yOu KnOw YoU'rE rIgHt

[nfgurlie]

this is my first fan fic ever. it's GC related and my good friend, Denise wrote it with me.

i hope that you like it.

:: PROLOUGE ::

March 1997

The sky was a violent blue color dotted with a few crisp white clouds, the sun shone brightly and the birds all chirped happily. Yet nothing was happy about this day. Lori, Misty and Denise were huddled beside a big moving truck in front of Lori's house.

"Man, Lori, I really hate to see you go!" Misty said as she wiped her eyes and hugged her friend.

"Yeah, it won't be the same without you." Denise said as she joined in the hug.

Lori sighed as she hugged her two best friends back. She couldn't believe that in a few hours that she would be getting on a plane. She didn't want to move to California and finish out her Senior year with strange people and a new step-father. She would give anything if her mom would forget about moving and stay in Waldorf. She didn't want to leave Denise, Misty and the guys. This was her home, her friends were her family. Without them, she'd be lost.

"Ah, you two, stop crying!" Lori said, through tears of her own. "We'll still talk. There's always the internet, the phone and regular mail. And Vincent is rich so maybe I'll be able to fly out and see you during spring break and the summer."

Misty heaved a big sigh. "Arugh. I'm horrible with writing letters and I hate the phone...God, it's going to be awful. Like Dennie said, it just isn't going to be the same."

"I'm not that great myself," Lori admitted. "But we'll make it work. We always find a way."

Denise let out a short, strangled laugh. "Yeah. Remember when we all got grounded for sneaking out to see that show over in Kingston?"

They all laughed. They still couldn't agree on who's fault it was they had wound up there but they all agreed that it had been worth it. Even the being grounded part. Before they could continue on the trip down memory lane Lori's mother walked over to them.

"Ya ready, Lori?" she asked. "We kinda have to get going now or we'll miss the flight."

"Not really but I guess that I kinda have to be." She turned to Misty and Denise and gave them one last hug. "I'm gonna miss you guys!"

Lori got in the car and then she was gone. Misty stared at the car until it turned the corner. "God, Dennie. I can't believe that Lori's gone."

"We'll stay in touch. Nothing can tear us apart." Denise told her.

They managed to keep in touch for a few months, Lori and flew out and saw them over spring break like she promised. But like Denise had so eloquently put it, it wasn't the same. Misty and Denise stopped writing and hardly ever called. At first, Lori tried to justify it by telling herself that she was settling into her new life and that they were all caught up in the thrill of graduation. Yet, after time she began to feel as if they had forgot about her and she grew to resent them for it. Don't get it wrong, she was glad that Joel, Benj and Paul had started their band and made it but it made her bitter to think that they hadn't given her another thought.

[nfgurlie]

::Chapter 1::

May first signified the beginning of Good Charlotte's summer tour across the U.S and it couldn't have been a nicer day. The sun was shining in Orlando, Florida, and it couldn't have been a more perfect day to start a summer tour. The sun shone over the pond below the hotel where Good Charlotte had been staying for the past week with their friends and bandmates, and if you were standing close enough, you could see the five members of Good Charlotte walking into the sun in a group, with two much shorter people, the band's close friends, Misty and Denise.

Billy was walking faster than the most of the group, trying to beat Benji in a walking contest. Paul, Joel and Denise were walking behind Benji and Billy, laughing about something, possibly Billy and Benji. Misty and Chris were in tow, avidly discussing something, Chris was moving his hands around wildly, and knowing the two of them, they were probably discussing one of their idols, Dave Grohl.

"So, where to?" Billy turned around and asked the rest of the gang as Benji sped in front of him to pass a trash can.

"I beat you! I beat Billy! Billy lost and I won!" Benji said jumping into the trash can.

"Wanna go back to the hotel and order room service. We can camp out in Denise and Benji's room, it's the biggest." Joel suggested.

"Well, me and Paul have a porch!" Chris bragged.

"Wanna race back, Denise?" Misty asked her friend, mocking Billy and Benji.

Denise didn't answer; she was already sprinting back toward the hotel into the blinding sunlight.

The boys attempted to follow as the girls ran through the pool deck and through the steam room, they lost them after they cut through the gym, and giving up, they took the elevator back to Benji's room.

As the boys got off the elevator that opened on the thirty-ninth floor, across the hall from Benji's room, Misty and Denise ran around the corner of the hall from the stairs and collapsed into a fit of exhausted giggles at the foot of the door.

"Let's get pizza!" Misty chocked out between gasping for air and laughing.

Paul ordered three pizza's from a pizza place down the road from the hotel.

Benji thrust open the doors of the cabinet that held the TV and threw the rumpled bedding off his king-size bed that he and Denise has used the night before to watch all five of the Rocky movies.

Misty had already gotten Denise's laptop out of its case and had it plugged in, accessing her email account.

