Rebel Yell

Marci’s POV

Nashville, TN- Done
Washington, DC- Done
Saugerties, New York- WOODSTOCK-

I woke up early in comparison to my serial lie ‘in’s’ over the past several days. Nashville and Washington had flown by and all of a sudden Woodstock had arrived with bells on.

I figured that I would make them breakfast as our tour bus pulled into the Woodstock bus deport. I snuck down quietly out of my bunk, trying to be careful not to wake the three of them up and headed to the bus’s fridge, to see what I could cook. I could feel the anticipation and adrenaline from the outside area build inside of me and I sighed at my excitement as I pulled out a tub of butter.

Sundays were always the best day to play at Woodstock, my dad had always told me that. It was because everyone had gotten themselves into the swing of the lifestyle at Woodstock and most people were usual pissed enough to listen to anything.

I looked again at the sheet where I had written down the specifications for the day and smiled to myself. South stage.

I was overjoyed that they had given us this stage due to an antidote from parents, who were waiting for my arrival tomorrow. Apparently the south stage was where my parents had met and the south stage was where, much to my embarrassment, had conceived me a few years later.
I popped open the last jar of coffee and grimaced that it was instant coffee. Mike wouldn’t be happy or impressed that it was instant and there was no way I was in the mood to deal with a prima donna bassist this morning. The kettle clicked off and I poured four cups of water into the instant coffee granules at the bottom of the cheap mugs.

“Morning Marci” Billie Joe’s voice whispered quietly to me and I looked up to his bunk. He looked darn cute in a morning, his hair was always messy and his eyes always looked dark.

“Morning Billie Joe” I handed him a cup of coffee and he grabbed it quickly, sniffing the contents’ and mellowing back against the bus wall. “Looking forward to today?” I asked fully knowing that I had just reminded him about playing at Woodstock. He groaned a little bit and I smiled, “you’ll enjoy it, I promise you” I tried to encourage him as he took a big swig from the mug.

“It isn’t the playing of the show I’m worried about today but something else that’s going on” I was surprised by this and lent against the makeshift kitchen cupboard as I waited for the toast I had put in, to pop up.

“you want to talk about it?” he lifted his head and shook it before looking away from me again, he looked nervous to even talk to me let alone look at me today.

“No, I don’t. It’s just way too complicated to talk about it at the moment” I smiled as the toast popped up and I turned to prepare it for him. “But thank you anyway for asking, you are really someone I can-“he began to stutter before I heard a crash behind me.

“Fuck sake, ouch, that is going to be fucking painful” Mike swore as he crashed his head into the top bunk after waking up.

“Good morning Mike, I’m sorry to say but I’ve only got instant coffee this morning” I held my tongue as I watched his eyes roll back.

“It’s fine Marci, I’ll have anything to take away these nerves” I passed him a mug and along with that a piece of buttered toast. “Thank you, but that bang on the head is a bad omen- I don’t think we should play this show” Billie’s face dropped and I looked puzzled at Mike.

“Shut your vagina Dirnt, today is going to be fun isn’t it Billie?” Tre’s rough voice split the quietness on the bus and I passed him the third mug of coffee. “Thank you Marci Larci” I was glad someone showed the same enthusiasm as me for Woodstock.

“I hope it’s going to be Tre, it’s going to be huge and I just need to stop thinking about it, ok” Billie passed me the empty mug back and jumped up out of his bunk, grabbing his cigarettes and heading outside.

“Is he ok?” I asked Mike who was rubbing his head; he looked up and nodded,

“Yeah he is fine; he has a lot on his mind at the moment. Go and talk to him, it will make him happier” I nodded and Tre groaned loudly as he stood up.

“What shit face, has removed my green t-shirt” a green head of hair bobbed up and down from behind Tre’s bunk and I looked at Mike at the obvious green shirt that hung from Tre’s bunk side.

“You mean this one, Tre?” I picked up the shirt and held it out and he smiled,

“Bingo, thanks a lot” he snatched the shirt away from me and I turned to follow Billie Joe outside. It was strange of him to act in such a way, since after everything had now been tossed under the bridge. Outside the air smelt like the stories my dad had told me and I breathed in the smell of wet grass, mud and greasy stage mechanics. I had given our tour roadies a day off, to wonder New York or even attend Woodstock due to the already provided help the band had today.

That went down as a cool boss moment and I revelled in it as they all began to chat nicely to me as we packed away last night in Washington D.C.

“Hello Billie, you ok?” I asked to the man who had his head lent back onto the bus door with his eyes closed.

“MARCI!” he jumped, dropping his cigarette to the floor and making his eyes open wide.

“BILLIE JOE!” I copied his action and he smiled as he wiped down the cigarette ash from his black pants, which he had slept in once again. “You know something, when we get into New York tomorrow, before we go to my parents, I’m going to buy you a new pair of pants” I grabbed a bit of the pants material and rubbed it between my fingers, feeling the paper likeness of them.

“So I’m still going to your mom’s then?” he looked relieved that I had mentioned it and I nodded my head.

