Gabby POV
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My phone blasted ‘Perfect Weapon’ by Black Veil Brides as my alarm I use to remember to get up for school.

I grabbed my phone as Andy Biersack; the lead vocalist of the band started singing the first verse and checked the time. 6:30am the clock read, ugh too early to be alive I thought, groaning before dismissing the alarm and actually hopping up.

Then my roommate Jeremy or J5 as he prefers to be called came in with a can of monster – he knows how to wake me up in the morning, he also knows I'm definitely NOT a morning person...

“Thanks bro” I croaked, still half asleep as I dug around for my uniform, drinking out of the can. I turned around when he cracked up laughing, “What?” I asked.

“You forgot it’s free dress day today didn’t you, and red food day as well” he said, laughing at my ‘shit!’ expression I wore whenever I forgot something. I’ve been told it makes me look like Andy during the chorus of the Fallen Angels music video when he says ‘we shout’ in the second chorus, which I find completely awesome hehehe...

“Damn I did. Well I'm not gonna bother washing off this warpaint I obviously forgot about last night, I'll just repaint it” J5 just laughed and left the room shouting as he went “I’m gonna put some food on, bacon & hash browns sound good?”

I sighed and stood still for a moment; my appetite had been shrinking and vanishing lately. “Yeah, thanks!” I called back, putting my iPhone onto the dock in my room and putting on Perfect Weapon, on high volume of course.

Then I drained the last of my energy drink and dug out my rainbow dash socks I loved and put them on along with a strapless bra.

Then I grabbed a pair of ripped black skinny jeans – which were one of my favourite things to wear when I'm not all ‘Outlaw cowgirl’-ish or letting out my inner nerd or inner kid – and wriggled into them, cursing under my breath the entire time.

Then I put on a studded belt and tied various band bandanas onto the belt loops. Then I dug out my favourite combat boots and put those on. After that I located my leather studded half-corset thing and put that on, laughing at the warpaint that I still had on. My outfit

Last night I’d been experimenting with BVB warpaint and I’d put on Ashley Purdy’s, obviously not bothering to take it off. Ashley was my favourite member of BVB, closely followed by CC and Jake.

I had actually met all five of them before, once at Soundwave at the start of this year, that was so much fun! They are seriously the nicest people I’ve met in a while...

Anyway they’d signed my copies of We Stitch These Wounds and Set The World On Fire which I will admit I listen to at least 3 times a day – I just have to be sneaky about it at school, not so much in ICT.

Then during the June-July holidays I went to the UK for the Download Festival they were playing at. I was standing pretty close to the stage so I had a good view of the guys, even though CC was hidden behind his awesome drum kit in front of a HUGE banner.

I had even filmed them so I could relive the show in a way, same with Soundwave.

Anyway I saw them again at their little meet & greet signing thing and this time they signed my iPod classic that I use a LOT, seeing as it has a better capacity than my iPhone and the apps I use on it, on my iPhone I only have a playlist of my fave stuff (including BVB) but I have everything else on my iPod. Plus my iPod doesn’t accidentally play stuff aloud like my iPhone 4S does.

Anyway I stood around and chatted with them, but mainly Ashley.

He was actually the nicest guy I’ve ever met and we talked a lot. Eventually we swapped numbers and followed each other on twitter and he invited me to hang out while I was in the UK.

I’d mentioned that I was only there for a little while. Anyway we hung out during the day, going bowling, to a movie and then we went to a pub for a few drinks after dinner.

Those few drinks however, turned into both of us getting a bit tipsy, and walking back to the hotel he was staying at, which funnily enough was the same one I was in.

That night.... we talked a bit more then the next thing I know, Ashley was kissing me.

I kissed him back, he deepened things and the next thing we both know, we’re naked and grinding against each other, making out furiously.

Then let’s just say neither of us got to sleep that night for a while.

I’d like to say that we woke up the next morning and lay there snuggling like a couple on their honeymoon or whatever, but we didn’t. I woke up at around 6:45 out of habit and my phone brought up a reminder that I had to get going, my flight was in a few hours and I usually took a while to get ready.

