Kissing Hearts #1: Beginning Of A Kissing Hearts Friendship

I’m Caitlin Cherniak. I was like every girl in my school. My mom and my sister went to work in the big city in New York. I wasn’t left only though. My stepbrother, Luca was watching me while the adults and our siblings were away. Luca’s birthfather had to be put to work in the city, too. It wasn’t that bad. Luca goes to art school part of the day and for the rest, he cares for me. This story isn’t about me without adults at all. It was about how I lived the life of Adam Lambert. I didn’t do it alone. I had the boys working for me too.

It was the beginning of the school day when my ILA teacher, Ms. Dragonety went into Mr. Suiter’s office. You thought it was going to go smoothly. You thought wrong, big time. “She’s here to see you now,” Ms. Jones told Mr. Suiter.
Mr. Suiter put his papers down on his desk. “Caitlin!” he called.
He called me. I slowly walked into his office. Nobody messes with the principal of Churchill Jr. High. When I say, “nobody,” I mean nobody, especially, on my last year of that school.
“Come. Sit.”
I sat down in a chair in front of his desk like Mr. Suiter ordered me to do.
“So, it was you that put up these posters?” he asked me.
“Yes, sir,” I responded calmly even though I still had butterflies in my stomach.
Then, Ms. Dragonety started to speak. That was completely not what I thought of to happen. “How dare you put up these poster of me like a rhinoceros!”
I sat there like an idiot. I didn’t know what to say.
Mr. Suiter got some time because he said, “No, that looks like a hippopotamus.” That didn’t help her at all.
I solved their little problem by saying, “No, it’s a rhinoceros.” I continued, “A hippopotamus has a wider snout and more…”
With Ms. Dragonety glaring at me, I stopped right away. “Well then,” Ms. Dragonety stared at the principal looking for a sign to speak, “We have to contact her parents about this,”
I stuttered, “You can’t, ma’am, because…”
“Her parents are in New York,” Mr. Suiter finished what I was going to say.
She stood there stunned for a bit. “There at least has to a guardian of some kind at home.”
That was an easy request to answer. “My brother, Luca is taking care of me.”
Ms. Dragonety remembered my stepbrother as school the dropout. “Ah, Luca,” she started, “The artist.”
“He’s a great artist!” I snapped.
Mr. Suiter had to end the spat once and for all. “Look, there has to be a certain punishment about all this.”
Ms. Dragonety smiled. I didn’t like that look. “Caitlin, you know the Rock Band auditions do you?”
I didn’t know what she was getting at. “Yeah,” I responded, “you’re tapping the auditions this Saturday.”
“Not me. You.”
“What the heck!” I screamed forgetting not to swear, but my teacher let it pass, “I can’t. I’m going to a David Archuleta concert with Josh this Saturday!”
She smiled again. “Not anymore.”
I couldn’t believe this. Rock Band wasn’t my thing of hobby that much. “Aw, come on!” I whined.
“That’s what happens when you turn me into a hippopotamus!”
“Rhinoceros,” I reminded her.
She didn’t use it well. “Out!” she screamed.
I ran out of the room as fast as I can with my things. The only good thing about the conversation was that I missed homeroom.

What up? I’m Aaron Bogdanovsky. I live with my two older sisters. Why not my parents? Well, my friends and I had a lot in common and one of those things was that our parents went to the city to be put to work until the war is over. That could take years. I was like every boy in this school and before hand except for one thing. I’m usually the troublemaker and I always get into fights, like this moment for example except let start at the middle part where it was almost over.

