The Time Of My Life, chapter 1
Today was the day. It was 6:00 a. M. On October 4th, 2005. In about twelve hours I would be having the time of my life, jumping up and down, singing along, and just going crazy at the Green Day concert! I've known about the concert since May. I had to buy my tickets right when they came out, 10:00 a. M. On May 14, 2005, so I could get the best seats. My friend Megan, who would be accompanying me, and I estimated that we had seats anywhere between first and third row. This was going to be the best night of my life!
***Bus Stop***
I did everything I would do on a usual day. I got ready for school, went to the bus stop, that kind of stuff, except I was thinking about Green Day even more than usual. I got to the bus stop and began making conversation with this kid Garett.
"Oh my god! I'm going to the Green Day concert tonight!"
"Wow, good for you." he replied.
"Aren't you excited for me?"
"Uhhhhh... No."
"Well, I don't care. It's going to be awesome! I'm going to get caught in a mosh pit, and Billie Joe is going to give me a guitar, and Tre' is going to give me some drumsticks!"
"Ok... Um... Hey look, there's the bus"
***Bus Ride***
Most people on my bus are kind of weird. There's Nathan who is nerdy and mean, Travis who is nerdy and somewhat nice, Tiana who is one of my good friends and she is somewhat random and crazy (she reminds of Tre' Cool), and too many sixth graders to name. I talk about Green Day every day on the bus so by now pretty much everyone on my bus, and the whole school, knows that Megan and I will be going to the Green Day concert tonight.
"Ahhhhhh! Green Day concert... Tonight!"
That's all I could say for the whole bus ride to school except for the occasional "Green Day is so awesome!" and "I love Green Day!"
Everyone on my bus except Nathan and Travis tolerated me declaring my obsession.
"You're going to get caught in a mosh pit!" Nathan would say.
"Yeah, you are. Just watch Nathan, she's going to come to school tomorrow with like, and black eye and stuff!" said Travis.
"Shut up retards!"
***School***
As my large group of friends I walked around the cafeteria everyone said something about the Green Day concert. All I heard was "Hey, you're going to go see Green Day tonight right?" and "You're so lucky, I wish I could go see Green Day. Hey why don't you give Megan's ticket to me?"
I was so excited! It was really hard to focus on anything but Green Day! All morning Green day songs were playing through my head as I pictured Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre' playing their instruments and rocking out.
Finally, it was the end of the day. In just a few hours I would be at the concert and my most favorite band in the world would be only several feet away from me!
***Home***
I got off the bus and my mom gave Tiana a ride home. Once Tiana got out of the car my mom started yelling at me for not taking the empty shampoo bottles out of my shower.
"You know, I'm tempted to not let you go to the concert tonight!" she said.
"No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening!" I thought to myself. Then I realized that my mother wouldn't just do that. We've had these plans made for months. She wouldn't cancel them now. I just had to try really hard to stay on her good side for the rest of the night.
We picked Megan up at her house around 5:00 p. M. She was really excited, but not as excited as I was! We went to go eat an early dinner at Chili's. I guess Megan wasn't paying attention and the whole time we were in Chili's she thought we were in a Mexican restaurant.
We were now on our way to the Journal Pavilion to see Green Day! Well, traffic was worse than we expected. The highway was backed-up as far as I could see. "Great, we're going to be late and miss half the concert!" I thought. It was about 6:30 and Green Day would be going on stage in about an hour or so. I knew that I wouldn't get there in time to see Jimmy Eat World play but that's ok. I don't really like them.
It was nearing seven o'clock and we were still driving. On the radio they couldn't stop talking about Green Day. That just made me more excited!
***The Concert***
We finally got to the concert at around 7:30. They were playing Blitzkrieg Bop so I assumed that the pink bunny was on stage. I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew that Green Day would be coming on soon.
