My Blue Eyed Girl, chapter 9
*** ***
*6 years later. The year is 2011. Both lots of twins are 16. Joey is 17. Jakob is 15. Jennifer is 13 and Mitchell is 12. The Green Day guys are 39 and 40. They all share a huge mansion.*
Tre's POV
The guys and I had just come home from doing an interview for the follow up to American Idiot, 'Rage and Love'. It was just as big a hit. We had left the kids back at the house by themselves seeing as Joey and both sets of twins were old enough. Bad idea. We were all alerted to what had happened when we heard Billie yell. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
We all rushed to see what the matter was and were met with the sight of the back porch and the back of the house covered in paint and paint buckets and brushes strewn everywhere. We had let the kid's paint their bedrooms a few weeks ago and the paint that was left over had obviously been used in a paint fight. Either that or they just randomly decided to paint the back of the house like a rainbow.
"Ooh they are in so much trouble" Billie started.
"AMANDA NICOLE AND TRENT MICHAEL!!!" I hollered.
"BIANCA JADE AND EMMA STEPHANIE!" Mike followed suit with my yelling.
"MITCHELL DYLAN!" Jason yelled.
"JOSEPH MARCIANO, JAKOB DANGER AND JENNIFER LEE!" Billie yelled before taking a deep breath.
These kids weren't gonna know what hit them. They all came downstairs looking rather sheepish and covered in splatters of paint. They knew they were in trouble.
"Get out here, all of you" Billie started trying to stay calm and not go totally off his nut. "What the hell happened?" he asked, directing the question mainly at Joey.
"We... we had a paint fight" Joey said immediately looking at the floor.
"Why?" I asked looking at my twins. This wasn't all Joey's fault that's for sure.
"We were bored" Trent said looking me straight in the eye. He was so much like me it wasn't funny sometimes. Same erratic behaviour and same I-don't-care attitude as well.
"So you decided to fling paint all over the back of the house and the porch?" I questioned. He nodded.
"I can't decide whether we should ground you, make you clean up this mess, tell your mother's and not take you to the Grammy's, or whether we should make you clean this up and ground you except for going to the Grammy's." Mike said sounding exasperated.
"Go upstairs until we decide what to do" Billie stated. All the kids went up the stairs in sulky moods. We had promised that once Mitchell was old enough, we'd take them to the Grammy's. Now we would have to seriously consider if they deserved to go anymore.
"What do we do?" Jason asked. "We've gotta punish them, but we promised we'd take them to the Grammy's"
"I say, we make them clean it up and ground them until the Grammy's" Mike said.
"Always the logical thinker" I said laughing.
"We'll if we do it like that, we punish them but they still get to go to the Grammy's, and we've kept our promise" he grinned.
"We don't have to yell both there names this time do we?" Billie complained. "I'm the only one with three kids. It's a freakin mouthful" he said pouting.
I laughed." No Bill... Just do it like this" I took a breath before continuing. "JOEY, AMANDA, TRENT, JAKOB, BIANCA, EMMA, JENNIFER AND MITCHELL... GET DOWN HERE NOW!"
They all ambled downstairs and lined up, awaiting there fate.
"We have decided that since we promised to take you to the Grammy's this year, we are gonna make you clean up the mess, not tell you're mother's and ground you till the Grammy's" Mike said.
"That means no TV, no computer, no ipod, no stereo, no video games, no bass, no guitar, no drums, no keyboards, no sax, no cell phones, no going out, no pagers and no Blackberry's... " I said ticking them all off on my fingers.
"So that basically means no fun until the Grammy's?" Joey asked, obviously annoyed.
"Better believe it kiddo. You're lucky you're even going to the Grammy's" I stated as I watched all their faces drop. "The only time you will be allowed to go out is if we all go out as a group."
"Now get out there and clean up... " Jason said, checking his watch. "You have exactly 2 and a half hours"
Two and half hours later the girls came home. Hopefully they would be none the wiser about the redecorating of the back of the house.
"Wow... look at this joint... it's all clean" Adie stated.
"What did you do?" Rachel asked, looking straight at me.
"Who says I did anything! There is another 3 guys and 8 kids to consider too ya know!... besides... why can't I clean up for my three favourite girls" I said walking over to Mattie, Claire and Rachel and hugging them all at the same time.
*** ***
the day of the Grammys
Amanda's POV
"I can't believe they're still letting us go to the Grammy's" I said excitedly to Bianca, Emma and Jennifer. We all shared the same room and were getting ready.
"I know. I thought they were gonna totally make us not go" Bianca said as she pulled on her clothes for the ceremony. We had gone shopping the day before and had all new outfits. Bianca had a hot pink strapless dress with a black design all over it and Emma had the exact same dress, but in black with a hot pink design on it. They were identical twins after all. I was in an awesome purple dress and Jennifer was in a green dress. She looked quite hot for a 13 year old.
"You girls finished yet?" Joey asked, bashing on the door as he barged into the room. My brother, Jakob and Mitchell all trailed in behind him.
"No we aren't, Joey! It doesn't take us 5 seconds to get ready like you!" she said to her older brother.
"Hey! This takes time" Trent said motioning to his hair.
"Whatever" I said. "Just get out!... We'll be down when we're finished ok?"
"Jeez don't get you're undies in a knot" Jakob muttered as the boys left the room.
"Boys." Emma giggled.
"Can't live with them, can't live without them!" we all said in unison.
*** ***
Later, at the Grammys
"This is so cool!" I squealed jumping up and down.
"Calm down. It's only the Grammy's!" Joey said laughing.
"That's my point doofus!" I said slapping him on the arm. "How many people apart from us can say that they've been to the Grammy's?"
He pondered for a minute.
