Jem…Chapter 82

Chapter 82

 

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Author's Note: Picture used with permission from *lavonia on deviantart.

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Chapter 82
 

Previously….

I get a bottle of water for Rayne too and I get back to my room…our room and I just can’t help but to watch her sleep and I get a pad and pen and my guitar and sit there in my vanity chair and watch her and write.

Her eyes open as I sit down after awhile just in my camisole and panties and my hair still a sort of mess and I start to play my guitar and sing… *Carousel* to her.

“Hey there pretty girl…”
“Don’t be sad….”
“You won’t be alone tonight…”
“C’mon and take my hand.”

“Hey little girl, tonight baby don't be blue.”
“See those pretty lights along them pretty lights they’re really meant for you…”
“C’mon and take my arm…”
“You're not out there on your own..”
“Let’s step on the carousel lover.”
“And kiss until it’s all gone…”

(Instrumental.)

“I’ll show the world’s better now, that things can be better now.”

“I know the world’s let you down and it broke your heart.”
“But tonight's the night for a brand new start.”
“Come with me on our carousel.”
“We'll leave the world behind…”
“We'll go walking through this circus baby.”
“Just let me make everything alright.”

“Meet me out by all the bright lights.”
“Meet me down by the shore.”
“We can dance in the carnival lights…”
“Let me fall in love with you again…”
“As we kiss on the carousel.”

“Little pretty sweet blackbird…”

“C’mon take my hand…”

“Let’s look towards our future lover…”

“And leave the past behind…”

“Our love’s like a carousel….”

(Instrumental.)

“Meet me out by all the bright lights.”
“Meet me down by the shore.”
“We can dance in the carnival lights…”
“Let me fall in love with you again…”
“As we kiss on the carousel.”

I’m looking at Rayne and she’s smiling and sipping at her bottle of water and she pulls me back into bed guitar and all into this big deep sweet series of kisses.

“I loved it, that was so sweet and amazing but its way too early for us to be up yet babe. Let’s go back to snuggling up and getting some sleep.”

“Okay…sorry I’m just used to being up and doing stuff right now.” I set the guitar down at the corner of the bed propped up against the wall where I’m sure it’s not going to move much and slip back into her arms and kiss her as I shiver a little in a good way as her touch plays over my skin.

We snuggle in together and get all cuddly and intertwined and I can feel this sigh just flow out of me of just my mind and my messed up body going just…yeah…in unison for a change.

It’s so good when you can just fall off into that perfect sleep right. (Big Sleep-smiles.)

I wake up with this so sweet moment with Rayne spooning into me from behind and her arm slipped under and around me and likely asleep and her face nuzzled into my hair. I can tell by the light coming in that it’s a lot later in the day than before and I can smell food like smells and coffee drifting upstairs.

I yawn and try not to stretch too much doing it and I guess she was awake because I’m hugged really tightly from behind and that’s just really cool feeling waking up like that.

I sort of roll over partway once Rayne loosens her grip on me and we kiss for awhile.

“Morning beautiful.” I smile and say to her.

“Afternoon lover.” She smiles and says back to me. I blush a little it’s still such a personal and sexy and powerful thing to be called y’know.

We get up and well after water and sleeping it’s definitely time to go and well…it’s actually still weird that I’m doing this like this now but the oddest part still is that since we’re both girls Rayne’s in there with me.

It’s completely different than in like a ladies public bathroom. I have no idea if this is normal or not but it’s just taking a pee and then washing up together and sharing the mirror and sink as we brush our teeth.

I just get done with the Scope/mouthwash and she turns and kisses me. “Kiss test.” And she’s slipping her tongue in and she’s doing the whole french kissing thing that she does sooooo well and we’re backing out of the bathroom and down the hall until we get to the stairs.

“Mmm…stairs.”

“Yeah…”

“No…going up them maybe but I don’t trust my feet or Murphy’s Law with us necking on the way down.”

Rayne nuzzles my face and laughs softly. “Me too.” and then she walks all sexy and swayingly curvy down the stairs with me watching and making me achy in my panties…it just…wow…and not, it doesn’t feel right I think…maybe that’s why normal sex doesn’t work for me maybe something isn’t like guy-right down there?

But I guess it can wait until Monday when I go and have my appointment with the doc specialist over in Red Pines.

We head down still pretty much together but actually long where we’re going and Brooklyn is there with Mike and they’re sitting together in a blanket nest on the floor in front of the computers and are doing our net stuff and our video stuff plus the chat boards were going and Rayne and I just lean over and share a kiss in front of the camera’s give them a wave hair messed up and everything.

“Hey everyone sorry we’ve not been around but it was a late night show and well…”

Rayne smiles into the cameras. “Well that private right everyone.” She kisses me again lightly and pulls me off camera into the kitchen still very, very sexy and I’m still more than willing to follow.