We made our way to our seats. When we finally got down there I realized that we would be in the standing section or "The Pit". That's where the mosh pit was and it was only a few feet away from the stage! We stood in the crowd waiting for Green Day to come out. All of a sudden the theme from Space Odyssey came on. Everyone started cheering and chanting "Green Day, Green Day, Green Day!" They ran out on stage and bowed. I screamed so loud! Billie Joe started playing American Idiot and it was awesome! They played Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Are We The Waiting, Saint Jimmy, and then they began to play some of their earlier songs like 2, 000 Light Years Away, Longview, Basket Case, She, Brain Stew, Jaded, Maria and many others. Then they called people up onstage to play Knowledge. It would've been awesome to go onstage except I don't know how to play any instruments. First Billie Joe called this one girl onstage to play electric guitar. She said she had been playing for about a year. Turned out she couldn't even play simple chords. So he chose someone else. That guy wasn't good either. Finally he called some guy onstage who was wearing an AC/DC shirt. He was really good! He called people onstage to play bass and drums. No problem there. At the end of the song, after the drummer did a stage dive, Billie Joe asked the first guitarist to come back onstage. He gave her a guitar and said she had better practice. She laughed and Billie Joe gave her a hug. I thought that is was really nice of Billie Joe to give her the guitar!
They went into Hitchin' A Ride, which sounded so awesome live! When it was nearing the end of the song Billie Joe began to ask the audience to say Hey-O. After doing that after a while, the Hey-Os turned into oohs, ahs, and ohs. Yep, he was jerking of onstage. It was pretty funny. They finished playing Hitchin' A Ride and went into King For A Day. Billie Joe was wearing a crown, Mike was wearing devil horns, Tre' was wearing a big pink hat, and Jason White was wearing a pirate hat. They did an amazing job. When it was nearing the end of the song they stopped, and Billie Joe began to sing Shout. It was amazing. He ran around with a red cape and his crown on. In the middle of the song, Mike, Billie Joe, and Jason all laid on the ground. Billie Joe was the only one humping the ground though, as he sang, "always look on the bright side of life". It was really awesome!
Soon after, they went into the encore. First they did Wake Me Up When September Ends, which of course everyone knew the words to. It was pretty cool though because everyone was waving his or her cell phone in the air. Next was Minority and Billie Joe did a harmonica solo. Then they played Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which again, everyone knew the words to. There was a really cool background on the big screen in the back of the stage. It was a picture of Billie Joe's eyes.
Tre' and Mike left the stage and Billie Joe was alone. As he began to play Good Riddance everyone screamed including myself. It was the most emotional version of Good Riddance I've ever heard. As Billie Joe played I thought about the concert and how awesome it was. This night couldn't get any better. Eventually Good Riddance was over and Tre' and Mike came back out. Tre' walked over to the right side of the stage and threw a couple of drumsticks into the audience. I rushed over the area where he had thrown them and I quickly grabbed one. They all walked to the center of the stage and took a bow. They exited the stage. It was over. I was happy because I had just seen my favorite band in concert and I got a drumstick, but at the same time I was sad because I knew it would be a longtime before I would ever see them in concert again.
*12:00 a. M. *
Megan and I began walking back to the car when all of a sudden I saw Mike walk by in the corner of my eye.
"Megan, I just saw Mike. He was right there." I pointed to the spot where I had seen him.
"Yeah... Right."
"No, really. I seriously just saw Mike. He was walking towards the stage!"
"Ok. Hey, maybe if we "accidentally" bump into him he would talk to us or something."
"So you're saying we should be stalkers?"
"Yes." Megan said calmly.
We began to walk towards the area where Mike had gone. We walked for a couple of minutes. We turned around a corner and guess who we bumped into.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I should probably watch where I'm going." Mike said with a smile.
Megan and I laughed a bit. "It's ok."
"So, did you two enjoy the show?" he asked.
"Yeah!" we both replied. "It was awesome!"
"Thanks." He said. Mike paused for a moment then said, "How would you guys like to meet the rest of the band?"
Megan and I stood there in awe. Us meeting Mike was already amazing enough but meeting Billie Joe and Tre' also? This was too good to be true!
"Really? That would be... " I couldn't finish my sentence. I was so stunned.
"Awesome!" Megan finished for me.
"Ok, cool. Just follow me." Mike said.
We followed him through a maze of buildings and tour buses until finally made our way behind the stage.
As we were walking Mike said, "You two probably know that I'm Mike, so what are your names?"
"I'm Alex." I said.