I was holding up a kid’s shirt smashing him towards the lockers. Like always, he was screaming in horror and pain. That always got my heart pumping, but it also got me into trouble with my friends. Why I say that? During the fight, one friend of mine, Caitlin, saw the whole thing.
“What do you say?” I shouted at the top lungs, which hurt after a few seconds.
Finally the boy spoke up. “I’m sorry,” he shrieked.
“For what?” I asked again.
“For saying you’re aggressive.”
“Good. And I am?”
“Kind and handsome.”
“Thank you.” My nerves turned calm again, but I had a few extra words. “If I hear you say that ever again, I’m so gonna…” Before I could say anything else, Caitlin thought enough was enough and pulled my long black hair back towards her locker. Of course I screamed, but Caitlin didn’t care about that.
“Hi!” she said in a not to happy voice.
All I knew was, she wasn’t happy. I was holding my hair in a bun because it hurt so badly. “You got in trouble again, didn’t ya?” I asked, but it was the bad time to ask.
“Of course I did!” she screamed, but continued, “That’s what happens when you put teachers’ heads on big fat animals and post them all over the school!”
I thought it was funny at first, but Caitlin wasn’t laughing.
“I can’t believe I had to take the blame for you!”
She caught me red handed. I was the one that put the posters all over the school. “You had to,” I tried to explain, “I already got suspended once this semester. If I do it again, I’ll be expelled.” See my point people. It didn’t turn out to be a good point.
“Well here’s an idea,” she insisted.
I was also gullible. “What?” I asked stupidly.
“Stop doing bad things, you dummy!” she screamed into my ears.
Isn't that charming. “Hey, chillax,” I said trying to calm her down.
“I will not “chillax”. And get excited because you, Justin, Nellson, and I are going to tape the auditions on Saturday.”
“Whatev,” I said sarcastically. I never wanted to do that.
Then, Caitlin said something that was so true. “Sometimes, I could just punch you right in your head.”
“Which is why your one of my best friends.”
“Correct and why?” She started to walk away.
I followed her shouting, “Cause I’m a loveable caring person!” While I was following her, I pushed the kid into his locker. To Caitlin, it was not funny at all.

Hey, I’m Justin Florenza. My real name is Justinian, but no one dared to call me that. My parents are in New York being put to work along with my older brothers. Since I’m an only child at home, that’s hard-core. I sometimes cry myself to sleep. It’s embarrassing for me to do, but I had no choice. I try to hide from the police because if they found out I was living alone; I would be working to death like my parents. I’m usually a bad boy to myself. I had a ton of girlfriends in my time. This is my side of the story.

It was after 2nd period and I was heading to Science class. All was going great until Vicky walked up to speak to me. Vicky was my current girlfriend at the time. “What’s up, Vick?” I asked.
Vicky wasn’t too happy to looks. “Justin,” she started, “I’m moving to Italy.”
At first, I wasn’t that shocked. Girls were moving on all the time. “That’s great!”
“And I’m also gonna be a nun,” she also said.
“Dang!” I screamed.
“Look I know you’re upset,” she guessed.
“Upset?” I asked, “I’m not upset.” I thought I started to go crazy at that part. “Why would I be upset? Do you really think I’m upset? You know what? We are done!” I started to walk away.
Vicky followed me. “Justin!”
“What?” I asked.
“I just want you to know that you were the best boyfriend I ever had and always will be…” she stopped for a quick minute. “… Until, I meet somebody else and do it before then.”
When Vicky walked away, I started to flinch.

When I got to Science, I was still flinching to death. Luckily, I wasn’t late to class while I was doing it. Then, Caitlin came into the classroom. She was also my science partner and she sits next to me in Science. She saw my frozen self. When she got my table, she started to shake me saying, “Get a hold of yourself, man!”
I shook my head to get my brain straight. “Oh, hey, CC,” I said.
“Are you okay?” she asked, “I didn’t tell you anything yet.”
“I’m fine,” I replied, “Let me guess, Aaron got you into trouble again to save his behind did he?”
“You guessed it. And now, I have to tape the band auditions this Saturday.”
“I thought you were going to the David Archuleta concert with Josh.”
“Not anymore.”
“Dang! I know how you feel.”
Caitlin really turned to me. “Tell me,” she said.
I sighed and told her what happened.

