Sequel: Hold On

Life As It Is

College Applications

The end of March rolled around and it was soon April. For all high school senior students, this meant that college acceptance or rejection letters were coming their way soon.

And like all the other seniors, Ella was nervous as hell. She wasn't the best student in her classes and she wasn't the worst. But nobody liked rejection.

She nervously tapped her fingers in the kitchen as she went through her UC Berkeley brochure for the umpteenth time. Before Billie Joe had entered her life, she always dreamed of going to the college. Although it was close to her old home, she was determined to go no matter what.

"Still looking at that thing?" Billie Joe said as he crept up behind her. She nervously jumped.

"Shit, you scared me," she laughed nervously. "Yeah... I'm still looking at it."

"El, come on don't be nervous. You're gonna get in. You're really smart and talented with taking pictures."

Ella smiled, then put her hands on Billie Joe's face and kissed him.

"You're so sweet. But I'm still nervous."

"Well get ready to see my 'I-told-you-so' dance when you get in," he said as he slid into the seat next to her.

"You have an 'I-told-you-so' dance?" She turned to look at him.

"Ha-ha. Don't change the subject."

Then Ella remembered something that she had completely forgotten about. Her facial expression completely changed.

"Shit, shit, shit," she said out loud.

"What?" Billie Joe said as he saw his girlfriend panicking a little.

"They're going to mail my college acceptance or rejection letters to my house."

"Oh... " Billie Joe knew that Ella had passed her old home once in the previous month and that she didn't want to even pass by there anymore. "You can just rummage their mail or something when they're not there." He shrugged.

Ella shook her head, "I can't do that... that's like a federal offense or something."

"Come on babe, break the law... be an outlaw!" Billie Joe put his fist in the air. Ella started giggling.

"I guess I'll just have to talk to them," she groaned.

Her boyfriend shrugged again. "Guess so... " Billie Joe took a glance at his watch. "Shit, I have to get going. Gotta go jam with the guys at the studio."

"Yeah, how's it going with that?" Ella asked as she looked at her boyfriend standing up.

"Fucking awesome. Larry's kinda pissed we changed our band name to Green Day though," he said as he grinned.

The name Green Day had certainly caught on after Billie Joe got stoned and wrote a song with that title and Al had written it on the back of his jacket.

"Fits you more than 'Sweet Children'," Ella grinned back.

"See ya later." Billie Joe bent over to kiss his girlfriend, grabbed his guitar case by the door and walked out.

Ella sat at the kitchen table, thinking of what to do about her small conflict.

* * *

Billie Joe showed up at the recording studio in a matter of a few minutes.

"Hey look its Grinny McGrin," Mike said as he continued to tune up his bass. He always managed to show up first during any kind of band practice.

After getting back together with Ella, Billie Joe had gotten back to how he used to be with his silliness and numerous amounts of grins.

"Yep. That's me," he grinned, of course as he took out his guitar and started tuning up as well.

"Where's Al?" Billie Joe asked.

"Late, as usual," Mike said and grunted.

"Are you kidding me? He's up to the same late shit he used to do. That's great." Billie Joe said in reply.

"Come on; don't be so hard on him. He's just busy and shit like the rest of us," his best friend said, always being the peacemaker he was. Billie Joe sighed and gave up. He was never in the mood to start up things like big fights.

A few minutes later, Al showed up. Although he had given up, he was about to open his mouth anyway. Luckily though, Mike had given him a look to stop him in his tracks.

The band immediately started playing, deciding that today would be one of the days they'd record a track as well.

* * *
A week into the new month, there were rumors all around the high school campus about college letters coming. Ella could hear the whispers.

"Soon, soon, soon, soon."

One way or another, she'd have to just go to her old house again and face it. She had taken bigger risks like admitting how she felt about Billie Joe when they were just friends. Or standing up to her abusive parents.

"You want me to go with you?" Billie Joe asked his girlfriend as he stopped the car in front of the house.

"No I'm a big girl." Ella gave a smile. She slowly opened the car door and walked up to the familiar front door.
Taking a deep breath to relax herself a little, she knocked on the door.

"Come on Ella. Don't be an idiot. This is not a big deal."

The door slowly opened and there appeared a woman who looked like she was in her 30's. She had light blonde hair and friendly brown eyes.

"Hello, can I help you?" she asked politely.

Ella stopped to look a little inside of her old house. The walls were now cream colored when they had once been yellow. And near the entrance there was a mirror.

"Hi. Umm, my name is Ella Montgomery. My parents and I used to live here. Long story short, I'm kind of expecting some letters from some colleges and they're still addressed to my—old residence. So could you maybe hold on to them for me when they come?" she asked and then stopped before she could ramble anymore.

The woman, who was nicely listening, nodded her head.

"Of course," she said.

The rest was just a small blur. Ella gave the woman Billie Joe's home phone number to call her and then headed over to the car.

"All worked out?" Billie Joe said as Ella was putting her seatbelt.

