Vendetta

I was in a hurry, I’d forgotten to set my alarm and now I was grabbing clothes left and right with Buu on my bed, meowing his displeasure and trying to get me back into the bed.

I was going to look as professional as I could until I knew the dress code. Until then, it was none of my usual attire, which consisted of random colors and objects. I didn’t have a real fashion thing going on,. Al I do is put things on that I feel like wearing that day, even if it doesn’t match but somehow I make it match.

I wore this outfit but with these shoes. I just felt like wearing heels today, I blame my height.

After spiking my hair out of my eyes, I made sure that Buu had water and feed before I raced out of the door and onto my bike. I had to hike up my skirt a little to get on but I loved that bike. It was a gift from my dad.

After a 20 minute drive from Huntington Beach to Long Beach, today would be the first day of a new job but this time I could actually use my talents. Well at least most of them anyways. In a way I was like my dad. He’d used to work for a music store because he could play lots of instruments plus fix and maintain them.

He could take any instrument and within a few hours could play it. Not like a newbie but like a person who’s been at it a few years. Give him a month and he’d just about have it down.

Whereas with me, I could take any game or electrical thing and do the same as my dad. Also I could copy dance movement as well. I couldn’t play very well but I could sure sing. My dad would play the bass and I’d program a guitar, drums on my laptop while I sung.

I miss those days.

“Hey, you’re Valentine, right?” A guy suddenly asked me, jolting me out of my daydreaming.

“Yeah…” I finally decided that he was ok to talk to, “And you can call me Sully if you want.” The guy chuckled and motioned for me to follow him.

“Why Sully?” He asked me. I laughed at the memory.

“Ah, my dad used to say that I was sullen and stuff when I was a child because I wouldn’t play with other kids so I guess it kinda stuck.”

“Ha, I thought it was short for Sullivan.” He laughed. “You came highly recommended from New Orleans, I’m glad you decided to move out here..” Yeah decided…

“Yeah, I kinda hated to move from Louisiana but I was told that this paid really well and there was a beach I could live next by and I just couldn’t say no..” I laughed, keeping up pretenses. The guy laughed as well.

“Yeah.. We’ve got beaches and a sunset you wouldn’t believe! I thought that since you came from Louisiana, there’d be beaches, water and stuff…”

“Eh, there’s water all right… but lots of swamp area and chaos, ‘specially with Mardi Gras coming through each year and such…” I drawled on, much to the delight of the guy. Apparently he’s never been to the South, assuming that much on how he likes my accent.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m Jared, the head honcho of this arena. We mainly get bands on tour that come here and play so lots of stuff goes wrong with all the electrical equipment from band related issues to lighting and what not. You’re basically gonna be the head honcho of techies, roadies and stuff like that.”

“Cool..” I said while looking around at my surroundings with great interest. He gave me a walkie-talkie and all this other bullshit I had to have and left me to do my business. I stood there for a minute, trying to decide where to start but then a problem presented itself.

There were these two people arguing over the lighting systems, so I decided to help out.

“Yo, y’all got this?” I asked them, in a playful manner. They both looked at me kinda weird and stopped their bickering but then they noticed my backstage pass and they were scrambling to behave. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what the hell they were on.

“OH! You must be Valentine! We-uh were just joking around and…stuff..” One of them stammered like a kid getting caught red handed doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. I started to laugh at their embarrassed faces.

“Dudes, its chill. Just as long as you finish before my inspection which I’ll prolly do like… 30 minutes to an hour before everythin’ goes down?”

“Uh yeah sure…” The other dude said, looking like he really didn’t believe that I was gonna do that. I cocked my eyebrow at him and made mental notes about him, that I was prolly gonna forget later on. Yep, he’s gonna be a trouble maker, ‘fo ‘sho.

After that I made my way around the venue, getting to know it and its layout and getting lost like a dumbass. I suddenly found myself at the front of the venue where Jared was. He was talking to this one dude when he saw me. Jared waved me over with a grin.

“Hey man, this is our new Head Techie, Sully.” Jared told his friend. I shook his hand while he grinned.

“Nice to meet you. I’ll catch ya later, Jared. Til tonight.” The guy left, leaving me there with Jared.

“That was Avenged Sevenfold’s tour manager. They’re playing a home concert here tonight and they’re gonna film it for their new DVD.” He explained. I had heard of Avenged Sevenfold but here lately I haven’t had the time to listen to them religiously like all my other friends do.

“Oh cool. Are they here yet or what?” I asked him, not wanting the band to see this place until its in tip top shape.

“They’re all at their homes in Huntington Beach. They’ll be here shortly, around 5 I think for their sound check then at 6, we’re gonna let in some VIP people to meet the band and at 7 is the show…” Jared ruffled his hair in thought. I looked at my watch and nearly freaked out.

It was already 4:30 so that means I had thirty minutes to do a check and get everything ready for the sound check. I let out a little squeak when I realized this causing Jared to look at me strange.

“Shit! That means I have 30 minutes to get shit in order! Gotta go!” I ran off, leaving Jared laughing at my work ethic. Jared was more laid back than I, who liked to get things done so I can goof later plus I hated to be late on anything.