Burning It Down, All the Way to Bat Country

Trinity’s POV

This is the moment for riders and thugs
Strippers in body bags, zippers and violence and drugs
Poverty, a bunch of minorities die in the club… I rolled over and slammed my hand down on my iHome, effectively silencing the sounds of Tech N9ne blaring from the speakers. I looked at the little clock on the side and groaned when I saw that I had forgotten to change the alarm time for school, it was only 6:45 in the morning. I laid in bed for another hour before I gave up the search for sleep, rolling out of bed and walking downstairs. I was surprised to see Jimmy sitting on the couch in the living room; normally he didn’t get up until after noon. He looked up from whatever he was watching on TV, grinning hugely when he spotted me.

“Hey squirt, what are you doing up so early?” He asked, patting the spot next to him on the couch.
“I could ask you the same question,” I answered as I scurried over and plopped down, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch and wrapping myself up in it. He threw his arm over my shoulder and pulled me into his side. We watched about an hour of Spongebob before my dad came downstairs, rubbing his eyes and yawning. I swear to you, he looked like a four year old on steroids. He walked into the kitchen, completely oblivious to anything but his search for coffee. I looked at Jimmy and grinned, we had hidden the coffee during a commercial break, knowing that my dad would be the first one up and on the hunt for caffeine.

CRASH

“FUCK!” I jumped up and walked rather calmly into the kitchen to see my dad surrounded by the pots and pans that usually hung over the stove. I moved over to the cupboard to the right of the sink and grabbed the canister of beany goodness from behind the box of goldfish crackers. Ten minutes later and turned around, shoving the cup of life into his hands, he just grinned and kissed my cheek before he walked out of the kitchen sipping his coffee. I smiled as I reached back into the cupboard to get the pancake mix, then into the fridge for the eggs and bacon. I heard the door open and close as I was mixing the pancakes, and was unsurprised when Mistey barreled into me. I always unlocked the front door at about nine am because my friends had made a habit out of coming over for breakfast.

“Hey guys, pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast today, and Jimmy is in the living room watching Spongebob.” Evan and Blaze grinned, kissing my cheek before bolting out of the room, Mistey and Sarah following. I smirked at Blaike as she grabbed another bowl and started cracking eggs, we were the only two out of our group of friends who knew how to cook.
“So how are you doing today? Did you sleep last night?” I had been having nightmares since the whole custody thing and I hadn’t been sleeping very well.
“I actually slept last night. I woke up at 6:45 this morning, but only because I forgot to change my alarm time.” She laughed and nodded, whisking the eggs up in the bowl. Twenty minutes later and we were putting plates, silverware, and food on the table. I walked over to the intercom and pressed the button that would page the rest of the house,

“Breakfast is ready!” I walked back over to the table and started getting food served with Blaike, putting it out at each place on the huge banquet table that my dad had gotten when my friends had started spending most of their time here. An hour, three food fights, and another twenty minutes of cleaning up later and I was in my room with Mistey, Sarah, Blake, Blaze and Evan, figuring out what we were going to wear tonight. I had found out a week and a half ago that Metallica could only do a half hour set, so it was decided that Forgotten Memories would open the show. I was standing in my closet with the girls, stripped down to our underwear so we could just try shit on. There was a huge pile of clothing growing outside my closet as we tossed the rejects on the floor. Blaze and Evan were on the computer setting up a Myspace page for the band, completely ignoring the half naked girls in the room.

“Hey, what about this one?” Blaike asked, holding up a black A7X t shirt that I had…modified with a pair of scissors. It was now ripped and off the shoulder. I grinned and nodded, grabbing a pair of red skinny jeans from the reject pile and handing them to her,
“With these jeans, my spike cuff bracelet, and your combat boots, which are still here from last weekend, by the way. It’ll look soooo awesome.” She smirked and threw a pair of purple leggings and a black miniskirt at me,

“Ok, so you need to wear that with your sparkly purple tank top and your black chucks.” I quickly located the needed items and tossed them on my bed. We turned to Sarah and Mistey, who were trying to decide between skinny jeans or Tripp pants. I thought about it for a second before throwing Mistey the Tripp pants and Sarah a pair of lemon yellow skinny jeans. Mistey smiled and walked over to the reject pile, plucking a fitted red tank top from the bottom of the stack.

