FicWad

It was the first official practice of Patrick and Joe's "band." Malerie, being a chick, and Zebidiah, not caring, were banished from the house that evening, leaving their brother to be able to practice in peace.

Pete, Patrick, and Joe wasted the first half hour arguing about which song they should start playing. Andy was pretty much in his own world, until he realized that he'd been at this weird kid's house for an hour and hadn't done anything yet. "Guys? Does it really matter what song we play first?" Andy interrupted.

"Yes!" the other three band mates snapped back.

Andy, being the drummer and having no say in the matter anyway, just grumbled and leaned back on his drum stool.

They, meaning Pete and Patrick, meaning Pete, finally decided on one of the more emolicious songs. Joe was not happy.

"But I don't have any frickin' awesome guitar riffs in that one!" Joe whined.

"You can pick the next one," Patrick promised.

Of course that didn't happen, and Andy and Joe slowly came to realize that if this band was going to work, they had to give total control to Pete.

The next day, Joe came around the Stump residence looking for advice. Their mom answered. "Oh hello, Joseph. I don't think Patrick's here right now."

"That's okay. I'm looking for Malerie."

Malerie's mom looked surprised as she called, "Malerie, Honey! Door!"

Malerie came to the door. She too was surprised to see Joe. "Patrick's not here. I think he went to Pete's," she explained.

"Mal, what do you do if you're a dude with dude problems?" Joe asked, getting to the point.

Malerie smirked, "Are you trying to tell me something, Joe?"

"Ew! No!"

Malerie smirked again, this time because she was pretty sure he was talking about Pete, "Come on, we can go downstairs. Hopefully, my MOTHER won't listen in on us down there," she explained.

"I don't eavesdrop!" her mom defended herself.

Malerie rolled her eyes and lead Joe to the basement. She sat down on the futon while Joe sat on the floor in front of her. "Okay, first off, does this have anything to do with Pete?" she asked.

Joe looked down at his hands. "Yes," he admitted.

Malerie laughed and pointed at him. "I knew it! What'd he do this time?"

Joe was quick to explain the situation. "He's taking over!"

"He tends to do that."

"Take last night. We've only had one band practice and he dictated the whole thing. I didn't even get a chance to show off my awesome guitar moves."

"So you think he has Yoko Ono syndrome?" Malerie was known to make up physiological conditions.

"What's that?"

"Well, Yoko Ono was John Lennon's wife and some people thought she broke up the Beatles."

"Who's John Lennon?"

Malerie tried hard not to smack him. "He was the Beatle who got shot, Retard. Gah! And you call yourself a musician."

"Sorry," Joe mumbled. He looked back up at her. "I don't think Pete's trying to break us up though."

"Pete's sort of self centered. He doesn't realize if his actions are effecting anyone."

Joe gave her a "dir" look.

"Why don't you just tell him?"

"He's going to kick me out of my band!"

"I really doubt that."

Joe stuck his finger in Malerie's face. "Don't doubt his power!"

"Joe, I really hate to say, 'I told you so,' but I told you so," Malerie replied, hitting his hand out of the way.

"Thanks, Mal," Joe said sarcastically because she didn't really help. As he and Malerie got up to head back up stairs, his hand absentmindedly grabbed her ass.

Malerie's eyes burned as she whipped around and, with lightening fast speed, grabbed a hunk of his precious fro and yanked it out.

"Ow!" Joe yelled defensively. "What the heck?"

Malerie smacked him and headed upstairs.