Rocket To The Moon.

“Okay, first, we’re gonna go swimming, then I’m gonna take you to the park, no actually, we’ll go shopping, THEN go to the park, and then we’ll go see a movie, and then go shopping again, and then we’ll get lunch, and then I’ll take you to the beach! You’re gonna love it, it’s beautiful!”

“Calm down, Hero, we haven’t even walked out of the front door yet” Gracie giggled.

“Sorry” I said sheepishly “I’m just happy to have you with me”

“And I’m happy to be here. You have got no idea how much I’ve been wanting to escape” she said.

My memories of last night flew out of my mind as we hopped into Gracie’s car and flicked the radio on full blast. Today was going to be amazing, I could tell already. Nothing could ruin it for me.

We found a parking space in the centre of town and meandered through the streets for a while until we reached the park. It looked the same as it had the day Rocket had rescued that girl from the pond. It had the same atmosphere. I tried as hard as I could to put that to the back of my mind.

“This place is gorgeous” Gracie said happily, admiring her surroundings.

We strolled through the park, chatting and catching up on various things.

“So how are things back home?” I asked.

“Extremely fucking boring!” she replied “You haven’t missed a thing”

“That’s good, I guess. I just feel pretty bad for you” I said.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to end up moving here eventually anyway” she said hopefully.

“I really hope you do” I said.

I heard my name being called from somewhere behind us and turned to see Christa and Sean approaching us with smiles on their faces.

“Hi, Hero!” Sean called.

“Hey, guys! I have to introduce you!” I dragged Gracie towards them “Guys, this is my best friend Gracie. I knew her before I moved here, and she’s come down to visit. Gracie, this is Christa, and this is Sean”

“Nice to meet you” Gracie smiled politely, as she shook both of their hands.

“Hero! We have some awesome news!” Christa said excitedly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“We’re playing Battle of the Bands at the Corporation Club next Saturday!” she grinned.

“Oh my God! Congratulations, guys!” I cheered.

“It’s such a sweet deal. Not only do we get to perform…but we also get free backstage food!” Sean exclaimed.

Christa giggled “It is pretty sweet. But there’s just one slight problem that might prevent us from playing all together”

Sean’s smile faded.

“We don’t have a bassist anymore” Christa shrugged.

“Oh, shit, yeah, I forgot about that” I said.

“We could try and get through it with out bass” Sean said optimistically “But it wouldn’t sound quite as good as it should do”

“I play bass…” Gracie muttered quietly.

“What?” someone said.

“I play bass” she repeated “I had lessons for two years when I was about thirteen, and I’ve been teaching myself for the past year”

I had forgotten all about this.

“Gracie…could you do us a HUGE favour?” Christa asked slowly. Gracie looked at her expectantly.

“If I taught you all the songs, and lent my bass guitar to you, would you play the show with us?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course I would…” Gracie said “But I’m not going to be here next Saturday. I’m leaving after this weekend”

Christa looked down, disappointed “That’s okay”

“Isn’t there any way you could stay a little longer?” I asked.

“There’s not enough room in your house” Gracie said “I wouldn’t want to make Rocket sleep on the couch for an entire week”

“There’s room in my house” Sean piped up “We have a huge guest bedroom. And my house is so hectic…no one would even notice you were there”

“But surely she goes to school” Christa said “What’s gonna happen with that? She can’t miss an entire week”

“I could tell them I’m ‘sick’” Gracie said, motioning invisible quotation marks around the word ‘sick’. “…and I’m failing everything anyway” she added.

“Are you sure you’d wanna do that?” Sean asked.

“I’d much rather stay in California for longer, trust me” she said.

“What about your parents?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, like they’re gonna care if I’m gone” she scoffed sarcastically “I’ll give them a call tomorrow and tell them I’m staying here longer”

Sean grinned.

“So is this a definite yes then?” Christa asked “You’ll do it?”

“I guess so” Gracie replied.

“Thank you so much!” Christa squealed, engulfing Gracie in a hug. Gracie seemed surprised at first, but then her expression warmed a little.

“You may have just helped us get a record deal!” Sean exclaimed, patting her on the shoulder.

“Way to go, Gracie!” I gave her a high five. At this point, she was blushing and giggling uncontrollably as she always did when people gave her a lot of attention.

