Just Look at the World Around You

"Holly, seriously, you need to get up now," Jake yelled, banging on Holly's bed side table loudly. Holly groaned and rolled over. "Holly!"

"I will kill you if you don't back away from my bed," she mumbled, her head smooshed into her pillow. Jake rolled his eyes and banged on the table louder.

"If you don't get up, you're fired."

"You can't fire me!" She yelled. "It's my band! And I'm the singer!"

"I can and I will," he replied. "I'll talk to the ladies, and they'll agree!"

"Harlee wont cause then she'll be a Hippocrit!" She sat up and ditched her pillow at Jake angrily as someone knocked on the door. "And you're an ass Reynolds!" She exclaimed, falling back down. Jake rolled his eyes again, but left her to answer the door.

"Morning Jakey!" Harlee yelled once the door had swung in. She flounced in and took a seat on the end of Holly's bed. Holly made an aggravated noise and kicked her.

"Morning Harlee," he smiled. "If you can, wake Holly up." Holly yelled out angrily and pulled the blanket over her head. "Morning Tadem, Avara."

"Morning Jake," Tadem nodded as she went past. Instead of greeting Jake, Avara patted him on the shoulder and ran at Holly's bed. She dived on to her best friend and laughed.

"Wakey, wakey Mr. Holly!" She yelled happily. "Get up! Get up! Get up! It's Perth Soundwave day!" Holly rolled over and punched Avara in the knee.

"I hate you."

"I love you too!" Avara grinned. "Now come on, get up so we can go line up and fight people to the death in the line-oh," she frowned. "We can't go line up..." She was silent for a minute before her face brightened up again. "I know! We'll make our own line!"

Holly laughed, not being able to help herself.

"I still hate you, but that was funny," she told Avara. Avara shrugged her shoulders and pulled Holly's blanket off. "Avara, I stil-"

"Get up so we can go line up," Avara said seriously.

"Avara-"

"Up." Holly sighed, knowing it was completely useless to argue with Avara, especially on Soundwave day. So she pushed her legs over the edge of her bed and rubbed at her eyes. "And you don't have any pants on," Avara nodded.

"I tried to tell you," Holly replied, getting up and grabbing some clothes that Jake had laid out for her off of her suitcase on the floor. Avara rolled her eyes and turned to the others who were now talking about how the last show would go.

"I think we should wear funny hats," Harlee was saying to everyone, "I just think that, as this is the last Soundwave, we should be festive."

"Can we hang up streamers. And balloons?" Avara asked.

"We should have a pinata!" Holly, who now had pants on, added.

"We don't have enough time!" Jake sighed, "just get ready." All four girls and Travis pouted and Holly stormed off into the bathroom, either to get ready or to sook, no one was sure until she came out ten minutes later looking presentable.

About an hour later, their van pulled up at Claremont Showgrounds and Avara turned around in her seat to see the long line of people at one of the gates.

"Holly, can we go and line up?"

"Why would you line up when you can go straight in?" Tadem asked.

"I just feel like it's the place to be," Avara said. They turned to corner and she could no longer see the line, so she turned back to face the front.

"I feel that, I feel that," Holly nodded.

"Don't be stupid," Jake said, "You'd get mobbed by fans."

"They wouldn't recognise us if we had funny hats," Harlee mumbled, resting her chin on her hand by the window and staring out of it morosely.

"If you had of told me yesterday that you wanted funny hats, I would have got you some," Jake said in an exasperated tone, as if they had already been over this. Which they had. 23 times. Holly had counted.



As always, there were a few bands that had dropped out of Soundwave before it got to Perth so, as always, the set and signing timetables had to be reshuffled. This put Kill Barbie's set later for some reason, and put their signing right after FTSK's. As it was nearing their time to take to the table, Holly and Avara were creeping around in the tent watching all the kids meet the Kids.

There were two girls that looked to be about sixteen who approached Kyle, who was first at the table, and one of them looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. The first girl got her t-shirt signed and the second got her CD booklet signed, and then the first girl, who was visibly shaking, asked to have her picture taking. Oh how they reminded Holly and Avara of themselves at that age!

