Things Aren't What They Seem (Not A Green Day Story), chapter 1
Ok. Lets start with character description. It might be a bit easier to visualize.
Leila (said, Layla): She is 16 years old. She is 5'11, tall for her age. 20/20 vision, greyish eyes really, really curly hair down to her mid back, with purple and red highlights. multiple facial piercing, which include a hoop in her eyebrow, a hoop in her nose, a hoop in her lip and a barbell in her tongue. Has a nice figure but hides it with baggy concert t-shirts and jeans. Carries her big clunky army green bag with her everywhere which holds a spare change of clothes, makeup, her handy-dandy mp3 and other essentials. Completely obsessed with all things music. Rough home life, due to the fact that her parents died when she was 11 in a car crash. Now lives with her overprotective grandparents, who by the way, hate her hair, piercings, and music and don't let her listen to it when they're in range of hearing it. Grandfather frequently hits her. And her Grandmother agree's with this type of punishment. Has a best friend named Joshy (Josh).
Josh: 16 years old, about 6'1. Wears square shaped glasses and has dark brown eyes. He has a really long blue and pink Mohawk with the sides not completely shaved but just a little hair. He has a hoop in his nose and thats it on his piercing (in places that are visible). His (somewhat weak-looking) arms are sleeved in tattoo's of anything and everything. Josh wears the same type (and sometimes shares) of clothing as Leila. He is just as obsessed with everything music as Leila is. And he is THE most funny, random (I hate that word but I cant think of another one better) and crazy person you will ever meet. He usually needs to be this way because Leila is usually in a bad mood and needs to cheer her up. His home life is the average home life, divorced parents, who love him but don't like his hair, piercings (the ones they know of), and type of music.
Josh and Leila have known each other since kindergarten. Not to mention they're neighbors and spent every waking moment together. They love each other like brother and sister but more so because they get a long so well together.
I will explain characters appearances as they come into the story. This is my first story so it might suck a little but I am relying on the comments of readers to improve. Enjoy the story. (PLEASE!!)
"WHAT?!?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?? You are NOT my father. You can't tell me what I can and cant put on my own body!!" Leila yelled with anger seething out of every pore.
"As long as you live under MY roof you obey MY rules!! And I'm glad I'm not your father you ungrateful little ingrate!" her grandfather screamed and smacked her in the face so hard she stumbled to regain composure.
Leila was so shocked and hurt by what her grandfather had just said that she stormed over to the kitchen table and grabbed her army green bag, and stormed out of the house slamming the door behind her. She ran over to her best, and pretty much only, friend Joshy's house in tears. She burst through the back door of his house just as he was opening the door and ran flat in to his chest and began to sob like a child in her fathers arms. Joshy, not knowing exactly but had a gist of what happened held her and rubbed her back and said,"Shhhh..its okay, I'm here..."
"That bastard!!! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him..." she cried, her sobs muffled in Joshy's shirt.
When she calmed down he asked her what happened she told him everything from when she woke up to find him standing over her bed screaming about how she was out too late to him finding out about her new eyebrow piercing, to him smacking her face. As she mentioned this last part she touched her face and winced as pain shot through her cheek, and new tears began to fall down her face. Joshy continued to hold her and rub her back until she settled down. When she did she looked up at Joshy and said,
"Joshy? Can we go somewhere quiet?"
Joshy nodded and led her out of the house and into the woods where they spent most of their time together, talking and listening to music. When they got to a clearing they both plopped on the grass and laid down staring at the clouds as they rolled by. Leila got her mp3 out of her bag and shared her headphones with Joshy. The fist song that came on was Pitiful by Blindside, and Leila's eyes started to tear at how much she related to the song. When the final chords faded she sniffled and squeezed her eyes shut to keep from crying anymore.
She hated crying, it made her feel weak, but she just couldn't help it. It was even more difficult as the next song came on. It was Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells. It made her think of how much simpler life must have been for people her age back in the sixties. How all they had to think about was school, cars, dancing, and how they didn't have to worry about abusive grandparents, and they're overprotectiveness and hurtful words because their parents trusted and loved them. Leila abruptly opened her eyes as a gust of wind blew her hair into her face. The clouds had grown dark. She looked over at Joshy and saw him twisting his face in weird ways. She smiled and grabbed his cheeks and squeezed them.
