I'll Make a Man out of You

In the fifteen minutes the girls had been at the O'Callaghan's barbecue, Holly had successfully managed to blend into the crowd and avoid Mr and Mrs O'Callaghan, but when Avara found her hiding beneath a table of finger food, she knew she could hide no longer.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" Avara said, crawling beneath the table and letting the table cloth fall back down behind her when she sat next to Holly. "Literally everywhere. Even went up to Canada at some point."

"All in fifteen minutes?" Holly asked.

Avara stared at her for a moment, and then whispered, "Mindfuck." She then looked around before turning back to Holly. "What are you doing under here anyway?"

"Hiding from John's family," Holly muttered sheepishly. Avara rolled her eyes.

"Follow me," she said before ninja rolling out from beneath the table and knocking over Cassadee Pope. "Oh, sorry Ass- I mean Cassadee."

Holly reluctantly followed her and Avara grabbed her arm before she could worm away.

Avara dragged Holly over to where John's mother was talking to John's father, who was tending to the barbecue.

"Hello Mr and Mrs John's Parents," Avara beamed at them, sticking out the hand that was not holding Holly for them to shake. "I'm Avara, Holly's best friend. I'm here to represent Mr and Mrs Burns- I mean Burming." Holly glowered and elbowed Avara in the ribs while Mr and Mrs O'Callaghan took turns shaking her hand and introducing themselves.

"Pleased to meet you, darling," John's mother smiled.

"I have something to ask you," Avara said to them seriously. " John's parents looked at her, surprised. "Do you not like Holly?"

Holly nudged Avara again, who yelled out a loud 'ow' while John's parents looked outraged at the thought of Holly thinking they didn't like her.

"What on earth gave you that idea, dear?" Mrs O'Callaghan asked, frowning in thought as though trying to pinpoint a time the previous night in which she showed any dislike towards Holly.

"She's a bit messed up in the head," Avara told her, "I think she was thrown down a well as a baby."

Mrs O'Callaghan gasped and covered her mouth and suddenly John appeared at her shoulder.

"She's kidding, Ma," he chuckled, before it hit him that it was Avara who had said this. "I think."

"Oh, thank goodness!"

"Avara has to go now, there's someone over by the gate that she wants to see."

"There is?" Avara said, her eyes widening at John's words and her head snapping toward the gate, where she saw Curtis. "There is. I'm going this way," she said, pointing in the opposite direction of the gate.

"That's a fence, Vara," Holly told her.

"Yep," Avara nodded. Holly watched as Avara walked along the fence, in the direction away from the gate, and suddenly appeared behind Derek.

"Oh no," John groaned while Holly laughed.

Holly, John and John's parents watched silently as Avara tiptoed up behind Derek and placed her hands over his eyes, yelling out "Guess who!", causing Derek to jump and spin around.

"Jesus Christ!"

"Wrong! It's Avara," Avara grinned, "You know, we really have to stop meeting like this."

"I agree," replied Derek, turning around and walking away from her. Avara frowned and crossed her arms over her chest before stomping over to where Harlee, Jack and Alex Gaskarth were huddled around something on the ground.



As the night wore on, Holly became more comfortable with John's parents, Avara received a smile from Curtis, and Derek managed to avoid both girls until it was time for them to leave when they started an argument over who Derek was going to piggyback to one of the cabs. While Holly had Avara in a headlock, he managed to slide into one unnoticed and the girls ended up having to get a ride back with Rian Dawson and Cassadee Pope.

One snide poop joke filled cab ride later, Holly and Avara were in the lounge of the bus in front of Holly's laptop making a video to respond to some of the fan mail they had received through Twitter, Tumblr and Youtube.

"That's not very nice!" Holly said loudly, "This person says 'Kill Barbie, when will you realise no one even likes you?' What even?"

Avara laughed. "When people stop coming to see us play."

"What a clay-brained boar-pig though!"

"How about this one," Avara said, pointing to tweet on Holly's computer screen. '@HollyBumingKB totally copied @yelyahwilliams hair! Go back to Australia stupid hoe.' Haha, hoe."

"I did not copy Hayley!" Holly cried, turning to Avara. "I didn't!"

"I know you didn't, dork."

Holly turned back to her computer and switched to another tab which displayed their most recent interview with Bryan Stars and its comments.