"Sure," Kyle nodded, standing up. The first girl gave her camera to the second, who took a photo of her friend and Kyle before handing the camera back. Kyle then snatched it out of the first girl's hands to look at the photo.

"Rude," Holly muttered.

"Mmm," Avara nodded in agreement.

The girls then moved on to Austin, who happily signed their things and took the wristband they gave him with relish. It was blue with and Aussie flag on it.

"That's so awesome, thank you!" he grinned, slipping the wristband on immediately.

Next was Jonathan, and from what Holly and Avara could see, the second girl must have asked him for a hug because he nodded and stood up to hug her, also giving her a small kiss on the cheek. As they were pulling away, Jonathan jokingly held one of her arms between his own and the side of his body and made weird noises and started tugging, as though about to run off with her. Embarrassed, the girl giggled, and asked for a photo, which the first girl happily took on her camera. Jonathan was also given a wristband, this one white rather than blue, and he thanked them and put it in his pocket. The girls then got their things signed and moved down the table.

Time was running out and one of the staff members in a yellow vest started to rush the last few fans through, but the first girl managed to sneak a hug from Caleb after they got their things signed by him. The second girl asked for a photo, and at first he declined (the bastard, Holly and Avara thought), but the girl insisted and Caleb eventually said he would take a photo, but he wouldn't stand up and she had to lean over the table. Being so short, this put the girl at the perfect angle for Caleb to look down her shirt. Holly nudged Avara and wiggled her eyebrows.
The yellow-vest told them to leave and the two girls ran off to fan girl after tossing him a wristband as well.

"It's like looking through a portal into the past," Holly said fondly.

"I want those girls to be my friend, I think," Avara agreed.

"Coming through!" said a voice, and the Holly and Avara were harshly shoved out of the way by Kyle as he made his exit.

"Excuse you!" Holly yelled after him. Jonathan came after him and he sent Avara and apologetic look. They waited for Caleb and Austin to vacate the table and for Harlee and Tadem to come into the ten before taking their place.

As usual there was a strange array of fans, but when Avara saw to familiar faces, she slapped Holly, who was next to her, over the head.

"It's the Us-Girls!' She cried. Holly's expression went from annoyed to excited when she too saw the two girls they had watched at the FTSK signing.

"Hi, I'm Avara!" Avara almost yelled, bouncing in her seat, as the girls approached.

"I know," the first girl said happily, "I'm Kayla."

"And I'm Louise!"

"Do you think I could hug you?" Kayla said nervously to Holly.

"Yes!" Holly replied, jumping into the air.

"Wait!" Holly looked down at Avara to see that she had put her hands out and had a serious look on her face. She stood up and looked to Holly, Kayla and Louise.

"We need to four-way-high-five," Avara said.

"Like the penguins on Madagascar?" Louise asked brightly.

"Exactly like the penguins on Madagascar," Avara nodded. She saw Holly's jaw drop out of the corner of her eye and turned. "What?'

"Who are you and what have you done with Avara? Hovara does not high five! We thumbs-up-knuckle punch!"

"You're holding up the line," Tadem said to Holly. Holly, who had her back to Tadem, threw her arm out behind her.

"Hush, young friend. Hush." She then held one hand out to Avara and one out to Kayla in thumbs-up-knuckle-punch formation, and the other three followed suit so that Holly TUKP'd Avara and Kayla, Kayla TUKP'd Holly and Louise, Louise TUKP'd Kayla and Avara, and Avara TUKP'd Louise and Holly. Avara and Kayla then TUKP'd, while Holly and Louise TUKP'd.

"Best-Friend Club initiation complete," Avara nodded, then she and Holly sat down as though nothing had happened.

"So, have you got some stuff for us to sign?" Holly asked, looking up at Kayla.