"And I'm Megan."
"Alex and Megan. Well you two are pretty cool."
We finally got to a table behind the stage. I could see Billie Joe, Tre', Jason White, and Jason Freese sitting there talking. They looked over at Mike.
"Hey." Billie Joe said.
"Who did you bring back with you?" Tre' asked.
"Hi guys. This is Alex and Megan." He said pointing to each one of us.
They all greeted us and we got to talking. Megan spoke to Tre', Jason White, and Jason Freese while I talked to Billie Joe and Mike. I told them how much I loved their music and how talented I thought they were.
"Thanks." They both said. "So, do you play any instruments?" Billie Joe asked.
"No, I'm going to start playing the electric guitar. My parents might get me a fender for Christmas."
Billie Joe reached over and picked up an all black Fender. "Here, you can have this one."
I sat there in awe. "Really, are you sure? I mean... You don't have to... It's ok."
Now, I'm not going to lie. I really wanted that guitar. I really did, but I didn't want to take it just like that.
"Really, you can have it. It's a good guitar."
"Thank you so much! I can't believe that I actually got to meet you guys and you gave me a guitar!"
Billie Joe chuckled a bit. "I take it that you like our band a lot?"
"A lot! You are the greatest band ever! Seriously, your music... It's just so... I don't even know how to put it into words!"
"Well, we try our hardest." Billie Joe said with a smile.
I overheard Megan and Tre's conversation. She was talking about how awesome he was and Tre' was proclaiming that he could "suck his own". They were having fun.
We talked for what seemed like hours. They were such interesting and intelligent people to talk to. We talked about a lot of things and they always brought up good points.
"Ok, I have an idea. How would you and Megan like to go on the rest of our tour with us? It would be for a couple of weeks and I know you have school, but maybe I could work something out with your teachers." Billie Joe proposed.
"Really? That would be amazing! I would definitely love to go with you guys on tour. If it's ok with my parents that is."
"Great! Well, we don't have a show scheduled for today. We don't have to start driving to Phoenix until later this evening. We could stop by your house and talk to your parents, see what they say." Billie Joe said.
"That would be great!"
Billie Joe told Megan about his idea and of course, she was as enthusiastic about it as I was.
Later that night we drove to my house. Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre' came to the door with me. I rang the doorbell. My dad answered.
"Hi dad. I'm with Green Day. They want Megan and I to go on tour with them. Is that ok with you?"
My dad stood there staring at all of us. I stood between Billie Joe and Tre'.
Tre leaned over and whispered in my ear "Is your dad ok?"
"Yeah" I replied "He's just in shock I guess, he'll snap out of it in a couple of seconds."
"... What?" my dad said in disbelief.
Billie Joe quickly stepped up to explain. "Hi. I'm Billie Joe." He shook my dad's hand, "Alex and Megan bumped into Mike at the concert and he brought them back to meet us. We got to talking and they seem really cool. I know how much they like our band so I offered them to come on the rest of the tour with us. It would be for a couple of weeks and I'm sure we could get something worked out with their teachers. We just needed your permission first."
My dad still stood there, still stunned at the whole situation. "Well, come inside and we'll talk about this." he said.
We talked about it for a while. Later, my mom walked in to see what was going on and had the same reaction my dad did.
"Well, all of you seem pretty responsible... And this is the chance of a lifetime... Ok Alex, you can go with them. Go start getting packed." My dad said.
"Oh my gosh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said. I was so happy! I ran back to my room with Megan. She helped me get packed.
"This is so exciting! We are going to go on tour with Green Day!"
"I know!" she paused, "I still haven't talked to my parents though."
"Don't worry, they'll say yes."
"I don't know. If they say no, will you tell me all about it when you get back?"
"Of course! I doubt I'll have to do that though. They'll say yes Megan, just watch."
I said goodbye to my family and we were off to Megan's house, which was only a few streets away.
We all walked up to her doorstep. Megan reluctantly rang the doorbell, not knowing what would happen next. Her mom answered. "Megan! Where have you... Oh... My... God... You're with... Green Day!"
"Yes, they want us to go on tour with them. Alex's parents already said yes and... " she as cut short by her mom.
