Day Five: Joining the tour

I wake up anxious before my alarm clock has gone off. I am still exhausted,

though I clearly can’t sleep any more. Idly hoping for that phone call telling me that

the whole thing is cancelled, I get out of bed and switch off my alarm. While rubbing

my eyes I go to the bathroom, turn on the light and stand in front of the mirror. I

watch my reflection for a moment and take a deep breath. I really need to make a

good first impression on the band, so I better fix myself up as best I can. I turn on the

water, wait till it warms up, undress and hit the shower. As I wash my hair I realize

that Ben told me about not being able to shower every day on a tour. I wonder how I

will cope with that. Oh god, what about those sweaty guys. If they don’t shower, it

will start smelling on the bus very quickly. Let’s just hope that it won’t get that bad.

After cleaning myself and brushing my teeth I get out of the shower. I dry off,

wrap a towel around my body and one around my head and walk into my bedroom to

sort out my outfit for today. I already laid out clothes last night, but now I’m second

guessing myself. With a sigh I open my suitcase and look through the clothes I packed.

Do I want to try to be one of the guys or should I put on a girly outfit? Thinking about

how my brothers would react to either, I decide on wanting to be one of the guys. So I

stick to the outfit I chose last night, it being black jeans, a dark pink loose fitting tshirt

and black & pink Etnies. Having chosen what to wear I can now apply the

appropriate make-up and get the right accessories together. I decide to just wear a

little mascara, eye-shadow and my black Fossil watch. I finish getting dressed and put

on my make-up. I put on my watch and stand in front of my dressing mirror to figure

out how to wear my hair. I’ve always liked the way my hair dries up without doing

anything to it besides brushing it because of the natural waves in it, so I decide on

that. I take one last look in the mirror after making a turn in front of it and decide

that this is the best I can do.

Making my way towards the kitchen I fiddle with my hair a bit getting more and

more anxious. By the time I have my breakfast ready and I sit at the table to eat it I

can hardly finish a bite. After trying to force a couple of bites down my throat I give

up and throw the cereal away. I wash up the bowl and dry it off, then put it back in

the kitchen cabinet. I look around to see if I need to do any more washing up, which is

not the case. My plants will need enough water to last them a while, because I told

dad that he only needs to come here once or twice to water them and check my mail.

I fill the watering can to the top and empty it on all my plants. I check if all my

windows are closed and locked, put my suitcase and backpack in the hallway and

check one more time if I have forgotten anything. Luckily I check the fridge too and

see the liquor bottles still in there, so I grab them and put them in my backpack. Now

I have really run out of things to keep myself busy, so I sit on the couch and stare at

my phone. I have gone back to hoping that Ben will call to let me know I have to come

into work instead of go on this tour. I concentrate so hard on this that the sound of

the doorbell ringing startles me.

I answer it and unfortunately it’s the driver. I reluctantly grab my backpack and

give him the suitcase. I put on my jacket, close the door behind me and lock it. Then I

walk over to the car, take a deep breath and get in. As we drive away I look back at

my house and think: Well, see you in three weeks. After half an hour we turn onto a

big empty parking lot and I get really nervous as I see the tour bus coming into view. I

check my backpack for the fourth time to see that the bottles still haven’t broken. As

soon as the car stops, I get out and wait for the driver to get my suitcase out of the

trunk.

One of the guys at the bus walks over with a smile on his face. “Hi!” he calls

out, holding out his hand to me. “You must be Skylar. I’m Vaughn Muster. I’m the

manager. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

“Yes, hi! How are you?” I say as he leads me to the bus.

“This is Stepha`n Koschenko, he’s the drummer. This here is Yuri Guran, he’s the

singer and the big guy over there is Gino Sarinelli, the light technician. Guys, this is

Skylar van der Meeren, the journalist I told you about.” I shake hands with all three

and smile at them. “The rest of the gang are inside, probably choosing their bunks.

Let me introduce you to them.” He hands my suitcase to Gino and leads the way to

the door. I follow Vaughn inside as he announces my presence. “Ok, guys. Listen up.

This is Skylar van der Meeren and she’ll be joining you to write the story about

Dreads.”

I look around at all the faces staring at me and then lock eyes with one of

them. My heart skips a beat instantly and his blue eyes seem to pierce right through

me. I’m so thrown off by the feeling that I look away quickly. Without saying anything

he passes me and goes outside. Vaughn follows him out.

