I'll Make a Man out of You

Holly Burming sat by the window in the huge plane that was taking them from Australia to America for the Vans Warped Tour. She was the only one awake, the rest of the group had gone to sleep almost as soon as the plane had taken off from Singapore nine hours ago.

HollyBurmingKB On a plane with the rest of @KillBarbie... Might draw a penis on @AvaraLawKB's face. #thuglife

"Holly, if you're seriously awake right now, I will kick you in the weiner," Avara mumbled from under her carry on blanket. Holly laughed. "Why? Why are you awake?"

"Too excited," she shrugged. "We're playing Warped Tour," Holly grinned happily. "I freaking love Warped Tour." Avara poked her head out of her blanket and sighed.

"You're right, we should probably get excited for Warped Tour," she nodded, pulling her phone out of her pocket to log onto Twitter. "Hey!"

AvaraLawKB @HollyBurmingKB Your face IS a penis. #1upmotherfucker

AvaraLawKB @DerekSanders Hey....hey Derek. We're coming, Derek.

A giggle came from Holly. Avara refreshed her Twitter feed.

HollyBurmingKB @DerekSanders Derek, we're coming.

And so it went on:

AvaraLawKB @DerekSanders Coming. Derek.

HollyBurmingKB @DerekSanders Derek. Coming.

AvaraLawKB @DerekSanders See you soon, Derek.

HollyBurmingKB @DerekSanders Be prepared, Derek.

AvaraLawKB @EADave You too, Dave, you too.

HollyBurmingKB @EADave We're coming, Dave.

HarleeAnchorKB @HollyBurmingKB @AvaraLawKB @DerekSanders @EADave Potato. #vegetablesmakebetterfriends

"Since when were you awake Harlee?" Holly asked, getting up in her seat to lean over the back. Harlee looked up and grinned at Holly as Avara's head appeared beside her.

"Yeah Harlee, why didn't you answer me before when I asked if I could eat your fruit cup?" Avara asked, offended.

"Because I was eating it," Harlee replied. "And because I was eat-napping."

"Eat-napping?" Avara asked. Harlee nodded and picked up a snake lolly that was sitting on the tray in front of her beside her phone and sat back in her chair, where she pretended she was asleep. Then, she slowly lifted her hand up and stuffed the snake lolly into her mouth.

"Eat-napping," Harlee nodded again.

"That's cool..." Holly said, slowly sitting back in her seat. "Have fun with that..."

"Yeah," Avara agreed, slowly following Holly's lead. "Bye..."

"Oh my god!" Jake exclaimed suddenly, scaring Holly and Avara so much they almost fell from their chairs. Jake waited until they were sitting properly in their seats again and they were both sitting forward in their seats to see him better, before he continued with his rant. "All I can hear is you two causing a ruckus!" He yelled.

"But-"

"Seriously, both of you need to close your eyes and go to sleep!" His face was going a little bit red, so they knew he was angry.

"But we aren't the ones yelling Jake," Avara pointed out. Jake's face got redder and the weird vein on his temple was moving around grossly.

"Calm down Jake, you'll give yourself a brainsplosion," Holly said seriously. Avara let out a loud laugh while Holly sat back in her seat to get away from his glare and was lucky enough to get distracted by a head of blonde hair popping over the top of the seat in front of her.

"For the record," Jenna McDougall grinned. "I didn't know you both were awake until Jake started yelling..."

"See Jake!" Avara yelled. Jake let out an angry groan so she slapped her hands over her mouth.

"Us too," Holly nodded. "Jake's just a massive girl about everything. He needs to calm the fuck down, Jake!"

"Chopper!" Tadem laughed from where she sat beside Harlee.

"Chopper!" Holly replied.



Quite a few hours later, the girls were just settling down on their old bus (they could tell it was their old one because Harlee had kept a stash of chewing gum under the mattress in her bunk which had apparently not been cleaned out), when Jake came crashing onto the bus and stood, fuming, in front of Holly and Avara.

"What the hell have you two done now? We just got here, just got here, and Kevin Lyman wants to see you already. Holly looked at Avara. Avara looked at Holly.

"It must have been her," Holly said to Jake, pointing at Avara. "I haven't done anything." Avara looked at Holly, open mouthed.

"I didn't do anything either."

"Shut up, both of you, and come with me!" Both girls were taken aback at his shortness and followed him off the bus in silence. When they found Kevin, the three of them were surprised to see him smiling at them. They greeted one another and then turned to Holly and Avara with a more serious expression.

"Girls," he said with a short sigh, "I know you want to get settled in, so I'll make this quick. I know you two cause quite a bit of havoc and get in quite a bit of trouble, and I don't want a repeat of last year. I want you both to be on your best behaviour. Understood?" The girls nodded. So did Jake. "Good. I have something for you." He reached into the trailer and pulled out a large sheet of card and held it up for everyone to see. "This is a sticker chart," he explained, "for every day that you're good, you'll get a sticker. Seven stickers in a row, and you get a present."

