Front Porch Story

It's the summer afternoon in 1990. Sitting on my front porch in only a bathing suit and mini-shorts, due to the fact it's a million degrees and it's too damn hot to do anything. Next door, I could hear Billie Joe playing guitar in his garage. I moved to this neighborhood three years ago, but we never really talked much. A pick-up truck drives up in front of Billie's house and Mike steps out. Mike is the bass player for the garage band they formed called Green Day.
"Where's Al?" Billie calls out from his garage.
"What? I thought he was here already," Mike says as he made his way to the garage.
"Argh, he probably ran off with Kim again," Billie Joe says really ticked off. "And we have a gig tonight on top of it!"
"We can't call Tre; he's playing with the Lookouts tonight," Mike says, pissed off as well. Billie glances at me.
"Hey Nesser!" he yells out to me.
"Yeah?"
"Does your brother still play the drums?"
"What? I don't have a brother, do you mean my cousin? I play the drums by the way." I say looking at him as if he were a loony.
"Would you mind playing at a gig with us tonight?" he asks modestly.
"Umm, okay," I say getting up and walking over to Billie's garage where Al's drums are set up.
"Do you think you'd be able to play this?" Billie asks picking up a set of drumsticks and reciting a beat. I try it out, and both Billie and Mike give me a look of approval.
"Alright, so we'll play The Judge's Daughter, but we'll need to play at least two more songs." Mike states as he tunes his bass.
"Since you're our guest drummer would you like to choose a song?" Billie asks acting all gentleman-like. I think to myself for a moment.
"Do you guys know Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones?"
"Of course," Mike says looking at me as if I were an idiot. "Oh we should play Road to Acceptance."
"How does that go?" I asked looking up at the two guys in front of me. Billie takes off his guitar again and shows me the beat. I tried this particular beat.
"You're pretty good," Billie says as he put the guitar strap over his head. Mike just rolled his eyes. We ran through each song several times each, and then Billie looks at Mike and me as he wiped his brow.
"It's too fucking hot. Do you want to go to the pool?" he asks looking specifically at me. "You seem to be in your bathing suit already."
"Okay, better than sitting around sweating," I say as we walked out of the garage towards the city pool.

The pool is crowded, so we head towards the deep end where there are less pissers. I don't even have time to take off my shorts when Billie tackles me into the pool.
"HEY!" I yell as he and Mike just snicker to each other. "You didn't even let me remove my shorts!"
"Bill, this is so typical of you; a girl is willing to take off her clothes and you ruin it," Mike says jokingly.
"You know what Mike, you're right, I was going to swim in just my bikini, but now I think I'll put on a full scuba suit."
"Don't do that! I'll be good!" Billie yells to me as I climb out of the pool to take off my shorts. I cannon balled in and insist that Billie carries me through the pool in apology for tackling me.
"Let's play Marco Polo!" Mike exclaimed randomly.
"Okay, you're it!" I yell back as I swim away from him. Billie swims behind a group of girls around my age and calls out to Mike. Mike charges toward the sound of Billie's voice and ends up accidentally feeling up the three preppy girls. The girls screeched and started slapping him.
"That was cheap!" he yells at Billie. Billie was laughing too hysterically to respond.
"No, that was funny!" I say shaking my head.

The pool pranks continue until it comes to our attention that we had to get to the club. We went back to Billie's to get their instruments; meanwhile I went to get dressed. I walked out of my house carrying my own set of drumsticks.
"No more bikini?" Billie asks pretending to be disappointed.
"Nah, I didn't like the idea of distracting you while you played guitar," I say in mockery of his comment. Mike honked the horn on his truck.
"C'mon you two, we're already late!" he yells angrily. We get to the club and make our way through the alley to get to the stage door.
"It's about fucking time!" the club manager yells at Billie. "Who's the groupie?"
"I am NOT a groupie!" I retort angrily.
"She's our drummer for tonight," Billie says shoving past the manager.

We end up waiting only five minutes before the manager cues us to go on stage. I sit at the drums and Billie takes the mic.
"Hello you little bastards! We're Green Day! Well mostly, we have a guest drummer tonight, I'd like to introduce Nesser." I perform a quick drum solo and Billie continues. "And you should already know the best bass player ever, Mike Dirnt! And you all know me. I'm Amanda Hugenkiss. 1, 2, 3, 4!"

We play Judge's Daughter first, and then Road to Acceptance, we ended with Blitzkrieg Bop. I follow Mike and Billie Joe off stage and out of the club.
"Aren't you guys going to stick around and watch the other bands?" I ask trying to keep up with them.
"Eh, I saw tonight's band list, it's all shit," Mike says as he hops into his truck. Mike drops Billie and me off at our houses and drives off.
"W-would you like a drink?" I stammered not wanting to end the evening so early.
"Umm, sure," he says as he walks over and sits down on my front porch. I stumbled into my house and made my way to the fridge, which contains baking soda, old lettuce, half a can of beer and a case of Coca-Cola. I grab two bottles of coke and head back to the front porch and hand Billie a soda.
"All out of beer," I mutter as I open my bottle against the railing.
"S'okay" Billie says opening his own bottle. We stay out on the front porch talking about his band, and just anything in general.
"If you like, you can come watch band practice tomorrow," Billie offers as he stands up.
"I'd like that," I say as I walk into my house.