"You are such a dork," she said, smiling.
Joshy began to frown and whimper. Leila rolled her eyes and laid back down to watch the clouds get darker and darker.
"You're getting a really nasty bruise on your cheek Leila...." Joshy said worriedly.
Leila sat up and looked at Joshy's concerned face. She touched her cheek self-consciously and winced. She looked up at Joshy, sighed and said,
"Why cant it be like it used to be? When everyone loved everyone, why cant it be the way it was in the sixties??" Leila said as she clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut the keep in the tears. Joshy pulled her into a tight hug as she began to cry again and say, "I wish so bad that we lived in that era...so bad..." she said into Joshy's shoulder.
Just then the wind picked up and swirled around them, making Leila's curly locks fly all around. And at fist they felt a light tug on their skin, and then they where falling. Wind ripped at their skin, making it feel as though it would rip it right off. Leila felt a scream at the back of her throat but couldn't let it out, the air was being sucked right out of her. She was so scared she squeezed Joshy as hard as she could and felt him squeeze back. The fall was so hard that they both blacked out....
Leila and Joshy woke up in the same place they blacked out at. Looking around they noticed it was starting to get late. So they stood up and brushed themselves off. Leila bent down to grab her bag and noticed there seemed to be more tree's than she remembered.
"What happened?" she said as she slid her bag on her shoulder.
"Uh..I think we fell asleep?" he said scratching his head in confusion. Leila shrugged and started to walk back towards Joshy's house, she figured it was just stress. Joshy caught up with her and maintained her pace.
"Maybe we...you know..." he said wiggling his eyebrows.
Leila laughed and punched him in the arm playfully.
"Oh yeah..you know I think you're right..."
"YEAH!" he said pumping a fist and humping the air. Leila rolled her eyes and picked up the pace.
"Dude, my grandpa is gonna kill me..you think this is bad" she said pointing to her cheek " wait 'till you see what he's gonna do to me when I get back!" She shuddered at her joke because she knew it was highly likely that she could get hurt worse. She stopped suddenly in Joshy's yard.
"Who's that?" she said pointing to a woman with short-ish brown hair (that looked like it was blown dry so much it would break if it was bent), a white long-sleeved shirt tucked into her long pink skirt that went to her ankles. To top this marvelous outfit off she had her socks folded at her ankles with white tennis shoes. Leila's mouth was hanging open at the sight of this woman.
"What, is she going to a costume party?" Joshy said laughing at his own lame joke. Someone opened the door then and the biggest dog you've ever seen came running out. It looked like a freaking horse with its pointy ears and huge feet. It had to have been at LEAST 4ft tall from his back to the ground. Joshy screamed like a girl and took off toward the sidewalk.
"What the..." Leila said taking off after him, the monster dog on their heels barking like a freaking lion roars!
"Princess!!" someone yelled and the dog stopped mid stride and galloped back to its/Joshy's house.
"Jooosshh! We're not being chased anymore. Stop screaming!" Leila shouted as she shook Joshy trying to get him to stop breaking her eardrums. He was breathing so hard she thought he would faint. When he calmed down Leila said,
"New dog?" and laughed. Joshy's face was twisted with horror.
"What?!? That ain't my dog! That wasn't even a freaking dog! It was a monster. What the..what the..." Joshy was shaking his head trying to figure out what was going on.
"Joshy? Where are we?" Leila said worriedly. Joshy had a quizzical look on his face.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
Leila nodded with her head toward the houses across the street. Joshy looked and in every driveway were antique fifties or sixties cars. He couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen this many antique cars in one area before.
"Where are we?" Leila repeated. Just then they heard Roy Orbeson blaring out of a house across the street. Leila and Joshy turned and stared at the house.
"Isn't that Lisa's house?" Joshy asked referring to a girl that went to their school.
"Ha! Like Lisa would be caught dead listening to anything besides Usher and Kelly Clarkson. Pshh" Leila said waving a hand dismissivly. Josh shook his head.
"No, that is her house. Sounds like a party. Wanna crash it?" he said with and evil grin on his face.