We head into the kitchen and Kimmie is cooking?

*Kim…………

I crashed and was out of it for awhile before I had to get up and go pee, damned micro bladder. Okay to be fair I know that when you drink stuff with all that caff in it it’ll make you go a lot.

I debate hitting the drums and well everyone was still seriously asleep so I got some bottled water and made myself a big green tea and even took some of those vitamins that Angel has us take and I went back to bed and spent the late part of the morning reading stuff online and drinking tea and water and kinda detoxing a bit from the go juice.

I should really lay off the stuff for awhile but honestly I need the fix to get me through school. Okay I don’t but it really, really helps. Maybe I’ll do a serious detox over Christmas break when we have the time off and don’t have to be in school and I can unwind.

So I spend part of the time reading stuff about cooking up online. Honestly I can sort of cook, I can heat stuff up but I’m kind of scared to do a whole lot more than that. Mom never did and I think the way she treated it rubbed off somewhere in my brain.

It’s actually kind of intimidating and it kind of freaks me out at just how good Angel is at it. But like her cousin Jenna runs a diner and stuff and OMG those cinnamon rolls are absolutely to die for.

So why am I cooking or trying to?

Max…

I was Googling him and while I didn’t find much I did find him in the year book two years ago at Angel’s old school for him in ninth and ten grades. An obit for his dad who passed away in Toronto some years back while he was driving drunk and that’s about it really. He’s got a Facebook page that he sort of uses but it’s a lot of family pictures with him and his daughter…yes she’s very cute and she’s part native looking and way into hello kitty and pink and there’s other stuff from other relatives.

He works afternoons at the Marshal Pulp and Paper as a shop cleaner and is taking Home ed. classes.

I friended him and he’s friended me back and we talked a little.

I think he’s going to swing by the gig tonight after he gets off work and I…I actually said.

[I’ll bring something I’m just messing around with some recipes.}

[Cool, I’d like to try your cooking. I love my mom’s but it’s kind of like eating my own at this point too.]

[Okay, I’ll definitely bring something.]

*Angel…………

I’m smiling as Kim is giving me and Rayne and Brook who’s getting coffee with us a play by play of her and this Max guy including the Wal Mart meeting and them talking on Facebook including a good look of the guy and his Facebook.

He’s cute if I’m any judge of such stuff. Honestly for me if he was my type I think his glasses take him sort of over the edge.

He’s got the hardworking farm boy down pat though.

God Kimmie’s looking at me with these big pleading eyes and I can tell that she’s trying to force her eyes really wide open and look as pleading as possible at the same time.

“Please, please Angel can you help me?”

I’m giggling because she’s way over doing the eyes and it looks really odd on her like she’s trying to be some anime character.

“Okay, okay so you want me to help you make him a bento?”

“A wha…? No! Heck no I’m just trying to make something good and maybe learn a few things for like y’know…”

“For like if you and him have a date at his place because it’s easier with him having a daughter?”

“Yeah kinda.”

“Sure so do you know what she likes?”

“Spaghetti and hot dogs…chicken hot dogs.”

“Okay…so I’m going to say that she likes chicken.”

“Okay…”

“Okay we’ll start from there and play around and get our own supper-slash-diner at the same time before we head off to the gig tonight.”

“Really?”

“Yes really.”

Kim let’s out a huge squee and she starts hugging me and jumping up and down and stuff and I’m laughing because she’s so happy and bouncy. I mean she usually is but there’s just something about Kim when she’s happy that’s awesome.

Definitely our Roxy-Moogle.

I start getting things together and I know Kim’s going to be easily intimidated by some really hard stuff so I go with teaching her how to make chicken fingers from boneless skinless chicken breast.

It’s actually pretty easy.

Okay I make mine by having thawed the chicken breasts then I just cut them with a knife into inch wide strips and then a little corn starch and salt and pepper.

Kim’s looking at me as I’m showing her. “Why that stuff?”

“The corn starch is powdery enough to stick to the meat but it’s not the breading.”

“Okay...”

I take an egg and beat it in a dish and you can separate it if you want but really for a fast eggwash you don’t need to do that.

“Shake and Bake’s the easiest coating mix for newbies and something she’s likely had before.”

“Okay but why the egg stuff and the cornstarch?”

“Raw chicken’s kind of slippery and just the breading tends to come off, and just the eggwash will kind of come off. The cornstarch is powdery enough to stay on the chicken and then the egg sticks to the cornstarch and the breading sticks to the egg and as it cooks the egg sort of helps make a little sort of skin-crust too when it’s done.”

“Oh neat.”

I show her one of Mom’s tricks. You can deep fry these but its Kim and hot oil this early is not a good idea.

