.::I Have Befriended My Teen Angst::.

Purple dog on a sunday afternoon With my yellow duck his name is pooh Like to feed him old dirty biscuits Cause I like to save my triscuits I<3 BTF

Ella arrived for band practice a little late. She walked into the game room and kissed Ray before setting down her stuff and hooking up the cables.

“Did we miss something?” Evan asked her referring to the kiss she had planted on Ray. Ella just smirked and began to warm up while everyone else did the same.

“Oops, I did it again I played with your heart-“

“SANGER!” Ella shouted at him when he began to sing Britney Spears.

“What?” he asked shrugging and continuing on to sing the real song they wanted to rehearse.

            Ella stood in the doorway and waited for Ray. He appeared and set his forehead on hers.

“Stay.” Ray begged her.

“I can’t.” she replied kissing him and walking out the door. Ray watched as she left him alone.

 

            It was the first show of Battle of the Bands. They were in a local venue so they didn’t have to worry about school. The first two weeks they would play local venues but after that the venues would become hours away. But the band was willing to drive far for their music. They had to find out how they could manage going to school and competing in a competition afterwards.

“I’m so nervous.” Ella said after arriving at the first venue. It was small and intimate. She could tell that she was going to be very close to the audience.

            Getting back stage the band went and waited and warmed up. This was going to be the beginning of a very long night.

            Sanger greeted the crowd and told them the name of the band. They were all nervous before setting foot on the stage but when they looked out into the crowd they transformed into different people. They had so much energy, partly because they drank Rockstars before the show, and partly because they loved the rush of being on stage. When they were done with their song they walked off the stage and said good luck to Sophomore who was watching from the side of the stage.

“Awesome show guys!” Ray exclaimed.

“You think?” Joel asked him wiping away some sweat.

“Yeah, I got it all on camera.” he replied hugging Ella and showing them the clip.

            Unfortunately they didn’t win the highest number of points that night but they came in second to Sophomore. They were leading by one point and if the band could really step up their game they could probably get ahead of them in no time. After congratulating their friends and rivals they left and went back home to rest so they could have energy for school the next day.

 

            Waking up to a pounding headache Sanger grouchily got out of bed. Fixing his hair he walked downstairs and ate a quick breakfast before walking out of the house. He was totally oblivious to the fact that it was his 18^th birthday. He along with Evan and Ray had already applied for colleges and gotten the letters back. He knew exactly where he was going to go he just couldn’t picture being away from his home and friends. So he ignored his birthday because he was that much closer to going away and growing up.

“Happy B-day!!” Ella shouted as Sanger drove up her driveway. Sanger grumbled in return. Hugging him from behind she sat down and buckled herself in the seat. “Wait, I made you a birthday cupcake!” she said handing him the cupcake.

“Thank you.” he replied quietly and ate the cupcake before driving off to school.

 

            At the venue the band was backstage getting ready to go onstage. Sanger warmed up his singing voice and Evan tuned his guitar. They were nervous all over again. Finally the stage manager told them that they were on in five minutes and that they should wait at the side of the stage for their turn. Highfiving each other before jumping on stage they began to rock out to their song.

“Before we get off stage we wanted to wish our lead singer, Sanger a happy birthday.” Evan said beginning to play the birthday song for Sanger. He stood there a little embarrassed before bowing and walking off stage with the rest of them.

“Another good show guys!” Ray said meeting them backstage.

“Yup.” Sanger said sitting down and spacing off into his own thoughts.

“What his problem?” Evan asked Joel.

“He’s trying to think.” Ella said.

“I don’t know maybe its something serious.” said Ray waving his hand in front of Sanger’s face. He was in too much of a trance to notice.

 

            This story was getting old to Sanger. He knew his dad had been in a band and then when everyone went to college they broke up. He wasn’t staying in the town he was going out of state. He had really good grades so he got into some pretty decent colleges and the plan was to get as far away from here as he could. Now graduation was in a month and what would become of the band? Would they break up and lose everything they worked for or were they going to keep on going until something comes of it?

