Just Look at the World Around You

Avara, Holly and Jonathan were doing something naughty. They had arrived at the Sydney Olympic Park early and were writing profanities about Kyle on the interior walls of one of the backstage buildings. Well, Holly and Avara were. Jonathan was really only there because Avara insisted that he be there for moral support, which he hadn't been much of so far. He had so far only said that Holly's obsession with Kyle was a sign that she sill had feelings for him, which earned him a death glare from Holly, and that what they were doing could potentially get them kicked off Soundwave, which earned him a a death glare from Avara, who yelled at him, making him feel bad, making her feel bad for making him feel bad, so she ended up kissing him while Holly made childish gagging noises and told him politely to sit there quietly.

Avara turned back to the wall and was about to comment on Holly's penmanship on the words 'Kyle is a huge butt-guy' when the door opened and all three heads snapped towards it with horrified looks. Holly was already thinking of excuses to make, and sighed in relief when she saw that is only was Derek Sanders of Mayday Parade.

"Stand completely still. It's vision is based on movement," said Avara in a loud whisper, holding her arms out to balance herself on one foot on the chair she was standing on. Holly stilled next to her while Jonathan shook his head with a smile.

Derek looked at Jonathan as if he could explain the situation to him, but Jonathan just shrugged so Derek turned back to the girls. "I can see you."

"He saw us," Avara said in alarm.

"You didn't see anything," Holly said, waving her hands around as she and Holly hopped off of their chairs and backed out of the building, still with their arms going. Derek stared at them with a raised eyebrow as they continued backing across the grass to a near-by stage.

"They're so fucking weird," he told Jonathan before he walked away. Jonathan sighed and rubbed his brow before going off to find the two girls again.



"Hi," Holly smiled. Avara gave her a weird look.

"Hi?"

"Guess what?" Holly replied, picking at her finger nails like she didn't have a secret she wasn't telling Avara. Avara narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.

"What?"

"I was on Twitter earlier."

"Good for you?" Avara asked. "You go on Twitter all the time?"

"Yeah, but this time was different," Holly replied. "Josh Franceschi tweeted me." Avara's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "I mean, all he said was he was going to see if we could open for them on a UK tour after Warped, but you know, nothing exciting."

"Nothing exciting?!" Avara screamed dramatically. "When did this happen?!" She asked. "And why the hell didn't you tell me?!" Holly shrugged and sat down on the seat behind her.

"It only just happened, calm yourself," she replied. "He said he'd talk to his manager and see if he can speak to Jake. Yadda, yadda, yadda." Avara let out a squeal and jumped onto the couch beside Holly, yanking her phone from her pocket.

joshmeatsix @HollyBurmingKB having our people talk to yours for a tour after WT. Hope to see you ladies soon!

"Oh my fucking god!" Avara exclaimed.

"Hey!" Jonathan called when he walked in and heard her exclaiming all over the place. "I told you not to swear!" Avara waved her hand at him.

"And I told you not to try and change me," she replied. "Enough of that, Josh from You Me At Six wants to tour with us!" She told him. "Us!" She said again. "Kill Barbie! Holly, Harlee, Tadem and I!"

"Really?" He smiled. "That amazing. Is he going to talk to Jake and Pete about it?"

"He's getting his people to talk to our people!" She replied, pressing a couple of buttons on her phone.

AvaraLawKB @joshmeatsix in a non-fangirling way, this is me saying yes to touring with you guys. Yes god dammit! @HollyBurmingKB agrees 352%

"We must go talk to Jake!"



"I think that people would like us better if we were Penguins," Avara said loudly to herself. She was now sitting between Jake and Travis on a couch in the band center. "I mean, I'd obviously be Skipper. Holly would be Kowalski. Tadem would be Rico and Harlee would be Private."

"And my sister would be Alex," Holly called from where she was sitting with Harlee and Travis Clark. Avara nodded her head at Holly.

"This is true," she said. "Amy would definitely be Alex."

"I know, that's why I said that."

"Jake, can I go and watch Avenged Sevenfold?" Harlee asked suddenly. "I used to like them. Can I go out, or do I need a disguise?" Jake rolled his eyes.

"You can go Harlee, just take a pen in case you get spotted and fans want you to sign things," Jake told her. "Also, make sure you have your phone on you so we can contact you. Be back before 4:40, sound check is at 4:50." Harlee nodded and got up.

"Bye Harlee!" Holly called, waving at her dramatically.

"Yeah, bye!" Avara yelled.

It wasn't long after that that an official guy entered the building looking angry.

"I'm looking for Kill Barbie," he said loudly to the room. Holly and Avara exchanged glances and sunk down in their seats.

"What have you two done now?" Jake whispered to Avara while a number of people pointed the girls out. The man, who Avara recognised to be the organiser of Soundwave whose name she did not know, marched over to Holly and stood directly in front of her, holding his phone out to her.

"Can you tell me what this is?" He said to her. Holly shrugged.

"Looks like someone wrote 'Kyle is a huge butt-guy' on a wall."

"Do you know anything about it?"

"The person who wrote it has pretty handwriting," she grinned, but when she saw that the man didn't look impressed, her grin faltered. "I mean, why would I know anything?"

