I'll Make a Man out of You

The next day, Holly was awoken by a very loud and very excited Avara who had pushed her way into Holly's bunk between Holly and John. Avara didn't care that John was there, in fact, she told him how excited she was for tour to begin almost as much as she told Holly.

"Vara?"

"Yes?"

"Get the hell out of my bunk." Avara ignored Holly and instead turned to John so that she could continue telling him how excited she was.

Holly rolled her eyes and decided to get up. She was hungry now that she was awake and she knew that catering had bacon and eggs with toast and nice bottle of orange juice waiting for her.

She found Jake sitting at the kitchenette reading the paper and drinking a cup of steaming coffee.

"Ew," she said, sitting down beside him and laying her head against his shoulder. "Coffee."

"Just because you can't drink coffee," he said, rolling his eyes. "Doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy a lovely cup." Holly laughed.

"Where are the catering tickets? I'm hungry."

"You're going to catering?" Someone yelled. There were several bumps as people left their bunks and hurried to where Holly and Jake were sitting. "Do I have time to get dressed?" It was Tadem, followed by Harlee.

"Nope," Holly replied. "You see, if I wait, I'll probably starve and die. See my problem?" Tadem shook her head as Harlee nodded.

"Wait for me!" Avara yelled.

"So uh, that's four catering tickets please Jake," Harlee grinned, leaning over Holly to give Jake a kiss on the forehead.

"What about John?" Avara asked. Holly shook her head seriously.

"John's in a band meaning he can get his own damn catering tickets."

"You're a terrible girlfriend," Avara replied, shaking her head seriously.

"Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen," Holly replied with a shrug. Avara was just about to argue when Travis pushed his way through them, dangling a set of keys between his fingers. "Where are you going?" Holly asked.

"And where'd you get the keys for the wheels?" Avara asked.

"And can you take us to McDonald's?" Harlee ended. Travis looked up from his phone with a bored look on his face.

"I'm going to the airport to pick up your crew," he said to Holly and then turned to Avara. "Jake asked The Summer Set if we could borrow their van-" He turned to Harlee, "and the answer is no to McDonald's. Go eat at catering."

"You're mean Travis," Harlee pouted. He smiled and opened the bus door.

"Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen..." And then he was gone.

"That mother of a bitch just stole my line!" Holly yelled.



By the time the four girls, plus John made it to catering they were met with an extremely long line filled with extremely hungover band people and crew. Avara grinned at something and nudged Holly.

"What?" Holly asked. Avara pointed to someone a couple of people ahead of them and smirked. Holly craned her head and smirked too when she saw who Avara had been pointing at. "Ah," she nodded, "I see."

"No," Tadem said sternly. Avara and Holly turned to look at her with confused and innocent expressions. "He's hungover and he probably doesn't need you two in his face." Avara rolled her eyes.

"Derek loves us, Tadem," she said. Tadem raised her eyebrow at her. "What? He does... Okay, he doesn't, but he will."

"He will," Holly nodded.

"See, Holly agrees with me!"

"Yeah, I do." Tadem rolled her eyes.

"Tadem, you sound like Jake," Holly grinned.

Eventually, they had all gotten breakfast and were sitting at a huge table with All Time Low, Hayley, Jenna and The Maine. Avara was sitting by Jenna and Garrett, explaining to both of them that she and Holly were actually the clan leaders of the zombie hunter clan, Garrett and the Zombie Hunters and that Garrett was merely just a cover-up. Harlee and Jack were sitting together each eating from a plate piled high with different breakfast materials. Tadem was talking with Rian and Pat about drumming techniques and lastly, Holly was sitting between Hayley and John, talking about how they expected the first show to go.

"I'm excited," Holly grinned, stabbing a piece of bacon with her fork, and shoving it into her mouth. "Last Warped was fun, but this one is gonna be way better."

"We're only playing for a couple of weeks," Hayley said sadly.

"Why?" Holly asked.

"Because we're going to the UK to play a festival with You Me At Six."

"They're cool, why would that make you sad?"

"Because I love Warped Tour."

"That makes sense," Holly nodded. "Will you send me postcards?"

"Yup," Hayley nodded.

"Thanks Hayley-bear," Holly grinned, ruffling Hayley's red hair. "John," she said, turning to her boyfriend. "Are you excited to start the show?" He swallowed his food before he nodded.

"Of course. Warped Tour is an amazing tour to be on."

"That it is, I love the Summerness that is War-"

"Travis is back!" Avara yelled, jumping up. Holly, Tadem and Harlee stood up too. "Friends, guard our food, we'll be back in a second."

The four girls went over to where Travis stood with a bunch of people.

