I'm With the Band

by Jen Calonita

  “We have to pick five from these ten,” Briggs said. “But the boys can’t seem to agree on any of their picks.”

  “I can’t help it,” Heath protested. “I like the girl who wants to take me to her dad’s tattoo parlor to get matching tattoos and talk about ink life.”

  “You don’t really want a girl to pick out a tattoo for you,” Briggs said. “Believe me.”

  “She might make you get one of Tigger,” Zander teased.

  Heath looked at him darkly. “Why would you bring up Tigger in front of the girls?”

  “What?” Zander said, widening his eyes to look innocent. “I’m just saying I don’t know any other guys who sleep with a stuffed animal at our age.”

  Heath didn’t think this was funny. He pushed back his chair and began loading everyone’s garbage onto his tray. Scarlet sighed. I knew what she was thinking—she’s a neat freak, so watching Heath go out of his way to clean something up was making her swoon. I wasn’t going to tell her about the whipped-cream fight in Nashville or how messy his bunk bed was. “I’m not hungry anymore,” Heath grumbled. “Forget the tattoo entry. Just go with the prom one that Zander wants. We always pick his choice anyway.”

  Prom? Prom was different from Spring Fling, right?

  “We do not.” Zander looked at Briggs. “I was just making a funny, man. Geez, can’t the guy take a joke? I mean, he does wear fake tattoo sleeves.”

  Scarlet gasped and looked at Jilly and me. “They’re fake?”

  We nodded sadly. I had forgotten to tell her before now. Scarlet recovered quickly when she realized Heath was about to walk past us.

  “Heath?” He turned around and noticed her HEATH CAN’T BE BEAT T-shirt. “I just wanted to say that your real fans don’t care whether you have tattoos or not, or if you sleep with a stuffed animal. We like you for you.”

  We like you for you.

  Heath pulled Scarlet in for a bear hug. Iris snapped a picture with her phone, Jilly smiled, and I thought about what Scarlet had just said. I would never have said this to my best friends, but before I went on the road with Perfect Storm, all we’d really known about PS was what they wanted us to know. In real life they were very different from their YouTube videos. They were funnier, smarter, louder, and quirkier. They liked things they didn’t share with the world, like stuffed tigers, songwriting, and caring a lot about their careers. They were goofy boys who talked about farting, boogers, and burps. Heath had become like the brother I didn’t have, Zander was the business brains whom I wanted to win over the world, and Kyle… well, Kyle was way different than I’d ever imagined.

  “Zander! Heath! Kyle!” The chants of the girls standing mere feet away pulled me back from my thoughts. Girls were finding the guys more and more these days.

  “Well, I should spread the love,” Zander said. “I’ll see you ladies later. We should definitely do dinner!” I thought Iris’s face was going to burst into flames, it was so red. “I’ll text you, Mac. Bye, Jilly Bean.”

  After one more hug from Heath, who claimed he had to head to the gym (he never goes to the gym, FYI), Scarlet and Iris were practically Jell-O.

  “They’re amazing,” Iris said in a dreamy voice. “Even more amazing than the amazingness that I was sure they were going to be! And Zander is getting us VIP seats to tomorrow night’s show!” Iris started to boogie in the middle of the food court, and an elderly couple wearing WE GOT HITCHED IN VEGAS IN ’64 tees took their trays to the other side of the room. “Mac, why didn’t you tell us they were this amazing?”

  And then Kyle walked up to us. “I just wanted to properly introduce myself to Mac’s mates.” He shook hands with Scarlet and Iris, who looked gobsmacked. “Piper told me she was surprising Mac with a visit from you two. It’s good to meet you both.”

  “He speaks,” Iris said.

  Kyle laughed. “Yes, I speak. So let’s see if I can guess who is who.” Kyle stepped back and framed both girls’ faces with his hands. He pointed to Iris. “You’re Iris. I can tell because Mac said you take tae kwon do together. Your hands are in this karate-chop position right now, so I’m going to move back.”

  “Sorry!” Iris said with a laugh. “I get in self-defense mode when I’m nervous. That was awesome! I can’t believe you knew who was who.”

  “And, Scarlet, you are the one who plays softball, right?” Kyle asked. “Mac said you’re going to be captain next year. That’s brill.”

