Sunday, March 25th, 1984

Claire Standish stepped out of the shower on Sunday morning and slipped on her bathrobe. As she towel dried her hair, she heard the phone in her bedroom ring. Claire walked across the room and picked up the cordless receiver. "Hello?"

It was her friend Ashley. "Hey, it's me," Ashley said. "Do you want go out for brunch?"

"I can't. I'm still grounded."

"Still? Next time get a note from Daddy like I did."

"To go shopping? My father would never go for it," Claire said as she searched through her dresser drawer for some nail polish. "Although my mother probably would, just to spite him." She found the exact shade of pink she was looking for and sat down on her bed.

"That's how you work the system," Ashley agreed.

"Yes, but that would require talking to my mother." Claire frowned at the thought. Nothing good ever came from conversing with her mother.

"Getting the latest spring fashions before everyone else is going to require some sacrifices on your part," Ashley said.

"I guess."

"You guess? What's with you?"

Claire rested the phone receiver on her shoulder and uncapped the bottle of nail polish. "I'm kind of tired. I didn't get much sleep last night." 'I spent way too much time thinking about things,' she thought.

"Should I be worried?" Ashley asked.

"No. It was just one of those days yesterday."

"How was detention? As horrible as it sounds?"

Claire wondered how she should answer. 'Why, no, Ashley, it wasn't horrible. It was actually life altering. I met some new people, changed my perceptions, and made out with John Bender.' Ashley would probably have a heart attack if she said that. "Yeah, it was pretty lame," she replied.

Ashley changed the subject to something more pleasant. "You missed an awesome party last night at Stubby's," she said. "Everyone was asking where you were."

"Oh?"

"Totally. Carrie decided to tell everyone that you were on a date with a hot college frat boy, though. Just a heads up."

Claire smiled. Carrie had a unique sense of humor. "Thanks," she said. "Hey, by any chance did you see Andy Clark there last night?"

Ashley thought for a moment. "No. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

"Do you like him or something?"

"No, but he was in detention yesterday and we were talking about the party. I wondered if he showed."

"Well, sadly he didn't, but Tony was there, and you know how Denise gets when she's in the same room with him. Of course she had to vie for his attention because Michelle Manning was hanging around him too."

Claire inspected her freshly painted toenails and feigned interest in the conversation. "What a drag," she commented.

"I know, totally," Ashley rambled on, "She has her own boyfriend, she doesn't have to hog all the single guys too."

Sunday morning found John Bender still in bed. He woke up to the sound of a loud crash from down the hall and the angry voices that followed it.

"I need those!" John heard his mother shout.

"Of course you do, you worthless junkie whore! Maybe you should worry more about the goddamn mess in the kitchen than your fucking pills!" His father yelled.

John adjusted the headphones of his Walkman that had slipped off his ears while he was sleeping and flipped the tape over.

"Why don't you just fucking leave? Get out! Get the fuck out!" His mother screamed. John didn't hear anything after that because the sounds of Iron Maiden drowned them out.

A few hours later, he emerged from his room, carrying his guitar. He saw that his mother was on the livingroom floor, slumped against the couch. His father appeared to have left, for the time being. He thought about just slipping out through the back door because this was the thing he dreaded most, checking to see if his mother was still alive after she downed her pills.

Luckily for John, she groaned and her hand flopped to her side, indicating that she was in fact still conscious. "Johnny? Help me Johnny." John set his guitar case down and went to her side and helped her up on to the couch. "It wasn't always like this you know. We used to be a happy family," she mumbled.

"Yeah, I remember," said John.

"Wassa long time ago," she slurred. "Before the accident."

"I know."

She turned to John suddenly and asked, "Do you think he blames me?"

They had had this conversation before. "No, Ma. He wasn't like that," he reassured her.

"Good," she said as she drifted off to sleep.

John slung his guitar case over his shoulder and started his long walk to the McNally house. Pete McNally and his older brother, Eric, were long time friends of John's. Their fathers had served in the Vietnam War together and they used to play together as kids. Two years ago, Eric started a rock band and he recruited Pete to play bass and John to play guitar. One of Eric's friends, Robbie, played drums. They started by playing mostly covers, but were trying to write their own music. Eric's dream was to make it big so he could quit his job as a car mechanic. Unfortunately, the band had only had mild success playing at various parties and a couple of clubs so far. Still, they practiced diligently whenever they could.

Pete greeted him at the front door. "Bender! Glad you finally showed your sorry ass. You know, we had to re-arrange our busy schedules because of your detention, you could at least be on time," he joked.

John smirked. "Busy schedules my ass."

"Everyone's downstairs already. Eric had to re-string his guitar, so we haven't actually played anything yet." Pete led John through the house and down into the finished basement.

"Hey, Bender," Eric called as he was tuning his newly strung guitar, "I wrote some new music." He pointed to the sheet music on the coffee table. "You'll have to tell me what you think. It's a little different from what we're used to playing, but every great rock band has a ballad."

"He claims this is going to be our 'Stairway to Heaven'," Pete said, rolling his eyes.

John glanced at the sheet music. "I can't fucking read that, man."

Eric stood up and plugged in his guitar. "Yeah, no shit. That's why I'm going to play it for you."

John sat on the couch and waited for Eric to start. As he played, John closed his eyes and listened. Eric was right, it was different. It wasn't as heavy as the songs they normally played, but it was pretty catchy. They would need to come up with just the right lyrics if it was going to be a hit. Eric was good at composing, but writing lyrics was best left to the other members. John found that his home life was good inspiration for providing rage filled lyrics. He didn't know what he could come up with for this slow song, though.

When the song ended, John opened his eyes and saw Eric looking at him expectantly. "Well?" he asked. "What did you think?"

"It was good. I think you kind of rushed the beginning though," John said.

"Yeah," Pete added, "It should start off slow and then get harder. Not too fast though."

"We need some killer lyrics to go with it," Eric said.

"They should be about a girl," Robbie commented. The rest of the band stared at him. "What?" he asked.

"I don't want it to turn into a fucking power ballad!" Eric exclaimed.

"Power ballads are a fucking classic staple of rock!" Robbie argued. "People eat them up. Especially girls. It shows them you have a tender side." Robbie looked at the stares he was getting again and waved them off. "Whatever man, it's your song. Do what you want."

Eric gave up arguing and went back to playing the new song, changing what the others had suggested. John sat and listened so he would be able to play along, but he found that his thoughts kept drifting to Claire. He frowned. Everything was different now. He knew when they kissed in front of the school that he was done for. He couldn't imagine ever wanting another woman as much as he wanted Claire. She had done something to him when she gave him her earring. It was like she had said it was okay for them to be together. He couldn't imagine though, how Monday would turn out. There was no way Claire had been serious, right?

John shook off the negative thoughts and decided to show up early on Monday and see how things played out. At the very least, he thought maybe he could cause trouble for her with her richie friends.