"Is this the part where we cheer wildly like a bunch of preps?" Will asked as Abia rolled her eyes and punched his shoulder. She was sitting around their little kitchen table and Will sat to her right. "What?" he asked her, then looked over at Stella. "What about you Stells? Think we should make an AA cheer?" He wasn't sure if Stella liked the nickname, but she hadn't said anything in the past. He raised his hands above his head as if he had pom-poms. Abia quickly made him put them back down, then put her head on the table. "Why?" she moaned.

"So what's the lineup then? And how big is the stage? What city are we even in?" Will asked, completely clueless to anything that wasn't within five feet of him.

"Gimme an A! Gimme a U!" Shawna began with a goofy grin, flailing her arms above her head finishing off the cheer. "What's that spell? AUTUMN AIR! WOOOO!" She purposely screeched obnoxiously loud, just to irritate the surrounding bands as much as she possibly could.

"Dude, have you seen the venue? I want to go inside. Anyone wanna come with?" Shawna cooed, mindlessly toying around on her phone. According to the GPS, they were currently in Los Angeles, if the palm trees and hillsides weren't obvious enough clues.

She continued to scroll through her feed. "Apparently, the place is going to be fucking packed. Awesome!"

Luzia rolled her eyes at the noise being made from the other tour bus. She somehow already sensed a familiar voice, and she doesn't find things familiar unless there's a particular reason or she's just been stuck with you for a long time. She hurried Ramona onto the tour bus and gave her a look.
"Let's just sort out tonight and then we can 'befriend' the enemies? What should we open with?" She asked, rubbing her eyes from staying up late the previous night. She had decided to look up the other bands' songs and their business. That's how she found out about Shawna and how some things were going on between rivalry bands, but she had assumed they weren't true because of their unlikeliness. She shook her head and brought her mind back to the present discussion. Which had brought attention to the lack of band members.
"Where's everyone?" She muttered to herself. Once again, Luzia brought herself back and suggested,
"I think we should start off with Welcome To The Jungle- SR style." She smiled at her abbreviation and waited for the response.

Ramona heard Heath's statement about girls like firecrackers , she furrowed her eyebrows, "What does that mean?" she muttered under her breath in her normal, cool voice. She watched the rest leave then she went back into the bus. She sat across Luzia with her piano on the table.

Abia sighed and lifted her head. Then she rose from her seat and headed towards the middle of the bus where the bunks were. She had a top bunk, with will snoring below her. She jumped up into it, swinging her legs so she wouldn't fall back down. She'd written out a list of dates and venues to post on the wall, so she wouldn't get confused. She carefully tore it off the wall, bending back the tape so that it stuck to the opposite side of the paper.

"Here, I wrote it all down. Tonight's show is in LA smartypants. And don't worry about it, because they wouldn't book a crappy place for us and the others." She was trying to be nice as she referred to the other three bands. "A field trip would be nice," she said, responding to Shawna's question. She took the schedule back to her bunk and took a new piece of tape and taped it above her pillow.

She came back. "Anybody else coming?" she asked.

"Me! Pick me!" Will screeched like a little girl. He raised his left hand wildly, since he was left handed. Abia was ambidextrous.

Shawna snorted at Will's playful antics and gestured for him to follow her and Abia.

She quickly snatched her aviator shades off her suitcase and slid them into the crown of her head before hopping off the steps of the bus and peeking her head back through the door.

"Heath? Stella? You guys joining in?"

Qin smiled and thanked Shay as she showed him where all the bowls and spoons were. He leaped at the cabinet and grabbed all he needed for his cereal. Qin started to eat when some of the band members left the tour bus for a smoke. Qin shrugged at the thought even though he was some what against smoking he had no power over them and decided that if they smoked they smoked. After a few minutes as Qin was about to take another spoonful he jerked alarmingly as yelling started outside. Qin sighed, picked up his bowl and shuffled down the stairs of their tour bus and started to shout, "Hey wh..!" In mid sentence he tripped over the last step and his bowl fell out of his hand. The bowl looked to be in slow motion as it impacted the ground and exploded into pieces with milk and cereal flying all over the place.

Aaron frowned sadly and shouted, "Damn! Forget I said anything you guys made my break my cereal..." He pouted and sadly went back into the tour bus to get another bowl of cereal. He looked into his ice box for another bottle of milk and instead found a small bottle of Jack Daniels. He was curious on why Jack Daniels was in the ice box instead of Samuel Adams. He grumbled grumpily and shoved the bottle to the bottom of his ice box. He started to dig through his ice box having a urge to start drinking again. He knew it was a bad idea to drink as soon as he awoke, but then again what did he care about bad ideas. He found another small bottle of Samuel Adams and twisted the cap open with his shirt and drank it slowly. He looked around for his head set so he can listen to Rise Against till he started to see his band members start coming back in.