"Yep," she nodded.

* * *

A week later, nothing from any of the colleges had come yet. Ella and even Billie Joe were starting to become impatient. When would they arrive?

On one of those days that week, Ella was working at the restaurant. After getting a handful of good tips since the service was fantastic, Billie Joe waltzed in with a sly grin on his face. It was time for her break anyway, so she motioned for him to follow her out back.

"What's with the mysterious grin?" she said which made her smile.

"That lady called. She says the letters from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, and some other college came in." Her boyfriend was probably ten times more excited.

Ella stood there, starting to shake a little. In a matter of a few minutes, she'd know her fate for the future. She suddenly started shaking a little.

"Come on babe. Everything's gonna work out," Billie Joe said as the two headed down to the house.

The two eventually approached the house. Ella impatiently knocked on the door. The woman appeared with a polite and sophisticated smile.

"Come in," she said and motioned for the two to come in.

As Ella and Billie Joe looked around, the house looked completely different. New chairs, new couch, new TV, and so on. The couple headed towards the kitchen to see the refrigerator full of drawings by someone who was probably in Kindergarten. The woman noticed they were looking towards there.

"Those are by my two little girls Kathy and Diana," she smiled, as she turned around to grab the letters.

Ella nodded—getting her thoughts back to the letters.

"Here you are, Ella?" The woman said as she read the name it was addressed to. "Oh I forgot these are some bills and things for your parents I guess." She handed a bunch of bills and final notices to Ella as well.

"Yeah... my parents will probably need these... " she trailed off a bit, as she glanced over at Billie Joe.

"Well if you ever need anything, my name is Adriana," Adriana said as she herded the two towards the door saying goodbye.

"Oh... Adriana?" Ella said before she walked out of the door.

"Yes?"

"I'm glad this house has at least one good parent running it." She said. Adriana was confused and that's when Ella had inferred that the Real Estate Agent probably never mentioned the whole situation. Typical.

As Ella and Billie Joe walked out of the house, Ella was clutching the bills and letters.

"Something wrong babe?" Billie Joe said as they got into the car.

Ella thumbed through everything, "I don't know... I just don't wanna think of all this bill crap with my parents. We were in enough debt. But I should worry, right—I mean your mom did kinda handle all the legal stuff."

"Yeah. Come on El. It's their problem; you shouldn't be worrying about all this shit because you didn't start this whole mess. They started it in the first place." Her boyfriend said, starting the engine.

"There's a reason I love you," she smiled and relaxed.

The minute the two got into the door, the couple raced upstairs to Billie Joe's bedroom. Ella sat cross-legged on Billie Joe's bed with him as she separated the bills and letters. She put the bills somewhere where she could think about all that hub-jub later.

"Wait! Wait!" Billie Joe said before Ella ripped open the letter from UC San Francisco.

"What?" She was confused.

"We need booze!" Before she could say anything, Billie Joe raced down to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with a six-pack.

"Someone's prepared... " Ella was amused.

"Yep! Go on now... "

Ella grabbed the first beer and took a swig. She ripped open the letter from UC San Francisco.

At first, her expression was serious. But it slowly changed into a grin.

"Accepted!"

"Woo! Ok, this is from... Vista College." Billie Joe handed the letter to Ella.

She took a swig of beer again, and then ripped open the letter. She gave a shrug.

"Rejected."

"Idiots." Billie Joe shook his head. Ella gave a little laugh.

"And the best for last... UC Berkeley," her boyfriend said, as he gave the final letter to her.

This time, Ella chugged down half the beer, put it down, then ripped the letter open. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"I GOT IN!" she yelled, and then pounced on Billie Joe, knocking both of them off of the bed.

"Owww, owww, owww..." they both said as they got up. Ella was too excited though.

"I fucking got in," she said as she grabbed her boyfriend. They kissed for a few minutes until they broke apart.

"Sure gives us a hell of a good reason to party," Billie Joe said.

* * *

The rest of the night was spent partying. After Billie Joe called about a million of his friends, they all met up to party Ella getting into UC Berkeley.

The couple was drunk as ever when they stumbled home. As Ella fumbled with the key, Billie Joe was kissing her neck.

"Mmm... I feel like throwing up, Billie... " she slurred and she continued to fumble with the key.

Billie Joe stepped back and stumbled to the right, where there were bushes. Ella insanely laughed.

"I'm ok!" he said as got he up with his girlfriend still laughing her ass off.

"Dude, what's so funny?" Billie Joe said as he looked at Ella. She continued to laugh and fumble with the key.

"I don't knoowww... and I can't get this shit in!" she said a little too loudly.

"Here lemme do it," he said as she moved over to the right, resulting in her falling into the bushes as well.

She eventually got up and they both started laughing like idiots. Billie Joe finally got the key in.

"YES!" they yelled.

Then the two were so tired, Billie Joe crashed on the couch and Ella almost made it to her bed but went to sleep on the floor.

What a day.