Anything but Ordinary

“Matt is going to bury you six feet under, dude” was what Zack said when the black haired man walked into the meeting room. Brian shrugged like it didn’t bother him at all since all his thoughts were focused on the white haired beauty he met earlier today.

“Brian? Briiiiiaaaaaan?” Zacky singed at the end trying to snap whatever trance he was in. “Bri-Bri. Bri-Bear?” he was trying different nicknames that he despised and even then nothing worked so Johnny just pinched the guitarist.

“What the fuck, short shit!” he exclaimed looking at the bass player who just gave him a blank stare mumbling, “Not my fault you spaced out. What were you thinking of? Michelle?”

Brian furrowed his eyebrows thinking about why he would be thinking of his fiancé; yes he was still engaged to her even though he wasn’t ready to marry her yet. He loved Michelle enough to be tied down to her just not at the moment.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Matt is going to go ape shit for two reasons, one is that your late to a meeting where we were supposed to meet our new manager so Matt had to distract her with the boring paperwork so you can get your ass over here and two because Michelle was bitching to Val which in turned bitched to Matt and the vicious cycle will be complete when Matt chews your head off” Zack explained with a slight smile on his face.

“You enjoy me getting tortured, don’t you?”

“It has its perks” Johnny added, it was nice for a change that he wasn’t the main target of the day. Brian got that nasty target off of poor Johnny’s back and onto the lead guitarist back which Matt will rip off with his bare hands if he was angry enough and by the murderous look he had when he was calling Brian nonstop; that was exactly the case.

Suddenly, the three heard Matt and a woman walk down the hall and finally into the room as Matt had that fake smile on his face when he saw Brian. He didn’t say anything to the black haired man since he knew that he would explode if he did and he didn’t want to jeopardize having this woman not take the job since they were in desperate need of a manager after the last one bailed on them…again.

“So you must be Brian.” Offering her hand to the younger man who in turn got his full attention at the beauty in front of him, “Angel Raine” she introduced herself.

He raised a brow, “Angel Raine? Is that really your name?” she chuckled and nodded her head, “My parents were hippies” she explained

Everyone nodded as they sat down as Angel started to grab the contract that she went over with Matt and talked to the rest of the guys. “I was going to explain to you about your contract with all of you at once but since some of you were late and I already explain this to Matt” Matt glared at Brian when she mentioned the tardy man “I will explain again”

She went on to fully explain their new contract and that it was pretty much just like the last one except that they had a lot more freedom this time around because of the strings she pulled. “Since you already started on your project that Jimmy talked to me about-”

“Wait, Jimmy talked to you?” Brian asked as the others attention was full on the brunette with a confused and shocked face.

Angel nodded slowly, “Yes, he did. Few months before he passed and once again sorry for your loss, but, um, he knew that you would need a new manager and he asked me to join on this project and if you liked the work that I do then we can legally make you one of my clients”

“What other bands have you worked with or are your clients?” Matt questioned.

“I have worked with My New Chemical Romance, Rihanna, Skillet, Escape The Fate, Pink, Beyoncé, The Dixie Chicks and many others. I go all over as you can see, is that a problem?”

They didn’t disagree that it was a problem; it was just a test that she was the real deal. They wanted to know if she worked with some of the heavy line up that she named and the look on her face gave comfort to them a bit that she was confident in what she was doing.

Angel should know what she is doing since she has been working in this business for around 15 years already. She went on to explain that she worked on just solo projects to multiple projects at once; she was the type of person that they needed to have.

Brian couldn’t point it out but Angel’s features and nice and outgoing personality reminded him of the little girl he has met earlier today. Once the meeting was over and signed Angel as their temporary manager she left with a wide smile on her face. “It was nice meeting your gentlemen. See you tomorrow”

With a chorus of ‘byes’ Matt turned to Brian with a deep frown on his face, his jaw tightened from the anger that he had swirling around in the pit of his stomach. Brian knew that he was going to have his ass handed to him.

I'm not insane, I'm not insane
I'm not insane, I’m not, not insane
(I'm not)
Come back to me, it's almost easy
(Set it off)
Come back again, it's almost easy

Kyree belted out into the microphone that she held in her tiny hands, Ember finally gotten Kyree home after telling her that they would play rock band since her skin was starting to burn. The discomfort disappeared in relief when her skin was met with the cool air of the house they lived in.

Ember played the slight difficulty, just because she played this game with Kyree almost every day didn’t mean she was improving in the slightest. She didn’t have the fast fingers that natural guitarists have and she was envious how they make it so easy.

Kyree was jumping around with the wireless microphone knowing the words already and not looking at the screen. She always loved this song for some reason; it was slightly weird for to hear her little sister yell out ‘I’m not insane’

It was making her think if her sister really was insane when she did that evil laugh in the middle of the song. Kyree was a little too good and her voice was even better; she had the natural raw talent of performing since she was so comfortable with it.

“Come on, Emmy! Sing wit me!” shoving the microphone into the older woman’s face.

She muttered the words on the screen before the microphone was taken away from her “No! Not like that! Sing like this!” raising the volume in her voice “Try again”

Ember-Rose sighed as she raised her voice slightly singing to the beat and the lyrics that were flowing out of the screen. After a while and a couple of misses, Kyree muttered, “That’s enough. My turn!”

Then during the guitar solo, Kyree did something the older woman never saw her do and that was head bang. Bouncing around head banging around the room, her purple eyes widened at the mere sight of her baby sister doing the unthinkable. When the song ended, Kyree giggled as she collapsed on the floor panting slightly.

“Where did you learn that?”

“Learn what?” turning on her stomach to face her older sister with beaming eyes.

“To head bang, ya know, this?” demonstrating what she was doing since Kyree didn’t know the meaning of head banging.

“Oh!” she brightened up “I saw it in one of the music videos, they had scary mask on and their music was really loud, silly head” she rolled her eyes at her older sister that didn’t know the meaning of having a good time.

“You listen to rock music?” she questioned the four year old who nodded vigorously

“They have some funny videos” she giggled.

Ember looked at her younger sister, not knowing that this little girl had dark humor. Most of those videos weren’t so happy or joyous for a four year old to be watching. She thought it would scare her baby sister but instead she found all those videos entertaining.

“If I met them, I’m making them put money in the swear jar. They say lots of bad words” before Ember could comment that she can’t be going to random strangers and demand money their mother walked through the door.

“Mommy! Guess what?!” running towards their hazel eyed mother who picked up her youngest daughter. “What is it pumpkin?”

“We went to the park today and met this guy Brian and his little doggy Pinkly! He let me play with his dog and look!” pulling the crinkled dollar out of her pocket “He gave me money since he said a bad word”

“Ky” Angel sighed “You can’t be making strangers give you money because they say bad words. That’s not nice”

“But they said bad words and that’s not nice” she pouted “I know Brian” she muttered before Angel pecked the little girl’s temple mumbling that she shouldn’t be doing it regardless even if she did know his first name.

“Brian?” the mother asked the oldest daughter with a questioning look “Did you know this man, Ember?”

She pursed her lips in a straight line, “No” she trailed off

“Ember-Rose Raine! You can’t be hanging around strangers, you don’t know how dangerous they could be” she lectured her the snow haired woman who cast her gaze down mumbling apologies.

“He seem really nice”

“Oh and complete strangers that intend to hurt you won’t be? You need to think, Ember. Kyree does the most outrageous things and talks to anyone and I mean anyone so please look after her better.”

Ember nodded, “Help me cook dinner” Angel ushered her oldest daughter to the kitchen.