So with a heavy heart I got dressed again and wrote a letter (that turned out to be several pages long) and left it on my pillow for Ashley when he woke up. I packed my things into bag but somehow forgot a CD I had in my bag of my vocal covers, including some BVB songs.

Then I kissed him goodbye and left. I stood in the doorway and watched him for a few minutes, tears leaking from my eyes, not wanting to leave the man I loved.

He was lying there; fast asleep with a smile on his face.

Then I turned and shut the door quietly, going back to my room. I packed my things and caught a taxi to the airport. As I was getting onto the plane I could have sworn I heard someone yelling my name but when I turned around I couldn’t see anyone.

Then I boarded the plane and flew home, crying the entire time. Since then Ashley’s the only man I’ve ever thought about. Even in my schoolwork, I mention Ashley more than the others, thankfully no one said anything about it, and I probably would have embarrassed myself had I tried to explain it all.

Pulling myself out of memory lane I finished getting ready, pulling on leather fingerless gloves and more bandana’s, styling my hair like Ashley’s, tying on a bandana and then re-doing my warpaint and putting on foundation to hide the fact that I looked like a zombie and was exhausted from staying up (again) and putting on my leather jacket.

Then I remembered I had my ENC oral to present today, I was gonna need my guitar for that so I packed my guitar that I named ‘Purdinxx’ into its case and sat it near the front door and got one of my amps out of the room I kept them in. “Hey 5, can you give me a hand with this amp?” I called out to him.

“Gimme a sec just gotta get the food out of the pan and onto the plates!” he shouted back before running into the little hallway at the front of the house.

Then he opened the door and opened the tailgate of my Ute that was a birthday present a few years ago. Then we lifted my amp and got it into the boot, I went back inside and put my guitar with it, then we shut the tailgate and ate.

Then I tracked down a box of guitar strings and some spare picks and packed them into my schoolbag.

I use D’Addario EXL140 gauge 10/52 strings – they are seriously awesome and very reliable. My guitar is a BC Rich Pro X Bich but decorated with Ashley’s warpaint like on his spire bass.

The funny thing is, Jake and Jinxx both use the same strings I do, but they use a different string instead of the .17 one. The 'Pur' part of it's name comes from the fact it's decorated with Ashley's warpaint, the 'dinxx' part comes from the fact that Jinxx uses a BC Rich Bich, but his has his war paint on it whenever he isn’t using a standard one. Then I have 'MYSTIC' written on the back of it.

Then I went and brushed my teeth and made sure I had everything I needed for today, being my music stuff for my oral, my final copy of my maths assignment which was due today, the other things I needed for my ENC oral, my external hard drive for ICT and sketchbooks for art this afternoon.

Then I grabbed my earphones, phone and iPod and grabbed a monster from the fridge and left for school, shouting a goodbye to J5 as I went.

Ashley POV
“It’s beautiful isn’t it? The sunset” she said, looking out at the sunset on the horizon, leaning on the railing of the front porch at the ranch we were staying at.

She had a glass of red wine next to her, a packet of bubblemint or chewing gum as she always called it sticking out of the back pocket of the blue jeans she wore.

She also had on a plaid shirt over a tight white tee and her boots, her black hair that had chrome & purple streaks sitting in a braid over her shoulder.

I smiled softly, leaning against the doorway, with my own glass of wine.

“Yeah it is... not as beautiful as you though” I replied, watching her admire the country sunset. She giggled softly and took a sip of her drink, turning around with her drink in hand and leaning back against the railing, a silver ring with onyxes, diamonds and amethysts glittering on her ring finger, another two on a chain around her neck.

“I’ve always liked escaping to the country, don’t get me wrong I love it in LA and all, but there’s something about this place that feels like home” I smiled, “I know, it’s nice out here” I said, walking over to her and putting our drinks onto the small table and looking down at my hand I saw a silver wedding band adorning my ring finger and I held her close to me, feeling her arms snake around my waist.

We both sighed contentedly, enjoying the moment.

“I love you, so goddamn much Ashley” she said, resting her head on my shoulder. “I love you too Gabby, so damn much” I replied, kissing her head, rubbing her back which she’d always loved me doing.

