Not Dead After All (Tony Perry)

Little Drummer Girl

AN- Hey guys! I'm back and in the writing mood so I may write TWO chapters today! Yay me! Also... That picture of PTV... Vic being short... Jaime's blonde-ness... Mike towering over everyone... Tony looking like an emo turtle... I love it

♦ Claire's 18th birthday ♦

Claire's POV

I fluttered my eyes open and yawn. I check the time. 6:37. My eyes go wide. Why didn't my alarm go off?! I quickly get up and run to the bathroom with my clothes I got for school.

It was surprising how long it took me to get used to the fact I had to wake up and go to school. I never went while I was in the orphanage and of course I didn't go while I was homeless. I didn't have money. I lived off the food Vic and Mike would bring me. Mike would even sometimes take the clothes I had (not the ones I was wearing) and put them in the washer with their family's clothes. Then give them back to me later.

I took a quick shower then brushed my hair and teeth. I slipped on my favorite Green Day shirt and black skinny jeans. I glanced into the mirror and sighed before turning away. I never liked how I looked. My black hair never stayed in the same place. My blue eyes sometimes looked gray. My lips were chapped. I had a bit of acne. But I always refused to put on makeup. I'd put lipstick and eyeliner on every once and awhile, but not usually.

I walked downstairs to see Izzy leaning over the kitchen counter, eating an apple. "What took you so long?" She asked with a mouth full of apple. "My alarm didn't go off! I was so pissed off." She chuckled and threw me another apple. "Come on, we gotta go. You can eat on the way to school." She walked off and I followed, eating my apple quietly.

It didn't take long for us to walk to the school, since we don't live that far away. There was a guy walking behind us, but we noticed he was just on his way to school as well. We made jokes and talked about how we need to start looking for a guitarist for a band we've been wanting to start. We had already started working on a couple of songs. Well, I have. I'm the song writer, as well as the drummer. Izzy is the singer but she can't play guitar. She's tried. She's failed. So we decided we would try to find someone else to play. Oh, right, we also call our band Hell On Hello.

We walk inside a few minutes before the bell for our first class starts. I wave goodbye to Izzy and I make my way to my class. I sit in my regular spot in the back of the class and wait for everyone else to arrive. The bell rings and the kids flood in. The teacher closes the door after the late bell and goes to sit down at her desk.

Just as she does so, a boy I've never seen before walks in. He has dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He stands by the door awkwardly. "Oh, you must be Dustin." The teacher calls out to him and he nods. "Yes, well, find a seat."

There were only two seats available. One next to the bratty and spoiled Layla because she only allowed her "Girl Squad" or boyfriend to sit next to her. And the spot next to me. No one ever sat next to me because I was the quiet emo girl who cared more about music than people. I was bullied fairly often and even hit once at school. By Layla. But I don't usually complain. I know other people at other schools have it worse than me. That's doesn't mean it doesn't bother me.

The new kid made his way over to the seat next to me. He kept his head down, refusing to make eye contact with everyone else. The teacher started calling out the kids who have late work to turn in. I ignore her, knowing I don't have any. Dustin glanced at me and his eyes widened just barely enough for me to notice.

"What?" I say loud enough for only him to hear. "O..oh. Sorry. It's just I realized that you were one of the girls from this morning." I tilt my head to the side. He notices my confusion and continues. "I was walking behind you and your friend this morning, on the way to school. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you were looking for a guitarist?" He sounded really nervous as he spoke. He also constantly looked away so he wasn't making eye contact with me.

"Yeah. Me and my sister Izzy have been looking for one to join our band. Can you play?" The word sister still felt a little weird to say. "Y..yeah! I can. I've always wanted to be in a band." I smiled. "Well you should join me and Izzy at our house so we can see you play. If you're good, we'll let you join." When I said that, I swear he almost fell out of his chair. People near by gave him weird looks but soon turned away. "That sounds great." I held in a giggle. It was funny how he completely ignored the stares he got. "Okay meet us outside the school at the end of the day." He nodded with a huge smile on his face.