"Megan, Megan, Megan. Well... Come inside, let's talk this over."
Megan gave me an unsure look. "It'll all work out, I promise. Just, make sure you explain to your mom how important this is to you and how it is a once in a lifetime chance."
"Ok, I'll try, but... I don't know... " she trailed off.
We walked into the living room and sat down. "Ok Megan, before you start trying to convincing me to let you go, please explain to me how you managed... This."
We all explained how we bumped into Mike and we started talking. We told her how Billie Joe made such a wonderful offer that we couldn't resist.
"Ok, why should I let you go Megan?"
"Um... Because, like I said this is a once in a lifetime chance. I mean, c'mon, how often do you get offered to go on tour with a band as huge as Green Day? Please, you know how much I love them! Please!"
Her mom sat on the couch and just stared at her blankly. Megan burst into tears. "Please mom, PLEASE! Don't be like this! I promise I will always be good and I will never complain and... "
Her mom leaned in and hugged her. "Megan, stop. It's ok. I was going to let you go I was just... "
"THANK YOU!" Megan hugged her mom tightly and rushed to go pack.
"See, I told you everything would work out. I can't believe you cried." I laughed.
Megan looked at me. "Shut up!" She threw a pillow at me and we both laughed.
Megan finished packing. We walked back into the living room to find Megan's mom and Billie Joe conversing about ceiling fan designs. Very strange. Tre' and Mike were taking turns smelling a candle while Jason White and Jason Freese looked at magazines. Megan's mom looked up at us and said "Ready?"
"Yep." We both replied in unison.
Megan walked over to her mom and gave her a hug. "Thank you so much mom for letting me go!"
"Be good, and don't be to much trouble."
We all said goodbye and got back on to the tour bus. I sat down on a chair next to Billie Joe. He smiled at me. "Are you excited?" he asked.
"I'm really excited!"
"Good, you guys are going to have a lot of fun, I promise." I smiled.
"Well, you have a long couple weeks ahead of you. You better get some sleep while you can." Billie Joe showed us to an area with two empty bunk beds. "No one is using these, so you can stay here."
"Thanks." I replied.
"See you in the morning." He said. Billie Joe walked away.
There we were. On Green Day's tour bus headed to Phoenix. We would be on tour with them for a couple of weeks. These would certainly be the best two weeks of our lives!
***Bus Stop***
I did everything I would do on a usual day. I got ready for school, went to the bus stop, that kind of stuff, except I was thinking about Green Day even more than usual. I got to the bus stop and began making conversation with this kid Garett.
"Oh my god! I'm going to the Green Day concert tonight!"
"Wow, good for you." he replied.
"Aren't you excited for me?"
"Uhhhhh... No."
"Well, I don't care. It's going to be awesome! I'm going to get caught in a mosh pit, and Billie Joe is going to give me a guitar, and Tre' is going to give me some drumsticks!"
"Ok... Um... Hey look, there's the bus"
***Bus Ride***
Most people on my bus are kind of weird. There's Nathan who is nerdy and mean, Travis who is nerdy and somewhat nice, Tiana who is one of my good friends and she is somewhat random and crazy (she reminds of Tre' Cool), and too many sixth graders to name. I talk about Green Day every day on the bus so by now pretty much everyone on my bus, and the whole school, knows that Megan and I will be going to the Green Day concert tonight.
"Ahhhhhh! Green Day concert... Tonight!"
That's all I could say for the whole bus ride to school except for the occasional "Green Day is so awesome!" and "I love Green Day!"
Everyone on my bus except Nathan and Travis tolerated me declaring my obsession.
"You're going to get caught in a mosh pit!" Nathan would say.
"Yeah, you are. Just watch Nathan, she's going to come to school tomorrow with like, and black eye and stuff!" said Travis.
"Shut up retards!"
***School***
As my large group of friends I walked around the cafeteria everyone said something about the Green Day concert. All I heard was "Hey, you're going to go see Green Day tonight right?" and "You're so lucky, I wish I could go see Green Day. Hey why don't you give Megan's ticket to me?"
I was so excited! It was really hard to focus on anything but Green Day! All morning Green day songs were playing through my head as I pictured Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre' playing their instruments and rocking out.