"See what I mean?" I giggled.
*** ***
"And the winner for 'BEST FOLLOW UP ALBUM' is... Green Day!!" Jennifer Love Hewitt said. We all cheered and hugged just about everyone around us.
"Go Daddy!" I yelled as they got to the stage.
"Thank you" Billie said giggling. "We'd like to thank everyone that helped with this album, Sam Bayer for his awesome videos, the producers, these guys standing here with me" he said gesturing to dad, Uncle Mike, Uncle Jason, Uncle JF and Uncle Ronnie. "Thanks always go out to the fans. Without you we wouldn't be here right now" the crowd laughed/cheered at that. "I'd also like to thank all our wives, kids, nieces and nephews. Without them, this album would have never got off the ground so thank you"
"We love you Uncle BJ!" Bianca, Emma and I yelled when there was a silence.
The crowd laughed and then cheered. "I love you too guys... peace out" he said as they left the stage.
"Woo! They soo deserved that award" I said bouncing on my seat. All the excitement of actually being at the Grammy's was starting to get too me. Either that or it was the red soda I had guzzled at dinner.
*** ***
After coming back for a little bit and presenting an award they all came back to get me and Trent. They were gonna be playing 'Homecoming' for the closing for the ceremony.
"Alright... who gave Blue Eyes the red soda?" Dad asked in a joking matter, knowing full well that he was the one that had ordered it in the first place.
"At least I'll have energy for the song" I said giggling and following Uncle Jason to the backstage area.
I went back stage and got changed. Can't play the sax very well in a dress can I?? I got Fred (my alto sax) and followed everyone to side stage. The nerves were over whelming. Me... Amanda Nicole Somers (Cool) was just about ready to play saxophone at the Grammy's man!!
It got to just before my point in the song and I rushed out on stage. I had a spotlight and everything!
I began playing and everyone went completely mental! I don't know whether it was because of me, or whether it was the lights and stuff, or coz it was dad's part of the song... but I decided to think that they were cheering at me. I finished my bit and Uncle BJ started introducing everyone to the crowd. They cheered the most when he got to me and Trent. We rushed off stage and waited for them to finish.
"I just played saxophone at the Grammy's!!!" I yelled excitedly as Uncle Jason rushed up to me.
"I know! And you were like brilliant!" he said imitating a teenie. "Come on... Photo time!" he said grabbing my hand and yanking me towards where everyone else was having photos taken.
"Auntie Rachel! Did you see me?...did you see me?" I asked beginning to bounce up and down again. Damn red soda.
"Oh my god! Yes I did... yes I did!" she said grabbing my hands and bouncing also.
We continued to get photos taken for about another 15 minutes and then we headed off to the after party.
Everyone was going except for Auntie Rachel, Jennifer and Mitchell. They were a little bit too young to encounter drunk people I think.
"But I wanna come!" Mitchell whined.
"Are you 15 yet?" Auntie Anna questioned. He shook his head. "Then you've answered your own question buddy." She said giggling as his face dropped even more and he pouted.
*** ***
a few months later
Tre's POV
The guys and I were having a jam session in the studio when we heard a knock on the door. Who could it be? Everyone knew not to disturb us when we were down here. I opened the door to find Trent standing there with a strange look on his face.
"Wassa matter dude?" I asked.
"I... I don't know how to explain it... but Manda's hurt" he said scratching his head. By this stage the other guys had come to the door also.
"How can you tell?" Jason asked.
"I dunno... it's like I can feel the pain she has... its weird. All I know is we have to find her dad... it doesn't feel good." He said with a genuine look of concern on his face for his twin.
"Let's go!" Jason said rushing up the stairs in front of me.
I hope she was ok. She had gone out with some friends tonight because she had just broken up with her boyfriend and she was 'really down' according to Bianca and Emma. Apparently he was treating her really badly. I just hope she hadn't done anything really terrible.
We all raced out of the house and went in separate cars and in separate directions. Trent started heading towards his car before I stopped him.
"Nuh uh... You're coming with me twin boy" I said pulling him towards my BMW. "Call her on your cell and see if she answers" I instructed.
"No answer" he said a minute or so later. "Shit! This is bad isn't it?" he asked.
"Until we figure out what's happening... yeah... it is bad buddy." I said, sighing.
We drove around for a few hours with no luck in finding her until Trent's cell began ringing. The ring tone let us know that it was Billie.
I grabbed the phone. "Beej. Did ya find her?' I asked.
"Yeah" he replied. "How close are you guys to 3rd street?" he asked.
"Just down the block" I said. "Why?"
"You'll see when you get here man... just hurry ok?" he said before he hung up.
"Come on Punkus Mc Gee... let's go!" I said, starting the engine and speeding off towards 3rd Street. We arrived a few minutes later.
"Where are ya BJ?" I hollered looking around frantically.
"Down here Tre!" he called. I headed towards the alley, and found Billie and Amanda about halfway down it.
"Call everyone and let them know where we are, and that we've found her ok?" I instructed Trent. He nodded and went off to call them. I continued down the alley and as I got closer I could see what had happened. She was all beat up. Bruises and cuts all over her and her clothes were ripped. Billie was talking to her and it looked like he was trying to keep her awake.
"Hey Manda Panda" I said squatting down next to her with tears in my eyes. "What happened sweetie?" I said stroking her cheek.
"He... he hurt me daddy!!" she said bursting into tears.
"Who hurt you baby?"
"Matthew did" she said bitterly before she passed out. Matthew was her know ex boyfriend.
"That son of a bitch!" I spat. "I'll kill him."
"Hey. No you won't" Billie said grabbing my arm and trying to calm me. "If you go after him, it'll make the situation worse for Manda" he said, pausing for a second to make sure that she was still breathing.
