Status: new chapter june 8

The Ballerina and the Rocker

Chapter 2

Zacky

“Can you stop fucking around, we need to think of band name.”

Zacky looked up from his guitar and into the face of his, apparently, pissed off friend.

“Jesus, Matt,” Zacky retorted. “Maybe we should get some songs done, first.”

“Well what the fuck good is a song for a nameless band?” Matt shot back.

Zacky rolled his eyes. He was pumped to be forming a band again, since his last stint with his old band MPA didn’t work out as well as he had hoped. Then again, all of his buddies previous bands ended pretty quickly and were all focused on making this new band one to last a lifetime.

“Fuuuuuck!” Jimmy shouted, as he threw his drumsticks across Zacky’s living room. “Creativity gods, where are you?!”

“Look, dude,” Zacky chimed in, hoping to reason with Matt. “We’re not getting anywhere anytime soon. Maybe we should just make some lists and talk about it later?”

Matt sighed and scratched the back of his head as he thought over Zacky’s proposition.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he concluded. “Fuck.”

“Did I miss something?” The sudden addition of Brian’s voice startled the three boys, causing them each to slightly jump in their seats. “Fuck, you guys are easy to scare,” he joked.

“Jesus Christ, Bri,” Matt said. “Just didn’t realize you were here.”

“Yeah, sorry I’m late.”

“Well, we’re pretty much done anyway.”

“Already?”

“Matt’s crying because we don’t have a band name,” Zacky chimed in.

“Fuck you, no I wasn’t – Oh, hey, Mrs. Baker!” Maria Baker came in through the front door and closed it behind her as she walked into the living room to greet the boys.

“Hi, Matt,” she said with a smile, her arms full of groceries. “Brian, Jimmy.” The boys each gave a smile and a wave when their names were called. “Zack, sweetie, our new neighbors are moving in. I’m going to put these groceries in the kitchen, then we’ll go over and greet them, okay?”

“Yeah, sure mom,” Zacky replied. Great – the new neighbors. He could care less. He put his guitar down on its stand and walked to the front door. “Let’s get this over with.”

His three friends followed him outside and stood close together on the front yard as they surveyed the new occupants of the Anderson’s house.

There was a brown haired man about the same height as Zacky’s own father and a lighter-brown haired woman, presumably the man’s wife. They seemed nice enough, Zacky concluded, and looked normal enough… hopefully not stuck up at all. They stood beside their moving van, surrounded by boxes, engrossed in a conversation. Zacky was about to turn around and head back inside when he saw a third person.

A girl emerged from inside the house and stood with her arms crossed in front of the front door. As she joined in the conversation with whom Zacky assumed were her parents, Zacky took in the sight of her.

Her hair was an extremely dirty blonde; with a slight wave and a middle part, it hung straight down and ended halfway between her shoulder and elbow. The size of her gray and white plaid button down shirt, which was left open to reveal a black tank top, was about two sizes too big and engulfed her small frame, and a pair of ripped jean shorts and white Sketchers sneakers framed her long, lean legs. There wasn’t anything about her that necessarily stood out of the ordinary, and yet Zacky felt oddly enamored with her.

“Yo, earth to Zacky.” Matt’s voice snapped Zacky out of his observational trance

“Yeah, uh, what?” Zacky said, turning his focus from the girl to his friend.

“I said we’re gonna go catch a movie. You in?” Zacky thought about the offer for a moment before shaking his head.

“I think my mom’s gonna want me to hang here and help out, or whatever.”

“Alright, whatever. Catch you later.” Zacky nodded and waved as his friends took off down the street. Almost simultaneously, his mother walked to his side.

“Ready?” she asked her son.

“Yep,” was his reply. He earned a smile from his mother before walking the few steps to his new neighbors.

Quinn

Part of the moving deal was that Quinn got to choose her bedroom first, which she was extremely grateful for. After walking up the pretty grandiose staircase (it was certainly “grand” compared to the other houses), she came across her room.

It had a bay window, which was pretty much the only reason Quinn wanted this bedroom. She walked over to it, sat down on the window’s navy blue cushion, and stared out at the big oak tree fixed directly next to the window. She looked back around the empty room and thought what a shame it was she wouldn’t be living here longer.

Minutes passed before Quinn decided to head back downstairs to her parents. As soon as she stepped back outside, her father addressed her.

“Find a room?” Dan asked with a smile.

“Sure did,” Quinn replied with enthusiasm. “It’s a really nice one. It has a bay window.”

