Hollywood Hills and Suburban Thrills

I woke the next morning at eight-thirty and could already tell I was going to have a headache for a while. My temples were pounding and I found it difficult to even open my eyes without it hurting. I slid off my mattress and walked to my dresser, pulling off yesterday's clothing that I had fallen asleep in and putting on some clean jeans and a grey shirt. Nothing out of the ordinary; I rarely ever dressed up.

My cell phone rang a couple minutes later while I was doing my makeup, playing "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer loudly. I smiled as I picked it up saying, "Hello Kayla,"

"Morning, Dani," She says in a chipper voice. Always the morning person, I thought with an eye roll as I resumed in applying my eyeliner. "You want to go out and get some donuts with me? I'm starving."

"Sure. Meet at the stop sign?" I ask.

"Deal. See you ten," She says and then hangs up, as do I before looking at myself in the mirror.

I hadn't bothered styling my hair that morning. It was still surprising straight from the day before so I just let it alone as I put on my old Vans and went to go downstairs. I had made it halfway down the steps when I heard movement in the kitchen. My mom was still home.

Not wanting to have to encounter her after last night, I turned and walked back upstairs to my room, routinely walking to my window, sliding it up and stepping out and onto the roof, sliding the window shut again behind me before making my way toward the other side of the house where there was a leaning ladder structure. I climbed down it easily, for I had done this many times, and landed on the lawn softly, making my way to the sidewalk and down the street to the aforementioned stop sign.

Sure enough, as I approached it, I saw Kayla waiting, ear buds in her ears and foot tapping along with the music that was probably flowing through them. She smiled as she saw me coming closer, pulling the ear buds from her ears and pocketing them along with her iPod.
"Milady," She says, holding out her arm for me to link mine through, which I did of course, beaming.

"Where shall we be buying our delicious pastries this morning?" I ask in an English accent. She quirked an eyebrow at me, laughing.

"I was thinking the Dunkin' Donuts that's across from the mall. Then we can just hang there for the rest of the day since you obviously don't want to be at home," I looked at her. "I saw you climb out your window."

"Oh," I mumble, looking down at my shoes. They were really dirty. I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten new ones.

"I’m assuming last night didn't go too well?" Kayla prods.

"Not exactly how I would've liked," I respond dully, glancing at Kayla quickly. "I told my mom that you might be going to Warped and she immediately took it as an opportunity to preach to me about how quote unquote 'vulgar' the whole idea of it is."

Kayla rolled her eyes, letting out a throaty sigh. I wouldn't have expected anymore less. She was as fond as my mother as I was; not very.

"Well, how'd you respond?" she wonders.

I smiled to myself. "Very sarcastically before going to my room for the night," She laughed gave me a high five. "What I can't understand is why she feels the need to lie to me about something like this? I mean, I'm pretty sure we both know that she's never been anywhere near a concert in her life, much less a member of a band."

"Evidently she thinks you're dumber than you look," Kayla says off handedly.

"Yeah, I gue-…hey!" I say, gawking at her as she simply smiled at me sideways and we shoved each other around the sidewalk for about a block.

Neither of us said much more as we continued to walk to the donut shop, arriving a half an hour later. We had each gotten our breakfast, along with a carton of orange juice, and sat down at a table, starting into the donuts.

"I think she's going to make me work for her down at the diner," I sigh after a while of nothing said and Kayla looked at me.

"And that's bad?" she asks.

"Well, yeah. Do you know how busy that place is constantly? I'd never have any time to do anything anymore if I have that job," I flicked a bit of crusted sugar off the table, watching as it flew onto the floor and skidded across the linoleum.

"But you could use the money, you know?" Kayla adds. "It pay like, eight dollars an hour,"
I shrugged. "I could be making twenty dollars an hour there and I couldn't promise you I'd take the job,"

Kayla nodded in understanding as we crumbled up our napkins and paper plates and threw them in the trash; then we walked out the door.

The mall was already opened despite the early hour. It was a quarter till ten when we got there and there was already a surprising amount of people wandering about. We were passing Hot Topic when I saw a Warped Tour advertisement. "This is God's way of torturing me," I say bitterly through my teeth while looking at the huge sign in the display window of the store. "I just know it,"

Kayla shook her head and laughed at me as we continued walking, passing a Radio Shack on the way. That's when Kayla stopped walking all of a sudden and leaned toward the store at her hip, as if listening for something. I turned when I noticed she had halted and turned to her, giving her a quizzical look.

"Come on," She says, walking into the store and weaving through rows of cameras, car accessories, and radios. Finally she came to another screeching halt in front of an XM Satellite Radio. I was about to ask her what she was doing but she shushed me before I had the chance, pointing sharply at the radio and then placing a finger on her lips: the universal sign for listen and shut up.

"Good morning, Chicago," The radio host said, "Now as you all now, Warped Tour is going to be in the Windy City this weekend and we have created a sweepstakes for the upcoming event," My ears perked up instantly. "Go to www.kqkyhits106.com to enter the contest and you may win two free tickets and back stage passes to Warped Tour. There's no entry fee and you have nothing to lose. So join whenever you want, but the contest will close on Friday and the winner will be announced that day as well. Good luck to all."

I looked at Kayla and a smile spread across our faces simultaneously. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asks, her eyes bright with excitement and I knew we were thinking the exact same thing.

The thought of winning two free Warped Tour tickets was exhilarating to say the least. But then my mother's disapproving face appeared in my head and the smile disappeared from my face as quickly as it had come.

"Forget it," I say as I turned and walked out of the store. Kayla ran to catch me.