"I've heard that you don't get along with Kyle Burns."

"So you think she wrote graffiti about him on a wall?" Jake asked. The man turned to Jake, who had sounded sincere with his disbelief that this man would accuse Holly of such a thing. Holly and Avara felt bad because it's exactly what they had done.

"What does it say?" Came another voice, causing everyone, for everyone had stopped what they were doing to listen in, to look around. It was Derek.

"It says," started the Soundwave man, looking at his phone, "Kyle is a huge butt-guy."

"But it doesn't say Kyle Burns," Derek frowned, "Kyle isn't exactly a unique name, I highly doubt it was Holly who wrote it. It was probably there before we even got here." The Soundwave man couldn't argue with that, for he had no proof whatsoever that Holly, or even Avara for that matter, had done anything wrong. All he had was Kyle Burns' word, who really just wanted to get Holly into trouble.

"If I see anything like this again," he said, looking back to Holly, "You'll be packing your bags. Clear?" Holly nodded and the guy left, causing everyone to turn back to their previous conversations, or start new ones depending on how interested they were in what had just happened. As Derek walked past Avara on his way out of the building, she whispered a thank you to him and he winked at her. She heard Holly do the same and then dragged her out of the building to go and find Jonathan.

"Why is it that every festival we go on, Holly gets herself into trouble?" Tadem mumbled to herself.



Kill Barbie had just finished the opening song of their set and Holly pushed her hair back while she waited for the crowd to go quiet.

"Hellooooo," she said in a creepy voice. The crowd cheered. "How are you today, Sydney?" Again, the crowd cheered.

"'Woooooo' isn't really a valid answer," said Avara, "'Good' or 'fine' would be better."

"So how are you Sydney?" Holly asked again. This time, the crowd all yelled out 'good'.

"You can't ALL be good," Harlee frowned.

"Why not?" asked Holly, "They're here to see us," she grinned.

"But it's really hot and they're all squished," Harlee argued, "and that guy looks sunburned," she added, pointing to a guy on the barrier.

"You look sunburned," Holly muttered.

"Where?" Asked Harlee, suddenly alarmed. She begun to look at her shoulders and ended up getting tangled in her guitar strap while everyone laughed at her. Holly helped her fix her strap and returned to her microphone so they could start their next song. When they finished, Holly cleared her throat.

"Right, I have a genius idea," she said, "Heaps of the other bands here are all about hardcore dancing and human sacrifices, so I reckon we should have a circle pit, but everyone should run a round like the lemurs on Madagascar when they hear the foosa coming."

"I think that's a good plan Holly, let's put that plan into action." At that, the girls started their next song and Avara and Harlee jumped around more so than usual, joined by the crowd.

"Alright Sydney!" Holly called loudly as the last note of the song died out. She put her right leg up on the monitor and stared out at their fans. "Are we having fun so far?" She asked. A screaming girl dead center of the barrier caught her attention. "You," she said, pointing at the girl. "I want you to come up on stage." A security guard wearing a bright orange shirt walked over to her and helped her out of the mosh pit and then helped her climb up on stage. The girl was almost crying as Holly took her hand and lead her over to her microphone.

"Oh my gosh," she whispered to herself, making Holly giggle.

"Hey, what's your name?" She asked.

"Maddy!" The girl, Maddy, cried. "My name is Maddy!" Holly grinned and wrapped her arm around Maddy's shoulders.

"Nice to meet you Maddy, my name is Holly." Maddy laughed and nodded her head enthusiastically. "Alright, so I'm assuming you know the song Picking Daisies, right?" Maddy squealed and nodded.

"My favourite song!" Holly grinned.

"That's so awesome!" Jake bought a microphone out and handed it to Holly, and Holly handed it to Maddy, and then handed her bass to Jake so he could hand it to Travis. "Alright, so I want you to sing along with me, and dance as crazy as you can around the stage, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Well alright," Holly nodded as Avara, Harlee and Tadem started playing the familiar song on their instruments. "And as for all of you people out their in the pit, I want you to sing. I want you to dance and I want you to get your feet off the ground and jump!"

By the time their set was coming to an end, Holly had danced around the stage, given people water while Maddy sung and gone into the crowd for a whole song.

"That's the end of our set today guys, but we had a great time!" Holly told the screaming people.

"Yeah, best Soundwave day yet!" Avara nodded. "Even though today is only the second one..." Holly laughed and took the microphone from Maddy and set it in a stand by Tadem's drum kit.

"This is true Vara," Holly agreed with a swift nod of her head. "Anyway, I hope we'll so some of you at our signing later. It's at 6:10, table 3! Bye, thanks so much for having us! We're Kill Barbie!"



"Holly!" A very small, very sunburnt girl yelled in excitement as the ticket lady let her come through to get her things signed.

"Hi!" Holly grinned back happily. "How are you?"

"Good!" The girl smiled. "Can you sign my CD please?" Glancing down, Holly noticed the CD she was holding in her small hands; Kill Barbie: Kill Barbie.

"Oh wow, you have our CD!" She grinned.