"And this one," she said, Clearing her throat. "'Holly's such a bitch! She's always saying mean things about Kyle Burns, just because he dumped her ass for Mindy.' Ew, Mindy."

"But Kyle is a huge butt guy though?" Holly said seriously, looking at Avara. They held straight faces for a moment before breaking into a fit of laughter. When they recovered, Holly scanned through the questions. "Oh! How bout this one! 'Avara's lame, JCook rules!' I don't think that's fair, he's lame."

"Yup," Avara nodded.

"Oh!" Holly exclaimed, sitting up straight. "This bitch is heading for a knuckle sandwich... Burming style!" Avara burst out laughing. "What?" Holly laughed.

"A Burming Sandwich sounds like something you'd get at a seedy cafe in England..." Holly laughed and rolled her eyes. "Anyway, so what were you 'ohing'?" Holly cleared her throat before she explained.

"It says, 'Tadem Cefni needs to watch her back, I saw Travis Clarke and his ex-girlfriend making out behind the We The Kings merch tent at my Warped date...' I mean, what?" Holly said. Avara frowned and leant over Holly's shoulder.

"He wouldn't, right?" Holly laughed, rolling her eyes.

"Have you seen Travis Clarke around Tadem?" She asked. "The boy is smitten with her for whatever reason. There will not be any cheating on Tadem with Sasha. End of convo." Avara laughed, nodding her head.

"Yeah, you're right. Stupidest thing I've seen all night."

Just then, the bus door was opened and in stepped Tadem, followed by Travis and Jake and Travis. She had an angry look on her face while the rest of them looked downright confused.

"Tell us what's wrong!" Jake stressed, moving a head of Travis Cooper. Tadem shook her head and stormed past Holly and Avara towards the back lounge. "Tadem, we can't help you if we don't know what's wrong!"

Jake's voice trailed off as he disappeared down the hallway. Travis and Travis, who both looked lost and confused sat down at the bench in front of where Holly and Avara were sitting. Holly glanced at Avara, who shrugged and turned to the camera.

"Sorry folks, having a bit of a technical difficulty here on the Kill Barbie bus!" Holly nudged her, making her laugh. "And by that, I do mean that Tadem is in a grumpy mood."

"Surprise!" Travis Clarke said humourlessly.

"Travis, we're filming!" Holly laughed. Travis shrugged his shoulders so Holly turned the laptop around so that it was facing the two Travis'. "And how do you feel about that?" She asked seriously. Travis laughed and stuck his finger up at her.

"Okay, okay," Avara muttered, turning the laptop back to face her and Holly. "Next hater!" She scanned through the Twitter news feed, smiling at the nice ones until she spotted a mean one. "Okay, this one is lame, but whatever. 'I hope Avara falls into a hole and dies for what she did to poor sweet @iamjonathancook! You're band sucks, hor!' Okay, firstl-"

"It's not spelt like that!" Holly cut Avara off with a yell. "You spell atrociously! Whore is spelt W-H-O-R-E and you used the wrong word! You wanted your not you are! Therefore, you are dumb you stup-."

"Anyway," Avara cut back in. "You don't even know what happened, so shut your pie-hole." Holly and the two Travis' laughed. "You butt-plug."

They suddenly heard Tadem yelling something at Jake and Holly and Avara looked at each other, wide-eyed. Avara was the first to turn back to the lap top.

"Technical difficulties again," she said, "kkkssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhkkkkkkshksshskshs,' she added, attempting to mimic the sound of static.

"That doesn't work if they can see us," Holly laughed and shut her lap top. "We'll upload it later."

"So what's wrong with Tadem?" Avara asked, turning to Travis Clarke, who shook his head to say he didn't want to talk about it. Avara shrugged and turned back to Holly.

"Regular Show?" Holly asked.

"Regular Show," Avara nodded in agreement.



The next morning, Avara had gone to the trouble of finding out what time Mayday Parade had their sound check so she could sneak onto their bus and convince everyone still on it that she was Derek's best friend. Everyone knew, because she had already told them multiple times, but she thought it couldn't hurt to remind them. She had managed to get their bus code out of Alex Garcia, and had let herself on the bus as quietly as she could.

Curtis had been the only one who was there and, deciding she had been ignoring him to the point that it was probably rude, she had decided to have a proper conversation with him.