"Uh..do you even have to ask?" Leila asked. They ran across the street to crash Lisa's party. They heard laughing and giggling from inside the house. They could tell there where a lot of people in there. They walked around back to enter from the back door so no one would notice them. Leila and Joshy didn't really "fit" in Lisa's click, consisting mostly of jocks and cheerleaders. So they snuck around back and entered the back door. It was the kitchen and no one was in there. Even weirder was that there was no alcohol anywhere! There was always alcohol at the "popular" parties.
"Great, no booze," Joshy said feigning disappointment.
"No, problem," Leila said retrieving a flask from her bag.
Joshy grinned and hopped up and down, clapping his hands in excitement. He grabbed the flask and took a big swig.
"Dude, save some for me!" Leila yelped snagging the flask from Joshy as they walked into the dinning room where the party was.
As they entered Leila had just taken the flask from Joshy and was laughing when everyone stopped what they where doing and stared at them. Leila and Joshy looked up and didn't recognize anyone and their jaws dropped as the saw what everyone was wearing. All the guys had tight-ish jeans with a button up shirt(tucked in) and there hair slicked back like Elvis. And the girls had on long skirts that went to their ankles and button up shirts that make their boobs look pointy. Most of them had their hair in a pony-tail.
"Those could do some serious damage." Leila said motioning to the girls chests. Joshy laughed so hard and so loud that everyone in the room just stood their awkwardly. Leila raised both eyebrows and Joshy raised only one.
"Hows it goin?" Joshy said awkwardly raising finger. Every person in the room had a look of horror on their face but one boy. He had a small smile on his face and was staring right at Leila. He was tall about 6'4 with long-ish black hair. Like a Beatles hair cut. His eyes where the brightest green she had ever seen. He was THE best looking guy she had ever seen. She looked him straight on and smirked. His face got to be about the color of a fire truck. Leila's smile got even bigger. She was interrupted by Joshy saying, "Who the...what the...Leila...where are we?" Finally someone spoke out.
A boy about 5'10 with a buzz cut said, "Uh..what are you?"
"I'm a giraffe, what do you think I am you idiot?!" Joshy said near explosion. He was seething with anger. Leila put and hands on his chest and turned her back to the crowed.
"Whoa, there tiger. Calm down I'm sure this arse hole didn't mean it that way." she said turning around to face the crowed again and raised an eyebrow upon seeing they where all whispering to each other. She looked at Joshy and raised both eyebrows at him.
"Okay, what are you staring at? What you've never seen a Green Day t-shirt," Joshy said tugging on his shirt angrily. This just got more questioning stares and whispers. Leila put her hand on Joshy's shoulder and said
"Okay. Just tell us where we are and we'll be on our way." Finally a girl with a blonde pony-tail spoke up and said
"This is Brooksville," tentavely naming the town Leila and Joshy lived in.
"Dude, this is totally wacked out." Joshy said shaking is head.
Leila looked up to find the green eyed beauty staring at her again. So she walked up to him and all the way people stayed 5 feet away at all times. When she reached him she found he was even more gorgeous up close. She looked up (Yes! Looked up!) at him and gave him a small smile. He blushed like mad!
"Hey, hows it goin?" Leila said nodding up at him.
"H-hello, uhm..I-uh-my name is Finn" he stuttered sticking out his right hand formally. She looked down at it, raised an eyebrow, and shook it.
"Leila. So, uh, Finn, what year is it?" she asked still looking up at him. He frowned as if he where concerned and said
"It's 1960" he said still frowning. Her jaw dropped so far Joshy thought it might hit the floor. She quickly recovered.
"Thank you very much Mr.Finn. It was nice to meet you" she said and winked which made him blush again. A girl with a brown pony-tail saw this and her face hardened.
"So what's on your face?" she said pointing at her eyebrow, nose and lip. Leila raised an eyebrow and said, "They're called peircings, I have another here" and stuck out her tongue, and grinned at the horrified faces of everyone around her. Except Finn, who just looked amused. She turned and walked toward Joshy.
"C'mon Joshy lets split."
"Wait..I'll show you out." She turned to see Finn walking quickly toward her. She smirked and shrugged. The three of them walked out the back door and into the back yard.
