Before reading you must read the background story [It's not even a paragraph long] For Alice, Lou, Orat, Piggy, Sid, Van and Ghost
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Setting up the amp, Alice knew her day couldn’t get any worse. Her failing grades at the only college that took her in meant trouble. Who cares if her parents paid for all of it, who cares that she didn’t even know all of her professors’ names. No one, that’s who, so coming to the Rock Hard café, set her free. Music was her life and playing with her band, Glow in the Dark Band-Aids a.k.a GDBA, was worth much more than a B+ in English. As the guitarist checked “Two, One, Two.” on the decrepit microphone, Alice saw the incoming audience. These were her regulars, her only fans in an otherwise cold world. Each week would be the same, the feedback from the ancient amp and Clark, the guitarist, trying to beat box his way into a sound check. Fans would go wild with neon glow lights and scream GDBA over and over until the ceiling shook. Well, not really, but Alice could feel the magnitude of appreciation whenever she sang her heart out to this forlorn crowd. Walking over to the nearby table, which was unoccupied, she sat down and traced her fingers idly in the dust. Only God knows how long ago this club had been cleaned. When one of the waiters came by to offer her a drink, she looked up from her bangs and flashed a smile, one of the few she actually meant. She sat there sipping her drink for what seemed like forever until Mr.Chang, the old Chinese owner of Rock Hard Café, announced her name. “Everyone, I now give you, GLOW IN THE DARK BAND-AIDS!” She laughed silently to herself; Alice still couldn’t get over his thick accent. But she knew what she had to do. She set down her drink, and lightly dusting off her plum miniskirt, walked quietly over to the stage, amidst a somewhat loud cheer of the audience.
“Yo! Hurry up dude the show’s starting!” Lou heaved a sigh as Orat pulled him into the rancor of the club. Forced against his own will, Orat had dragged Lou into coming to the Rock Hard Café to check out some bands. “It’s for research.” His words enticed Lou. The café/club was already sweating and musky. Up on stage, a girl with violet hair was screaming into a microphone while her band played with an unknown energy. The audience went wild with joy and he could catch faint cheers of “GDBA”. As Lou turned to ask Orat the meaning of GDBA, he saw his blond head speaking to the owner and bopping his head to the beat. Lou grinned at his friend’s audacity and tiptoed over tired audience members and carefully avoided spills. When he reached Orat they both found a table to watch the show from. “Dude don’t be a loser, it stands for Glow in the Dark Band-Aids.” Orat laughed at Lou’s question. It was a first for Lou, being smarter than most people. He could still remember when he and Orat first met; it was in Freddy’s Diner nearly a decade ago. Lou had been the strange new kid living atop Freddy’s restaurant. He had to work there after school in order to be able to live on the second story. One day as Orat and his parents dropped in for dinner, they saw Lou mopping and while his mother pitied the child, Orat had gone up to Lou and started pummeling him. Now Lou was a fighter and when anyone challenged him he was up for it. They started fist fighting on the ground and while the parents tried to separate them, Orat jumped off him first and held out his hand. Wary of another attack, Lou took it and Orat whispered in his ear “Good fight man, we need to stick together.” Just like that, they became a gang of two. Natural warriors of a concrete jungle, they would take any opponent no matter what size. Lou shook away his memories and tried to listen to the band, but the loud electronica was not his type. “Later man, I’m gonna go take a piss.” He got up from the table and glanced briefly at the two hippies sitting on the other edge. Orat looked up and smiled “Don’t be knocking up some hookers now.” Lou just shook his head; he had always been like that, Orat, never without his guitar or his jokes. Somewhere along the way towards the bathroom he had picked up some greenish looking soda. Reaching towards the dumpster that was precariously perched over the amp, he tossed it without looking back once. “Oh there’s the bathroom.” He saw it straight ahead and while walking towards it, he didn’t hear the fizzing of electric wires, or turned to see his drink rolling atop the amp, smoke slowly coming from it.
“HEY EVERYONE! WOO! THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE TONIGHT! DO YOU WANT ANOTHER SONG?” Alice had just finished her 4th song of the night and was going for her finale. The audience screamed back with pleasure and chanted “One More time.” Tonight the crowd seemed more responsive than usual, but as she turned to lower the amp she noticed some punk throw his cup onto the garbage can next to it and miss. Somehow the cup spilled all over the amp and while there was a faint hissing coming from the speakers, she could feel the panic rising in her throat. Smoke meant fire and fire led to… She couldn’t think of what would happen to the club or her budding career. Sweating furiously she grabbed the microphone to tell the crowd the show was cancelled, but before she could say anything, the curtain caught on fire as the amp burst into flames. “RUN!!!!!!!!!!” Her voice was raspy from the vocals and screaming wasn’t making it any better. Her band scrambled to take their equipment outside while tables were overturned, waiters left their posts to get out of the club and Mr.Chang threw Alice a glare she would never forget while he exited through the employee’s only door. As she stood there watching the chairs become engulfed in the fire, she could feel her life burning up with it. Having half a mind to just stay here and lie along with the flames, she saw the guy responsible come out of the bathroom and when seeing the fire, looked at her in anguish while running out of the café without a word or apology. She seethed with rage and jumped off the stage in distress. Her heart was doing summersaults while she carefully walked out, microphone in hand. Outside was much cooler than inside and as she tried sneaking towards her band she sensed Mr.Chang closing in on her. “ALICE!” He grabbed her wrist and spun her around. His eyes gave the air a drop in temperature and she could feel goose bumps dotting her arms. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CAFÉ?!” Pointing an accusing finger at her she looked past him and saw the dark haired perpetrator and his blond friend walking down the street, excited gestures peppering their talk. Tuning in on Old Man Chang’s rage fest she heard the word, “YOU’RE FIRED!” That sent her running down the opposite street, her unparalleled hatred for the kid forming.
