Sequel: Wrists Intact ›
Hearts Intact
And You're Someone Who Knows Someone
“Izzye, Izzye, come on Izzye, wake up!” Someone was calling. I’m not sure who; all I cared about was the fact that I was having a really good dream. My parents were getting attacked by giant butterflies with big green swords.
“Here, this’ll wake her up!” Someone else said. I heard some movement and then suddenly something really wet and cold was poured over me. With a loud cry I jumped up, hitting my head on the van ceiling. Devin, Jimmy and Skylar were all standing in the van door, laughing at me.
“What the hell you guys!” I cried, picking up a book and hurling it at Devin’s head. He ducked and it missed him.
“Time to wake up princess, we’re here!” Devin said in a sing-song voice. I just stared at him. We were about to meet Fall Out Boy and they had just dumped a bucket of freezing cold water on me! Some friends they were!
“Where the hell did you freaks get the water from?” I asked angrily as I climbed out of the van. I punched Skylar hard in the stomach when he continued laughing at me.
“I have been waiting to do that to someone the entire trip! I brought it from home and just kept a lid on it this entire time!” Jimmy said with a grin. I spun around quickly and kicked him as hard as I could in the shin. He fell, clutching his leg.
“I’ve been waiting to do that to you ever since you burned down my tree house!” I said angrily. Jimmy glared up at me while both Skylar and Devin stepped out of my reach.
“Did I ever tell you people that I hate you?” I asked, shivering. Devin grinned, being careful to remain out of reach.
“Here you go with that whole you people thing again. You really shouldn’t be so racist Izzye!” He said. I glared at him and he took another step away from me.
“Come on you guys, we should go inside before they think we’re dead.” Skylar said, handing me his jacket. I put it on though I had to roll up the sleeves several times to get my hands out.
“I really really hate you Izzye, have I ever told you that?” Jimmy asked as he hobbled after us. I laughed.
“You deserved it Jimmy. And besides, you tell me that you hate me every day!” I said. Jimmy rolled his eyes as we walked into the huge building.
“Hello, we’re Hearts Intact, we won the contest.” Skylar was saying to the secretary behind a huge desk. The main foyer was huge and beautifully decorated. There were many paintings on the walls and red carpet on the floor.
“Please just wait a minute; Mr. Simpson will be right with you.” The secretary said. Skylar nodded and walked back over to us.
“This is it you guys, we’re finally here!” Skylar said, putting his arm around my shoulders. It was hard to stay mad at him when it was the best day of our lives.
“Remember our promise though; we will not let this industry change us!” Devin said. We all nodded.
“I know we promised Sheila but now we need to promise ourselves. Come on, everyone put your hand in!” Devin said, sticking his hand out. Jimmy, Skylar and I put our hands on top of his.
“No matter what happens we promise to always be ourselves.” Devin said.
“Through thick and thin we promise to always stay true to ourselves and each other.” Skylar said.
“No matter how big we get we promise to remember where we’re from and everyone who helped us get to where we are.” Jimmy said.
“Even though music is our lives we promise to remember that we are a family before a band and music comes after each other!” I said.
“If we can keep these promises then we’ll be able to make it through life with our hearts intact!” We all said in unison. The secretary was smiling at us but we all ignored her. To us, we were the only people in the room.
All four of us jumped when two big heavy wooden doors opened. Two men in black suits walked over to us.
“You’re the band? Please follow us then.” One of them said in a robotic voice. He turned and walked back through the doors without giving us a chance to reply. We followed him while the other guy walked behind us, as if to make sure we all came.
They led us into a huge room with a long table in it. They motioned for us to sit down and we all did, feeling awkward. The way the two men stayed by the door made me feel like a prisoner.
“Ah welcome, you must be the band!” A new voice made us all jump. A tall, balding man had walked in through a door I hadn’t noticed before. Like the other two men, he was wearing a suit but he looked a lot nicer.
“I’m Howard Simpson, and you guys are?” He asked. I hoped that he just didn’t know which of us was which; it would suck if he’d forgotten our names already.
“I’m Devin Macdonald and this is Jimmy King and Skylar and Izzye Conner.” Devin said, pointing to each of us as he said our names. Mr. Simpson gave Skylar and I a weird look.
“Are you guys’ cousins?” He asked. Skylar grinned and shook his head.
“No, we’re actually twins.” He said. Mr. Simpson looked surprised.
“Oh, well then, I can see the resemblance.” He said with a cough. Jimmy raised his eyebrows while Skylar and I glanced at each other. People always say that once they find out that Skylar and I are twins, it’s funny how people will lie about the stupidest of things.