The annoying voice of the AOL announcer came up loudly over the speakers and announced that Misty had mail. She opened the mailbox and saw her regular spam, many topic subscriptions from her favorite message board, GCFiasco [representin!], and some mail from her friends back home. After reading everything and deleting the one's she didn't want to read about free Vicatin and Proza. She was left with an e-mail address resembling something her friend Lori would have made up. She opened the letter from WaldorfLori11 and read it in awe as her friend she had sparse contact with since she moved almost five years ago had made contact.

"Denise, come here and read this,"

Denise leaned over Misty's shoulder and read out loud, "Hey Misty. It's been forever since I've heard from you or Dennie! How's everything going? I just found out that the guy's tour is coming close enough for me to go. I was hoping I could see you guys there and we could hang out after it. Let me know what's going on! I know that we haven't had much contact over the past few years, but I think it would be cool to hang out and catch up! Hope to see you soon!"

"It has been long hasn't it?" Misty asked excitedly.

Denise nodded, "Guys, we're gonna see Lori again! Sometime on tour, isn't that awesome?" she looked past the dresser to see where the guys had gone, Joel, Billy, and Paul were in the bathroom next to the door while Benji was preparing to open the door for the pizza guy and Chris has his belt loosened and his pants unzipped.

"Chris, spare the pizza guy and keep your pants on. Did anyone hear what we just said?" Misty asked.

Nobody answered, as there was a knock on the door.

[bRoKeN*smile]

wow this one is good too...you're a really good writer!

[nfgurlie]

thankies muchly. here's a few more chapters:

::Chapter 2::

Spring Break 1997

"I traveled all the way out here to see you guys and you're too busy to hang?" Lori yelled at Misty.

"Look, I didn't say we were too busy. You didn't clarify if you were even coming! I got a text message this morning to come to the airport and get you!" Misty yelled back.

Benji looked over at Denise. "I think you need to break this up. It looks like it's gonna get bad."

Denise nodded. She was used to being the voice of reason when things got ugly. "Lori, it was me you were talking to about coming out. I guess I forgot to tell Misty."

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. It set Lori and Misty both off on Denise.

"Dennie! How could you not tell me?" Misty exclaimed.

"You forgot?! How could you forget something as important as this? Last I checked, we were still friends even though I live on the other coast!" Lori spat at her.

"We are. You know we'll always be friends! Now I'm sorry, it's just been hectic. You know the guys are trying to pull together a band and there's prom and graduation just around the corner. It's all a little overwhelming!" Denise replied in a calm voice.

"Yeah," Benji put in, "it has been crazy. I can't believe we're gonna graduate soon!"

"Yeah. It's so sudden." Lori replied. She looked calmer than a few minutes ago.

Misty shot Benji a grateful look. He was good at smoothing things over. "Sorry, Lor. You know we wub you right?" she asked in a baby voice.

Lori looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, I do. It's great to be back even if it's for a week."


::Summer 2004::

"Someone get the door!" Paul yelled. "It's prolly the pizza dude!"

Misty shot him a look. "I'm sure if he heard that, he isn't too happy! 'Pizza dude'?"

Paul shrugged. "Pizza dude."

Denise laughed as she made her way to the door. She paused to make sure that Chris had his pants up before she opened it. "Hello?"

"Uh, hi...pizza for a Paul Thomas?" a gangly pimpled teenager said.

Benji who was closest to the door leaned around Denise. "That would be me. How would you like me to pay you today?" he asked.

The boy gave Benji a look. "Cash?"

"You want Cash?" he asked. The teen nodded. "I'm sorry, he's not for sale." Benji replied with a straight face and then walked away from the door.

"God, Benj! You are the epitome of not funny." Misty exclaimed as she paid the teenager, who left in a hurry.

Denise couldn't help but laugh. This was routine around here. Benji loved that joke even though it was only funny to him. "At least he didn't moon the delivery guy this time."

Paul laughed, "Yeah. Good times!"

Misty shook her head and smacked him in the chest. "You are such a pig, Paul!"

Denise stared at them in amazement. Paul and Misty were such a strange couple. Where she was serious, he was carefree. It seemed as if she was always smacking him. But Paul didn't seem to mind. Denise suspected that he did it on purpose sometimes just to get a rise out of her.

"Food's here!" Benji yelled to Joel and Billy, who promptly appeared and joined in the feeding frenzy.

"So as I was saying before the pizza arrived," Misty began, "I just got an email from Lori. She's going to one of the Cali dates and she wants to get together and hang afterwards."

"That's cool." Joel said. "We haven't seen her in forever."

"Yeah. It should be cool. As long as you guys don't get into it again." Billy added.

Misty frowned. "Yeah, that was awful last time. I had almost forgotten why we stopped talking. That was the worst spring break ever."

