So Done by Paula Chase

Author:Paula Chase
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-08-14T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter

12

Tai had been to the Players Cultural Arts Center twice. Once in third grade, for a field trip to see a play where everybody on stage wore big horse heads that looked heavy, then another time to watch her cousin graduate from high school. Both times had been boring, boring, boring. The only exciting thing that had ever happened there was when her favorite go-go band, the Rowdy Boys, had a concert. Not that she knew for sure it had been exciting because Nona hadn’t let her go. She’d been all, “Too much fighting break out at those go-go’s,” not even giving Tai a chance to explain that it wasn’t one of those fake concerts at a tiny Elks lodge crowded with more people than the fire department allowed. The TRB show was a real concert with an opening act and everything. Plus the Rowdy Boys were a boy go-go band. How much fighting did Nona think was going to break out among a bunch of twelve-year-olds? But Tai hadn’t been able to convince her.

She was still a little salty about it. Low-key she had a crush on the lead dude and nobody would ever convince her that Nona hadn’t ruined her chance to run into him so he could autograph her Rowdy Boys T-shirt. Seeing the building come into view reminded her of the missed concert, souring her already bad mood.

Everybody else around her was losing their minds. It was so loud the bus driver had yelled at them the entire trip. He started out polite-ish with “quiet down,” but the last demand was a straight “y’all kids need to shut up.” Nobody listened. The entire bus was jacked up.

Two long lines of buses crawled into the circular lot in front of the arts center, pulled up to a set of double doors, unloaded, then moved on. To Tai it seemed like there were thousands of kids streaming into the building.

Why was she doing this again?

Then Rollie’s hands tapped out a beat on his lap, reminding her exactly why she was stuck on a bus, at the end of summer break, in the morning like it was a school day. She’d gotten herself into this by lying about being hyped to audition.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if her and Jamila weren’t fighting.

It was official, she couldn’t call her Mila. It was Jamila or nothing. And in her head she was Bean and always would be. Not that it mattered right now. They weren’t talking. Now her mind was cramped. Every time she tried to get into the mood for auditions, the argument flashed, shutting down every other thought.

She turned her head as far left as she could, pretending to check out the chaos outside. From the side of her eyes she could see Bean, four rows back, her braided bun bent in conversation with Christol.

She still couldn’t believe she hadn’t gotten a text from her the night before or even word one while they were at the bus stop.

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