“That’s a huge relief. I was worried that she might not get along with my friends. Ha"

“Shit. The movie is starting in fifteen minutes. We really need to get going” I said, looking at the time on my cell phone.

“That’s okay” Sean said “I’m supposed to be getting home soon anyway”

“Gracie, could you meet us in this exact place tomorrow at 12pm. I’ll introduce you to the band members and get started on teaching you some of the songs. Hero, you can come too” Christa said.

“Alright. Sure” Gracie agreed “I can’t wait”

“It was super awesome meeting you” Sean said.

“You too” Gracie replied.

“We’ll see you guys tomorrow then!” Christa said as they turned and walked away.

“Your friends are nice” Gracie said, after they had left.

“Mmhm” I agreed.

We watched some cheesy comedy film at the cinema. It was okay I guess. There were certain parts that made us laugh, but it definitely wasn’t the best movie I’d ever seen. We went shopping afterwards, and spent all of our money on random pointless crap that we didn’t need, and I bought a couple of new T-shirts too. And then we went and relaxed in Starbucks for a while with drinks.

“Hero, I need to ask you something” Gracie said suddenly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Is there something I don’t know about you and Rocket?”

“Huh?”

“I mean…you’re just acting so different around him” she said “You even slept on the sofa with him last night. That’s not normal, especially not for you guys. Now tell me what’s going on”

“Nothing is going on”

“Yeah right”

“No, I’m serious” I insisted “We’re just friends”

“Since when have you ever been friends with him?”

“Since a couple of days ago actually…” I admitted.

“What the fuck has gotten into you two?”

“I don’t know…he’s actually a really nice guy. You should give him a chance”

“After four years of ignoring you, taunting you, hurting you, and being a total jerk to you, you suddenly turn around and tell me he’s a nice guy? Something is going on here, and I’m going to find out, whether you tell me or not!” she insisted.

“Alright. But you’re going to be deeply disappointed, I promise” I shrugged.

“You did tell me that he seemed different…this could very well be a contributing factor” she said.

“Contributing factor to what?”

“You’ll see”

“Gracie, what are you talking about?”

“You’ll see” she repeated with a smirk. I sighed, frustrated and finished off my drink. Gracie kept grinning mischievously at me at various points during the day, but rather than asking why, I just tried to ignore it and enjoy my day. We drove down to the beach and went in search of a nice place to sit - one where there wasn’t too many people so we could chat, but also one that wasn’t in the shade so we could sit out in the sun. Eventually, we decided on somewhere. And it wasn’t until we had sat down that I realised it was the place Rocket and I had sat the first time we had visited this beach. I kept my mouth shut, because Gracie would start asking questions again if I asked to move.

“This place is amazing!” she said, glancing round excitedly like a small child in a candy store.

“I still can’t believe I live here” I said.

“Hey, Hero! I’ll race you to that rock!” Gracie said with a childish grin, pointing to a rock jutting out of the ground at the far end of the beach.

“You’re on!” I got up and pushed Gracie down in the process, making sure I had a head start, before sprinting towards the rock.

“No fair!” Gracie laughed, following me. Not surprisingly, I won that race. Until it went dark, Gracie and I tried to relive all those times that we had gone to the beach with my parents, racing each other, building sand creatures, splash wars in the sea, and everything else you’d expect small children to do at the beach. But we weren’t small children…so we must have looked kinda stupid. That didn’t stop us though. We were having the time of our lives. I was so happy to have Gracie here again, because leaving her behind had been one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.

Unfortunately, our fun eventually had to come to an end. It had gone dark, and was getting increasingly colder. There wasn’t another storm forecast, but I still didn’t want to risk being out in anything like last night. Plus, I had told Rocket that I wouldn’t be back too late.

Reluctantly, we went back to the house. We were still giggling and laughing as we entered the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My laughs subsided abruptly when I saw Rocket. He was standing in the hallway with the phone in his hand, and what little colour had been in his face before had been totally drained. He reacted immediately as we entered, hanging the phone back up on the hook and grabbing his car keys.

“We need to go to the hospital” he said. His voice was low and relatively calm, but I was sure that I could hear a slight tremble in it that could indicate panic.

“Why? What happened?” I asked, not being able to mask the panic in my voice.

“Just do as I say. Come on!” he prompted me impatiently.

“Not until you tell me what happened!” I commanded.

“Hero, I’m sorry” he lowered his tone and looked at me sympathetically “It’s your parents"