“A F*****G CHICK?? NO F*****G WAY! I’M NOT HAVING HER ON THE BUS!” I

hear a very pissed off guy shout. “IT WILL F**K THINGS UP! CHICKS BRING NOTHING

BUT TROUBLE!”

The guy I thought I had a moment with seems to be the one shouting, so I guess

it was a one-sided thing. Convinced it has been a mistake coming here I smile

awkwardly and get off the bus again.

I walk over to the guy shouting and Vaughn and say: “I can see there has been a

mistake. I’ll call my boss and tell him to send someone else.” I start dialing Ben’s

number and after two rings he picks up. “Hi, it’s Skylar. Sorry to call you this early,

but there is a problem. They don’t want me on the bus, because I’m a girl.” I listen to

his calm voice telling me that he will sort it out with Vaughn and asks me to hand the

phone to him. “My boss wants to speak to you.” I say to Vaughn while handing him the

phone.

As they talk to each other, the previously shouting guy looks intently at Vaughn

and I shift uncomfortably on my feet as I watch the guy from the corner of my eye. He

looks really handsome with that dark haired shaven head and the 5 o’clock shadow. If

he wasn’t looking so pissed I’d probably have risked a proper look. After a couple of

minutes Vaughn hands me back my phone and assures me there is no problem. He

throws the shouter an angry look as he ushers me back on the bus.

“That guy over there is Connor Derby, the tour manager. Trust me, his bark’s

worse than his bite.” Vaughn reassures me, noticing my unwillingness to go back on

the bus. “Why don’t you get to know the rest of the guys, while I sort things out with

him?” Vaughn gets off the bus and the other guys come up to me.

Sticking out his hand one of them says: “Hello, I’m Jason Hannigan. These guys

are Dom Marino, Reagan Smith and Jordy MacIntyre. You must have already met

Stepha`n, Yuri and Gino outside. Moe Jameson, our drum tech, is upstairs in his bunk.

You’ll meet him later. Don’t mind Con by the way. I think he’s just anxious to leave.

At the start of a tour he’s always a little on edge.” He gives me a reassuring smile. I

am not so sure about it, since I can hear him yelling at Vaughn again.

Then Vaughn firmly says: “Look, she is coming on this tour whether you like it

or not. So deal with it. She is here to write about the guys, which is good publicity for

all of us. You just keep your attitude in check.” I nervously look around the bus to try

and block out the conversation outside. It’s nothing like I expected.

I was surprised to see that you enter at the middle of the bus. And I’m standing

in a fairly big lounge with a large cream colored leather couch on the left side and a

smaller one on the right in the corner. Next to it (closest to the entrance) there are 4

cream colored seats with a wooden table in between. In the far corner next to the

small couch there is a built in closet with a flatscreen TV, a PlayStation underneath

and a bunch of games stacked on the shelf below that. Next to the big couch across

from the entrance there is a little kitchen with a sink, two electric cookers, a

microwave and a table height fridge. Around the corner from the four seats there is a

toilet. I guess it kind of resembles a luxury motor home but bigger.

Desperate to take my heavy backpack off my shoulders I shift the straps.

“You can take it off if you like.” Reagan says holding out his hands offering to

help. I turn around and let him take it. “What have you got in there? Your whole life

or something? This is really heavy!” he says as he smiles at me and puts it on the

table. Everyone starts laughing, including me.

“No, I have that in the suitcase I brought with me.” I open my backpack and

say: “I brought a bottle of Jack Daniels and JaÅNgermeister for you guys.” Everyone

seems happy with the booze I picked.

As he gets on the bus Yuri says: “Don’t show them to Moe or none of us will get

a chance to drink any of it.” I hand the bottles to Yuri and he puts the JaÅNgermeister in

the freezer and stashes the Jack in a safe place.

“You’re scoring point here.” says Jason.

I laugh and admittedly say: “Thanks! And trust me, I need the points.”

An annoyed sounding muttered remark comes from behind me. I turn around

and see the tour manager Connor rolling his eyes. He walks past me and takes a seat.

“I’ll show you around and point out where you sleep, so you can get settled in.”

Dom offers, ignoring Connor completely. “So, this is the big lounge. As you can see

over here is the kitchen. That is mostly stocked with beer and some soda cans. We’ll

go upstairs to show you the sleeping area. We’re with 10 guys and you, so you can

have the last two bunks on the right side. There is also a small lounge at the back. You

can use that to change clothes in or whatever.” Dom explains.

“Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.” I say.

“Trust me, it’s not just to make you more comfortable. Some of these guys will

not be able to resist trying to get with you as is. Plus you haven’t seen anything until

you’ve been around a bunch of guys like us on a night liner. Haha” Dom laughs.

He goes back downstairs and I sit down at my bunk. I try to take in my

surroundings and get used to the idea of being around these guys for the next three

weeks. I go to the back lounge to sit down on the couch, because sitting at my bunk

isn’t very comfortable; it being only 40 inches high. I look around, unsure what to do

next. I forgot to take my backpack with me when Dom offered to show me around, but

I don’t really want to go downstairs yet. Within minutes two guys come upstairs, walk

over and sit down right next to me.

One of them says: “Hi, we haven’t met yet. I’m Paul Jones, the guitar

technician and this is Moe Jameson. He is the drum tech.”

“So, you single?” Moe asks. He gets nudged in the side and thrown a

disapproving look by Paul.

I frown and say: “Well yes, I guess I am.” As Moe starts smiling smugly, I

continue: “But I’m here strictly to do a job, which I take very seriously.” Disappointed

he gets up and leaves at once.

Paul stays behind and says: “I’m sorry if he made you uncomfortable. He can’t

help it. He is just a typical roadie.”

“No, it’s fine. I guess I expected someone to ask me that question sooner or

later.“ I say, trying to hide my discomfort.

“So, have you been on tour before or is this your first time?” he asks.

“This is my first tour. So, I’ll probably do everything wrong and be in the way

all the time. If you have any tips, they are very welcome.” I say.

“Ok, the most important thing I can tell you is to stay away from Con, at least

for the next few days. I don’t know what is going on with him, but I honestly have

never seen him like this.”

This shouldn’t be too difficult to do, because he kind of scares me. Paul and I

talk for a while when at some point we notice that the bus is moving. He assures me

the guys are really good people and that they probably really would like to get to

know me better, so we go downstairs to join the rest in the lounge. Everyone is talking

and laughing and is in a noticeably good mood. As soon as I am in view Jason gets up.

He grabs the bottle of JaÅNgermeister and a stack of plastic glasses. He opens the

bottle, starts pouring it into the glasses and hands them out.

When everyone is holding one, he lifts up his own and says: “Let’s have fun

these three weeks! We need to give Skylar something great to write about. To having

fun AND a great tour!”

The general response is: “CHEERS!”

The glass is emptied in one gulp by the guys, so I do the same. When I put down

my glass, I catch Connor’s eye. To make sure I don’t provoke a reaction or a comment,

I look away quickly. Reagan offers me a seat next to him and asks me to tell him about

myself. I deliberately only talk about my professional life, because sharing stuff about

my private life is not something I do easily. Probably sensing this, Reagan sticks to

asking questions about work.

After talking for a while I say: “Ok, enough about me! Let’s talk about you.”

He starts telling me about himself and the band. Overhearing our conversation

some of the guys join in and others start playing games on the PlayStation. A few

drinks later, everyone loosens up and the dirty jokes start. It is clear the guys go way

back.

After a while the conversations die down and everyone starts doing things for

themselves, so I decide to go to my bunk. Right when I start taking stuff out of my

backpack and give them a place in the small spaces around my bunk, I hear someone

talking in the small lounge. It’s Connor and by the sound of it he’s on the phone. After

I’m done with my backpack I put it on the bunk above mine, lie down on my bed and

decide to check my e-mail. I turn on my laptop and as I wait for it to start up, I can’t

help but overhear Connor’s side of the conversation. It doesn’t seem to be a very

happy one, he sounds annoyed. Though that might just be the way he talks. I jump at

the sound of my laptop and quickly turn off the volume. Hopefully he didn’t hear it,

but he stopped talking so he must have. I brace for a reaction, but after a minute or

so there still is none and he continues his conversation in a lower voice.

I start up my e-mail and wait for my inbox to fill. When it is done retrieving

mails, I read through them. There is one from Ben asking if everything is OK now. I

press reply and answer him. I explain that most of the guys seem nice, but that the

tour manager is less than enthused about me being here as he already knows.

Hopefully things will change the coming days, when he gets to know me better. I press

send and read the rest of the e-mails. Most are from my colleagues wishing me luck.