“Oh, how great!” her mother, Jo, said. “You’ve always wanted one of those.” Quinn nodded.

“So, what’s the game plan?”

“Well,” her father began. “We can start by bringing in the easy stuff. Just place the boxes in the foyer for now.”

“Ok, sounds good.”

Quinn walked over to the moving van, grabbed a box that was a lot heavier than she had expected it to be, and brought it into the house. After having placed it down without dropping it, she looked behind her and saw her parents were still standing and talking. Annoyed, Quinn headed back out to them.

“You know,” she began. “You can’t expect me to do this all on my own.”

“Quinn,” her mother interrupted. “These are our neighbors.” She motioned to the two people standing opposite them that Quinn had failed to notice.

“Hello, I’m Maria Baker,” a woman introduced herself as she extended a hand. Quinn reached forward and shook it. “And this is my son, Zachary.” She motioned to the boy beside her.

“You can just call me Zacky,” the boy said.

He smiled a friendly smile at Quinn, to which she returned. Zacky had a kind face, she noticed. And those eyes – oh, those jade green eyes. They certainly were a great contrast to the rest of his ensemble: jet black hair that matched his black cargo shorts and Converse sneakers. The only other color, besides those gorgeous eyes, was that of a red Anaheim Angels “A” in the center of his black and white t-shirt.

“Zacky, hon, how about you help bring in some of these boxes?”

“Oh, that’s quite alright,” Jo began.

“No no, I insist,” Maria continued. “It’ll be good for him to help.”

“Mom,” Zacky annoyingly mumbled.

“Yes, help them.”

Feeling awkward, Quinn decided to start bringing more boxes inside. She grabbed another off the truck and brought it inside the foyer, where she placed it beside the other. She turned to head back and continue the process of box carrying when she met Zacky standing in the doorway.

“Quinn, yeah?” he asked her.

“Uh huh,” she answered.

“This box has your name on it.” And so it did, a bold QUINN written across the side of the brown box in black sharpie.

“Oh, I can take that up to my room, then.” Quinn took the box from Zacky and headed upstairs. When she reached her room, she placed the box down smack dab in the middle.

“Hey, we’re neighbors,” Quinn heard Zacky’s voice say. She turned around and saw him walk in, carrying another box with her name on it. He placed it down next to the one she had carried.

“Um… yeah,” she said, perhaps a bit too rudely. Of course they were neighbors, they had just been introduced as such. Zacky seemed to have noticed her reaction and spoke again.

“I mean our rooms.” He walked over to the bay window and pointed at the oak tree. “My bedroom’s on the other side of the tree.” Quinn walked over and stood at Zacky’s side.

“Oh yeah. You think we can use those string and can telephones?” Zacky chuckled at her joke, which made Quinn feel more at ease. Meeting new people had always been a bit awkward for Quinn since she never had the chance to stay around long enough to form comfortable friendships with them.

“So,” Zacky began. “Where’d you guys move from?”

“Austin,” Quinn replied. “But we’re from Connecticut.”

“Why’d you move?”

“My dad’s in the navy. We move all the time.” Quinn’s answers had become so monotonous she could just spew them out without thinking about it.

“Ah, gotcha.” Zacky’s kind response was refreshing. Quinn was thankful he didn’t press her for more answers; goodness knows she had grown tired of explaining her situation to new people over and over again.

“Well, I guess we should grab a few more boxes before our moms yell at us!” Zacky smiled, and the two left the room and headed back downstairs.

Zacky

“Yeah… I don’t have anything,” Zacky admitted. He had completely blanked about coming up with band names, having instead spent the night playing on his Playstation.

“Hey, no problem. I came prepared,” Matt said as he held up a piece of paper. “Take a look and tell me what you think.”

He handed the paper over to Zacky who held it up so Brian and Jimmy could see it as well. There were a whole bunch of them; Zacky was definitely impressed at his friend’s dedication and creativity. But that was something he never doubted.

“I like that one,” Brian said as he pointed to a name.

“Which one?” Matt asked.

“Avenged Sevenfold.”

“Yeah, that’s fucking sick,” Jimmy agreed.

“These are all great, Matt,” Zacky praised. “But yeah, Avenged Sevenfold has just got a certain feel to it, you know?”

“You think Wendt is gonna like it?” Matt asked of their absent friend.

“He’s the bass player, who fucking cares,” Brian joked.

