The Black Dog Apparition
Chapter 5
Bret’s Point of View
I fainted. I fucking fainted!!
Holy Jesus shit talking mushrooms of heaven and hell below!!
Those words, those words of victory flew through my ears like angels singing hallelujah. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. Of all the things my father had ever in my life told me, I won because of those words of victory.
We won the contest, just as I had predicted. I must be a fucking psychic. After a month of waiting and freaking out and stressing we had won.
My unconscious mind woke up to the sound of the telephone ringing. I picked myself up from the floor in front of the television and raced to get the phone. I pressed talk and heard Jennifer’s ecstatic voice,
“We won! We won! WE FUCKING WON!!”
My insides screamed in pride, but I couldn’t vocalize my joy in fear of my father waking up and beating me for waking him. I whispered to Jen, “Call Laura and tell her we’ll all meet at her place. I’ll call Mikey.”
“Why are you whispering - oh…” Jen’s voice lowered to a sensible volume, “Yeah, I’ll call her. Oh my god, Bret! We freaking won! What we’ve worked our asses off for, we won!” She hung up.
I called Michael and was blasted with his excitement just as I was with Jen; after about fifteen minutes of telephone-celebration, I was able to tell him of where we were meeting. We hung up.
I grabbed my bass and skateboard, snuck out the window, and was off. Christ, my heart was ready to fucking explode with pride!
Laura’s Point of View
My high-pitched scream even startled Hope, and made Mom wake up and rush into my bedroom, shouting, “What’s wrong?”
“WE WON!! WE WON!”
“My God, Laura! Calm down, calm down!” My Mom scolded lightly; I could tell she was happy for the band even through her anger of being woken up at seven AM on her day off work.
We were on our way, we had won! We were getting a chance at a record label! Eyeball Records, of them all!
3 Months Later
“So, how did you all get started and end up here at the Warped Tour?” The show host didn’t wait for an answer from any of us, “C’mon, tell us about your beginnings! It’s always great to see new faces around the tour!”
Jen and Bret took the lead. I was too camera-shy and Michael had been acting so weird lately. It was like he was completely dead. He didn’t do much anymore except play…
“Well,” Jen started, “my boyfriend - Hey Gabe! I love you! - found out about the news channel, The Early Show, was having a fucking Battle of the Bands competition -“
Bret cut in for his own piece, “- and so when Jen shared this information, we entered in our own video of our most practiced song and after, like, a month of waiting we were watching the news and they announced us as the winners!”
Jen entered in again, “An agent from Eyeball Records called Laura, here, and from there we signed on with Eyeball. They told us of the Warped Tour and since we’re only, ya know, 16, 17, we had to sneak away from our houses, jack a shitty van, and find the original meeting place. And from there we were off.
“And now we’re here, talking to you, Steve.” Bret finished, triumphant that he got the last word in.
“Wow,” Steve, said into the microphone, “How do you support yourself?”
Bret chuckled, “I stole my father’s debit card.”
“My God, so we’re working with criminals, here! I’m sure at least one of you has a license?”
“Yeah,” Jen jabbed a thumb in Michael’s direction next to her, “Michael has one that he’s had for a while, now. He’s the only one who can drive right now… mine was taken…”
“And how did that happen?” Steve put the microphone to the red-head’s mouth.
She gave a cheesy seven-year-old-mommy-I-want-a-lollipop-please grin and said, “Oh, just a story you really don’t want to know about.”
“Er…Okay… So, The Black Dog Apparition, how did you come up with that name? Seems like a ghost story or something. Folklore? I heard there is a legend of a black ghost dog. Is that it?”
“Bret cut in before Jennifer could speak, “You’ll have to ask Mikey about that one. He was the one who came up with the name, and it just stuck.”
“Mikey?” Steve put the microphone up to Michael’s blank face, “How did you come up with such a cool band name?”
Michael came out of his daze, but his voice was monotone and his face was expressionless. His eyes stared at the some how interesting floor, and he scratched the back of his neck while he spoke, but his face and tone gave no hint of what he might have been feeling. My God, what was wrong with him?! I wanted to scream my question at him, but we were being interviewed… this was no time.
“Well, yeah, the folklore thing. I had heard of that story before, and I use to tease my little sister with that tale before, and it worked most of the time. But, uh, I dunno where I got it from, really. At first I thought it was a really weird name and we were kinda desperate for a band name… so I just kinda wrote it on the board…”
“Okay, now I’ve got questions for the entire band, ready?”
We all, except Michael, nodded.
“Do any of you think of another band member sexually?”
“No,” we all laughed. But Bret was a good liar and we all knew that.
“Have any of you ever been to jail - er, juvie?”
Jen jumped up and down and squirmed in her seat, ecstatic that she got to claim her badass past. “Oh, ooh! I have. I went there for two weeks on the charge of a misdemeanor. I was freaking out some shithead farmer’s cattle and sheep. He was the guy who called the cops on me.”
“Dang, how was that?” Steve asked, interested.
“It was fucking hell.”
“Okay, who has been in a fist fight and how many?”
Bret became very sullen, but he tried to cover it up. We all except Steve noticed this, and I piped up to cover for Bret’s home life stories and the terrible fights he had with his dad. “I have! Some girl was gossiping about me. She had started a rumor that I was whoring around with all the hot guys. I punched her face in.”
“Woah! Strong for such a frail form, eh?”
“Frail form? You’ve got to be joking. I’ve got muscle, and don’t you question that!” I laughed, flexing my biceps and posing foolishly.
Steve laughed, “You’re too much trouble! Well, that’s all the time we have left for this interview. Well, The Black Dog Apparition, thank you for having us and answering all those questions. Over and out!”
