Four Play

"God, Alex." Ellie laughed. "You really are an idiot sometimes."

"You're stupider!" Alex shouted in a joking return.

"Stupider doesn't exsist." Ellie laughed.

Alex and Ellie were walking the Danbury Fair Mall with their two best friends, Vida and Gen. The four were inseperable even with their different personalities and styles. They were so close that they decided to start a band. Together they were Four-Play. Alex was their drummer, Vida was the keyboardist, Gen was the bassist, and Ellie was the lead singer and guitarist. They were at the mall for no other reason than to compete in a battle of the bands.

"El!" Vida called frantically from behind the tallest of the group.

"What?" Ellie turned around and ran directly into a pillar. "Shit!" she clutched her face, and laughed loudly. The girl with the electric pink hair fell on her butt, and roared in a fit of giggles.

"Are you okay?" I blond boy squatted next to the fallen girl.

"Peachy keen." she laughed.

"Well, you hit that thing pretty hard." Another boy added. This one had brown hair.

"I'm okay. I swear." Ellie stood up again.

"She's always like this." Gen said from behind Ellie's tall form.

"I see." Another blond smiled directly at the shortest of the group, Gen.

"Are you sure your okay?" the last boy in the group, another brunet, asked sitting next to Ellie on the bench she was cross-legged on.

"Positive." Ellie smiled as her vision came back form being blurry. She took note of the excited and nervous looks on her best friends' faces. "What's up?" she asked, following their glances.

Her now clear-seeing eyes fell upon the guilty pleasure of her past, Dream Street. Jesse was stealing little glances at her friend, Gen, Matt was leaning against the pillar she had just rammed her head into, and Frankie was squatting next to Greg, who was seated next to Ellie, herself, on the all-of-the-sudden too small bench. Ellie popped up quickly. "You know, I'm feeling much better. Thanks."

"Glad to hear that." Greg said.

"Yeah, so um..." Alex stammered. She, too was a former Dream Street fan. In fact, all four girls were.

"Well, we have to go. I mean we are judges for this stupid Battle of the Bands thing today." Frankie stood from his crouched position.

"It's not that stupid." Vida spoke for the first time since she realized who the boys were.

"A bunch of crappy bands singing crappy covers?" Matt stopped leaning, and faced Vida directly. "Yeah, I'd say that's pretty stupid."

"Yeah. Well, we'll see." Ellie said in a tone telling her friends to play along.

"It was nice meeting you ladies." Jesse said nodding towards Gen as the four guys walked towards the center of the mall.

The four girls walked into CVS, and headed to the makeup aisle. As Ellie browsed a lipstick display, she felt a hand on her shoulder. "You haven't called." the owner of the hand said sadly.

"Hi, Rick." Ellie turned around slowly.

"I miss you, El." The tall boy leaned in to kiss her.

"Oh, my God!" Ellie turned her head quickly, and Rick's lips landed on her cheek. "There it is." She picked up a box of tampons and held them in Rick's face. "My period just started. It's really heavy."

The boy blushed, and backed away. "Oh. Well, I have to get back to work." He straightened his red CVS smock, and began to walk away. "Call me sometime." he called over his shoulder.

"Ellie, I'm so sorry. I just noticed he was here." Alex hugged Ellie.

"Eh." Ellie threw the tampons in a bin marked 1/2 priced DVDs.

Ellie remembered the time when Rick told her that he didn't want to talk to her because she was " a psychopathic schitzophrenic loser". She smiled, knowing the only part in that statement that was wrong was the schitzo part. "I hate him." Ellie said as she tossed a lipstick and an eyeliner, unpaid for, in her purse.

The girls left the pharmacy, and headed across the hall to Old Navy. They needed new outfits for the show, and they liked the idea of mixing Old Navy prep with Hot Topic punk. After a few hours the girls were set for their performance.

Gen wore a pair of knee high, black combat boots over her fishnet stockings. Her black suede skirt was to her mid-thigh, and she was in a bright purple tank top. Her nails matched her top, and her hair was pulled back in a set of that same purple chop-sticks.

Alex was clad is semi-baggy black jeans along with a midrif tee-shirt in electric blue. Her shirt depicted the word "Angel?" and under that was a smiley face with horns and a halo. Her shoes matched perfectly. They were black adidas sporting electric blue lines, and her hair was in the "ghetto" twists.

Vida wore a pair of black capris, and a yellow tee-shirt. She hated the color black, so she tried to use as little of it as possible. Her thong flip-flops were the same yellow as her shirt, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

Ellie, always trying to be different, was in a long sleeved neon pink tee, and a black skort. Her feet were in neon pink socks and black flip-flops. Her hair was left down because she liked the way in matched her outfit.

The girls waited on the side of the stage for their name to be called. Vida held Ellie's hand, and prayed silently. Ellie stared at her feet, thinking about having to sing in front of her former idols. Gen had a book spread open in her lap, and Alex fidgetted nervously. "Our next band," the announcer said loudly into the microphone. "Is from right here in Danbury. They are four best friends, four girls, here they are... Four-Play."