“Bleep!” The coffee machine beeped excitedly after making the sixth cup of the night. A groggy looking Alice reached over to grab the steaming cup, she had been up all night after the horrid incident looking up everything and anything on the kid, more likely guy, who ruined everything for her. She guessed his age was 15 or so and looked up all of the high schools in the district. Page after page, face after face, the websites were full of garbage. Not one student looked like him. Heaving a sigh, she pulled back her hair into two short violet pig tails. She had calmed down but not much, she was still bloodthirsty for vengeance and the only way she knew how, death. Her plan was simple, track the b*****d down and kill him. As she clicked a link for the umpteenth time, she gasped. On the sophomore web book, grinning back at her in a simple yet naïve way was him. Him, the one destined to die in her hands. A slow, sly grin spread across her face, glancing at the top of the page she hastily wrote down the address of the school and tucked it into her bag. Tomorrow would be a very good day indeed.
As soon as the bell rang the whole school sprang back to life. Lou shuffled out of his 6th period class with a grin plastered on his face, today was Friday, and Fridays were meeting time. The gang was already there near the school fountain. Orat was lightly strumming his guitar, Van challenging a pitiful freshman while Sid dared Piggy to lift a passing girl’s skirt to see whether she had a thong on or not. Orat noticed him first and smiled, “Yo what up dude! Some mad s**t went down last night!” Sid and Piggy stopped picking at the girls’ skirts to listen to what he just said. As Orat proceeded to explaining the fire at the café and how it burned down, Van stopped pummeling the 9th grader long enough to put in his two cents “Ha, what dumbass started something like that?” Lou felt his face burn as he remembered how he was in the bathroom during the whole incident. But as soon as he started to reminisce he heard Sid blow a low whistle, “Babe alert! I call dibs!” As they all turned to look they were met with a tall, lean purple haired … woman. She seemed innocent like a child but in her eyes there was a certain spark. The air turned cold as the guys gaped at her. Gliding towards them Sid whispered “Look at them knockers.” Piggy gave him a swift slap on the head. “Don’t be such a perv she’s coming right towards us.” Indeed she was, Lou thought, he took the first step and stuck out his hand in a greeting. “Hey there, I’m Lou.” Flashing his most dashing smile, the girl took his hand with a strong grip and pumped it. “Glad to meet you Lou, I’m Alice.” She smiled an equally beautiful grin and turned to salute the rest of the group. As they settled back amid the splashing of the fountain, the interrogation began. “So what brings you here on such a lovely day eh?” Sid asked first, he tried to make his accent charming but she glanced over it as if it was a speech impediment. “Well I just came out of class, college ya know, and heard about your friend Orat.” The boys look at Orat as if she was his secret mistress. “Really? Orat?!” Van dismissed the notion as illogical. “Yea, I heard he was fantastic guitar player.” Orat blushed at this comment and was humble about his obvious talent. “It’s nothing really.”
Alice knew the game she was playing and couldn’t help spoon feed these bullshit lies to them. They were all ignorant enough; she was doing them a favor. Although her actions the previous night bordered stalker-esque, she had gathered enough information from Myspace and the school website to know these kids were pretty tough. She had to get in there and the only way was flattery, lots of it. She continually commented on Piggy’s Auto Shop, another tidbit thanks to About Me while praising Van’s metal knuckles –he blushed the whole time-. Sid was easily pulled in when she said “Accents are the sexiest things in the world.” When all of Lou’s friends were enraptured by the mere presence of Alice, she knew her work was done. It was time to make her exit but she had to make it last. “Oh boys, I’d like to get to know you all more… personally, want to go out for lunch sometime?” They all hopped off the fountain and eagerly nodded their approval; the date was set for tomorrow at noon, Freddy’s Diner. Before she turned to leave she looked Lou in the eye “I’ll see you there, right?” Her words were meant to hurt, but Lou felt himself burning with embarrassment, “Yeah, we’ll be there.” He brushed her cold glances off and as soon as she turned the corner the boys exploded. “Damn did you check that out?!” “Hell yea! They were huge!” “Nah, that’s gross you guys.” “Seriously though she’s checkin’ us out man!” Lou laughed quietly at his friend’s feeble minds. Tomorrow would be awesome, although it might be best to warn Fred ahead of time about the ambush of hungry teens.
