Welcome to Gaia! ::

“What about Gerard?” Ray asked.

“Do you have a sister we don’t know about or something?” he returned.

“Why?”

“There’s this girl out there, she looks like you! Same hair and everything!”

“That’s weird. I think you know about all of my family. In fact, I’m positive you’ve met all of them too. So I doubt I have a sister or cousin you don’t know about.”

“Hey Gee, what’s going on?” Frank asked. Gerard and Ray turned to face their friends and bandmates and noticed they were looking at the pair curiously.

“Nothing, just me being stupid.”

“Well that’s not news Gerard,” Mikey quipped. Gerard threw the first thing he could find at him – which happened to be Frank’s thick Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book. Mikey ducked and it landed with a ‘clunk’ on the cement floor.

“Hey, you could knock someone’s teeth out with that!” Bob told him.

“That was kind of the point if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Alright then. When do we go on?” Ray asked.

“Around seven.”

“Okay.”

“And Ray?” Gerard asked.

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure you don’t know her?”

“I’m sure, alright?”

“Just making sure.”

The duo was now sitting at the front of the lawn, having leaving just before the Mindless Self Indulgence set had completed. Taking Back Sunday – one of Morgan’s favorite bands, second only to Mindless – had just finished their final song and the pair was now waiting for My Chemical Romance to enter the stage. They’re sure taking their sweet time applying their ******** makeup, Clary thought, tapping her fingers impatiently against the striped tote she carried. Finally, the lights on the stage came on and the crowd erupted in roars as Gerard entered the stage.

“How you doing ********?” he screamed into the microphone. The vast audience – which had grown since earlier when they arrived – responded with loud cheers. Just then Frankie, Ray, Bob, and Mikey arrived on stage. “Sorry we took so long; Frank couldn’t figure out how to get his tie on.” With an annoyed look directed towards Gerard and one very inappropriate – yet extremely entertaining – finger gesture from Frankie, they launched into their set, each song better than the last.

“You do know you look a Hell of a lot like Ray Toro, right?” Morgan told her friend. This wasn’t the first time she had realized it. When they first heard Bullets just after its release and they saw the lead guitarist, she had immediately seen the indistinguishable similarities between Ray and her friend. It started out with having the same thick, rust red curly locks, then the Puerto Rican curve of the lips, and then the olive complexion. The only significant difference between the two people was the eyes – Clary’s were green, whereas Ray had the darkest of brown eyes. Otherwise, though, they looked related.

“This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve told me. Hell, I’ve been told by anyone who at least knows of Ray.”

“Yeah, well, you know it’s true.”

“Whoever said I was denying it? Do you even know how cool it would be to be related to Toro? I’d get to tour with them, and meet them, and it’d be wicked sweet!”

“I know! And then you could introduce me to them! And I’d be all like, ‘whoa!’ and then pass out on you all.”

Clary sighed. “If only.”

The two were walking through the large crowds, trying to find one of the stands where they could get water and something to eat. They weren’t hyped up to see Linkin Park and since all the bands they had anticipated seeing had all but gone, they decided to dine on whatever they could find in the amphitheater. Finally, they came across a snow cone stand that sold beverages and stood to wait in the long line. Meanwhile, Gerard and Frank skulked around again so that Frank could get a look and see if Gerard was exaggerating about the girl who supposedly resembled their guitarist.

“I still can’t believe you’re sending us on a wild goose chase to look for some girl who we don’t even know and could very well just be a look-a-like.”

“I’m telling you, everything about her looked the same! It was like she was a sister or something.”

They had been searching since the end of their set when Gerard had literally dragged him away by the ear to look for her. Frankie had been complaining since the beginning about how she was probably fake, a poser, he had imagined it; the list continued on. Finally, they reached the food stands where hundreds, if not thousands of people stood waiting to get food anxiously before the headlining band – Linkin Park – began to perform. It was only when the lights dimmed around the stage area that people began at a furious place to head back to the stage – leaving the two of them and a few remaining group of people.

One of which happened to look like Ray.

“Oh s**t, you weren’t kidding.”

“Wow Clary, it’s amazing how the lines thinned out once people thought Linkin Park was going to come on stage.”

“I know, especially since the lights have been going haywire since the end of My Chem’s set. Odds are they aren’t even close to performing.”

“I remember the last time I saw them, it took them an hour and a half to come on stage after the secondary bands came on. It was ridiculous. I was debating whether or not to just leave and wait for another time to see them.”

“Two cherry snow cones and two waters please,” Morgan told the cashier, who set to work on filling their orders. While they waited, they continued to talk a little more, until Morgan thought she felt eyes on them. She glanced around quickly, until her brown eyes came to rest on two hooded figures whose faces were only barely visible in the dim spotlights and dark hoods. One was short, only five foot four inches she would estimate, and the other one had a cigarette dangling out of his pale lips. “Hey, who are those two over there?” she asked her companion.

“Do you expect me to know everyone at this show?” Clary asked sarcastically. She turned her head to analyze the two dark figures standing by a large pole, before she shrugged and turned away. “Probably rapists or something.” Morgan almost choked on the air she was breathing.

“Don’t even joke! Besides, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say they looked like Gerard and Frankie,” she whispered harshly. Clary rolled her eyes before turning back to look at them more closely. She noticed the dark hair that leaked out of the hoods that covered them, the pale complexion of their smooth skin, and the glow of hazel eyes that peered from under their jackets. On closer inspection, they actually did look like members from My Chemical Romance.

“Hmm, I guess they do; but what would they be doing out here?”

“Excuse me, but you’re snow cones are ready!” They turned towards the cashier who was looking at them irritably. They hadn’t even noticed that she’d been trying to catch their attention for the past few minutes.

“Thanks,” they told her simultaneously, taking their frozen treats and walking away slowly, still looking at the two of them. “Wait, why are we leaving? Shouldn’t we ask them if they’re Frankie and Gerard?”

“Are you serious?” Clary looked at her friend incredulously. “What do we do, go up to them and say, ‘sorry to bother you, but are you two strange, hooded figures the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the greatest band ever My Chemical Romance?’ No thanks, I’d rather spare myself the embarrassment.” Morgan just rolled her eyes and continued walking around the venue.

“And here I thought you were a believer.”

“In aliens and vampires, not random strangers being two famous band members.”

Morgan looked at her friend oddly. “Skeptic.”

“We should ask her,” Gerard told his short companion matter-of-factly.

“Ask her what, pray tell? ‘Hey, you may or may not know who we are, but are you related to our best friend Raymond Manuel Toro-Ortiz?’ She’d think we were ******** crazy!”

“Ah, but I am. And you two must learn the ways of the crazies, young grasshopper.” Frank tried to hide his amused smile with an annoyed frown – ‘tried’ being the operative word, for he was failing miserably. They, too, were walking around aimlessly, hoping no one would spot them and realize who they were. The two engaged in a staring – well, more like glaring – contest as they wandered, until there was a sudden collision with two strangers, making all of them fall to the ground.

“Ow, what the hell?” groaned a voice from under Frank, a voice that sounded like the female version of one Ray Toro. He looked under him and nearly gasped. Well I’ll be damned…