Chapter Text
Mizzen turned to look at Coral and shook her hand off his mouth.
“What the actual fu-“ he started before she slapped her hand back on his mouth
“I’m starting to think we have new friends.” she said as she look out the alleyway toward the group that she’d been seeing practically every where. She slowly took her hand off his mouth as she saw them turn the corner.
“Well i’m starting to think you’re going insane,” Mizzen started “Besides who are you even talking about.”
“Did you see that group ahead of us with a short blonde girl that looked about your age and a slightly taller girl with dark curly hair?”
“Yeah i guess why.”
“i saw them in the Blue Lagoon, they ripped one of our posters off the wall. I made eye contact with the little one for like two seconds. Then her friend or sister or cousin i don’t really give a shit turned around and looked at me for at least five. They’re giving me a weird feeling.” Coral said as Mizzen just kinda eyed her with a smirk.
“You sure you dont just have a crush on the taller one?” He said with a laugh.
“I don’t let’s go.” She said as she yanked him out of the alleyway. “We’ve been standing around too long already we’re gonna be late for your show. I guess we’re not eating dinner before.”
Mizzen groaned and started walking at a fast pace as Coral droned on about everything they needed to do in less than ten minutes. They needed to get to the venue at least fifteen minutes early and they were severely cutting it close. Luckily for them their house was near the Blue Lagoon so walking there only took a few minutes.
Mizzen ran into the house straight to the kitchen and opened the pantry. He was met with a bag of flour, and a bag of sugar, both of which nearly gone.
“Mizzen are you in the kitchen!” She asked with a hint of panic in her voice. The siblings had been living on their own for a few years after their parents both got lost at sea. Coral had been struggling to make much money in the past months. This often left them with an empty pantry. She hated when Mizzen would go into the kitchen because she didn’t want him to see how bad it was getting.
“Get out of there! We’ll just eat when we get home!” Coral yelled
“We are home!” He yelled as his voice traveled closer to her.
“You know what i mean Mizzen Maristela.” She said sternly
“Ok, woah no need to pull out the middle name Coral Irvin.” He mocked
“Alright that’s enough go upstairs and changed.”
Mizzen ran up the stairs to his room
and looked through his drawers for his starfish pants, they were perfect for his brand. He then looked for his striped vest and opted out of the long sleeve dotted shirt instead grabbing a short sleeved version.
After throwing them on he walked down the stairs where Coral was waiting.
“Tada!” he said with hand motion and laugh
“Absolutely not go to that bathroom and comb your hair.”
He sauntered up the stairs toward their small bathroom and grabbed a hair brush. Mizzen didn’t understand why she constantly made him style his hair for the performances when it would fall back into its normal shape almost as soon as he started.
When he finished he slid down the railing and landed right on Coral. She shouted and pushed him off her while fixing her hair. It seems he didn’t notice before but she’d changed into a black tank top and black shorts. It also looked liked she’d reapplied her eyeliner and made it a lot more smoky looking.
“Do you always have to dress like that.” He pointed at her clothes with a disgusted face.
“Ugh.” she rolled her eyes “That’s enough let’s go.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.
“Would you stop doing that!” He shouted
“Doing what.”
“Yanking me around everywhere.”
“Sure. Let me think about it.”
Mizzen was sure that was the end until a few minutes later when she said “No.” and pushed him through the door to the Blue Lagoon.
“Go backstage and start to set up the set i’m getting a drink.” She grumbled
Mizzen shrugged and walked backstage. He peeked onstage to make sure the curtain was closed, it was. So he went over to the drum set and started bringing pieces onto the stage. He placed everything off to stage right a little bit and ran to stage left towards the backstage.
Since he played so often he had a space to himself and was allowed to keep his drum set at the Blue Lagoon. He sprinted to that area and grabbed a pair of his decorated drum sticks. Mizzen twirled them around to get ready for the set and heard someone walk up behind him.
He turned around and Coral was right there staring at him.
“What are you doing you’re on in thirty seconds?”
He ran to the drum set and sat down just as the curtain opened and Coral started to speak. What would he do without Coral. Mizzen looked to the side she was standing on as she gave him a smile and a thumbs up. He called a countdown out and started to play.
He was so focused on the fact he was almost late that he forgot to address the audience first. He decided to end the song a few beats early because he’s the one playing and can do whatever he wants.
Mizzen stood and called out “All right everybody! How are you guys doing tonight!” he surveyed the room as it roared with applause and cheering. After looking for a few seconds his eyes landed on that group from earlier, this caused his jaw to drop open a little bit. But as fast as he did that he closed it again because he felt the younger one’s eyes on him.