She looked up and smiled, leaning towards me with her eyes closed. My eyes closed as I closed the distance between us, placing my lips on hers in a long, slow kiss...

I gasped as I sat up, breathing shakily. “Ash, you ok?” I heard CC ask from somewhere nearby.

Oh yeah we were all sharing motel rooms the last few nights, I had shared with CC, Andy with Jinxx and Jake with Jon out tour manager.

We were in Australia on a bit of a holiday, Jon’s idea and so we all came over here. Plus we’d been booked for a graduation concert at a high school in some town/city called Toowoomba in a state called Queensland so that’s where we were at the moment.

“Yeah, I uh I'm fine CC” I said, my head in my hands. Damn I dreamed of her again, what has she done to me? I thought, rubbing my eyes and yawning.

“Did you dream of that girl again? You only react like that whenever you have a dream about her” said CC, standing up and stretching. “And it seems like you’ve either got a massive crush on her or you’re in love with her. She somehow got you to cull back on bringing random chicks to the bus too and basically shed your playboy image” he added.

I fell back on my bed, groaning. He was right; I do have an insane crush on her. I wonder if we’d see her around while we’re here, she did mention in the letter she left on her pillow that she lived in Toowoomba.

“I wonder if we’ll see her around, she said in the letter she left that this is where she lives” I said, digging around in my bag for some clothes, my makeup & hair stuff.

“What she lives in this motel?” “No you idiot, in Toowoomba, she didn’t give me her address, she just said this is the town she lives in. Though I do have her number and we follow each other on twitter” I said, getting dressed then going into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

I plugged in my straightener and waited for it to heat up, so I decided to get started on my makeup. Before that I texted Gabby to see what she’s up to.

‘hey Gab what you up to?’ when I finished doing my eyes my phone beeped, signalling she’d replied. ‘hey Ash, not much just getting ready to go to school, what about you?’
‘not a lot, just getting ready, the usual’
‘cool, I gotta get going, I have a few things to do before school, TTYL ©’

My heart skipped a beat when she said she’d talk to me later, I smiled when I saw the little heart emoticon at the end. I had this insane grin as I finished my warpaint and did my hair.

I packed up my things and left the bathroom, still grinning, attracting CC’s attention as he went into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

“What you smiling about bro?” CC asked as he straightened & teased his hair. “She texted me” I replied, smiling at the thought of her and the memory of our time together, however all too short.

I was interrupted by my phone going off, it was a text from Andy.

‘hey man, you and CC ready to roll yet?’ “Hey CC! Andy wants to know if you’re ready to go yet?” “Nearly!” CC called back, putting the finishing touches on his paint. “Now I am!” I texted Andy back saying, ‘yup, we’re good to go’ and a few minutes later as I was putting my phone into my pocket along with my wallet and the letter I took everywhere Andy walked in the door, followed by Jinxx, Jake & Jon.

“Morning ash, what's got you in a good mood?” asked Jake. I opened my mouth to reply when CC shouted “HIS MYSTERY LOVER GIRL THAT LIVES IN THIS TOWN TEXTED HIM AND HE DREAMT ABOUT HER AGAIN!” I just stood there embarrassed.

“Really?” said Andy, amusement on his face as we all walked out of the motel and we all climbed into a few rental cars to go find breakfast. I got into one with the guys, Jon went into the other and told Jinxx to follow him.

“Yep I did Andy and yeah we texted each other” I said, smiling, looking at pictures of us on my phone, she’d sent them to me once she’d gotten home and transferred the photos onto her computer.

“Dude you’ve got it bad for her” said Jake, looking at the photos of her over my shoulder. I was looking at a photo of her holding up a bowling bowl in a badass pose and evil smirk on her face.

“Yup, I know I do” I replied, she’d beaten me in that game, looking at a photo of her concentrating on a shot she was about to make when we played a few games of pool.

Then after that we’d played some of the arcade games around, including pool of course. I had been a sneaky deviant and stood right behind her, running my hand up her back, officially breaking her concentration and accidentally (on her part) sinking the black 8 ball.

-FLASHBACK-
“You little deviant!” she squealed as I tickled her sides after she’d sunk the black 8 ball, making me win.

