+___+ WRITING!
^____^ I want to join, I love writing short stories.
I like your story, especially the dialogue and how you just kind of throw us into the middle of all the action.
:3 I hope this club is successful~
Edit: Uh, well I guess I'll post part of my story that I wrote awhile ago.
Just a little back info, it's very, very loosely based off a true event cause I had a neighbor who is now a famous band member and...yeah. Other than that, it's all fiction.
Oh, and there's some drug use in it so if that bothers you, you don't have to read it. ._.
Since I was four years old, I’d been wishing for a nearly impossible dream. I want to marry a rock star. Not just any rock star. The vocalist of one of the most popular bands right now. Jimmy Lee Anderson.
If I had told anyone about this dream of mine, they would automatically write it off as a whimsical lustful desire of any teenage girl. After all, Jimmy Lee has a huge fanbase of crazy teenage girls who would be dying to throw their panties at him. Not me though. I’ve loved Jimmy Lee for most of my life even before he had his rise to fame.
Jimmy Lee used to live down my street when I was four years old. My family moved into our house after my fourth birthday and he was already living on my street when we moved in. He’s eighteen years older than me so he was twenty-two years old when I had my first personal encounter with him.
When I first met him, I have to admit, he was sort of menacing. Most things are when you’re only four years old though. Jimmy Lee used to speed up the street a lot and I would always seeing him driving away with a sort of angry expression. The old woman who lived across the street from my house would constantly scold him and tell him not speed so fast because there were young children living on the street. You’d think they maintain a poor relationship, an old fussy lady and a cool band member, but no. They actually became good friends. And that’s what I loved about Jimmy Lee. Even though he had an angry expression on his face, it wasn’t because he was mad. It was just the way his face was (unfortunately). Inside, he was a caring and socially aware person.
Sometimes I would take a walk down the street with my mother and pass by Jimmy Lee’s house and I would be able to hear him and the other two band members rehearsing. He would be singing, drums beating, guitars strumming until one of them would mess up and Jimmy would yell something like, "Ah, f*ck. All right, from the top." It might seem odd but I loved that about him. Even though he was such a great artist he still retained the ability to make mistakes and remain human.
When I met Jimmy the band was already signed onto a major record label. Oh god, how so many people hated them for doing that. You’d think that fans would be happy to see so much success coming towards the band, but not these fans. Jimmy Lee’s band would often play at a very well known alternative music club. One of their rules was that if you were signed with a major record label you weren’t allowed to play at the club. So, Jimmy and his band were barred from the club from there on out. Everyone called them sell outs. Music fans can be like that. If you don’t follow a certain social pattern you get shunned from them. Then it seems as if your music is the last thing on their minds and their highest priority is their integrity filled social values. And apparently selling your credibility for money was looked down upon by this club. People still hate them to this day for doing that. Just the other day I was talking to one of my classmates and the subject of Jimmy Lee’s band came up and she ranted on about how she and her music friends think his band sucks because they aren’t "part of the community" any more. But it doesn’t bother me so much. Jimmy Lee had dropped out of high school to pursue his career in music. He deserved bigger and better things and I at least still respect him. I know that in order to reach a larger audience there are just certain things you have to do and put behind you.
How I actually got to know Jimmy on a personal level came out of something quite unpleasant. There was another family up the street in the opposite direction in which Jimmy Lee lived in. There was a boy who was two years older than me and a girl who was my age. Simply saying they were mean to me would be an understatement. They were bullies. It’s bad enough that there were two of them, but they worked together against me. At first it’d be little things like "let’s go make fun of the new girl’s ugly old house or her clothes." But then they started to get physical. They’d start taking things like my toys and push me down.
No one ever bothered to help me. My older brother was too much of a wimp and stayed inside to be Mommy’s little helper. I didn’t want to ask my mom or else she’d force me to stay in as well. She was like that, always over protective. So instead I played outside by myself and just tried to hide when I saw them coming in my direction. About half of the time I was able to get away from the bullies but half the time isn’t enough for a kid. Every time they got me seemed to hurt more.
On one day that was particularly brutal they took one of my favorite dolls and smashed its head it. Soon after it seemed that they did the same thing to me. I was dazed and when I looked up I saw them running away with another one of my dolls and my favorite jump rope.
I thought my mother might be coming outside so I ran down the street so she wouldn’t have to see me crying. Even as a kid you know there is nothing worse then having your mother save your ass. So I walked down the street. I kept walking until a car sped past me and stopped in front of a house with a warm but dilapidated looking porch. A young man stepped out of the beat up car and looked over at me. I stared up at him and then hid my face and walked a little faster because I didn’t want him to see me crying.
"Hey, wait," he called out to me.
I turned around and paused for a bit. He strode over to me and when he reached me he knelt down and looked me in the eye with a concerned expression.
"Are you okay? Do you-do you want your mom?"
I shook my head furiously. That was the last thing I wanted.
He gave a slight smile. "You can tell me what’s wrong. I want to help
you."
"Andy and Layla…hit me."