Finally, it was the end of the day. In just a few hours I would be at the concert and my most favorite band in the world would be only several feet away from me!
***Home***
I got off the bus and my mom gave Tiana a ride home. Once Tiana got out of the car my mom started yelling at me for not taking the empty shampoo bottles out of my shower.
"You know, I'm tempted to not let you go to the concert tonight!" she said.
"No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening!" I thought to myself. Then I realized that my mother wouldn't just do that. We've had these plans made for months. She wouldn't cancel them now. I just had to try really hard to stay on her good side for the rest of the night.
We picked Megan up at her house around 5:00 p. M. She was really excited, but not as excited as I was! We went to go eat an early dinner at Chili's. I guess Megan wasn't paying attention and the whole time we were in Chili's she thought we were in a Mexican restaurant.
We were now on our way to the Journal Pavilion to see Green Day! Well, traffic was worse than we expected. The highway was backed-up as far as I could see. "Great, we're going to be late and miss half the concert!" I thought. It was about 6:30 and Green Day would be going on stage in about an hour or so. I knew that I wouldn't get there in time to see Jimmy Eat World play but that's ok. I don't really like them.
It was nearing seven o'clock and we were still driving. On the radio they couldn't stop talking about Green Day. That just made me more excited!
***The Concert***
We finally got to the concert at around 7:30. They were playing Blitzkrieg Bop so I assumed that the pink bunny was on stage. I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew that Green Day would be coming on soon.
We made our way to our seats. When we finally got down there I realized that we would be in the standing section or "The Pit". That's where the mosh pit was and it was only a few feet away from the stage! We stood in the crowd waiting for Green Day to come out. All of a sudden the theme from Space Odyssey came on. Everyone started cheering and chanting "Green Day, Green Day, Green Day!" They ran out on stage and bowed. I screamed so loud! Billie Joe started playing American Idiot and it was awesome! They played Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Are We The Waiting, Saint Jimmy, and then they began to play some of their earlier songs like 2, 000 Light Years Away, Longview, Basket Case, She, Brain Stew, Jaded, Maria and many others. Then they called people up onstage to play Knowledge. It would've been awesome to go onstage except I don't know how to play any instruments. First Billie Joe called this one girl onstage to play electric guitar. She said she had been playing for about a year. Turned out she couldn't even play simple chords. So he chose someone else. That guy wasn't good either. Finally he called some guy onstage who was wearing an AC/DC shirt. He was really good! He called people onstage to play bass and drums. No problem there. At the end of the song, after the drummer did a stage dive, Billie Joe asked the first guitarist to come back onstage. He gave her a guitar and said she had better practice. She laughed and Billie Joe gave her a hug. I thought that is was really nice of Billie Joe to give her the guitar!
They went into Hitchin' A Ride, which sounded so awesome live! When it was nearing the end of the song Billie Joe began to ask the audience to say Hey-O. After doing that after a while, the Hey-Os turned into oohs, ahs, and ohs. Yep, he was jerking of onstage. It was pretty funny. They finished playing Hitchin' A Ride and went into King For A Day. Billie Joe was wearing a crown, Mike was wearing devil horns, Tre' was wearing a big pink hat, and Jason White was wearing a pirate hat. They did an amazing job. When it was nearing the end of the song they stopped, and Billie Joe began to sing Shout. It was amazing. He ran around with a red cape and his crown on. In the middle of the song, Mike, Billie Joe, and Jason all laid on the ground. Billie Joe was the only one humping the ground though, as he sang, "always look on the bright side of life". It was really awesome!
Soon after, they went into the encore. First they did Wake Me Up When September Ends, which of course everyone knew the words to. It was pretty cool though because everyone was waving his or her cell phone in the air. Next was Minority and Billie Joe did a harmonica solo. Then they played Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which again, everyone knew the words to. There was a really cool background on the big screen in the back of the stage. It was a picture of Billie Joe's eyes.