“So that’s what happened today,” I finish after the class was over.
“Girl did what now?” Caitlin screeched in her head voice. “Still, you’re not going to be happy about this.”
“What?” I asked.
“Since Aaron got me busted today, you, him, Nellson, and I have to go to the Band Auditions this Saturday.”
“Damn, you!” I screamed at the top of my lungs again.
“It’s not my fault.”
I sighed coolly. “Okay, fine,” I caved, “I’ll come to the auditions, okay?”
“Great,” she cooed, “See you later.”
“See ya whenever.” I was going to die of boredom. Dang that girl, but she was hot from her ribs to her heels.

Hello people of earth and beyond. I’m Nellson Torres. I am Caitlin’s closest best friend she can get to. My parents work in the entertainment business. You don’t have to know what their names are. They’re not being put to work like the other parents are. I’m lucky, but I feel bad for Caitlin, Justin, and Aaron because of their parents. I feel like the rose in a carnation garden. Trust me, it’s not a good place to be. And this is how I see things.

I walked to gym at 5th period that same day. Caitlin was already doing jumpin’ jacks, so I went by her and started doing them too. “What up, girl?” I asked and I was happy to see her. To tell the truth, I liked her more than ever before. I really mean it.
“Hey, Nellson,” I could tell from her voice that she wasn’t it a good mood.
“Something wrong?” I asked because I actually cared.
“Ms. Dragonety is making me tape the Rock Band Auditions this Saturday,” she answered.
I had a “blah” on my face. “I hate her!” I snapped out loud. I was serious about that.
“I know, and it’s all Aaron’s fault.”
Holy muffins! I should’ve guess whose fault it was at first. “Let me guess,” I spoke, “Me, Justin, and him have to come with you right?”
“How did you know?”
“What else could it been?” What else could?
I heard Caitlin sigh. “Nellson, you’re my best best best friend in the whole entire world. Please?”
I sighed. My head was going to explode. “Fine, but if Aaron gives me a knuckle sandwich, so help me I’ll…”
“Relax, dude!” she screamed. “I make sure that never happens.”
“Thanks,” I had to smile anyway.

After gym, I had two black eyes. David hit me with dodge balls and two of them landed in my eyeballs. The nurse told me that I didn’t need an operation. That was a relive that’s for sure. Caitlin was helping me find my way to my other classes. My day sucks so far. “Ow,” I kept saying.
“Are you okay?” Caitlin kept asking me for three minutes.
“I’m fine,” I kept holding my arm tight.
“Your arm doesn’t look fine,”
She was right, but I didn’t admit it. “David is just a big fat dumb jerk.”
“You are going to be fine,” she said and she started petting my head. Sometimes, I don’t like her doing that. This was an important time for me, so she was allowed to do it.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna go to Math like this.”
“I don’t know either, dude.”
I rolled my eyes. I was turning into a dork. I mean really big time. When will I tell her? When will I?

What up? I am Joshua Goldberg. Most people call me a superhuman. The reasons why are that I’m super strong, fast, and smart. My parents are friends with Caitlin and Justin’s parents and like them; they are in the city being put to work. I miss them badly. Unlike other people, I mean it. I wish they were home.

