Adopted (Book 1) *EDITING*

Chapter 11: Karmas a Bitch

As I walked in, I laughed. Almost everyday afterschool, I would come here and marvel at all the guitars and other instruments. Brendon and I walked over to the guitar area. "Ok kid, pick your weapon." He said smiling. He soon wondered away to talk to some fans that wanted autographs. This left me with all the guitars. There were fenders, corts, squirs, and lots more. As I walked down the row, I came across a beautiful fender. It's black and white body shined bright under the ceiling lights. I carefully lifted it off the wall to feel how it felt. Not too heavy, very sturdy. A good fit for me. All of the sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spin around to see Brendon standing, with a funny little smile on. Then he looked at my guitar.

"A Fender. Nice pick." He said. We started to walk out of the guitar section. "Listen, I want to talk to you about something." I looked up at him in nodded. "I was wondering, if you wanted to join the band." What?! I stopped walking and froze. He giggled. "Listen, I can't keep playing rhythm guitar while I'm singing. The guys and I have been talking and we all thought it would be a good idea to let you jo-"

"OH MY GOD YES THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" I said, interrupting him with a hug. He laughed and after a little bit, he pulled away.

"After we pay for your guitar, there's a guy from a music magazine who wanted to interview the two of us." I looked over to where he was looking. There was a nice looking guy standing waving. I also noticed that Jessica and Jada were now entering to store. Crap. "Could you go find Dallon? I'm sure he wants to watch the interview." I nodded and handed him my new guitar ignoring the fact that the two bitchy girls were now following me, keeping their distance like I was some wild animal. This wild animal was about to rip their bleach blonde hair out. I quickly made my way to the bass section but Dallon was no where to be found. Someone cleared their throat, I sighed and turned around.

"Well well well, look what the cat dragged back to the house. Why'd you quit school. Were you too dumb? Did they make a rule against friendless emos?" After hearing that I couldn't help but laugh. "Just telling the truth."

"Oh Jada, only if you knew who you were talking to." I smiled and looked over to Brendon who was waving me over. There sat Dallon also. "You might want to watch this." I said looking at them. I started to walk away. The followed and hid behind a record shelf near where we were about to be interviewed. I say down on the couch and looked into the camera.

"Hello everyone. I'm James form Music Monthly. We are here in Seattle with Brendon and Sydney Urie." We both waved at the camera. "This first question is for you Sydney. We heard your from Seattle. Are you expecting to see any old friends at the show tonight?" I shifted in my seat trying not to make eye contact with Jada and Jessica.

"Well the thing is, when I went to school here. I didn't really have a lot of friends. I was bullied a lot. But I do think I'll recognize a lot of people at the two shows because a lot of people at my old school liked panic." He nodded his head and then started to talk to Brendon about the new down that he was writing. I've already heard it. 'Hallelujah'.

After they talked for a while, the interview was about to end. "We have one last question. It's for Sydney. So if you could play any instrument in the band, what would you play?" I look at Brendon and he nods.

"Well we were going to surprise people with this at the show tonight but I guess I can say it now." I looked at Jada and Jessica who were death glaring me. I then looked back at the interviewer. "I'm going to start playing rhythm guitar for the band." The guys face was priceless. I looked over to Jada and Jessica. Jessica mouthed the word 'lies' at me.

"That officially makes you one of the youngest guitarists to be in a popular band." I nod smiling. "that must be very exciting for you!" he said with a smiling. "Well, I thank you two for your time! For more interviews, click that subscribe button!"

After the interview, I grabbed my guitar case that now contained my new guitar and walked over to Jada and Jessica. "Lies. All we can hear are lies." I laugh. "You can't play, you can't sing, you can't do anything. Your just an emo slu-" Brendon came over and swung his arm around my shoulder.

"Hi girls, what are we talking about?" The two girls stood there speechless. "That's what I thought. Now leave, I don't want you talking to my daughter like that." They just stood there.

"You heard him, go." Dallon said, joining in on the conversation. The two girls started to walk out. We all laughed and high fived. After they left, we started to walk back to the venue.

Hours later, minutes before showtime

I took a deep breath and clutched the neck of my guitar. "5 minutes!" Someone said into their earpiece. God I hate earpieces, it feels like someone's screaming in your ear sometimes. I looked in the mirror of our dressing room. For tonight I'm wearing a black panic! shirt with white writing, black skinny jeans, my black combat boots, and my cool leather jacket with studded shoulders. I look pretty cool, just saying. Brendon looked at me and smiled. I mess around with some of the tabs Brendon had thought me for the songs. Although I've performed at all the shows so far, I'm extremely nervous for show. What if I mess up. "3 minutes!" Wow of times going by fast. "Brendon, Sydney, we need to get you guys backstage." Someone said. We followed that person until we got to the stairs where we would soon walk up to the stage on. Dallon, Dan, Brendon, and I group hugged. "1 minute!" A video started playing on the screen. Soon after, someone signaled for Brendon, Dallon, and Dan to walk on stage. They all took their places and Brendon picked up his microphone.

"HOW ARE YOU SEATTLE!!!!" Everyone went crazy. Brendon giggled. "So, you may notice that someone is missing tonight. Kenny is sick and we needed someone to take his place for tonight." The crowd when crazy. I think they know it's me. "Sydney? Would you like to come out?" I smiled and waved to the crowd as I walked out. Why do they love me so much? Brendon and I hugged before I walked over to my mic stand and grabbed my mic.

"Hi everyone!" They went crazy. I looked around and saw lots of people from my old school. Not all of them were nice to me. I made eye contact with a boy who had pushed me into a garbage can once. "I see a lot of familiar faces out there!" I said in a singsong voice. I put my mic back on the stand and grabbed a pick. "Enough talk, let's get this show started!" The crowd went crazy.

After we played This Is Gospel, Nicotine, I Write Sins not tragedies, and a few more songs, it was time for Brendon and I to sing northern downpour. The crew switched out guitars out with acoustics and I carried my mic stand closer his. "This next song is called Northern Downpour. Now we I usually don't sing this song because I cry but what the hell, we're gonna give it a try." Brendon says smiling at me. The crowd goes quiet. All the people from my old school were watching me. Their stares pierced though me like tiny daggers. We sang.

We both ended up with tears on our cheeks. I have the right to cry. When I lived here, panic at the disco was the band that was pulling me through the pain of bullying. I never thought I would be standing on the same stage as my favorite singer singing a song that I would listen to as I cried my self to sleep. "I know the worlds a broken bone" he sang looking at me. "But melt your headaches, call it home." At that moment, I noticed that my life has changed forever. Things have changed for me and that's okay.