Leila (said, Layla): She is 16 years old. She is 5'11, tall for her age. 20/20 vision, greyish eyes really, really curly hair down to her mid back, with purple and red highlights. multiple facial piercing, which include a hoop in her eyebrow, a hoop in her nose, a hoop in her lip and a barbell in her tongue. Has a nice figure but hides it with baggy concert t-shirts and jeans. Carries her big clunky army green bag with her everywhere which holds a spare change of clothes, makeup, her handy-dandy mp3 and other essentials. Completely obsessed with all things music. Rough home life, due to the fact that her parents died when she was 11 in a car crash. Now lives with her overprotective grandparents, who by the way, hate her hair, piercings, and music and don't let her listen to it when they're in range of hearing it. Grandfather frequently hits her. And her Grandmother agree's with this type of punishment. Has a best friend named Joshy (Josh).
Josh: 16 years old, about 6'1. Wears square shaped glasses and has dark brown eyes. He has a really long blue and pink Mohawk with the sides not completely shaved but just a little hair. He has a hoop in his nose and thats it on his piercing (in places that are visible). His (somewhat weak-looking) arms are sleeved in tattoo's of anything and everything. Josh wears the same type (and sometimes shares) of clothing as Leila. He is just as obsessed with everything music as Leila is. And he is THE most funny, random (I hate that word but I cant think of another one better) and crazy person you will ever meet. He usually needs to be this way because Leila is usually in a bad mood and needs to cheer her up. His home life is the average home life, divorced parents, who love him but don't like his hair, piercings (the ones they know of), and type of music.
Josh and Leila have known each other since kindergarten. Not to mention they're neighbors and spent every waking moment together. They love each other like brother and sister but more so because they get a long so well together.
I will explain characters appearances as they come into the story. This is my first story so it might suck a little but I am relying on the comments of readers to improve. Enjoy the story. (PLEASE!!)
"WHAT?!?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?? You are NOT my father. You can't tell me what I can and cant put on my own body!!" Leila yelled with anger seething out of every pore.
"As long as you live under MY roof you obey MY rules!! And I'm glad I'm not your father you ungrateful little ingrate!" her grandfather screamed and smacked her in the face so hard she stumbled to regain composure.
Leila was so shocked and hurt by what her grandfather had just said that she stormed over to the kitchen table and grabbed her army green bag, and stormed out of the house slamming the door behind her. She ran over to her best, and pretty much only, friend Joshy's house in tears. She burst through the back door of his house just as he was opening the door and ran flat in to his chest and began to sob like a child in her fathers arms. Joshy, not knowing exactly but had a gist of what happened held her and rubbed her back and said,"Shhhh..its okay, I'm here..."
"That bastard!!! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him..." she cried, her sobs muffled in Joshy's shirt.
When she calmed down he asked her what happened she told him everything from when she woke up to find him standing over her bed screaming about how she was out too late to him finding out about her new eyebrow piercing, to him smacking her face. As she mentioned this last part she touched her face and winced as pain shot through her cheek, and new tears began to fall down her face. Joshy continued to hold her and rub her back until she settled down. When she did she looked up at Joshy and said,
"Joshy? Can we go somewhere quiet?"
Joshy nodded and led her out of the house and into the woods where they spent most of their time together, talking and listening to music. When they got to a clearing they both plopped on the grass and laid down staring at the clouds as they rolled by. Leila got her mp3 out of her bag and shared her headphones with Joshy. The fist song that came on was Pitiful by Blindside, and Leila's eyes started to tear at how much she related to the song. When the final chords faded she sniffled and squeezed her eyes shut to keep from crying anymore.
She hated crying, it made her feel weak, but she just couldn't help it. It was even more difficult as the next song came on. It was Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells. It made her think of how much simpler life must have been for people her age back in the sixties. How all they had to think about was school, cars, dancing, and how they didn't have to worry about abusive grandparents, and they're overprotectiveness and hurtful words because their parents trusted and loved them. Leila abruptly opened her eyes as a gust of wind blew her hair into her face. The clouds had grown dark. She looked over at Joshy and saw him twisting his face in weird ways. She smiled and grabbed his cheeks and squeezed them.
