Chapter Text
The Future Has Arrived!
11:30 Pm January,17th 2005
Florida,USA
Jimmy had just sung the last words of one of the Rejects hit songs, which was the last of the concert, sweat was illuminating of all 4 of the band members foreheads, their hearts beating almost as loud as the crowd, chanting for an encore.This was the show where the Rejects announced that in April they were going on their first international tour.
For this tour the band still needed a journalist and any big companies didn't meet their requirements for a collaboration.The Rejects (mostly Skizz and Grian, their manager and Jimmy's older brother) wanted a journalist with them to document and write about their tour.Acording to Grian that would "boost the Rejects publicity even higher than it is".
Plus they wanted to make this a big deal because it truly was, usually they'd only toured the US but this was about to change.
They'd been discussing how to find a journalist for ages and Jimmy and Big B thought it would be a good idea to secretly ask underground journalists. But the rest of the band wanted a specialist.
Resuming back to the band.Jimmy, who was obviously very tipsy, turned to the camera recording the concert, pointed an yelled slurring his words in the process.
"TO ALL OF YOU REJ-ECT LOVING FANS IF ANY OF YOU OUT THERE WANNA JO-I-IN US ON TOUR, BEING A JOUR-NALIST, COME TO THE REJECTS STUDIO NE-EXT WEDNESDAY 9:00 AM!"
At this sudden announcement the crowd went wild but behind him his bandmates went pale, colour draining from their faces as he spoke.
He had yelled it so loud and so fast that there was nothing his fellow band mates could do to stop him they were going to have a tricky situation Wednesday.
Glasgow,Scotland
4:30 Am on January, 18th 2005.
A bluey, tealish?coloured haired guy was lay on his sofa drooling whilst asleep,a blanket covering him.The tv was playing that moment when Jimmy said that stuff about the journalist.Nobody in the guys tiny apartment saw it.
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An alarm clock went off.
Once.
Then twice.
Then three times, until a pale hand reached out from under a wool blanket and turned it off.A groan was heard as a tired Scott emerged from underneath the blanket. The 23 year old had visible dark circles around his eyes and his teal hair was scruffy and knotted.Gem always said 'that was sign of a good sleep.'
He was wearing a white shirt and black shorts, his basic but comfortable pajamas.He walked to the bathroom whilst calling his best friend, Gem (making sure to pet his cat on the way.)
"Hey Gem, you having a good morning?" Scott like his name was born and raised in Scotland, so obviously he had quite a thick Scottish accent.
A bubbly voice was heard from the other end of the line.
"Hi Scott, yeah it's been an okay morning, although our usual coffee place is closed today, how's your day been though?"
"I'm fine but," he paused "Ugh I need coffee right now, I stayed up late watching random rom-coms that were on tv." Scott groaned.
"Oo but don't worry, I did find a great new place:it's on Smith Street, I'll pick you up in an hour?" Gem said.
Scott swiftly agreed and hung up,walking away to get ready.He stopped in front of his mirror in the hall.God he looked and felt like shit.
His roots were peaking through his bright teal hair, he hated his brown hair, something about it just felt like he was hiding something about himself, with his teal hair he felt free.
I don't know it sounds stupid.
Aswell as his bad hair-do his skin was breaking out, yeah breaking out at 23 years old, jeez.And the bags under his eyes were giving away his late movie night.
If highschool Scott saw himself now he would scream.Scott was the type of kid in highschool who was popular but was genuinely nice to everyone.He was a popular 'little miss perfect'.
After an hour of him trying to cover his acne and misery with concealer Gem was outside his apartment waiting for him in her car.
Time to go.
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There she was the face to the bubbly voice on the phone.
Gem was an interesting person, she had bright orange hair and emerald green eyes.
She was a strange mix of calm yet chaotic but still could calm Scott down if he had one of his "episodes".
She was his longest friend because they met when they were in primary school and proceeded to go to the same highschool.
She owned her own florist after dropping out of college in her second year.She claimed to Scott that 'It was a waste of time" and "The work was too hard anyways" in college.
Scott disagrees with this to this day but he left college 2 years ago finishing his entire time their and Gem dropped out 6 years ago so no point arguing now.
But either way Scott loves her, she was there when he came out sharing her experiences with being bi, even though Scott pointed out how different being a gay man was to being a bisexual women.
She helped Scott through pretty rough breakups, holding him whilst he wept and even showing him how to use chopsticks as silly as it sounds compared to the other stuff.
She was Scott's sun pretty much.
They always joked he was the moon too her sun.
"Hey" she gasped, "You look fabulous today!" Gem knew Scott felt like shit today and needed a little boost.Scott smiled he knew why she did that but he loved how she always tried to cheer him up.
