Backstage

“Sami!” Nikky squealed when she saw her. She grabbed her friend in a huge hug.

“Hey Nikky!” Sami laughed. John stood next to her. “Hey John,” Sami said, removing herself from Nikky’s grasp and walking over to give John a hug. He just stuck out his hand. Sami shrugged and shook his hand instead.
‘Never the lovable type,’ she thought as she pulled her hand out of John’s.
“Who’s not here?” Sami asked them holding onto Scott’s hand.

“Mommy, where’s Jakob?” he asked. They had formed a bond during the times that Jakob had come over to play with Scott.

“He’s coming honey, don’t worry,” Sami said with a laugh. It was the fifth time he had asked. He nodded like he had every time and just stood there waiting. Nikky smiled down at him.

“How cute, they’re already best friends. Anyway, we are waiting fooor…” She turned around to the tables and people in the restaurant to see who was there. “Umm, I think just all the guys,” Nikky said as she turned back to Sami. “And speak of the devils,” she said with a laugh. Sami turned around and saw Billie, Adrienne, Joey, Jakob, Mike and Tre all walk through the door. Scott waved to Jakob. Jakob smiled and made a bee line for Scott.

“The party has arrived!” Tre said. Nikky and Sami laughed. Katie walked up behind Nikky and Sami to give them hugs.

“Hey guys,” she said to everyone.

“Hola!” Tre said. He was in very high spirits. Sami looked over at Billie to see if he knew why Tre was so happy.

“He asked some girl out and she said yes,” he said. Sami laughed silently at Tre.

Sami and Nikky gave James and Katie hugs and ‘Congratulations!’ while Katie introduced everyone else to him and her daughter, Kaylee. After a few minutes, they all sat down at the table. Sami sat next to Adrienne and across from Kaylee and Joey. They were both ten so they were getting along pretty well. Scott and Jake were next to Joey and were talking about the latest Pokemon cards they had each bought. Adrienne and Sami started talking about Adeline Records and T-Bright Records, Sami, Nikky and Katie’s label that they helped run.

“Oh! Velvet Revolver came into the shop today for a signing. It was pretty cool. Kids were lining up when I opened the place four hours before they came in,” James laughed.

“Are you kidding me? That’s awesome!” Billie said breathlessly. “That’s the best feeling. Knowing you have kids lining up for over an hour just to meet you.” James nodded and looked over at Katie who smiled and kissed him.

“James’ guitar shop is where James and Katie met,” Nikky cooed from across the table. Katie laughed and squeezed James’ hand under the table.

“We were on tour and one of her bass strings wasn’t working so we drove to the first place we could find which just happened to be James’ guitar shop and here we are today,” Sami finished. “It was fate.” The group ‘awww’ed together while the kids made gagging sounds.

About ten minutes after they had all sat down, Sami saw two 15 year old girls walk slowly up to the table. One was shoving the other one slightly in the back in order to get her to move. Sami was confused for about two seconds, until she remembered who they were eating with. Billie had obviously noticed too for he was trying to cover his face with his menu. Sami looked around at Tre and Mike doing the exact same thing.

“Uhh….Umm…A-Are…Are you Mike Dirnt?” one of the girls asked Mike. He slowly put his menu down and looked up and the girls who were both standing next to him. He looked around the table at Tre and Billie who were both peering over their menus. Billie gave a shrug and Tre nodded. Mike turned back to the girls.

“Yeah, what can I do for you?” he asked in a cheery voice. The girls both broke into a smile, for they had both thought that he was going to shove them away.

“Umm…Can…Can you sign this?” the other girl asked, pulling the American Idiot CD out of her purse. Mike looked down at the CD and back up at the girl.

“Do you carry that around where ever you go?” he asked with a laugh. She nodded vigorously.

“We love your music and have been fans for the past 4 years,” she said. Tre and Billie both looked relieved. Mike let out his breath.

“Yeah sure,” he said taking the pen that she had pulled out and signing the CD.

“Do you want them to sign it too?” Mike asked pointing to Billie and Tre. The girls looked startled; they hadn’t noticed Billie and Tre sitting at the table also. They both nodded speechlessly. Mike chuckled and passed the CD and pen over to Tre who signed it and passed it to Billie. When they had all signed it, the girls thanked all of them about fifty times and then walked away with huge smiles on their faces.
Mike looked over at Billie and Tre. They all were looking rather happy.

“What was with the relieved look when they said that they’d been fans for four years?” Katie asked.

“See, a lot of these people, girls mostly, have just been fans because they just like the American Idiot music,” Mike said.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, I mean we like knowing that we have fans that have just discovered our music,” Tre continued for him.

“But a lot of those girls just like us because they think that we’re hot. And that gets kind of annoying,” Billie said.

“The fans that have been with us for a while don’t bother us as much, because we know that they’ve been with us for a long time,” Mike finished.

“And that wasn’t confusing at all,” Nikky said sarcastically.