"You are such a dork," she said, smiling.
Joshy began to frown and whimper. Leila rolled her eyes and laid back down to watch the clouds get darker and darker.
"You're getting a really nasty bruise on your cheek Leila...." Joshy said worriedly.
Leila sat up and looked at Joshy's concerned face. She touched her cheek self-consciously and winced. She looked up at Joshy, sighed and said,
"Why cant it be like it used to be? When everyone loved everyone, why cant it be the way it was in the sixties??" Leila said as she clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut the keep in the tears. Joshy pulled her into a tight hug as she began to cry again and say, "I wish so bad that we lived in that era...so bad..." she said into Joshy's shoulder.
Just then the wind picked up and swirled around them, making Leila's curly locks fly all around. And at fist they felt a light tug on their skin, and then they where falling. Wind ripped at their skin, making it feel as though it would rip it right off. Leila felt a scream at the back of her throat but couldn't let it out, the air was being sucked right out of her. She was so scared she squeezed Joshy as hard as she could and felt him squeeze back. The fall was so hard that they both blacked out....
Leila and Joshy woke up in the same place they blacked out at. Looking around they noticed it was starting to get late. So they stood up and brushed themselves off. Leila bent down to grab her bag and noticed there seemed to be more tree's than she remembered.
"What happened?" she said as she slid her bag on her shoulder.
"Uh..I think we fell asleep?" he said scratching his head in confusion. Leila shrugged and started to walk back towards Joshy's house, she figured it was just stress. Joshy caught up with her and maintained her pace.
"Maybe we...you know..." he said wiggling his eyebrows.
Leila laughed and punched him in the arm playfully.
"Oh yeah..you know I think you're right..."
"YEAH!" he said pumping a fist and humping the air. Leila rolled her eyes and picked up the pace.
"Dude, my grandpa is gonna kill me..you think this is bad" she said pointing to her cheek " wait 'till you see what he's gonna do to me when I get back!" She shuddered at her joke because she knew it was highly likely that she could get hurt worse. She stopped suddenly in Joshy's yard.
"Who's that?" she said pointing to a woman with short-ish brown hair (that looked like it was blown dry so much it would break if it was bent), a white long-sleeved shirt tucked into her long pink skirt that went to her ankles. To top this marvelous outfit off she had her socks folded at her ankles with white tennis shoes. Leila's mouth was hanging open at the sight of this woman.
"What, is she going to a costume party?" Joshy said laughing at his own lame joke. Someone opened the door then and the biggest dog you've ever seen came running out. It looked like a freaking horse with its pointy ears and huge feet. It had to have been at LEAST 4ft tall from his back to the ground. Joshy screamed like a girl and took off toward the sidewalk.
"What the..." Leila said taking off after him, the monster dog on their heels barking like a freaking lion roars!
"Princess!!" someone yelled and the dog stopped mid stride and galloped back to its/Joshy's house.
"Jooosshh! We're not being chased anymore. Stop screaming!" Leila shouted as she shook Joshy trying to get him to stop breaking her eardrums. He was breathing so hard she thought he would faint. When he calmed down Leila said,
"New dog?" and laughed. Joshy's face was twisted with horror.
"What?!? That ain't my dog! That wasn't even a freaking dog! It was a monster. What the..what the..." Joshy was shaking his head trying to figure out what was going on.
"Joshy? Where are we?" Leila said worriedly. Joshy had a quizzical look on his face.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
Leila nodded with her head toward the houses across the street. Joshy looked and in every driveway were antique fifties or sixties cars. He couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen this many antique cars in one area before.
"Where are we?" Leila repeated. Just then they heard Roy Orbeson blaring out of a house across the street. Leila and Joshy turned and stared at the house.
"Isn't that Lisa's house?" Joshy asked referring to a girl that went to their school.
"Ha! Like Lisa would be caught dead listening to anything besides Usher and Kelly Clarkson. Pshh" Leila said waving a hand dismissivly. Josh shook his head.
"No, that is her house. Sounds like a party. Wanna crash it?" he said with and evil grin on his face.