The sunlight filtered in through the gauzy curtains as Lou rushed around the tiny apartment about the restaurant, the clock read 11:50 am and he had to go greet them before they arrived. He hastily finger combed his hair and slathered on deodorant. Ghost was watching a commercial for tan in a bottle when Lou rushed past him. “What’s the hurry?” He floated towards Lou and watched him shove on his chucks and grab the keys. “Can’t talk now, gotta go to restaurant.” Ghost glanced at the clock, “But your shift starts at 5, its only 12:05.” Lou whipped his head at the clock, “s**t! See ya!” He slammed the back door shut and stomped down the stairs. Entering the kitchen of Freddy’s Diner he saw Tony, the dishwasher boy, scrubbing some of the morning’s dishes. Fred came through the beaded curtains and frowned at Lou, “What was with the ruckus coming down the stairs, we have neighbors to be careful about.” Lou shrugged “They’re deaf Fred; they can’t even hear their own breathing.” Walking towards the main dining hall he saw that it was empty, he checked his watch to make sure it was after twelve and with a puzzled expression, asked Fred where the gang was. “Tsk, tsk, don’t call them that it sounds vile,” Fred went towards the stoves and simmered some pasta sauce “Besides, I thought your friends came during breakfast hour.” Lou ran to Fred, “What did you just say?” Fred stirred in some cilantro and calmly replied, “Yea, they were with this purple haired girl, really looking at her too, if you know what I mean.” He chuckled softly to himself and stirred the sauce again before putting the lid back on. Lou, on the other hand was confused, he whipped out his cell and dialed Orat, “Yello man!” His upbeat voice was unseeingly calm; it must have been a mistake. “Yeah, hey, um where are you guys it’s already noon.” Lou fiddled with his jacket zipper and waited for the response. “Dude, you didn’t get the message?” Orat sighed into the receiver and it sounded like someone else was there. “Um, no man what message?” Lou sensed something more going on than just a “mistake”.
“Oh, well Alice txted all of us saying she changed it to the morning,” As he paused, Lou could her squeals and deep laughter “Where are you?” Lou nearly demanded, “Oh at the Amusement park, man Alice is the bomb! She got all of us tickets to the Banana-Rama Concert!” He brightened up a bit after hearing this news, maybe things would go right after all. “Cool man when is it?” This time when Orat replied he sounded uneasy, “Right now, at the amusement park… sorry man we thought you wouldn’t mind, at least that’s what Alice sa-.” Angrily hanging up, Lou trudged back up the stairs and slammed his front door. Ghost, this time, was flipping through a Playboy issue, “Ghost!” Lou abhorred reading those trashy magazines, but Ghost always seemed to find them. Sitting atop the magazine, Ghost peevishly looked at him “Back so soon?” Lou leaned on the windowsill, the light shining on his forehead made him look more saintly than he felt. “It’s Alice.” Upon hearing the utterance of a female name, Ghost jumped up and started floating around him, poking and calling him “Player.” Brushing off the childish taunts, Lou started a winding rant about how it took just 24 hours for the venomous leech to oust him from his friends. “She bought them sold out tickets, SOLD OUT TICKETS for God Sakes’!” When it was time for him to start his shift, Ghost quietly thanked the heavens for finally making him shut the hell up; a knock erupted from the front door. “I’ll get it.” Lou muttered angrily under his breath, Ghost just kicked back on the couch “It’s not like I could get, who would see me?”
Alice stood at the doorway, head tilted towards Lou’s face, her eyes trained on his. Lou was caught off guard and stepped backwards slightly, Alice advanced and talked slowly “Hey there, sorry you couldn’t be there today, it seemed like you weren’t feeling well.” He could feel her eyes burning a hole where his was. He backed into the wall, “What made you think that?” The friendly, docile girl he thought she once was vanished when he saw the glint of metal burst from her hands. She dove for his chest as he stepped aside, resulting in her hitting the wall with a thud. She quickly got up and started to punch him. He grabbed her hands and tried to throw her atop the couch, “Damn, this girl’s got more punch than the guys.” He thought while dodging her karate kick. He grabbed her foot and twisted it, sending her to the ground. “********, why can’t he give up!” She angrily thought, feeling a sprain beginning to form on her ankle, she winced while jumping up and giving him a good smack on the face. The fight erupted into the kitchen, Alice shouting curse words the entire time, “You b*****d! You ruined my life!” He dodged being hit by his own forks and knives. He grabbed a towel to try and twist her hands back, she anticipated this and used the towel to semi-strangle him. “Mother Fu-!” He bit her hands so that she yelped in pain. Fred’s voice echoed into the window, “What is happening in there, everyone alright?!” Alice saw this as a chance to kick his family jewels; he countered by grabbing her hair and throwing her at the door. But it was still open. “s**t!” Lou screamed as he heard her body roll down the staircase. It was a good 15 steps of concrete and he couldn’t believe what he’d done. She was a girl! “But she fight’s like a guy.” He gave into that excuse and ran to get some bandages, when he came back, there a small pool of blood at the end of the staircase but no Alice. Remorse filled his heart and he knew he couldn’t just let that go. That brief interlude with death made him feel entitled to an apology. Closing the door he saw Ghost sitting atop the T.V, popcorn in hand, chomping away while staring in awe at Lou. “THAT WAS TIGHT!” Ghost hopped off the T.V, sending popcorn every which way and jumped all over the room. “It was like BAM, SLAM, and DAMN!” Lou couldn’t help but smile at these words of praise. But he knew he had to find her and apologize.