Nothing interesting happened over the next ten minutes so I won’t bore you with the details. Mr. Simpson went over the tour dates with us, what would happen at each show, how much time we would have to play, ect. Not once did he mention the fact that I was dripping all over the fancy chair.
“Well, now that we’re done with all of that, would you guys like to meet the band?” Mr. Simpson asked, his eyes sparkling. We all nodded and stood up. Mr. Simpson grinned and led us out of the room. To my relief the two guys in suits didn’t follow us. Mr. Simpson led us down the hallway into another room. This room was a lot cheerier looking. The walls were painted a bright red and all of the furniture was a startling shade of orange (sounds pretty ugly I know, but it actually looked cool.) Best of all, the members of Fall Out Boy were all sitting in chairs!
“Guys, this is Hearts Intact, Hearts Intact, this is Fall Out Boy. I’ll leave you guys to get acquainted.” Mr. Simpson said. He left the room as quickly as he could, leaving the four of us staring at the four of them and vice versa.
“Well this is awkward.” Devin said after a few minutes of silence. Everyone laughed and we all relaxed a little bit.
“Congratulations on winning, I’m Pete Wentz.” Pete said, shaking hands with Skylar. Skylar grinned for the thousandth time that day.
“Thanks, I’m Skylar Conner.” He said. Everyone started shaking hands and introducing themselves.
“Um, why are you all wet?” Pete asked as he shook hands with me. To my horror, I blushed and Devin and Skylar burst out laughing.
“Izzye discovered why it’s best to wake up when we tell her the first time!” Devin said once he’d recovered from laughing. Pete smiled and I wished that I would just die, right then and there.
“Sorry to ask, but are you okay?” Patrick asked Jimmy, who still couldn’t walk properly. This time it was my turn to laugh.
“Jimmy learnt why it’s best not to burn down my tree house and then pour water on me.” I said. Jimmy glared at me as he blushed.
“You burnt down her tree house?” Joe asked, trying to stifle a laugh. Jimmy went even redder as I nodded eagerly.
“Yup, when I was eight. I built it all by myself and then the next day he burnt it down!” I said, silently laughing at my so called “best friend.” Revenge is defiantly the sweetest thing!
“I didn’t mean to burn it down!” Jimmy muttered, shooting a glare at me. I laughed.
“Yeah right you liar! You totally meant to burn it down!” I said. Jimmy glared at me but didn’t say anything. He knew that I was right.
“Are you guys’ cousins or something?” Andy was asking Skylar. Both Skylar and I smiled and looked at each other. We always get asked that question when we meet someone new.
“Nope, we’re twins, supposedly identical twins.” I said. Patrick, Pete, Andy and Joe all stepped back to get a better look at us. Devin pushed me so that I was standing right next to Skylar.
“I don’t see the resemblance.” Patrick said finally, his friends nodding in agreement. Skylar and I grinned.
“Don’t worry, neither do we.” Skylar said. Everyone laughed again and I felt all of my nervousness disappear.
“Good, looks like you guys hit it off well.” Mr. Simpson said, coming back into the room a few minutes later. He was followed by two really nerdy looking guys with headsets. One of them, the taller guy with black hair, looked really familiar.
“Yeah, they’re cool.” Joe said. I turned towards the wall so no one would see me blush. What was wrong with me today? I don’t usually blush so much!
“That’s great. Oh yeah, guys this is Alexander Mason and Jason Bleu. They’re sound guys who will help you on the tour!” Mr. Simpson said, motioning towards the two guys. There was more hellos and hand shaking. I was shaking hands with Alexander, the taller one, when I finally realized where I’d seen him before.
“Hey, I know you! I met you in a bar last year!” I said. Alexander looked confused for a second and then he realized what I meant.
“That’s right, I knew you looked familiar!” He said. Someone coughed behind us and I turned to see who it was.
“And how old are you again?” Pete asked.
“Seven-oh, oh! Umm, I’m uh.” I said, glancing at my friends for help. Devin had both his hands up, shaking his head while Skylar was whistling and staring up at the ceiling. Jimmy shot me a look that clearly said, haha you deserve it you idiot!
“I’m twenty?” I said, though it came out as a question instead of a statement. Everyone laughed.
“That’s what I thought.” Pete said. I blushed again, causing everyone to laugh even more. I swear to God I was going to die of embarrassment!
“We’ll just pretend we didn’t hear that.” Mr. Simpson said. I nodded gratefully and Skylar put his arm around my shoulders.
“Come on, why don’t you guys play a few songs for us?” Mr. Simpson suggested. We all agreed immediately. Music would defiantly help to get us over this awkwardness.