"Who?"
"Those kids up there," I said while pointing up to them. You could still see them from Jimmy’s house. Layla was playing with my jump rope and my doll was laying next to her on the ground. Andy was pacing back and forth around the front yard, almost like a dog guarding its territory. "The jump rope and dolly. They’re mine," I faltered and started to turn away.
"Oh. All right, just a sec. You sit here on the porch and I’ll be
right back," he said glancing over to them before darting up the street.
I sat down on the porch and closed my eyes. I was sure he was going to go get my mom, I just knew it. Then she would scold me for not running to her. I curled up on the porch and pretended I was far away. Far away from Andy and Layla and far away from this strange man who was going to tell on me. While wiping my eyes I felt something prod me in the arm. I sat up and saw him sitting next to me with my things.
"Here," he said while gesturing for me to take them.
"T-Thanks," I said through sniffles.
"No problem. Just ask me again if you have any more trouble," he said warmly.
I nodded my head and started to walk home, doll in one arm jump rope in another. I looked over my shoulder and glanced over to see him still standing there.
"What’s your name?" I asked curiously.
"Jimmy Lee. Or just Jimmy. What’s yours?"
"Kitty."
"Oh. Well, ‘bye Kitty. See you around later," he said unlocking his door and stepping in.
As a person, Jimmy Lee was amazingly nice. He would always smile at me and my brother when we played in the front yard as he walked up the street. Every so often in his spare time he would sit on the front porch and softly plunk away on his guitar. This in particular attracted me to him. I loved how he dedicated his whole life to his music. He’d ask me to come onto the porch and join him and he’d explain to me how the guitar worked, going up and down on the frets. I’d do this often with him, just sitting on the front porch listening to him play. He’d tell me stories about some of his memorable performances. Of course he’d have to leave out all of the dirty and inappropriate instances to make it safe for a child. But then he’d discover that if he took all those things out there basically was no story at all and was stuck with nothing to tell me. Jimmy would then have to make up some wild story that was child appropriate and for some reason it usually had something to do with unicorns. I don’t know why he chose that subject. I guess he thought it’d entertain me cause I was a little girl. Even at that age I found Jimmy Lee’s stories ridiculous but I didn’t care. I liked being around him and I wished that our rare meeting together wouldn’t end.
They had to of course though. After Jimmy Lee and his band released their first major record, their popularity shot through the roof. They sold thousands of records and started planning their tour. Almost immediately after they released their record they left on their world tour. Jimmy Lee packed up his things one day and I came by his house. I asked him what was going on and he informed me of his departure. I couldn’t believe it. The person I had become so attached to over the past months was suddenly leaving? How could that be? He was supposed to stay forever and things were supposed to stay the same. I wanted him to stay. I needed him to say. I needed the consistency. So why was he suddenly going to leave me?
On the day he had all his things packed he did a round of the street and said good bye to all the neighbors he was close to. I looked across the street and saw Jimmy Lee shaking hands with the old lady and her husband. He then turned around and started heading to my front gate which I stood in front of. He looked down at me with a melancholy smile, rubbed my head playfully and said "Take care, kid. And remember those unicorns." He turned around, stepped into his car full of his belongings and sped away. And that was the last time I saw him.
Over the years it was weird to see Jimmy Lee on magazine covers and occasionally on TV. To me at least, it was as if he had risen to fame over night. Was this really the same person who would sit on his front porch playing the guitar with me? I started to wonder if he even remembered me. Probably not. A internationally famous musician on world tours has better things to do than reminisce about a child neighbor. But that doesn’t mean that I ever forgot him. Of course not. I missed him and I tried to get as much information about him as possible. I kept hoping, wishing, that he was someday going to come down my street speeding down as usual and return. He never did though.
Slowly traces of him started to disappear from our street. The people who Jimmy Lee rented his house from renovated the whole thing. They tore out the carpeting and painted every wall. That part didn’t bother me so much. The worst part was when they tore up the front porch. Our porch. The place where we sat together and taught me about music and told me ridiculous stories. It was just gone. The warm, worn out wood was replaced with harsh unrecognizable black tiles. Then the old lady died from a stroke. The only other person who knew Jimmy Lee like I did on the street was gone, just like the porch. Now left was Layla and Andy who would slander Jimmy Lee in front of me as often as they could, calling him a sell out, an outsider. If I didn’t remember, probably no one would even know that Jimmy had once lived on my street. I started to tell myself that he wasn’t coming back and I should just forget about him but I couldn’t. I didn’t have any closure when he left and deep down inside of me, I kept believing that he was going to come home.
Without anything to remind me of him, I did slowly start to think less of him.
I didn’t forget him though, or the unicorns. Late at night I’d still think about the brief time we shared together. My yearning had definitely decreased though. It would escalate every time Jimmy Lee’s band released a new album and I’d spend hours just sitting in my room listening to it. I wanted to see them live in concert and at least be that close to him even if he didn’t know I was there. My mother would never let me though. She never really liked Jimmy because he used to smoke a lot of weed. You could smell it on his breath and on his clothes but it wasn’t as if he ever tried to influence me into doing it. After all, what kind of scum bag would make a four year old child smoke weed? Definitely not Jimmy Lee. But regardless, her rules were clear: there would be no concerts of Jimmy Lee’s band for me.