“Can I wear your red chucks?” I nodded and looked at Sarah, who had chosen a lime green t shirt from my closet with black and green Vans. I giggled and clapped my hands,
“Alright girls, we need to get dressed, we can do hair and makeup at the venue. Blaze, what are you wearing for the show?” He looked confused, waving at his current outfit,
“This?” I sighed but nodded anyway. We all got dressed and threw our hair crap and makeup in a giant bag, along with new clothes for after the show. I heard my phone vibrate on the bed and picked it up, hitting the accept button and holding it to my ear,

“Hello?”
“Hey Trinity, its Alice from Operation Homefront.”
“Oh, hey! What’s up?”
“I was just letting you know that we have some of our own volunteers coming down to help out at the benefit tonight, and we have a list of servicemen who just got back from a TOD and were wondering if you had anymore room on the guest list.”
“Great thanks! And of course I do, how many do I need to put on the list?” She rattled off a list of about twenty names and I wrote them in my notebook,
“Alright, so just give them a call and tell them they need to bring their ID’s with them if they want to get in free.”
“Alright, thank you so much Trinity. You really are an Angel for doing this.”
“I’m not an angel, just a person trying to help.” She laughed and said goodbye, I hung up and shoved the device in my pocket. We walked downstairs and into the living room to find my dad, he had been ready to go for almost thirty minutes. We found everyone except for Mitch seated in the living room.

“Are you guys finally ready to go?” We looked at each other before nodding at him, grinning cheekily. We all walked out to the cars to head to the venue, I guess my dad had arranged for all the music equipment to be delivered to the venue last night. We made the thirty minute drive to the arena and ran inside, eager to meet the bands. We dropped all our stuff in the dressing room marked ‘Forgotten Memories’ and headed over to the stage where everyone was supposed to meet. I was talking to Mistey and not paying attention at all when I ran into a wall and fell down.
“Oh shit, are you ok?” Great, it wasn’t a wall, it was freaking Jacoby Shaddix. Why am I so retarded? I nodded and hopped to my feet.
“Wow, sorry I’m such a spaz, I’m Trinity Sanders.” I stated and stuck out my hand. He grinned and shook it lightly before speaking,
“So you’re the genius behind all of this.” I beamed and nodded my head,

“Yupp, that’s me. See Mist, I told you I was a genius. Oh, this is my friend Mistey.” He smiled at her and I swear she almost passed out.
“Well, we have to go; I need to talk to all the bands about the show. Can you grab your band members and have them meet onstage in twenty?” He nodded and we walked away, talking to bands and telling them to be onstage in twenty minutes. Thirty minutes later and I was standing on top of an amp, trying to get everyone’s attention. I felt on someone poke me in the side and jumped, looking down to see Jimmy holding up an air horn. I grinned sadistically and grabbed it from him, pressing the button and giggling when everyone jumped and covered their ears. I cut off the noise and threw the canister down, grabbing the bullhorn from my dad.

“Alright, I want to start by saying thank you to everyone for coming and showing your support for the troops and their families. Now, here’s how this shit is gonna go down. Forgotten Memories will go first, followed by Papa Roach, Framing Hanley, Avenged, and we’ll finish with Metallica. After the show you guys are all welcome to stay, there’s going to be a bad ass after party. Now I know all of you have laminates, but you’re going to have to get a wristband to get anything alcoholic from the bar. I know the bartender and I told him that if he served booze to anyone underage I would shove his balls up his ass, so let’s make sure that doesn’t happen ok? Now, we have three hours till the doors open, so let’s tear this shit up!” I screamed, and everyone cheered as I jumped off the amp and handed the bullhorn back to my dad. I grabbed my band members and Evan and towed everyone to the front of the building where Operation Homefront was setting up. I grinned when I saw all the volunteers and the soldiers with their laminates around their necks. We helped them set up for an hour and got everything hammered down, then bopped over to where the merch booths were getting set up. Brian’s little sister McKenna was going to help Evan sell merch, we had decided that fifty percent of all sales would go to the charity.