Denise nodded. "All we did was argue! But it's been five years since that. Things will be different! I can't wait to see her!"



::Chapter 3::

"That week went by too fast," Joel said, sitting back on the tour bus that had become home to them the last year.

The rest of the band nodded, as well as Misty and Denise, who had spent half the fall tour and all of the Civic Tour on the bus with their friends.

Everyone was scattered around the front half of the bus, where they spent most of their time. There was a TV with PS2, a DVD player, and at times got good channels. Billy and Paul were in the middle of a high-concentration match of Mario Kart. Misty and Joel were sitting at the make-shift kitchen table eating EZ-Mac, while Chris was in back worshipping his Dave Grohl shrine, made public by their interview on Tastemaker on the Fuse Network. Denise and Benji were entwined on the couch that ran along once side of the front part of the bus.

"Yeah it did. Something about going to bed before tomorrow and not having to be in any specific place is so relaxing and satisfying. I didn't have to please anyone except Denise." Benji said, rubbing Denise's shoulder to signify that he was kidding.

"So where are we headed tonight?" Chris asked distractedly from the back of the bus.

"Orlando!" Misty yelled back to him, "That's why we've been here all week; we're just taking the bus to the venue."

The bus pulled into a cement parking lot that seemed to stretch for miles. Another cement block rose from field of parking spaces, the night's venue. The bus looped around the back of the stadium to where the loading entrance and exit was the crew had already arrived and were quickly unloading all the instruments, amps, and the clothes the band got to choose from to wear that night." Chris was the first one off the bus, and he ran toward the crowd of people waiting outside the entrance.

"Damn, that kid can run." Denise muttered to Benji, he laughed and led her by the hand behind some of the technicians.

"This is the tour where everyone will know you as Denise, my girlfriend, not just the group's good friend that tours with them. Paul is doing the same for Misty, so if you read anything in magazines anytime soon, don't say I didn't warn you." Benji whispered, slipping his arms around her waist.

She smiled and kissed Benji lightly on the lips, "I love my new title, so now let's go talk to the people waiting outside."

Denise took Benji by the hand and they walked around the stadium to the crowd of people waiting outside.

The rest of the group and Misty strolled over to the crowd eventually; you could hear the screams of various fans as each member made their way over. Everyone flocked in a different direction to get their pictures taken.

Misty waited in the circle of people enclosing Paul, with her camera. She waited in line with the rest of the Paul-adorers, and when it was her turn, she turned to the girl behind her and asked if she could take their picture.

The girl nodded and Misty trotted up to Paul, letting the rest of the line expecting him to give her the infamous Paul hug and then she would walk away, crying. To their displeasure, Paul picked her up and she slung her legs over his arms and smiled.
She thanked the girl who had taken the picture and waved to Paul, walking back to where the crew was still unloading the other buses. A few more vans had come, as well as Trapt's tour bus and Yellowcard.

Misty was about to make her way over and introduce herself to the other bands, who would also get to know her very well over the summer of touring when someone called her name from behind her.

April, 1997

Lori had angrily left two days after she came, using most of her time in Waldorf to revisit old boyfriends and neighbors. She didn't even come back to say goodbye to Denise and Misty. It was the last time they had been together as the three of them. School had started back up again and Denise and Misty returned to school, doubting if they would hear from Lori, to know she had gotten home safely.

"She shouldn't have been so mad," Denise said, maneuvering her Mustang into the senior lot, "I made a mistake, the sixteen years she's known me and you've known me, you both know I tend to forget things. She came across like I was so unreliable."

"Well,-" Misty started.

"Don't start on me, please! That's all I need!" Denise said grabbing her backpack from the backseat and storming into school, soon to be surrounded by Benji, Joel and Paul, and eventually Misty joined them.

Denise got home a little after two that day and came home to hear the answering machine flashing on and off.

Lori had just called from California. She dialed the number she had called so many times wanting to have a friend to talk to, or late at night when there was nothing else to do.

The message was so familiar to her, it had been the same for years, "If you would like to leave a message for Bill, Christine, Denise or Chris, leave one and we'll get back to you, if you're lucky. BEEP." Lori could recite it every time she called and usually did.

"Dennie? It's Lori. I know I left pretty mad, even after we started to show like we would have a fun week, and I just want to say I'm sorry, you know, for moving senior year, and getting mad at you, and making Misty mad at you and ruining your spring break. I'm really sorry. So I guess if you could call me when you get this, which would be so great. Bye!"

Denise pressed the play button and listened to Lori's shorter than usual message. She sighed and picked up the phone and started dialing Lori's house number in California, but got distracted as Joel and Benji threw themselves though her front door, never knocking, as usual, armed with a handful of movies and popcorn, Misty and Paul in tow.

[bRoKeN*smile]

awesomeness, yo