Judgmental Morons

20. Chocolate Fudge Sundaes Take the Stage

"Cool looking jacket, check." I roll my eyes as Alex looks himself over in the foggy mirror. We're sitting in the little enclosure that passes off as a backstage in our school auditorium. We are waiting to be called out on stage, to perform in the Annual Music Festival. It's a bit tough to process that the event that turned Alex and me from acquaintances who hate each other to friends who hate each other is lurking right around the corner. I can barely hear my nervous heart beating wildly over the wailing and screeching coming from the stage. I think a band was trying to play a song by some band named Limp Bizkit.

I don't know which is worse: The fact that the band sounds eerily similar to a walrus dying or the fact that the original band was named Limp Bizkit.

"Perfect quiff, check," Alex continues, still hogging the mirror.

"This is probably the most bizarre checklist I've ever heard," I tell him.

"Oh please," Alex scoffs. "Look over at Adam."

I turn around to spot Adam a foot away from me, doing some sort of yoga move that made him look like a cross between a penguin and a praying mantis.

"It's a relaxation exercise," he tells me, "to calm your nerves."

I roll my eyes again.

"Just because you were born without a fear center in your brain, along with other very obvious problems," Alex says from his corner, "doesn't mean the rest of us can't be nervous about going on stage in front of our entire high school and possibly making a fool out of ourselves."

"Yeah, like these poor dudes," Adam smirks before jerking his head at the stage. I grin at his remark. I don't know if most highly-uncomfortable-and-obviously-a-bad-idea dates lead to the comfortable friendship I have with Adam, but I'm happy for it. We came to a mutual agreement about being just friends, and no more, without having a weird conversation about it.

I turn to face Alex, and even in the dim light, I think I see him frowning. "It's unsportsmanlike to laugh at your opponents in any kind of contest, guys."

"True," Jack tells us, and Adam grins sheepishly. I roll my eyes a third time, because I can't trust myself to talk. I feel like I'll forget everything I've been practicing, every beat and riff, if I talk too much.

If the drummer is this nervous, what's the rest of the band gonna do?

The Dying Walruses finish their song with a particularly deafening screech from their guitars, and I immediately feel my face blanch. Adam seems to be taking forceful breaths through his nose, and Terri furiously attempts to civilize her hair (she'd shown up just two minutes ago, probably after a heavy makeout-or-more session with Jeff), and Alex looks back at the mirror and whispers, "Self-confidence, not check."

I croak out "It's time guys, let's do this", but even I can barely hear myself. My knees shake as I stand up. I hate stage fright.

"Okay," Jack booms out, his inner leader showing, "We've rehearsed this thing a million times. Nothing is going to go wrong. And even if it does, we'll probably just laugh about it an hour after, because really, that's our main goal: to have the time of our seventeen year old lives out there. So come on, let's go out there and do Fall Out Boy some justice!"

None of us clap and whoop like cliché characters out of some movie, but as we walk out, I can almost feel the determination radiating out of everyone, including myself.

It diminishes a little when the emcee introduces us as The Chocolate Fudge Sundae (I still can't believe I was the only one who voted against that name) and a sudden wave of pure terror hits me as I look out into the crowd of judgmental adolescents in front of me. I am suddenly acutely aware of how ridiculous I must look: A girl with a waist-length ponytail, large cheeks and squinty eyes (the girls forced me to put on contacts), clad in all black and looking utterly lost.

My own voice sounded in my head. "People are judgmental morons. You just have to prove them wrong."

The two sentences help calm me down, and as the boys strum their guitars to the opening of My Songs Know What You did in the Dark, my head clears. I close my eyes and grab my drumsticks.

Three minutes pass in what feels like a fraction of a second. I am too focused on my own part, pouring my soul into every drum riff. Still, I realize we are in perfect sync. Alex sounds disgustingly good. Terri's chords are holding the whole song together. Adam and Jack are putting their heart into every strum of their guitars. I feel like I should be suffering from sensory overload, what with all the noise the crowd is making, but I don't. I barely register when the song ends, even though my arms have finally stopped and the crowd is yelling themselves hoarse. I walk out as if in a daze, and faintly understand that everybody is hugging me and cheering and whooping. Only when I feel strong, warm arms around me and catch a whiff of his scent do I come back to reality. "You were amazing," Alex whispers into my ear.

"I was," I say in a dumbfounded way, "You were too, and Jack and Adam and Terri, and...we were amazing! Nobody threw up, nobody forgot their chords, nobody ripped their clothing...holy fuckbrownie!"

Alex laughs, and I can't help but laugh along with him. When the results come an hour later, I am still laughing, highly aware of Alex's arm slung across my shoulder as we all stand on stage, holding the pathetic little trophy among the five of us and whooping and hollering like madmen. People probably think we're overly excited about a simple school competition, but in reality, we just had the time of our lives, surrounded by an amazing bunch of people.

A/N

IDK why this chapter feels kinda deep to me. But anyway I guess I'm just prepping you for the big event in the next chapter.

You guessed it, someone's gonna die.

Ha. JK. Nobody's dying. I just need to write some filler chapters, and after the next one, we'll be back to Meg and Alex drama I promise.

Oh and the cover/banner at the top was made by the awesomesauce @TanithloWrites. You're great, dude. This story would be pointless without you. Although I'm not entirely sure if the picture was properly uploaded.

Comment and vote if you like it! Lurv Chu all.