And the Stars up Above - Chapter 10

September 9th, 1986
Billie Joe

“Here” Billie Joe said, handing Mike a paper. “I’ve written a new song.” Mike took the paper without a word and started reading. They were sitting on the floor in Billie Joe’s room with their instruments, like they always did when they had band practise. And like they always did when they just hung out; hanging out and band practise were the same thing to Mike and Billie.
Mike’s eyes were fixed on one spot on the paper and he seemed to be far off in thoughts.
“Yeah… that’s good. That’s really good…” He mumbled
“Really? You think? I didn’t think it was anything special.” Billie Joe said, genuinely surprised. Mike seemed to have forgotten that Billie was still there and jumped at the sound of his voice.
“Wha..? Oh, not the song, or I mean the song’s fine but nothing special, just like you said. What I was talking about was this.” He said and pointed at the title. Sweet Children it said. Billie still didn’t understand what he meant.
“What’s so great about it, you know, those words are in the chorus.”
“No… I mean yes, they are! But…” Okay, now Billie was confused.
“What the fuck are you on man?”
“It’s not good as a title… or it is! I mean, it’s fine, but what I was thinking of was a name. You know… like a name for a band?” Mike said, finally getting to the point. “Don’t you think it’s pretty good?” Billie Joe took the paper and studied the title. He said ‘Sweet Children’ out loud a few times, to try how it would sound.
“We don’t have a name for our band, so, what do you think?” Mike said, scribbling down the words on a paper next to him, to see how they would look. Billie Joe nodded.“I think that our band has got a name!” he said, getting excited. He raised his hand into a high five.