“Yeah, I’m having you, Tre and Mike, if they want to come and Debbie and Louie, if they can be bothered” I chuckled, I knew full well that Louie would be convincing his bride to be, not to go to my parents after a fateful accident involving the compromising position he was in with my father the last time.

“are you going to have space?, I mean we are pretty rowdy and I know that the rest of the crew are staying in New York, we could go there” he tried his best to convince me otherwise but I could see it in his eyes that he didn’t want to go to the cheap motel the rest were lumbered in.

“We have three spare bedrooms, not including my own and plus we have the couch” he smiled again and sighed out loudly. “Don’t worry about the show today, just go and have fun and rustle up some hippies” he laughed before smoothing down his black slept in shirt.

“O, I will” he held his hand up and I high fived him as we headed back into the bus.

“You guys are on in five minutes, please be prepared” an old Bob Dylan look alike commanded Billie, Mike and Tre to the waiting area on the side of the stage. “You can wait in the waiting area with the VIP’s and press” he nodded to the sector marked in blue and my adrenaline rushed. I was so excited for this show, Billie, Mike and Tre had finally begun to get excited about this opportunity and as Tre bounded around the room with his drums sticks in the air, I was passing Mike his bass guitar.

“Thanks Marci” he said, taking a big swig from his bottle of beer and placing it in my hands, “look after that for me will you” I smiled as he walked over to the entrance where the crowds could be seen, muddy and cheering at the band on the stage in a rebellious manner.

“They look mad out there, if I die Marci you can have my possessions on the bus” Billie walked up to me, wearing the same outfit as this morning except with the addition of an added red tie.

“Thank you Billie but you won’t die, you’ll do great” I placed Mike’s nearly empty bottle onto the table behind me. I passed Billie’s guitar to him and placed the strap around his neck. “All set” I patted him on the back

“thanks” he strummed a note on the guitar and nodded in response “I hope you like your first full Green Day show” he itched the back of his neck, “you can also have the guitar if I die” he acknowledged the blue fender clung to his hips and I pulled my bottom lip out in temptation of a fine offer. I looked at his full image as Mike began to do star jumps at the entrance as the band on stage finally left. “Do I look ok?” he asked and I nodded as I grabbed his tie knot and pulled it to his top button.

“Perfect, now go knock them dead” I cheered and he saluted me as he dashed on stage. I was filled with nerves for them, I couldn’t ever imagine having to play a guitar to so many people and yet I was excited for them and myself. It was my first ever Green Day show and I pulled at my yellow VIP pass that hung around my neck that Billie had given me earlier and smiled.

Billie Joe started strumming along to ‘when I come around’ and immediately people began to jump up and down, get tossed in the air, slide down the mud paths, mud wrestle and start to throw mud everywhere again.

I watched in amazement at how once Billie Joe, Mike and Tre got on stage they suddenly become people I had never met, they became rock stars, show men entertainers and for a brief moments I felt proud of them. I bounced up and down at every song, getting into the swing of all the other fans in the crowd and dancing myself silly.

The songs all seem to flow together perfectly, it was like liquid and how Billie Joe dominated the audience was beyond flabbergasting. The way he controlled the audience to do and say things was incredible and for moments on end I would just stare at him, even with the mud being flung in every direction.

It seemed just like one of the shows my dad had told me about during my bed time stories, everything seemed so perfect and I knew that these were the stories I would be telling my grandchildren.

“Are you with those guys” a guy in a green top that had the words ‘crew’ written on asked and I nodded proudly.

“Yeah, I am” he nodded his head and handed me a plastic overall, “what is that for?” tightly I grabbed it as another muddy fan darted across the stage after Billie Joe again. The sheer amount of people running onto the stage was immense but Billie, Tre and Mike all seemed to enjoy the fact that they were helping someone break a rule.

“You can come and help scrape some of the mud of the stage before the next band” I looked at the guy stunned and placed the overall on the table behind me.

“I would but I have to rush the guys off to their tour bus quickly as we have to be somewhere soon” I lied big style as there was no way I was going out there to get mud thrown at me in the rain. He looked at me disgusted and walked away to search for another person to get to go clean the stage.

More and more people got on stage and the not so tough body guards at the front were hardly stopping any of them. A man in an orange top tried to stop one intruder by kicking him. I laughed as Billie cried the last note of F.O.D. into the microphone and I clapped.

Overall it had been a good show; I could tell the guys were having fun and most of all I felt like I was a part of the band. Billie started up again but this time with Paper Lanterns.

Suddenly though as if planned, he gave up playing the actually song and began randomly playing on the guitar. He began to walk towards me, smiling menacingly and pulling the guitar strap over his head. I looked around me wondering if this was the end of the show but nobody seemed phased by this sudden action.

“Look after this will you Rhodes?” He handed me the mucky guitar and dashed back off to the stage, winking at me. Mike and Tre meanwhile carried on giving the beat to Paper Lanterns as they waited for his return. Billie by this time though had picked up a lump of mud and threw it into the crowd, and then another and another, placing himself in the way of any direct shots.

