Learn to Spell, God!

Jimmy’s POV

I headed straight for the cab when we got back to the bus. The door slammed shut and I revved the engine. Thirty four hours of driving to get to Calgary. Thirty four hours to let Jenn recover from visiting her friends. Thirty four hours for me to talk myself out of being very jealous.

I was tapping my hands on the wheel, muttering to myself when the cab door opened. I ignored it, and continued my tirade.

“Jimmy?” It wasn’t Jenn. I stopped, allowing them to continue. “Maybe it’d be better if some one else drove?”

I put my foot down hard on the brakes, sending the person lurching forward towards the wind screen. I jumped up, and caught her before the unimaginable could happen.

“Christ! You’re probably right. And I’m sorry I had to put your life on the line to realise it.” I smiled at Pippa, who was digging her fingers into my shoulders, gasping for breath.

“Just don’t do it again. Or else I’ll have Matt on your ass so fast . . .”

“I ‘aint scared of the big guy. It’s Johnny I’m afraid of, hun!” She laughed and lead the way back to the lounge.

Matt closed his cell, and looked towards me.

“Ernie’s coming from the tech’s bus to drive, Jim. I think you and Jenn maybe need to talk?” I groaned, knowing this would happen.

I traipsed up the stairs to the bunks in defeat. I could see a pair of feet poking from behind one of the curtains. They were in a pair of multi-coloured socks, exactly like the pair Jenn has. I snuck up, crouching with my hands ready. With one hand I held her ankles and the other I tickled the now squirming feet. There was a loud cry of ‘OW!’ from a male voice in the bunk, and a light groan. The curtain was ripped back to reveal a hysterical Sophie, and a not too happy Brian.

“What the hell? She just nutted me! You know she’s a liability when she gets tickled, and ends up causing injuries to those around her.” I pointed to a large red lump that was pulsing on the side of his forehead.

“Sorry!” I laughed. “I though she was Jenn.”

“Jimmy?” Jenn’s head poked around the curtain of another bunk. Her eyes were red and puffy. I ran to the bunk and hopped in beside her.

She fell straight into my chest, crying and mumbling things I couldn’t understand. The bus’ engine roared, signalling we were once again on the road. I rubbed circles in her back, waiting patiently for her to calm down.

“I really missed them, Jim. And I know Darren never really got over me, and seeing them all again was so much fun and I’m glad I got to. But now I miss them even more because I know it’s going to be forever until I get to see any of them again.” She paused, taking deep gulps of air before continuing. “And what happened with Darren . . . It’s not, I don’t know. It wasn’t meant in a . . . It was strictly a friendly thing. You have to understand that. There’s a reason why we didn’t work out, and a reason why I’m happy with you. I wouldn’t change that for the world, Jimmy.”

“I know.” I whispered. What else could I say? I know what it’s like to be away from friends and family and loved ones for months on end with touring.

I wiped the tears from her face, smudging her eye makeup slightly. I moved so I was lying down in the bunk, and pulled her on top of me for a hug. Her hair ended up covering my face and making me splutter as it restricted my breathing. She giggled and pulled it over her shoulder in one swift motion. I was tired after my reckless driving, and by the way Jenn was cuddled up next to me, I guessed she was exhausted from crying.

*

“Jimmy? Jenn?” A voice whispered. “Jimmy? Jenn?” The voice was getting louder now. I didn’t like it. “Jim! Jenn! Get up!”

“Fuck off. . .” Jenn grumbled into my chest. I heard the person huff slightly.

“Brian!” She hollered. There was the sound of heavy footsteps that came closer and closer. I kept my eyes shut.

“Nuh uh! You have to earn it . . .” I heard Brian’s teasing voice. That meant it was Sophie trying to wake us up.

I dared a peek to see what was going on. Sophie was glowering at Brian, holding his nose firmly between her finger and thumb. She’d pulled him down, presumably by his nose, so his eyes were at the same level. Their eye contact didn’t break for a second. Then Sophie released Brian and turned, smiling at me.

“You want to get up now, before I have the pleasure of making you.” An evil grin consumed her face. Jenn groaned again, still not moving.

“I’m with her on that one, Sophie.” I shrugged.

Sophie looked back to Brian, who was tending to his nose. He looked up blankly, then realised what she wanted.

“You won’t pull my nose again will you?” He asked worriedly.

“You can have sexy time if you do this for me, please.” His face lit up and before I knew it, the covers of the bunk were gone and the content of the water bottle in Sophie’s hand was over me and Jenn.

“OH MY GOD! SOPHIE ELIZABETH HEAVISIDE, YOU ARE DEAD!” Jenn was up and out of the bunk, chasing Sophie down the stairs.

“You had to, didn’t you?” I asked cryptically, shaking my soaking hair.

“Dude, sexy time! I wasn’t gonna say no to that.” I rolled my eyes and followed the shouts to the downstairs area.

Jenn, Sophie, Danni and Pippa were all wet and having a very loud giggle fit in the middle of the lounge. Matt and Johnny were joining them in their laughter, whilst Brian and I stood, confused by the scene.

“Care to explain?” Brian asked, sitting himself down next to a soaking Sophie.

“Jenn sort of went to get me with water, for getting her. And she . . . she . . .” And she was cut of by more hysterical laughter. We weren’t going to find out soon.

I picked up the towels from the loo, throwing them at the girls.

“Where are Zack and Layla?” Danni asked, pulling the towel into a turban around her head.

