Outcast

The hand-painted signs proclaimed that the group of teenagers playing in front of Amanda went by the band name ‘Outcast’ - and they were good; really good.
The song they were playing as Amanda walked up, a cover of Escape the Fate’s ’10 miles wide’, sounded amazing, and Amanda was stunned to see a girl not much older than herself playing the incredibly difficult guitar solos with near-perfect accuracy.

Amanda stayed for the rest of the gig, listening happily as they continued the track list with songs from Bullet for my Valentine, Linkin Park, Papa Roach and Sum41; then came the end of the afternoon, and the last song.

The singer, a boy with longish, straight black hair streaked with red, and a snakebite piercing stepped forwards and spoke into the mic to the small crowd that had gathered.

“Hello,” he said, waving to the people before the stage, “I’m Jasper, and as you may have noticed, we are Outcast - we’d just like to thank you all for listening today,”

A few people in the crowd cheered and laughed, the random buzzing of conversation that naturally follows a crowd dying down a bit.

“And now it’s time for our last song,” the singer continued, “written by Scott Jacobs, our very own bassist… this is ‘Leave this Town’.”

The song pounded into life with a strong beat, and continued with a rebellious attitude that Amanda couldn’t help but relate to – by the time the second chorus came around, she found herself singing the words under her breath.

<i>One day…
I’m gonna fly away
I’m gonna take a break
I’m gonna leave this world behind
I can’t think straight
When it’s me that they hate
I gotta do it right this time
They’ll never keep me down
‘Cause one day…
I’m gonna leave this town</i>

And, with a final clash of the drums, it ended.
Most of the crowd cheered madly, as the band bowed and high-fived each other, before leaving the tiny stage and starting to pack their gear.

Amanda didn’t linger long after the band had left, leaving the crowd quickly and starting to walk back the way she came… or at least to where she thought she had come from.

She wandered the unfamiliar streets for a while, hoping that eventually she would find her way back...to the place she now had to call home.

A half hour later, the path started to look slightly familiar again, and Amanda knew she had seen this place before – but it was only when her feet touched the concrete of the parking lot that she knew why she recognised it.

She was standing, once again, at the rear of the mall, watching the stage from a distance.

“Fucking shitballs,” Amanda cursed under her breath, scuffing her old converse against the concrete below her. “What else could go wrong today?”

She slumped down on one of the concrete walls surrounding the parking lot, trying to think how to get herself un-lost… and failing.
Amanda let out a sigh, placing her head in her hands, mentally cussing out her parents for even bringing her to this dump in the first place.

She was halfway through her hypothetical rant when she heard footsteps coming closer.
Upon looking up, Amanda found a boy standing next to her – the bassist from the band that had played earlier, if she remembered correctly.

“Hi… are you okay?” he asked, tilting his head a little as he looked down at her.

“Um, yeah, I’m alright… just lost.” Amanda grimaced a little, feeling stupid for getting lost on her first day in the new town.

“Oh,” the boy chuckled as he sat down beside her, “you must be new in town. There’s not a whole lot around here to get lost in.”
Amanda nodded.

“Well, I’m Scott.” He held out his hand, “nice to meet you… and you are?”

“Amanda,” she found herself smiling as she shook the hand Scott had offered.

“I saw you at the show,” Scott continued, motioning back towards the mall complex, where the others were still packing the gear, “you reckon it was any good?”

“Hell yeah!” Amanda nodded hastily, making Scott laugh, “It was fantastic. And that song, the one you wrote, it was awesome. Oh, um, speaking of bands and songs, shouldn’t you be helping them?”

She pointed to where two other boy - the singer and another guy who must have been the drummer - and the girl who played the guitar, were busy with their gear.

“Oh, probably.” Scott smirked, then turned to Amanda more seriously, “Hey, do you want to come help? If you hang around I’m sure one of us could help you get home. We all live around here, so I’m sure one of us knows your street.”

“Really? That would be awesome,” Amanda said, “and thanks, Scott.”
“It’s no problem,” Scott smiled at her, “but anyways, they’re gonna get shitty if we don’t hurry up, hey?”

Amanda grinned again, slipping down from the wall and brushing off her skinny jeans, before walking with Scott across the parking lot back to the stage.