Tokio Derby

It’s the day of the talent show and all we have done is eat cookies.

I sneak a quick peek at the act that is still on stage and take a bite out of my cookie. The bright Saturday afternoon was hidden behind the ceiling of the school auditorium. The act on stage now was a mediocre magic act and OH MY GOD THIS COOKIE IS AMAZING! It’s getting harder and harder to keep a train of thought with this magical creation in my hand. What is this thing made of, the love of sprites mixed with the greatness of unicorns?

“This talent act isn’t so great,” I hear Davon snide. I look over and see our band, slumped around their instruments and eating cookies. Davon stuffs a cookie in her mouth. “We could beat ‘em.”
Marissa strums the bass strings, making sure they’re in tune. “Do you think we could just skip the talent show and just eat cookies all day?” she asked, staring at the empty box of cookies. It was the third one we had finished today. “I would sacrifice my siblings for these cookies.”

“No,” I snapped, staring back at the stage. The magic act had ended and now a dance routine started with the cheerleading squad. “We have to do this. Lena would be pissed if we didn’t do this.”

“You’re right,” a familiar voice added, opening the stage door and walking backstage. It was Lena and Claude in his work uniform, holding a grocery bag and a pizza. They walked across the large hallway to the even larger stage room where we sat. There were four couches and an ottoman filled with equipment and empty cookie boxes, all facing a long glass table that we were sitting around. The cookies were in the dead center of the table, like a delicious god waiting to be prayed to.

“Hi guys,” Claude waved, moving the cookies to the side to place down the pizza. A collective gasp went through us. How dare this man move these cookies? Who does he think he is?

“You moved the cookies,” Ash snapped, slapping Claude on the arm. “Don’t ever move the cookies. Ever.”

“I don’t know why you guys are so emotional over these cookies,” Claude retorted. He held up the bag. Lena made me go out and get some more for you guys.”

He didn’t need to tell us twice. We quickly grabbed the bag and emptied it of its delicious reward. “I’m glad you showed up today Claude,” I cooed, making room on the couch for him to sit. He plopped himself down beside me and gave me a quick kiss. “It wouldn’t be the same without you.”

“I had to be here,” he nuzzled into my hair, like an animal trying to hide for shelter. “I had to see my girlfriend do her best.” Ash coughed loudly. “And my best friends. You guys are great, too.”

“Thank you,” Marissa beamed, taking a slice of pizza and taking a nibble of it. She looked over her shoulder and sighed. “Oh great,” she moaned, rolling her eyes. “Look who it is.”

I looked over and saw Hansel’s face among the cheerleaders, which was weird because she was a soccer-football player. We made eye contact and she sent ninja stars aimed at my eyes. I tried to smile in reply, but only succeeded in making her angrier.

“Listen,” Davon interrupted, putting our awkward stare-off on hold, “I don’t want to start anything, but you might want to go talk to her. Dominic didn’t just hurt you; he hurt her as well.”

The sound of Dominic’s name made Claude and I cringe, but Davon had a point. Dominic was trying to juggle three chicks around: me, Hansel, and Selma. If I was hurt over the break-up, Hansel must’ve been devastated because she was actually sort of in love with Dominic.

I emptied the space between us and smiled. “Hi Hansel,” I whispered, trying my hardest to sound nice. What was it about her that made me want to punch her in the face?! “Do you want to talk or something?”

Hansel shook her head and took a step back, like I was infected with some contagious disease. “Look, I know you’re probably taking pity on me for dating Dominic at the same time you were, but I’m fine. I’ve gotten oven that selfish douchebag and his secret Beanie Babies collection.”

I laughed like a hyena. I thought I was the only one who knew about his “secret” collection of those stuffed bears. “And what about his entire ridiculous name collection for all of the Beanie Babies?” I added, snorting a little. “Fuzzy Wuzzy the Pink bear? Llama the Brown Bear?”

“Sergeant Scruffles the Polka Dot King?!” we both replied at the same time, bursting into hysterics. I heard Hansel snort a little and laughed even more.

“I thought I was the only one he told that too!” Hansel shrieked, wiping tears from her eyes. “It’s good to have someone else to make fun of that loser with.”