"You're right" I said. "Trent call an ambulance" I finished sitting down on the ground next to Billie and pulling her into my lap.
The ambulance came a few minutes later.
"Take my car dude" I said pointing. "I'm going with your sister in the ambulance ok?" he nodded and headed towards my car. "Just make sure you don't crash it" I said grinning as I climbed in the back of the ambulance.
*** ***
When we arrived at the hospital they took Amanda into another room to fix her up and I went and sat with the group. It must have looked a bit strange coz there was 17 of us all waiting for the same person. At least she could say that she had 17 people that loved her, some more than life itself.
A doctor came out about and hour later. He did a double take when he saw all of us. "Are you ALL the party for Amanda Somers?" he asked.
"Yeah" I replied. "How is she?"
"She's sleeping now. She was beaten pretty badly and she has a few broken ribs. Apparently an Uncle Billie saved her from anything more happening. She should be out of here in a few days."
"Thanks" I replied. "Can we see her?" I asked.
"Sure. But just immediate family for now ok?" he said and walked away.
Mattie and Trent into the room ahead of me. I went over to Billie and dragged him up and gave him a hug.
"Thanks man" I said. "If you hadn't found her when you did, she might not have been here right now" I said.
He smiled and said. "Go see her. We'll stay out here."
*** ***
I walked in and found Trent sitting next to his sister and holding her hand on one side while Mattie was on the other side. I hadn't even let him put his shoes on as we rushed out of the house, so he was sitting there in his jeans and a black t shirt barefoot. "You did good today buddy... " I said, pulling a chair up next to Trent and patting him on the back. "Your twin senses saved her" he smiled at that. Poor kid. Although he may not show it all the time, but he loved his twin sister to bits. He would always be there for her, and I could see that.
We sat in silence for a few minutes until we heard these words whispered. "Hey Punkus Mc Gee... would you mind letting go of me?" all our heads snapped up and smiles spread over our faces.
"Welcome back Blue Eyes" I smiled.
"Hey daddy" she said smiling also. "Where's everyone else?" she asked.
"They're outside waiting... do you want me to get them in here?" I asked. She nodded. I went back out to the waiting room and let Mattie fuss over her for a minute.
"How is she?" Jason said as I came back out.
"She's awake... and she wants to see all of you." I said motioning all of them.
"All of us... will we fit?" Mitchell asked giggling.
Everyone laughed and followed me into the room.
"Are you ok Manda Panda?" Jason asked.
"I've been better" she giggled, but then winced as the pain of her ribs hit her.
"Do you want us to bash him up for ya?" Joey asked motioning to himself and Jake as well as Trent.
"Thanks, but no thanks... I think Uncle BJ did a good job of scaring him off already" she said grinning at Billie.
"What did you say?" I asked with an amused giggle.
"I basically said that if he laid another hand on her I'd rip his eyes out and make him watch me kick his ass" he said grinning. "That and I was looking like I did when we filmed St Jimmy" he said laughing.
"Oh... you were too... " I said realizing it and giggling.
Some how we all managed to find seats on and around her bed and stayed, watching random things on the TV until the nurse told us visiting hours were over.
"Come on you" I said trying to drag Trent away.
"Can I stay?" he asked, looking between me and Amanda.
She nodded. "Sure... but why?" she asked, looking at her brother weirdly. "I didn't think you liked me that much" she giggled.
"Shut up!" he whined, playfully swatting at her arm. "I don't know why I wanna stay to tell you the truth. Call it a twin thing"
"Whatever you reckon buddy" I joked. "We'll come and see you tomorrow ok Manda Panda?" I said kissing her on the forehead.
Mattie and I walked out of the room.
"That is so cute what he's just done" she said beaming with pride.
"I know, even though he doesn't want to show it, he loves her to bits." I concluded as we got to the car.
Amanda's POV
I can't believe he wants to stay here. My brother... the one that has despised me and teased me over the years, wants to stay with me while I'm in hospital. It's kinda cute when you think about it.
"So why do you wanna stay?" I asked him, cocking an eyebrow. He looked at me and smiled.
"I know I might not show it all the time Manda, but if anything happened to you I don't know what I'd do. Call it twin bonding or whatever, but you don't know how scared I was when we were looking for you. I thought you were dead or something." He said looking up at me and smiling sheepishly.
"Aw Trent! That's so sweet!" I said leaning forward to hug him.
"This doesn't mean that I'm gonna be nice to you all the time though" he said pulling away and grinning evilly.
"This conversation never happened" I said grinning and doing our secret handshake with him. We'd been doing it ever since we were little and I guess it sorta stuck.
"Now if you'll excuse me... I'm gonna go get us some half decent food"
he said laughing and gesturing to the rather unappealing food on the tray in front of me.
"Use my flip flops" I said as I noticed he didn't have shoes on. Lucky for him I'd worn my plain black ones today.
"Good thinking sis" he said as he put them on and went out the door.
I was lucky that I had him as a brother, and that I had Joey and Jake as 'cousins' they would stick up for me any time. I lay back and watched 'The Simpsons' until he came back with the food.
"Bout time!" I moaned as he came back in the room with an arm full of food. "What did ya get me?" I asked as he dumped it all on the table in front of me.
"Sandwiches, soda and chocolate" he said, giggling as my eyes got wide.
"Gimme that Mars Bar" I said grabbing it from him and taking a bite. "Oh my gosh!...it tastes so good!" I exclaimed through a mouthful of caramel, chocolate and nougat.
We ate in silence for a while and then watched TV until we fell asleep.
the next morning
Jason's POV
I went to the hospital and as I walked into Amanda's room I was met with a sight that could fuel a lot of teasing later. They were both asleep, but Trent had his head on one arm and he was holding Amanda's hand with his other arm.