The next day he saw his friends looking despondent. “What happened to you guys, the Banana-Rama wasn’t what you guys expected?” Orat looked so somber it made him want to laugh, “Alice said she didn’t want anything to do with us anymore.” Piggy added, “She was too occupied with college to hang out with a bunch of sophomores.” Lou saw this as a chance and asked what college she went to. “Callahan College.” They all seemed to know. Saying he had to work a double shift, Lou excused himself and ran back home eager to look up directions for the school. “Callahan College, Callahan college,” He whispered while sorting through junk sites. “Ahh, Callahan College is a couple blocks away. Perfect.”
“Welcome Class! Did you all have a great weekend?” Alice grunted in disagreement. After Saturday’s defeat, she had given up hope. Falling down a flight of stairs was not a pleasant experience. But now she had a day of school to complete and a cheery professor was the last thing she wanted. Throughout the class, Alice fiddled with her lavender sunglasses and couldn’t help but think about what she had done. It had been easy, so simple that she had to take a little advantage. The only thing that bothered her was the time, one minute she was a mysterious older woman, the next a giggling grade school girl at an amusement park. She succeeded in stealing Lou’s place and had played with his emotions, which was true enough, but losing to him in a brawl had hurt, in more ways than one. A swift stab in the heart would have ended him; indeed she had gone crazy with revenge. “Alice.” In the middle of drawing a picture of Lou dying a slow, uncensored death, her pencil dropped to the ground. “Excuse me young man, but you are interrupting my class time!” Lou had entered the classroom and was walking towards Alice. She could hear the class murmuring, “Is that her boyfriend?” “Nah, he’s way too cute to go out with her.” “Forget that, I want to take notes!” Lou had to force himself to come to her class, arguing with the college campus directory advisor about how it was an emergency. “What the ******** are you doing here?!” Alice whispered in an angry tone. She was not one to enjoy surprises, especially by opponents. She fumbled around the ground for her pencil while he tried to explain. “I’m sorry that I… err, threw you down the stairs and I-” He was running his hand through his hair when the professor cut in. “Of course a degenerate like you, Alice, would bring your boyfriends into a designated learning environment!” He leaned into his mahogany desk while straightening his paperwork, “You never had much potential at this school, and your parents forced your application in by building the laboratory!” With that, he sent the papers flying off the desk; they landed on the floor face up, revealing all of Alice’s homework. Big, red F’s, D’s and C’s marked them all. “B-but, this is-” Alice stood up, outraged and her eyes darted back from Lou and the professor. She sensed the heat creeping onto her complexion and tried to hold back tears. Lou watched her fall back quietly into her seat, while packing her notebook and pencil in a bright yellow messenger bag. He tried to grab her hand, but she turned and glared until her eyes became nothing more than slits. “Leave me alone!” Alice wouldn’t take any lshit this time; she ran to the exit.
The roar of traffic deafened her as Alice sprinted down the sidewalk. Making it out of there was only the beginning. Lou was trying to keep pace as he rounded the corner, as soon as he spotted her and galloped at full speed. She was trapped, either she wait for the crosswalk or run into the onslaught of traffic. She hastily decided to jump into the zooming cars when she felt herself tumbling backwards. Falling onto a decidedly soft body she looked up. Lou was staring down at her; his face somber and serious. Alice got up and furiously pushed him back. The subway was a block away and while running at full speed, she made it there, only turning back once in a while at his figure off in the distance. Dancing onto the steps, Alice had to restrain herself from doing a victory dance in the middle of the subway. But as she went to get her ticket she felt a hot breath tickle her neck. She whipped her head back and glared at a sweaty Lou. “What is your problem?” She stepped off the ticket counter and leaned against a wall, grateful for the coolness. “Just let me explain.” He had a pleading look in his eyes. Taking her silence as approval he launched into his practiced speech. “You see, I’m sorry about what happened in the apartment but you just jumped me and well the guys miss you. They enjoyed your company and I just felt that you were somehow taking my place, but I’m blabbering and will you accept my apology?” He held out his hand in a friendly gesture, the chatter of the crowd diminishing in comparison to his beating heart. Alice didn’t know what to think, on one hand it was a perfect moment to torment his kindness, but on the other… “I can’t.” Her nearly inaudible answer made Lou ask what she had said. Clearing her throat she began again, “I c-can’t stay with you guys.” She played with her hair while talking to the ground. He seemed confused, “Why not?” The air seemed to change to a strange tension, “Because…” She looked up into his eyes and took off her sunglasses. The fluorescent lights pierced her eyes, but Lou saw them clearly. Her eyes were milky white, a glow hovering slightly around them. She saw his face crumple in awe, but she couldn’t deal with it. He knew her secret and there was no way to take it back. Dazed in a pit of confusion Lou briefly witnessed Alice turning and leaving the subway. When he fully regained his senses he stomped up to the streets and wildly looked for a bobbing purple head. Sinking down on a nearby wall, Lou felt a mixture of remorse, regret and anger for her. She had been swept into a sea of denizens.
