Days of the Old

“So,” Dannii started the next day at lunch, beaming. I had no idea why, because we were just discussing the upcoming Biology test that we had to study for, but it certainly helped brighten the mood. “How ‘bout I come over to your house and we can study together?”

I wavered, wondering how the hell I was going to go about telling her my father was a rock star. Who was also in one of her favourite bands. She noticed my hesitation, and held her hands up. “I mean—if you don’t want to, that’s okay—”

“No, no,” I interrupted, knowing I couldn’t keep something like that from her. “It’s just that, I have to tell you something.” She nodded exuberantly and plopped down next to me, both of us under the shade of the tree we were still frequenting. “But you have to promise you’ll believe me!” Once again, she nodded eagerly, so I sighed and continued. “My dad, he’s... his name is Matt Sanders.”

As I watched her eyes widen, then stare at me blankly, I wondered if I could have gone about that a little better. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she broke out into a grin. “You can’t seriously mean that as in, your dad is M. Fucking Shadows!”

“Shh,” I whispered, looking around to see if anyone was within earshot. That was the last thing I wanted the whole school to know. “No one around here knows. But did you notice how my last name is Wilson-Sanders? I swear I’m not lying about this, Dannii.”

She nodded slowly, and pulled her knees up to her chest. “I believe you.” She said after a few moments, and then smiled again. “And before you ask, I won’t tell anyone.”

“I understand why you were so hesitant to tell me,” She said as we got up when the bell rang, about to go our separate ways. “And I’m really glad you trust me enough with that information.”

I smiled back, realizing just how quickly I had come to trust her. She was always so honest though, I knew we would always be great friends. “Meet me by the auditorium, okay? Matt always gives me a ride home.” She quickly nodded and looked at me a little oddly. Probably because I hadn’t called Matt ‘dad’. On the way to P.E, I promised myself that I would explain everything to her.

Thankfully, P.E passed quickly and I was on my way to my music class before I knew it. Mr. Thorne was still working on getting me into his advanced class, at least that’s what he said to Matt on the phone last night. And I was also happy to find out that he was back from the workshop he had been gone to for the past few days.

When he saw me, he grinned. “Hey, Payton! You work everything out with your dad?”

I could only imagine what Matt said to him on the phone last night. “Yep, everything’s good.” I said as I took a Les Paul down from the wall, then caught Andy’s glare. For the most part.

“Everyone ready to present tomorrow?” Mr. Thorne asked as soon as everyone sat down, and most of the class let out a groan. I, however, was ready to present my song over a week ago. I was basically goofing off with a guitar ever since. Mr. Thorne didn’t seem to have any problems with that, either. He often sat and watched when the other kids didn’t need any help.

Whenever he would, though, he didn’t stay long because Andy would always ask for help whenever Mr. Thorne was even near me. I still didn’t quite know what was up with that. Did he have some sort of man-crush on him or something?

“So—I’m really gonna meet M. Shadows in about two minutes, aren’t I?” Dannii asked me when we met by the auditorium. It seemed like it was really, finally sinking in for her, and I smiled, hoping it would help her relax.

“He’s not that bad. Nice even, after you get to know him.” I grinned as I said that, knowing that she had no doubts about Matt not being nice.

She was practically bouncing on her feet on the way to the parking lot, and I smirked, making sure to take my time. I gave Matt a wide smile as we got into the SUV, then glanced over at Dannii. I was actually hoping she would have a fangirly moment, but she just stared at him, wide-eyed. “You’re really M. Shadows—you’re really Payton’s dad!”

“Matt, this is Dannii, Dannii this is Matt.” I introduced, and Matt smiled at her, seemingly relaxed. He was more than likely just happy to know that I hadn’t been completely anti-social in my three weeks of being there.

My smile widened even more as Dannii began literally bouncing in her seat. “Payton—P-Body!” I groaned, still not liking the nickname she put on me last week after coming out of her Biology class. “Your dad really is M. Shadows!”

I nodded solemnly. “It’s not as fun as it sounds.”

“Ugh, I’m shocked Payton!” Matt said from the driver’s seat. “It looked like you were having a bit of fun over the past few weeks.”

“Well, looks can be deceiving.” I retorted, still only joking around. What I said seemed to catch Matt off guard though, and he shot me one of his worried glances through the rear-view mirror.

We bickered until we got back to the house; all the while Dannii remained silent, grinning. I knew she was about to burst at any moment. She just needed a trigger. And I knew exactly what, or who, it would be.