"Yeah, I love it so much! It's my favourite CD!" Holly grinned proudly.

"That's so awesome, thank you!" Holly took the CD and quickly signed her signature and a smiley face in the bottom right corner of the plastic CD case. "Thanks for coming to see us!" The girl seemed temporarily speechless and ran out of the line to join her friend. Holly smiled as the two girls started jumping around and Avara leaned over.

"What was her problem?"

"I think she thinks we're famous," Holly answered.

"Was that girl fan-girling," Harlee asked, also leaning over, "over us?"

"Who would fan-girl over you?" Kill Barbie had the misfortune of having their signing at the same time as Forever the Sickest Kids, so Holly was sitting about a foot away from Kyle, who occupied the table next to the girls.

"That girl," Holly said as she signed a photo of her band, "apparently." Kyle snorted in reply.

"Oh my god, Kyle, I can't believe I am actually meeting you," said a blonde headed girl as she approached Kyle at the table. Kyle looked at Holly smugly, as if there wasn't a huge line of people waiting to meet her too. Admittedly, Kill Barbie's line was considerably shorter than Forever the Sickest Kids'.

"I met him once," Holly muttered. The girl turned and looked at Holly with an expression that said she couldn't believe she was there.

"Holly!" She exclaimed, "I wanted to come to your signing too, but it's at the same time as FTSK's, and I really, really love FTSK-" Holly waved the girls speech away.

"It's okay my friend, I still love you-" But before she could say anything else, Avara shot up.

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL OUR FANS!" She yelled. Holly looked into their line of fans to see who had insulted Avara, but she was staring at Kyle. "I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! OUR MANAGER IS NOW FACING AN ENQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT." Holly did some kind of funny giggle. "IF YOU STEAL ANOTHER FAN OUT OF OUR LINE, WE'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT HOME!" Luckily, Jonathan could tell that Avara was joking and stood up too.

"YOU STOLE OUR FANS FIRST," he yelled lamely at her, "THAT GIRL WAS IN OUR LINE," he said, pointing to the girl currently looking frightened while Harlee signed her CD as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening. She had her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth and was humming 'Hey Brittany', making Holly laugh. Avara grinned too, but then went back to Jonathan.

"WELL SHE'S IN OUR LINE NOW, BITCH!"

"LANGUAGE, AVARA!"

"STOP TRYING TO CHANGE ME. AND STOP STEALING OUR FANS!"

"STOP BEING SO JEALOUS!" Jonathan shouted. Avara huffed.

"OH! WE ARE SO BREAKING UP!" And with that, she sat down.

"Actually," the girl Jonathan had pointed out said timidly as she moved forward in line so that she was now standing in front of Avara, "I like both of your bands about the same. I'm a fan of both. Equally." Avara pondered this and then stood up.

"JCOOK!" She shouted. Jonathan, who had also sat down, stood up again.

"WHAT?"

"I'VE CHANGED MY MIND, WE ARE UN-BROKEN UP."

"THEN I'LL SEE YOU FOR A ROMANTIC DINNER!" Jonathan yelled.

"YES, YOU WILL."

"FINE."

"FINE."

And then they both sat down and continued meeting fans as though nothing had happened.



"Jake-Flake?" Jake rolled his eyes at the nickname Harlee had apparently given him. "I was just wondering, what we were having for dinner?" Again, Jake rolled his eyes.

"I don't know Harlee, what do you want?" He asked her. Harlee tapped her bottom lip with her finger for a moment, apparently lost in thought, before she shrugged her shoulders. For the third time in five minutes, Jake rolled his eyes. "When you decide what you want to eat, come see me," he told her as the door to the band room burst open and Avara and Holly came in yelling gibberish at the top of their voices.

"I just ate, a pluto-pup!" Holly exclaimed to no one in particular. Harlee's mouth dropped open, something Jake did not miss.

"You want a pluto-pup Harlee?" He asked. She nodded her head violently as Jake pulled his wallet from his pocket, rolling his eyes for a fourth time. Harlee was just about to take the ten dollar note from Jake when the door opened and Tadem walked in, her head hanging low and her shoulders slumped. "Tadem?" He said softly.

Avara and Holly exchanged concerned looks as Tadem looked up, revealing bright red eyes and a pale face.

"I-" She murmured softly. Holly and Avara went to her sides and wrapped their arms around her for a moment before she gently pushed them away. "I uh... Jake, could I please go home?" She asked.

"What?" Holly said Avara said at the same time. Tadem looked at them and sighed.

"Is everything okay Tadem?" Jake asked. She shook her head and wondered over to sit beside Harlee at the table. "Want to talk about it?" She shook her head as her eyes welled up.

No one knew what to say or do as Tadem began to cry loudly into her hands. Holly backed up against a wall feeling awkward, Avara sat down on the floor, Harlee tried to inconspicuously edged away and Jake just awkwardly patted her shoulder.

"I uh." Tadem stood up and looked at Jake. "I need to go home," she told him. "I need to be with my family."

"Tadem, what happened?" Holly asked.

"Um," she said, "there was an accident at the mine... Uh... Sarah uh... Sarah's dead..."

"Oh my god..." The three girls said at once.