“He may as well have a target sign on his forehead” I said to the group of crew members next to me and they all shrugged their shoulders. Boring bastards. My heart rate picked up as he walked from one part of the stage to the other tossing mud at the audience and shouting. “Billie get the fuck away from them” he must have heard my direct demands as he stopped mid stage nearest to the audience with his arms spread wide. I slapped my forehead hard with my hand, when he said he was going to die I never thought he’d actually do it via mud death.

“This is anarchy” he shouted into the microphone after running back to where Mike was laid down on the stage, covering himself in mud. I held my face steady as I watched the quick pace riot begin by the three of them. I watched as Mike rolled himself in the mud more before quickly seeing Billie moon the entire audience.

“Somebody go and grab them” I shouted to the crew and they all again shrugged,

“We can’t do anything love, it’s the bands time” he said nonchalantly in a deep New York accent. I groaned as once again Billie came back to the microphone to shoot more insults at the raging audience.

“Hey, Look at me. I’m a fucking idiot” he shouted and the crowd cheered back at him. I couldn’t do anything but watch him grab the microphone and bang it against the floor in time with Tre’s drum beats.

“you know he is going to have to pay for that” somebody shouted behind me and I stuck my middle finger up at them as I cringed at Billie’s demands for the audience to shout ‘rock n’ roll’ and ‘shut the fuck up’.

“We’re not going to take it, we’re not going to take it” he sang, as more mud bombs were thrown onto the stage at them. They all looked fearless as Tre jumped away from his drum kit to join in the fun. Typical Tre. “Where’s Andy Hoffin, I have to hit him in the head with a guitar” Billie again shouted and somebody behind me swore,

“Andy isn’t going to fucking like a punk, like this guy insult him” and I rolled my eye. I couldn’t believe it, people were concerned with people not even on stage and yet here were the three most important things to me on this tour getting also sorts of diseases flung at them. And it was my entire fault.

“I don’t care what you do, I don’t want to be a mud hippie like you” he shouted to the audience before opening his arms wide again, “everybody say shut the fuck up” he deepened his voice, “1, 2, 3” and the crowd chanted back ‘shut the fuck up’. The situation was so fast passed that I was struggling to even keep up, in fact my mind was so confused by the situation that the phrase “Ok, we’re done, Goodbye” took me by surprise. I was relieved that it was over and my heart rate slowed down a bit as Billie began to walk across the stage back to me.

“Thank god” I held my chest but I spoke to soon, a mass riot erupted on stage and Billie turned like a kid hearing an ice cream truck and ran back, skidding on the floor and rolling himself in the mud. Mike also followed along with Tre who had continued to throw mud at the audience. “Just come back” I shouted and the mass of crew members behind me ran out onto the stage as more audience members joined them. It was a blur of brown in front of me before the situation slowed down; Mike was thrown to the floor with his bass in hand by the mud scraping security crew.

Shit! The security man began to punch hard into his mouth, I had to do something. I wasn’t bothered about getting muddy anymore, Mike needed help but it was Billie Joe who came to his rescue. He grabbed his now brown shirt and pulled him towards the tent I was in.
Two was found as Billie began to check Mike’s bleeding mouth out and I scanned the area for the green haired drummer.

“I’m fine Billie, hey Rhodes were the hell is that beer at” Mike said, whilst pulling one of his tooth’s out. I cringed and searched for an unopened beer bottle to give to him. I gave him the beer and he stood up and opened it. “that was well fun!” he ecstatically shouted and Billie high fived him.

“Marci, that was so much fun” he opened his arms wide to embrace me into a hug and I stepped away, “what?” he asked concerned as I slung his guitar strap around my arm. “Don’t want to get muddy ehh?” he asked smiling even wildly at me as he began to step closer and closer to me.

“Don’t you dare get your muddy hands around me” I warned him, which made his smile larger. I turned around to run when he picked up speed and grabbed me into a hug. I sighed heavily at the touch of him; it was an overload of emotions which came rushing at me at once. “Billie you are paying for a new pair of jeans” I laughed at him as he rubbed his body around me, making sure he had covered me properly.

“ahh, nice big hug” he said, his face close to my own. My heart rate speed up again at how close I was and I could see him gulp at our current situation.

It was still chaotic around us and yet neither of us spoke. It seemed to haze and slow down around me and as Billie had accomplished covering me, he simple stood still with his arms still tightly around me.

His face seemed to move closer and closer to me and my breath hitched in my throat. I could feel the roughness of his bottom lip as it trailed along my own. Quickly his lips were on mine, rough before they opened a little to take in my mouth. I was still in shock at this but I quickly adjusted to the situation and I began to kiss him back before being rudely interrupted.

“Billie Joe, we have to go to the press thing” Mike dragged Billie away leaving me memorised by what has happened. I watched as Mike pulled Billie down the corridor towards the press room.

“Come on Rhodes, come down with us” Tre grabbed me, his shirt covered in mud and pulled me down to where Mike had just gone with Billie. “I’ve had the best time today Rhodes” he grabbed my arm and tightly squeezed it, I nodded towards him. “Billie gave you his guitar to look after, somebody must be special then” he nudged me and I smiled feeling the weight behind me.

“He must be” I said out loud and Tre gave me a knowing look.