  “Brill,” Scarlet repeated, as if in a fog. I understood. It was hard not to fall for Kyle’s accent. She quickly snapped out of it. “Well, I want to be captain, but there is fierce competition, so we’ll have to see.”

  Kyle nodded and looked at me. “I was going to see if you wanted to go on a gondola ride and then maybe head over to New York-New York to ride the coaster. Mikey G. says it’s on the roof! We don’t have anything tonight, so I thought I’d fancy a look around town.” His expression changed when he looked at Iris and Scarlet. “But I’m sure you want to do touristy things with your mates now that they’re here.”

  “Come with us,” Iris said, taking the words right out of my mouth.

  I seriously have the best friends in the world.

  Sunday, March 20 (It’s so early, it’s still the middle of the night!)

  LOCATION: Sleepover party in Jilly’s room in Vegas!

  Here’s the cool thing about having a dad who is a millionaire. When he sees his daughter having fun with a bunch of girls her own age, he gets her a suite for the night so she can have a sleepover party. We were even allowed to order room service!

  Briggsy seriously is the best.

  The bathroom is bigger than my room at home. The tub is the size of the Jacuzzi in Iris’s backyard. We even have our own living room with a flat-screen TV where we can rent pretty much any movie we can think of! I’m happy Jilly fit into our little group despite the fact that she is not a PS fanatic like the rest of us. When she started acting out scenes from Life After Life, Iris laughed so hard, fruit punch came out of her nose.

  “Let’s play truth or dare,” Scarlet suggested as she brushed her hair and put rollers in it. The four of us had decided we were going to go Las Vegas glam for the concert later that night.

  “I hate truth or dare,” I whined as I painted my toenails a wicked shade of hot pink.

  “That’s because you always hate doing the dares,” Scarlet said. “Ooh, Mac, is that pink on your nails? What happened to red?”

  I had painted my toenails red ever since we learned red was Zander’s favorite color. But tonight, when Jilly broke out her nail polishes, I was drawn to the pink one. Huh. “I just wanted something different, I guess.”

  “While you’re being bold, I say you go first,” Scarlet challenged, her eyes blazing in the glow of the TV in the darkened room. We had moved our pillows and blankets onto the floor of the living room after Iris protested that the mattresses in hotel rooms all had bed bugs and we couldn’t use them. Then Scarlet said that if the comforters had bed bugs, then the sheets did, too. Jilly said the sheets were washed daily, so we settled on sleeping on sheets. “So, truth or dare?”

  I bit my lip. The last time I picked dare, Scarlet had made me run down the block in my pajamas wearing a shark-head mask. I tripped over a skateboard and got three stitches in my knee. I did not want any more stitches. “Truth.”

  The girls leaned forward. Jilly started to laugh wildly. We were hopped up on candy, so anything we said sounded funny at this point. “Do you like Zander or do you like Kyle?” Scarlet wanted to know. “Because, Mac, we love you, and the way you and Kyle were chatting at New York-New York this afternoon, and then how you had to sit next to him in the front seat of the coaster, and how he challenged you to an ice-cream-eating contest at dinner at the buffet… I don’t know. It seems like you like Kyle. So do you?”

  I looked at my friends. In the background our fourth movie had just started, and I could see a girl running from the Sharkinator as it attacked her on the beach. My heart was
beating out of my chest, and my throat felt dry and scratchy. Possibly because I was nervous and possibly because it was raw from all that sugar in the gummy candies I had just eaten.

  “I think so,” I said finally.

  My friends screamed. Seconds later someone pounded on the floor above us.

  “I knew it!” Iris said. “And, Mac, I’m not just saying this as someone who has always loved Zander as much as you do—I like you liking Kyle. He’s so much cooler than we thought he was.”

  “I know!” I munched on more candy happily.

  “Are you going to tell him?” Scarlet asked excitedly. “Or are you going to draw him an album cover or write him a poem? You love writing poems with PS song lyrics. Ooh! You should do that.”

  The contest. I had almost forgotten about it. My half-eaten gummy fell out of my mouth.

  “EWW!” the girls screamed at the same time. More pounding came from the ceiling.

