let's light up the sky ☆

Chapter 9

I'll never get tired of seeing the roller coasters come into view as we get closer to Knott's Berry Farm. Mom, Dad, and I were already planning a trip together. We made it a family adventure now that Armen's home. I couldn't help but think it was kind of mean to bring a dude in a cast to an amusement park. This time, at least, he was happy to eat all the junk food he wanted.

I hopped out of the car first and set up Armen's wheel-around scooter. He seemed surprised that I was so quick to volunteer to help.

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me. "What do you want?"

"I can't just be nice to my lovely big brother?"

"Fine, I'll give you a bite of my funnel cake later."

I did a happy shimmy, the hem of my babydoll style top swishing. Mom helped him out while Dad grabbed our bag to go inside the park. "Anoush wants to be first in line for Silver Bullet," Dad joked.

"... maybe, I'll never tell."

We were early enough to avoid most of the crowd. For a Monday morning in June, it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. "Hey Mom, can I get a pic with this?" I asked, pointing to the new bench shaped like a collection of boysenberries. The bench was the same shade of purple as the shirt I was wearing. It was also incredibly hot, even under the shade of the tree above it. I picked the most careful pose to not burn my thighs as I sat down.

Armen snickered as I posed for the camera. "You're a boysenberry."

Mom clicked her tongue and gave him a soft slap. "Armen!" At least Dad thought it was pretty funny. "Giannis, don't egg him on."

"Hey, he's a chip off the old block."

"And a massive pain in the butt," I replied back with a light laugh.

During our little moment, I saw a young kid – couldn't have been older than 10 – staring Dad down. I subtly nodded my head in his direction to catch Dad's attention. Dad smiled and waved in the kid's direction.

"I'm so sorry to bother you," his mom started. "Dylan is a huge fan of your band. We've taken him to see you guys live three times now."

Dad chuckled and shyly rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'm flattered! Always nice when heavy metal brings in the younger generations." Dylan came out of his shell when Dad knelt down in front of him. "What's your favorite Power album?"

Dylan smiled and stepped forward to meet him eye-to-eye. "I like The Chosen! But my dad listens to Throne all the time so I guess I like that one too."

Dad gasped dramatically. "The Chosen is my all-time favorite, and I've made a lot of songs! I wrote, like, half of that album by myself. My favorite song off that album is Circus. At our next show, I'll tell the guys we should play some of The Chosen's songs for you, okay?"

"Okay!"

"And hey, would you like to meet the rest of the band too?"

Dylan's eyes grew wide with surprise. "Are they here??"

Dad laughed. "No, not today. If you're coming to our LA show next month, I can give you and your parents backstage passes to meet the rest of the guys. How does that sound?"

"Thank you so much, that would be awesome!" Dylan's entire face had turned pink because of the excitement. He looked up to his mom with starstruck eyes like he couldn't believe his luck. "Dad's gonna be so pumped when he finds out."

"He sure will, buddy," Dylan's mom replied back. Dad offered to take a picture with Dylan and promised him a CD signed by all the guys when they came to the show. He asked for the mom's email address so he could send her the backstage invite. The red-haired woman thanked Dad for his kindness before she and Dylan left us.