The meeting

Ah, yes, chaotic people in their late twenties saving the world.

PANDORA'S POV

Looking around at everyone at the table I suddenly realise how young some of us are. I like to think we're all saving the world, because we practically are. There are people there with relationships and friends and would hate to see them go.

Why I joined? It seemed like they needed someone like me to dominate. I am the dark princess of rock, of course I'm needed.

My best friend's boyfriend, Johnny Napalm, started speaking. He has a semi-British accent. "I'm Johnny Napalm. I'm twenty eight and I like punk music." Everybody there was quietly listening. "for a period of time in my life I was, uh, homeless and got into a lot of street fights. I, er, went to jail before my music career and yeah." For a moment I felt a little bit bad for the guy. It's probably hard for him to go back and talk about it, because now his life is completely different.

Axel Steel broke the awkward silence with asking my closest friend, Judy Nails, to introduce herself. Her life was bland and really boring until alternative music saved her and changed her life to the to the better.

I realised that the genres everyone there loves made an enormous difference in their life, including mine.

Blonde girl was forced to be 'normal', blonde guy was failing in school, German guy was underestimated and is scared of big dogs, the oldest with a moustache was too average, grease hated his parents, super famous guy was a genius (I guess his life didn't change much), guy with beard was a highschool artist.

And me? My guitar was my last hope to be good at something. I was expelled from ballet, and forcibly removed from Girl Scouts and now my Irish self is finally getting praise from my parents. But in reality, if I die right now would they even care? They're just using me for fame and money and to make them look like good parents.

All of the interviews my parents were in, 'we're so proud of our beautiful daughter! We cheered her on since day one.' My ass. When the media finds out what they really are my parents would get into a scandal and try to ruin my life more than they already did.

Turns out most of the others parents weren't the best either. In their younger days they were never good enough. Always looked down by their parents. Now they're either in a good relationship with their parents, being used or they don't even talk to each other anymore, meaning some are dead.

Some Norwegian guy named Lars's story was the saddest. He watched his parents die while being held back.  He said he used to think he'll never recover from this, but them music came into his life at his lowest.

I looked around the room and some people were trying to hold back their tears, well, when I mean some I only mean two.

When it was my turn to tell my story, I tensed at the thought of speaking out about this. But I did, and I won't regret it.

"Greetings. My name is Pandora, I'm twenty eight and I play gothic rock. I was expelled from ballet and had to be removed from the girl scouts. I was given my very first guitar as a last hope from my parents for success. I studied day and night just to make them proud, they only were when my band started gaining popularity,"

everybody was listening, now it's my time to tell them the truth. "My parents hide the way they actually treated me from the media. I spent all my time trying to make them proud of what I could do, which was little. I dedicated my life to music, making my friends no longer desiring to talk to me because it was all I ever spoke about. I don't feel bad about myself, but the fans that also have difficult parents wanting mine, not knowing what two-faced twats my parents actually are."

The room went silent, everyone staring. I don't think I even told Judy, because she was the first to speak up. "Is.. that why you don't tell anyone your last name?" I felt so bad, you can tell when she's upset by the tone of her voice. "Why didn't you tell me?" Oh god, when she said that I felt like crying. Nobody was talking, the silence so loud.

Axel started rummaging through his script to change the subject. "Alright, now that, uh, everyone has introduced themselves, I'm going to seperate you into pairs to find similarities. I was informed what music you play and who you know, so you will be talking to someone completely new."

Axel said a small yay before talking again "ok, now I will..." he looked through the script again, "OK! Now I will announce who is going with who. Casey, You're going with Xavier Stone, Izzy Sparks is going with me, Clive Winston is going with Judy Nails, Eddie Knox with Pandora..." I have absolutely no idea who Eddie Knox is, but I am not thrilled. He is that same Grease dude after all. Anyway, when Axel was finished announcing the pairs, we all got up and walked to each other. I accidentally bumped into someone and he panicked a little. Eddie and I met and went outside, where some others were going to.

"So..." he said awkwardly. He probably thinks it's some sort of bad luck that he got paired with the girl that has parent issues. "You wanted to be a magician?" I started. He started replying back. "Oh yeah, when I was little my biggest dream was to become a magician. I borrowed books from the library that taught me how to do magic tricks and of course I knew the lame disappearing act with a blanket. I tried to teach my buddy Clive some of those tricks and showed him my fake magic kits, but he was only interested in the fake moustaches." He laughed a little, then asked me what was my biggest dream. "I actually wanted to become some sort of badass rebellious alternative girl when I was little. That was actually the reason why I was forcibly removed from ballet and Girl Scouts, I didn't fit in or like any of the activities, so I just did them badly or not do them at all. The reason why the guitar was my last chance was because I kept on listening to all these rock and metal songs. A funny story was that I used to sneak out too to get my clothes by myself with friends, and my parents didn't even notice!" We laughed for a minute, and then he gestured to his friend and my friend that were in the distance.

"You see that guy over there with the moustache? His name is Clive Winston. He's an amazing man. God, that man.. changed the way I saw the world. He's beautiful, inside and out."

I didn't know what to say, "so do you like him more than a friend?" I tried asking. "I kinda do.. just haven't figured it out yet. It's not like he'd like me in that way anyway."

He doesn't want to admit his little gay awakening, I know that. Eddie looked at Clive and got caught, they ended up having a little bit of eye contact until we continued our own thing.

He was pretty good to talk to, raging homosexual for his lanky friend with a long moustache, but overall really funny and interesting.

I ended up having to tell him that this sort of attraction isn't bad at all and it's ok to have crushes of the same gender. How I know that? I thought Judy was cute until she started dating Johnny.