A Few of My Famous Friends

By the time the security guard let me backstage and I joined the rest of Panic, Pete Wentz was giving Panic a pep talk or something. He glanced at me and where I was standing, between Brendon and Jon, and glared at Brendon.

"Brendon! What have I told you about bringing your whores on tour? Send her back. We have enough people to feed."

Jon glared at Pete. "Pete, Kate, I don't believe you've met. Kate, this is Pete, he signed Panic at the Disco and he's the bassist for Fall Out Boy. Pete, this is Kate, my little sister."

Pete laughed nervously. "I knew that. I was just kidding. So, um, remember, don't break anything or you're paying for it." He said to the group before walking off.

Everyone broke out into laughter. "Aw man, did you see the look on his face when he heard you were Jon's sister? It was priceless!" Spencer said, doubled over in laughter.

"Okay, I think I saw a buffet table that's calling my name. I'll see you guys later!" I said after everyone was done laughing.

I left the group and was wandering around when I passed Fall Out Boy. I guessed that they were on this tour too, seeing how Joe was tuning his guitar.

At the buffet table, there was only one fruit cup left. I reached for it at the same time as a short redheaded girl.

"Oh, sorry," I said, pulling my hand back. "You can have it."

"Really? Thanks. I didn't have any dinner, which was an extremely bad idea." She said, smiling. "So, are you one of the guys' girlfriends?"

I laughed and shook my head. "My boyfriend is at home in Chicago. I'm Jon Walker's little sister. Are you in one of the bands?"

"Yeah, I'm in Paramore."

"Woah, Paramour? As in a lover?"

"Kinda. It's spelled p-a-r-a-m-o-r-e though."

"That's pretty sweet."

"Not to be rude or conceited or anything, but most people our age know about Paramore. But you didn't…"

"Well, I used to be obsessed with music. But when I was about eleven, Jon started playing in bands and it became 'his thing'. So instead of listening to what was popular, I started listening to the Beatles and stuff like that. But I devoted my time to movies. And now I'm an actress."

"That's pretty cool."

"Yeah. So, since we're like the only girls on tour, you wanna be my best friend?" I asked, a grin on my face.

"You know it! We need to join forces to ward off the boys!"

We high fived, grinning crazily.

"Well, I should probably go. Brendon might be crying because he misses me so much."

"Nice to meet you. Wait, what did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't. But it's Kate Walker. Yours?"

"Hayley Williams."

"Nice meeting you. Cool hair by the way." I said, walking off.

"Thanks!" She said, waving.

I found where Panic was warming up and just shook my head when they came into view. Ryan and Brendon were doing the normal warm ups that bands do- guitar and vocal warm ups. However, Spencer was rollerblading and Jon was doing push ups.

I sat on Jon's back and shouted, "C'mon Walker! Up! Down! Up! Down!" like a drill sergeant. Ryan smiled as he played a few riffs and Brendon started cracking up in the middle of his "la da dadadada"s

"Dammit Kate, you're fat." Jon said, collapsing, making me fall on top of him.

"No I'm not! I weigh as much as Ryan! And he's a freakin' twig!"

"Hey!"

"Shut up Ryan, you're not in this conversation."

Just then, Spencer came skating in at a high speed. He saw Jon and I collapsed on the floor and tried to stop. Unfortunately, It didn't work, and he fell on us.

"Ugh, I'm being crushed by Spencer!" I groaned

"I'm being crushed by you and Spencer!"

"Dog pile!" Brendon yelled jumping on top of Spencer.

Ryan just stood to the side, shaking his head.

"Get off of me! I am a lady!" I shouted, trying to smack Brendon.

Pete came in to see what the commotion was, and just stood there laughing.

I glared at him before saying in a dangerously low voice, "Fine. You asked for it then."

I inflated my lungs as best I could and screamed. The scream could literally break glass if sustained long enough. Luckily, I didn't have to hold it that long as Brendon quickly got off of me and pulled Spencer off too.

"Thank you." I said, smoothing down my hair and clothes. "That wouldn't have been necessary if you had gotten off when I had asked."

Hayley came in and grabbed my wrist. "C'mon, watch me perform. I wanna know what you think of my band."

"Is that an orange microphone?"

"Yeah. Isn't it awesome? I use it all the time. I love orange."

"I can see that." I said laughing.

"Wait a second. Don't you remember your punishment?" Jon asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Wha- oh, right. Can you do it for me this time pretty please with sugar on top?"

"No. That's why it's your punishment."

I pouted and walked away, waving to Brendon, Ryan, Spencer and Hayley.