After school, I was doing my homework. I was until Caitlin came home from afterschool golf club. When I opened the door, I saw Caitlin trying to open the door to her apartment dorm. While struggling, she dropped her water bottle onto the floor. I decided to help her out. I ran out of my apartment dorm and pick up the bottle. “You dropped this,” I stuttered.
Caitlin stared at me weirdly. I knew what she was thinking.
“I was just helping you picking stuff up,” I was so stupid from that point. “Hi!”
“Josh were you sitting in your dorm waiting from me to come home?” she asked me.
“No,” I said stupidly.
“Joshua!” she snapped.
Then I cracked. “Yes.” I was completing embarrassed with that. The only time Caitlin calls me Joshua is that if I did something wrong our get into trouble.
“Josh, I know we talked about this, but I thought you were so over me,” she explained.
“I am over you,” I replied, “You say that I’m not and I am and I totally respect that.”
“Oh my god!” I heard her say. She finally got the door to her apartment dorm open and she invited me in. “Luca!” she called.
“I’m up here, sugar stick,” he called. I was on the ceiling with his feet holding on to a pipe with his cell phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m taking pictures of my soda bottle robot I made four months ago,” he answered.
We had no clue if Luca was born weird or something else. Then Caitlin explained, “Luca, if your stepsister comes in seeing her stepbrother on the ceiling taking pictures of a robot made out of soda bottles, that would be extremely weird.”
Luca looked down at us. “So your saying I’m abnormal?” he asked to get the story straight.
“Do I have to spell it?” she asked meaning a yes, “Now get down, or you’ll get killed.”
“Don’t worry!” Luca snapped, “My foot is around this pipe and…” Before he could say anything else, he fell onto the hard floor screaming. “Please help me up,” he moaned.
Caitlin grabbed the arms and I got the legs. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“Just fine,” Luca said.
“Luca!” a voice called and that voice was Greg’s. He was on the ceiling too. “Where do you want me to put this…?" Then he fell off the ceiling screaming onto Luca’s back. “Wow, soft landing,” he said.
“Greg?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you get off me?”
Greg got off Luca and also said, “Sorry, dude,”
Luca finally got up with his back messed up.
“I gotta run,” Greg, informed, “See ya later, Lucas.”
Finally, Caitlin had to ask Luca something. “Luca, do you have that video camera I can borrow?”
“I used to,” he informed.
“And?”
“But I don’t,” he finished.
“Why not?” I asked.
Luca started to giggle. “I turned it into this metal chipmunk,” he said at last, “So cute.”
Caitlin and I glared at him. And that was the end of that. Poor camera never saw that coming.

I was walking into the gym on that sad Saturday afternoon. I was talking to Justin on the phone. “Justin, I told you to through the side door. The front is closed for…oh my god!”
I saw Joshua setting up huge cameras and other stuff. “What do ya think?” he asked.
“Justin, I have to call ya back.” I hung up my phone and started to go crazy. “Joshua! I asked for a video camera. What the doughnuts is all this?”
“Well, this thing is the upgraded cam quarter, this is the point 5 tripod pad, and I bought you a juice and a bagel.”
My face turned blank. Then, Justin, Aaron, and Nellson came in the gym. First, Justin said, “Wow! You invited the dumbass to come too.”
Joshua decided to counter. “Oh no. I didn’t know it was gonna be here.”
“I’m a person. A.k.a. Justin.”
“Yeah yeah, just keep your paws off my equipment.”
“Oh what am I gonna do? Ruin your precious cam quarter?”
“Oh sure. And I never heard of a bad boy who wears the color magenta.”
Justin walked closer to Joshua and said, “Caitlin will never love you.”
That was when Joshua exploded in anger. “That’s it!” he screamed, “I’m outta here!”
“Please stay,” I pleaded with innocence.
Joshua turned around and said, “Okay,”
Justin wasn’t too happy with any of this. “I hate my life,” was his response.
Nellson want to get this over with.
Aaron made a “Blah” face.
“Come on, guys,” I said trying to cheer them up, “It will be over soon enough.”

After we settled everything, it was time to get the auditions in. Joshua was working the camera. Justin, Aaron, Nellson, and I were sitting in the judges’ seats. Lastly, the first band to tryout was on the stage already to go. “All right then,” Nellson started, “Do you guys have a band name?”
“Yes we do,” said one of the boys on stage.
“We’re called B.I.F.F.” another person spoke.
Aaron stood there in complete silence. “Okay,” he started, “We have no clue what that stands for, but go for it, men.”
The band started to play, but the was that they sucked at it. The drummer was randomly banging the drums. The guitar players were randomly strumming notes on their guitars. When they were finished, the boys and I cheered sarcastically. After they left, Justin said, “That sucked.”
“Yup,” Nellson, Aaron, and I agreed.
“I liked it,” Joshua argued.
We stared at him strangely.