"What?" she asks, her surprise very evident.

"My mother would kick me out of the house if I did that," I grumble, looking at Kayla just in time to see her roll her eyes.

"Goddamnit Dani, you can live with me," She says exasperatedly.

I smiled. "Thanks, but I'd rather just not take the chance,"

"Whatever," Kayla says dejectedly, letting her head hang, "it's your choice."

I followed Kayla into F.Y.E. and looked through CD's while she listened to them. Part of me really wanted to enter that contest for a number of reasons: to win and go to Warped, to piss my mom off, to win and go to Warped, but that's it, really. The same sweepstakes was mentioned of the radio station that was blaring from the speakers in the store and my stomach twisted at the thought of winning.

I would never hear the end of it from my mom, I thought on one hand. But then again, I won't be living with her much longer. By the end of this summer, I'll be long gone, I added on the other hand.

I shook my thoughts away as Kayla walked up to me, holding several CD's in each hand. "You should enter—just to see what happens." She says with a smile.

I shrug. "We'll see,"

And with that, she paid for her various compact discs and we walked out of the store, looking forward to another day of spending our time away from our homes.

-----------------------------------------------

It was around four in the afternoon that I got a call from my mom on my cell phone telling me to come home because my mom needed to talk to me. I relayed this to Kayla and then departed the mall, walking back home alone since Kayla had claimed she was not done shopping.

I finally got to my house and walked inside, welcomed immediately by my pissed-off-looking mother.

"Where have you been all day?" she spats at me without warning. "I went to check your bedroom this morning and you weren't there."

I didn't look at her at first. "I went out with Kayla to get donuts and then we went to the mall for the day,"

My mom sighed irritably. "Did it ever cross your mind at all that I might want to know where you are once in a while?"

A sarcastic and snooty remark rose quickly within me and it took every bit of self control within me to keep it from coming out. "I suppose," I said with a shrug.

"You suppose?" she shrieks and I flinched away from her slightly. "What is something were to happen to you? What if you got kidnapped or hurt? I wouldn't know until the police showed up on my front step!"

"What makes you think that anything like that would happen to me anyway, mom?" I screech back at her, my hands flying upward in frustration. "And don't you think I would know what to do in a situation like that anyway? I'm nineteen for God's sakes!"

"Watch you mouth, Danielle," she snaps, approaching me with her index finger pointed at my face menacingly. I stared at her, daring her to hit me with my eyes. Whether she was planning to or not, that's what the look on her face made it seem like she was going to do.
With a deep breath, she dropped her hand and looked at me. I took this opportunity to walk around her and start up the stairs towards my room. I was halfway there when my mom found her voice again. "Dani, you're going to need to set an alarm tonight,"

I stopped with one foot raised above a step and I felt my brow furrow. Damn her. I looked at her over the railing and she was walking into the other room. "Why?" I call after her.

"You're going to work at the diner," she answers simply. My stomach dropped along with my heart and I sighed, going up the rest of the stairs and shutting myself in my room.

I wasn't the least bit surprised that after our last two arguments my mom would force me to work at that restaurant. And of course I didn't have it in me to tell her that I didn't want to work there; that I wanted to get a job elsewhere. So instead, I fell on my mattress and stared at my ceiling for a while with my stereo playing in the corner of my room softly.

I had barely moved for half an hour when I heard that same radio host mention that sweepstakes again. I sat up on my bed, listening to what he was saying. He named off the website like before and I sat up straighter before grabbing my laptop and punching in the URL, entering a webpage and going to the contest's link.

I began filling it out: first name, last name, address, phone number, occupation, age, and answer to a secret question that only I know, until I got to the submit button. I stopped, the cursor hovering over the button, and thoughts came rushing to me. What are the chances that I would win this contest? Half of Chicago has probably already entered. I sighed, bringing the cursor off the button and letting it rest on the tool tray at the bottom of the screen.

"Warped is nothing but vulgarity," my mom's voice rang in my head. I snorted at her narrow-mindedness. I was sure that she hadn't been anywhere near any form of concert at all and that she was just saying that to scare me into staying away. Well, she'll have to do better than that. I decided with a grin, bringing the cursor back to the submit button and clicking it.
The black page that I was on disappeared and a white one replaced it, a red link at the top reading 'Thank you for entering. Good luck.'

I smiled to myself, smug with my rebellious act. My mom couldn't make me do anything; she never really could in the past either, according to my father.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Kayla, waiting as it rang until she picked up, saying, "Yes, Dani?"

"Guess what sweepstakes I just entered," I say happily, snapping my laptop shut and then falling on my pillows.

"Does you mom know?" Kayla asks, sounding a little concerned, but the glee was not hidden well in her voice.

"Nope," I smile.

"In that case," she chuckled, "I wish thee luck and let us hope she doesn't find out." She says in an old English accent.

"Let's hope." I say, looking over at my alarm clock and sighing. "Now I have to go. I have to work bright and early tomorrow."

"The diner?" Kayla asks with a hint of disgust.

"You got it." I say with a groan and we say our goodbyes. I hung up and tossed my phone on my bedside table, turning to my alarm clock and setting it to six A.M.

As I got ready for bed later that night, part of me couldn't quite settle down. I kept being reminded of the lingering chance of going to Warped Tour for free and with backstage passes. There was something deep inside that was jumping for joy, thinking positive and singing that I was going to win. But closer to the surface, there was a voice harking back that it would never happen; that I was no one special and therefore I wouldn't win; that this was just a whim, and a silly and pointless one at that. And unfortunately, that latter voice was a little louder than the other.