2: A Lesson In Finding Inspirations
I wanna be your love zombie.
Infected from the very start.
They all want your flesh.
But I just want your heart.
When the girl finished singing, she continued playing her guitar while the boy behind him banged on his drums. The two seemed to be experienced with their instruments, as if they’d played them for years. But the sounds that came from the instruments as they played them would imply otherwise. Outside of maybe the music videos that played in between episodes of Beavis and Butt-head and the death metal band that Nathan introduced him to a few days ago, Will hadn’t listen to much rock music before this point. But even he could tell that the two’s playing was amateurish at best.
Their playing went on for about two more minutes. That was when the girl looked up from her guitar and noticed Will watching them play. She instantly stopped playing afterward; the boy stopped drumming after noticing that the girl stop strumming her guitar.
“Well check this out, we’ve got a fan!” the girl with the guitar said to the boy behind the drums.
“Cool,” the boy responded in a monotone voice.
Of all the other teenagers that Will has personally encountered in Ingram Park up to this point, these two seemed to be the most peculiar to him. The girl playing the guitar was about a few inches taller than the boy who rose from the stool at his drum kit. She wore pitch black, square-rimmed glasses that covered a bit more than her eyes. She was also wearing a dark cherry shade of red lipstick. The color of the lipstick was a few shades darker in contrast to the red dye of the crown and nape of her short, spiky hair; the front of her hair was a forest green shade. The olive t-shirt she was wearing had a highly-detailed graphic on it; but Will couldn’t make out what it is of because of the black leather jacket she was wearing. The jacket cut off at her waist, but the t-shirt went down a bit further, to about where a skirt would cut off; Will could only assume she was wearing one underneath. Completely covering her legs were a pair of black leggings; at several places, there were openings that showed the fishnet leggings that she was wearing underneath. The leggings covered her entire lower body including her feet where she wasn’t wearing any sort of footwear.
The boy was not as decorated as the girl. His brunette hair went down to his neck and look completely unkempt. A good part of it covered the left side of his face, leaving only his right eye exposed. He wore a loose fitting, pitch-black V-neck t-shirt with no graphic or text on it. But Will concluded that the boy hadn’t dressed or groomed himself yet when he noticed him in a pair of light blue pajama pants and white slippers.
“Fan? Me? You guys a band?” Will asked.
“Not a band,” the boy answered, still staring down at his drum kit.
The girl would go on to clarify the boy’s response. “What he meant was that we’re not a complete band. We still need a bass player at least. You play one? Or any instrument at all?”
Will nervously answered, “I mean.. I.. uh..played a pretty good recorder in third grade. But that’s about it.”
“Disappointment,” the boy responded in the same sullen tone.
“Don’t worry, lil’ bro. We’ll find one,” The girl said. “So, fan, what’s your name? Who should we make our autographs out to?” She asked Will.
“I’m Will. I live across the street,” Will answered pointing to his house across the cul de sac.
“Across the street? Hey wasn’t that your dad that was getting hassled by that Homeowners’ Association lady a few weeks back? Yeah, I remember that! They were going at it for a few minutes. I thought you guys were gonna get kicked outta the neighborhood for sure. I mean nobody’s had the stones to mouth off at that lady like your dad did! We wanted to write a song based on that argument, something about the..uh, the um..”
“Triviality of the middle class,” the boy said finishing the girl’s statement.
“Yeah that! But since we didn’t know what your dad and that lady were arguing over, we scrapped the idea.”
“Our basketball goal being on the sidewalk,” Will answered.
“That’s it? Man, that would’ve made for a terrible song. Phew! Totally dodged a bullet there.”
“Painfully mediocre,” the boy added.
“Well I’m Jessie, and this is my little brother, Vincent.” Then she shouted, “We’re The Rock That Killed the Dinosaurs!”
“’Sup?” Vincent asked as his way of introducing himself.
“That song? Is it an original?” Will asked.
“Yup, it’s a song about a love zombie. It’s called..um.. hey what are we calling this one?”
“Love Zombie,” Vincent answered.
“Yeah Love Zombie!” Jessie said as she walked toward the other side of the garage. There was a section on the wall made of grey felt with four pairs of hooks spaced out evenly throughout the section. Three of the pairs of hooks were occupied by different guitars, one acoustic, one bass, and another electric guitar like the one Jessie placed on the empty pair of hooks.
“We gotta huge audition coming up for a gig. Could be major for us, so we’ve been practicing hardcore. We even been waking up earlier than we normally do on weekends.”
“Before noon,” Vincent added. His contribution to the conversation would be followed up by his stomach growling.
“You’re right, Vincent. We should eat,” Jessie said. She then noticed that Will’s body was a bit worn from mowing the lawn.
“You look like you need something to eat too. We can’t have malnourished fans.”
Jessie walked towards the door leading to the inside of Vincent and her house. Will accepted her subtle invitation and walked towards the door shortly afterward. Vincent would be in be positioned between the two when he finally rose from the stool at his drum kit. When Will approached the door, he was stopped by Vincent.
Vincent pointed towards Will’s feet and bluntly said, “shoes,” directing him to take his shoes off before entering the house.
Will did as such; when both shoes were off, Vincent held his hands out signifying that he wanted Will to give him his shoes. Will hesitated at first, not sure as to why Vincent wanted his shoes or what he was going to do with them. But he complied, handing Vincent his tennis shoes. The two entered the house afterward.