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Setting up the amp, Alice knew her day couldn’t get any worse. Her failing grades at the only college that took her in meant trouble. Who cares if her parents paid for all of it, who cares that she didn’t even know all of her professors’ names. No one, that’s who, so coming to the Rock Hard café, set her free. Music was her life and playing with her band, Glow in the Dark Band-Aids a.k.a GDBA, was worth much more than a B+ in English. As the guitarist checked “Two, One, Two.” on the decrepit microphone, Alice saw the incoming audience. These were her regulars, her only fans in an otherwise cold world. Each week would be the same, the feedback from the ancient amp and Clark, the guitarist, trying to beat box his way into a sound check. Fans would go wild with neon glow lights and scream GDBA over and over until the ceiling shook. Well, not really, but Alice could feel the magnitude of appreciation whenever she sang her heart out to this forlorn crowd. Walking over to the nearby table, which was unoccupied, she sat down and traced her fingers idly in the dust. Only God knows how long ago this club had been cleaned. When one of the waiters came by to offer her a drink, she looked up from her bangs and flashed a smile, one of the few she actually meant. She sat there sipping her drink for what seemed like forever until Mr.Chang, the old Chinese owner of Rock Hard Café, announced her name. “Everyone, I now give you, GLOW IN THE DARK BAND-AIDS!” She laughed silently to herself; Alice still couldn’t get over his thick accent. But she knew what she had to do. She set down her drink, and lightly dusting off her plum miniskirt, walked quietly over to the stage, amidst a somewhat loud cheer of the audience.
“Yo! Hurry up dude the show’s starting!” Lou heaved a sigh as Orat pulled him into the rancor of the club. Forced against his own will, Orat had dragged Lou into coming to the Rock Hard Café to check out some bands. “It’s for research.” His words enticed Lou. The café/club was already sweating and musky. Up on stage, a girl with violet hair was screaming into a microphone while her band played with an unknown energy. The audience went wild with joy and he could catch faint cheers of “GDBA”. As Lou turned to ask Orat the meaning of GDBA, he saw his blond head speaking to the owner and bopping his head to the beat. Lou grinned at his friend’s audacity and tiptoed over tired audience members and carefully avoided spills. When he reached Orat they both found a table to watch the show from. “Dude don’t be a loser, it stands for Glow in the Dark Band-Aids.” Orat laughed at Lou’s question. It was a first for Lou, being smarter than most people. He could still remember when he and Orat first met; it was in Freddy’s Diner nearly a decade ago. Lou had been the strange new kid living atop Freddy’s restaurant. He had to work there after school in order to be able to live on the second story. One day as Orat and his parents dropped in for dinner, they saw Lou mopping and while his mother pitied the child, Orat had gone up to Lou and started pummeling him. Now Lou was a fighter and when anyone challenged him he was up for it. They started fist fighting on the ground and while the parents tried to separate them, Orat jumped off him first and held out his hand. Wary of another attack, Lou took it and Orat whispered in his ear “Good fight man, we need to stick together.” Just like that, they became a gang of two. Natural warriors of a concrete jungle, they would take any opponent no matter what size. Lou shook away his memories and tried to listen to the band, but the loud electronica was not his type. “Later man, I’m gonna go take a piss.” He got up from the table and glanced briefly at the two hippies sitting on the other edge. Orat looked up and smiled “Don’t be knocking up some hookers now.” Lou just shook his head; he had always been like that, Orat, never without his guitar or his jokes. Somewhere along the way towards the bathroom he had picked up some greenish looking soda. Reaching towards the dumpster that was precariously perched over the amp, he tossed it without looking back once. “Oh there’s the bathroom.” He saw it straight ahead and while walking towards it, he didn’t hear the fizzing of electric wires, or turned to see his drink rolling atop the amp, smoke slowly coming from it.
“HEY EVERYONE! WOO! THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE TONIGHT! DO YOU WANT ANOTHER SONG?” Alice had just finished her 4th song of the night and was going for her finale. The audience screamed back with pleasure and chanted “One More time.” Tonight the crowd seemed more responsive than usual, but as she turned to lower the amp she noticed some punk throw his cup onto the garbage can next to it and miss. Somehow the cup spilled all over the amp and while there was a faint hissing coming from the speakers, she could feel the panic rising in her throat. Smoke meant fire and fire led to… She couldn’t think of what would happen to the club or her budding career. Sweating furiously she grabbed the microphone to tell the crowd the show was cancelled, but before she could say anything, the curtain caught on fire as the amp burst into flames. “RUN!!!!!!!!!!” Her voice was raspy from the vocals and screaming wasn’t making it any better. Her band scrambled to take their equipment outside while tables were overturned, waiters left their posts to get out of the club and Mr.Chang threw Alice a glare she would never forget while he exited through the employee’s only door. As she stood there watching the chairs become engulfed in the fire, she could feel her life burning up with it. Having half a mind to just stay here and lie along with the flames, she saw the guy responsible come out of the bathroom and when seeing the fire, looked at her in anguish while running out of the café without a word or apology. She seethed with rage and jumped off the stage in distress. Her heart was doing summersaults while she carefully walked out, microphone in hand. Outside was much cooler than inside and as she tried sneaking towards her band she sensed Mr.Chang closing in on her. “ALICE!” He grabbed her wrist and spun her around. His eyes gave the air a drop in temperature and she could feel goose bumps dotting her arms. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CAFÉ?!” Pointing an accusing finger at her she looked past him and saw the dark haired perpetrator and his blond friend walking down the street, excited gestures peppering their talk. Tuning in on Old Man Chang’s rage fest she heard the word, “YOU’RE FIRED!” That sent her running down the opposite street, her unparalleled hatred for the kid forming.