“Okay first we take wax paper and oil it. Then we put the chicken fingers on that to sit while we take a baking tray and put it in the oven on full heat turn it right up there to five hundred.”

“Uhm wow that’s hot.”

“Yes it will be, so you have to be careful.”

Once it’s ready after we do some clean up…really important with chicken but all food really and get some other stuff out. I get her to take out the really hot sheet pan. “Okay get the sheet out and place the chicken fingers oily side down onto the sheet tray.”

They sizzle on the hot metal. “See doing this you crisp and almost fry them when you first put them on the try and that way when their done and browned on top they’re done and you don’t have to flip them.”

I get her to put them in the oven and then back the temperature down to three hundred and fifty.

That will cook four good sized chicken breasts cut into about sixteen pieces for around twenty five minutes. It’s chicken you really want it done and there is a coating the heat needs to get through.

They really smell good too.

There’s some trimmings off the chicken left. It’s a good idea to trim the thinnest bits off the chicken breast so the fingers cook evenly and those bits don’t burn. So I take a little sauce pan and get Kim to brown them up in that with just a little bit of butter about a teaspoon and likewise of oil. Then how to make a cheating chicken gravy.

Seriously save any chicken bits that you have like that for this just pop them in the freezer or something.

I show her how to take water or chicken stock or water and a bouillon and use that to lift the browned chicken bit off the bottom of the pan and to scrape off the bottom of the pan and to add just a little bit of flour and water to make it into gravy.

“See? You can have gravy with these little browed chicken chunks in it especially if using stock or a cube but if you want to bump up the flavor if you’re using water then take a stick blender. (We have one.) and just buzz it up until all those little bits get dissolved.”

“Oh…wow so cool and not too hard.”

“Nope and the same with beef or other stuff too really, some fries and cheese and…”

She shouts out. “Yay poutine!”

Rayne and Brooklyn stick their heads back inside at that. “We’re having poutine!”

I smile. “We are now.”

Kim and I make more and I suggest we get a jar for her gravy and take her chicken fingers with her and use fries from the pub. “Trust me the fries will be better and he’ll still love the chicken fingers and the gravy.”

“Really?”

I holler. “Mike!? If a girl brings you chicken fingers and gravy for fresh fries would you like that!?”

He answers from the living room with a “Whoo-hoo!”

As we’re cooking I go over a few things with her that are good and easy like doing a small roast or steaks or even hamburgers in a Dutch oven on the stove with lots of water and some powdered gravy mix and once it’s going put a bamboo steamer on top with all the veggies so by the time the gravy’s cooked down the meat is tender, you have gravy and all your veggies and potatoes are done and just the one pot.

Hamburger goulash with loose cooker hamburger and macaroni and just the two together and some tomato soup on top. That’s a good one for kids too because you can bake off some pepperoni slices if you have them for a crunchy top like bacon and some shredded cheese on top and you have pizzaghetti.

I ate a lot of pizzaghetti when I was little.

Plus that recipe can be fixed up fancy too…add a little parmesan to it and a cup of spaghetti sauce and you can put it in the oven with some cheese over it and bake it off like a casserole, there’s lots of variations.

Dad likes his with garlic powder and some onions cooked with the hamburger and you make a pan gravy from that like a hot hamburger and a few shots of steak sauce and mix it with the pasta and top with some Swiss cheese and you have this sort of stroganoff thing. Mom used to drizzle watered down sour cream and a little horseradish and drizzle it over it before serving it…I think she added chopped celery and green peppers too.

We do make a dessert.

Angel’s cheating chocolate mousse.

It’s just a packet of Jello chocolate pudding mix with a five hundred mil container of whipping cream and you whip those together and you then take about a cup of milk and half a block of cream cheese and melt them together in the microwave. They’ll reharden as the cheese takes over the milk but you just wait until the milk/cream cheese has cooled and fold both together and put it in serving dishes. We get really fancy and we crush and dust the tops on them with crushed graham crackers and a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

Max’s we make with a bunch of the graham crumbs like layers and we put it in a jelly jar for him like a parfait.

Even without the sugar Kim’s all bouncy and happy and I’m not going to go with the fact she’s making a boy food and stuff just like in her anime shows.

We get in some practice and eat before we start packing and getting ready and Dad and Uncle Mitch are actually cleaning out the pot we made the gravy in with just fingers and bread.

I swear guys right?

We’re going a little bit relaxed and with the rocker girl look since it’s at The Amsterdam and I’m going with jeans this time and comfortable ones and once my girls are all attached and blended in I go with a decent bra and a pink scoop necked tee-shirt for breast cancer awareness one because me and pink just work well together and even if it’s a thrift shop special it’s still a really good cause.