 

            Joel came home to see his dad home and waiting for him. He sat down on the couch and began to fill out the college applications that his dad had picked up for him. Even though he still had one more year left of high school his dad really wanted for him to get into a really good college. He was thinking about the future that hard yet because who knows things could change in a couple years for him.

 

            Ella climbed into bed and found that she couldn’t sleep. Ray was 18 and he was going to leave for college next year and same with Evan and Sanger. They wouldn’t be around forever and at least she’d still have Joel but it just wouldn’t be the same. She finally told herself that she should just get to sleep but something told her she should talk to Ray about it.

“Hello?” Ray’s sleepy voice said from the other side of the line.

“Where are you going to college?” Ella asked him.

“Boston Culinary Institute.” he replied.

“You’re going to a cooking college.” she said snickering.

“Hey, well unfortunately music isn’t going to pay my bills.” he replied.

“But, you can’t cook.” she said pouting into the phone.

“Yes, I can. Come over in the morning and I’ll make you some of my famous Belgium waffles.”

“If their so famous then why do I not know about them?” she said smirking even though he couldn’t see her.

“Quit giving me a hard time with this when I’m half asleep.” he whined.

“Fine, goodnight.” she said putting down the phone. That didn’t help, she thought to herself.

 

            Evan got woken up in the middle of the night with an urgent phone call. He opened the phone and greeted the disturber of his sleep.

“I’m moving.” Mandy said.

“What?” Evan said waking up.

“My parents are moving me to Illinois and since I’m still 17 I have to go with them.” she said bursting into tears.

“Well, I don’t know what to do.”

“I could go and then come back in August after my birthday?” she said trying to be optimistic.

“I’ll be in college.” he replied.

“Where?”

“In California.” he said trying to keep his brain from turning into mush.

“My parents also told me that I shouldn’t be engaged if I’m leaving.” she said quietly.

“Since when do you listen to your parents?” he said sitting up in his bed.

“Evan, please don’t make this harder than it already is.” she said. “I’ll leave the ring under the place mat.” she said hanging up.

            Evan stared at the phone for a second. His fiancé had just broken up with him. Well, he hadn’t really thought out what was going to happen when they both went to college. This was terrible.

 

            Ella hoped out of bed the next morning and rushed to get to Ray’s house. Normally she wouldn’t have woken up this early on a weekend but she was too excited. Arriving at Ray’s house she was let in by the maid. She walked into the kitchen to see Ray fast at work. He was dumping the batter into the waffle maker. She watched him for about five minutes until she decided to speak up.

“You should have your own show.” she said kissing him. She heard someone clear their throat and she looked to the side to see his maid standing in the doorway.

“Uh, Ella this is my maid, Girdy.” he said introducing the two.

“Your father’s on the phone.”

“Oh, okay. Ella could you take the waffle out on three minutes.” Ella nodded and waited for the timer to ring before taking it out and putting it on a plate.

            Ray walked back into the room five minutes later and filled the waffles with the Belgium crème. Ella sat down at the breakfast table and waited for Ray to serve her.

“It looks too gorgeous to eat.” she said looking down at the decorated waffle.

“Just eat it.” he said digging into his own plate. Ella took out her camera and took a picture before digging into her own plate. Ray just chuckled.

“Yummy.” she said after taking the last bite.

“Well, I don’t know about you but I’m full.” he said patting his stomach.

“If only I knew how well you could cook then I could have used that to my advantage.” she said.

“Well, you still can.” he said kissing her before taking her plate to the sink.

“So, what did your father want?” she asked getting up and following Ray into the living room.

“Just telling me that he won’t be back with my mother until the end of the month.” he replied turning on the TV.

“Oh.” she said sitting down on the couch.

“Eh, I’m use to it. They were always gone when I was younger so it doesn’t really make a difference.”

“Are you going to be like that with your children?”

“I’m not planning on having any children anytime soon so we’ll wait until we cross that bridge.”

“I’m forcing you to cook me an extravagant dinner tonight.” she replied smirking.

“Only if you were a pretty red dress.” he said smirking back at her.

“Poo, but I’ll do it.” she said smiling.