Burning It Down, All the Way to Bat Country

Steph’s POV
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Matt just asked me out. Lynnie and Jasey were digging through my closet trying to find me something to wear, while I had Corra and Jaz doing my hair and makeup.
“AHA! I FOUND IT!” Jasey and Lynnie screamed at the same time. They emerged from my closet holding dark blues jeans, and a flowy purple top.
“You can wear your black leather jacket and those fabulous Steve Madden stilettos!” Jasey said, and I laughed and nodded.
“Alright sweetie, get dressed and your done, and just in time, you need to meet Matt downstairs in ten minutes.” Lynnie said.

“Alright, thanks so much girls!” I said and hugged them. They waved and walked out of my room. I quickly got dressed and checked my make up one more time before I put my shoes on and walked downstairs. I found Matt sitting on the couch in the living room. He stood up smiled when he saw me.
“Hey, ready to go?”
“Yepp, let’s get this party started!” I said. He grinned and nodded.
“Since it’s just us, I’m stealing Zacky’s car, shh, he doesn’t know.” He said with a wink.
“Oh man, we’re taking Zacky’s baby? This should be fun.”
“Haha yeah, Corra gave me the keys earlier.” We walked out to Zack’s black BMW M3. I swear, sometime’s he acts like he loves this car more than Corra. Matt opened passenger door for me and I slid in, smiling in thanks.

“So where are we going?” I asked once he had the car started.
“Well, I heard you say once that you loved hockey, and the Kings are playing a late game tonight, so I figured you’d like to go.”
“OH MY GOD ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” He grinned, smoothly shifting gears to accommodate the higher speed he was taking on the freeway.
“Yeah, I figured we could get food at the rink. Is that ok?”
“Oh my god, I think I just fell in love. Rink nachos AND an NHL game? You just became my favorite person EVER.” He laughed and nodded.
“Alright then, this should be fun.” We filled the rest of the twenty minute drive with mindless chatter. After spending ten minutes looking for parking, we were finally walking up to the front doors to get out tickets scanned. I was practically vibrating with excitement at this point.
“Geez Steph, you excited or something?” I nodded like a spaz and just laughed. I pouted at him, crossing my arms.

“Quit laughing at me, I’ve never been to an NHL game before.”
“Aw, I’m sorry, let’s go get you those nachos.” I clapped and nodded. After waiting in a ridiculously long line for twenty minutes, we finally got to the counter.
“Hi, can I get one order of nachos, one hot dog, and two beers please?”
“25.87” Matt handed the guy his card, it was quickly swiped, and then I had my coveted nachos. I waited patiently for Matt to cover his hot dog in condiments, then we were looking for our seats. Matt had gotten seats in the balcony, which some people might have had a problem with, but I thought they were amazing because you could see in all the corners, and everyone knows all the puck battles happen in the corners.

“Gahhhh, I’m so excited for this!!!! Who all is playing?” I asked Matt.
“Tonight it’s Kings vs. St. Louis Blues.” I squealed and clapped.
“Oh my god! T.J Oshie is in the building!?!?! YES!” Matt just looked at me oddly so I decided to explain.
“I’ve loved the Blues since I was little, me and my dad used to watch every game on T.V. And a few years ago, Oshie made the team, and he’s just so adorable, all the girls love him. The cool thing is; he can actually play!” Matt laughed at the last sentence.
“Ok, so basically he’s a baby faced pretty boy, and all the girls love him?”
“Haha yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Then the lights dimmed and the announcers voice boomed through the stadium.

“Staples Center, are you ready? Ladies and gentlemen, here are your Los Angeles KINGS!!”

Cheers erupted from the crowd and we all jumped to our feet, screaming as the starting lines for both teams skated onto the ice. 18 minutes later and there was two minutes left in the first, L.A was down by one, Ersberg just wasn’t on his game. Not that I cared, I was glad St Louis was winning, but Matt seemed a little put out.

“I can’t believe L.A. is getting crushed by pretty boy’s team.” Matt said. I laughed and nodded.
“Yeah it’s kind of hard to believe.” We didn’t say anything after that, and two periods later, the Kings had come back and beat the Blues 8-5. We were almost to the car when I felt a hand grab my arm and I whipped around to see Jake.
“What the fuck do you want asshole?” I spat, pure venom in my voice. He looked shocked, I had never spoken to him that way.

“I want you to come home, what I did was a mistake, I’m sorry ok!?” I just laughed and tried to pull my arm out of his grip. When Matt realized that I wasn’t going to be able to handle the current situation on my own, he stepped in.
“Listen dirt bag, I don’t know who you are, and quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck. I’m telling you right now though, if you don’t let go of my girlfriend’s arm in five seconds, I’m going to break every single bone in your hand.” He growled. Jake smirked and simply tightened the grip he had on my arm, making me whimper in pain, before I was forcefully removed from his hold and placed behind Matt. I watched as Matt grabbed Jake’s hand and bent it back, snapping all five fingers. Jake cried out in pain and clutched his useless hand to his chest.
“Feel lucky I just broke your fingers asshole, now leave before I break your pretty face.” He snarled, and Jake ran away like a little bitch. Matt turned to me, frowning when he saw the fear written across my face.

