Time Spent, chapter 1

Taylor High School: located in the pit of hell and run by cheerleaders and football players. The cafeteria was packed with kids, C lunch was always the most crowded and I just got out of line with fifteen minutes left of lunch. Thank god I only had to deal with this one last year, and only a semester remaining.

"HEY CHRISTINA, PETE!!"

I smiled and walked towards the table. I dodged a group of girls, ran into two varsity football players who were following the girls, and almost dropped my tray, which Pete found very amusing.

Pete had been my best friend since I could remember. We live next door to each other and always have hung out. In fact, we were in a band together (Pete plays guitar and I play bass) along with Brandon and Travis, who play guitar and drums, respectively. We hang out everyday and every class I have is with at least one of them. But, unfortunately for us, they have a different lunch period.

"It's not funny," I told him.

"Yes it is. How is it you can jump up and down all night playing bass when you can't even handle a bunch of preppy girls?" he asked me.

"Dare I remind you of the time you nearly got your ass kicked by that cheerleader?" I shot back and giggled on the look on his face.

That shut him up real quick. I sat down and looked to see who was at the table. Alex was across from me to the right, Jon on one side of me and Pete was sitting down on the other. Then there were Cliff, Ben, Kelly, Zack, Will, and Garrett with his newest girlfriend Liz sitting around the table.

"So when do you guys find out?!" Alex asked us.

"Find out what?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Aww come on Chris! Don't keep us waiting!" Kelly pleaded.

I laughed. "You really want to know?"

"YES!!" shouted several people at once, causing the security guard to glance in our direction.

I glanced at Pete and he winked back.

"Well... we meet with them tonight to sign everything." I told them.

An enormous cheer erupted from the table and the security guard ambled closer to the table. C lunch was also the lunch for fights.

"I can't believe you guys are actually getting signed! I mean, I knew you guys were incredible, but it's like one in a million to get signed isn't it?" Jon thought for a moment. "Probably even worse than that."

I laughed and glanced at my tray. Cafeteria food. Great. It looked more like... ok I won't go there.

"Not eating?"

I looked up to see Tim sitting down across from me. I couldn't help but blush. I'd had a crush on him forever but I could never make a move, not after going out with his best friend and breaking his heart.

"I... uh... can't bring myself to. Can you really blame me?" I answered.

He smiled and replied, "Nah, I wouldn't touch that shit either. I heard it's the same food they serve in prison."

Pete and I laughed.

"Oh by the way I heard you guys are getting signed. Congrats," he told us.

"Thanks man," said Pete taking his outstretched hand and shaking it.

With that I turned to join in with Alex and Jon's conversation they had going about Green Day.

***

Finally; school was over, it was a Friday night, and we had a meeting with Reprise Records. Holy shit. The very thought scared the shit out of me.

I ran up to my room and opened the window.

"Hey Pete! Open the window!" I yelled towards the closed window and chucked a pen I found lying on the floor.

The window slid open revealing Travis, Brandon and Pete.

"Hey Chris, want some?" Travis asked holding out a bag of tortilla chips.

"No thanks. So what are you guys gonna wear?" I asked them.

"Uhh... I dunno. Whatever I feel like," replied Travis scratching his head.

I giggled. "One of you please hit him. I'm gonna go take a shower."

The water felt good. I stood there thinking about what might happen tonight. I mean, what if they change their mind? What if they decided we weren't good enough? I tried not to think on it as I got out, grabbed a towel, and went to the sink to plug in the flat iron. They can't do that this late can they? But I knew they could.

I spent extra time in front of the mirror. I did my hair and lined my eyes with black eyeliner. I put eye shadow on followed by mascara. I put on some black pants and a nice shirt. We had to make a good impression, we just had to!

I walked out the door and got into Brandon's car with a sick feeling in my stomach. God I hope this goes ok.

***

Reprise Records. God even the parking lot was intimidating. The whole thing was a blur, walking in the building, meeting the rep, walking to the meeting room. I found myself sitting in a big room at an immense table that seemed to go on forever. Oh my god, please don't choke. Just don't choke.

"Breathe. Just breathe." A voice whispered in my ear.

I jumped and looked at Pete. He looked paler than usual but he must have looked better than me. His black hair was more disciplined than usual; I think he tried to make it look tamer than it usually did; however it hadn't worked very well. His pillow was his only stylist.

The door opened and my heart skipped a beat. A man in a nice suit walked in, sat down, and took out a large stack of paper work.

Two hours later, we were signed with Reprise Records.

***

"Yeah!! Ha ha! Look out music world, here we come!" yelled Travis.

We were in the lobby again and we felt like nothing could touch us. Pete and I were jumping up and down screaming and Brandon was laughing at all of the rest of us.

"We have to celebrate! Where should we go?" Pete said breathlessly.

"Anywhere! It doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is we're signed! shouted Brandon.

That caused a new wave of excitement and cheering.

"Come on, let's go. We can just stop somewhere when we see it." I told them.

"Sounds good to me," said Travis putting his arm around my neck and heading towards the door.

We were all heading towards the door when Pete stopped dead in his tracks.

"Pete... are you ok?" Brandon asked Pete.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me... "

We all followed his gaze towards a hallway branching off from the main lobby. My jaw dropped. Walking towards us were my three idols. Walking towards us was Green Day.