One is from Beth wishing me luck as well, telling me to give her all the details and

keep her up to date. I decide to reply to her and more or less give her the same story I

gave Ben, though I add the fact that Connor is really hot. I also let her know that I’ve

had a really nice talk with Paul and Reagan; who seem to be really nice guys. Not

having much else to tell at this moment I leave it at that and press send.

I close my e-mail again and open a Word-document to write down what’s

happened so far and decide to be as detailed as I can about my experiences. When I

get home I’ll sort through it all, hopefully this way I’ll have enough material for the

feature and if Ben’s not satisfied I’ll have other material to fall back on. After having

finished writing, I decide to go downstairs again.

I get out of my bunk, listen to hear if there’s anyone in the back lounge and

when there are no sounds I quietly go down the stairs. I’m greeted by Reagan, who is

throwing me a bright smile. Jason and Dom turn their heads towards me and say hi. As

I unsurely move further down the stairs and into the lounge I can feel eyes on me. I

take a seat next to Reagan and look in the direction of who is watching me. It’s the

guy called Jordy with sunglasses over his eyes. Even though I can’t be sure what he

looking at, it definitely feels like he is staring at me. It makes me very uncomfortable,

which seems to amuse him by the smile on his face. I look away and Reagan asks about

my feature story.

I explain to him that everything is still open when it comes to the outline of the

story. “It is supposed to be about being on tour and what that’s like, through the eyes

of a layman. I think the best way is to keep a daily journal, then when I get home sort

through it all and make an interesting story of it.”

“Wow, that must be pretty tough. But I know for sure that we’ll give you plenty

to write about.” He responds. “I think I can speak for everyone if I say that we are all

happy to help. Right, guys?”

Jason and Dom confirm with a nod and a smile, Jordy says of course with a big

grin and while looking over his sunglasses he winks at me. Moe, who had been sitting

in the chair opposite Jordy, doesn’t say anything. A question comes to mind, so I ask

what is going to happen once we arrive in Quebec City. As I wait for an answer I see

the looks being exchanged between Jason, Dom and Reagan and feel completely

stupid. I turn my eyes to the floor and think to myself that it’s already going great

here.

Jason then says: “Actually, we aren’t sure yet what the plan is. Con always lets

us know about an hour before we get to the venue. Generally we unload all our

equipment first, so we can set it up on the stage. We do the sound check and then

depending on the remaining time before we eat we either hit the town or hang out

around the venue.” I look at my watch and see that it is 12:30 p.m. now. I wonder

what time we will arrive and right at that moment Connor comes downstairs followed

by Yuri, Paul, Gino and Stepha`n.

Connor waits for everyone to take a seat, looks at me for a split second and

then says: “Ok, we are about an hour away from the venue. As usual we will unload all

our gear first. Once the set up is done, we’ll have lunch and afterwards the sound

check. We then have a couple hours to ourselves, but there won’t be time to go into

town or anything.”

Stepha`n and Yuri are clearly disappointed by this, though the rest of the guys

don’t really respond. When Connor is done talking, everyone stays in the lounge

talking to each other. Connor sits down on the other side of the lounge. It seems like

he is staying as far away from me as he can. I watch him settle into his seat and as he

looks around his eyes land on me briefly. I quickly look away, but I think he saw me

staring at him anyway. When I take another peak he is frowning heavily looking at

something in his hands. I force myself to look at one of the other guys and start

wondering what it is about him that intrigues me. Maybe it’s because of the way he

reacted to my arrival.

“.....so you must be excited right now.” I hear someone close say. “Right? I

mean I am myself and I’ve done this a thousand times already.” I realize whoever is

speaking is saying this to me, so I look up and see Reagan looking expectantly at me.

“I’m sorry, what? I didn’t hear what you said.” I say with a smile.

“That’s ok. I just asked if you are excited about going to your first heavy metal

concert.”

“Oh, but this isn’t my first heavy metal concert. I’ve been to many of them

before, just not backstage. I will be able to go there, right?”

Reagan start laughing and I feel embarrassed for having someone laugh at me in

my face. Why did I even ask? Of course I can go backstage since I’m on the tour.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh, but it just surprises me how little you know

about all this. You have access to everything we have access to. You should consider

yourself part of our crew.”

Ha, part of the crew. That is a weird thought. I wonder if I’ll feel like a

crewmember at the end of this tour. My thought is interrupted by a jerk of the bus. I

feel it slow down and coming to a halt after a few minutes.