Next band was a violin band. Nellson had no heck of an idea why he was hearing this. When he turned to me, I was already asleep cause it was so boring. Aaron and Justin were half asleep.

The third band was a group of girls. One girl entered out first. “We are called the Heart Times Pi Girls,” the leader said.
“Yay,” I said bored like.
“Come out, girls.” The girls obeyed the leader. Their costumes and instruments looked so cool. Then the leader put some make-up on.
The boys looked love struck.
“One two three four!” After the leader said, “Four” the band started to play. They played So What so perfectly. They didn’t sing, but it was perfect.
The boys and I started to clap our hands like crazy. “Perfect ten I say!” I shouted cheerfully.
The band stopped and bowed.

After a few bands played, it was our break. Since it was kind of boring, Aaron tried to make it more interesting. “Guys,” he started, “Remember the leader in the 9th band we saw?”
“Yeah?” Justin replied.
“Did you realize that she looked like Ms. Dragonety?”
“Oh yeah, she did,” Nellson stuttered.
“Except,” I said, “She didn’t have those big pointy boobs.”
Joshua heard our conversation and started taping it.
“Does she put ice cream cones in her bra?” Justin asked.
Aaron started to laugh. “Maybe. She could poke an eye out with those things.”
Joshua giggled a little too.
I checked the time on the clock and decided to move on. “Okay guys,” I laughed the rest of the giggles out, “We have to move on.”
“How many bands left?” Nellson asked.
“About 26 more.”
The boys moaned sadly.
“Calm down,” I ordered, “The rest can’t be that bad can they?”

They next band was a couple of rappers beat boxing. We sat there with our mouths wide open. “And I was wrong,” I said after that.

“Aaron,” I heard Caitlin call while I was asleep. The guys and I were up all night thinking about the auditions the other day. We stayed up past midnight on a Saturday when Caitlin and Joshua were supposed to be at the David Archuleta concert.
“Wake up,” Nellson said.
I blinked my eyes slowly and tiredly. “What time is it?” I asked sleepily.
“Late,” Justin answered.
“Did Joshua put up the video yet?”
“He did a few hours ago,” Nellson replied.
“Lets see it now,” Caitlin said heading to her laptop
I got up and started to stretch my arms and legs since I was sleeping on the couch the whole night. “I hate Ms. Dragonety,” I yawned, “Remember the time she called me a butt face?”
“No!” Caitlin screamed while on her laptop, but that wasn’t what she was saying, “No” too.
“Oh yeah,” I answered back, “What happened? Did the love struck nerd forget to put the video on the site?”
“No!” she replied still shrieking, “He taped us!”
“What?” Justin and I screamed in full setto. Justin, Nellson, and I ran to the laptop and saw the same moment we shared yesterday.
“That’s you, Justin, Caitlin, and me,” Nellson chirped still freaked to death.
“We were goofy and acted like hoes all day,” Justin explained.
“Oh my God,” Caitlin freaked out, “We made fun of Ms. Dragonety and her big pointy boobs!”
We looked at the video again freaking out like loons. I started pacing in circles like craziness. “Maybe not a lot of people seen it,” I blurted hoping for something good to happen. It didn’t work well.
“What do you mean, “Not a lot of people seen it”?” asked Justin sharply.
“It’s all over Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube!” barked Nellson.
“Guys, calm down,” ordered Justin, “As I can see, only 23 people watched it.”
“Oh,” As I saw it, Justin read the number wrong. “Justin,”
“Yeah?”
I got closer to his ear about a few centimeters away. I took a huge deep breath in and shrieked, “That’s freakin’ 23 thousand, you dumb ass freak!”
My scream ended Justin up on the floor stunned. We didn’t know what to do now. Except Justin knew one thing.