  “Guys, hotel security is going to come up here if we don’t quiet down,” Jilly said. “Mac, what is wrong with you? You just wasted a perfectly good piece of candy.”

  “I couldn’t help it. It’s just… I did something I’m worried is going to bite me big-time.” I sounded like a character on Life After Life.

  Iris’s eyes widened. “What did you do?”

  My face burned. I mean, who wrote fan mail anymore when you could just tweet a band? “Before my mom told me about going on tour, I wrote Zander a poem with PS lyrics and asked him to our school dance.” I covered my face with my hands.

  Scarlet burst out laughing, and both Jilly and Iris hit her.

  “It’s not funny!” I cried. “What if my fan mail makes it into the contest? Tomorrow night is the big pool party to announce the five finalists.”

  “Mac, no offense, but there are probably thousands of entries,” Jilly said. “Even if Daddy found yours, he wouldn’t and couldn’t use it because it’s against the rules to pick an entry from someone working with the band. You’re in the clear.”

  “Maybe not.” I looked at the nail polish bottle in my hand and watched the pink swish back and forth. I spoke really fast because I was so nervous. “My mom says no dating till high school, so I freaked out that Zander would get the poster and fall madly in love with me, and I wouldn’t be able to go to the dance with him because of my mom! So I signed the poster with my middle name and created a fake e-mail account for him to contact me at.”

  “MAC!” Scarlet was gobsmacked. “That’s genius. And bad. And genius! Have you looked at the e-mail account to see if you’ve heard anything about the contest?” I shook my head. “Then we have to look at it RIGHT. NOW!”

  “Yeah, but aren’t winners the only ones notified of winning a contest?” Iris pointed out. “I’ve never been notified, ‘Hey, good try, but you actually lost.’”

  Scarlet gave her a look. “We should still check! Briggs said they were narrowing down the finalists. Maybe they let them know they were in the top five. Let’s look.”

  Scarlet and Jilly dived over the pillows and went scrambling for the first tablet they could find. It was Scarlet’s. I could tell by the furry red cover with the letter H on it for “Heath.” They fired it up.

  “What e-mail account did you use?” Jilly asked.

  It had been so long, I could hardly remember. I thought for a moment. “It would be SabrinalovesZ@yahoo.com.” I could picture the screen in my mind. “My password is always ZanderGirl5 so that’s got to be the password.” We watched as the e-mail account began to load.

  Ten seconds had never felt so long in my life!

  “We’re in!” Jilly announced.

  Scarlet’s and Jilly’s eyes ran down the page. Iris tried to see over their shoulders, but I stayed back. I was too nervous to look. There was no way I’d been chosen, but what if? WHAT IF? How would I explain myself to Mom? To Briggs? To Zander?

  To Kyle?

  “Oooh!” Jilly gasped.

  “What is it?” I freaked out, grabbing Iris and holding on tight.

  “Sabrina has two twenty-five-percent-off coupons!” Jilly announced, and I glared at her. “That and a few spam e-mails are all that’s there. You’re in the clear!”

  We cheered—quietly, though, so that hotel security wouldn’t be called—and I felt this huge knot in my neck suddenly disappear. Iris still looked worried. I tried not to look at her.

  “This calls for an ice-cream sundae bar.” Jilly went to the phone and dialed room service.

  Everyone started calling out flavors and toppings, but I didn’t care what we ordered. I was just happy that I was not going to win the contest.

  I might not even be home for the Spring Fling. Lemon Ade had already asked the guys to do ten more dates on her tour, taking them through the end of April. Briggs said at this rate the boys would have their own headlining tour by the summer! Now that this silly contest wasn’t hanging over me, my new life could stay exactly as it was—zanily, crazily wonderful.

  I was cool with that.

  Sunday, March 20

  LOCATION: We’re still in Las Vegas, but on to California tomorrow! Yay! (That also means Iris and Scarlet have to go home. Boo!)

  “Thisconcertisamazing!” Iris said so quickly it came out as one long word. She had to shout to be heard over Lemon Ade’s set, which had just started. “Istillcan’tbelievewe’reintheVIPareafortheLemonAde/PSconcert!”