“So, that’s it? We’re going with Avenged Sevenfold?” Zacky clarified. “At least until we decide we’re sick of it and want a new name.”

“Nah,” Jimmy said with a proud smile. “We’re not gonna get sick of this name. We’re fucking Avenged Sevenfold.”

Quinn

After a dinner of Chinese takeout, Quinn retired to her room and called her sister, who had just started her junior year at Boston College.

“So it’s a nice house?” Audrey asked over the phone.

“Mmhm,” Quinn replied as she took a seat at her bay window. “It’s gorgeous, actually. And we have a pool, so that’s pretty neat. It’s just always weird to be in a new house again. Especially without you and Mason.”

“Speaking of our dear older brother, I heard he’s going to be part of the Angels?”

Mason was an incredible baseball player. He had gone to the University of Minnesota and managed to snag a baseball scholarship. When Mason graduated, he was offered a yearlong position on the Minnesota Twins’ AAA team the Rochester Red Wings and now was moving up to the Angels’ minor league team.

“Yeah, we’re all really excited about that! So at least he’ll be pretty close to us.”

“And how are you doing?”

“Fine.”

“Quinn.”

“What?”

“Come on. You always do this.”

“Do what?”

“Don’t shut yourself off. Especially for your senior year!”

“I’ve got a lot of other stuff to focus on, Audrey. Like getting my audition ready.”

“So you’re not going to get involved with your school at all?”

“What’s the point?”

She heard her sister let out a frustrated sigh on the other end. She appreciated Audrey’s constant attempts to make Quinn more social, but it just wasn’t something of interest. As close as the sisters were, that was where the two differed.

“The point is that there’s so much more and you’re missing out because you’re too damn stubborn.”

Audrey clearly wasn’t going to let Quinn off the hook too easy.

“I get that you’re only going to be there for one year, but it’s senior year and that’s the best! You’ll still have time for your ballet practices but you shouldn’t skip out on other things that will make the year worthwhile. I’m not telling you to go befriend every single person at your school, but don’t push anyone away, either.”

“…Fine. You’re right,” Quinn admitted after a thoughtful moment.

“I’m sorry, can you say that again?” she could tell Audrey was smirking on the other side.

“You heard me.” Audrey laughed triumphantly.

“Ok, well good. I’ve got to go, but I’ll talk to you later. And have a great first day of school! And make a friend!”

“Good bye Audrey.”

“Yeah, bye.”

Quinn hung up the pink fuzzy phone on her night stand. She looked out of the window and saw Zacky, holding a guitar, across the way. Her sister’s words still fresh, Quinn decided to go out of her shell. She opened the bay window and tried to get Zacky’s attention by waving her arm until he noticed. She had gone not even five seconds before Zacky’s window opened up as well.

“Hey,” he said. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yeah, sorry to bother you,” was Quinn’s reply. “I just wanted to thank you again for helping us move all our stuff yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah, no problem.” Quinn pushed her hair back behind her ear as Zacky looked down at his fingers.

“So you play guitar?” she said, gesturing to the electric guitar resting beside Zacky.

“Oh, yeah.”

“You any good?”

“My friends and I are in a band, so I sure fucking hope so.” Quinn laughed, which earned a smile from Zacky.

“So what’s your band called?”

“Avenged Sevenfold. We actually just chose it today.”

“Very cool. I’m guessing you’re a rock band, then?”

“Good guess.” Even you weren’t familiar with rock music, a shirt that said Megadeth on it was pretty much a dead giveaway.

“Yeah, thanks. Well, that’s awesome.”

“You like rock? Metal? Hardcore?” What-core?

“Um. I listen to the Beatles. And Elvis.” She hoped her answer would suffice.

“You’re into the oldies, huh?”

“I guess. I’m not really up to date with what’s popular,” she confessed, “My sister’s the ‘music crazy’ one.”

“You’ve got a sister?”

“Yep, and a brother. I’m the youngest.”

“Nice. I’ve got a brother and sister, too. Looks like we’ve found something in common!”

Quinn laughed. Even though she despised small talk, she found it refreshing at just how easy it was talking to Zacky. Their last neighbors had a son a year younger than Quinn and he couldn’t be bothered with anyone other than his N64.

“So, let me know when your band has a show or whatever.”

“Yeah, definitely…. Do you wanna hear something?”

Quinn smiled and nodded. As she listened to Zacky play an recognizable song his guitar, she thought about what her sister said; perhaps making a good friend wouldn’t be as difficult as she had thought it would.
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