After we had finished that we needed to get ready for the show so we raced to the dressing room. Forty minutes later and my dad came in Mitch, I grinned and threw my arms around his neck, kissing him quickly before skipping away to finish my hair. It was refusing to straighten the way I wanted it too, so I put some gel in it and turned the flat iron all the way up, attacking my hair with it. I grinned and raised my hands in triumph when it finally fell into place, earning giggles from the girls. Ten minutes later and JB came walking into the room,

“Alright kids, you’re on in ten, let’s get you guys wired up.” We were using our instruments, but with the guys equipment, so we had wireless connection to the amps and speakers, along with a wireless mic system. We walked with Mattie and JB over to the side of the stage to get everything hooked up, getting it done about five minutes before we had to go on stage. We got the all clear and I grinned, having Blaike sneak on stage to get behind her kit, then Mistey, Sarah, and Blaze ran out on stage with some screaming guitar riffs. I bolted onto the stage and held the mic to my lips,

“HOW THE FUCK WE DOIN LONG BEACH!?” I screamed, stealing one of my dad’s favorite lines. I grinned as the crowd roared; I guess we had a bigger fanbase than we thought.
“Alright, we are Forgotten Memories, and we are going to tear this shit UP!” We launched into a cover of Burn It Down; my dad had heard us fucking around with it one day and made us put it on the demo. We played six more songs and as the final notes of ‘Born for This’ rang through the arena, I put the mic back to my lips and spoke,
“Alright Long Beach, are you guys having fun?” My ears started ringing from the screams, and I grinned at the crowd.
“Well if you’re having this much fun with us, then you’re gonna go fuckin insane when I tell you who’s coming out next! Do you think I should tell them who’s next Mistey?” Mistey shook her head and stepped up to her mic,
“Naw, I don’t think we should tell that Papa Roach is getting ready to rock their brains out.” Her voice was lost as soon as she said ‘Papa Roach’.
“Dammit Mist, you ruined the surprise!” Sarah yelled, making the crowd laugh. I shrugged at turned back to the sea of faces.

“Well, since my brilliant best friend ruined our little surprise, let us stop boring. Here is PAPA ROOOACCCHHHHH!!!!” I screamed, the tech guys switching over to PR’s equipment, the roadies had been taking down Blaike’s kit and setting up the Roach one. We ran off stage, passing Coby and the guys on the way backstage.
“Oh my god you guys were amazing!” Lynnie squealed, grabbing me into a hug, followed by the other girls. They crushed the rest of the band into hugs too, not caring that we were all sweaty and gross.
“Thanks guys, but we need to go take showers.” They grinned and let us pass, we booked it to the dressing room to wash all the sweat and stage grime off. An hour and a half later and we were watching Metallica finish up their set. The notes of their last song played out and James addressed the audience,

“Alright guys, we are here tonight because a very special girl decided to help out the people who protect us and their families. We are all here to support our troops. So, we have servicemen here tonight, their wearing special little tags, so if you see one, go up to him or her and just say thank you. Now, that was our last song.” He laughed as the crowd booed,
“Don’t get like that, we’re gonna go right into an apparently kick ass after party, so let’s get it started!” He yelled and walked off stage, the rest of the band following. I turned to Blaze, who was pretty much hyperventilating,
“Dude, are you ok?” He nodded and pointed, I looked over and saw that freaking James Hetfield was standing right in front of me.
“Holy mother of fucking shit.” Wow, that was awesome Trin, you couldn’t come up with anything better to say? He just grinned and held out his hand, I shook it, still in complete shock.

“So you’re the girl who organized this whole thing?” I finally snapped out of my retard trance, and nodded.
“Yepp, that would be me. Thank you so much for coming, I never would have imagined Metallica playing at my benefit.”
“Oh sweetheart, it was no problem at all. We have to go, I just wanted to say thank you for doing this.”
“Oh no, thank you, so much. Have a safe trip home.” He nodded and gave us all a quick hug before walking away. I turned to the girls, and then we jumping up and down and shrieking. We calmed our spaz attack after Evan told us that people were staring. Half an hour later and I realized that I hadn’t seen Mitch since he had shown up in the dressing room, so I grabbed Mist and told her I was gonna go look for him. She grinned and nodded, pushing me away. I spent ten minutes pushing through the masses of bodies before I found him in a quieter corner, talking to…some girl? I watched as she smiled and touched his arm, running her fingers over his bicep. Why wasn’t he stopping her? I felt tears fill my eyes as she leaned up and pressed her lips to his, and when he didn’t push her away, I saw the red haze wash over my eyes.

“What the FUCK Mitch?”