We went down to our van to grab our instruments. Mr. Simpson said that they would supply mikes and amps for us. I really hoped that we’d get to use our own amps during the shows though, mine are kind of custom made.
Once we’d grabbed our instruments Mr. Simpson led us all into a practice room. It was filled with amps, microphone stands and spare guitars and basses.
Pete followed me as I put my bass case down and started to open it. I won’t lie, I was nervous, but this was just my normal before a show nervousness. It didn’t really matter to me that we were about to play in front of one of my favorite bands ever. I was surprised, Jimmy must have spiked my drink or something with some calming drugs.
“Wow, that bass is awesome!” Pete said as I lifted my bass out of the case. It’s a custom made Ibanez that Jimmy got for me. I have a sort of weird obsession with Zebras so Jimmy got them to decorate the bass entirely in Zebra stripes, I love it!
“Thanks.” I said, playing a few notes to make sure that I was in tune.
“You didn’t have that in your video.” Pete said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Nope, Jimmy just gave it to me for F.I.H Day.” I was finished speaking before I realized what I said. I was horrified while Pete looked confused.
“F.I.H Day, what’s that?” He asked. I blushed yet again and stared down at my bass.
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.” I muttered. Pete started to say something, but luckily Skylar called me over and saved me.
“You okay with playing I Love You, Not and Love Is Like A Back Alley, Completely Pointless?” He asked me. I nodded. I knew why he was asking me, Love Is Like A Back Alley, Completely Pointless is a fairly new song and I wasn’t the best at it yet.
“Yup, it’s fine with me.” I said. Skylar grinned and patted me on the back. I’m not sure exactly why, maybe it’s some boy thing I’ll never be understand. Apparently there are a lot of those kinds of things, just ask Jimmy. He says that to me nearly every day.
We weren’t at our best while playing the songs, Jimmy still couldn’t really walk and I was freezing but we still did pretty well. Like always, I forgot about being nervous and just concentrated on playing. Once we were done both songs everyone applauded.
“Well done!” Mr. Simpson said, clapping louder than everyone else. We quickly put away our instruments and walked over to Mr. Simpson and the others.
“Hey, I have an idea! I’ll take everyone out to dinner, my treat!” Mr. Simpson said. Everyone immediately agreed. I felt like we didn’t really have a choice. Not that we’d say no to free food anyway, but we couldn’t say no to the people who were giving us the chance of a lifetime! I only hoped that supper wasn’t going to be that eventful, though something was telling me otherwise.
“Here, this’ll wake her up!” Someone else said. I heard some movement and then suddenly something really wet and cold was poured over me. With a loud cry I jumped up, hitting my head on the van ceiling. Devin, Jimmy and Skylar were all standing in the van door, laughing at me.
“What the hell you guys!” I cried, picking up a book and hurling it at Devin’s head. He ducked and it missed him.
“Time to wake up princess, we’re here!” Devin said in a sing-song voice. I just stared at him. We were about to meet Fall Out Boy and they had just dumped a bucket of freezing cold water on me! Some friends they were!
“Where the hell did you freaks get the water from?” I asked angrily as I climbed out of the van. I punched Skylar hard in the stomach when he continued laughing at me.
“I have been waiting to do that to someone the entire trip! I brought it from home and just kept a lid on it this entire time!” Jimmy said with a grin. I spun around quickly and kicked him as hard as I could in the shin. He fell, clutching his leg.
“I’ve been waiting to do that to you ever since you burned down my tree house!” I said angrily. Jimmy glared up at me while both Skylar and Devin stepped out of my reach.
“Did I ever tell you people that I hate you?” I asked, shivering. Devin grinned, being careful to remain out of reach.
“Here you go with that whole you people thing again. You really shouldn’t be so racist Izzye!” He said. I glared at him and he took another step away from me.
“Come on you guys, we should go inside before they think we’re dead.” Skylar said, handing me his jacket. I put it on though I had to roll up the sleeves several times to get my hands out.
“I really really hate you Izzye, have I ever told you that?” Jimmy asked as he hobbled after us. I laughed.
“You deserved it Jimmy. And besides, you tell me that you hate me every day!” I said. Jimmy rolled his eyes as we walked into the huge building.
“Hello, we’re Hearts Intact, we won the contest.” Skylar was saying to the secretary behind a huge desk. The main foyer was huge and beautifully decorated. There were many paintings on the walls and red carpet on the floor.
“Please just wait a minute; Mr. Simpson will be right with you.” The secretary said. Skylar nodded and walked back over to us.
“This is it you guys, we’re finally here!” Skylar said, putting his arm around my shoulders. It was hard to stay mad at him when it was the best day of our lives.
