Counting the Stars

The next day I felt like an overly obsessive and attached girlfriend, having my phone with me at every single moment. From the time I left the hotel to return home to now, my phone has gone everywhere I had gone. To the bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. If this was what being in a relationship felt like, hanging around the phone waiting for communication, I was glad I seemed to be a guy repellent. This waiting for someone to contact you was not something I enjoyed. It took up too much effort and too much time to worry and wait

So far my day had been uneventful. I hadn't accomplished much and I didn’t receive any phone calls. Most of my time was spent looking at different haircuts guys had, trying to find one that would work. It was a weird thought imagining being a guy. You spend your entire life being one gender and then in 48 hours decide to trash all of that to act like another, it was just flat out weird. Everyone else thought it was weird, too.

After telling my parents my grand plan they asked if I needed to be admitted to the local mental asylum. They went on to tell me all about how my plan would never work and laughed at it. In the end they came to the conclusion they couldn’t hold me back from pursuing this since I was 18 and therefor a legal adult.

My phone began to ring quite loudly and I nearly jumped out of my seat, pissing myself in excitement thinking it was them calling to tell me I had the job. After checking caller ID, I found that it was only Caroline.

“What do you want?” I asked, annoyance seeping through my tone of voice. I had already informed her that she wasn't allowed to call today.

“I was shopping in the mall today and when I walked into Victoria Secret's I thought of something… WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT YOUR BOOBS?” Caroline screeched into the phone, causing me to pull it away from my ear.

I looked down at my basically nonexistent chest area and sighed, “Don’t they have those things you can strap across your chest to push your boobs down? I mean, my boobs barely fit into an A cup seeing as they’re so small. Not all of us are as top heavy as you.”

“You’ve got a point there, sister. Maybe we could get some of that tape stuff where you just tape them down? This a very serious matter. Just think about how your girl anatomy could ruin your entire plan!” Caroline laughed loudly, causing me to pull my phone away from my ear again.

I sighed, “I feel ya, Care Bear. This wasn’t something that exactly crossed my mind, though. I’m not going to worry too much about it until I know I for sure got the job.”

“Which you will get! You play drums better than any other girl I’ve ever seen!”

“But the thing is, I went in there like a guy. So many other guys out there have the same skill level as me, if not better. We’ll worry about this later, ok? If I call you freaking out, we can worry. We’ll go to the mall and buy out the men’s section and then work on my boyish charm.” I replied, twirling a piece of hair around my finger.

“Alright, Callista. Call me as soon as you find something out!”

I laughed at her enthusiasm, “Will do, Care. Talk to you later.”

Almost immediately after hanging up with Caroline, my phone rang again. I looked down at the caller ID, expecting it to be Caroline calling me back about something else that was oh so important, but found the number to be an unfamiliar one. I shot up straight and coughed a few times, making my voice deeper and raspier.

“Hello?” I asked, answering the phone in my “manly” voice.

“Good afternoon, is this Kyle Blake?” A male voice asked, slight accent present when he spoke.

I used every ounce of willpower in my body to not shriek or throw the phone at the wall in disbelief, “This is him.”

“Hi Kyle, this is Paul, from yesterday at auditions. After much consideration, the guys have decided that they want you to be their drummer for the summer tour,” He responded quickly and officially.

“Are you serious? That’s awesome!” It was taking everything in me to not drop the phone and scream and dance or squeal like a dying pig.

He chuckled on the other line, “Yes, indeed. We’ll send you an email with the contract and everything you’ll need to sign and fill out. It will discuss the basic necessities of tour, the expectations, and your pay. You’ll need to print it out and bring it to the production meeting we’re having tomorrow. We'll work on getting the set together and we'll give you all of the music to start learning the songs. All the information will be sent to you in that email as well. Other than that, we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow to prepare for the tour.”

“Yes, sir. And again, thank you so much.”

“Don’t mention it. But please, call me Paul.”

With that, Paul hung up the phone. I set my phone down on the counter and ran around the house screaming as loud as I possibly could. A few times I jumped onto the couch and jumped back off, excitement taking control of every ounce of my body. I fell onto the couch after running around and just sat there smiling for a good few minutes. After I calmed down, I went back to my phone and called Caroline.

“Meet me at the mall in 10. I need guy clothes,” I quickly spoke, hanging up the phone before she could respond.

----

“YOU GOT THE JOB!” Caroline screamed, running full force towards me. She had a habit of screaming and squealing, one that I wasn’t fond of in the slightest.

“Yes, I did. Now shut up and let’s go get me clothes,” I rolled my eyes at her antics as she bounced up and down.

We spent a majority of the day going in and out of different stores, wasting more than three weeks of paychecks on clothes for a four month tour. Each time I swiped my credit card it took everything in me to not cringe at the price, and the money I was spending. The looks I was receiving from people were also priceless, considering I was dressed like a girl and buying piles of clothes for a guy. I really couldn’t tell every person at the sales counter, “Oh yeah, I’m buying clothe so I can dress up like a guy and go on tour with the world’s largest boy band for four months.” If I did, I’d probably have security called and have me escorted out of the mall for being crazy.

After hours of shopping, Caroline and I made our way to a salon. I didn’t want to chop off all of my hair, but it was the easiest thing to do. I figured I couldn’t go everywhere in a hat, so I just needed to suck it up and cut it all off. The hair stylist almost refused to cut it all off, saying my hair was too long and pretty. I didn’t tell her why I needed it to be cut off, but she did it nonetheless. Caroline held my hand throughout the entire process to keep me from crying.

“Callista, you’re cutting your hair, not giving birth. Stop cutting off the blood flow in my hand,” Caroline complained.

“Sorry,” I apologized, not listening to her and continuing to hold onto her hand with a death grip.

After another 10 minutes of my hair being cut, I looked at myself in the mirror and couldn’t even recognize myself. My hair that was once all the way down to the small of my back was completely gone and I had the flippy hair of Justin Bieber. I didn’t even recognize myself, which scared me beyond belief.

“Alrighty Callista, now I am going to throw you on your bed and bang you. I’m sorry, but you just really look like a guy,” Caroline shrugged, smiling innocently.

I shoved her lightly and rolled my eyes, ignoring her comments. The realization of what I was about to do and the journey I was about to embark on hit me hard when I looked at myself in the mirror, not seeing the playful 18 year old girl. It finally dawned on me that I was going to be on tour with five guys I didn’t know a thing about except for the fact that they all thought I was a guy. For the first time since the plan was formulated in my head, I doubted that it was going to work.