The Story Of Daniel

/n i n e t e e n/

Chapter 19

Five Years Before

Daniel and Amelia were now in the eighth grade, and Daniel was at a phase in his life where he was acting rebellious. Amelia didn't approve, along with his parents, and of course this meant that Daniel was grounded more time than not. He pulled pranks, he broke rules, he spoke against adults. In other words, he was being a troublemaker.

But none of those harmless things stood against what Daniel did on the first night of summer after school was out.

It took a lot of planning, but somehow Daniel managed to do it. He snuck into a concert, ninety miles away from his home.

Daniel had been grounded from leaving the house, unless he was with Amelia. His parents thought she was a good influence on him. Little did they know, he was rebelling against them for her. All week, Amelia had been talking about how her favorite band was playing in Kansas two hours away. She couldn't afford a ticket and she had no one to drive her there though, so she couldn't go.

But Daniel was going to get her to that concert because he knew it would make her happy. After finding out how sad she was, Daniel would do just about anything if it could make Amelia happy for a while.

So he got in touch with one of his cousins from around that area, and arranged for him to come to Grey Pond to get Daniel and Amelia. After school, Daniel told his parents he was going to a movie with Amelia. He assured them that they might be out late so that they wouldn't get too suspicious. He then met his cousin at a local restaurant.

"So, your parents are cool with me taking you to this concert?" Peter, his cousin, asked.

"Totally," Daniel lied.

The two of them drove to Amelia's house and after a few minutes of persuasion, Daniel convinced her to get in the car with them, telling her he had a surprise for her.

They drove for a couple hours and then Amelia gasped. "Daniel," she said. "Are we going where I think we're going?"

Daniel smiled. "Maybe."

***

It was an outdoor concert. There was a stage and a huge fence around the area where the crowd would stand. So of course, being the troublemaker Daniel was, he pulled out a pair of wire clippers and cut a line down the wire in an area at the back of the stage where no one was looking. After pulling back the wire, he and Amelia stepped through and Daniel put the wire back in place. They were in.

"You know," Amelia said. "We could get in big trouble if someone sees that we don't have wristbands." She sounded nervous.

"Look at all these people," he said, gesturing to the crowd. "No one will notice us."

After a few contemplative seconds, Amelia sighed. Daniel took her hand and pulled her into the crowd, smiles plastered on both of their faces.

Now

Daniel was dreaming that he was underwater. No, just his face was wet. Wait, he wasn't dreaming. Daniel opened his eyes to see Jelly licking his face. He pushed the dog away and used his other hand to wipe the dog slobber off his face. "Jelly! Really?" The dog just looked at him with a little doggie smile as if to say, 'What? What did I do?' Then Daniel looked around the room now that he was wide awake. Nothing like good ol' dog slobber to wake you up in the morning.

For a minute he forgot where he was. He wasn't in his own bed, there were papers all over the floor, and multiple empty mugs sat in random places around the room. Where the heck am i?