“Bleep!” The coffee machine beeped excitedly after making the sixth cup of the night. A groggy looking Alice reached over to grab the steaming cup, she had been up all night after the horrid incident looking up everything and anything on the kid, more likely guy, who ruined everything for her. She guessed his age was 15 or so and looked up all of the high schools in the district. Page after page, face after face, the websites were full of garbage. Not one student looked like him. Heaving a sigh, she pulled back her hair into two short violet pig tails. She had calmed down but not much, she was still bloodthirsty for vengeance and the only way she knew how, death. Her plan was simple, track the b*****d down and kill him. As she clicked a link for the umpteenth time, she gasped. On the sophomore web book, grinning back at her in a simple yet naïve way was him. Him, the one destined to die in her hands. A slow, sly grin spread across her face, glancing at the top of the page she hastily wrote down the address of the school and tucked it into her bag. Tomorrow would be a very good day indeed.
As soon as the bell rang the whole school sprang back to life. Lou shuffled out of his 6th period class with a grin plastered on his face, today was Friday, and Fridays were meeting time. The gang was already there near the school fountain. Orat was lightly strumming his guitar, Van challenging a pitiful freshman while Sid dared Piggy to lift a passing girl’s skirt to see whether she had a thong on or not. Orat noticed him first and smiled, “Yo what up dude! Some mad s**t went down last night!” Sid and Piggy stopped picking at the girls’ skirts to listen to what he just said. As Orat proceeded to explaining the fire at the café and how it burned down, Van stopped pummeling the 9th grader long enough to put in his two cents “Ha, what dumbass started something like that?” Lou felt his face burn as he remembered how he was in the bathroom during the whole incident. But as soon as he started to reminisce he heard Sid blow a low whistle, “Babe alert! I call dibs!” As they all turned to look they were met with a tall, lean purple haired … woman. She seemed innocent like a child but in her eyes there was a certain spark. The air turned cold as the guys gaped at her. Gliding towards them Sid whispered “Look at them knockers.” Piggy gave him a swift slap on the head. “Don’t be such a perv she’s coming right towards us.” Indeed she was, Lou thought, he took the first step and stuck out his hand in a greeting. “Hey there, I’m Lou.” Flashing his most dashing smile, the girl took his hand with a strong grip and pumped it. “Glad to meet you Lou, I’m Alice.” She smiled an equally beautiful grin and turned to salute the rest of the group. As they settled back amid the splashing of the fountain, the interrogation began. “So what brings you here on such a lovely day eh?” Sid asked first, he tried to make his accent charming but she glanced over it as if it was a speech impediment. “Well I just came out of class, college ya know, and heard about your friend Orat.” The boys look at Orat as if she was his secret mistress. “Really? Orat?!” Van dismissed the notion as illogical. “Yea, I heard he was fantastic guitar player.” Orat blushed at this comment and was humble about his obvious talent. “It’s nothing really.”
Alice knew the game she was playing and couldn’t help spoon feed these bullshit lies to them. They were all ignorant enough; she was doing them a favor. Although her actions the previous night bordered stalker-esque, she had gathered enough information from Myspace and the school website to know these kids were pretty tough. She had to get in there and the only way was flattery, lots of it. She continually commented on Piggy’s Auto Shop, another tidbit thanks to About Me while praising Van’s metal knuckles –he blushed the whole time-. Sid was easily pulled in when she said “Accents are the sexiest things in the world.” When all of Lou’s friends were enraptured by the mere presence of Alice, she knew her work was done. It was time to make her exit but she had to make it last. “Oh boys, I’d like to get to know you all more… personally, want to go out for lunch sometime?” They all hopped off the fountain and eagerly nodded their approval; the date was set for tomorrow at noon, Freddy’s Diner. Before she turned to leave she looked Lou in the eye “I’ll see you there, right?” Her words were meant to hurt, but Lou felt himself burning with embarrassment, “Yeah, we’ll be there.” He brushed her cold glances off and as soon as she turned the corner the boys exploded. “Damn did you check that out?!” “Hell yea! They were huge!” “Nah, that’s gross you guys.” “Seriously though she’s checkin’ us out man!” Lou laughed quietly at his friend’s feeble minds. Tomorrow would be awesome, although it might be best to warn Fred ahead of time about the ambush of hungry teens.