He allowed his eyes to linger on a group a bit before looking away, he saw they were yelling something at eachother but couldn’t quite make it out.
Mizzen was a fast thinker and immediately said “I see a lot of regulars right now, but also some new faces. Welcome to my show, i’m Mizzen but you can call me Starfish. I see some of you are shocked at what you just saw,” he paused to wink at the blonde girl who was still standing with her mouth agape. “just wait to see what’s coming up next.”
He started playing his fastest song that he usually plays at the end of shows but today was a mess anyways so it wouldn’t really matter. He decided to keep his eye on the group to see if Coral was right. He noticed the curly haired one talking to a different older looking girl that Coral didn’t mention. They were pointing at him and all of her friends seemed to be in shock, and he wasn’t exactly sure why. Mizzen realized it was the end of this section and got up to go sit on the edge of the stage.
The people around the edge cleared a bit and left him room for his legs to dangle off the stage. He held his hand up in the air and tilted his head a bit towards where Coral should be handing him his microphone. A few seconds later he felt the microphone drop into his hand without even looking at it. He yelled out his thanks and to Coral and sat there for a second.
“I hope we’ve enjoyed the music so far, but i know why you all really come here. For the special section.” Mizzen was getting bored of the usual set and with his new visitors he wanted to shake up the room a bit. “You all seem like a good bunch so i’ve decided to have two different special sections happen tonight. Each will need one volunteer.”
Without waiting for someone to put their hand up Mizzen pointed at the blonde girl and told her she was chosen. He smiled and reached out to her to help her get on the stage. Much to his surprise she jumped on it with ease, but she still grabbed his hand even though he was sure she didn’t need it.
“Today’s special section will be quite a bit different than the others we usually do, hence the guest.” he stated pointing to the girl.
“Now i hate to be rude,” he said dragging out the word hate sarcastically “but i’ve seen you eying me all day, and i’ve never seen you in four before. So i must know what is your name?”
The girl eagerly grabbed the microphone right out of his hand and started introducing herself, “Well my name is Maude Ivory Baird but you can shorten it to Maude Ivory. I’m part a a group called the Covey,” she pointed to the people she’d been standing with, “and we travel around the districts playing music for anyone who’ll listen.”
Taking microphone back he says “Hopefully you don’t steal my thunder; however, it seems i’ve got the best instincts because the activity we’ll be doing today goes right along with that.”
Maude Ivory looked at him with a toothy smirk as he extended his hand to her. They stood up hand in hand as he led her to the middle of the stage where Coral was setting up two mic stands. After she was done she walked down the side stairs over to the bar where it seemed the girl with dark curly hair watched and followed.
“Today’s first activity will consist of me and the lovely Maude Ivory singing. But wait there’s more. I’ll be singing a song where only i know the lyrics, she will be tasked with creating them on spot when it’s her turn. If she can do it well enough to our liking she gets uh” he paused for a second before saying “usually when i have guests they’re older and can drink, but fuck it her prize can be one free drink from the bar. alcoholic or not i’m feeling fun today.” he laughed along with the crowd.
Maude Ivory seemed to understand that she needed to play along with this for him and said “i’m fourteen.”
“So am i and that never stopped me why don’t you ask them.” He laughed as he pointed to the audience.
She rolled her eyes at him as he looked out the crowd to Coral who was staring at him with a disapproving look from the bar.
“Looks like that didn’t make Coral too happy.” Mizzen said as he pointed to her. She held up whatever drink she was drinking and yelled something
“What was that?”
Someone in the audience repeated for him “She said she you could get drunk off of two of what she’s drinking and she doesn’t want to carry you home again!”
“Wow well that didn’t happen.” he said with as straight a face as he could as the audience yelled in disagreement.
“You know what lets change up the rules a bit just to spite you Coral and make things harder for us both. And! we both have to drink something before.” he said as he looked at Maude Ivory with a grin. “If she wins and has better lyrics than the ones i’ve written we she gets to drink something and if I win and what i’ve written is better than what she comes up with I get to drink something.” Mizzen smirked at Coral as he flipped her off.
Coral walked a bit closer and said “You know what fuck you do whatever you want but i’m absolutely not carrying you home again. You can find someone else.”
“Ya think you can handle it?” Mizzen asked
“You betcha.” Maude Ivory replied
“That settles the prizes! Now let’s get this thing started-“ he was about to jump off the stage and head for the bar when he was cut off as he saw a bottle of something passed around the crowd.
“Great! I don’t have to supply the drink pass it up here.” he grabbed the bottle and took a few sips and then handed it to Maude Ivory. She took a few as well and threw it to Mizzen. He caught it and pocketed it just in case he needed it later.
“Alright hit the beat.” and the music began.