"What kind of present?" Holly asked sheepishly. Jake elbowed her in the side, but Kevin smiled at her.

"A bag of gummy worms."

"Sour gummy worms?" Avara inquired.

"If that's your preference," Kevin nodded.

"It is," Holly and Avara said together.

"Then it shall be." Kevin turned around, a signal that they were dismissed, but Holly hesitated.

"Excuse me, Mr Lyman sir, is that two segways over there?" Kevin looked at her, looked to where she was pointing, and then back at her suspiciously.

"..yes. Why?"

"No reason... no reason. See you later Mr Lyman sir."

As soon as Holly, Avara and Jake were out of earshot, Jake turned to Holly.

"Please tell me you aren't planning on stealing those segways."

"Of course not Jake."

"Good."

They returned to the bus to find Tadem stressing out.

"I can't find Harlee!"

"What?" the three of them said together.

"She was here and then she wasn't. At first I thought she went with Trav, but-"

"Wait, where's Travis?" Holly asked.

"He went to pick up the Maine boys and stuff from the airport. He told me Harlee wasn't with him." At that moment, Holly's phone rang. It was Harlee.

"Marco?"

"What? No, it's Harlee. Who the hell is Marco?"

"Where are you Harls?" Holly giggled.

"I don't know, that's why I called. Who is Marco?"

"My boyfriend."

"I thought John was your boyfriend?"

"He his, but his name is Marco on Wednesday."

"Holly, it's Tuesday."

"Harlee, where are you?"

"Oh. Right. I'm uh... there's a fence and I think that might be the back of a stage. And there's a car park on the other side of the fence."

"We'll come and find you." Holly hung up the phone and relayed the information to the others.

"Holly and I will find her," Avara announced, grabbing Holly by the arm and dragging her off the bus and in a random direction.

"Do you know where you're going?" Holly asked.

"Ya-no. No, I don't."

They wandered around for a while and finally found Harlee with Eric Halvorsen and Nick Santino of A Rocket to the Moon standing behind one of the stages talking.

"Eric of Halvorsen," Avara muttered when her and Holly got closer to the three. Holly giggled and Nick turned around.

"What was that? Did you just say Eric of Halvorsen? That's hilarious!"

"Make's me sound like a knight!" Eric grinned.

"That kinda sorta makes me a queen right?" Avara asked Holly.

"I want to be a queen!" was Holly's response. Avara patted her shoulder.

"Will you be my king?" she asked seriously.

"Yes, yes I will!" Holly said, jumping up and down.

"I'ma' take a wild guess and say that's Holly and Avara?" Nick asked Harlee, who nodded her head in confirmation. Nick nodded too and stuck his hand out for either Holly and Avara to shake hands. "I'm Nick."

"We know," the girls replied.

"Right."

"Holly," Avara said, pointing at Holly.

"Avara," Holly said, pointing at Avara.

"I know," he nodded.

"Right," they said at the same time with serious looks on their faces. Nick awkwardly looked away while Harlee and Eric laughed.



"We're late!" Jake called from the front of the bus to the girls, Travis and a few other people littering the bus. Holly stuck her head out of her bunk and stared down the bus at Jake.

"What you talkin' about Willis?" She called back.

"I need all hands on deck to set up our merch tent," he replied. "Tour officially starts tomorrow and that means we need to put the tent up."

"You want us to erect our tent?" She asked.

"Erect," Avara giggled from the bunk below hers. Jake rolled his eyes and stomped his foot.

"I'm not taking any ands, ifs or buts about this," he said sternly. "Get up and come help or I'm taking all the catering tickets and hiding them."

"So?" Harlee called from the back lounge. "We all know you hide them in your underwear bag anyway." Jake's face went red.

"GET UP!" He yelled. "GET OUT THERE AND SET THAT GOD DAM TENT UP OR SO HELP ME GOD I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

"Alright, alright," Avara sighed, turning to fall out of her bunk. "Keep your pants on Jake, jesus." Jake rolled his eyes once again, and stood back to wait for Holly, Harlee, Tadem, Travis and Vanesse to leave before he followed and locked the door behind him.

It took five minutes for the Kill Barbie group to make their way across the bus lot, through the stage areas towards merch ave. They went past a whole bunch of tents belonging to bands they hadn't heard of before, a fair few that they had did know and finally they came across the spot they were assigned to put theirs.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice said from behind them. "What brings you ladies to this part of the world?" Holly spun around and squealed when she saw who it was.

"Hayley Williams!" She yelled. "Why didn't you tell me you were doing Warped?!" Avara spun around then, hearing Hayley's name.

"Hayley!" She exclaimed happily. The three girls embraced, giggling about how they hadn't seen each other in forever.