  Tonight’s concert seats were off the hook. I couldn’t believe Zander was able to score us VIP tickets. There were so many record label people in from L.A. for the PS party following the concert that every seat was taken. Even Lola Cummings was resigned to the back row of our tiny, roped-off section near the stage. I actually turned around at one point and waved to her. She made a motion to me that I’d rather not repeat.

  “I really don’t like that girl,” Scarlet said, even though this was the first time she had ever seen Lola in person. I guess Jilly and I had described her well enough that Scarlet could spot her in a crowd and hate her on sight. That’s what good friends are for.

  And then before we knew it, Lemon Ade was running offstage to rev up the crowd to ask for an encore. The place was stomping, clapping, and screaming, and our ears were ringing. Lemon Ade emerged from the ceiling on a tire swing, wearing this sequined two-piece outfit. I wondered if Mac in Mac Attack could pull off an outfit like that one.

  “I’d like to welcome back my favorite boys in the world to help me out on my number ‘Boys’ Club,’” Lemon Ade told the crowd. “PS, soon to be the biggest band on the planet!”

  And there they were again—Zander, Heath, and Kyle, looking fresh in new clothes. Lemon Ade had never called them out for an encore before, but it was a good idea because the crowd was going wild for PS.

  Scarlet practically cried when they came back onstage. “First it was eighth-place slots in state fairs, and now our boys are opening for Lemon Ade.” She squeezed me. “Your mom must be a genius tour manager!”

  Before we knew it, our ears were ringing louder than ever, the lights were coming up, and we were being herded like cattle out of the concert hall and back into the even brighter casino, where slots whirling and machines beeping sounded like a symphony. It was time for the PS after-concert pool party and the contest winner announcement. For the first time in weeks I didn’t care who won. I knew it wouldn’t be me!

  Up, up, up we flew in one of the glass elevators, talking a mile a minute about Lemon Ade’s wardrobe (“I heard it’s worth almost a million dollars,” Scarlet said), the best PS number of the night (“‘I Need You’ will always be my favorite PS song,” Iris said), and what kind of food was going to be at this party (“I begged Daddy to order mini hot dogs even if they’re not very chic,” Jilly revealed). And then the doors to the rooftop party opened, and we were speechless.

  “Whoa,” Jilly said first.

  “Double whoa,” Scarlet repeated.

  The Las Vegas skyline spread out beyond the roof, where palm trees swayed and a lit-up bar was servin
g smoothies as well as drinks I couldn’t touch. The illuminated pool was open and full of guitar-shaped floats, but no one was swimming. This crowd did not look like pool types. They were dressed in sequins, high heels, and lots of jewelry, and suddenly I felt silly in my favorite-ever red sundress, which had a scalloped edge right above my knees. Alter-ego Mac would have worn something rocker cool like a pink leather miniskirt and a tank top that said MUSIC IS MY SUPERPOWER.

  “I can’t believe they let children into this party.”

  There was only one person who would say that. “Hi, Lola,” I said wearily. She had Bridget and the babysitter she didn’t call a babysitter with her. They both had on outfits very similar to what my alter ego would wear. But they didn’t look like they were playing dress-up like I would have.

  Lola pretended to yawn, her high-gloss pink lips smacking as she talked. “What are you doing here? Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

  “We’re not the ones who look like we need our beauty sleep,” Scarlet said, stepping slightly in front of me, her arms across her chest, hiding her PS, WE WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER shirt I designed for the three of us last fall. Both she and Iris had theirs on with skirts. She motioned to Lola’s eyes. “Nice dark circles. We don’t have those yet. We’re not old like you.” Iris, Jilly, and I giggled.

  Lola stared at us blankly, as if she couldn’t believe someone our age could come up with a comeback that fierce. For a moment one of her fake eyelashes seemed to glue itself to her lower lid, and she had to rub her eye to get it to come undone. “I should go,” Lola sniffed, snapping her fingers to get her babysitter and Bridget to follow. “Zander is probably looking for me. He’s texted me twice.”

  “Ugh!” Iris said when Lola was gone. “She’s worse than you described.”

  “I know,” I said, but for some reason she didn’t bother me as much as she usually did.

  “You ladies look like you’re up to no good.” Kyle appeared in the crowd. He gave Scarlet a hug. “What are you plotting? Taking over the world?”