"I'm not being hypocritical, Crys!" Renee raised her voice. "Would you just listen to me!?!"
Crystal was sitting on an amp backstage, staring at her friend, Renee pacing back and forth. They had been bickering over the way Renee was treating her boyfriend, Jared. She was madly "in love" with him, but had her eye on a certain Taylor Hanson. Renee always said that she would never love someone else while she wasn "in love", and that was exactly what she was doing.
"Fine, I'm listening," Crystal gave her full attention to her friend and bassist.
"I'd never do anything with Tay! You know that!" Renee nearly threw her arms in the air.
Renee and Crystal really did not have time for petty arguments. They were currently on tour with Hanson. Right now, they were playing in New York at Madison Square Garden. They could hardly believe that they had gotten here.
"Never do what with me?" Taylor asked, walking through the backstage entrance.
"Nothing, Tay," Crystal responded quickly, "this doesn't concern you."
"Well, obviously it does if you're talking about me," he made a point.
"Tay, can you just go away?" pleaded Crystal. Tay and Crystal had been close friends for a good two years now. She met him backstage at one of his concerts in Philly at the Tower Theatre. The two of them really hit it off, and became fast friends, and remained ever since.
"Alright, alright, Ms. Cranky..." mumbled Taylor.
"I heard that!" she informed him. "And that's Goddess Cranky to you!"
Tay snickered as he began to leave the room, then turned around, "You know what? I'm not leaving."
Renee blushed, hoping he didn't notice, "Fine, stay."
Taylor sat down on the floor, waiting for them to resume their conversation, so he could get the jist of what was going on, but they didn't. They just sat there, awkwardly.
The back door burst open, with an except, "'ELLO, EVERYONE!" from Taylor's little brother, Zachary.
"Hey, Zac...," Renee greeted him. "You seem happy today."
"Yeah, I'm happy to get away from all those damn Fansons," he told her, with relief. "I hate having to act like I love everyone, ugh!"
"Hey, now...," Crystal pretended to take offense to his words, "we both started out as Fansons, and look where it got us. Now, shush!"
"Now, shush!" Zac mocked Crys's voice, and movements.
"You're lucky I used to like you," joked Crystal.
"Used to?"
She never answered, and just let the thought dangle above his head.
"Don't be such a bitch to him, Crys," Renee suddenly snapped.
"Huh?!" both Crystal and Taylor said, in unison.
"All you do is make fun of him, damn...shutup!"
No one in the room quite understood the hostility that Renee was giving off towards Crystal. Zac knew Crystal was joking, Taylor knew Crystal was joking, Crystal knew Crystal was joking, why didn't Renee?
"Alright, why am I hearing yelling about 50 miles away in here?" questioned their new tour manager, Blondie. Well, her real name wasn't Blondie...it was Lauren. But, she'd adapted to the nickname.
"Renee's cranky," Tay explained. That seemed to sting at Renee's heart, hearing Tay say such a thing about her.
Following Blondie were the rest of the Goddesses: Theresa, the guitarist, and Sarah, the drummer. Isaac, Hanson's guitarist, wasn't far behind them.
"Renee -," Sarah nearly whined, "we don't have time for this. Do you realize we're playing at a venue tonight? For the very first time!! And it's sold out!!! We're performing a sold out concert!"
Theresa decided to jump in with words of wisdom, "Look, I don't know what's bothering you, but you really gotta put it behind you. Think about where you are Renee. This has been a dream of ours since Junior High!"
"And you're actually here," Tay jumped in. "That doesn't happen to many people, Ney. Only the miniority of talented people get to live their dream...and you're one of them."
Crystal stopped, almost staring off into space, shocked, saying softly, "Listen...shh..."
The room quieted and outside throughout Madison Square Garden was heard, "Godd-ess! Godd-ess! Godd-ess!"
The female keyboardist smiled, "You know you've made it, Ney, when you hear people chanting your name, and it resembles the 'Hanson!' chant we started at the Tower Theatre."
"Alright, Goddesses, put your earplugs in, and I want you to give it all you've got. It's all set up and you all know your places, right?" ordered Blondie.
"Right!" the Goddesses answered together, thrilled.
"Alright, knock 'em dead!" Ike cheered on their new act.
"Okay, on three..." Sarah told them, as they all put their hands in the middle, "one...two...three..."
"GODDESS!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The screams were so shrill and deafening as Renee, Sarah, Theresa, and Crystal entered onstage. It was everything, and more that they hoped it would be for the first time. All they could do for the first 25 seconds, what seemed like forever, was watch the crowd and how they screamed at their entrance.
"Hey, Madison Square Garden!!" yelled Renee into her microphone.
"You ready to rock?" smiled Crystal, at the crowd.
The screams of the girls and guys in the crowd was unbelievably loud. he four girls were loving every minute of it, though.
"This is a song," started Sarah, "called 'Deal With It!' I'm sure you've heard this one before!"
Goddess Of Thieves had managed to get their first single, "Deal With It" on the radio, and the video was all over MTV and TRL. It was something that they would never have dreamed possible. But, it was...it was possible.
As Crystal closed her eyes, her fingers skimmed across her keyboard, she sang into her microphone, "Is anyone listening?...In this deep, cruel world...Can anyone hear my crying?...Late at night, wasting, dying..."
Then, came the chorus, and the beat picked up, Theresa egged on the crowd, "Sing with us!"
All together, the Goddesses shared the stage while singing the chorus, "People like to pretend everything's fine...So, it's easier but hard to think you are...Pain seems to be a thin red line...That no one likes, mask you heart...Deal with the hurt, deal with what you get...They told me, 'Stuff happens, deal with it!'"
The the band sang, Crystal looked across the audience to see everyone in the crowd singing along with them. They knew every word by heart it seemed. That was a feeling that could never be described aagain, to anyone. Just to standing there in front of all those people, who you don't even know but yet, know so much about you was something that couldn't be explained in words...only feelings. The emotions that were running through Crystal's and probably the rest of the bands' bodies and minds was overwhelming.
As they reached the end of the song, and the tune slowed, Crystal began to think of what Taylor had told Renee backstage, "And you're actually here. That doesn't happen to many people, Ney. Only the miniority of talented people get to live their dream...and you're one of them."
"We are one of them," Crystal thought to herself as the song ended and the crowd once again cheered.
"Godd-ess! Godd-ess! Godd-ess! Godd-ess!"
Seeing something like this, humbled her career and made her thankful for everything that she was given. Taylor was right, not many people, as talented as they were, get the chance to live their dreams, and she had to realize it could be taken away from her, as fast as it was given. In the end,though, even if the fame didn't last, she still would always have one thing...and that was her friends. They would always stick together, no matter what. That made being a part of Goddess Of Thieves, special. That made her proud to be a Goddess.
