See, what not many people get is that Mike is the ‘dork’ of The Academy Is…

The dork with the bad temper.

Mike adores Tetris. And he’s pretty good at it too. Unlike Brendon, who stabs at the keys and point blank refuses any advice. Mike, he just ignores what William tries to tell him. His off green eyes follow the screen so fast they’re a blur.

But, yeah. This bad temper.

They were warned about it when Pete introduced them to the band.

They’d only seen it once, and it had been Brent that sparked it off. Ryan couldn’t remember why, but it was about midway through the tour. It was odd, because Brent and Mike had got on pretty well before.

It had been a week before Mike had calmed down enough to be forced to apologise by William; and Ryan had to admit, Mike was right. The tour had been his last.

William was the temperamental one, everyone knew <i>that</i>. William would strop, and cry, and scream when things didn’t go his way. Well, Ryan and Brendon, ever the polite ones, would call it temperamental. Jon and Mike just called it being a bloody girl. See example.

The first time they’d met The Academy Is… had been at a party.

One of Gabe Saporta’s parties, actually. Need Ryan so any more? He didn’t think so.

They barely stayed an hour, but that hour woke the four of them up one hell of a lot.

Like the fact Mike and William were making out in the corner of the room, William being the dominant one.

Ryan asked Pete about that on the way home.

Somethings Ryan will never know or understand.

Mike never remembered it in the morning.

But, Ryan could suddenly tell.

Every lyric, every single lyric was written about Mike. All the stuff about never being together and it hurting like hell, it was all courtesy of Mike.

He was good with things like that.

Butcher was the peace keeper in this emotional band. Which was odd, because him and Mike were almost continually fighting… yet Butcher was the only one, asides from William when Mike was drunk, who got physical contact. Ok, so an arm around the shoulder was the extent of it… and Ryan still wasn’t sure whether Mike had been drunk…

But anyway, the point was, Butcher was probably the most even tempered. He could calm down a stropping William, he could soothe an angry Mike, he could coax Tom out of his shell, he could stop Adam from running around like a mental patient.

He was the oldest. And had the most confidence in the band – Ryan had figured it out; the drummer always was the most confident. Butcher was the only one who was allowed to cuddle Mike when he was sober. And Ryan reckoned he knew why.

Mike liked Butcher. The way William liked Mike.

Sometimes, Ryan’s heart bled for the unassuming Chicagoans.

Tom was, amazingly, the shy one. His camera spoke for him, spoke volumes about things he wanted to say. The only time he’d come out his shell was when he was onstage, or when he was holding his camera, imploring Mike for another picture, one where he’d actually smile. He hadn’t spoken more than two words to Ryan in their tours. The only time Ryan had heard him speak more than two words to anyone was when Tom was talking to Jon, and they’d laugh about little things that no one else understood; 504 Plan, growing up in the music scene, how stupid Mikey Russell could be. Just who this Mikey Russell was, no one else seemed to know. Well, Pete did, but that was hardly a surprise. William had asked his bass tech and guitarist one time, pouting furiously, and Jon and Tom had just looked at each other, and laughed, and blushed. That kind of made Ryan fell that he really didn’t want to know who Mikey was.

Adam was the youngest – and it showed. He was more interested in drinking, and having ‘guitar fights’ with the others, and stealing Jon’s camera – he wouldn’t dare do that to Tom, but Jon was only what… three years older than him?

Adam was like a puppy – he was sweet and innocent, and adored just one person. In this case, that person was Tom. He gambolled around the guitarist with the sweetest smiles he could manage, but Tom never noticed.

Tom was too busy looking at Mike, admiring the confidence the stocky guitarist had on stage.

Sometimes, Ryan’s heart bled for the unassuming Chicagoans.

He’d taken this up with Jon, once, about how the boy’s tangled love lives only seemed to get more entangled with each other whilst on tour. Jon’s answer had surprised him.

Ryan stopped the conversation there, shocked at the venom in Jon’s voice. He could imagine William being called a slut, not because William was, but the vocalist enjoyed physical contact, hanging off his members, and anybody who happened to be standing near him when the inspiration took him.

But Mike?

It only took Ryan a while to realise why he said it. When watching Mike shivering in William’s borrowed jumper. Whilst watching Mike hit the ‘full stop’ key repeatedly whilst talking on AIM. It came to him seeing Jon glaring at the band onstage.

It was William Jon liked, and William, like everyone else, it seemed, liked Mike.

Apart from everyone also seemed to hate Mike.

Mike included. Ryan found this out when he caught Mike outside a venue, with a cigarette slowly burning between his fingers. With tears staining his cheeks.

Ryan’s heart bleeds for the unassuming Chicagoans.

-

Umm… not sure if I like this one… It’s kind of different from my usual way of writing… I’ve been ill, that’s my excuse.