We Can Shine Like the Sun

Holly was relaxing in the back lounge of the bus watching TV when she suddenly heard the voice of Alex Gaskarth. She internally cringed as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching and flipped her hood over her head in an attempt to hide.

“Why are you wearing your hood inside?” He asked when he saw Holly.

“Because its raining?” She said, more as a question.

“Inside?” He asked.

“Yes,” she said, quite convincingly, “Can’t you feel it?” She asked, sticking her hand out as if to catch falling water.

“No,” Alex replied unsurely.

“Your weird,” Holly informed him. Alex laughed. “No seriously Alex, you should get help.”

Alex stared at her, astonished, before Jack walked in. He stopped suddenly, held out his hands, looked to the roof and said, “Is it raining in here?” Alex gave each of them a confused look and sat down beside Holly, who instinctively moved away from him, she felt really awkward sitting beside the guy who loved her, but not having feelings for him.

“I reckon he should get,” she started, “professional help!” she explained, standing up and stretching her arms high up over her head, but putting them down quickly when she felt the material slid up to just under her bust line.

“Yes, I quite agree,” Jack nodded his head, and sat down in her previous seat, crossing his legs and tapping his chin thoughtfully, “maybe we should take him to a hospital?”

“Yeah... Maybe,” Holly replied as Avara walked in with an umbrella. “What’s up?” Holly asked her.

“Uh, we’re all going over to FTSK’s bus because it seems to be raining on our bus,” She said, sounding annoyed. “Alex,” she scolded, “Where’s your rain coat, you’ll get sick.”

“You lot are so weird,” Alex replied simply. Avara stuck her tongue out at him and skipped off the bus.

She let herself into FTSK’s bus like a creeper and stood between all the bunks.

“Hunnies, I’m home!” She called through the bus.

“AVARA!” She heard someone scream before being tackled. She soon realised it was Jonathan and wrapped her arms around his waist in a returning hug. “I missed you,” he grinned.

“You always miss me,” she said, pushing him away to find Caleb and the rest of the boys.

Upon entering the back lounge, she spied them all and thought it would be cool to sit on Caleb’s lap and annoy him.

“Hi,” she smiled innocently up at him.

“Hi,” he smiled back.

“Hey,” yelled Austin, “We’re hear too you know.”

“And I should care why...?” Avara joked.

She spent the next few minutes studying Caleb’s face.

“When was the last time you shaved?” She asked in fake disgust, “You’re like, growing a moustache.”

“sor-ry,” Caleb replied, pronouncing each syllable separately. “I’ll go and shave.”

“No wait don’t!” Avara cried, “Let it grow and then cut it off and give it to me. I’ve always wanted a pet moustache.”

“That is creepy,” Marc laughed.

“Where’d Jonathan go?” Avara asked. Before anyone could answer, Jonathan, Holly, Alex and Jack walked in.

“Why is everyone always on our bus?” Asked Kent.

“Because it’s raining on Kill Barbie’s bus,” Alex said.

“What are you talking about Alex, how can it rain inside a bus?” Holly said, making Alex blush out of embarrassment.

“Jonathan,” Avara grinned, jumping up from her position on Caleb and running over to him.

“Avara,” he grinned back.

“Let’s go get breakfast,” she suggested, linking her arm with his and dragging him out of the bus. Holly, Kent and Alex stared after them, and Jack scrambled to his feet.

“As much as I like sitting here,” He announced, “I have a date at catering.” Holly and Caleb snickered. Jack looked up and narrowed his eyes at them.

“Don’t you mean you have a date at catering with like,” Caleb started.

“A potato or something?” Holly finished. She and Caleb cracked up laughing. “Oh yeah Caleb,” Holly yelled, “thumbs up knuckle punch!” They made their hands into fists, lifted their thumbs and punched each others fists. Avara ran back into the room screaming.

“Did you just thumbs up knuckle punch him?” She yelled at Holly. Holly, who held her breath once she heard Avara scream, breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I thought Jonathan had, like, raped you or something,” Holly said.

