Where the Wild Things Are

In her mind Warped Tour was overrated.

Totally overrated. It was a chore and a stress to have to stand out on a sweltering parking lot setting up stages and tents for the throngs of teenagers that would crowd around, adding to the already potentially explosive atmosphere with their shouts and demands for t-shirts and autographs.

Those who were lucky could crawl into the cool safety of their tour buses where a cold beer was sitting in the mini fridge. Those less fortunate had to make do with camping shades tied up between measly little vans that smelt distinctly of boy and booze.

Laura Merrick was frustrated: she resented living a clique. She had been looking forward to a long and free summer before returning to college in New York to continue her creative writing course. Her parents had planned a month long cruise, and Laura full well knowing that her brother would be slugging it out on Warped tour for the larger part of the summer, planned to enjoy having the house to herself.

Her parents had crushed her happy plans y announcing that Zack was going to take Laura with his band on tour. They had used the argument that Laura at 19 was too young to house sit and that it was too dangerous for her to be alone. They seemed to have some disillusion as to just exactly what Warped entailed; if they had they would have had no objections to her staying at home.

She didn’t mind her brother’s band mates, not in the least. They were like an extended family for her but at the same time this fact often made life exceedingly difficult for Laura especially when it came to her own social life. Often people, specifically girls, only befriended her so they could get close to the boys in All Time Low. Which was why spending the whole summer on Warped was not necessarily a good thing, especially once her ‘friends’ got wind of it, then Laura wouldn’t have a quiet moment.

So it was for this reason that Laura did her job and kept to herself. She didn’t dare make any new friends for fearing of having to share them with people who didn’t fully appreciate them. Musicians were just people too.

Laura stuck close to Alex’s long-term girlfriend Lisa when she was on some of the tour dates. She enjoyed her company because she too was a normal girl in an extra ordinary circumstance. With Lisa she could have a normal girl moment talking about shopping and plans for college, but Lisa couldn’t spare her whole summer for Warped and after a couple of days she had to go back to work. Laura had planned to tentatively make friend’s with the Maine seeing as John and Alex were close, but it took a lot for Laura to work herself up to approach them.

“Laura please go and hang out with some of the other guys, we’re worried about you turning into a recluse,” Rian said to her in a manner that was both jokey and serious.

He was probably the person she was closest to out of the All Time Low boys, with the exception of her brother. Rian was a part of her comfort zone and she knew that she could always rely on him.

In the end Laura was practically forced into dialogue with other people. This was achieved by sending her on constant errands such as fetching some new drumsticks for Rian, or being made to search for a work out buddy for Zack. But the final and enlightening idea came from Alex.
“You can walk my dog!”

Laura had dropped the box of shirts she was holding out in front of her and looked at him aghast over the tops of her sunglasses.

“I beg your pardon? It’s your bloody dog, you walk him.”

But Alex refused to hear her, and so she was presented with Sebastian every night of the tour so far and walked with him. It was true she did meet new people but she still kept quiet and didn’t talk much.

However, there then came one evening that was very much out of the ordinary.

Laura was watching Baz run around the empty parking lot. She had chosen to walk away from the majority of the parked vans and buses to avoid running into people and being forced into conversation. It was very counteractive to the argument that Alex had put forward, but she didn’t care.

She had just lowered herself onto the ground to sit cross-legged when she heard some shouting a name behind her, curious she turned around and saw a tall dark hair guy running around the parking lot looking sufficiently stressed. It also during this point that Laura had realized Baz had run off.

Laura jumped back up and was furious with herself. During the two seconds of oogling she had lost Alex’s companion and practically best friend. This was not good.

The tanned guy had noticed Laura and he ran up to her with his dark hair all wild, and panic was written in his eyes.

“Have you seen a small little pug dog?”

Laura looked up at the boy with a mixture of amusement and horror written on her face.

“No sorry but have you seen a small Papillion dog running around anywhere?” She asked with a nervous laugh as vivid images of the potential damage Alex was going to inflict on her, flashed through her mind.

“You’ve lost your dog too?” The boy seemed relieved that he wasn’t the only one who was totally inadequate with animals.

“Nope not mine, Alex’s. I’m screwed.”

The boy laughed out loud, before stopping having realized it was slightly insensitive.

“That’s pretty hilarious seeing as I’ve just lost Dan from This Providence’s dog. I’m pretty much screwed too.”

And so with began the adventure of find the two dogs that had decided to explore the great vastness of the parking lots. Laura called out for Baz for a while but she tried to keep her voice low so as not to attract attention to herself and the situation she was in. If Ale got wind of this she was done for. The rest of her time spent on Warped would be hell.

During the course of the search Laura found out that her fellow dog hunter was called Slade and that his band Anarbor were on the tour too. She also came to the conclusion that he was more than just very good looking, something that Slade confirmed about her silently in his own mind. They carried on talking amiably until Slade heard the tell tale whimper that apparently belonged to Charlie, Dan’s dog, from behind one of the numerous vans that was parked on the edge of the car park.

“There you crazy wild things are,” Slade said with relief as he saw Charlie and Baz sat next to each other behind the van looking as mischievous as only dogs could.

Laura instantly scooped Baz up and held him close for fearing of him running away again, Slade then mirrored her actions and so both were stood in front of each other holding their retrieved dogs and smiling.

“I’ll better bring him back, before Alex goes crazy,” Laura said trying not to stare at Slade too much.

“Yeah I’ll best be going too,” he said sounding slightly disappointed but then he shot Laura a bright smile. “I’ll see you walking him tomorrow night won’t I?”

Laura returned the smile and nodded.

“You’ll be seeing me around.”