“Jimmy!” I yelled, kicking my shoes off in the foyer. “Someone wants to meet you!” An audible gasp came from Dannii, which only made me smirk even more.

Only seconds later, Jimmy appeared in the archway, grinning from ear to ear. “Jimmy, Dannii. Dannii, Jimmy.” I introduced them both with the wave of my hand, and that was all it took for Jimmy to take her into a bone crushing hug, swaying her from side to side.

Once he pulled away, he grinned, patted her head, and walked away. “Oh my god!” Dannii gasped, jumping up and down. “Jimmy Sullivan—The Rev—just hugged me!” She gave me another cheeky grin, and I could tell she was holding back a scream.

“Come on,” I said, trying to be as excited as she was. “We can hang out down in the lounge while we study.” I hoisted my backpack on again and hauled her through the house. Once we were downstairs and in the recording studio, her jaw went slack as she stared around.

“Yeah,” I snickered and continued, still in awe of the place. I really wish I’d known about sooner, I was down there until late, late, last night, and even then Matt had to drag me upstairs. “That was my reaction too. Just wait til’ you see this.”

If it were possible, her eyes grew even wider and her eyebrows shot up. I stayed in the archway of the lounge as she walked around, letting her take it all in. She went straight toward the wall with all of the bass guitars. “Do you play?” I asked.

When she said nothing, I laughed and took it as a yes. “You can touch them, you know.” I said as I took down one of Syn’s custom Schecter’s from the wall, then went over to stand beside her. “Take your pick,” I said, gesturing around the room just as Mr. Thorne had done with me in the music room all those weeks ago.

I knew next to nothing about bass guitars, but the one she chose was one that Johnny frequently used, but that was as far as I got to recognizing it. The fretboard was rosewood and it had a steel pickgaurd, but the rest of it was a shiny, sleek black.

Dannii looked like she had just died and gone to heaven, just holding it. Within minutes, we both had our instruments set up, and Dannii finally seemed to come out of her trance. “So what are we gonna do now?”

“Uh—jam I guess?” I chuckled, realizing that I hadn’t even thought of that yet, either.
“Oh, okay! Well what song do you wanna do?” She asked, and I paused, taking a moment to think. It had to be something we both agreed on.

“How ‘bout an ‘In This Moment’ song?” I asked, my grin coming back full force. Just the thought of having someone to jam with again had me over the moon.

Thoughts of studying for Biology were long gone, nowhere near the top of our priority list. “Do you know ‘Ashes’?”

That happened to be one of my favourite songs from In This Moment, so I had no problems agreeing with her on it. It was fast and it was fun, exactly what I was looking for in covering a song. I nodded and fixed my guitar strap on my shoulder, readying my fingers on the fretboard.

With a count to three, we launched into the song. I wasn’t surprised by how well she played, I could tell just from how she held the bass she would be great at it.

Somewhere in the middle of the song, I saw two people in the archway, but didn’t look back because it would break my concentration. Once we had finished the song, we turned to see who was watching us.

Zacky and Brian stood there, both of them smirking. Dannii tried to keep her cool, but began bouncing on her toes like she had done before. “Anything you guys need?” I asked when the guys didn’t speak.

“Oh, we’re just—we came down to say Hi to your friend.” Zacky said, smiling as he and Brian approached.

“Dannii, this is Brian and Zacky. Guys, this is Dannii.” I said, still not great at the whole ‘introducing’ thing.

Five minutes later after Brian and Zacky had talked with Dannii and she had relaxed a bit, Zacky got one of his guitars down and smirked from me to Dannii. “You mind if I join you guys?”

“Let’s do an A7X song!” Dannii burst out, glancing between everyone excitedly. Brian smirked and stepped back, watching for my reaction.

What could I say? I obviously couldn’t be like hell no, because Dannii looked beyond excited to play an A7X song with “the” Zacky Vengeance. “How about I sit out for this one and just you play with Zacky?” I suggested, not being able to hide my own smirk. I just barely got around that one.

They played what they could of ‘The Wicked End’ with just the bass and rhythm guitar, but it had an awesome bass riff and Zacky had insisted they play it. And Dannii didn’t have any problem with it.

Smiling, I stood next to Brian and watched Zacky and Dannii. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here, after all. Things were much easier now that I’d spilled my guts about just about everything I had been keeping secret, and now that I finally had a friend who was my age, it made everything that much more bearable.

But were things really getting better?