Drumsticks and Guitarpicks

"Gates! Get your shitty ass down here now!"

"I'll get down there when I get down there, Shadz! Fuck off!"

"It doesn't take you two hours to do your hair when you're just going to be watching videos!"

"I said Fuck Off!"

The guys chuckled as Matt fumed slightly from his swivel computer chair. To calm his already grated nerves, Matt spun in the chair, watching the room become a blur before a certain Brian fucking Haner stopped the spinning and glared down at him.

"I wasn't fucking doing my hair, jackass. I was talking to Michelle."

Everyone went silent before Matt grumbled and nodded. Brian moved just enough for Matt to stand up, they held their hands up, right hand knuckles pressed together. Both now sported grins. "You wanna go first, or me?"

Matt grinned before pulling back his fist and then slamming his knuckles into Brian's. And the first swing of Bloody Knuckles had begun. After a good half hour of still going at it, both men stopped and shook out their hand trying to get the feeling to come back. They had played Bloody Knuckles before even "finishing" highschool, and it was their way to let out some steam. One time, a session had gone on for two hours straight and sometimes Matt couldn't close his left hand fully into a fist, and Brian couldn't feel his hand half way up his forearm.

"Finally!" Johnny said exasperated, throwing his arms up in the air. "Can we please get to these thousands of videos?" He growled before being surprised with a rough noogie to the crown of his head.

Jimmy, Zacky and Matt laughed as they watched short shit flail around trying to get away from the attack of Syn Gates. Finally, after they had all settled down, the guys stared at the black computer screen.

"What order should we watch them in?" Zacky asked once Matt pulled up the contest page on their website. Johnny and Brian shrugged. Matt and Jimmy thought of it for a second before Jimmy grabbed the computer mouse and randomly picked the first video.

"Random!" he shouted after he had done so, and the guys began to watch the first video of the thousands that had been entered. Barely even thirty seconds in, they had to mark it off the list.

"And we're already off to a bad start," Matt grumbled under his breath, sinking down in his seat as the second, third, and so on and so forth, videos were picked at random. There were some fairly pleasant bands, some fairly kiss-assing bands, and some my-ears-are-bleeding-destory-the-evidence! bands. There were more of the latter than any others.

It wasn't until the 247th video that they caught any interest.

Johnny was leaning forward in his computer chair, staring at the live-performance filmed video. Zacky and Jimmy caught his interest and looked on, listening as keen as they could to their respective parts of the band.

"Put them down," Johnny demanded, which caused Matt and Brian to pay attention and hide their game of Go Fish.

"Huh?" Matt said, letting Johnny's words process in his head. "Lemme replay," he mumbled, pushing the play button and putting his attention on the computer screen. After watching it again, Matt thought the singer was a little pitchy, but the overall music quality was much better than the other 246 that they had seen.

Matt put it down and let Jimmy randomly pick again.

They took a quick lunch break after the 400th video, which caused a mini-food fight to occur in the kitchen of Matt's house since they had been forced to sit for too long and Jimmy's ADD was being controlled for way too long.

They went through another three hundred videos before they all demanded pizza and beer, and calling it a night.

The Avenged boys had barely even put a dent into the entries. And only two of seven-hundred had been picked out as possible contestants.

The next day was not as bad. They got through less videos, but had many more names on the list. And the next day was even better. They were halfway through the videos now.



Matt, Johnny, Jimmy, Zacky, and Brian all sat in front of a webcam, ready to give a live show of the results for the Avenged's Battle of the Bands that would be held in LA in two weeks. Zacky and Jimmy had demanded there be an 'envelope' with the names of the bands be given to Matt before he read them off. Brian laughed and agreed. Johnny and Matt simply rolled their eyes before going along with it.

"Ready, guys?" Jimmy asked loudly, ready to turn on the camera and start the show. The view count had already reached way over ten thousand people.

They all took deep breaths, looked at each other and grinned. Jimmy took this as his queue and started the show. Instantly, they could all hear the anticipating words of fans and bands that had entered. Matt started off the introduction.

"Hey guys, Avenged Sevenfold here. You fuckers ready for the results of the Battle auditions?" he asked, and immediately the little chat bar to the side was filled up with comments of some form of 'Yes'.

"Gates, the envelope?" Matt said with a grin, causing the rest of them to follow. "Yo, Rev, hit us up with a drum roll!" Jimmy moved in the background and there was the distinct roll of drumsticks tapping rapidly on a tom.

"And the ten competing bands will be..."

More anticipation built up all around the world.

"First to perform, Lover's Dead End!"

The chat box filled up with more comments.

"Followed by Chesire's Smile and Rainbow Veins," Brian said over Matt's shoulder.

"Next is Eat Your Heart Out and Decoded," Matt continued.

"My Sweet Vixen-" Johnny.

"And Leather & Lace." Zacky.

"The Dark Knights and Heartquakes." Jimmy.

"And last, Lies like Sugar." Matt finished them off, and the chat bar had thousands of message now, still even more coming in with every blink of the eye.

"All bands are being mailed with a list of criteria ya gotta meet in order to win. See all of you in two weeks." Matt said, ready to go back to his warm bed and sleep for another week.

"Avenged out!" Jimmy shouted, finishing them up and quickly turning off the camera. Even with the live show over, the chat bar just kept going and going for hours.

"And now, we wait," Brian said with a smirk, leaning back in his chair as he laced his fingers together behind his head.

"No, now we sleep and fuck," Matt groaned, rubbing a hand over his face and dragging himself up to his room.

"I second that notion," Zacky groaned in return, passing out on the couch against the opposite wall. Jimmy and Johnny had disappeared from the room, probably going to their own houses.

And so Brian was left with the computer, lively with nothing to do. Might as well surf the web ...