“I win!” I said, laughing at her flushed out-of-breath expression as she poked her tongue out at me and laughed as well.

“Was that payback for me kicking your ass at bowling earlier?” she asked, hand on her hip (where I could see a tattoo poking out – HOT!!!), her other hand holding her pool cue, whatever it was called.

“Call it what you will darling, want another drink?” I asked, motioning to her empty glass with mine.

“Sure thing Purdy-boy” she replied, smiling at me. A warm feeling coursed through me as I went to the bar and ordered 2 Jack Daniels and I made my way back over to her.

“Thanks Ash, I love this stuff” she said, taking a mouthful of it. I grinned, not too many girls really enjoyed whiskey, I was glad she did.
-END FLASHBACK-

“Ashley, Ashley, ASH!” Andy shouted, breaking me out of my trance.

“What?” I said, a little annoyed that they’d interrupted me again. “We’ve stopped at McDonalds for breakfast” Jinxx said, looking at me in the rear-view mirror.

“Oh ok” I said, getting out and stretching out before we all walked in and had some food. While I ate, my mind wandered back to the dream I’d had. Man that was a nice one I thought, smiling softly.

“Uh-oh” I heard Jake say. I looked up to them all looking at me again.

“What?” I asked, taking a mouthful of my coffee and finishing the McMuffin I was eating. “Ashley Purdy... I never thought I’d say this but.... you’re in love man” said Andy, all of them and Jon smiling at me. “Maybe we should see if we can find this girl so they can be all happy together” said CC, taking a huge bite of pancakes.

I couldn’t – help it, my face split into a wide grin which I tried to hide behind my coffee cup but it was too late, cos Jinxx said “Ha-ha Ashley likes that idea! He’s got that ‘goddamn I love that girl’ smile again!” I just shook my head and finished my coffee.

Then we all got back into the rental cars and decided to have a look around downtown – we didn’t have to be at the school for a while yet, not til around 11:15 or so I think.

So we drove around for a bit and found some places to check out then we decided to make our way over to the school and got there at 10 past 11.

I looked at the sign and saw it said ‘Centenary Heights State High School’ and for some reason I suddenly got really nervous.

Andy saw this and mouthed ‘are you ok?’ at me I just shrugged and texted him saying ‘for some reason I suddenly got really nervous :/’ he checked his phone and replied ‘maybe she goes here or something? We’ll have to wait and see, gotta talk to this head of yr 12 guy first’

I looked at him and nodded, we all made sure our phones were on silent as we walked into the office and got our visitor pass things that we had to wear while we were here.

Then a door on the other side of the office opened and we looked over to see a teacher walk in and walk over to where we were sitting. “Black Veil Brides right?” we nodded.

“I’m Dave McMillan, co-head of Yr 12, good to meet you” he said, introducing himself and leading us to a nearby classroom to talk and texting someone. I noticed a piano, a bunch of acoustic guitars and a drum kit, this must be a music classroom.

“This a music classroom?” Andy asked, looking around then sitting at a desk, the rest of us following suit.

Dave nodded, “Yeah though the music block’s the smallest of all the blocks here with only 2 classrooms, one of our yr 12’s is pretty annoyed by that actually” I looked up at that, Gabby said in her letter that she was in yr 12 and hated that her school had a tiny music block.

“Anyway I’m Andy Biersack” “Ashley Purdy” “Jake Pitts” “Jeremy Ferguson, but I'm mostly known as Jinxx” “Christian Coma, more commonly known as CC” we all introduced ourselves.

“I know, you’re featured in a lot of our students work, mostly in Art & IT” he said before sitting at a desk himself. “Sorry but what's with the yr 12 stuff, I mean why not just say seniors or whatever?” Jake asked, tapping his foot on the floor.

“Ah that’d probably be the different education systems, here at centenary, or cemetery as a lot of the kids say, junior refers to grades 8 to 10 and senior refers to the 11’s & 12’s so we just stick to the numbers so we don't confuse ourselves” “Fair enough”

“Ok so you wanted us to do a graduation concert thing for the yr 12’s is that right? And the formal too whatever it is” asked Andy.