Aaron (Qin) shrugged and continued to sip his Samuel Adams as he laid down in his small bed with his head set on.

Luzia looked over at Ramona and said,
"Forget them, we have to worry about us making a great start on this tour. It's our first proper live gig. It has to be fantastic and we have to show them, that at the end of this there'll be one band standing, and it's gonna be us." She started shaking her, smiling.
"Startlight Revenge's first real break. After this no more tacky birthday parties. Just us, the music, the fans and huge stadiums. Come on. They are so not even worth it."

She finished her 'inspirational' speech and walked over to Aaron, slowly pulled his head set off and shouted.
"Where Have You Been?!" Luzia was rather annoyed that he wasn't there to back her up with the Shawna girl. It was rare for her to start arguments with absolute strangers, so when that happened obviously it's not going to be the only time that's going to happen.
"Come on we need to set up tonight's line-up. And apparently we need everyone's input." She said, poking her tongue out.

Ramona chuckled, "It wasn't all birthdays," she remind Luzia, "We played at Prom and two funerals," but then she smiled, it wasn't a cool smirk or a half-smile.It was a real smile with her teeth showing and eyes glinting. It was a rare moment for her. The thought of finally performing and being known was exciting. It lasted for only a moment before looking calm and deadpanned as always.

"I agree and I think we should start with Turn Off The Lights," she said, writing it down on a piece of paper. Then she glanced up, realizing something.

"Where's Cody and Shay?"

Shay had pushed herself to run faster, dashing down the sidewalk, around a corner. She had a can of something in her hand, and there was sounds of growling and barking behind her. Seeing the tour buses in the distance was a huge relief. Running a little faster, she glanced back. Three black dogs were gaining. "Awwh crap!" she grumbled, gaze forward. . Almost theerrree..

When the argument had started earlier Shay slipped away and walked to a local gas station to buy a can of coffee, yes coffee, she loved the stuff. On the way back however a group of dogs began chasing her, hence the current running. Smacking against the tour bus's little glass door, she beat on it a minute before pulling the doors open just a bit. It was enough to let her slip through before they snapped shut once more. She was breathing heavily as she turned back to the door, the dogs running to the door, barking, jumping up at the doors. She stuck her tongue out at them with a laugh, turning around and hopping up the steps.

Seeing her band mates she grinned, holding up the can of coffee. "I have. . The coffee!!" she announced triumphantly, looking at them all. Seeing Aaron drinking so early, she narrowed her eyes. "No drinking before eight!" she said jokingly, walking towards the tiny "kitchen" area.

"So what's going on?" she added, still breathing a little hard, grabbing a few things to start a pot of coffee, because she could. Shay drunk the stuff all hours of the day.

"I have...the coffee!" Ramona heard Shay say behind her happily. She turned her head around. Shay asked a question and she answered, "Songs for tonight's show," then she heard barking, "Why are they dogs?" she mumbled, standing up and walking to the barks. Three dogs started to bark, growling at Romana. She stayed calm, crouching down to the dog's level. She growled and suddenly barked like a ferocious dog.

This made them wimper and run away. Ramona couldn't help but smirk and walk back to her band mates.

Aaron jumped when Luzia came in shouting at him. He immediately jerked up and hit his head against the top bunk and rolled off the bed dropping the glass bottle onto the ground. He watched as the bottle broke just like his bowl of cereal did when he tripped. He shouted at Luzia, "Hey! You didn't have to go yelling at me. I was coming out and then I dropped my cereal so I came back to get more. I got side tracked and got this ins..." He looked away with his face getting a little red when Shay came in telling him not to drink before 8. Aaron then continued, "You still didn't have to come in shouting at me though Luzia! Man..." He ruffled his hair at the sight of the broken bottle and got up looking for a broom and pan. He sweeped up the mess grumbling explicit language as he did till he finished. He then spoke, "Besides you know I play better when I am drunk." Of course that was a completely lie from previous experiences. From what they told him was that he was either passed out back staged with roadies around him, passed out on the ground back stage, and or passed out in the middle of their performances.

He quickly tried to correct himself, "Alright! Let's go set up for whatever we are doing tonight!" He chuckled nervously and started to pack every he had together getting ready to move.