Holly stumbled on stage after a shove in the back from Travis Cooper and she took slow steps with her arms throw out in front of her as she attempted to locate her microphone. A few people at the front of the crowd yelled out some helpful directions, and her hand finally gripped the metal pole that she hoped was the mike stand and not something else.

"Thanks, friends," she grinned into the microphone. "My name is Holly, and I am blindfolded." The crowd cheered. She didn't know why. "I..uh...I don't know where my band is."

"I'm here," came Avara's voice from somewhere to her left.

"Avara's there," Holly said, pointing in the general direction from which Avara's voice had come.

"I'm here too," Harlee said from Holly's left. Before Holly could say anything, someone pushed her aside and she squealed.

"Hi, I'm Travis," she heard Travis say into her microphone, "and I'm Kill Barbie's mer- well I do things for Kill Barbie. Anyway, this morning, Harlee told Jake, their manager, that she wanted Soundwave to go out with a bang-"

"I believe I said I wanted to be festive," Harlee corrected.

"Whatever, my point is that Jake said no, but I had some spare time this morning to go out and buy some things. You can take your blindfolds off now." The girls did as they were instructed and Harlee looked around at the balloon ridden, streamer covered stage and hurled herself at Travis.

"Oh, Travis, thank you. I love it." Her hands then went to her head when she saw the other three girls. "And we're all wearing funny hats."

"And we have a pinata," Holly grinned. "Thanks Coop." Travis left the stage and Holly addressed the crowd. "We'll get to that," she said, pointing a hand behind her to the pinata, "later. For now, this song is called Believing in Fairytales."



As soon as the girls stepped off stage, they were in mutual, un-spoken agreement that that was the best show they had ever played. They had invited fans to climb on stage and help them break open the pinata with Holly's mike stand and had about one hundred people squeezed onto the stage at one point. Now, off stage, it took them a moment to recognise the ginger-headed figure in front of them.

"RON!" Holly yelled.

"RONALDWEASLEYWHATAREYOUDOINGHERE?" Avara added.

"I came to see you guys," he grinned.



Later on that evening, the girls and Rupert decided to go and watch Mayday Parade play. Avara thought she saw Derek's eyes widen in alarm when he noticed them side-stage, and hung her head in embarrassment. She didn't want him to dislike her, and she didn't know what she had done wrong.

"We'd like to dedicate this song to a friend of ours. Her name is Tadem and she's from the band Kill Barbie, you guys might have seen them play earlier over on Stage 5. Well, her sister passed away recently, so, yeah, we'd like to dedicate this to Tadem, Sarah, their family, and to Kill Barbie. It's called Everything's an Illusion." The crowd cheered. Tadem's eyes widened in surprise and begun to fill with tears. Holly put an arm around her shoulders. Avara put an arm around her waist. Harlee put her arms around her from behind and rested her on Tadem's shoulder. Derek started to sing.

"I try to sleep but my eyes are open."

"I can't think cause my heart is broken."

"And there's a bottle right next to me."

"I'll down a few drinks just to take the pain away."

"I wanna say all the things I need to say."

"I won't lie, I'll just tell them honestly."

"If God can take a friend away from me."

"Then I can say all I want and he won't do anything."

"My tongue is weak and every time I try to speak I can't say nothing at all. Sleep well, my friend. There will be another moment we'll meet again. Just let it go."

"Sleep well, goodnight. You're something to remember. I wish that you were here by my side."

"I spend hours tryna make it through the day."

"I don't know if I'll ever be the same."

"It's hard enough when you're all alone."

"In the city that you love, now Atlanta's just a burial ground."

"My tongue is weak and every time I try to speak I can't say nothing, nothing at all."

"It's hard to think when losing someone only make you wanna scream. And now that you're gone."

"Sleep well, my friend. There will be another moment we'll meet again. Just let it go."

"Sleep well, goodnight. You're something to remember. I wish that you were here by my side."

After the second chorus, Derek instructed the crowd to wave their hands in the air by starting to wave his own. He then invited Kill Barbie on stage with him, who obliged and stood, arm in arm, with Derek in the middle between Tadem and Holly.