"Thanks, so do you."The man chuckled.
The two drove making random small talk until a question, that had been on Gems mind since the other night, popped up.
"Oh yeah did you ever hear back on that newspaper, article, job thingy?" The redhead asked.
Scott groaned "Ugh no, literally none of the journalist companies got back to me, I really need a job soon though because I've just been laid off!"
"Huh, really couldn't relate my boss at the florist would never fire me."Gem replied in a sing-song tone.
"Gem stop bragging just because you own a florist shop!"He growled with no heat behind the words.
Gem chuckled at this.
After a short car drive they arrived at the coffee shop, ordered their drinks and sat down at a near by oak table.
The shop had a cozy, warm vibe to it.
Plants filled every shelf and the smell of sweet coffee filled the air.
The table they sat on was by a window, which let rays of sunlight in, warming anyone's face that sat near by.
Scott could tell why Gem chose to get their weekly coffee at this place.
"Soooo, last night was The Rejects concert and they mentioned that on next Wednesday anyone who would like to could have an interview and be a journalist on tour with them!" Gem hummed, doing little jazz hands as she spoke.
Scott nodded slowly before saying, "So who are the Rejects again?"
His Canadian friend snorted, "Scott, you're joking right?"
Scott shook his head slowly with a confused look plastered on his face.
She continued,
"They're one of the biggest bands right now, everyone loves them and is dying to see them on tour!"
"So what you want me to hunt down this -boy band-, then just leave my life;my apartment, my family and go on tour with them, for what months?" Scott said in a sassy tone.
"Well there's no guarantee but you've been talking about how you want to travel the world and you were just saying how much you need work." She clapped back.
"Hmph, well where do I go for an interview at least?"
"Soooo you may have to go to.....America, but, but, but, I will go with you and if we go on a vacation to America we could maybe go to Canada after, you know visit my family?" Gem enjoyed the thought of possibly visiting her family for the first time in months.
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Cut to an hour later.
Scott had just got home after being dropped off by Gem and surprisingly to him, he was thinking a lot about what Gem suggested.
I mean it would be stupid to just you know follow the Resets...Regrets?
And just go on your with them. What was even their name?But he has a life in Scotland he can't just pack up and go away for months, apparently this tour was international.
But I mean it wouldn't hurt to go to the library and look them up on the computer.He had nothing to do today so why not?
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"The Rejects' hmph edgy vibe,not exactly my cup of tea." Scott was whispering to himself with a mocking tone.He did that often when he was trying to think.So he was really considering it, considering running away with some rock-stars.
On the Wikipedia apparently there was four band members, the drummer Joel, who had a strange green streak in his hair and was wearing a headband with devil horns. Then there was Big B, the keyboardist and bassist, he looked scarily strong but looked like he was one of those friendly giant types and he had a random cookie patch sewed to the right side of his chest.
Another guy stood next to Big B in the picture he was looking at, this guy was named Skizz, Skizz was the lead guitarist and he was wearing this suit with ripped sleeves and a tie that sat up on his shoulder.He couldn't read him very well but he seemed nice.
Then the final guy stood in the middle with Joels arm wrapped round him and Skizz scrufferling up his hair.He was the singer of the band, the lead vocalist, he had dirty blond hair, golden freckles, deep brown eyes and..he hurriedly moved on with his thoughts.He couldn't waste all day focusing on this one stranger, no matter how flustered just looking at him made Scott feel.
He quickly moved on with his research.
So it seems they are going on tour sometime in May and he supposes it wouldn't hurt to look into them more, you know do some research, for educational purposes.Just don't tell Gem.
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The information Scott had collected was limited but useful, the librarian kicked him out after a bit because he was "hogging one of 4 computers".That librarians so stingy.
So they're a band based in Florida, first formed in 1999 and they were originally just a college band but quickly grew to success after signing a contract with a famous record label,
American Life Records or ALR for short.Two of the members are American, Skizz and BigB and the other two are British, Joel and Jimmy.Their studio is obviously in Florida and Scott had the location on a map he printed.
God was Scott really considering this,
considering leaving his home and family for months just to have a small journalist job.I mean it was obviously going to pay well but you know what does he tell his family, 'oh I'll be back in a couple months I'm running away with a band!"
He has time to think about it this interview isn't for another 8 days, he could sleep on it and if he decided to jump on this opportunity weather it be a bad or good one he would be able to get a quick flight over to America and manage to make it to the interview on time.
But let's be realistic for a second he's a 23 year old man, who went to University and got a useless journalism degree, this degree is proven useless due to the fact he's was still working in retail before getting fired and is been rejected from every journalist job he's applied for, how's he going to impress these rock stars.
I guess he'd probably fit in with the 'Rejects'.