Tre' and Mike left the stage and Billie Joe was alone. As he began to play Good Riddance everyone screamed including myself. It was the most emotional version of Good Riddance I've ever heard. As Billie Joe played I thought about the concert and how awesome it was. This night couldn't get any better. Eventually Good Riddance was over and Tre' and Mike came back out. Tre' walked over to the right side of the stage and threw a couple of drumsticks into the audience. I rushed over the area where he had thrown them and I quickly grabbed one. They all walked to the center of the stage and took a bow. They exited the stage. It was over. I was happy because I had just seen my favorite band in concert and I got a drumstick, but at the same time I was sad because I knew it would be a longtime before I would ever see them in concert again.
*12:00 a. M. *
Megan and I began walking back to the car when all of a sudden I saw Mike walk by in the corner of my eye.
"Megan, I just saw Mike. He was right there." I pointed to the spot where I had seen him.
"Yeah... Right."
"No, really. I seriously just saw Mike. He was walking towards the stage!"
"Ok. Hey, maybe if we "accidentally" bump into him he would talk to us or something."
"So you're saying we should be stalkers?"
"Yes." Megan said calmly.
We began to walk towards the area where Mike had gone. We walked for a couple of minutes. We turned around a corner and guess who we bumped into.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I should probably watch where I'm going." Mike said with a smile.
Megan and I laughed a bit. "It's ok."
"So, did you two enjoy the show?" he asked.
"Yeah!" we both replied. "It was awesome!"
"Thanks." He said. Mike paused for a moment then said, "How would you guys like to meet the rest of the band?"
Megan and I stood there in awe. Us meeting Mike was already amazing enough but meeting Billie Joe and Tre' also? This was too good to be true!
"Really? That would be... " I couldn't finish my sentence. I was so stunned.
"Awesome!" Megan finished for me.
"Ok, cool. Just follow me." Mike said.
We followed him through a maze of buildings and tour buses until finally made our way behind the stage.
As we were walking Mike said, "You two probably know that I'm Mike, so what are your names?"
"I'm Alex." I said.
"And I'm Megan."
"Alex and Megan. Well you two are pretty cool."
We finally got to a table behind the stage. I could see Billie Joe, Tre', Jason White, and Jason Freese sitting there talking. They looked over at Mike.
"Hey." Billie Joe said.
"Who did you bring back with you?" Tre' asked.
"Hi guys. This is Alex and Megan." He said pointing to each one of us.
They all greeted us and we got to talking. Megan spoke to Tre', Jason White, and Jason Freese while I talked to Billie Joe and Mike. I told them how much I loved their music and how talented I thought they were.
"Thanks." They both said. "So, do you play any instruments?" Billie Joe asked.
"No, I'm going to start playing the electric guitar. My parents might get me a fender for Christmas."
Billie Joe reached over and picked up an all black Fender. "Here, you can have this one."
I sat there in awe. "Really, are you sure? I mean... You don't have to... It's ok."
Now, I'm not going to lie. I really wanted that guitar. I really did, but I didn't want to take it just like that.
"Really, you can have it. It's a good guitar."
"Thank you so much! I can't believe that I actually got to meet you guys and you gave me a guitar!"
Billie Joe chuckled a bit. "I take it that you like our band a lot?"
"A lot! You are the greatest band ever! Seriously, your music... It's just so... I don't even know how to put it into words!"
"Well, we try our hardest." Billie Joe said with a smile.
I overheard Megan and Tre's conversation. She was talking about how awesome he was and Tre' was proclaiming that he could "suck his own". They were having fun.
We talked for what seemed like hours. They were such interesting and intelligent people to talk to. We talked about a lot of things and they always brought up good points.
"Ok, I have an idea. How would you and Megan like to go on the rest of our tour with us? It would be for a couple of weeks and I know you have school, but maybe I could work something out with your teachers." Billie Joe proposed.
"Really? That would be amazing! I would definitely love to go with you guys on tour. If it's ok with my parents that is."
"Great! Well, we don't have a show scheduled for today. We don't have to start driving to Phoenix until later this evening. We could stop by your house and talk to your parents, see what they say." Billie Joe said.
"That would be great!"
Billie Joe told Megan about his idea and of course, she was as enthusiastic about it as I was.
Later that night we drove to my house. Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre' came to the door with me. I rang the doorbell. My dad answered.