"Oh rest in pieces, I can't believe this. A mother shouldn't witness her son die at twenty-four."

"Please don't know this is for the hopeless."

At this point, Mayday Parade and Kill Barbie had become stage-crashed by the boys from The Maine, Dave from Every Avenue, all of Forever the Sickest Kids (yes, Kyle too, surprisingly), We The Kings, Rian (who had not yet left), Ron, Travis and Jake and Kayla and Louise, who all joined added to the line.

"It's ripping me apart and I can't take it anymore."

"I will hold my tongue for the rest of my life. I can't keep this up anymore. Sleep well, my friend
There will be another moment we'll meet again. Just let it go. Sleep well, goodnight. You're something to remember. I wish that you were here by my side, by my side, by my side, by my side. Sleep well, goodnight. You're something I'll remember. I wish that you were here by my side."



Even later that evening, Tadem ran into somebody while she was trying to find Holly and Avara. She didn't realise until the person grabbed her forearm that it was Derek.

"Oh, sorry Derek, I didn't realise it was you."

"That's okay, but listen, I wanted to apologise for earlier." Tadem gave him a baffled look.

"Apologise? Apologise for what?"

"The song. Dedicating it to you and your family without asking you first. I'm sorry." Tadem smiled. Laughed, even.

"Derek, it's okay, it was beautiful. Thank you." Derek nodded, and they fell into a semi-awkward silence and were about to go their separate ways when Tadem thought of something. "Hey, Derek, do you not like Avara?"

"What? What gives you that idea?" Now it was his turn to be baffled. Tadem shrugged.

"I think she thinks you hate her."

"I don't hate her, she's just a little...."

"Psycho?"

"Psycho," Derek nodded in agreement. "Holly too."

"Speaking of Hovara, I have to go and find them."

They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.



Holly burst into the band room with Avara on her shoulders, followed by Kayla who had Louise on her shoulders. Holly led Kayla over to where Jake, Tadem, Travis, Travis and John were and they let Avara and Louise off of their shoulders.

"These," Holly said loudly to make sure she had everyone's attention, "are our twins: Kayla and Louise."

"Wait, did you say twins?" Jake asked, appalled.

"Twins, yes," Holly nodded.

"As in, they're like you?"

"Yes. Like us, yes," Avara nodded.''

"Oh dear God!" Jake exclaimed, running his fingers through his hair, evidently in panic mode. "I can't- I can't do this." He suddenly got up and all but ran out of the room.

"That was Jake," Holly grinned, turning to Kayla and Louise, "our loving manager."

"Harlee and Ron do not appear to be present," Avara observed.

"No, they do not," Holly agreed. "Retreat." Avara and Louise returned to the shoulders of Holly and Kayla respectively and they left the room.



"Holly!" Avara called, coming into the band room at the end of the night. "Holly where are you!" Holly, who was sitting on a small couch with Dave from Every Avenue looked up from the book they were reading.

"What?" She asked but then noticed the black monocle stuck to Avara's eye. "Is that a monocle?" She asked, pushing the book into Dave's lap and standing up. "Where did you get a monocle?"

Avara shrugged and stuck her hand in her pocket and started to dig around. Finally, she pulled something from her pocket and held it out to Holly.

"I got you one too," she said, opening her hand to show Holly the bright orange monocle with bright green spots on it. Holly gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

"It's beautiful!" She said, taking it from Avara's outstretched hand and sticking it to her eye. "Thanks Vara, I love it!" Dave started laughing just as Jake walked in. "Jake!" Holly yelled when she spotted him. "Jake look what Avara got me! It's an orange and green monocle! Isn't it lovely!"

Jake, who'd frozen by the door as soon as he'd seen Holly and Avara with weird things connected to their faces frowned and let out a sigh.

"Dear god. Two Kill Barbie tours down, and I'm already going crazy," he muttered to himself.

And then he remembered.

"Oh god, Warped Tour is coming."