The sunlight filtered in through the gauzy curtains as Lou rushed around the tiny apartment about the restaurant, the clock read 11:50 am and he had to go greet them before they arrived. He hastily finger combed his hair and slathered on deodorant. Ghost was watching a commercial for tan in a bottle when Lou rushed past him. “What’s the hurry?” He floated towards Lou and watched him shove on his chucks and grab the keys. “Can’t talk now, gotta go to restaurant.” Ghost glanced at the clock, “But your shift starts at 5, its only 12:05.” Lou whipped his head at the clock, “s**t! See ya!” He slammed the back door shut and stomped down the stairs. Entering the kitchen of Freddy’s Diner he saw Tony, the dishwasher boy, scrubbing some of the morning’s dishes. Fred came through the beaded curtains and frowned at Lou, “What was with the ruckus coming down the stairs, we have neighbors to be careful about.” Lou shrugged “They’re deaf Fred; they can’t even hear their own breathing.” Walking towards the main dining hall he saw that it was empty, he checked his watch to make sure it was after twelve and with a puzzled expression, asked Fred where the gang was. “Tsk, tsk, don’t call them that it sounds vile,” Fred went towards the stoves and simmered some pasta sauce “Besides, I thought your friends came during breakfast hour.” Lou ran to Fred, “What did you just say?” Fred stirred in some cilantro and calmly replied, “Yea, they were with this purple haired girl, really looking at her too, if you know what I mean.” He chuckled softly to himself and stirred the sauce again before putting the lid back on. Lou, on the other hand was confused, he whipped out his cell and dialed Orat, “Yello man!” His upbeat voice was unseeingly calm; it must have been a mistake. “Yeah, hey, um where are you guys it’s already noon.” Lou fiddled with his jacket zipper and waited for the response. “Dude, you didn’t get the message?” Orat sighed into the receiver and it sounded like someone else was there. “Um, no man what message?” Lou sensed something more going on than just a “mistake”.
“Oh, well Alice txted all of us saying she changed it to the morning,” As he paused, Lou could her squeals and deep laughter “Where are you?” Lou nearly demanded, “Oh at the Amusement park, man Alice is the bomb! She got all of us tickets to the Banana-Rama Concert!” He brightened up a bit after hearing this news, maybe things would go right after all. “Cool man when is it?” This time when Orat replied he sounded uneasy, “Right now, at the amusement park… sorry man we thought you wouldn’t mind, at least that’s what Alice sa-.” Angrily hanging up, Lou trudged back up the stairs and slammed his front door. Ghost, this time, was flipping through a Playboy issue, “Ghost!” Lou abhorred reading those trashy magazines, but Ghost always seemed to find them. Sitting atop the magazine, Ghost peevishly looked at him “Back so soon?” Lou leaned on the windowsill, the light shining on his forehead made him look more saintly than he felt. “It’s Alice.” Upon hearing the utterance of a female name, Ghost jumped up and started floating around him, poking and calling him “Player.” Brushing off the childish taunts, Lou started a winding rant about how it took just 24 hours for the venomous leech to oust him from his friends. “She bought them sold out tickets, SOLD OUT TICKETS for God Sakes’!” When it was time for him to start his shift, Ghost quietly thanked the heavens for finally making him shut the hell up; a knock erupted from the front door. “I’ll get it.” Lou muttered angrily under his breath, Ghost just kicked back on the couch “It’s not like I could get, who would see me?”
Alice stood at the doorway, head tilted towards Lou’s face, her eyes trained on his. Lou was caught off guard and stepped backwards slightly, Alice advanced and talked slowly “Hey there, sorry you couldn’t be there today, it seemed like you weren’t feeling well.” He could feel her eyes burning a hole where his was. He backed into the wall, “What made you think that?” The friendly, docile girl he thought she once was vanished when he saw the glint of metal burst from her hands. She dove for his chest as he stepped aside, resulting in her hitting the wall with a thud. She quickly got up and started to punch him. He grabbed her hands and tried to throw her atop the couch, “Damn, this girl’s got more punch than the guys.” He thought while dodging her karate kick. He grabbed her foot and twisted it, sending her to the ground. “********, why can’t he give up!” She angrily thought, feeling a sprain beginning to form on her ankle, she winced while jumping up and giving him a good smack on the face. The fight erupted into the kitchen, Alice shouting curse words the entire time, “You b*****d! You ruined my life!” He dodged being hit by his own forks and knives. He grabbed a towel to try and twist her hands back, she anticipated this and used the towel to semi-strangle him. “Mother Fu-!” He bit her hands so that she yelped in pain. Fred’s voice echoed into the window, “What is happening in there, everyone alright?!” Alice saw this as a chance to kick his family jewels; he countered by grabbing her hair and throwing her at the door. But it was still open. “s**t!” Lou screamed as he heard her body roll down the staircase. It was a good 15 steps of concrete and he couldn’t believe what he’d done. She was a girl! “But she fight’s like a guy.” He gave into that excuse and ran to get some bandages, when he came back, there a small pool of blood at the end of the staircase but no Alice. Remorse filled his heart and he knew he couldn’t just let that go. That brief interlude with death made him feel entitled to an apology. Closing the door he saw Ghost sitting atop the T.V, popcorn in hand, chomping away while staring in awe at Lou. “THAT WAS TIGHT!” Ghost hopped off the T.V, sending popcorn every which way and jumped all over the room. “It was like BAM, SLAM, and DAMN!” Lou couldn’t help but smile at these words of praise. But he knew he had to find her and apologize.