After working merch for about five minutes, Ryan jogged over to where I was standing. A cheer went up from all the fans as they started reaching out to touch him and thrusting things at him for him to sign.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" I asked, taking a girl's money and handing her a shirt.

"I'll work merch for you. Just for Paramore's part of the show. You haven't seen them perform yet."

"But look at all these fans! You're gonna get killed!"

"No I won't. If I get killed, Panic won't have any more albums and will probably stop performing. The fans don't want that."

"Well, okay. Thank you so much!" I said, wrapping my arms around him in a hug and kissing his cheek before darting off.

I stood in the wings of the performance area, so I could see Paramore, and they could see me if they looked to their right, but the fans couldn't see me.

In the middle of their first song, which I guessed was titled "That's What You Get", unless Paramore was like Panic at the Disco and Fall Out Boy and had ridiculously long irrelevant song titles, Hayley noticed I was standing to the side. She smiled wider than she was and winked at me before holding the microphone out to the audience and letting them sing a line or two.

After they walked offstage, I grabbed, Hayley and pulled her to the side. "Okay, I need to get back to selling merch, Ryan's covering for me. But I wanted to say you guys were really awesome." I said quietly and quickly. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Jon didn't see me.

"Guys! We're going on soon! Where's Ryan?" Jon yelled from another room.

"I think he said he was going to the bathroom!" Spencer yelled back.

Note to self: buy Spencer candy.

"That's my cue to leave." I said, releasing Hayley.

"Hey, do you want me to cover for you so you can see Ryan and Brendon perform?"

"Thanks for the offer, but no. The Walkers have a sort of unspoken rule not to observe another Walker doing what they do best. It reduces judging and mockery."

I snuck past Jon and made it to the merch booth in about thirty seconds.

"I'm very sorry everybody, Ryan has to go perform!" I shouted to the crowd of people buying merch.

A collective groan went up throughout the hoi polloi. "Go see him in concert! Isn't that why you're here? Jeez." I yelled at them.

"Now you go." I ordered Ryan. "If Jon finds out, he'll kill me. And maybe you. Maybe." I pushed him away from the merch booth and shouted to the masses, "Alright! Who's next!"

To be perfectly honest, selling merchandise wasn't that bad. Especially since most of the fans wouldn't be buying merch during the part when the bands were playing. In between got pretty hectic, but it was about thirty minutes of craziness with a couple hours of only a few fans in between.

About an hour after Fall Out Boy finished playing their set, I closed down the merch booth and went backstage.

"What's going on?" I asked Hayley. Everyone was in a circle discussing something.

"We're deciding what we should do this evening to kick off the start of the tour."

"That's easy! Listen up everybody!" I said, getting their attention. "I don't care what you want to do. We're getting drunk then going laser tagging."

Jon groaned. "Kate! Do you ever learn? Remember what happened the last time you got drunk?"

I glanced at Brendon before looking at him. "No."

"Allow me to remind you. You and Bren-"

"Fine! I remember! How about if I swear not to let one sip of alcohol pass through my lips?"

Jon glared at me. "You swear?" He said, unconvinced.

"Swear to shake it up if you swear to listen. I mean, um, yeah. If I drink any alcohol at all, I give you full permission to send me to Spencer's grandma. Although, I heard she's pretty hardcore." I joked.

Jon was still glaring at me. "Fine. But I'm sending you to Brendon's parents' house if you're bad. They're pretty uptight Mormons."

Brendon nodded, his eyes wide.

"Ugh, fine." I said, rolling my eyes. "Hayley, you're staying sober with me."

She laughed. "I kinda have to. I'm only nineteen."

I gasped. "Only nineteen?? What am I doing hanging around with a nineteen year old?"

"Zac's only seventeen." Hayley said, pointing to another member of her band, who I believe played the drums.

"Ugh, you people are too young for me." I grumbled crossing my arms.

Jon laughed. "Kate, stop being such a drama queen. You're only twenty."

"So?" I shot back, sticking out my tongue.

"You're probably less mature than them."

"Nobody asked you, Walker." I said, uncrossing my arms. "Well, at least I have Brendon, Spencer, Hayley and Zac to keep me company in my sober-ness."

"Don't forget Josh, he's twenty."

"Hayley, I just met you a few hours ago. What makes you think I'd know the names and ages of the rest of your band?"

"Touché."

"Wait, I'm supposed to stay sober?" Brendon shouted, just realizing that's what I expected him to do.

"You will stay sober. That is, unless you want to be sleeping on the floor for the rest of the tour."

"Fine." Brendon said, pouting.