"Oh that's so cute" I whispered mainly to myself. I placed the coffee and doughnuts on the table and sat down on the other side of her bed.
After about 15 minutes, I got bored, so I turned the TV on. Unfortunately this woke Amanda up.
"Uncle Jason?" she asked rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"Yeah sweetie?" I replied.
"What the hell are you doing? Did you bring coffee?" she asked seeing the packages on the table beside her.
"Yeah I did... your brother's really cute you know" I said gesturing down to their conjoined hands.
"Yeah. He told me some stuff last night. He's always gonna be there for me and stuff. It was kind of cute." she said, smiling down at her brother. Then she smacked him in the head with her other hand. "Wake up dip shit. Uncle Jason brought coffee." She said as her brother woke up, rubbed his head where she had smacked it, and stretched.
"I should never have given you guys any of that when you were younger" I laughed as I watched them grab at a cup, take a big sip and then sigh contentedly.
Ever since they were about 2, I had put a little bit of coffee in their milk to calm them, make them shut up or whatever. It worked every time, and ever since then, they had both been addicted to the stuff, just like me and Mike.
"You made us turn out like Uncle Mikey" Trent joked as he grabbed a doughnut.
"I blame you if die early as a result of coffee over dose" Amanda said joining in on the joke.
"Well fine... I'll just take it back then" I said grabbing at their coffee cups. They beat me to it and cradled them like babies.
"It's ok... " Amanda cooed to her cup. "The scary man won't hurt you anymore" she said trying to hold in giggle.
"Your lucky I have to be nice to you" I giggled as she stuck her tongue out at me.
At that stage Mike, Sammy, Bianca and Emma came into the room.
"Oooohh coffee! Can I have some?" Mike asked going over to Amanda.
"Nuh uh! Mine!" she said stubbornly, snatching it away.
"Ok dude... you made them worse than me" he said laughing and sitting next to me.
"Damn straight" Trent exclaimed, taking the lid off his coffee and downing what was left of it. "Where's dad? I need some shoes" he said motioning to his feet. He was wearing Amanda's flip flops.
"He called me before I came here and said he was coming" I stated. "Knowing him and your mother though, they're probably off playing army" I laughed.
"Ew! I didn't need to hear that!" Amanda said slapping my arm.
"Well HE asked where they were!" I protested pointing at Trent.
"Good one!" she said smacking him over the head again. "I don't really wanna have to imagine what mom and dad are possibly doing right now thanks."
"Ah! Can you feel the love?" Mike asked, laughing at all of us.
"Shut up!" we all retaliated.
"Ok who did what?" Adie asked as she, Billie and the kids came into the room.
"Jason started it!" Amanda said, before I could even think of anything to say.
"Well I'm finishing it" Tre said, smiling, as he, Mattie, Anna and Mitchell came through the door.
"Did you bring me shoes?" Trent asked.
"A hello would be nice... but yes, I did bring you shoes" he said flinging Trent's cons at him.
Tre's POV
"Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?" I asked as I walked over and kissed her forehead.
"Still pretty sore... but better than yesterday" she said grinning.
"Good to know. So what did Jason do?" I asked cracking my knuckles menacingly.
Jason yelped. He hated it when I kicked his ass, or even thought about the possibility that I could kick his ass.
"I'll be good!" he said gulping and trying to hide behind Anna's arm.
"Me being in the way won't stop him you realize?" she joked.
"Can we forget about Guitar Boy and focus on me please!" Amanda said, pouting.
That caused everyone's attention to be taken away from me nearly kicking Jason's ass and turning back to Amanda.
"That's better" she said giggling. "Does anyone know when I'll be allowed out of here?" she asked, looking at each one of us in turn. We all shook our heads. "Jeez! And you call yourselves my family!" she joked.
"I think I can answer your question" a voice from near the door said.
"Oh jeez... which relative now!" I fake moaned. Last time this happened my sister was in the doorway.
A doctor made her way to the bed.
"You'll have to stay here for a few more days I'm afraid. Just to monitor you. But after that you'll be fine to go home." She said. Amanda's face dropped.
"Ok... thank you. How long were you in here by the way?" she asked. We hadn't seen or heard anyone come in at all.
"A few minutes. I was behind that young man" she said pointing at Joey. He was quite tall, and the doctor was quite short.
"Jeez Joey!" Billie joked smacking him over the head. Well sorta. Joey was a good 8 inches taller than Billie.
"My head's up here" he said pointing and then taking his father in a headlock.
"Hey! Be careful! I'm old!" he joked.
"By what? A few months on the rest of us?" I joked.
"Yeah" he replied poking his tongue out at me. "I'll always be the oldest."
"You may be the oldest... but it's a competition to who acts the youngest" Adie laughed.
"I resent that!" Mike said as he pouted.
"Aw! You're mature baby... " Sammy stated. "Just not when you're around these guys" she said grinning and kissing him.
*** ***
A few days later...
Amanda's POV
Thank god! Finally I can get out of this place. I've done nothing over the last few days but think about what Matthew fucking did to me. He told me he loved me, and I believed him. What kind of person beats someone they supposedly love half to death? I just didn't get it. Everyone had been really good around me. None of them even mentioned it since the day it happened.
We were walking out to the car, mum and dad in front... me and Trent further behind, when it happened. A black-gloved hand was clamped onto my mouth from behind and I was dragged backwards. I looked over at Trent. The same was happening to him, but he managed to scream out ... "DAD!!" before his mouth was covered and he was shoved into the back of a van with me. Duct tape was placed over our mouths and the last thing we saw was mom and dad rushing towards the van yelling and crying.