In this part, I will describe the Neville House as Will walks to the kitchen.
Jessie opened the pantry and flipped the light switch on as she walked inside. Will couldn’t completely inside the pantry from where he was sitting, but he found it hard to ignore the shelves completely stocked with various boxes of cereal. Will estimated, in his mind, that there were at least thirty different boxes of cereal in the pantry from just what he could see. The boxes weren’t organized in any way as far as he could tell. But he watched in awe as Jessie navigated through the shelves as if she were locating a book in the library, moving her left index finger across each box until she found the one she wanted.
About a minute later, Will lost sight of Jessie as she was so far into the pantry at that point. He wondered just how far it went, and if it was filled with just breakfast cereals. Eventually, Jessie returned to the main kitchen area holding three different boxes of cereal.
“ Okay,” Jessie said to Will. “I got Apple Jacks for Vincent.” She placed the box of Apple Jacks down on the table. Then she continued, “Corn Pops for me, ‘cuz gotta have my pops! And for you? Well I probably should have asked beforehand, but I could take one look at you and tell you’re a Frosted Flakes guy? Am I right? Tell me I’m right.”
Although Frosted Flakes wasn’t Will’s top choice of cereal, he didn’t want Jessie to have to go back into the pantry again on his behalf. “You’re right,” he responded.
“Ha! I knew it! I’m seven for seven now!” Jessie said with delight. She walked to the cabinets above the counter on the other side of the kitchen. As she opened the cabinet and reached for three white bowls, she began to give Will an explanation without him even asking one, or needing one at all.
“Before you ask, because everyone asks, our mom works in the HR department at the big cereal processing plant at the Enterprise District on the southwest side. They make, box, and ship out all the major cereals. Mom always brings home a box or two of whatever they’re processing that week. We even get our hands on the new cereals before they hit the store shelves regardless of whether they’re good or not. In a way, we’re kind of like guinea pigs, you know, test subjects to see if the new stuff resonates with the kids. We’ve tried out all kids of crazy new cereals. I remember back in ’97 when she brought home a box of those chocolate flavored Frosted Flakes.”
“Chocolate flavored Frosted Flakes? Yuck. Why do they feel the need to screw around with a good thing?” Will asked in response to the cereal.
“My sentiments exactly,” Vincent added to Will’s shock. He was sitting in the chair next to Will and it seemed as if he popped up out of nowhere.
Appearance wise, Vincent was slightly more prepared for the day than he was earlier. His hair was a bit more groomed, although it hadn’t changed in styling. He was still wearing a loose, black t-shirt; Will wasn’t sure if this was the same shirt he was wearing earlier or he changed into another. Instead of his pajama pants, Vincent was wearing regular fitting dark denim jeans, and a pair of slightly worn Converse Chuck Taylor shoes underneath.
Jessie handed Will and Vincent a bowl each and placed a half empty gallon of milk she got from the refrigerator on the table for the three to use. She took her seat and noticed that Vincent was digging his hand deep into the box of Apple Jacks instead of pouring the cereal into his bowl.
“You got the prize already, lil bro,” Jessie said to her brother.
“Unfortunate,” Vincent responded. He took his hand out of the box and began pouring the cereal into the bowl, along with the milk.
Will did the same with his box of cereal. He really wasn’t a fan on Frosted Flakes, but he can’t remember the last time he ate a cereal that wasn’t laced with fiber, or, bran, or whatever healthy sounding buzzwords that convinced his mother to fork over an extra four dollars per box. Save for the Pop-Tarts he was fortunate enough to find in the back of his own pantry a few days prior, he had nearly given up on breakfast altogether.
Although he didn’t show it on the outside, as his mouth was stuffed with the cereal, Will was enjoying himself as he ate. Jessie and Vincent took note of this.
“That good huh?” Vincent asked Will.
After swallowing the current mouthful, Will answered. “they’re great.” However, he said this normally, making no attempt to emulate Tony The Tiger. Saying nothing else afterward, Will resumed eating at a swift pace and animated manner.
Five minutes later, Vincent, Jessie, and Will were all done with their cereals. Vincent rose from the table and collected the bowls. As he went to place the bowls in the sink, Jessie spoke to Will once more.
“Well, Will, you’ve watched us jam, you’ve toured our estate, and you’ve partook in our cereal. But, you won’t be getting the full Rock That Killed The Dinosaurs fan experience unless you ride with us to our number one source for inspiration, our muse if you will, Rex’s Rockin’ Record Repository! So you wanna come with us? Or did you have something else to do today?”
Will, started to answer with hesitancy, “Well I was going to see if MTV would replay the season finale of Daria since I missed it a few days ago…”
Before he could finish, something directed him to look to his right, at the one chair at the table that was vacant the entire time. And there she was; as she had been known to appear whenever Will wasn’t sure about himself, when he was reluctant to go somewhere or try something new. The spirit of April, still in the white dress was sitting there, giving him Will stern look like a parent who knows their child is about to do or say something wrong. But before Will could respond to her sudden appearance, April would disappear just as quickly as Vincent had returned to the table and opted to occupy the previously empty rather than the one he sat on before.
“You know what,” Will said to Jessie after redirected his attention back in her direction. He sprung from his chair and continued with more eagerness, “I will go with you guys.” But then Will remembered that he was still dressed for yard work and not much else. “But..um..maybe I should go and change out of these sweatpants first,” he said.
“Cool,” Jessie replied.
“Cool,” Vincent repeated.