"Hey guys," Travis greeted. "Do you want re-introductions?" Holly nodded. "Danny's helping me with merch. Emmy's Holly's guitar tech. Benny is Tadem's drum tech. Jay is Avara's guitar tech and Allan is Harlee's guitar tech."

"I'm Holly!" Holly exclaimed, stepping forward and holding her hand out.

"And I'm Avara!"

"Tadem."

"And I, my friends, am Harlee."

The group gave out an assortment of different greetings in reply.

"Do you guys wanna join us for breakfast?" Avara wondered. "We'll introduce you all to some people..."

"No thank you," Danny smiled. "I think we better go put our bags at the bus and get to our jobs seeing as we're late and have nothing done." The others agreed.

"Is Jake at the bus?" Travis asked.

"Last time we checked," Holly shrugged.

"Alright, see you guys later!" Avara grinned, turning to go back to the catering table to eat the rest of her bacon.

She sat down with Garrett and Jenna again and interrupted their conversation to continue where she had left off.

"So, as I was saying, should the Zombie Apocalypse, hereafter know as simply 'Z A', transpire during the tour of the Warped variety, while we are somewhere that prohibits us from carrying our weapons, on stage for example, the plan is to create a distraction, enabling us to run to our busses and gather our Zombie Hunter clan Garrett and the Zombie Hunters zombie hunting equipment to fend off said zombies."

"What kind of distraction?" Garrett asked, looking up from his food.

"Honestly, Garrett," Avara sighed, shaking her head, "as clan leader of the Zombie Hunter clan, Garrett and the Zombie Hunters, I would have thought you'd be making up all the plans instead of expecting me to do everything!"

"Not everything-"

"Everything."

"Have you thought up a distraction?" Jenna asked Avara.

"We throw Holly at them."

"Hey!" Holly said, throwing a bacon bit at Avara, which landed on her plate. "Wait," Holly said urgently as she saw Avara's eyes drop to the bacon. "Give that back." Avara picked up the bacon and popped it into her mouth.

"Oh my god, that is the most deliciously delicious piece of delicious bacon I have ever tasted. Delicious."

"I hate you," Holly glared.



A couple of hours later, Holly and Avara were supposed to be getting ready to do their sound check, but they were laying in their bunks playing draw something against each other. Avara had just sent Holly a picture of a unicorn when she heard Holly open the curtain of her bunk.

"That is the greatest unicorn I have ever seen," she said. Avara stuck her head out of her own bunk to smile at Holly.

"Thanks." Before either of them could say anything else, they heard the bus door get yanked open and slammed shut before hearing stomping footsteps coming toward them.

"What if it's Jake?" Holly whispered.

"Jake's in the back lounge," Avara whispered back, and then she saw a familiar face. "It's Tadem!" she said cheerfully, rolling out of her bunk. Tadem glared at her and stormed past her into the back lounge.

"What's wrong with her?" Holly asked.

"Do you think if I knew, I would have been all like "Tadem, yay, yay it's Tadem"?" Avara asked sarcastically, looking down the hall.

"Let's go find out," Holly said, landing softly beside Avara. Together, they entered the lounge to see Tadem sitting on the couch next to Jake.

"What's a matter Tades?" Holly asked.

"Go away!" Tadem replied.

"Calm your tits," Avara said.

"Jake, make them go away," Tadem mumbled to Jake, who looked up at Avara and Holly with an expression not to be reckoned with. Holly and Avara looked at each other backed out of the lounge, deciding that it was about time they headed over to the stage anyway.

"I don't wanna go to sound check," Avara whined.

"Me either," Holly agreed, "But hey, isn't that what our team is for anyway? Do you think if we paid them in, like, back rubs or nachos or something, they'll do it for us?"

"Just for today?" Avara asked.

"Just for today," Holly nodded.

"Let's do it."

As they approached the stage, a band the girls didn't know were just finishing their set. They found Emmy, Benny, Jay and Allan fiddling with equipment next to the stage, preparing to set up for Kill Barbie's set.

"Good evening," Holly said. They all turned around to smile at her.

"Hi Holly! Hi Avara!" Emmy grinned.

"You're early. Jake told us you probably wouldn't show up until like five minutes before you had to go on," Allan said, looking back down at Harlee's guitar. "And here you are, first ones here."

"Yeah about that-" Holly started, but Avara cut her off.

"Sticker."

"Sticker," Holly nodded in agreement, and then "Anyway, as I was saying, do you guys mind if we skip some of today's check and we'll give you pizza or something?"

"No," the four techs said at the same time.

"No you don't mind?" Avara asked.

"No, you're not leaving," Allan said. Avara frowned at him.

"You're the only one here without a nickname," she said, "Can I call you 'Beaver'?"