While Justin was gone, we heard Joshua screaming on the other side of the hallway. Justin pulled Joshua into Caitlin apartment. Finally, he let him go. Joshua got back up shaking in his underwear. “What the Hell is the matter with you?” he shrieked still in peril.
“Why did you tape us last night?” I snapped harshly with the rest of us glaring at him.
“Because I thought you were funny and so right.”
“Yeah,” Nellson agreed, “but you can’t put it on the Internet without our permission.”
“What?” Joshua headed to the laptop. “I deleted that part before I put the video so Ms. Dragonety won’t see… oh no,” Joshua made the biggest blunder of his life.
“Yeah, “oh no”,” Caitlin snapped, “Now what are we going to do?”
“Ms. Dragonety would give us detention for sure,” peeped Nellson.
“Or OSS!” I freaked.
“Or expulsion!” Caitlin screamed.
“Got it!” Joshua called, “This video is now deleted at your request…”
“Yes,” we cheered.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“No!”
“But the good news is that you got a lot of comments,” Joshua commented.
“Like what?” Caitlin asked.
“One of them says, “That was so funny. That’s the best video than other shit on this site.”
“At least people loved it,” I insisted.
“Yes,” Caitlin frowned still in a bad mood, “Better than the other shit on there.” If you thought tonight was bad, the next day was worse than that.

At school the next day, I tried to keep my feelings to a positive level. Caitlin was pacing back and forth with nervousness inside her. “Can you chill for one second?” I asked. I was nervous like she was.
“How can I chill?” she asked sacredly.
“Maybe she was at church,” I guessed to make her feel better.
“What church would let Ms. Dragonety through the Holy Door?” she whined. I forgot that Ms. Dragonety didn’t go to church. How cheap is that? Things turned worse when Ms. Dragonety walked past us. “Here she comes,” Caitlin warned me.
“Act normal!” Then we both greeted, “Morning, Ms. Dragonety!”
“Caitlin, Justinian,” she said back. Only teachers and my parents could call me Justinian.
Caitlin shook in her shoes. “Umm. We burned the auditions on a DVD for you,” she stammered holding the CD that Joshua burned for her.
Ms. Dragonety took the CD from Caitlin’s hand. “Thank you,” she said sweetly, but it didn’t stay good for long. “I’ll try not to break this with my pointy bosoms.”
I whispered into Caitlin’s ear. “She saw the video.”
“Ms. Dragonety, we’re so sorry,” Caitlin pleaded for forgiveness.
Ms. Dragonety huffed and started to walk away.
“Ms. Dragonety,” I called.
“What?” she snapped.
I stood still for a little bit. “We made a recommendation list for you to see which ones you want to see.”
Ms. Dragonety stole the list from my hands. “Hearts Times Pi-Come Here?” she asked meanly. “The Go Go Hoppers-Hop To My Heart? These are not entertainers and songs!”
“But they were entertaining to watch,” Justin said to be positive.
Caitlin stuttered. “So you’re saying no one is going to be in the Rocker’s Festival this year?”
“That’s right.” She went upstairs after that.
“I can’t believe this!” we both screamed at the same time.
The rappers came behind us. We turned around still not in a good mood. Finally I screamed, “Nobody enjoys that!” right in the middle of the rap. They stopped so sudden after my outrage.
Damn that woman! Damn the auditions! Damn everything on this earth! Most of all, damn my life as Justinian Florenza!