“I thought you two had left,” Caleb said.

“Yeah but Jonathan is a homo, he had to make himself look pretty first,” she replied before sticking her head back toward the bunks, “You ready yet pretty boy?” She called before disappearing again.”Oh, and don’t thumbs up knuckle punch him, that’s our thing,” she warned, sticking her head back into the lounge and disappearing, yet again, for good this time, or so they thought.

Holly grinned devilishly at Caleb and made her hand into a fist with her thumb up. He grinned back at her and they thumbs up knuckle punched again. Avara ran back into the lounge.

“Did you just thumbs up knuckle punch again?” she shrieked.

“Will you just leave please,” Caleb laughed.

“Fine,” Avara said, pointing a finger at him, “But I’m watching you. You and your best friend stealing knuckles.” Caleb was saved from finding a comeback by Jonathan, who yanked Avara off the bus in the nicest way possible.

“You like her don’t you,” Holly smirked at Caleb.

“I’m sorry what?” Caleb asked, pretending he hadn’t heard.

“I said you like her,” Holly said, continuing to smirk.

“I’m serious I can’t hear you, my eyes aren’t working,” Caleb said. Holly raised her eyebrows at him.

“Caleb is lame,” she mumbled.

“Am not,” he retorted.

“I knew it,” Holly jumped up, sticking a pointing finger in his face, “Your eyes are working. You can hear me!”

“You two do realise that you hear with your ears right?” Said Marc, who was quietly typing away on his laptop until now.

“Shut up Marc,” Holly and Caleb mumbled.

Caleb and Holly spent the next half hour being ‘brothers from other mothers’ as per their previous agreement. Caleb had said something about ‘Australian bogans’ and Holly pretended to be offended. They were currently wrestling on the floor until Caleb squealed in pain.

“Ouch Holly, you broke my eye,” he whined. Holly thought it would be funny to play a little trick on him so she opened her mouth and mouthed some words, but didn’t let any sound get out. “Oh no!” He yelled, “I’ve gone deaf!” Holly burst into a fit of laughs while Caleb glared at her.

“Your a bit stupid sometimes, you know that? What is in that massive head of yours, because apparently it isn’t a brain,” Holly laughed.

“Your a bit mean, you know that?” Caleb replied.

A few hours later, Kill Barbie were in the middle of their set. They were rocking out to one of their hit songs. Holly was singing her lungs out and strumming the hell out of her bass and Avara and Harlee were shredding like mad on their guitars. They were having so much fun until...

“Wait! Stop everything,” Tadem yelled. Avara, Harlee and Holly gave her weird looks but continued playing as they turned around to see Tadem standing up behind her drum kit with her hands over her head. “STOP THE SONG” She screamed. The girls stopped and turned their backs on the crowd to face their drummer. “I dropped a drumstick,” she grinned. She bent down, picked up her fallen stick and sat back down at her kit again. “Continue,” she smiled. She started drumming like crazy and the rest of the girls awkwardly started the song again from where they stopped.

After their set, the four girls left the stage and grabbed bottles of water from the cooler beside it. Holly jumped onto Avara’s back and they ran down the stairs and out into the waiting crowd screaming in fits of laughter. Harlee and Tadem stared after them in amusement, before Tadem hoisted Harlee up onto her own back and took off after them. When the two found Avara and Holly, they had fallen over in front of their merch booth and were laughing insanely while Travis and Jake looked at them in confusion from behind their table.

“That was so much fun!” Holly laughed, eventually getting to her feet. Avara got up too and sighed.

“Yeah, but now I’m like, mega tired!”

“You callin’ me fat?” Holly asked, raising an eyebrow and placing her hands on her hips. Avara grinned and nodded. “Oi!” Avara ran down Merch way and turned left at a V.I.P. part of the venue. After flashing her tag, she ran through and looked for Caleb. Holly was right on her heels but was stopped when she couldn’t find her tag. “Dude,” she exclaimed, “I’m a singer, lemme through!” The security man crossed his arms and shook his head ‘no’.

