you a—Uhh, ok… Gerard I need to talk to about Bandit. Have you ever heard her sing? NO?! Why? She’s amazing! Trust me, she was just singing Summertime with Cherry and she was… I can’t describe. Yeah, yeah, ok, bye,”

Before Uncle Frankie could see us, we ran back to the couch.

“Girls, would you mind if Ace came round and you did a cover of Summertime together?”

“Not at all, Daddy,” Cherry answered. Uncle Frank left the room to make another phone call. Was I really that good? I looked at Cherry. “You’re awesome!” She yelled as she hugged me and giggled.

Lily came in, with a sarcastic smile. I’d always liked her, but today she didn’t seem to like me.

“You weren’t that good,” She told me.

“Shut up, donkey breath!” Yelled Cherry. I didn’t want to start a sibling rivalry.

“Guys, stop. You two are sisters, so you shouldn’t fight,” I said.

“Exactly, we’re sisters. So we should be spending time with each other. Cherry shouldn’t be with you,” Lily spat. She practically just announced that she hated me. I hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Why are you being like this?” Cherry asked.

“Because she’s getting attention from our Daddy; ours, Cherry. Not hers. She should go away,”

Uncle Frank came back from his phone call, and I started crying.

“B, wassup?” He put his arm around me, “Cherry, what happened?”

“Lily is being a big butt-face,” Cherry said, making a face back at Lily, who was sticking her tongue out.

“Daddy! Bandit is spending time with you, and you’re our daddy! Not hers,”

“Lily, I’m practically her uncle, so I have to spend time with her, besides, I haven’t spent that much time with her. Only an hour, she wanted to learn guitar, unlike some,” By that point, Lily had left the room.

There was a knock at the door. I wiped my tears away, when Ace walked into the lounge with Uncle Ray and a guitar on his back. Uncle Frankie and Uncle Ray hugged like they hadn’t seen each other in ages. It’s weird to think that Uncle Ray had a massive ‘fro all those years ago. If I’m honest, he looked better with it.

Ace smiled at me. I didn’t like him, he was a boy. Germs. Germs. Germs. Yucky. He sat on the floor and Uncle Ray passed him a wooden guitar, like the one Cherry had. Cherry sat almost next to him, there was a gap, which I think was meant for me. Uncle Frankie told me to sit in the middle, so I did. Then Auntie Jamia came in with a video recorder. I started shaking. This was the biggest amount of people I’d sang in front of.

“Do you want us to set up and leave?” Uncle Ray asked me, so I nodded. He must have seen I was scared. Uncle Frankie pressed a button and all the grown-ups left the room. Ace and Cherry started playing their guitars, and when it was my turn, I started singing the lyrics.

It was a long few minutes, and when the guitars had stopped, Uncle Frankie came in and turned the camera off. Ace looked at me.

“What?” I said, smiling. He started smiling too.

“You’re just… WOW. I wish I could sing like that!” I blushed at his compliment.

“Right, I’ve just got to send this to Gerard, give me 10 minutes,” said Uncle Frankie, rushing round pressing buttons on the laptop and finding wires.

It was a long 10 minutes, but eventually, my Daddy had replied. Uncle Frankie read it out to us.

“I think we have a mini My Chemical Romance,” he said, chuckling away at himself, Uncle Ray joined in too.