“Y…You just broke his hand. Why would you do that Matt?” I questioned.
“Because I care about you, and I protect the ones I care about. I gave him a fair warning, and I didn’t break his hand, just his fingers. He should have let go, he was hurting you, and I’m not ok with that.” I nodded and walked up to him, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“Thank you.” I whispered into his chest, and he just kissed my hair and held me against him.
“Come on, let’s go home.”

Trinity’s POV
Somehow Blaze and Evan had managed to teach Mistey and I the basic concepts and controls of ‘Medal of Honor’, and we were now engaged in an epic battle of (what felt like) life or death.
“NO! Mistey, behind you, sniper on the roof!”
“Trini, there’s a grenade launcher on the second level!”
“Take him out, shoot him, SHOOT HIM! The OTHER button Mistey!” We were making so much noise that my aunts and uncles had come down to investigate, and ended up staying. Brian and Jimmy were shouting out weapon locations, Zacky and Johnny were telling us where the enemy players were. Sarah and Blaike were playing pool in the corner and Lynnie, Jaz, Jasey, and Corra were talking about the merits of Rockstar vs. Monster with Blaze and Evan. Popcorn and candy was scattered all over the place, and we had gone through a 12 pack of coke, and 7 Rockstars. Needless to say, we were all WIRED.

“What the HELL happened in here?” We all jumped at the sound of my dad’s voice. I quickly paused the game and bounced over, hugging him quickly before launching into what had gone down while he was on his date with Steph.
“Ok, here’s what happened. When we got back we got bored so Evan and Blaze started playing Medal of Honor and me and Mistey were just like, what the fuck? What’s the point? So they showed us how to play and its really freaking fun, but we were like, screaming at each other and the game, and somehow we started a skittle/popcorn war, not entirely sure how that happened, but anyway, we were playing and like, CHUGGING caffeine right? So we got hyper and even LOUDER and then the aunts and uncles came down to see what the fuck was going on, and ended up staying, and now the aunt’s are discussing energy drinks with Evan and Blaze, Sarah and Blaike are playing pool, Sarah is cheating, by the way, and Zack, Johnny, Jimmy, and Brian are helping me and Mistey play the game! OH! And we’re go into the home studio cuz apparently my friends are in a band and need a singer, so we’re gonna go steal your gear and see what we can do!” I finished, taking a deep breath. My dad just blinked and nodded.

“Well, I wanna go use the studio now, come on guys.” Mistey said and we all nodded. We all, and by all, I mean EVERYONE, walked over to a separate room where the studio was located.
“Ok, Mistey and Sarah, the guitars are on that wall, you can use any of the ones on the bottom pegs. Blaze, you can use that red and black bass over there, and Jimmy, is it ok if Blaike uses your kit? Good, thanks. Dad, can you help me set up the mics for everyone?” He nodded.

“Wait, what doe’s Evan do? Jimmy asked.
“Evan can’t sing worth shit and his bum ass doesn’t play an instrument, so he’s our manager/merch person.” Mistey explained. The guys nodded and laughed before my dad went to the controls, fiddling with some stuff before giving me a thumbs up. Sarah counted us off, and then Mistey and Blaike ripped in with the guitars. I took a deep breath before launching into the song we had been working on for a few days.

Oh no I just keep on falling
(Back to the same old…)
Where’s hope when misery comes crawling?
(oh my way-ay)
With your faith you’ll trigger a landslide
(victory)
To kill off this common sense of mine

It takes acquired minds to taste, to taste, to taste this wine
You can’t down it with your eyes
So we don’t need the headlines
We don’t need the headlines
We just want…

(We want the airways back, we want the airways back)

Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody live like it’s the last day you will ever see
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?

Right now you’re the only reason
(I’m not letting go, oh…)
and im out if everyone’s worth pleasing
(wa ah)
You’ll trigger a landslide
(Victory)
to kill off their finite state of mind

It takes acquired minds to taste, to taste, to taste this wine
You can’t down it with your eyes
So we don’t need the headlines
No, we don’t want your headlines
We just want…

(We want the airways back, we want the airways)

Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody live like it’s the last day you will ever see
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure?

Alright, so you think you’re ready?
Ok, then you say this with me
Go!
We were born for this
(We were born for this)
Alright, so you think you’re ready?
OK, then you say this with me
Go!
We were born for this
(We were born for this)
We were born for this
(We were born for this)

We were born for
We were born for

Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?
Everybody live like it’s the last day you will ever see
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure now?
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?

We were born for this
We were born for this
We were born for this

We ended the song and looked at the guys, trying to gauge their reaction, but their faces were unreadable. What were they thinking?