Louder Than Thunder

The managers stood off at the side of the living room, as though observing their actions as an experiment. The girls all stood near the back of the living room, looking down on the couches. The four boys sat strewn across the couches, one with a girl on his lap.
“Boys, these are the Rag Dolls, your opening act. This is Mary-Jane Cohn, Michelle Townshend and Darlene Sanders,” Albert introduced, Paul whispering their names to him.
“Hello,” Darlene said with a wave of her hand.
They stared at the girls so curiously, as if they’d never seen anything like them before.
“Girls, this is Eric Archer,” Paul said, pointing at the first boy on the left.
Eric was fairly tall, stocky, and olive skinned. He had a dark brown shaggy Beatle-cut, dark eyes, heightened by thick eyebrows, and a round face with stubble covering it. He was sitting with a bottle of beer in hand, a pair of sneakers kicked up on the table. Levis and a t-shirt covered his body. He looked over at the girls with a flirty smile.
“Kurt Sawyer,” he introduced next.
Kurt was sitting on the second couch, directly parallel to where the girls were standing. He was turned right around to look up at the girls. His innocent earth green eyes gazed up, seeming interested in them. His hair was cinnamon brown and done in an awkward greaser-do. Though he was quite tall, his face made him look quite a lot younger. He had a fairly large nose, a pale complexion and was very skinny. He was wearing cuffed jeans, which were slightly too big, a grey t-shirt and a leather jacket.
“Sidney Baker.”
Sidney was slightly shorter than Kurt and with a more average build. He had swooping dark brown hair, shaping his square face, and pale skin. His cheeks were constantly slightly red. He wore a plaid button up and faded jeans. Like Kurt, he was looking up at the girls thoughtfully and kindly.
“And Keith Jones, and . . .”
“Carla,” he finished, referring to the red-headed girl on his lap.
“Caroline,” she corrected, seeming annoyed with him.
“Right, whateva’.”
Keith, on the third couch, was about the same height as Kurt and was about as pale and lanky as him, with dark hair which was parted and curled just above one of his eyes. Triangular sideburns adorned his face, bringing out his strong jaw line. He wore leather pants and a simple white t-shirt. It was the bright blue eyes that got the girls. That and his raspy voice, which suited rock ‘n’ roll like the same way an electric guitar did.
“ ‘ello,” Kurt said quietly, still gazing up at them in wonder.
“Hi,” Sidney said. He had an American accent.
“Where are you from?” Darlene asked him, upon hearing him speak.
“Malibu,” he replied.
“Oh. I’m from San Francisco.”
“Cool.”
It went quiet between them. The girls looked over at Paul, waiting for him to say something, as he looked at them, trying to get them to speak. Luckily, someone spoke up.
“ ‘s this a joke?” Keith asked.
Albert gave Keith a look, as if to say ‘we’ve talked about this.’ Keith looked over at the girls and looked them up and down.
“What kind of music do you play?”
“Rock ‘n’ roll,” Mary said, as though it were obvious.
“Really? You girls play rock ‘n’ roll?”
“Yeah, what’d you think?”
Keith shrugged and turned back to the television. Eric also turned back, taking another sip of his beer. Kurt and Sidney noticed them divert their attention and followed suit.
“Well, I can see you just need some more time. Maybe tomorrow,” Paul said awkwardly. “Come on girls, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
They exited the room and Albert gave them an apologetic look as the door closed.
“Well, I expected that to go quite differently,” Darlene admitted.
“Yeah,” Michelle agreed.
“Well, the boys are tired from being interviewed. I’m sure they’ll warm up to you,” Paul promised.
“Maybe.”
“They’ll ‘ave to. Anyways, we’re leaving for the airport at one o’ clock tomorrow afternoon. It’s a long ride to New York, so maybe you girls wind down in your hotel room for now. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” Darlene said.
Paul walked next door and entered his room quietly. They hadn’t even started touring yet and already he was stressed out over scheduling.
“So, are we gonna go back to our room?”
“I don’t know. I’d rather see what clubs are around ‘ere,” Mary said, a slightly mischievous look in her eyes.
“Sounds good,’ Michelle said.
The second they were outside, Michelle finished off her cigarette and stamped it out. They walked around for a while until they found a string of clubs down one street. They could hear music coming out of this one club particularly loudly so they popped in to check it out. It was a mod club, but the band wasn’t very good. They danced with the other for a while anyways, but left after a few minutes.
“Come on, let’s see if we can find somewhere else,” Mary said as they stepped out.
A group of other mods were hanging around outside and smoking, and the girls overheard them talking.
“Let’s head over to Tommy’s then. There’s nothin’ doing ‘ere.”
“Yeah, ‘old on,” one of them said, walking over to the girls.
“ ‘ey, you girls wanna come to this party tonight?”
“Sure, where’s it at?”
“It’s not too far. My friends and I could take you there, if you’d like?”
“Yeah, that’d be great.”
“Alright, let’s go then.”