Time skip to end of school

I told Izzy about Dustin as we waited for him outside of the school. "I hope he's good." She said just as he walked out. He noticed us and he grinned. "Hey Dust. You ready to go?" He nods quickly and he leads us to his house. To me and Izzy's surprise, he lives across the street from us.

"I'll be right back." We nod and he runs inside his house. Izzy nudges me and signals for me to follow her across the street, to our house. We walk over and she goes inside and I stand on the porch to wait. Dustin comes back out soon afterwards. He looks around confused before sadness takes over his face. I whistle to get his attention and it works. His smile returns and he jogs over to me, his guitar in his hand.

"I thought you guys ditched me." He says once he reaches me. "Nah, this is our house so we decided to just walk over. Izzy is already inside so come on." I nod my head towards the door and lead him inside. My mom (still feels weird to say that) walks in from the kitchen, wearing an apron. "What are you cooking?" Moms face goes pale. "Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it yet." She says quickly. "Uh..okay? Where's Izzy?" I ask. "I believe she went to the basem-" She stops when she sees Dustin. "Oh! A boy! Hi! How are you? Are you Claire's boyfriend?" She approaches us and I blush. "Mooooom! He's just a friend!"

Her face falls. She has been wanting me to get a boyfriend for forever. "Right. Sorry. Izzy is in the basement. She told me she was going to set everything up? I don't know what she was talking about but I didn't have time to ask." I nod and hug her. She has a thing where we have to hug her when we get back from somewhere. Anywhere. I don't mind. I like hugs.

I lead Dustin to the basement where we see Izzy adjusting her mic stand. She had already set up my drums and fixed the volume for the speakers so mom wouldn't yell at us for being loud. "Hey! What did I say about messing with my drums!" I playfully call to her. She jumps at my sudden raise of voice but then she giggles. "Oh shut up. I didn't break them." Dustin chuckled and he goes to plug up his guitar. "Yeah, but you could have." I dramatically pet my drums and she laughs and rolls her eyes.

"Anyway. Show us what you've got, Dustin." Izzy turns her attention to him, as do I. He nods and begins to play. After a couple of minutes of him playing a random song, he stops and looks up at us. Both of our moths are hanging open. That. Was. Amazing. I didn't doubt that he would be good, but I certainly wasn't expecting that. "I don't even care what your opinion is..." I say finally towards Izzy. "He is definitely in the band." Her mouth is still open but she violently nods quickly. I see Dustin almost loose his mind. He starts to jump up and down. "Are you serious?!" He asks excitedly. I smile. "Yeah."

We all play together for a few more hours. We work on the songs, the drum beats to them, and how Dustin was going to play on the songs. We were able to finish two songs. Doesn't seen like much, but we're all proud. After we finish them, my mom calls for us to come upstairs. We all do so but we can't find her. "Mom?" Izzy questions and we hear mom's voice from the kitchen. "In here."

We walk into the kitchen and I see a huge blue and black cake that looked amazing. The candles were perfectly patterned and the words "Happy Birthday Weirdo" were in cursive letters on the top. A blue and black cake might not sound great, but it really was. It might have just from how they were my favorite colors. "You didn't think we forgot your birthday, did you?" Mom said and a huge smile came to my face.

"I picked out the words for the cake." Izzy said happily. I should've known. "I wanted to put ClaireBear but Izzy wouldn't let me." Mom said as she set the cake down on the counter in front of me. We all laughed and tears were coming to my eyes. I was so happy.

I really did think they forgot about my birthday. "And don't worry. This might not seem like much, but we have the weekend booked for things to do." Izzy was bouncing in her seat and mom lit the candles. "This is perfect." Dustin smiled at me. He hadn't said anything. Probably because he didn't know it was my birthday and he wasn't prepared for any of this. At least he didn't look awkward. That was good. I didn't want anyone to feel awkward right now. "Okay, honey. Make a wish." Mom told me and I thought for a second before blowing out the candles.

I wish to see my boys again.