Rayne’s in a navy blue zip front hoody and her club pants and she’s just wearing her good clubbing sports bra under that…lots of make up and her hair’s all gothy and Raven looking and her jewellery and stuff.

Brook’s got this Girl-Cobane thing going on and Kim’s doing the club pants and the corset thing with the racing gloves and her hair in this Japanese pony tail with the two long hanging bits of hair framing her face.

Hell yeah we look good tonight even if we’re doing the laid back thing.

We all pile into the cars and the van with all the gear and we haul ourselves off to the gig stopping only for some pre-show coffees at Tims.

We’re a little earlier this time getting there and the parking lot across the street is packed and there’s a line up at the door for people getting in and there’s that sign by the street with those back-lit letters saying “Starlight Butterfly rockin it all-night long!”

I point. “Hey! Look guys that’s it, our name in lights for the first time!”

We get out and girl cheer and freak a little take some pictures and shoot a few minutes of videos for the pages. We scream and pose and even wave to the crowd before we head into the staff side parking lot.

Wow…just wow…there’s just something like seeing that sign that charged us all up. I mean the sign’s there and everyone that drives by is seeing it. I know it’s a road-ad sign but still…

We wave at the people inside as we’re setting up and Brooklyn gets her stuff first and runs through her checks as we’re setting up and she starts jamming with a wave to the crowd a little instrumental “Oh Canada.”

It sounds really great on the electric guitar.

Nothing like this…that sound blasting out dancing through your brain on the electric scale, the crowd behind you having a good time and even a few yells when Brook really cranks it out and my fingers are itching to get going too.

We plug in and do our own checks and play a “Test..test…check test…” Then we agree on the cover to start and I give Mike a nod to turn up the volume a bit more and right from the start we’re playing heads nodding to the jam…the guitars…the drums and the build up.

It’s KISS and they get a ton of grief but this is one of my and Rayne’s favorite anthem songs of all time. *God Gave Rock and Roll To You.* By KISS.

(All of us.)

God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you  
Put it in the soul of everyone…
  
(Me…) Do you know what you want? You don't know for sure  
You don't feel right, you can't find a cure  
And you're gettin' less than what you're lookin' for… (All of us…)

You don't have money or a fancy car. (Me.)
And you're tired of wishin' on a falling star  (Raven.)

You gotta put your faith in a loud guitar… (All of us…)  

(Chorus with All of us.)

God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you  
Gave rock and roll to everyone…  
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you  
Put it in the soul of everyone…

"Now listen"
  
If you wanna be a singer…
or play guitar…(Rayne.)
  
Man, you gotta sweat or you won't get far  
Cause it's never too late to work nine-to-five  (All of us till the chorus break.)

You can take a stand, or you can compromise  
You can work real hard or just fantasize  
But you don't start livin' till you realize - "I gotta tell ya!"  

(All of us.) God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you  
Gave rock and roll to everyone  
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you  
Put it in your Soul…

(Instrumental break)  

(In high and light vocal from me.)

God gave rock and roll to you….

To everyone he gave the song to be sung (The girls in background.)
  
Gave rock and roll to you…. gave rock and roll to everyone….

Put it in the soul…

To everyone he gave the song to be sung. (The girls in the background.)
  
Gave rock and roll to you…. saved rock and roll for everyone  

Saved rock and roll….  

(Chorus repeats out…)  

"I know life sometimes can get tough!
And I know life sometimes can be a drag!  
But people, we have been given a gift, we have been given a role  
And that roles name is... Rock and Roll!"

(Chorus plays to fade out…)

We caught them sort off guard at first but as soon as the first climb beat of the drums and that amazing anthem riff of the guitar and people knew the song. Like I’ve said this is a great place for old rock, blue collar and Kiss for all the stuff said is that era…Detroit Rock City is still played on the radio nearly thirty years later.

The fans are loving it but so are the regulars here and there’s that rush when they get into a song right off the bat and are really happy and surprised at the start…they’re here for a rock show…we’re going to give them a rock show SLB styled.

I take a step back and take a drink of bottled water then back to the mic.

“Hey everyone! It’s Saturday night…works done, Sunday tomorrow…lets have a good time tonight okay!”

I hold my water bottle in a toast and sing into the mic.

“It’s our neutral country…”
“It’s our home away from home…”
“It’s Beers!”
“And Wings!”
“Smiles and Drinks!”
“And It’s about rock and roll!”

“Raise your voices!”
“Raise you drinks!”

“The Amsterdam!”
I raise the bottle and leaning to the mic. And they get it, me, the band, the staff, the crowd.

“The Amsterdam…!”

I take a drink and so do they and I step back smiling at Jake who looks so jaw dropped blown away and I take up my guitar and we start playing again.