*6 years later. The year is 2011. Both lots of twins are 16. Joey is 17. Jakob is 15. Jennifer is 13 and Mitchell is 12. The Green Day guys are 39 and 40. They all share a huge mansion.*
Tre's POV
The guys and I had just come home from doing an interview for the follow up to American Idiot, 'Rage and Love'. It was just as big a hit. We had left the kids back at the house by themselves seeing as Joey and both sets of twins were old enough. Bad idea. We were all alerted to what had happened when we heard Billie yell. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
We all rushed to see what the matter was and were met with the sight of the back porch and the back of the house covered in paint and paint buckets and brushes strewn everywhere. We had let the kid's paint their bedrooms a few weeks ago and the paint that was left over had obviously been used in a paint fight. Either that or they just randomly decided to paint the back of the house like a rainbow.
"Ooh they are in so much trouble" Billie started.
"AMANDA NICOLE AND TRENT MICHAEL!!!" I hollered.
"BIANCA JADE AND EMMA STEPHANIE!" Mike followed suit with my yelling.
"MITCHELL DYLAN!" Jason yelled.
"JOSEPH MARCIANO, JAKOB DANGER AND JENNIFER LEE!" Billie yelled before taking a deep breath.
These kids weren't gonna know what hit them. They all came downstairs looking rather sheepish and covered in splatters of paint. They knew they were in trouble.
"Get out here, all of you" Billie started trying to stay calm and not go totally off his nut. "What the hell happened?" he asked, directing the question mainly at Joey.
"We... we had a paint fight" Joey said immediately looking at the floor.
"Why?" I asked looking at my twins. This wasn't all Joey's fault that's for sure.
"We were bored" Trent said looking me straight in the eye. He was so much like me it wasn't funny sometimes. Same erratic behaviour and same I-don't-care attitude as well.
"So you decided to fling paint all over the back of the house and the porch?" I questioned. He nodded.
"I can't decide whether we should ground you, make you clean up this mess, tell your mother's and not take you to the Grammy's, or whether we should make you clean this up and ground you except for going to the Grammy's." Mike said sounding exasperated.
"Go upstairs until we decide what to do" Billie stated. All the kids went up the stairs in sulky moods. We had promised that once Mitchell was old enough, we'd take them to the Grammy's. Now we would have to seriously consider if they deserved to go anymore.
"What do we do?" Jason asked. "We've gotta punish them, but we promised we'd take them to the Grammy's"
"I say, we make them clean it up and ground them until the Grammy's" Mike said.
"Always the logical thinker" I said laughing.
"We'll if we do it like that, we punish them but they still get to go to the Grammy's, and we've kept our promise" he grinned.
"We don't have to yell both there names this time do we?" Billie complained. "I'm the only one with three kids. It's a freakin mouthful" he said pouting.
I laughed." No Bill... Just do it like this" I took a breath before continuing. "JOEY, AMANDA, TRENT, JAKOB, BIANCA, EMMA, JENNIFER AND MITCHELL... GET DOWN HERE NOW!"
They all ambled downstairs and lined up, awaiting there fate.
"We have decided that since we promised to take you to the Grammy's this year, we are gonna make you clean up the mess, not tell you're mother's and ground you till the Grammy's" Mike said.
"That means no TV, no computer, no ipod, no stereo, no video games, no bass, no guitar, no drums, no keyboards, no sax, no cell phones, no going out, no pagers and no Blackberry's... " I said ticking them all off on my fingers.
"So that basically means no fun until the Grammy's?" Joey asked, obviously annoyed.
"Better believe it kiddo. You're lucky you're even going to the Grammy's" I stated as I watched all their faces drop. "The only time you will be allowed to go out is if we all go out as a group."
"Now get out there and clean up... " Jason said, checking his watch. "You have exactly 2 and a half hours"
Two and half hours later the girls came home. Hopefully they would be none the wiser about the redecorating of the back of the house.
"Wow... look at this joint... it's all clean" Adie stated.
"What did you do?" Rachel asked, looking straight at me.
"Who says I did anything! There is another 3 guys and 8 kids to consider too ya know!... besides... why can't I clean up for my three favourite girls" I said walking over to Mattie, Claire and Rachel and hugging them all at the same time.
*** ***
the day of the Grammys
Amanda's POV
"I can't believe they're still letting us go to the Grammy's" I said excitedly to Bianca, Emma and Jennifer. We all shared the same room and were getting ready.
"I know. I thought they were gonna totally make us not go" Bianca said as she pulled on her clothes for the ceremony. We had gone shopping the day before and had all new outfits. Bianca had a hot pink strapless dress with a black design all over it and Emma had the exact same dress, but in black with a hot pink design on it. They were identical twins after all. I was in an awesome purple dress and Jennifer was in a green dress. She looked quite hot for a 13 year old.
"You girls finished yet?" Joey asked, bashing on the door as he barged into the room. My brother, Jakob and Mitchell all trailed in behind him.
"No we aren't, Joey! It doesn't take us 5 seconds to get ready like you!" she said to her older brother.
"Hey! This takes time" Trent said motioning to his hair.
"Whatever" I said. "Just get out!... We'll be down when we're finished ok?"
"Jeez don't get you're undies in a knot" Jakob muttered as the boys left the room.
"Boys." Emma giggled.
"Can't live with them, can't live without them!" we all said in unison.
*** ***
Later, at the Grammys
"This is so cool!" I squealed jumping up and down.
"Calm down. It's only the Grammy's!" Joey said laughing.
"That's my point doofus!" I said slapping him on the arm. "How many people apart from us can say that they've been to the Grammy's?"
He pondered for a minute.
"See what I mean?" I giggled.