So there I was, stuck at a dead end in my Jimmy situation. One day when I was seventeen years old I had the radio turned up, listening to Jimmy Lee’s band’s newest top single. I mouthed the words silently thinking about the day’s previous events. I hated school. I didn’t fit in. I wasn’t popular but I wasn’t an outcast. I was just kind of there, hanging out with a few people I called friends silently listening to their woes and complaints. They didn’t really care about what I had to say so I just kind of sat there wishing for the day to be over. Today wasn’t so bad in comparison to some other days.
Layla still hated me and would bully me whenever she saw me, making some kind of snide remark on my appearance or clothes. I used to try to fight back but I gave up. She had too many followers while I was always alone. If I ever tried to resist her torment she’d just say something about how I was nothing without Jimmy Lee. Too weak to really stand up for myself. I hated it when she talked about Jimmy because it was always in a negative light so I just started to ignore her.
On this day in particular all I could think about was my friend Sierra ramble on about how her parents wouldn’t buy her the new computer she believed she "deserved." While replaying her rant in my head, I made commentary about how she was such a spoiled kid and what she really deserved was to be subjected to some real problems. (Not that I’m boasting I’ve really had any myself. Yearning for a rock star couldn’t exactly be classified as a "real problem.")
Anyway, there I was. Listening to Jimmy singing and making sarcastic remarks to myself about my so called friends. When the song ended, the DJ made an announcement. "And for all you fans out there of the last song we just played, you’ll be happy to hear what we’ve go to say for you! We’re giving out two free tickets to see Jimmy Lee Anderson and the band at the Calliston Stadium next Saturday! Be caller forty-seven and these tickets will be yours!"
"Great," I thought to myself. "Just another concert I won’t be able to go to. And the Calliston Stadium is so close too."
I sighed and picked up my blue pipe that was laying next to my bed and stuffed the bowl full of weed. While lighting and inhaling, I thought maybe I could come up with some idea while I was high. Even if I did, it probably wouldn’t make much sense once the weed wore off so I took a couple more hits and put the pipe down. Now that I was bored and slightly high, I played a game I liked to play when I was like this I affectionately called "What would you do if Jimmy Lee was here?"
Mind racing and body heavy, I searched my mind of what I would’ve liked to do. "Write a song? Go for a walk? Play knuckles? Yeah, I think I like that one the best." I lifted my hands above my head and started playing knuckles by myself. After knocking my fists into each other a few times, my phone rang. I jumped from the sudden ring seeing as my phone hardly ever rang. Still lying face up on my bed, I thrust my hand onto my desk and fumbled blindly for the phone.
"Hello?" I said groggily while lifting the receiver to my ear.
"Kitty, oh my god, you won’t believe it." It was Sierra and it sounded as if she was close to hyperventilating.
"What? Did your parents give you that new computer?"
"Actually no, but they compensated me with something else."
"Which would be?" My patience was getting thin.
"You know that Jimmy Lee and the band is coming to play at the Calliston Stadium, right? Well my dad’s company does advertising for them, the stadium that is, and they had a raffle at his office for some free tickets they gave his work and he won them!"
"Whoop dee doo. Have fun with your pa at the concert. Something I’ll never be able to do." I knew I shouldn’t had sounded so grumpy but I didn’t feel like being taunted in the face at the moment.
"No, Kitty. You don’t get it. My dad didn’t want to go so he gave me the
tickets and I’m asking you to come with me."
I sat up on my bed, legs still outstretched, my body now in a ninety degree angle.
"What? Are you f*cking serious?" I asked.
"Yeah, totally!"
"Sweet, when is it? I gotta come up with some alibi to tell my mom so she doesn’t get suspicious." I said.
"Well," Sierra started. "The concert is next Saturday at seven-o-clock so I guess you could stay overnight so you won’t have to lie completely to your mom."
That was something I did not want to do. Not only was I too old for sleepovers but this one included Sierra. Still, she was giving me a free concert so I decided it was best for me to accept with some gratitude even though I didn’t feel completely gratified.
"All right, I guess that’ll work. I’ll tell her that we’re also working on a project in case she thinks I’m too old for sleepovers."
"K. So, my dad will drop us off at the Callison Stadium and said that we should call him when it gets out so he can pick us up and take us back to my house. I guess we’ll pick you up around five-forty five or six-ish?" Sierra proposed.
"Cool, sounds fine with me," I said trying to contain my excitement. "Thanks for inviting me."
"No problem, don’t mention it!" Sierra said with perk in her voice with a hint of pride that implied she did want me to mention it and spread her great deeds of generosity.
T_____T OMG, it's so friggen long! I'm sorry! |
, 
, and 
for their hard work to making this happen)
Back. At last. ._. 
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