All Hope Is Gone - Slipknot

1. Joey

He walked and was soon to be at the garage they all practiced in. He held his drumsticks in the same hand he held his coffee in.

He stopped for a moment feeling his stomach hurt again. He resumed walking after a second of ache.

He sipped the drink as he walked down the dark hallway to the old door that led to a room full of amplifiers and wires all connected to instruments of all kinds. Their masks were almost never off when they went places simply because they all for some reason enjoyed them. To the point it was a big deal if someone showed up maskless, which he was doing because he needed to see a little better than he was with the mask today.

They had a gig coming up and seeing first without a mask was important to play with the mask.

He opened the door and slid to sit at his kit and put all his things down.

He did the usual and put on a sweater and sat on the seat. He put his coffee down next to him and waited for everyone else to show up. Usually Craig would walk in soon after but he supposed he was taking a little longer. He was bored and decided to pick up Mick's guitar and play a little with it. He strummed a bit and smiled when he found a sound he liked.

He put the guitar back down on the stand and walked back over to his drums. Maybe those stupid dumbasses forgot band practice is today? He thought.

He started messing with the drum set to hopefully remind them. He knew the drums were loud enough to hear from all of their rooms so he hoped it would get them up.

Soon after Craig and Shawn walked in together.

"Jesus, Joey, do you realize how early it is?" Shawn asked. His voice sounded half asleep still.

"It's practice time. Like we talked about?"

"No, Joey. Thats tomorrow." He said.

"Oh," he blushed a little. "I'm sorry."

"No, your fine. But we're all up, so come on we're meeting in the living room for breakfast."

"Oh God, who did what?" He asked and chuckled.

"You'll see, now c'mon."

He stood and walked a little behind with Craig saying hello and getting no response.

Joey was the shortest member of the group. He hung out a lot with Jim and Mick which didn't help his case at all. But he was fine with it and found himself poking fun at his shortness.

The three sat with everyone else. Joey immediately scrambled across the room and to sit on a couch with Mick and Paul next to him and Sid on the other side of Mick.

Corey was glaring and Joey from across the room, also maskless. Joey decided to play the little game he had with Corey where whenever he would get one of those looks he's look back and have a staring contest.

This continued until Corey rolled his eyes and Joey smiled.

"So, despite Joey's confusion today. We have a gig in a few days. Practice is tomorrow, not today. But today we're all going to take off our masks and go meet up with a friend. All of you can do whatever, but leave me and him alone. It's a secret." Corey announced.

Everyone began to fizzle out to their rooms. Joey stayed in the room and Corey went to another room.

"Hey Joey, come look at this shit!" Sid cackled from the hallway where everyone. Joey rushed over to see Craig holding Chris in a headlock and smiling.

"Craig, it's not fucking funny, let me go!" He laughed. Craig smiled a little more and let him go.

Mick appeared and pushed past to brush his hair in a mirror. That mirror had been started as a joke because Mick and Jim were about the only people who used it, but since the bathroom mirror was broken by Sid getting high and smashing shit they all had no choice but to use it. The mirror had become too inconvenient for just about anyone, but they didn't want to replace it.