“I sent them to the tech’s bus.” Sophie explained. “So we can organise this dump for the party. This is why I had to resort to such . . . violent ways to awaken you all.” She smiled smugly.

“Party! I’d almost forgotten it was Layla’s birthday.” Jenn began jumping around the sofa’s and table wildly.

“Johnny and I have decoration covered. Pippa and Matt can sort out food. Jenn and Jimmy . . .”

“We’ll go back to bed.” I offered. Jenn back slapped my stomach, scowling slightly. “We’ll go buy gifts.” I corrected myself.

“Me and Sophie will start cleaning and decorating for now.” Brian finished off the list. We all left the bus, ready to split and make the greatest bus party ever.

“SNOW!” Pippa screamed, making us all jump.

“Snow?” Matt wrinkled his nose.

“Imbecile!” Pippa slapped him upside the head, not impressed by his dislike of the weather.

The girls were gone in an instant. But Pippa was right; there was a layer of the white stuff covering the parking lot we were in. It was absolutely freezing! I should have expected that really seeing as it’s the middle of winter. The girls re appeared a moment later, scarves, gloves, coats and hats worn by them all.

“Oooft!” A four part chorus from myself and the other guys and we were ambushed by a series of snowballs.

We retreated to the bus and copied the girls by pulling on our winter woollies, ready to face the impending war they had started. We jumped of the bus to find the lot empty once again. The footprints in the snow were too jumbled and obscure to follow. We were sitting targets.

A wolf whistle echoed around us. The roads were empty, the shops looked closed and the bus behind us showed no signs of habitation. A figure appeared at the other end of the parking lot. Brian crouched slightly, and then sprinted off towards the person. Sophie was their distraction . . . which pulled our strongest thrower from the equation. These girls were good with their tactics.

There was a squeal, and our heads snapped towards it. Sophie was now headed in our direction . . . giggling. Just a few metres behind, Brian was stumbling to his feet after skidding over, landing face first in a mound of snow.

“Do we go after her?” Johnny asked. All of out backs were still pressed firmly against the side of the bus.

“I’ve got it.” Matt was next to sprint forward.

Sophie yelled something in a foreign language, no doubt a very fluent chorus of obscenities. Matt flung himself towards her, and at the same time Brian had caught up and was doing the same. They all landed in the hill of snow at the side of the road. By the looks of it, Sophie’s fall was cushioned by Matt, and Brian’s by Sophie.

“Three some!” I heard Sophie squeal, shortly followed by Matt escaping from beneath the other two, and returning to Johnny and me.

We left Sophie and Brian kissing in the snow, to avenge our cold arses. We walked around for ten minutes, not finding anyone. Matt suggested we should go back to the bus, in case they were waiting for us there. Deciding that continuing this in the warm would be a good idea, we tried to get back on to the bus only to find the door locked.

“Balls!” Johnny said, banging on the door.

Sophie appeared, wearing on of Brian’s hoodies which hung around her knees. She smiled and waved at us, before turning her back on us and walking away. Matt growled, pacing up and don in the snow. It was starting to get dark now.

“Jimmy!” I heard Jenn yell. She came charging at me, jumping and wrapping her legs around my waist.

“Where have you been? We spent ages walking round, ready to kick your asses in a snowball fight.”

“We went and got all the stuff for the party.” Danni held up numerous bags with sparkly things inside.

“And we missed out?” Matt asked, pulling a shivering Pippa into his embrace.

Suddenly, the door I was leaning on opened behind me and I fell into Sophie, who managed to hold herself, me and Jenn upright. She heaved us forward and went back into the depths of the bus, to reveal Brian on his hands and knees polishing every inch of the lounge.

“I have him trained well.” She laughed, slapping his back side and sitting on the sofa.

*

“Hello Calgary!” Pippa yelled. “Do you know what? It fuckin’ snowed yesterday! So, we spent the majority of our travels today, doing this for you, so you can enjoy the snow like we did.” A flurry of ripped paper fell from the ceiling of the arena into the crowd.

That’s right; the girls spent today ripping up every scrap of paper or rubbish they found, just so it could snow again. The fans were jumping and screaming already, thanks to the fake snow.

“Could we have one James Owen Sullivan out here please?” Pippa asked, causing more screams to erupt from the stadium.

I walked from the side of the stage, confused. Fingers were pointed to the riser with the empty drum kit on. I took my seat on the stool, looking around for Sophie. When the piano part for Unbound started to be played, I understood what they wanted. Sophie stopped playing, waiting for us to start the song properly.

Before the girls went of stage at the end of their set, we – Avenged Sevenfold – made our way onto the stage. Layla was turning more and more red by the second, obviously expecting what we were about to do. Matt did like he had almost two months ago at our first gig of the tour, and conducted the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Layla.

“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Layla. Happy birthday to you!” We all sang. Zacky had lifted Layla onto his shoulders, and paraded her around the stage.

The girls bowed, and ran off stage, to change for their slot in Scream. We stormed through out set, as usual. And did the usual socialising at the end of the show. But this time, when we got on the bus, we were going to be having a very loud, mobile party to celebrate the last coming of age among the Pure Poison girls. We had a huge cake and so many presents and decorations. We wouldn’t let Layla back on our bus for the entire journey from Toronto to Calgary. Thirty four hours of no Layla. It’s a weird experience. I don’t think she was too happy about being kicked off the bus. Or about missing the snow.