*** ***
"And the winner for 'BEST FOLLOW UP ALBUM' is... Green Day!!" Jennifer Love Hewitt said. We all cheered and hugged just about everyone around us.
"Go Daddy!" I yelled as they got to the stage.
"Thank you" Billie said giggling. "We'd like to thank everyone that helped with this album, Sam Bayer for his awesome videos, the producers, these guys standing here with me" he said gesturing to dad, Uncle Mike, Uncle Jason, Uncle JF and Uncle Ronnie. "Thanks always go out to the fans. Without you we wouldn't be here right now" the crowd laughed/cheered at that. "I'd also like to thank all our wives, kids, nieces and nephews. Without them, this album would have never got off the ground so thank you"
"We love you Uncle BJ!" Bianca, Emma and I yelled when there was a silence.
The crowd laughed and then cheered. "I love you too guys... peace out" he said as they left the stage.
"Woo! They soo deserved that award" I said bouncing on my seat. All the excitement of actually being at the Grammy's was starting to get too me. Either that or it was the red soda I had guzzled at dinner.
*** ***
After coming back for a little bit and presenting an award they all came back to get me and Trent. They were gonna be playing 'Homecoming' for the closing for the ceremony.
"Alright... who gave Blue Eyes the red soda?" Dad asked in a joking matter, knowing full well that he was the one that had ordered it in the first place.
"At least I'll have energy for the song" I said giggling and following Uncle Jason to the backstage area.
I went back stage and got changed. Can't play the sax very well in a dress can I?? I got Fred (my alto sax) and followed everyone to side stage. The nerves were over whelming. Me... Amanda Nicole Somers (Cool) was just about ready to play saxophone at the Grammy's man!!
It got to just before my point in the song and I rushed out on stage. I had a spotlight and everything!
I began playing and everyone went completely mental! I don't know whether it was because of me, or whether it was the lights and stuff, or coz it was dad's part of the song... but I decided to think that they were cheering at me. I finished my bit and Uncle BJ started introducing everyone to the crowd. They cheered the most when he got to me and Trent. We rushed off stage and waited for them to finish.
"I just played saxophone at the Grammy's!!!" I yelled excitedly as Uncle Jason rushed up to me.
"I know! And you were like brilliant!" he said imitating a teenie. "Come on... Photo time!" he said grabbing my hand and yanking me towards where everyone else was having photos taken.
"Auntie Rachel! Did you see me?...did you see me?" I asked beginning to bounce up and down again. Damn red soda.
"Oh my god! Yes I did... yes I did!" she said grabbing my hands and bouncing also.
We continued to get photos taken for about another 15 minutes and then we headed off to the after party.
Everyone was going except for Auntie Rachel, Jennifer and Mitchell. They were a little bit too young to encounter drunk people I think.
"But I wanna come!" Mitchell whined.
"Are you 15 yet?" Auntie Anna questioned. He shook his head. "Then you've answered your own question buddy." She said giggling as his face dropped even more and he pouted.
*** ***
a few months later
Tre's POV
The guys and I were having a jam session in the studio when we heard a knock on the door. Who could it be? Everyone knew not to disturb us when we were down here. I opened the door to find Trent standing there with a strange look on his face.
"Wassa matter dude?" I asked.
"I... I don't know how to explain it... but Manda's hurt" he said scratching his head. By this stage the other guys had come to the door also.
"How can you tell?" Jason asked.
"I dunno... it's like I can feel the pain she has... its weird. All I know is we have to find her dad... it doesn't feel good." He said with a genuine look of concern on his face for his twin.
"Let's go!" Jason said rushing up the stairs in front of me.
I hope she was ok. She had gone out with some friends tonight because she had just broken up with her boyfriend and she was 'really down' according to Bianca and Emma. Apparently he was treating her really badly. I just hope she hadn't done anything really terrible.
We all raced out of the house and went in separate cars and in separate directions. Trent started heading towards his car before I stopped him.
"Nuh uh... You're coming with me twin boy" I said pulling him towards my BMW. "Call her on your cell and see if she answers" I instructed.
"No answer" he said a minute or so later. "Shit! This is bad isn't it?" he asked.
"Until we figure out what's happening... yeah... it is bad buddy." I said, sighing.
We drove around for a few hours with no luck in finding her until Trent's cell began ringing. The ring tone let us know that it was Billie.
I grabbed the phone. "Beej. Did ya find her?' I asked.
"Yeah" he replied. "How close are you guys to 3rd street?" he asked.
"Just down the block" I said. "Why?"
"You'll see when you get here man... just hurry ok?" he said before he hung up.
"Come on Punkus Mc Gee... let's go!" I said, starting the engine and speeding off towards 3rd Street. We arrived a few minutes later.
"Where are ya BJ?" I hollered looking around frantically.
"Down here Tre!" he called. I headed towards the alley, and found Billie and Amanda about halfway down it.
"Call everyone and let them know where we are, and that we've found her ok?" I instructed Trent. He nodded and went off to call them. I continued down the alley and as I got closer I could see what had happened. She was all beat up. Bruises and cuts all over her and her clothes were ripped. Billie was talking to her and it looked like he was trying to keep her awake.
"Hey Manda Panda" I said squatting down next to her with tears in my eyes. "What happened sweetie?" I said stroking her cheek.
"He... he hurt me daddy!!" she said bursting into tears.
"Who hurt you baby?"
"Matthew did" she said bitterly before she passed out. Matthew was her know ex boyfriend.
"That son of a bitch!" I spat. "I'll kill him."
"Hey. No you won't" Billie said grabbing my arm and trying to calm me. "If you go after him, it'll make the situation worse for Manda" he said, pausing for a second to make sure that she was still breathing.
