Famous Last Words/The Show Must Go On

Mikey Way was rather proud of having survived band camp. In fact, he was a bit sad that he had to leave so soon. He was really starting to enjoy all of this.

Mikey looked into the mirror, admiring his black and silver marching band uniform. He wasn't completely sure that he had put it on correctly (those things were kind of complicated), but now, he truly looked like a member of the Black Parade. He finally laced up his marching shoes and grabbed his mellophone and his rubber band unicorn. He had worked so hard on it, and now he finally had a good excuse to do something with it. Mikey ran out the door, hoping that he wasn't too late when he arrived on the field.

He got into position on the forty yard line and waited in parade rest as Ms. Harrison gave a speech to everyone who was there. Once she was done, she called the Black Parade to attention and the show began.

They performed "Basket Case" and "Know Your Enemy," and Mikey thought that he did a pretty good job. He did get a little out of step towards the end of Basket Case, and he almost crashed into Andy Hurley at one point, but overall, he marched well.

After that, it was time for the skits. The trumpets were called up to do their skit first. The section marched to the middle of the field, where they stopped and Frank came up to the front. "Alright trumpets, it's time for sectionals!" he exclaimed. "Let's play When I Come Around!"

The trumpets played the intro to that song over and over. Frank finally stopped them and said, "Come on! We can play that note in measure twenty four better!" he shouted. "What note is it?"

"D!" everyone said in unison.

"Then BLOW THE D!!!" Frank screamed. Everyone played the D. "HARDER! BLOW THE D HARDER!" Everyone played the note louder. "GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND BLOW THE D HARDER!" The trumpets all kneeled and played the D even louder. By this point, everyone in the audience was laughing hysterically.

"Alright trumpets, you can stop now," Ms. Harrison said.

The trumpets all got off the field. "They're totally going to win," Mikey heard Joe say. "That was hilarious."

"I still don't get the joke," Patrick stated.

The mellophones were up next. Mikey went over to Gerard and asked, "Hey, can I borrow your saxophone for the skit?"

"Sure," Gerard said. "Just make sure to give it back."

"Thanks Gee," Mikey said. He took Gerard's sax, took off his glasses, and threw on a bright red wig before heading to the middle of the field. He stood in a line with Ryan, Katie, and Jamia, while Dallon took the microphone and began to narrate.

"Hello, and welcome to Shark Week!" Dallon said. "Today, we'll be analyzing which marching band sections the shark will eat, and which ones they won't." Monica sprinted onto the field wearing a shark costume and began to "swim" around Mikey. "For example, the shark won't eat the saxophones because..."

"I'll come to your house and my unicorn will suck your blood if you illegally copy the fight song!" Mikey finished as he held up his unicorn.

Monica left and began circling around Jamia, who was holding drumsticks. "The shark also won't eat anyone from the drumline because they might have a taser."

Monica then began circling around Katie, who was holding a color guard flag. "On the other hand, the shark will eat the color guard because..."

Dallon didn't even get a chance to finish before Monica pretended to eat Katie. Monica then went over to Ryan, who was holding a trumpet. "Finally, the shark won't eat anyone from the trumpet section because who knows what they might have picked up from blowing the D so much." Monica pretended to leave, and Dallon said, "Thanks for watching Shark Week, and we'll see you next time! Mellos, we're done with our skit! Let's tune!" Mikey took off his wig, put his glasses back on, and picked up his mellophone. He ran over to where everyone was and they purposely played a note that was just off the key of reason. Monica sprinted over and pretended to eat everyone in the mellophone section, and to end the skit, everyone fell to the ground.

Mikey got up and gave Gerard his saxophone back. Then, he sat down and watched the other skits, none of which were as good as the mellophone skit. Mikey did find the drumline skit entertaining, though. The basic plot was that some of the color guard kids were captured by the evil drumline, and Milk Man (otherwise known as Brendon Urie) and Backflip Boy (who was played by Josh Dun) had to save them. It was kind of lame at first, but at the end, Brendon took off his marching band jacket while screaming "If crazy equals genius, then I'm a fucking arsonist!"

The saxes went last. Their skit began with Hayley narrating. She explained that on this season of The Bachelor, they would be trying to find a girlfriend for Gerard Way, a tenor saxophone player. "And here come the limo with the contestants!" Hayley announced as a group of saxophone players, led by Ray, marched onto the field. "Limo, halt!" Hayley exclaimed.

"And limo!" Ray exclaimed as everyone stopped and the "contestants" got out of the limo.

"First, we have a member of the color guard!" Hayley said as a girl carrying a flag went up to Gerard and started dancing around with the flag.

"Ew, get this thing away from me," Gerard said.

Gerard was then presented with a flute player and a clarinet player, both of which were far too quiet, and a trumpet player, who was way too obnoxious. After that, Lindsey came up to him, and they started playing a beautiful duet. Finally, it was time for Gerard to give a rose to one of the girls. Hayley gave him the microphone to announce his choice.

"None of them," Gerard said. "I'm giving this rose to Frank. Come on up here, Frank." Frank got up and went over to Gerard, who handed him a rose. "This section rivalry has gone way too far," Gerard stated. "We should all just get along. Maybe we could even be nice to the color guard for once!"

"NO!" the entire band shouted.

"At the very least, we need to get rid of this silly section rivalry, especially when it's preventing me from being with the boy that I love," Gerard said. "Frank, the only hope for me is you alone."

Frank grinned. "And I love you like I did yesterday," he said before passionately kissing Gerard.

Nobody was quite sure what to do at first, but Hayley took out her saxophone and began playing "Oh Love." A few of the other saxophones joined in, so Mikey took out his mellophone and started playing as well. Before long, the entire band was playing. To be honest, it was pretty epic.

There weren't any more skits, so the Black Parade performed their final song, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." This time, Mikey marched and played perfectly, so everything went great.

Once the band marched off the field, it was time to go back on the bus to go home. This time, Mikey sat across from Gerard. "Hey Mikey," Gerard said. "How did you like band camp?"

Mikey smiled. "I really enjoyed it," he said.

"That's fantastic," Gerard said. "I knew that you would love marching band."

Mikey put in his earbuds and leaned back, gazing out the window at the setting sun. He saw the explosion of color and realized something important.

One day, these would be their golden days.