I'm Not Your Protege, Just Your Kid

I had just gone to sleep a few hours ago and I was being shaken awake because we had finally arrived in Portland for the concert. I groaned in protest as the person kept shaking me, trying to get me to leave the comfort of my warm bed.

"Jayden, wake up. We have to go to sound check," Devon told me.

"But I just went to bed like two hours ago," I groaned.

"I know, but after sound check you can come back and sleep, okay?" he bargained.

"You promise?" I turned my head to his.

"I promise,"

I sighed and climbed out of my bunk and grabbed some clothes before shuffling into the bathroom. About half an hour later, I came out dressed and still sleepy. I yawned on my way to the kitchen where everyone was waiting for me. I went to grab a bagel, but someone pulled me away before my hand could even touch it.

"What the hell?" I grumpily asked whoever had yanked me away.

"No time to eat, you have to go to sound check now," Matt said.

"Are you shitting me?" I grumbled.

"I shit you not," he said, still pulling me along to the big arena where I had to perform tonight.

I looked around and saw that the sun had barely managed to show itself over the clouds and since I didn't have a jacket on I was a bit chilly.

"You couldn't at least give me a jacket to wear?" I asked and saw that Matt had a jacket on that I picked up for him yesterday.

"I thought you were used to this kind of weather?"

"Yeah, with a jacket on," I argued as we stepped into the venue with Devon and the rest of Avenged behind him.

The closer we got to the stage, the more I started to think about tonight. My stomach did twists and turns and I felt nauseated. What if I forgot the lines that Matt taught me less than 12 hours ago? What if my mind went blank and I forgot how to do Brian's solo's? I'd surely get laughed at and booed off the stage. Their fans would think I'm just a brat who thought she could play with the big boys.

"Oh geez, I can't do this," I confessed to the guys as we made it on stage.

"Of course you can, don't be silly," Matt chuckled and coughed a bit.

"No! I can't. This will be unheard of to the your fans. Only four people playing tonight, and half of the members aren't even up there. Instead two teenagers are up here trying to imitate you. These people didn't buy their tickets to see us, they bought them to see you guys,"

"You can do it. Would you like it if I get Jacoby and Alex to come see you sing?" Matt questioned.

"If you do I'll chop off your balls and feed them to Bella," I threatened and gave him a dark look.

"There's the Jayden I know," he chuckled.

"We'll be watching you, don't worry," Zack said and handed Devon his guitar.

"It's only sound check, so calm down," Brian smiled and handed me his guitar.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded while adjusting the strap around my neck and walking up to the microphone. The Berry brother's just finished hooking up the instruments and gave us the thumbs up. I nodded and looked out towards the empty arena that was going to packed later on.

"Start off with Bat Country," Matt called from the side of the stage.

I nodded and cleared my throat before I started strumming the guitar along with Devon while Jimmy and Johnny kicked in with their instruments. I stepped up to the microphone and let out a raw scream like Matt does in the beginning of the song. I felt my throat tingle, but pushed it aside and continued singing the lyrics Matt taught me.

By the end of the set, my throat was hurting, I was sweating like crazy from jumping around, and I was more tired then before. My stomach grumbled and I groaned, now remembering that I hadn't eaten anything this morning.

"You guys did great," Zack said as he climbed on stage.

He was going to keep talking, but I held up a finger and hunched over so I could catch my breath. "I really need to stop smoking," I gasped.

Everyone laughed at me as I finally caught my breath again and stood up. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and smiled at the guys.

"Can we go to the Denny's across the street?" Devon begged.

"Sure, I don't see why not," Matt shrugged.

"Thank goodness, I'm starving," I over dramatically stated.

"I call dibs on the shower!" Devon shouted and ran out of the venue.

"Oh no you don't!" I said and ran after him.

I was hot on his tail when he opened the side door and stopped in the doorway. I didn't have enough time to slow down and I ran into him, making us topple to the floor.

"Oh come on Devon, why'd you stop? Now we both fell in the snow," I huffed and shivered. I realized what I said and Devon and I broke out in big grins.

"Hey guys! It's snowing!" Devon hollered to the guys.

Of course there wasn't a lot of snow yet because it just started, but it was enough to make me happy. Devon and I grabbed whatever little bit of snow that we could grab and started flinging it at each other. Eventually the other bands came out for their sound checks too and was amazed by the thin sheet of snow covering the ground.

"Come on guys, let's go before breakfast is over," Jimmy called out on his way to the bus.

I helped Devon get up and we walked to the bus to get ready. I grabbed some clothes and ran into the bathroom before Devon could.

"Oh come on Jayden!" Devon pounded on the door while I snickered and hopped into the shower.

"You're too slow, sorry!" I called back and ignored his protests of me being unfair.

I came out a few minutes later and Devon went in, but not before he shoved me for stealing the shower. I quickly combed my wet hair and left it out so it could air dry. I went back out to the sitting area and sat down next to Zack. I put my head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around me.

"So, you excited for tonight?" he asked.

"Hardly," I honestly said.

"You'll be fine, don't worry. Since Papa Roach is going on before us, I told them about it and Jacoby will tell the crowd what's going on," he explained to me.

I shot up from my position and stared at Zack with a horrified expression on my face. "He knows?!"

"Yeah," he shrugged.

"That's going to make me even more nervous," I whined and put my face in my hands. I heard the bathroom door open and saw Devon walk out. "Did you know that Zack told Jacoby about us performing tonight?!" I squeaked.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "We discussed it this morning when you were sleeping,"

"Why don't you guys ever tell me anything?"

"Because we know you're going to act like this, so we wait until the last minute so you can't do anything about it,"

"I hate you all, remember that," I huffed.

"You love us really, that's just a cover up," Brian laughed.

"Can it, old man," I crossed my arms.

Brian pouted and left behind Matt since we were leaving to Denny's now. I was the last one out the bus and I saw Johnny standing outside. He smiled at me and tried to wrap his arm around my shoulder, but I was too tall for him to do so. I chuckled and watched as he brought his arm back down and put it in his sweatshirt pocket.

"Don't be mad at the guys, they just didn't want you to freak out if they told you what they were planning to do,"

"I guess that plan is ruined,"

"If Jacoby knows your playing then that should give you a goal to play your best to impress him and the others,"

"Maybe you're right, I never saw it that way,"

"I'm always right, you guys just don't listen to me," he chuckled.

"I guess you'll be my personal Dr. Phil," I joked.

"And how does that make you feel?" he asked in a British accent while holding open the door for me.

"All tingly inside," I laughed.

He laughed along with me as we made it to the booth. He sat across from me and I sat next to Devon. Our waitress handed us our menu's and walked away to tend to another table.

"Hey Jayden?" Zack called from the other end of the booth.

"Yeah?"

"We have one more thing to tell you," he hesitantly said and scratched the back of his head.

I nodded for him to go on and he cleared his throat. "Well, you know how we're going to make this tour into another DVD?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, tonight is one of the night's that the camera men were going to record, so, your performance is going to be on the DVD," he cringed.

My mouth fell open in disbelief and I felt my stomach turn once more. If Jacoby knowing wasn't bad enough, now knowing that my first night on stage was going straight to the DVD was putting even more pressure on me.

I think I need to speak to my Dr. Phil again.