"So" Avara had said, sitting next to him on the couch. He had looked up from his laptop and looked at her curiously. "Say I had this friend who wanted a Mayday Parade shirt... how should she go about such a transaction?"

"That depends," he had replied. "Is this friend you?"

"Don't be silly, Curtis, I can't be friends with myself. I tried once before and Facebook said no."

"Don't let the rules of Facebook govern your life, Avara," he had told her seriously. "I'm serious, it can really affect the quality of your life. Come and see me at the tent later and I'll give you a shirt."

"For what price?" Avara had asked.

"Buy me dinner."

"Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy the shirt?"

"Dude, all I want is a cheeseburger."

"Curtis, my friend, you have yourself a deal."

So this is why, an hour later, Avara approached Mayday Parade's merch tent with two cheeseburgers. When Curtis saw her, which wasn't until she was standing directly behind him making bunny ears and a fan pointed her out, he smiled.

"It's not dinner yet," he said when he saw the cheeseburgers.

"Who said any were for you?" She replied, walking away and slumping in a picnic chair like a man. "I'm starved."

"So am I!" Curtis replied. He waved a hand at another guy to take over selling merch and sat on her.

"Oi!" Avara laughed as she tried to push him off, but he wouldn't budge.

"I'm hungrier than you. What have you done all day?" At that, he snatched a burger out of Avara's hand and started to unwrap it.

"Well, I woke up-"

"When?" Curtis cut in.

"About an hour ago. And then I came and saw you. And then I made Dave piggyback me to McDonald's, and then I came here to enjoy my reward for waking up before lunchtime, which is two cheeseburgers."

"One cheeseburger," corrected Curtis.

"Only because some butt-nose stole one from me!" Instead of replying, Curtis stood up, pulled Avara up, sat back down in the chair and told her she could sit on him after she yelled at him.

"So why are we suddenly best friends?" she asked him as she cautiously sat on his knees.

"Are we?" he asked. Avara thought he was mocking her.

"This whole sitting-on-each-other thing doesn't normally happen until people are best friends," Avara told him.

"That explains why you and Derek are always sitting on each other," Curtis replied, still obviously mocking her because she and Derek never sat on each other.

"That's different," Avara said as she opened her burger to pull out the pickle, "Derek doesn't admit that we're best friends. Even though we are."

"Of course you are."

Avara held the pickle between her fingers and looked at it sadly. "Holly isn't here."

"No, she's trying to collect gum balls from people at The Maine's tent," Curtis told her. "Why do you sound so sad?"

"She usually eats my pickles." Curtis plucked the pickle out of her hand and put it in his mouth. "How do you know Holly's trying to collect gum balls from people at The Maine's tent?" Avara asked. Curtis pointed and Avara followed the direction of his finger to a tent across the walkway from Mayday Parade's. It was The Maine's, and as Curtis had said, there was Holly, yelling abuse at a kid because he wouldn't give her a gum ball he apparently didn't even have.

Avara saw Holly look up and watched as her red-headed friend ducked out of the tent and cart-wheeled the distance between the two tents and then skipped into Mayday Parade's tent to stand in front of Avara and Curtis.

"Did you just cart-wheel here?" Curtis asked.

"I'll have you know, Romeo, I was the cart-wheeling state champion back home," she told him. When he raised his eyebrows at her, she laughed. "I'm kidding, I was going to commando roll but then I remembered I washed my hair last night."

"Did you just call me Romeo?"

Holly let out an impatient sigh. "Look, Rebecca, this conversation would take half as long if you didn't keep making me clarify everything I say or do! Can I have your pickle?" Holly asked Avara.

"I already gave it to him," Avara said, jabbing a thumb at Curtis.

"You gave my pickle to Richard!"

"My name is Curtis," Curtis said, but Holly held up a hand to silence him as she glared at Avara.

"This is a serious breach of out Friendship Contract!" Holly said to Avara.

"Your face is a serious breach of our Friendship Contract!" Avara yelled back.

"Your mum is a-"

"Don't you dare talk about my mother like that," Avara yelled, standing up. Holly crossed her arms over her chest smugly.

"I was going to say that your mum is a nice lady. You butt."

Curtis, who had been watching the exchange with a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face, was asked if he could come back to work now that he had finished his cheeseburger. He nodded to the other merch guy and stood up.

"What shirt do you want?" he asked Avara, who turned around and looked at him blankly. "You wanted a shirt," he reminded her.