“Remember our promise though; we will not let this industry change us!” Devin said. We all nodded.
“I know we promised Sheila but now we need to promise ourselves. Come on, everyone put your hand in!” Devin said, sticking his hand out. Jimmy, Skylar and I put our hands on top of his.
“No matter what happens we promise to always be ourselves.” Devin said.
“Through thick and thin we promise to always stay true to ourselves and each other.” Skylar said.
“No matter how big we get we promise to remember where we’re from and everyone who helped us get to where we are.” Jimmy said.
“Even though music is our lives we promise to remember that we are a family before a band and music comes after each other!” I said.
“If we can keep these promises then we’ll be able to make it through life with our hearts intact!” We all said in unison. The secretary was smiling at us but we all ignored her. To us, we were the only people in the room.
All four of us jumped when two big heavy wooden doors opened. Two men in black suits walked over to us.
“You’re the band? Please follow us then.” One of them said in a robotic voice. He turned and walked back through the doors without giving us a chance to reply. We followed him while the other guy walked behind us, as if to make sure we all came.
They led us into a huge room with a long table in it. They motioned for us to sit down and we all did, feeling awkward. The way the two men stayed by the door made me feel like a prisoner.
“Ah welcome, you must be the band!” A new voice made us all jump. A tall, balding man had walked in through a door I hadn’t noticed before. Like the other two men, he was wearing a suit but he looked a lot nicer.
“I’m Howard Simpson, and you guys are?” He asked. I hoped that he just didn’t know which of us was which; it would suck if he’d forgotten our names already.
“I’m Devin Macdonald and this is Jimmy King and Skylar and Izzye Conner.” Devin said, pointing to each of us as he said our names. Mr. Simpson gave Skylar and I a weird look.
“Are you guys’ cousins?” He asked. Skylar grinned and shook his head.
“No, we’re actually twins.” He said. Mr. Simpson looked surprised.
“Oh, well then, I can see the resemblance.” He said with a cough. Jimmy raised his eyebrows while Skylar and I glanced at each other. People always say that once they find out that Skylar and I are twins, it’s funny how people will lie about the stupidest of things.
Nothing interesting happened over the next ten minutes so I won’t bore you with the details. Mr. Simpson went over the tour dates with us, what would happen at each show, how much time we would have to play, ect. Not once did he mention the fact that I was dripping all over the fancy chair.
“Well, now that we’re done with all of that, would you guys like to meet the band?” Mr. Simpson asked, his eyes sparkling. We all nodded and stood up. Mr. Simpson grinned and led us out of the room. To my relief the two guys in suits didn’t follow us. Mr. Simpson led us down the hallway into another room. This room was a lot cheerier looking. The walls were painted a bright red and all of the furniture was a startling shade of orange (sounds pretty ugly I know, but it actually looked cool.) Best of all, the members of Fall Out Boy were all sitting in chairs!
“Guys, this is Hearts Intact, Hearts Intact, this is Fall Out Boy. I’ll leave you guys to get acquainted.” Mr. Simpson said. He left the room as quickly as he could, leaving the four of us staring at the four of them and vice versa.
“Well this is awkward.” Devin said after a few minutes of silence. Everyone laughed and we all relaxed a little bit.
“Congratulations on winning, I’m Pete Wentz.” Pete said, shaking hands with Skylar. Skylar grinned for the thousandth time that day.
“Thanks, I’m Skylar Conner.” He said. Everyone started shaking hands and introducing themselves.
“Um, why are you all wet?” Pete asked as he shook hands with me. To my horror, I blushed and Devin and Skylar burst out laughing.
“Izzye discovered why it’s best to wake up when we tell her the first time!” Devin said once he’d recovered from laughing. Pete smiled and I wished that I would just die, right then and there.
“Sorry to ask, but are you okay?” Patrick asked Jimmy, who still couldn’t walk properly. This time it was my turn to laugh.
“Jimmy learnt why it’s best not to burn down my tree house and then pour water on me.” I said. Jimmy glared at me as he blushed.
“You burnt down her tree house?” Joe asked, trying to stifle a laugh. Jimmy went even redder as I nodded eagerly.
“Yup, when I was eight. I built it all by myself and then the next day he burnt it down!” I said, silently laughing at my so called “best friend.” Revenge is defiantly the sweetest thing!
“I didn’t mean to burn it down!” Jimmy muttered, shooting a glare at me. I laughed.
“Yeah right you liar! You totally meant to burn it down!” I said. Jimmy glared at me but didn’t say anything. He knew that I was right.