"You're right" I said. "Trent call an ambulance" I finished sitting down on the ground next to Billie and pulling her into my lap.
The ambulance came a few minutes later.
"Take my car dude" I said pointing. "I'm going with your sister in the ambulance ok?" he nodded and headed towards my car. "Just make sure you don't crash it" I said grinning as I climbed in the back of the ambulance.
*** ***
When we arrived at the hospital they took Amanda into another room to fix her up and I went and sat with the group. It must have looked a bit strange coz there was 17 of us all waiting for the same person. At least she could say that she had 17 people that loved her, some more than life itself.
A doctor came out about and hour later. He did a double take when he saw all of us. "Are you ALL the party for Amanda Somers?" he asked.
"Yeah" I replied. "How is she?"
"She's sleeping now. She was beaten pretty badly and she has a few broken ribs. Apparently an Uncle Billie saved her from anything more happening. She should be out of here in a few days."
"Thanks" I replied. "Can we see her?" I asked.
"Sure. But just immediate family for now ok?" he said and walked away.
Mattie and Trent into the room ahead of me. I went over to Billie and dragged him up and gave him a hug.
"Thanks man" I said. "If you hadn't found her when you did, she might not have been here right now" I said.
He smiled and said. "Go see her. We'll stay out here."
*** ***
I walked in and found Trent sitting next to his sister and holding her hand on one side while Mattie was on the other side. I hadn't even let him put his shoes on as we rushed out of the house, so he was sitting there in his jeans and a black t shirt barefoot. "You did good today buddy... " I said, pulling a chair up next to Trent and patting him on the back. "Your twin senses saved her" he smiled at that. Poor kid. Although he may not show it all the time, but he loved his twin sister to bits. He would always be there for her, and I could see that.
We sat in silence for a few minutes until we heard these words whispered. "Hey Punkus Mc Gee... would you mind letting go of me?" all our heads snapped up and smiles spread over our faces.
"Welcome back Blue Eyes" I smiled.
"Hey daddy" she said smiling also. "Where's everyone else?" she asked.
"They're outside waiting... do you want me to get them in here?" I asked. She nodded. I went back out to the waiting room and let Mattie fuss over her for a minute.
"How is she?" Jason said as I came back out.
"She's awake... and she wants to see all of you." I said motioning all of them.
"All of us... will we fit?" Mitchell asked giggling.
Everyone laughed and followed me into the room.
"Are you ok Manda Panda?" Jason asked.
"I've been better" she giggled, but then winced as the pain of her ribs hit her.
"Do you want us to bash him up for ya?" Joey asked motioning to himself and Jake as well as Trent.
"Thanks, but no thanks... I think Uncle BJ did a good job of scaring him off already" she said grinning at Billie.
"What did you say?" I asked with an amused giggle.
"I basically said that if he laid another hand on her I'd rip his eyes out and make him watch me kick his ass" he said grinning. "That and I was looking like I did when we filmed St Jimmy" he said laughing.
"Oh... you were too... " I said realizing it and giggling.
Some how we all managed to find seats on and around her bed and stayed, watching random things on the TV until the nurse told us visiting hours were over.
"Come on you" I said trying to drag Trent away.
"Can I stay?" he asked, looking between me and Amanda.
She nodded. "Sure... but why?" she asked, looking at her brother weirdly. "I didn't think you liked me that much" she giggled.
"Shut up!" he whined, playfully swatting at her arm. "I don't know why I wanna stay to tell you the truth. Call it a twin thing"
"Whatever you reckon buddy" I joked. "We'll come and see you tomorrow ok Manda Panda?" I said kissing her on the forehead.
Mattie and I walked out of the room.
"That is so cute what he's just done" she said beaming with pride.
"I know, even though he doesn't want to show it, he loves her to bits." I concluded as we got to the car.
Amanda's POV
I can't believe he wants to stay here. My brother... the one that has despised me and teased me over the years, wants to stay with me while I'm in hospital. It's kinda cute when you think about it.
"So why do you wanna stay?" I asked him, cocking an eyebrow. He looked at me and smiled.
"I know I might not show it all the time Manda, but if anything happened to you I don't know what I'd do. Call it twin bonding or whatever, but you don't know how scared I was when we were looking for you. I thought you were dead or something." He said looking up at me and smiling sheepishly.
"Aw Trent! That's so sweet!" I said leaning forward to hug him.
"This doesn't mean that I'm gonna be nice to you all the time though" he said pulling away and grinning evilly.
"This conversation never happened" I said grinning and doing our secret handshake with him. We'd been doing it ever since we were little and I guess it sorta stuck.
"Now if you'll excuse me... I'm gonna go get us some half decent food"
he said laughing and gesturing to the rather unappealing food on the tray in front of me.
"Use my flip flops" I said as I noticed he didn't have shoes on. Lucky for him I'd worn my plain black ones today.
"Good thinking sis" he said as he put them on and went out the door.
I was lucky that I had him as a brother, and that I had Joey and Jake as 'cousins' they would stick up for me any time. I lay back and watched 'The Simpsons' until he came back with the food.
"Bout time!" I moaned as he came back in the room with an arm full of food. "What did ya get me?" I asked as he dumped it all on the table in front of me.
"Sandwiches, soda and chocolate" he said, giggling as my eyes got wide.
"Gimme that Mars Bar" I said grabbing it from him and taking a bite. "Oh my gosh!...it tastes so good!" I exclaimed through a mouthful of caramel, chocolate and nougat.
We ate in silence for a while and then watched TV until we fell asleep.
the next morning
Jason's POV
I went to the hospital and as I walked into Amanda's room I was met with a sight that could fuel a lot of teasing later. They were both asleep, but Trent had his head on one arm and he was holding Amanda's hand with his other arm.
