Battle of the Bands by Lesley Choyce

Author:Lesley Choyce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV00000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2006-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Our final practice before the battle doesn’t go well. We can’t get in sync. Every time we start a number, one of us blows it. Cia screws up the fill or Kel loses the bass line or I mess up the lyrics. All three of us are getting edgy, and when we go down for about the tenth time, I’ve had enough.

“This is useless. Let’s just forget it.”

Cia fires one of her sticks across the room and says, “What the hell’s your problem, Jay?”

“My problem? Since when is it my problem?”

“Since you want to just quit. What’s up with that?”

“Yeah,” says Kel. “That sucks.”

I look at them glaring at me and I get a very bad feeling. Something about the chemistry in The Lunar Ticks has changed. I set my guitar down and narrow my eyes. “What’s going on here?”

They flash each other guilty looks and then Cia says, “What do you mean?”

“I mean something’s different. I want to know what it is.”

“Hey, man,” Kel stutters. “Everything’s cool. We’re just having a bad day. No need to get all worked up.”

“Yeah,” Cia says brightly. “I heard it’s supposed to be good luck when things go wrong in the dress rehearsal.”

I snort. “Good luck? If we play like this on Saturday night we’re going to get booed right off the stage.”

“So we keep practicing. Or we have another practice tomorrow night.”

“I already told you, I can’t practice tomorrow.” I don’t tell them the reason I can’t practice. The full moon.

“But Jay, this is important!” Cia looks like she wants to hit me with the other stick.

“Tell me something I don’t know. Like what else is going on?” I say.

“Man,” Kel moans. “It’s like this...”

“Kel!” Cia snarls.

“We gotta tell him, Cia.”

“Tell me what?” I ask. But I think I already know.

“Well, me and Cia...we’re sort of hooked up.”

“Hooked up?” I ask.

Cia echoes me. “Hooked up?”

Kel’s long face is flushing. “Yeah. Like we’re going out or something.” He looks sideways at Cia. “Right?”

Cia rolls her eyes.

Suddenly I’m enjoying this. “Is that right?” I drawl. “Since when?”

“Since a couple of days ago,” Kel says. He swallows and his Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “We were going to tell you after the show.”

“Why the secret?” I ask.

Kel swallows again, looks at Cia again. “It wasn’t exactly a secret. It’s just that we haven’t made it official or anything. And we thought we’d see how it goes. You know. Like that.”

“Like that, eh?” I say. I cross my arms, crunch down my eyebrows. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea. It seems like it might affect our band.”

“Yeah,” Cia says glumly. “We thought of that.”

“And that’s why we were waiting,” Kel says.

“Right. So you two are all hot for each other and you figured no one would notice?”

Kel looks relieved. “That’s right.”

I have to ask. “What happens if you get in a fight?”

“Aw, man. We won’t get in a fight.” Kel seems to actually believe this.

Cia isn’t quite as certain. “Look, Jay.

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