Short, Blond and Cute

Freckled Face P1

Jen dropped her bike carelessly on the lawn and wandered up to the mailbox, her mind far away from the suburban street and her paper route. Dropping the newspaper into the box she checked her over the shoulder bag, and nodded to herself. "All done."

The sound of a sick drum solo snagged her feet as she made her way back to her bike, and she turned to the neighboring house with a hopeful grin.

The garage door was hanging two feet from the ground allowing the drummers music to spill out into the Saturday afternoon. Jen crept up to the garage and listened, her smile stretching across her face when she recognized the rhythm. Dropping to the ground she crawled under the door, "I found you!"

Tom looked up from his drum set and jerked in surprise. Jen lay on her stomach, her face resting in her hands, "Do you live here?"

Tom broke into laughter and stared at her in wonder, "Yeah, where did you come from?!"

Jen army crawled further in and stood up, "I was doing a paper route- to think I've passed your house every Saturday!"

Tom's smile froze and he ducked his head, "Yeah." He got up and pretended to be busy with his drumsticks.

Jen watched him, her heart sinking, "Did you like the movie?" she tried.

He glanced up at her, "Yeah, you?"

"Ah, I was feeling kinda... not myself."

'Oh' he mouthed and nodded.

"How about a redo!?" Jen suggested, stepping closer.

He stepped back, "Um, I don't know, I'm kind of busy. The guys are coming over soon to practice." He gestured to the various cords and mic stand.

Jen scratched her leg with her foot, "Do you still like me?"

He locked eyes with her, his thick lashes once again pulling her in, "Yeah, I just thought maybe you... didn't..."

Jen's insides felt empty and making her body move took tremendous effort. She ran at him, jumping into his surprised arms and planting her best kiss on his lips. He stumbled, legs getting tangled in cords. They fell backwards, their foreheads colliding and body's crashing against each other.

"OWE!" Jen gasped, pushing herself up as Tom rubbed his forehead.

He cracked a smile first, it was followed by her bubbling laughter.

The garage door opened, causing both Jen and Tom to jump in surprise.

The Zombie Fail band members stepped into the garage and froze, then broke into grins and whistled.

Jen and Tom scrambled to their feet red in the face, "Hey guys!" Tom greeted.

"What's ah, what's going on here?" the lead singer asked with a boyish smile as he threw aside a spent cigarette.

Tom cleared his throat loudly while the others snickered.

"Hi!" Jen waved, over the embarrassment, "We met before."

"Oh, we remember!" the base guitarist assured.

"Chrissy was just going to hang out while we practice." Tom said, rubbing his forehead in an attempt to hide his embarrassment.

"Cool, I brought PJ. They can be our band groupies." The lead singer shrugged, still smirking.

Jen noticed another girl who had entered with the band, she wore pajama bottoms and a basketball jersey. Her odd fashion choice fit well with her tangled hair and general 'I'm-weird-and-don't-care' vibe. Jen liked her immediately.

"My real names not PJ, it's just what everyone calls me." the girl said with a humored twist to her lips.

"Oh I get it, you can call me Jen!"

Tom and the others paused to give her a weird look.

Jen waited for a moment then snorted a laugh, "I'm joking! Why would anyone call me that?" she muttered nervously.

The girls settled onto an old couch while the band set up to play. Despite performing for a crowd the week before, the boys were nervous and goofed around a bit before actually getting started. Jen and PJ were patient and encouraging, giving thumbs up and creating a two-person mush pit, they even offered to be back up singers- it didn't go well but everyone had a good laugh at their pitchy attempt.

After an hour they took a brake to dig into a bag of chips and toss around ideas for new song names. Jen made herself comfortable draped over Tom the minute he tried to sit down, he didn't complain though.

"So, what's with calling you 'Jen'?" he asked when the others were preoccupied with a chugging contest.

Jen pretended to be busy with untangling her hair, "Oh, I was just being funny."

"Right. Why... why aren't you like this at school?"

Jen gulped and sprung out of his lap, "look at PJ go!" she exclaimed as the girl chugged a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle.

"That's it!" the lead singer threw his hands up in defeat, "Our new song will be called 'Chugging Queen'!"

The others agreed enthusiastically, "And every chorus we'll pause, and Tom will burp!" the base player suggested loudly.

Tom demonstrated by releasing a throaty belch, Jen laughed, glad for the destruction.

"Ok boys, thats enough for one day!" a woman announced from the garage door.

Everyone turned in surprise. "Hey mom." Tom greeted, jumping to his feet, Jen grabbed his hand, feeling intimidated. Tom's mom was surprisingly young looking with full tattoo sleeves and frizzy hair.

The band members stood up straighter and smiled, doing their best to look responsible. Tom's mom looked over the lot of them with eyes as thickly rimmed with lashes as her son. With an exasperated sigh she marched into the garage and plucked the cigarette bud from the floor.

"How many times have I told you, Leth," she scolded, turning to the lead singer, "Not in my garage!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jane." He lamented, ushering smirks from the others.

"You told me you were going to quit!" Tom's mom didn't let up, then she turned her eyes on Jen. "Who's this?"

Jen waved with a broad smile, "Hi! We're dating!"

"Hum!" Tom's mom turned away, and picking up an empty pop can, lobbed it perfectly into the garbage on her way out of the garage, "Practice is all done for the day, I need to sleep before my shift tonight." She announced.

"Ok mom." Tom responded while the others started snickering and making fun of Leth for being scolded.

"Your mom's-" PJ stared to say before being interrupted by the base player, "HOT!"

"Shut up, man!" Tom complained and pushed him away playfully.

"Does she like me?" Jen asked as the others started to clean up.

"Yeah, if she didn't, you'd know!" Tom assured.

Coming into the last quarter of the story- how do you think things will play out?