"Hi dad. I'm with Green Day. They want Megan and I to go on tour with them. Is that ok with you?"
My dad stood there staring at all of us. I stood between Billie Joe and Tre'.
Tre leaned over and whispered in my ear "Is your dad ok?"
"Yeah" I replied "He's just in shock I guess, he'll snap out of it in a couple of seconds."
"... What?" my dad said in disbelief.
Billie Joe quickly stepped up to explain. "Hi. I'm Billie Joe." He shook my dad's hand, "Alex and Megan bumped into Mike at the concert and he brought them back to meet us. We got to talking and they seem really cool. I know how much they like our band so I offered them to come on the rest of the tour with us. It would be for a couple of weeks and I'm sure we could get something worked out with their teachers. We just needed your permission first."
My dad still stood there, still stunned at the whole situation. "Well, come inside and we'll talk about this." he said.
We talked about it for a while. Later, my mom walked in to see what was going on and had the same reaction my dad did.
"Well, all of you seem pretty responsible... And this is the chance of a lifetime... Ok Alex, you can go with them. Go start getting packed." My dad said.
"Oh my gosh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said. I was so happy! I ran back to my room with Megan. She helped me get packed.
"This is so exciting! We are going to go on tour with Green Day!"
"I know!" she paused, "I still haven't talked to my parents though."
"Don't worry, they'll say yes."
"I don't know. If they say no, will you tell me all about it when you get back?"
"Of course! I doubt I'll have to do that though. They'll say yes Megan, just watch."
I said goodbye to my family and we were off to Megan's house, which was only a few streets away.
We all walked up to her doorstep. Megan reluctantly rang the doorbell, not knowing what would happen next. Her mom answered. "Megan! Where have you... Oh... My... God... You're with... Green Day!"
"Yes, they want us to go on tour with them. Alex's parents already said yes and... " she as cut short by her mom.
"Megan, Megan, Megan. Well... Come inside, let's talk this over."
Megan gave me an unsure look. "It'll all work out, I promise. Just, make sure you explain to your mom how important this is to you and how it is a once in a lifetime chance."
"Ok, I'll try, but... I don't know... " she trailed off.
We walked into the living room and sat down. "Ok Megan, before you start trying to convincing me to let you go, please explain to me how you managed... This."
We all explained how we bumped into Mike and we started talking. We told her how Billie Joe made such a wonderful offer that we couldn't resist.
"Ok, why should I let you go Megan?"
"Um... Because, like I said this is a once in a lifetime chance. I mean, c'mon, how often do you get offered to go on tour with a band as huge as Green Day? Please, you know how much I love them! Please!"
Her mom sat on the couch and just stared at her blankly. Megan burst into tears. "Please mom, PLEASE! Don't be like this! I promise I will always be good and I will never complain and... "
Her mom leaned in and hugged her. "Megan, stop. It's ok. I was going to let you go I was just... "
"THANK YOU!" Megan hugged her mom tightly and rushed to go pack.
"See, I told you everything would work out. I can't believe you cried." I laughed.
Megan looked at me. "Shut up!" She threw a pillow at me and we both laughed.
Megan finished packing. We walked back into the living room to find Megan's mom and Billie Joe conversing about ceiling fan designs. Very strange. Tre' and Mike were taking turns smelling a candle while Jason White and Jason Freese looked at magazines. Megan's mom looked up at us and said "Ready?"
"Yep." We both replied in unison.
Megan walked over to her mom and gave her a hug. "Thank you so much mom for letting me go!"
"Be good, and don't be to much trouble."
We all said goodbye and got back on to the tour bus. I sat down on a chair next to Billie Joe. He smiled at me. "Are you excited?" he asked.
"I'm really excited!"
"Good, you guys are going to have a lot of fun, I promise." I smiled.
"Well, you have a long couple weeks ahead of you. You better get some sleep while you can." Billie Joe showed us to an area with two empty bunk beds. "No one is using these, so you can stay here."
"Thanks." I replied.
"See you in the morning." He said. Billie Joe walked away.
There we were. On Green Day's tour bus headed to Phoenix. We would be on tour with them for a couple of weeks. These would certainly be the best two weeks of our lives!