In their time, the girls had learned that they could trust other mods. The boys had scooters, which each of the girls got to ride with one of the boys’ friends. They drove a little out of the area the clubs and hotel was in to a more suburban area.
They finally pulled up to this one house. Parked scooters littered the front lawn, and the lights were on all over the house while the other houses down the block seemed to be asleep. Loud music could be heard as they approached, but just muffled enough to not awaken the nearby houses. A few kids were in front, taking a break from dancing for a smoke.
The boys brought the girls inside. The living room was filled with dancing teenagers as a song by the Kinks played.
“Now, this is more like it,” Mary said as she entered the living room.
She began moving her hips to the music and dancing. The boy who drove her was also dancing and, upon meeting her in the crowd, started dancing with her. Darlene joined in the dance as well while Michelle headed off into the kitchen for some water.
Once she got her water, she sat in the kitchen alone. Not many drank, so most of them were in the living room or in one of the bedrooms. If they did need a little pick-me-up, some uppers did the trick. Michelle had stopped taking uppers a while back and she didn’t dance. She enjoyed listening to music, but not much else about parties.
Suddenly, Darlene and a young man about their age walked in.
“Hey, Chell.”
“ ‘ey.”
Darlene opened the fridge, searching for a beer. Finding none, she closed the door, stressing slightly.
“It’s alright, love. Wanna just go for a smoke?” the boy asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
With that, they walked out of the room. Michelle decided to head into the living room for a bit, listen to the music and observe the scene. She squeezed along the sides of the room, around the crowd, until she got to a small seat beside the window. She sat down and looked out the window. She could see Darlene, who always looked strange in mod clothes but liked wearing them sometimes anyways, smoking and laughing with the boy and some of his friends. Michelle smiled before turning back to face the room.
The crowd was dancing similarly, one thing Michelle has always noticed about dancing; everyone did it similarly to one another. Once in a while, someone would show off, but other than that. Most of the girls were dressed closer to how Mary usually dressed. If the band ever became famous, there was no doubt that Mary would be the face. She looked like the epitome of mod, and teenage beauty. Not to mention she sang the songs; she was the voice too.
Darlene would be, well, the drummer - playful, unique and even a little mischievous. She would be the soul of the band; she would be the heart, keeping them real and down-to-earth.
And Michelle, she would be the brain, the conscious and subconscious thoughts which kept the face and heart working correctly. She was the writer and the guitarist, entwining the spirit and the skin-deep aspects. Easy to say, they each played their part and played it well.
Suddenly, Michelle was broken out of her dreams of fame. She looked over to the front door, which someone had slammed shut. The whole crowd was taken aback.
“Stop! Stop the music!” yelled one boy.
Someone removed the needle. Once all attention was focused, they turned back to the boy.
“Rockers! There are rockers outside!”
“Wanker, they’re still out there! Ye’ve fucking locked ‘em out!”
“Sod it!” someone yelled furiously.
A few other boys worked their way to the door to help get the few mods who were trapped outside to safety.
“Michelle!” someone called.
“Mary? That you?”
“Yeah!”
“I’m by the window!”
After a few seconds, Mary squeezed her way out of the crowd to her. She hugged Michelle upon reaching her.
“Mary, Darlene’s outside,” Michelle informed her.
Mary opened the curtain slightly, fright clear in her eyes. She watched for a short moment as some rockers got on this one mod boy. One was about to start beating him when another mod knocked the rocker over and helped the mod boy up.
“Chell, stay here. I’m going to go get ‘er.”
“Be careful, Mary,” Michelle begged, though she knew Mary could take care of herself and was hardly worried.
Mary dodged her way around the crowd, sliding through the front door as another boy was brought back inside. Mary ran right out into the action and looked about, trying to spot a tanned Californian among the pale Londoners. Most of the rockers had been chased off, but a couple still scrambled about, fighting with a mod or two.
No sign of Darlene could be found. Mary was about to return into the house to fetch Michelle but, as she turned around, she found herself face to chest with a tall, broad leather jacket-covered chest. She looked up into a smirking face.
She gasped and jumped backwards, stepping away from the menacing figure. He approached her again though, preparing to grab her. Just as he was about to, Mary spotted Darlene standing behind him. She smiled a mischievous smile and Mary immediately understood.
The rocker grabbed Mary’s shoulder just as Mary delivered a ball-crushing kick to his crotch. Once he had put his hands over the area, waiting for the pain to pass, Darlene gave him a good kick to his side, knocking him over. Luckily, the boys Mary and Darlene were with earlier spotted them.
“ ‘ey! Did you try and touch ‘er?” he yelled at the rocker, who could only groan in anguish now. “Did you touch her!”
“Get out of here! Run, you fuckin’ wanker!”
The rocker got to his legs and started scrambling over to his motorcycle and, after sitting down very carefully, drove away.
Everyone began to cheer. Those who were inside began to pile outside of the house, cheering along. Michelle met her two friends outside and threw her arms around them.
“What happened?”
“We’ll tell you later,” Mary promised.
“I’m just glad we’re alright,” Darlene said, hugging her friend back.