"Uh..do you even have to ask?" Leila asked. They ran across the street to crash Lisa's party. They heard laughing and giggling from inside the house. They could tell there where a lot of people in there. They walked around back to enter from the back door so no one would notice them. Leila and Joshy didn't really "fit" in Lisa's click, consisting mostly of jocks and cheerleaders. So they snuck around back and entered the back door. It was the kitchen and no one was in there. Even weirder was that there was no alcohol anywhere! There was always alcohol at the "popular" parties.
"Great, no booze," Joshy said feigning disappointment.
"No, problem," Leila said retrieving a flask from her bag.
Joshy grinned and hopped up and down, clapping his hands in excitement. He grabbed the flask and took a big swig.
"Dude, save some for me!" Leila yelped snagging the flask from Joshy as they walked into the dinning room where the party was.
As they entered Leila had just taken the flask from Joshy and was laughing when everyone stopped what they where doing and stared at them. Leila and Joshy looked up and didn't recognize anyone and their jaws dropped as the saw what everyone was wearing. All the guys had tight-ish jeans with a button up shirt(tucked in) and there hair slicked back like Elvis. And the girls had on long skirts that went to their ankles and button up shirts that make their boobs look pointy. Most of them had their hair in a pony-tail.
"Those could do some serious damage." Leila said motioning to the girls chests. Joshy laughed so hard and so loud that everyone in the room just stood their awkwardly. Leila raised both eyebrows and Joshy raised only one.
"Hows it goin?" Joshy said awkwardly raising finger. Every person in the room had a look of horror on their face but one boy. He had a small smile on his face and was staring right at Leila. He was tall about 6'4 with long-ish black hair. Like a Beatles hair cut. His eyes where the brightest green she had ever seen. He was THE best looking guy she had ever seen. She looked him straight on and smirked. His face got to be about the color of a fire truck. Leila's smile got even bigger. She was interrupted by Joshy saying, "Who the...what the...Leila...where are we?" Finally someone spoke out.
A boy about 5'10 with a buzz cut said, "Uh..what are you?"
"I'm a giraffe, what do you think I am you idiot?!" Joshy said near explosion. He was seething with anger. Leila put and hands on his chest and turned her back to the crowed.
"Whoa, there tiger. Calm down I'm sure this arse hole didn't mean it that way." she said turning around to face the crowed again and raised an eyebrow upon seeing they where all whispering to each other. She looked at Joshy and raised both eyebrows at him.
"Okay, what are you staring at? What you've never seen a Green Day t-shirt," Joshy said tugging on his shirt angrily. This just got more questioning stares and whispers. Leila put her hand on Joshy's shoulder and said
"Okay. Just tell us where we are and we'll be on our way." Finally a girl with a blonde pony-tail spoke up and said
"This is Brooksville," tentavely naming the town Leila and Joshy lived in.
"Dude, this is totally wacked out." Joshy said shaking is head.
Leila looked up to find the green eyed beauty staring at her again. So she walked up to him and all the way people stayed 5 feet away at all times. When she reached him she found he was even more gorgeous up close. She looked up (Yes! Looked up!) at him and gave him a small smile. He blushed like mad!
"Hey, hows it goin?" Leila said nodding up at him.
"H-hello, uhm..I-uh-my name is Finn" he stuttered sticking out his right hand formally. She looked down at it, raised an eyebrow, and shook it.
"Leila. So, uh, Finn, what year is it?" she asked still looking up at him. He frowned as if he where concerned and said
"It's 1960" he said still frowning. Her jaw dropped so far Joshy thought it might hit the floor. She quickly recovered.
"Thank you very much Mr.Finn. It was nice to meet you" she said and winked which made him blush again. A girl with a brown pony-tail saw this and her face hardened.
"So what's on your face?" she said pointing at her eyebrow, nose and lip. Leila raised an eyebrow and said, "They're called peircings, I have another here" and stuck out her tongue, and grinned at the horrified faces of everyone around her. Except Finn, who just looked amused. She turned and walked toward Joshy.
"C'mon Joshy lets split."
"Wait..I'll show you out." She turned to see Finn walking quickly toward her. She smirked and shrugged. The three of them walked out the back door and into the back yard.
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