"Oh, right, can I have the blue one?" she asked, pointing to a box that contained blue shirts with Mayday Parade written across the front.

"Small?" he asked. Avara nodded and turned back to Holly, who had her hands held up and looked as though she were trying to squeeze air particles together.

"What are you doing?" When Holly saw that Avara was looking at her, she dropped her hands and smiled innocently.

"Nothing. I'm going to go back and get some more gum balls."

"What do you want gum balls for?"

"You'll see," Holly grinned. She rubbed her hands together evilly.

"And how many have you managed to collect?"

"Including the zero I collected before I came here? Zero." Holly suddenly dropped the the ground and commando rolled out of the tent and Avara and Curtis watched as she ran toward The Maine's tent with her hands on her head yelling, "I SOILED MY HAIR."

Avara took the shirt Curtis handed her.

"I'll let you get back to work," she said to him. "If you want me, I'll be on your bus."

"Why my bus?" he asked her. Avara shrugged and left the tent to Curtis yelling after her. She couldn't hear what he was saying, but it sounded something like 'Try not to torture Derek too much'.



Kevin Lyman and Jake had organised for Holly and Avara to do an acoustic performance before their set, at the acoustic basement for the sole reason of keeping them out of trouble. So the girls walked slowly in front of Jake as he ushered them towards the tent the acoustic sessions were done in.

"So I'll sing for twenty minutes here, and then we're going straight to our actual set?" Holly whined. "Where I'll do a further twenty or so minutes?" Jake rolled his eyes as Avara patted Holly's arm sympathetically.

"Don't be so dramatic," Jake scolded. "You weren't doing anything else, and you're on the tour to sing anyway, so I don't see what your problem is."

"Well we were gonna go see Derek, but I me-"

"Derek doesn't even like you two, so I don't see why you bother annoying him like you do." Holly and Avara gasped loudly and stopped walking to turn around and gape at Jake. Again, Jake rolled his eyes and pushed them so that they were forced to keep walking. "It's true."

"It is not!" Avara said indignantly. "Derek is my best friend!" Holly cleared her throat loudly which Avara ignored.

"Sure," Jake chuckled. "Keep thinking that then..."

When they reached the acoustic basement tent, they each grabbed an acoustic guitar and sat down in the seats at the back of the tent, Holly in front of the microphone. Jake sat on a seat behind a table with a couple of other people from the backstage area.

"Alright, do you need to do anything with your voice Holly?" A guy with a black Mohawk asked Holly, glancing up from his clipboard. Holly cleared her throat and shook her head with a grin. "Alright, sweet." He turned to a large African man at the front of the tent. "Let them in Raymond. Remember to check for their wristbands." Raymond nodded and pulled open the tent flap.

"Do you think anyone came?" Holly whispered to Avara. Avara giggled.

"I don't know, maybe no one showed up and Jake will let us go see Derek," she replied. A loud, shrill scream erupted outside of the tent, followed by a heap more. "Well shit, they're here."

One at a time, people filed into the tent and took seats on the floor around where Holly and Avara sat. Some of them waved and screamed their greetings. Both girls smiled and waved back happily. They may have protested to coming to the acoustic basement, but really they loved this sort of thing, and they were thrilled to have this opportunity.

Once the tent was full and the fans were staring expectantly at the girls, they realised they weren't sure what songs they were doing. Holly leant forward to look at Jake, who raised his eyebrow.

"What?" he asked. A couple of kids laughed.

"What do we sing?" Holly asked. "Do we sing songs that we're gonna sing at our set later?" She asked. Jake shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes.

"Sing whatever you want."

"Hmm," Avara muttered. "The possibilities are endless. Let's play Apocalypse."

"Okay," Holly nodded. "Uh, this song is called Apocalypse, and it's about being in an apocalypse..." The crowd laughed as the girls began the intro to the song. "It all started with a god, damn kiss. The water levelled before the big storm hit. We wanted shelter but you kept, on, running." The strummed for a bit. "You never understood, but heres the gist: You started a god damn apocalypse."

After Apocalypse, much to the excitement of the crowd, Harlee and Tadem showed up to help out. Harlee took Holly's guitar and Tadem had bought her bongo drum. The next song they played was a cover of Titanium.

"This song is a cover of Titanium by David Guetta," Holly smiled. "I really like this song, and it's been in my night-time playlist on my iPod for weeks now. I hope you enjoy!"

