"How much longer do we gotta wait before we can go on?" Pizzazz
paced up
and down the spacious dressing room given over to the performing band,
a
frustrated expression on her face. "I hate hanging around, what on
earth is
so interesting out there that we can't jus' go out and do our set,
huh?"
"Cool out, will you? You're givin' me a headache." Jetta snapped,
glancing up from where she was adjusting the mouthpiece of the
saxophone and checking that all of the silvery keys were moving
properly. "We'll go on soon, so stop stressin'. We don't want to 'ear
it."
Before Pizzazz could retort, the door of the dressing room swung open
and one of the club workers put his head around the door.
"Misfits? Five minutes." he said, and was about to leave when his gaze
rested on Roxy. "Hey, Rox!"
Roxy turned her attention from her guitar, her eyes widening in
surprise as she recognised him.
"Link!" She exclaimed. "Hey, you workin' here now?"
"You got it." Link, one of her childhood allies winked at her. "And so
are you, by the looks of it. You look good, Rox...guess bein' a
Misfit really has got you outta trouble."
"We are the trouble, Link." Roxy corrected him with a superior
grin. "You should know me well enough to know that nothing stops my
fun! Only this time we're running the show." She indicated her
companions. "We're gonna show you exactly what I mean, too, when we get
out there."
Link laughed.
"I wanted tonight's gig because I knew you girls were playing." He
admitted. "Only I wasn't sure as whether you were still hangin' with
them, or not...heard you'd gone solo."
"No...I'm a Misfit, at least for now." Roxy shrugged. "Why give up a
perfectly good deal, huh?"
Stormer eyed Roxy with interest. This was a different kind of Roxy to
the tough girl wrapped up inside her defensive shell. She guessed that
this
guy was someone she knew from her childhood. Though the girl had not
completely dropped her natural defences, she spoke to the stranger with
a fair amount of geniality, and Stormer realised in a flash exactly
why.. Roxy's usual reaction to probing about her upbringing was to snap
and change the subject by means of threats...but obviously this
newcomer, whoever he was, marked a happier time in the girl's past. Not
only that, but he was someone from the same roots - someone she could
identify with without feeling inferior or out-paced. Though she rarely
said as much, Stormer strongly suspected that
Roxy felt a fair amount of frustration when spending time with her
three educated,
graduated, literate bandmates. Even Jetta, who came from an equally
impoverished
background had the quickness of wit and a natural manner to handle
anything
the world might throw at her - she was very rarely out of her depth,
whilst
more often than not it was painfully clear that Roxy was floundering in
a
social structure she had yet to fully comprehend.
"Who is this guy, Roxy?" Pizzazz, clearly bored and not liking the fact
she wasn't the centre of attention demanded.
"This is Link, we kinda grew up in the same neighbourhood." Roxy
responded with a careless shrug, as if she had expected Pizzazz to know
this much intuitively..
"Link, this is Pizzazz, Stormer and Jetta...the rest of the band."
Now there was a note of pride, and Stormer knew that the bass player
was preening. Though her last visit to Philadelphia had been fraught
with disaster and humiliation, she was back here now a star, about to
go on stage and
show her home city what she was really made of. Somehow the exchange of
words with Link, who was incapable of bearing any kind of malicious
memory
towards someone he was as genuinely fond of as Roxy, had smoothed her
ruffled
feathers.
"Much as I 'ate to disrupt this touching reunion, Roxy, we 'ave a show
to do?" Jetta lifted her sax, casting Roxy a meaningful look.
"Jetta's right." Pizzazz nodded. "C'mon, you can do this any time. We
got an audience waiting!"
"All right, all right." Roxy rolled her eyes. "I'll see ya, Link. Duty
calls. It ain't easy, bein' a celebrity."
Link watched her go, a grin on his face.
"She's all right." he mused. "I'm glad. Don't want nothin' bad to
happen to our Roxanne...specially not when our luck's turned round.
Knucklin' down and learnin' to read sure has changed things for the Red
Aces...I wonder
if Roxy's readin' yet. She always said she didn't need it, but how'd
she
cope with all the song lyrics otherwise? Guess she must've."
He headed up to the stage, risking a lecture from his superior, to
watch the group perform from the wings. Girls were still things that
bemused and bewildered him for the most part, and he preferred to keep
his distance, but he felt almost responsible for Roxy's well being. She
had been only a child, after all, when she had taken up with them in
the squat all those years
before. Though she had always proven that she could take care of
herself, he had always felt protective of her, like the big brother she
had never had.
"Woo, man, she's good." he murmured to himself as the group launched
into 'Queen of Rock And Roll', Pizzazz sending Roxy a meaningful
glance as they did so, as if to say 'don't you dare screw it up!'. But
Roxy's adrenalin was piqued by the crowd and she had no intention of
making a mistake. Though she hated having to work for things, when she
put her mind to her music
the result was startling, and even Link, who had no ear for music and
no
technical knowhow of the subject could appreciate the girl's ability
for
what it was.
As for Roxy herself, she was barely aware that there was a world
outside what she was playing. Once the music started and she was up on
stage, she always allowed herself those few moments to escape from her
frustrations. Then it would be over, and she'd return to the real
world, at least till the
next time, but it was that buzz that performing gave her which had kept
her
with the band so long...in the end the freedom of being onstage
balanced the
necessary work to get there.
Once their set was over to a rousing reception from the crowd, Link
slipped back down the staff corridors to the dressing-rooms in order to
avoid the fans. He was hopeful that he might get to congratulate her
personally on
her lucky break into fame and fortune, but as it turned out he was
moments too late.
The crowd had gotten there first.
As the Misfits streamed into the dressing room, hot and tired with a
mob of fans clamouring behind them, one man stood out from the crowd,
watching from a thoughtful distance. Link glanced at him and his own
brow creased. He knew only too well who this man was, and it worried
him rather to see
him here.
"I wonder if Roxy knows he's about." he muttered to himself. "If I
weren't workin' I'd sort him out good and proper...we don't want creeps
like his
kind round here."
He was about to push his way through the crowd to the dressing room, in
order to pass on a warning to his old ally, when he felt a hand on his
shoulder. He turned, meeting his boss' gaze, and he sighed.
"Come on, I need all hands on stage." was all the supervisor said, mind
you. "Got a mess and a half to clear up out there...the Misfits are a
big name but they sure leave chaos in their wake!"
"They were worth it." Link grinned. "Okay, I'm comin'."
He cast a momentary glance back to the spot where he had spotted the
man, but he was gone. With a shrug he gave it up as a bad job. Let him
go. It
was probably for the best Roxy didn't know about him, anyway. She was
far
too busy to be concerned with that kind of hassle.
With that, he pushed the thought aside, focusing his attention back
fully on the matter in hand. Not perceptive, he could hardly realise
what exactly this man meant to Roxy...
And equally, what he wanted from her now.
(The Misfits and Holograms and other animated Jem characters are copyrighted to Hasbro Inc. All characters who do not appear in Jem episodes are my own creation. This story is copyrighted to E.A Woolley (2001). Background image was drawn and edited by me and therefore is copyrighted to me (E.A Woolley). Roxy is copyright of Hasbro Inc.