When I got home from school that day, I was ticked off. I put my hard work into those auditions and what do I get? A drunken teacher deciding not to convince the school to enter the Rocker’s Festival. I could have blurted my mouth open in her face for crying out loud.
Anyway, I got home in an exploding motion. “I can’t believe she’s doing this!”
Aaron, Justin, and Nellson followed me home. “Duh that!” Aaron agreed with me.
“I need ham,” Justin said and headed towards the kitchen.
Nellson rolled his eyes. He couldn’t believe Justin’s craving for ham. “I never realized how big of a fat jerk Ms Dragonety is,” he said at last.
“I know, right?” I replied in a question.
“How can you have a freakin’ bone in ham?” Justin asked while he was cutting the left over ham that Luca and I had for dinner one night.
Before I was completely stressed out, Joshua entered my apartment. “How did it go?” he asked.
“Horrible!” I replied. “Now Ms. Dragonety won’t enter anyone in the Rocker’s Festival!”
“That sucks!”
“I know!” Nellson shouted taking off his glasses. I admit that Nellson looked more handsome with his glasses off. I can tell people from people.
Aaron sat down on the couch. “Now what?” Aaron asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, “This is gonna ruin the school spirit all around Churchill Jr. High.”
“If there was only something we can do,” Justin insisted.
“If only we had musical talent,” Aaron frowned.
“That’s it!” I shouted in joy, “We can start our own band to enter the festival.”
“What?” All the boys boomed in shock.
“Start our own band. We can do whatever we want,” I explained, “Sing whatever we want. Also we can enter the festival on Friday night.”
“What do we do?” Nellson asked.
“We have to find instruments, sort out music and plan rehearsals.”
“How about a band name for starters?” Aaron asked next.
“How about the Ham/Bacon People?” Justin tried to guess, “Whatever you want is nice?”
The rest of the boys glared at him. “Do you have any other choices that don’t deal with ham, bacon, or fights?” Nellson asked seriously.
Justin thought for a few seconds. “No.”
Joshua stood up. “I have an idea!” he said, “How about Kissing Hearts? Because we all at least dated one girl/guy, right?”
“I like it,” Nellson said.
“Me two,” Aaron chirped.
“All in favor say, “I”,” I ordered.
“I!” Everyone including me cheered.
“Then, Kissing Hearts it is then.”
“And maybe you need a stage manager.” Joshua wanted to be with me is at all times.
“Aw!” Aaron cooed, “He wants to be our nerd.”
Joshua started to have a fit. “You’ve a big problem, man!” he pouted.
“Okay stop,” I said. “We got to choose our instruments for our first gig.”

Everything was set on that Friday. Caitlin was singing and playing the keyboard. Justin got to play the drums. Aaron played the bass guitar. Lastly, I had my old electric guitar. Some of us got to sing in some songs when it’s the right time. Joshua? He was our stage manager. Trust me that is an important job to have.
Like I said, Friday was the Rocker’s Festival. It’s a big concert fest when almost all the bands come together. I think K.I.S.S preformed in one of those. We were the last band that had to play. I felt like there was ants in my pants, but the fear stopped a minutes before hand.

When it was our time to go, everyone was ready, but Aaron was missing. “Where’s Aaron?” Caitlin asked.
“We’re going to start soon!” Justin was flipping out.
Finally Aaron showed up in his costume. “Sorry,” he said, “I had to pee.”
“You always have to pee!” Caitlin snapped.
I didn’t want to turn this into a showdown so I screamed, “Hey!” to make them shut up. “It’s almost time!” I also shouted.
“Nellson’s right,” Justin agreed with me on that. “We’re ready and we’re gonna rock the festival down to the roots.”
Caitlin didn’t want to get mad on the most important day of our lives. “Powerful stuff, but that’s nothing yet,” the announcer said loudly because he was on the mega phone trying to talk over the cheering fans. “You had seen Nickelback, Coldplay, and Queen. Now this last band tonight is from Churchill Jr. High School. Ladies and gentlemen! Performing tonight! Kissing Hearts!”
The audience (mostly full of teenagers) screamed at the top of their lungs. “I love you!” screamed one of the teenagers. They didn’t hear us sing or play yet and they already are giving comments on us.
“Alright, boys!” Caitlin shouted, so the audience could hear, “Lets rock this thing!”
“Yeah!” Aaron, Justin, and I echoed back. Justin played a few beats on his drums then the rest of us started to play. It was loud but gentle as well. What was Caitlin up to? The answer was in the voice. Her voice. I could believe my ears at that moment. I still remembered the words. These were the words Caitlin sang:

The water is
Full of dreams
Some deepen in the
Darkest seas

There is a
Light in the deepest ocean
That shines top surface
And brightens your mind

Sometimes thing don’t go way it’s planned
But I’m the only one that understands

Cause when things turn
Into a waste
You’re always there
To help me find my way

And when the darkness just
Takes love away
I know that your heart
Is where you’ll stay

The audience just bawled their eyes out. I almost sobbed too, but I held it in for the end. There was more to it. The second verse caught my mind to listen.