I nodded. Though Hansel was still kind of a stuck-up bitch, at least we had a common enemy: Dominic. We probably would have never spoken if it wasn’t for that loser. I felt eyes staring at us and turned over to look at a kid near the stage effects. He had a strong build, tan skin over honey-blond hair with dark eyes.

“Who is that guy?” I asked, pointing over to the hot onlooker.

Hansel shrugged and waved to him. “That’s Rudolf,” she answered, “he’s a member of the rugby team and we kinda hang around each other.”

I could tell that Rudolf wasn’t staring at me with those big, lovey-dovey eyes. He wanted Hansel to notice him. I smiled. Why not give him a push in the right direction?

“Come with me,” I grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to him. I pretended to play with the wiring, but really wanted Hansel and Rudolf to talk. “Hi, I’m Clarissa,” I introduced myself politely, putting on a large smile. “I was just talking to Hansel over here and I kept saying that the Liverpool rugby team could definitely beat the German team in a second.”

Hansel objected loudly, talking in sports lingo I couldn’t understand. Rudolf countered back by saying something about their offense. I could tell by the way this was going I didn’t need to be around for the conversation to continue. I slowly started to inch myself away from them, taking small steps until I knew I could turn around and leave. I saw Rudolf make a hand movement in my direction and I turned around. While Hansel was going off on a rugby rant, he mouthed “thank-you” and smiled.
I make the okay sign with my fingers. Maybe he could tame that shrew.

I attempted to jump over the couch and sit down, a James Bond-esque move, but I ended up falling with my face near Claude’s crotch. Ash made some remark I couldn’t hear and they started to laugh while I assembled myself again.

The drama teacher in charge of the talent show, a lanky guy with the nose of a toucan, walked over to our group. “You’re next,” he stated in a monotone voice, his eyes not wandering off his clip board.
We stood up and Davon started to hum the song we created, changing the tempo and melody a bit. It was finally show time.

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I had never noticed how large the auditorium truly is.

After five grueling minutes of setting up our equipment, we were just about ready to play. Well, aside from the mentality part. It seems like the entire school came out for the talent show, the rows were so filled up.

I took a big gulp of air and raised my drumsticks in the air. I saw Claude give me a wink from backstage and I weakly smiled back. “One,” I tapped them together. “One, two, onetwothreefour!”
The beat started slowly, mostly a light tap on the drums and small guitar riffs. Then the tempo increased, Ash bringing up the tempo with a fast guitar solo. Soon we were thrashing about on our instruments, me keeping the beat while Ash and Marissa went to town on their guitars.
But the world seemed to stop when Davon started to sing.

Lie to me but kiss me softly
I want my tears to taste like love and lie
Sometimes when the suns falls down
We watch a from a cliff and plan our ways to die

I could hear Davon singing, but I was feeling something else. I had no idea playing the drums, or playing music for that matter, could be so exciting. Sure, the oboe was great, but this couldn’t compare. All I could focus on was the drumming; if I was going too fast, can I keep the tempo, could I sneak a small drum solo in. I was so focused on what I was doing that I didn’t even hear us stop playing.

“Hey, Keith Moon,” Davon hissed from the microphone, “we’re done now.”

I blushed and stood up from the drum set. I joined the group at the front of the stage and we all took a collective bow. First it was absolute silence,

But then the audience roared to life.

Applause and cheers erupted from all areas, engulfing the air with the feel of praise. Some boys were jeering about how hot an all-girl group was while metalheads banged their heads in respect. I felt my hand tense from where Davon was holding on tightly, and I noticed her moving slightly, like she couldn’t stand still. She erupted into a victorious scream, one a Viking would make when they reached Valhalla. Ash and Marissa quickly joined her, making the scream more into a howl. The crowd joined us, howling like wolves.

This was the best feeling of my life.

My heart fluttered as I tried to repress my gigantic smile, but it was no use. We giddily removed our equipment from the stage and rushed to the cookies. I took three and ate them greedily. I grabbed Claude by the back of his neck and kissed him like I had never kissed before. I wanted him to feel my emotion, to catch the cheer that was throughout me.

“Did we miss something good?” a familiar voice asked, and I quickly turned around to see Tokio Hotel standing proudly against a confused backstage. I ran over to a beaming Gustav and hugged him with all the strength I could muster. “So did you guys do well?’ he asked sarcastically, a smile rising on his face.

I could only scream in reply.