The next day he saw his friends looking despondent. “What happened to you guys, the Banana-Rama wasn’t what you guys expected?” Orat looked so somber it made him want to laugh, “Alice said she didn’t want anything to do with us anymore.” Piggy added, “She was too occupied with college to hang out with a bunch of sophomores.” Lou saw this as a chance and asked what college she went to. “Callahan College.” They all seemed to know. Saying he had to work a double shift, Lou excused himself and ran back home eager to look up directions for the school. “Callahan College, Callahan college,” He whispered while sorting through junk sites. “Ahh, Callahan College is a couple blocks away. Perfect.”
“Welcome Class! Did you all have a great weekend?” Alice grunted in disagreement. After Saturday’s defeat, she had given up hope. Falling down a flight of stairs was not a pleasant experience. But now she had a day of school to complete and a cheery professor was the last thing she wanted. Throughout the class, Alice fiddled with her lavender sunglasses and couldn’t help but think about what she had done. It had been easy, so simple that she had to take a little advantage. The only thing that bothered her was the time, one minute she was a mysterious older woman, the next a giggling grade school girl at an amusement park. She succeeded in stealing Lou’s place and had played with his emotions, which was true enough, but losing to him in a brawl had hurt, in more ways than one. A swift stab in the heart would have ended him; indeed she had gone crazy with revenge. “Alice.” In the middle of drawing a picture of Lou dying a slow, uncensored death, her pencil dropped to the ground. “Excuse me young man, but you are interrupting my class time!” Lou had entered the classroom and was walking towards Alice. She could hear the class murmuring, “Is that her boyfriend?” “Nah, he’s way too cute to go out with her.” “Forget that, I want to take notes!” Lou had to force himself to come to her class, arguing with the college campus directory advisor about how it was an emergency. “What the ******** are you doing here?!” Alice whispered in an angry tone. She was not one to enjoy surprises, especially by opponents. She fumbled around the ground for her pencil while he tried to explain. “I’m sorry that I… err, threw you down the stairs and I-” He was running his hand through his hair when the professor cut in. “Of course a degenerate like you, Alice, would bring your boyfriends into a designated learning environment!” He leaned into his mahogany desk while straightening his paperwork, “You never had much potential at this school, and your parents forced your application in by building the laboratory!” With that, he sent the papers flying off the desk; they landed on the floor face up, revealing all of Alice’s homework. Big, red F’s, D’s and C’s marked them all. “B-but, this is-” Alice stood up, outraged and her eyes darted back from Lou and the professor. She sensed the heat creeping onto her complexion and tried to hold back tears. Lou watched her fall back quietly into her seat, while packing her notebook and pencil in a bright yellow messenger bag. He tried to grab her hand, but she turned and glared until her eyes became nothing more than slits. “Leave me alone!” Alice wouldn’t take any lshit this time; she ran to the exit.
The roar of traffic deafened her as Alice sprinted down the sidewalk. Making it out of there was only the beginning. Lou was trying to keep pace as he rounded the corner, as soon as he spotted her and galloped at full speed. She was trapped, either she wait for the crosswalk or run into the onslaught of traffic. She hastily decided to jump into the zooming cars when she felt herself tumbling backwards. Falling onto a decidedly soft body she looked up. Lou was staring down at her; his face somber and serious. Alice got up and furiously pushed him back. The subway was a block away and while running at full speed, she made it there, only turning back once in a while at his figure off in the distance. Dancing onto the steps, Alice had to restrain herself from doing a victory dance in the middle of the subway. But as she went to get her ticket she felt a hot breath tickle her neck. She whipped her head back and glared at a sweaty Lou. “What is your problem?” She stepped off the ticket counter and leaned against a wall, grateful for the coolness. “Just let me explain.” He had a pleading look in his eyes. Taking her silence as approval he launched into his practiced speech. “You see, I’m sorry about what happened in the apartment but you just jumped me and well the guys miss you. They enjoyed your company and I just felt that you were somehow taking my place, but I’m blabbering and will you accept my apology?” He held out his hand in a friendly gesture, the chatter of the crowd diminishing in comparison to his beating heart. Alice didn’t know what to think, on one hand it was a perfect moment to torment his kindness, but on the other… “I can’t.” Her nearly inaudible answer made Lou ask what she had said. Clearing her throat she began again, “I c-can’t stay with you guys.” She played with her hair while talking to the ground. He seemed confused, “Why not?” The air seemed to change to a strange tension, “Because…” She looked up into his eyes and took off her sunglasses. The fluorescent lights pierced her eyes, but Lou saw them clearly. Her eyes were milky white, a glow hovering slightly around them. She saw his face crumple in awe, but she couldn’t deal with it. He knew her secret and there was no way to take it back. Dazed in a pit of confusion Lou briefly witnessed Alice turning and leaving the subway. When he fully regained his senses he stomped up to the streets and wildly looked for a bobbing purple head. Sinking down on a nearby wall, Lou felt a mixture of remorse, regret and anger for her. She had been swept into a sea of denizens.
