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Joel shoved his hands into his pants pockets, slightly shivering in the cold. He probably should have worn a warmer jacket.
Lucas, or better known as Crash, checked his digital watch.
The two of them were waiting outside of Trisha's school so they could walk home and go hang out out at Joel's house to practice.
A short while of waiting later Trisha came trudging through the snow amongst her other classmates.
"Isn't it a little creepy for you guys to keep waiting at the gate for me?"
Crash shrugged while they walked together to Joel's house.
—
"Fucking finally, I was freezing my ass off out there." Joel shed his jacket, throwing it on the couch once entering his warm house.
Trisha threw her backpack on the couch as well and headed towards the kitchen.
Trisha was perfectly comfortable with the two older men, seeing them as older brothers, to the point where she could roam about their house without saying anything and they wouldn’t question it.
She grabbed a bag of chips and a caprisun before heading back to the living room and sitting on the couch.
“What song are we gonna practice today?” She asked cramming chips into her mouth as she watched them set up some of the equipment.
“We’re thinking of practicing ‘Zog’, for the battle of the bands that’s coming up.” Crash says while tuning his guitar.
“I thought we were practicing ‘Last Song Kills the Audience” Joel says looking up.
“We’re doing that one later.”
Trisha finishes her chips and crumpled up the bag throwing it onto the coffee table.
“Who are we battling against?” She wipes her hands on her skirt.
“Some band I’ve never even heard of, Sex Bob-Omb. I hear they have a girl drummer.” Joel replies.
“Better watch out Trisha, she might be 8 too.” Crash sneers, he’s now plugging up the microphone to the speaker.
Trisha wrinkles her nose as she pokes a hole in her caprisun.
“I’ve been thinking. I don’t really... get the whole girl thing. All the girls in my class are weird, all they do at recess is braid each other’s hair and talk about boys. It’s weird...”
Crash finally looks up at Trisha after being finished setting up. She’s sitting on the couch a little awkward, almost uncomfortably as she talks with them. Joel notices this too and stops messing around with his bass.
“I don’t like wearing skirts and stuff. Mom says I’ll grow out of it and that I’ll get used to it, but.... it’s not just skirts. It’s the way I feel. I don’t wanna be Trisha. It’s such a girly name, I don’t want to be a girl. I don’t feel that way. I want to be a boy.”
Crash looks at Trisha then to Joel to confirm he heard this too. Joel met Crash’s eyes and raised his eyebrows quickly, almost shrugging.
“Is this just cause the band’s name is Crash and the boys? We can change it-”
“No! I like the name! What I wanna say is, I am a boy!” She stood up and clenched her fists.
Crash and Lucas looked at eachother again and knew they were dealing with a delicate situation.
Joel cleared his throat, “Well um. I mean that’s fine. You tell your mom yet?”
“No, I don’t know how. What if she gets mad at me.” She sat down again, slumped over a pillow. “What if she makes me wear skirts and stuff outside of school?”
The two men sat down next to Trisha and debated their next words.
“Well, we’re here. You don’t have to be a girl when you’re with us. Even if it’s not for a long time, you still get to be who you are.” Joel smiled reassuringly.
“We are Crash and the boys after all.” Crash added in, “You got a new name? You did say Trisha was girly.”
Trisha sat up and rubbed her chin in thought.
“I dunno yet. I want it to be something cool and kickass! Cool like Crash!” She said visibly getting excited.
“We can call you Crash for now if you want.” Joel suggested.
“What the hell am I gonna go by?!”
“You have an actual name, use it.”
Lucas sighed, his nickname privileges now revoked, “I guess this is your band now, Crash.”
The new Crash smiled, feeling a sense of pride and belonging with shedding his old identity. He could be himself now. And he couldn’t be happier.
‘Crash’ Ha earned the power of Identity!
“First order as the new Crash! I say we play ‘Zog’!”
—
A couple of weeks had passed by since then, and Trisha ended up shedding both Trisha and Crash, eventually setting on Trent. He thought it was cool, short and packed a punch.
Crash and The Boys were finally on stage for the battle of the bands, the each of them ready to play at their battle stations.
Crash took ahold of the mic and took a deep breathe to calm his nerves.
“My name is Crash, these are the boys.”
Some jackass from the balcony yelled out,
“Is that girl a boy, too?”
Crash stared him down, aggressively, and replied.
“Yes.”
Trent flipped the guy off from behind his drum set.
A few people in the audience giggled, and from the other band he heard someone say “They have a girl drummer?”
Trent harnessed this into emotion for the intense drumming he was about to do.
“This Song is called ‘I am so Sad. So very very sad. It goes a little something like this....”