"Oh that's so cute" I whispered mainly to myself. I placed the coffee and doughnuts on the table and sat down on the other side of her bed.
After about 15 minutes, I got bored, so I turned the TV on. Unfortunately this woke Amanda up.
"Uncle Jason?" she asked rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"Yeah sweetie?" I replied.
"What the hell are you doing? Did you bring coffee?" she asked seeing the packages on the table beside her.
"Yeah I did... your brother's really cute you know" I said gesturing down to their conjoined hands.
"Yeah. He told me some stuff last night. He's always gonna be there for me and stuff. It was kind of cute." she said, smiling down at her brother. Then she smacked him in the head with her other hand. "Wake up dip shit. Uncle Jason brought coffee." She said as her brother woke up, rubbed his head where she had smacked it, and stretched.
"I should never have given you guys any of that when you were younger" I laughed as I watched them grab at a cup, take a big sip and then sigh contentedly.
Ever since they were about 2, I had put a little bit of coffee in their milk to calm them, make them shut up or whatever. It worked every time, and ever since then, they had both been addicted to the stuff, just like me and Mike.
"You made us turn out like Uncle Mikey" Trent joked as he grabbed a doughnut.
"I blame you if die early as a result of coffee over dose" Amanda said joining in on the joke.
"Well fine... I'll just take it back then" I said grabbing at their coffee cups. They beat me to it and cradled them like babies.
"It's ok... " Amanda cooed to her cup. "The scary man won't hurt you anymore" she said trying to hold in giggle.
"Your lucky I have to be nice to you" I giggled as she stuck her tongue out at me.
At that stage Mike, Sammy, Bianca and Emma came into the room.
"Oooohh coffee! Can I have some?" Mike asked going over to Amanda.
"Nuh uh! Mine!" she said stubbornly, snatching it away.
"Ok dude... you made them worse than me" he said laughing and sitting next to me.
"Damn straight" Trent exclaimed, taking the lid off his coffee and downing what was left of it. "Where's dad? I need some shoes" he said motioning to his feet. He was wearing Amanda's flip flops.
"He called me before I came here and said he was coming" I stated. "Knowing him and your mother though, they're probably off playing army" I laughed.
"Ew! I didn't need to hear that!" Amanda said slapping my arm.
"Well HE asked where they were!" I protested pointing at Trent.
"Good one!" she said smacking him over the head again. "I don't really wanna have to imagine what mom and dad are possibly doing right now thanks."
"Ah! Can you feel the love?" Mike asked, laughing at all of us.
"Shut up!" we all retaliated.
"Ok who did what?" Adie asked as she, Billie and the kids came into the room.
"Jason started it!" Amanda said, before I could even think of anything to say.
"Well I'm finishing it" Tre said, smiling, as he, Mattie, Anna and Mitchell came through the door.
"Did you bring me shoes?" Trent asked.
"A hello would be nice... but yes, I did bring you shoes" he said flinging Trent's cons at him.
Tre's POV
"Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?" I asked as I walked over and kissed her forehead.
"Still pretty sore... but better than yesterday" she said grinning.
"Good to know. So what did Jason do?" I asked cracking my knuckles menacingly.
Jason yelped. He hated it when I kicked his ass, or even thought about the possibility that I could kick his ass.
"I'll be good!" he said gulping and trying to hide behind Anna's arm.
"Me being in the way won't stop him you realize?" she joked.
"Can we forget about Guitar Boy and focus on me please!" Amanda said, pouting.
That caused everyone's attention to be taken away from me nearly kicking Jason's ass and turning back to Amanda.
"That's better" she said giggling. "Does anyone know when I'll be allowed out of here?" she asked, looking at each one of us in turn. We all shook our heads. "Jeez! And you call yourselves my family!" she joked.
"I think I can answer your question" a voice from near the door said.
"Oh jeez... which relative now!" I fake moaned. Last time this happened my sister was in the doorway.
A doctor made her way to the bed.
"You'll have to stay here for a few more days I'm afraid. Just to monitor you. But after that you'll be fine to go home." She said. Amanda's face dropped.
"Ok... thank you. How long were you in here by the way?" she asked. We hadn't seen or heard anyone come in at all.
"A few minutes. I was behind that young man" she said pointing at Joey. He was quite tall, and the doctor was quite short.
"Jeez Joey!" Billie joked smacking him over the head. Well sorta. Joey was a good 8 inches taller than Billie.
"My head's up here" he said pointing and then taking his father in a headlock.
"Hey! Be careful! I'm old!" he joked.
"By what? A few months on the rest of us?" I joked.
"Yeah" he replied poking his tongue out at me. "I'll always be the oldest."
"You may be the oldest... but it's a competition to who acts the youngest" Adie laughed.
"I resent that!" Mike said as he pouted.
"Aw! You're mature baby... " Sammy stated. "Just not when you're around these guys" she said grinning and kissing him.
*** ***
A few days later...
Amanda's POV
Thank god! Finally I can get out of this place. I've done nothing over the last few days but think about what Matthew fucking did to me. He told me he loved me, and I believed him. What kind of person beats someone they supposedly love half to death? I just didn't get it. Everyone had been really good around me. None of them even mentioned it since the day it happened.
We were walking out to the car, mum and dad in front... me and Trent further behind, when it happened. A black-gloved hand was clamped onto my mouth from behind and I was dragged backwards. I looked over at Trent. The same was happening to him, but he managed to scream out ... "DAD!!" before his mouth was covered and he was shoved into the back of a van with me. Duct tape was placed over our mouths and the last thing we saw was mom and dad rushing towards the van yelling and crying.
