And you thought it would be Easy

The Pickup

This first day should be easy breezy, the tour started in Dallas, Texas. I flew in from Cali the day before and stayed in a small Motel close to the airport. This morning I would have to retrieve the bus from the depot where it had been serviced and fitted to the bands needs and requests and then pick them up from their hotel in the town centre, have them settle in and then drive to the venue in Fair Park on the outskirts of the city. All in all a short drive of about two hours. The first real leg involving an all night drive would only happen the day after.

I called into the depot with my paper works and documents to pick up the bus. I earned a few grins when they saw me but I couldn't be bothered. I was way too excited that this adventure would now eventually start. When I got the first glimpse of my new home for the next weeks I chuckled. Obviously the band requested full-on graphic on the bus resulting in their band name in man-sized letters spread over the whole black undercoat, typical. They gave me a quick introduction into the bus features, but it was all pretty straight forward, I mean it's not rocket science it's a fucking bus. After half an hour I was rolling through the gates towards the city centre to pick up 'my' band. I was so nervous that my palms got sweaty and I had to grip the steering wheel tight to not loose control.

I made it to the hotel alive and parked the bus right in front of the main entrance. After I went inside to the reception area and asked them to tell the band that the bus was here to pick them up I opened all the shudders of the baggage compartments so they could immediately load their stuff before getting onto the bus. I took my clipboard where I was supposed to register all baggage and have the tour manager sign it upon loading, so nobody could claim we lost their bags.

As all was set and done I leaned against the drivers compartment, arms crossed to wait for the band to arrive. Today I wore my usual cut off jeans, a black T-shirt, my white converse and a snap back and sunnies to shield me from the bright light while driving.

After like twenty or so minutes the band obviously finally decided to turn up. A group of people exited the Lobby with an enormous amount of baggage between them, but there were like fifteen or more people piling out of the hotel doors where as I knew only of the five members: Ben, Danny, James, Cameron, Sam and their Tour manager Kyle to go on my bus. I recognised their faces amongst the other people. As they did not take any notice of me I took my time to watch the group.

Okay there were about seven girls with them which I assumed to be the current girlfriends. At least some of them. They looked so much alike, all had dark long glossy hair or should I say, manes reaching down their backs like precious racehorses, full-on makeup, lots of gold rings and bracelets on their perfectly manicured fingers and expensive looking handbags hanging on their arms. They were either dressed in ultra short skirts or shorts along with their tight tank tops and all wearing high heels on their flawless long legs.

Why am I rambling on about it? Yeah maybe I was a bit jealous of their perfection but I also had to admit to myself that I could never pull off such a style, I am just not that type of girl. The other people I did not recognise I assumed to be just friends of the group.

"Oy, kid what are you doing there, are you a fan?"

A rough voice snapped me out of my thoughts to see Danny shouting in my direction. I turned around to see who he was referring to but there was no one there, so I turned back looking at him pointing at myself mouthing a questioning 'me?' towards him.

He started walking over to where I still leaned on the bus

"Yeah you, do you want me to sign something for you?"

Oh this is getting awkward now.

"N-o ,ahem I mean yes, you would have to sign the number of baggage items you board the bus with, please"

"What?" He looked at me confused not getting what I was referring to.

I swallowed hard "Okay, yeah, Hi, my name is Easy, I am your driver from 'AllAccessCoaches', welcome to the tour". I said my rehearsed introduction sentence.

He looked at me in disbelief then threw an arm around my shoulders turned us around and slowly walked away from the bus.

"Look, I would really like you to tell me that this is a joke and there's a hidden camera somewhere" he talked to me in a low but really threatening tone. "Or admit that you are some kind of freak that makes shit up just to get into your idols bunks".

"If that would make things easier for you I could certainly do this but the truth is, I'm your new bus driver" with that I pulled out my laminated Warped Tour all access pass with my photo and name on it and showed it to him.

"FUCK" he turned around and stomped off towards the rest of the group "Kyle, you fucking idiot, what is this shit?".

The whole commotion got Ben's attention and he started coming over to me while looking back at the now top-of-the-lungs argument between Danny and Kyle.

"Hey gurl, how did you get our frontman so excited? I mean" he looked me up and down with a smirk "I see how, but why?"

That's Ben Bruce, always a stupid sex joke on his mind.

" I just informed him that I'm your new bus driver for the tour but he didn't take the news very well." I shrugged.

"Are they fucking mental? They are sending a TEENAGE GIRL to drive our bus?" He shook his head looking down at me with a frown, holding his hair out of his face with one hand.

Okay, I was so done with this shit.

"For your information, I am not a teenager, I am 22 years old which is about the same age as you if I'm correct, I've been holding a bus licence for four years and I have a clean driving record, if you can play a show in front of thousands of people with your age than I should be able to drive a fucking bus and by the way, you don't need to have a dick to drive, I just use my hands. So If you don't mind I would really like you to get yourself and the retarded rest of your band onto the fucking bus so we can get going. I don't have the whole fucking day." By last sentence I practically screamed at him. With that I turned on my heels and got around the bus to get onto the drivers side.

All I saw before entering and slamming the door shut was Ben rubbing his chin saying "Ouch" . I sat down not caring to help the band settle in. That did not go very well, not well indeed.