Luzia rolled her eyes and walked back to the table, completely oblivious to whatever Aaron was saying.
"Stop bullshitting and get your drunk butt over here." She said, noticing Aaron had finally stopped talking.
"Back to the point. I think Welcome to the Jungle will get them familiar instead of going straight out there with one of our songs. It makes more sense." She said, kinda sounding a bit rude, but everyone knew that just came with the greatness of her being the rhythm guitarist. She combed her hair through her fingers and started biting the end of her pencil and continued with the rest of the discussion.
"Then go into Teenage Dirtbag. How about that?" She asked, straining herself to get her rhythm guitar. She grabbed it and placed it on her lap and began stroking it. Her second most prized possession

Ramona shook her head, disliking the song choices, "No, It's not us," she claimed, "It's not our strongest songs and I think we should start win Welcome To the Jungle but Teenage Dirtbag's too soft," she crossed it off. She tucked strands of hair behind her ear but it kept falling.

"Turn Off The Lights and Paranoia is definitely strong and loud," she told Luzia, Shay and Aaron about her opinions, "We choose one of those and end with The Kill," Luzia was probably going to disagree but she was the lead singer, meaning her voice had to be heard loud and clear, just like the songs.

"No smoking," Abia told Will as he stood up and followed her and Shawna towards the door. "C'mon you two. Here, let me help!" She ran towards where Stella sat, but Will suddenly pushed her out of the way. "Will!" she screamed at him, her eyes showing that she was ready to tear her apart.

Will only shrugged and lifted Stella up into his arms. "See? You won't even have to lay a foot on the ground," he told her sweetly. He had no idea if she actually liked him, but it was worth a shot to try and give her a hint pr something. "Oof! You're heavy Stells. What have you been eating?"

Abia snorted and motioned for Heath to stand and come with them as she got up off the floor. "We eat whatever we can afford and whatever won't get us high or drunk," she said bluntly. "Plus we once ate that 'lasagna' that you made." She shuddered. "I think I hate that word now. Just saying it brings back memories." She laughed and brushed her bangs away from her face, though her hair had been styled like that and was unlikely to change anytime soon.

William ignored his sister and somehow managed to carry Stella out the door of the bus, almost running over Shawna in the process. "And you say I should work out more," he teased her.

"I don't think it really matters too much in my opinion," Aaron said. He started to pack his base into it's case and then tells everyone, "Well...enough of that for now we gotta get moving if we wanna make out time you know?" He quickly started to push everyone out of the tour bus assuming they had their equipment and instrutments already packed and ready. He smiled and said, "We should be fine just like how we used to do it right everyone?"



*Later on that night. ((Backstage))*

"Oh crap. Holy crap. Crap. Crap. Crap," Aaron continued to mumble to himself as he searched around the backstage area in a panic to find his base. He looks around and asks just about everyone if they had seen a black 4 string bass anywhere. To his dismay all of them shook their heads and said no to his questions. Aaron starts to break down a little and decides to finally tell his bandmates on him with a high probability that he forgot his bass at their tour bus when he rushed them out. He starts to wonder on how he forgot when he had the darn bass strapped onto his back carrying it with him. He shook his head and entered their dressing room and told everyone, "Hey guys...I forgot my bass...."

Luzia was drinking some of her 'lemoade', sitting down on their dressing room's couch, which her rhythm guitar placed against edge of the couch for support. She drank as she looked at her guitar gleaming under the artificial light. She was somehow relaxed as if nothing could go wrong on their first performance. She took a deep breath in, her eyes closed, and that's when Aaron came in, looking quite afraid.
Luzia opened her right eye slowly and listened to Aaron quietly say his bass could have been forgotton on the tour bus. She hadn't yet taken a breath out. She was quiet for a few moments before taking one breath out and standing up right in front of Aaron's face.
"You left your bass where? And you told us how many minutes before we go on?" She asked, in a rather calm tone, even though she was ready to erupt.

Ramona peeked through the curtains, dressed in black and leather boots. She looked calm as usual yet her heart was beating faster than an Indian drum. She went to her group, glancing at the others as she walked past. She got to her band, mumbling, "I think the frog legs are coming back up,"

Aaron came and asked about his bass, Ramona shrugged, "Why did you leave it? You have to borrow from another band,"

Abia stood, pacing back and forth back stage. Her band sat a few feet away. She was freaking out, nervously strumming her guitar. This was their first big concert, something that really mattered. Walking back to her fellow band mates, she sighed and set her guitar down. "Guys, I am so nervous. I can't even remember what songs we're playing when!" She looked hopelessly up at the ceiling, moving her bangs out of her eyes. "Is anybody else freaking out here?"

Will stood up and bent Abia's head so she was looking at him. "We'll be fine. Just don't fall off the stage, ok?" he smiled and sat back down on the ground, playing with his drumsticks. He laughed nervously. "Can you believe it?" He put his arm around Stella, brushing some hair from her face. "You're gonna do great Stells."