DAISY’S POV

So Amanda was on her second hour of ranting to me about Kayla All-American, and by this point my invisible headphones I bought specifically for times like these had taken off running. Even they couldn’t handle her sometimes. So I’d taken to painting. Last year, I told Amanda that I listened better when I was painting. So she bought me an easel.

“Can you believe that girl?” Amanda said for the four billion and eighth time. “I’ll bet you she’s from Kentucky. Don’t you think so, Daisy? Don’t you think she’s from Kentucky?”

“Yeah, ‘course,” I muttered, slapping a blue line across the canvas.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Yeah, ‘course.” 

Amanda sat down, preferably in a chair. “I’m sorry for doubting you, Daisy.”

“Yeah, ‘course.”

“It’s just that she makes me so angry with her American-ness, and her non-Australian-ness. Do you remember those days before we moved here? I miss the—”

“Yeah, ‘course,” I grumbled. The masterpiece was almost finished.

Amanda narrowed her eyes until they were narrow. “Are you sure you’re listening to me?”

“Of course; I’m painting, aren’t I?”

“Don’t use all the paint. I bought you that paint.”

“You also bought me this lair.”

“Um, this is my lair, actually. You’re just living in it.”

“Well I’ve got nowhere else to go since you dragged me with you to Australia! Where did you get all this money from, anyway?”

Amanda glanced suspiciously from side to side. “The…money store…?”

“Oh, okay. Why didn’t you just say so?” Smiling, I turned the canvas to face her. “It’s finished! I call it: ‘Inspiration’.”

“It’s two blue lines.”

“It’s inspired by your favorite color.”

Amanda’s face turned the shade of a red potato. “Do you know why that’s my favorite color, Daisandra?”

Oh no. She was calling me by my full name. “Um…why?”

“Because 5SOS’s house is blue! And do you want to know why?”

“Not rea—”

“The reason for its immense blueness is because one day two summers ago, a piece of sky fell onto the previously beige house and turned the entire thing bright blue. It all happened so quickly that Calum swore the whole thing was in the span of five seconds. And that’s how they got the name ‘5 Seconds of Summer’.”

I listened unlisteningly. “Oh, yeah. Forgot about that one.”

“We need to stop that All-American girl before it’s too late! She’s nineteen; in most fan fiction she’d already be married by now!”

I looked up from my glorious work of art. “Hey, you told me not to break the fourth wall!”“It’s okay if I do it.” She crab-walked over to the evil computer and pressed a few evil buttons at random. “Now teach me how to use this thing and let’s take her down.”

I rested a hand on her shoulder. “Honey. I can’t teach you how to use this.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a bit mental—”

“Don’t call me honey, by the way. Honey gives me a rash.”

“Then what should I call you?”

Amanda smiled an evil smile that closely resembled something smile-like. The light from the single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling reflected off her sunset brown hair as she looked into a camera that would’ve been there if we were in some sort of action movie. “Call me Amanda. Amanda All-American.”

LUKE’S POV

It was her eyes that caught me. Eyes so brown, they made mud seem white. So brown, my feces were jealous. So brown—

“Ew man, stop there,” Calum said in the middle of my confession of love. “That’s just wrong.”

“I can’t help it,” I said dreamily, as if I dreamed a dream in time gone by. “This girl…have you ever seen so much beauty in a single face? Imagine what our kids would look like!”

“I’m sure you and Katie would have gorgeous kids, but face it; she’s way out of your league.”

I opened my mouth, but didn’t say anything because I knew Calum was right. Katie was the epitome of average American teenage girls, while I was just some everyday world-famous Australian pop-rock and pop-punk band singer, according to Wikipedia. How could she possibly see anything in me?

Calum pressed his face against the door of the house and held it open for me. We walked inside to meet up with Kayla, Kaz, Faith, Michael, Ashton, and my one true love.

“What do we do now?” Mikey asked. Yep, that’s Mikey for you. Always asking things.

“We can play a game!” Kayla suggested.

“What kind of game?” There he goes. Asking again.

“We could make a sacrifice to Mother Nature,” Kaz mellowed mellowly. “I volunteer Miss None-Of-You-Freaks-Make-Any-Sense over there.”

Faith threw up her hands. “Oh, come on! I can’t be the only one who thinks you’ve all lost it!”

“You are,” Ash said. “Now how does that make you feel?”

A tear escaped my right tear duct. I just loved it when Ash took charge like that.

“But seriously, guys,” Katie said her melodic voice. It reminded me of a river because it flowed so beautifully and eventually emptied out into an ocean of loveliness. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“Thank you,” Faith said, relieved.

“My horoscope said today is a bad day to make sacrifices to Mother Nature.”

Faith shrugged. “Sure. You know what? I’ll take it. As long as you let me live, I’ll take it.”

“We could go to the beach!” Calum suggested.

“Great idea!” Ashton shouted, gallivanting to the door and opening it with his face.

“Whoa, hold up,” Faith said. “Didn’t you guys tell me Kayla fainted from the heat last time you went, or something?”

“No, she went colorblind,” I said. “That was earlier today!”

“What?” She looked out the window. “Does it ever become night here?”

“Nah, this is Australia.”

She looked confuzzled. “Um…”

We all got bored with her questions. So Mikey, Ash, Calum, and I got together and did jazz hands to make the scene change.