"Allan. Allan, Allan. Allan," Holly giggled.

"What?" Allan asked.

"It's a Youtube video," Jay said, shaking his head with a smile and picking up Avara's guitar. The crew for the band that had just finished on stage swarmed in to clear it.

"Can I call you 'Rayjay'?" Avara asked her tech.

"If I say no, you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?"

"Possibly."

"Look, guys, we just want to say hello to Derek, our Best Friend Forever For Life."

"BFFFL," Avara nodded.

"Harlee and Tadem aren't here anyway. We'll be back in five minutes."

"Five minutes," Allan warned them.

"Speaking of Tadem, I wonder how she'll be feeling during the show. We might have to change our setlist a bit to accommodate her mood. Play some metal or something."

"Why, what's wrong with her?" Emmy asked. Holly and Avara shrugged.

"She was mad. We don't know why."

"Something about her boyfriend, I think," Benny said, picking up her water bottle to take a sip.

"Derek will know, let's ask Derek," Avara said.

"Why would Derek know?" Holly asked.

"Derek knows everything."

"Except how much he loves us." Avara nodded.

"Except how much he loves us."

"Five minutes," Allan warned again.



Avara tiptoed up behind Derek and reached up to put her hands around his eyes.

"Guess who!"

"Oh God!"

"Wrong," Avara giggled, removing her hands, "It's Avara. Though I can see how you would make that mistake."

"Anyone could make that mistake," Holly said, "You do kind of look like a really tall dude with a beard. In the right light."

"Thank you," Avara grinned seeming genuinely pleased that Holly said she looked like a man with a beard.

"What do you two want?"

"What are you doing, Derek?" Holly asked.

"Where are you going, Derek?" Avara added.

"To my merch tent," he said, trying to get away from them. "I mean, to... Africa."

"Can we come?" Holly asked.

"I've always wanted to go to Africa." Derek threw his hands in the air in defeat and walked off toward a gate that would let them through to merch ave. Avara and Holly followed.

"You remind me of Holly's cat," Avara told him. "She pretended not to love me too. But she did, she really did. Secretly."

"Very secretly," Holly added. "So, Mayday Parade's merch tent, huh?" she said, elbowing Avara.

"Merch tent?" she asked, as though she didn't know what the words meant, and then she gasped. "Merch tent. I think it's been five minutes Holly, we should get back to the stage," she said, grabbing Holly by the arm and dragging her away.

"But your eye candy!" Holly yelled. Derek shook his head and walked through the gate.

When the girls got back to the stage they found their techs, Jake, Harlee and Tadem. Allan looked up in surprise and then glanced over to Jake.

"I thought you said they're always late?" He said in confusion.

"They are late," Jake pointed out. Allan shook his head while Benny and Emmy giggled.

"No," he said. "I told them they could go and talk to Derek for five minutes, and that was like four minutes ago." Jake looked surprised and then narrowed his eyes at them.

"Why are you back early?" he asked. Avara shrugged but Holly started to tell him.

"Well, we were following Derek and then he said that he was going to his merch tent and I was like 'hey, Avara, your love-'" She was cut off by Avara pushing her into a post. "Ow Avara, what was that for?!"

"I think it was because you were going to tell everyone that Avara likes Rodger," Harlee told her, before her face fell when she realised Avara was going to launch at her and push her off her guitar box.

"Avara likes Rodger?" Jake asked, bewildered. "When did this happen? Wait, who's Rodger?"

"A boy. We saw him yesterday," Holly replied, taking a seat on the ground by Jay's legs.

"I hate you all right now," Avara mumbled, sitting beside Tadem on a speaker. Tadem growled and pushed her off. "Ow! What is it with you people and being mean to me?!" Holly shrugged.

"You're just so cute and like that little brother no one likes so we beat you up."

"I hate you."

"I love you too!"

The girls sat around while Emmy, Benny, Jay and Allan set up, which apparently was what they were there for. Not soon enough for the excited troop, the time came.

"Kill Barbie, you're on in five!" A huge man yelled from the top of the stairs at them. Jake jumped to his feet and started giving orders until finally the four girls were standing side stage with their instruments or sticks in Tadem's case.

"And five, four, three, two, one. You're on!" Jake said.

"Good afternoon young Warped Tour friends, it is I, Holly Burming," Holly grinned over the crowd after she'd picked her microphone up from it's stand. "I've missed you all and I'm so glad we're back this year."

"Ahem," Avara said into her microphone.

"Oh, right," Holly laughed. "That's Avara, that's Harlee and that's Tadem," she said, pointing to her band members. "And we're Kill Barbie. This songs called Picking Daisies."