Dave nodded, “Yes it was the kids idea actually, they were tired of the same old end of year program the year 12’s usually do, so they got together in their PCG groups which for you guys would probably be homeroom and they came up with ideas and a concert was the favourite. Then we ran a survey on who they’d like to see and you guys were picked, like 80% of the votes I think went to you guys and hardly anything to the others”

“Oh wow, so we’re pretty well-known here by the sound of it” said Jinxx.

“Yeah you are, particularly with the rebel/outcast/outlaw faction and the ‘commoners’” said Dave. “Huh?” we all asked, confused.

“Ah well here at centenary, the kids are like in these three main groups along with the usual little groups like drama geeks, math nerds, jocks etc. but the main ones are the commoners, pop brats and rebel/outcast/outlaw. The commoners are people who prefer to keep to themselves and stay out of the sticky situations the other factions often get themselves into. They have their particular taste but they’re sneaky about it if that makes sense” “Ah yeah” we agreed.

“The others are pretty easy to guess. Each of them has a leader – both female, both in yr 12 and most definitely both rivals. One is a ‘pop brat’ according to the other. The other is a rebel, outcast or outlaw as she prefers to be called” Dave began to explain. I had a thoughtful expression on, this kid is sounding more and more familiar.

“One likes pop music, the other is addicted to rock n roll, heavy metal etc. One likes to read girlfriend & dolly, the other likes Kerrang! and AP when she can get them. One is a typical Barbie doll, the other looks like she survived a mosh pit 10 times over, according to one of the students in my yr 12 ICT class. One likes to gossip about Justin Bieber and One Direction, the other could easily talk about rock bands & guitar specs all day which she has done at least once a week. Anyway one of them is gonna be showing you around the school while you’re here, which girl would you guys prefer?”

We all looked at each other, it wasn’t a hard decision, the 'pop brat' sounds like she'd annoy the hell out of us within 5 minutes. “We’ll go with the leader of the outlaws” said Andy, Dave smiled before texting someone and getting a reply quickly.

“Well this will make her day, if not year, come on I’ll introduce you guys to her, she’s just finished her English oral and is packing her stuff up” said Dave, leading us to another building. I decided to call Gabby on my way there.

She picked up after a few rings, “Hey Ashley, what's up?” “Not much, just being shown around this school, apparently about to be introduced to the ‘leader of the outlaws’ as Andy put it”

She laughed, “Nice, I’m just packing up my guitar stuff which I will need both my hands for. Can I call you back in a few?” “Yeah sure, see ya” “Bye” she hung up and I caught up with the guys. Before we went in Dave stopped us.

“Ok, just so you guys know and her PCG teacher asked me to inform you of this, she has autistic spectrum disorder, specifically asperger’s syndrome. It affects her social skills so don’t be offended if she doesn’t make eye contact much. She also has ADHD, anxiety & depression, and isn’t medicated for it. So yeah just a heads up and whatever you do, do NOT treat her like a charity case or pity her, she hates it when people do that and she’ll live up to her name of Outlaw, which sometimes is the only thing she’ll answer to. Got it?” we all nodded.

“Ok she’s in the first classroom there, you’ll know her when you see her, it’s free dress today, good luck with her, oh and be sure to let her know that while she’s still in school you’ll be going to all her classes with her and that for this week she’s excused from all period 3 & 4 classes and will be hanging around with you guys over in the hall which is probably the best spot for you all to hang around in for rehearsing and all that sort of thing”

“Sure thing, sounds good to us” said Andy, taking the pieces of paper from Dave and the two of them shook hands. “I’ll be over in my staffroom if you guys need me, Queen Purdy knows where it is” he said, walking off, trying not to laugh.

“Queen Purdy huh? This should be interesting” I said, glancing at the guys who all had amused expressions on their faces.

Andy laughed and handed out a piece of paper each to us, looks like a schedule. We put them into our pockets and walked into the library and turned to the first classroom.

Author POV
Little did Ashley or Gabby know what today would bring. Little did they know that today she, Gabrielle Anne Metcalfe, would be reunited with him, Ashley Abrocket Purdy.

Notes