Bret’s Point of View
Over and out.
Exactly.
I fainted. I fucking fainted!!
Holy Jesus shit talking mushrooms of heaven and hell below!!
Those words, those words of victory flew through my ears like angels singing hallelujah. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. Of all the things my father had ever in my life told me, I won because of those words of victory.
We won the contest, just as I had predicted. I must be a fucking psychic. After a month of waiting and freaking out and stressing we had won.
My unconscious mind woke up to the sound of the telephone ringing. I picked myself up from the floor in front of the television and raced to get the phone. I pressed talk and heard Jennifer’s ecstatic voice,
“We won! We won! WE FUCKING WON!!”
My insides screamed in pride, but I couldn’t vocalize my joy in fear of my father waking up and beating me for waking him. I whispered to Jen, “Call Laura and tell her we’ll all meet at her place. I’ll call Mikey.”
“Why are you whispering - oh…” Jen’s voice lowered to a sensible volume, “Yeah, I’ll call her. Oh my god, Bret! We freaking won! What we’ve worked our asses off for, we won!” She hung up.
I called Michael and was blasted with his excitement just as I was with Jen; after about fifteen minutes of telephone-celebration, I was able to tell him of where we were meeting. We hung up.
I grabbed my bass and skateboard, snuck out the window, and was off. Christ, my heart was ready to fucking explode with pride!
Laura’s Point of View
My high-pitched scream even startled Hope, and made Mom wake up and rush into my bedroom, shouting, “What’s wrong?”
“WE WON!! WE WON!”
“My God, Laura! Calm down, calm down!” My Mom scolded lightly; I could tell she was happy for the band even through her anger of being woken up at seven AM on her day off work.
We were on our way, we had won! We were getting a chance at a record label! Eyeball Records, of them all!
3 Months Later
“So, how did you all get started and end up here at the Warped Tour?” The show host didn’t wait for an answer from any of us, “C’mon, tell us about your beginnings! It’s always great to see new faces around the tour!”
Jen and Bret took the lead. I was too camera-shy and Michael had been acting so weird lately. It was like he was completely dead. He didn’t do much anymore except play…
“Well,” Jen started, “my boyfriend - Hey Gabe! I love you! - found out about the news channel, The Early Show, was having a fucking Battle of the Bands competition -“
Bret cut in for his own piece, “- and so when Jen shared this information, we entered in our own video of our most practiced song and after, like, a month of waiting we were watching the news and they announced us as the winners!”
Jen entered in again, “An agent from Eyeball Records called Laura, here, and from there we signed on with Eyeball. They told us of the Warped Tour and since we’re only, ya know, 16, 17, we had to sneak away from our houses, jack a shitty van, and find the original meeting place. And from there we were off.
“And now we’re here, talking to you, Steve.” Bret finished, triumphant that he got the last word in.
“Wow,” Steve, said into the microphone, “How do you support yourself?”
Bret chuckled, “I stole my father’s debit card.”
“My God, so we’re working with criminals, here! I’m sure at least one of you has a license?”
“Yeah,” Jen jabbed a thumb in Michael’s direction next to her, “Michael has one that he’s had for a while, now. He’s the only one who can drive right now… mine was taken…”
“And how did that happen?” Steve put the microphone to the red-head’s mouth.
She gave a cheesy seven-year-old-mommy-I-want-a-lollipop-please grin and said, “Oh, just a story you really don’t want to know about.”
“Er…Okay… So, The Black Dog Apparition, how did you come up with that name? Seems like a ghost story or something. Folklore? I heard there is a legend of a black ghost dog. Is that it?”
“Bret cut in before Jennifer could speak, “You’ll have to ask Mikey about that one. He was the one who came up with the name, and it just stuck.”
“Mikey?” Steve put the microphone up to Michael’s blank face, “How did you come up with such a cool band name?”
Michael came out of his daze, but his voice was monotone and his face was expressionless. His eyes stared at the some how interesting floor, and he scratched the back of his neck while he spoke, but his face and tone gave no hint of what he might have been feeling. My God, what was wrong with him?! I wanted to scream my question at him, but we were being interviewed… this was no time.
“Well, yeah, the folklore thing. I had heard of that story before, and I use to tease my little sister with that tale before, and it worked most of the time. But, uh, I dunno where I got it from, really. At first I thought it was a really weird name and we were kinda desperate for a band name… so I just kinda wrote it on the board…”
“Okay, now I’ve got questions for the entire band, ready?”
We all, except Michael, nodded.
“Do any of you think of another band member sexually?”
“No,” we all laughed. But Bret was a good liar and we all knew that.
“Have any of you ever been to jail - er, juvie?”
Jen jumped up and down and squirmed in her seat, ecstatic that she got to claim her badass past. “Oh, ooh! I have. I went there for two weeks on the charge of a misdemeanor. I was freaking out some shithead farmer’s cattle and sheep. He was the guy who called the cops on me.”
“Dang, how was that?” Steve asked, interested.
“It was fucking hell.”
“Okay, who has been in a fist fight and how many?”
Bret became very sullen, but he tried to cover it up. We all except Steve noticed this, and I piped up to cover for Bret’s home life stories and the terrible fights he had with his dad. “I have! Some girl was gossiping about me. She had started a rumor that I was whoring around with all the hot guys. I punched her face in.”
“Woah! Strong for such a frail form, eh?”
“Frail form? You’ve got to be joking. I’ve got muscle, and don’t you question that!” I laughed, flexing my biceps and posing foolishly.
Steve laughed, “You’re too much trouble! Well, that’s all the time we have left for this interview. Well, The Black Dog Apparition, thank you for having us and answering all those questions. Over and out!”
Bret’s Point of View
Over and out.
Exactly.