“Are you guys’ cousins or something?” Andy was asking Skylar. Both Skylar and I smiled and looked at each other. We always get asked that question when we meet someone new.
“Nope, we’re twins, supposedly identical twins.” I said. Patrick, Pete, Andy and Joe all stepped back to get a better look at us. Devin pushed me so that I was standing right next to Skylar.
“I don’t see the resemblance.” Patrick said finally, his friends nodding in agreement. Skylar and I grinned.
“Don’t worry, neither do we.” Skylar said. Everyone laughed again and I felt all of my nervousness disappear.
“Good, looks like you guys hit it off well.” Mr. Simpson said, coming back into the room a few minutes later. He was followed by two really nerdy looking guys with headsets. One of them, the taller guy with black hair, looked really familiar.
“Yeah, they’re cool.” Joe said. I turned towards the wall so no one would see me blush. What was wrong with me today? I don’t usually blush so much!
“That’s great. Oh yeah, guys this is Alexander Mason and Jason Bleu. They’re sound guys who will help you on the tour!” Mr. Simpson said, motioning towards the two guys. There was more hellos and hand shaking. I was shaking hands with Alexander, the taller one, when I finally realized where I’d seen him before.
“Hey, I know you! I met you in a bar last year!” I said. Alexander looked confused for a second and then he realized what I meant.
“That’s right, I knew you looked familiar!” He said. Someone coughed behind us and I turned to see who it was.
“And how old are you again?” Pete asked.
“Seven-oh, oh! Umm, I’m uh.” I said, glancing at my friends for help. Devin had both his hands up, shaking his head while Skylar was whistling and staring up at the ceiling. Jimmy shot me a look that clearly said, haha you deserve it you idiot!
“I’m twenty?” I said, though it came out as a question instead of a statement. Everyone laughed.
“That’s what I thought.” Pete said. I blushed again, causing everyone to laugh even more. I swear to God I was going to die of embarrassment!
“We’ll just pretend we didn’t hear that.” Mr. Simpson said. I nodded gratefully and Skylar put his arm around my shoulders.
“Come on, why don’t you guys play a few songs for us?” Mr. Simpson suggested. We all agreed immediately. Music would defiantly help to get us over this awkwardness.
We went down to our van to grab our instruments. Mr. Simpson said that they would supply mikes and amps for us. I really hoped that we’d get to use our own amps during the shows though, mine are kind of custom made.
Once we’d grabbed our instruments Mr. Simpson led us all into a practice room. It was filled with amps, microphone stands and spare guitars and basses.
Pete followed me as I put my bass case down and started to open it. I won’t lie, I was nervous, but this was just my normal before a show nervousness. It didn’t really matter to me that we were about to play in front of one of my favorite bands ever. I was surprised, Jimmy must have spiked my drink or something with some calming drugs.
“Wow, that bass is awesome!” Pete said as I lifted my bass out of the case. It’s a custom made Ibanez that Jimmy got for me. I have a sort of weird obsession with Zebras so Jimmy got them to decorate the bass entirely in Zebra stripes, I love it!
“Thanks.” I said, playing a few notes to make sure that I was in tune.
“You didn’t have that in your video.” Pete said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Nope, Jimmy just gave it to me for F.I.H Day.” I was finished speaking before I realized what I said. I was horrified while Pete looked confused.
“F.I.H Day, what’s that?” He asked. I blushed yet again and stared down at my bass.
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.” I muttered. Pete started to say something, but luckily Skylar called me over and saved me.
“You okay with playing I Love You, Not and Love Is Like A Back Alley, Completely Pointless?” He asked me. I nodded. I knew why he was asking me, Love Is Like A Back Alley, Completely Pointless is a fairly new song and I wasn’t the best at it yet.
“Yup, it’s fine with me.” I said. Skylar grinned and patted me on the back. I’m not sure exactly why, maybe it’s some boy thing I’ll never be understand. Apparently there are a lot of those kinds of things, just ask Jimmy. He says that to me nearly every day.
We weren’t at our best while playing the songs, Jimmy still couldn’t really walk and I was freezing but we still did pretty well. Like always, I forgot about being nervous and just concentrated on playing. Once we were done both songs everyone applauded.
“Well done!” Mr. Simpson said, clapping louder than everyone else. We quickly put away our instruments and walked over to Mr. Simpson and the others.
“Hey, I have an idea! I’ll take everyone out to dinner, my treat!” Mr. Simpson said. Everyone immediately agreed. I felt like we didn’t really have a choice. Not that we’d say no to free food anyway, but we couldn’t say no to the people who were giving us the chance of a lifetime! I only hoped that supper wasn’t going to be that eventful, though something was telling me otherwise.