Like dolphins that
Jump into the sky
Ton of fish in the water that
Swim past by

I may not know it
Maybe that sea will
Take me away to
Find another chance

The sand reached my lips
No matter what I was disgusted of myself for salt

Cause when things turn
Into a waste
You’re always there
To help me find my way

And when the darkness just
Takes love away
I know your heart
Is where you’ll stay

Your heart
Like a diamond
Peers the sharpest
Shark in the ocean

And maybe
I’ll find that diamond
And take it too
The surface to keep

Cause when things turn
Into a waste
You’re always there
To help me find my way

And when the darkness just
Takes love away
I know your heart
Is where you’ll stay

You’ll stay
Is where you’ll
I know you’ll stay
My pocket where
The luck will reach me

And when I lock the door and
Take you away
I know the chest
Is sealed with the key

The key to love
The key to love
And where your lips will
Touch the
Sea

The sea
The sea
That’s where I’ll
Be

The audience cheered and cried. Aaron and Justin sobbed too. I never heard of anything so beautiful. Caitlin wanted to speak again, so everyone turned quiet. Through the microphone she said, “That song was called ‘I Know Your Heart Is Where You’ll Stay’ written by me and my friends. If I need help, I go to them.” I saw she started to cry. I saw her cry before. “And now I realized that having my friends here was the best thing that happened to me. I hope it was the best for you.”
The audience cheered again. Justin, Aaron, and I clapped. She was out of breath.

The guys made me go on my laptop the next morning. They wanted to know how many fans they got from the Rocker’s Festival. “What are the results?” Caitlin kept asking me.
“I’m checking,” I had to say every time until I got the results, “Over seven hundred thousand applauds came through.”
Justin screamed like a girl after he heard that and started to hug Aaron to death. Luca saw us rejoicing and decided to join. Then he finally asked, “Why are we happy?”
“We just got over seven hundred thousand comments from each person last night,” Justin shouted with joy.
“Shut up!” said Luca shockingly.
“Yeah,” Caitlin added, “We entered the Rocker’s festival and got tons of fans.”
Luca grabbed Caitlin and hugged her tight. “That’s my stepsister.”
We started to laugh with happiness. That also meant we could earn tons of money. Before we rejoiced again, Luca stopped us. “Wait!” he ordered, “We have to celebrate. This won’t be like any other party in the world.
“Crazy costume party?” Caitlin and I asked at the same time.
Luca snapped his finger.

A few hours later, Caitlin’s apartment was packed with kids from our school. They all wore costumes of all kinds. I was dressed as a cowboy. When I saw the other guys, they were wearing costumes too. Caitlin was dressed like a cowgirl. Nellson was dressed like a cat. Aaron was dressed as an alien. Lastly, Justin was dressed as a clown.
“How do I look?” I asked.
“In my opinion,” Aaron started, “like a moron.”
“I think you look great,” Caitlin said.
“This is the best week of our lives,” Justin cheered.
“And it will stay like this,” Caitlin added, “forever.”
“Shouldn’t we have a hand shake?” Aaron questioned.
“What are you?” Nellson responded with a quirky glance, “Five?
“No, every band has one. Shouldn’t we?”
“He’s right,” Cait nodded.
“We’ll have to improvise,” I reminded.
Cait already got that handled. She stuck her hand out into our little posse circle and shouted, “One!”
Nellson was next. “Two!”
Aaron stuck it in for the heck of it. “Three!”
Then, Justin threw his hand on top of Aaron’s. “Four!”
I didn’t know how to react, so, “Five!”
“Then, what?” Aaron looked at Cait for the go.
“On the count of three,” she smiled.
At second three, we shouted, “Kissing Hearts!”. Our band name for everyone to hear. We will be friends for the rest of our lives. That I know for a fact.