"Tadem," Hayley said softly, breaking away from Holly and Avara so they could say hello to Jeremy and Taylor. Tadem turned around and smiled as Hayley pulled her in for a hug. "I am so, so sorry about your loss!" Tadem hugged Hayley a bit tighter and then pulled away.

"Thanks Hayley."

"We tried so hard to get to Perth for the funeral, we really did, but we weren't able to get a flight in time," she said. "We're sorry, really." Tadem nodded and wiped a tear from her eyes.

"Thanks Hayley, it means a lot. And it's okay. I'm not mad, thank you for thinking about her though." Hayley smiled and nodded before she went to say hello to Jake and Vanesse.

"Hey, where's Harlee?" Avara said suddenly.

Jake's head shot up and he began searching for Harlee.

"I'm going to kill her," he said slowly. "It's like herding Sheep with you lot!"

"You clearly aren't a very good sheepdog," Holly muttered.

Jake sighed. "Shut up and start setting up the tent."



“Holy Jesus, Holly, that boy over there is so flipping attractive I’m going to die!” Holly glanced at Avara and then followed her gaze, but she couldn’t be sure of where Avara was looking because the girl was wearing sunglasses. “Don’t look!” Avara yelled, hitting Holly over the head with the stack of papers she was holding, knocking Holly’s own sunglasses off her head. “Oh great, now he’s looking.”

Holly bent down to pick up her sunglasses, smoothing her hair back into place where the papers had messed it up. “Well if you weren’t such a psycho he probably wouldn’t be.” Holly could see the boy Avara was referring to now. If he had looked over at them when Avara had shouted, they apparently hadn’t held his interest because he was focussed on unpacking a box of t-shirts, something that they themselves should have been doing, but they had both faked appendicitis and ran off.

The boy's brown hair had fallen into his eyes and he swiped it away impatiently, the way Holly knew Avara went gaga over. Holly smiled. She liked it when Avara liked somebody new because it always led to crazy adventures. Then again, every day Holly and Avara spent together led to crazy adventures.

Holly didn’t realise that Avara had been talking to her.

“Come again?” She said.

“Why aren’t you listening to me?” Avara hit Holly over the head with the papers again, but this time Holly was prepared. The hand in front of her eyes caught her sunglasses before they flew off again. Before they had managed to get away from Jake, he had handed them a stack of promotional papers for their band that they were supposed to hand out, though they weren't really interested in self-promotion.

“I never listen to you.” Avara’s eyebrows knitted together and Holly could tell her friend was glaring at her. “And will you stop hitting me?” She added, rubbing the back of her head.

“No,” Avara said, sticking her tongue out.

“Every time you hit me, a unicorn dies,” Holly said.

“There’s no such thing as unicorns,” Avara countered.

“They’re extinct. Because you keep hitting me. You annihilated an entire race of magic horse, I hope you’re happy.”

“Then I guess we have nothing left to lose!” Avara said, hitting Holly for a third time.

“Stop! Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop!”

“I’ve stopped.”

“Are you going to talk to him?” Holly asked, again looking over at the boy. She couldn't tell what band he was setting up merch for.

“Nope,” Avara said shortly, spinning around and walking in the opposite direction. Holly jogged a few steps to catch up with her.

“Why not?” She asked.

“Because I’m pathetic.”

“Yep,” Holly agreed. “Still a better love story than Twilight though.” The girls shared a grin, followed by a thumbs-up-knuckle-punch.

When they arrived back at the bus, Avara flopped down on the lounge.

"I'm bored. official-first-day-of-tour eve sucks."

"Ditto," Holly agreed, flopping down next to her. "I suppose we could have stayed back and helped everyone set up our merch tent." They both looked at each other.

"Nah," they both said at the same time, followed by a thumbs-up-knuckle punch.

"Who's there," came a sudden alarmed voice. Holly and Avara looked at each other, and then at the hallway between the bunks as Harlee came running out with a butter knife in her hand.

"It's us Harls," Holly giggled.

"What the heck were you going to do with that?" Avara inquired, "Spread some butter on us?"

"I was going to spread you with violence!" Holly and Avara cracked up laughing.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Holly asked.

"I... was... I was suffering from appendicitis!" Holly and Avara looked at each other, again, and burst into giggles, again.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Avara asked.

"...you know me," Harlee said, waving her hand around, "suffer in silence and all that." Again, Holly and Avara laughed. Harlee certainly did suffer in silence. In fact, she suffered very loudly. "What are you two doing back here?"

"Appendicitis," the girls giggled together.

"Guess what!" Holly suddenly piped up, looking at Harlee, who widened her eyes with curiosity.

"What?"

"Avara has a new lover!"

Harlee looked at Avara who said, "I do not!"

"Then what are we doing sitting around here?" Harlee grinned.