"Also, this song is usually done with a piano..." Avara added. "We'll have to see how it turns out with guitars instead..."

"You shout it loud, but I can't hear a word you say," Holly started. "I'm talking loud, not saying much. I'm criticized, but all your bullets ricochet. You shoot me down, but I get up." There's a brief pause while the others play their instruments. "I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim. Fire away, fire away. You shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am titanium!"

"You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium!" Holly, Avara and Harlee all sang at the same time.

"Cut me down, but it's you who'll have further to fall. Ghost town and haunted love. Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones. I'm talking loud, not saying much." In the lyric pause, Holly glanced around the room at all the kids singing back to her and smiled. She loved them all. "I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim. Fire away, fire away. You shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am titanium!"

"You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium!" The three sang together again.

"I am titanium!" Holly sang, closing her eyes. "I am titanium! Stone hard, machine gun. Fired at the ones who run. Stone hard, as bulletproof glass!"

"You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium," Harlee sang softly.

"You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium," Avara sang just as softly.

"You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium!" Holly sang loudly, placing a hand against her chest. "You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium! I am titanium!"

As the final note came to an end, the crowd cheered loudly, making the girls grin happily at each other. Even Tadem was grinning.

"Thanks so much guys," Holly smiled. "And thanks to Vara and Harls for joining in. You guys were splendid." She glanced over her shoulder at Tadem. "You rock the bongos Tade."



That afternoon, after their actual set and after they had a signing, the girls found themselves laying in the back lounge of their bus trying hopelessly to escape the heat. Holly remembered that at their first Warped Tour, they'd thought the heat wasn't too bad and that the American's and English people who thought it was hot, were pussies. But now, Holly realised that the girls hadn't really seen a winter since before the last Warped Tour. They'd gone from the previous Warped in the American summer, to an Australian summer for their Stack is the New Black Tour and Soundwave Tour and then right back to America for yet another summer tour.

"I never, ever thought that I'd ever say this ever, but I miss winter," Holly groaned, tipping some of her water from her water bottle on her head. It missed most of her face and instead covered a majority of the floor, but she shrugged it off.

Avara, who was on the floor to her left groaned too. "I agree with you. I also agree that the water you just covered the floor with, is super glorious."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"I'm actually enjoying the heat," Harlee piped up. She was sitting on the couch wearing her skinny jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt. "I don't miss the cold at all."

"How are you wearing all that?!" Avara yelled, tossing her empty water bottle at Harlee.

"As opposed to what you two are wearing?" Harlee giggled. Holly and Avara both glanced down at their matching bathing suits they were wearing.

"Hey!" Holly exclaimed. "Don't judge us! It's hot and we're gonna go sit in Alex and Jacks pool with them!"

"Yeah!" Avara agreed. "It's not like we wore this on stage!"

Harlee laughed and rolled her eyes as she pulled a blanket over her lap and picked up the remote for the TV. "Well, while you guys do that, I'm gonna watch Gossip Girl. Tell Jack when he's done to come see me."

Holly and Avara nodded and dragged themselves down the hallway, stopping at their bunks to grab towels and then continued dragging themselves towards the front of the bus.

Alex Gaskarth.
QUICK! RIAN BOUGHT US BURRITOS!

"We have to hurry!" Holly exclaimed, grabbing Avara's arm. "Rian bought burritos!" Avara let out a loud noise of excitement, and the two took off running to the bus that was parked right next to theirs.

"Dear lord, he was right!" Avara exclaimed when the saw Rian standing by the pool where Alex and Jack were sitting, handing out burritos to the All Time Low crew, plus Zack, Alex and Jack. "We're here! Give us the burritos or die!" Rian rolled his eyes and laughed as he handed over two burritos each.

"Thanks brother Ri!" Holly grinned, kissing his cheek and pushing Alex over in the pool with her foot so that she could sit down.

"Yeah, thanks Rian!" Avara nodded, dropping down between Holly and Jack. "Jack, Harlee said when you're done here, go and see her."

"Why?" He asked, taking a large bite from his burrito. Holly, Avara and Alex all wiggled their eyebrows at him suggestively, making him laugh. "Fuck up."

"Alright, alright," Holly said, holding her hands up. "Calm your tits, Jack, calm your tits."