She was about to scream in his face when she spotted Kyle in the distance.

“Kyle Burns from Forever The Sickest Kids,” she yelled, “come and save Holly!” Kyle turned and narrowed his eyes to see who it was and then laughed when he figured it was Holly. He walked over and grinned.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“I lost my pass, help a brother,” she pleaded, “help a brother get in and hunt for Avara!” Kyle laughed.

“Why are you hunting Avara?”

“She called me fat,” she told him indignantly, “now help me in!” Kyle laughed and turned to the big guy that looked like a white version of Robi. Maybe they were related. Who knows. Holly certainly didn’t.

“So,” Kyle was saying, “because your a dude that is working here as a security man, you should know weather or not Holly is in one of the bands or not. And because you just denied her entry, she could get real angry and like, tell on you or something.” Holly stifled a giggle and went past the guy and sidled up to Kyle, grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the mean dude at the gateway.

“Thank you Burns,” she said, “now let me climb up onto your back and we’ll go looking for the traitor who is in my band!” Kyle rolled his eyes and knelt down so that Holly could sit on his back. When she was safely on, he began strolling to where he was headed previously before she’d called his name. “We’re supposed to go looking for Avara!”

“Holly she’ll be with Caleb,” Kyle told her,” they totally love each other, it’s so obvious.” Holly stared at the back of his head and sighed. She wished he knew she liked him, but she didn’t want to tell him that she liked him. Okay, now she was confusing herself. “Look,” Kyle whispered,” there they are!” He ducked between two buses and they both peeked around the corner. Caleb was walking towards them, with Avara perched up on his back.

“She stole my idea,” Holly exclaimed, “what an asshat!” Kyle chuckled at the word asshat; Holly leaned over his shoulder so she could look at his face.

“Ha, you said asshat.”

“Immature,” Holly muttered, going back to her previous position. “Okay here’s the plan,” she whispered, “we’ll hide and wait for them to go past, and then we’ll sneak up behind them and attack!” The two waited for Caleb and Avara to walk past, before Kyle tip-toed out and went quickly to the back of Caleb, where Holly put her hands over Avara’s eyes, and Kyle did the same to Caleb, the two screamed and Caleb tripped over his own feet and landed with a thud on the floor, Avara on his back still. Holly and Kyle screamed with laughter and Kyle ran in the opposite direction.



Holly and Kyle had hidden under a bus for most of the afternoon, hiding from Caleb and Avara who were stalking around with walkie talkies looking for them. Eventually they’d gotten tired and retreated back to Kill Barbies bus, hoping Caleb and Avara weren’t there. Fortunately, they weren’t there, so they went into the back lounge with a blanket, some ice-cream and Holly’s laptop.

“MySpace picture!” Kyle exclaimed.

“Okay!” They leant together and pulled funny faces at Kyle’s Blackberry camera. Kyle snapped the picture and set about uploading it to his page. When he’d put it up, Holly stole it and put it as her default picture. “Now I have to reply to all these comments from fans,” she muttered.

“I don’t have my laptop here!” Kyle whined. Holly looked around the room and spotted the bands computer under a pile of DVDs.

“Use the bands laptop,” she said, “it’s that one over there, the pink one with the skulls.” Kyle went over and grabbed it.

“Why is it pink?” he laughed, going back to Holly and sliding back under the blanket beside her, their legs touching.

“I don’t know,” she said, “but the skulls represent Barbie’s skull because we think she is a whore.” Kyle laughed and opened the laptop where he was greeted by a picture of Holly, Tadem, Avara, Harlee and their merch guy Travis sitting on towels at a beautiful beach in their bathing suits. They were obviously on an Australian beach sunbathing. Harlee had bunny ears behind Tadem’s head and Tadem was holding a handful of sand over the unsuspecting head of Travis.