by Jen Calonita
Griffin looked at her oddly. “Are you okay?”
Lidia started to laugh as another bus pulled up. “Yes! I am!” She threw her arms around Griffin and hugged him. “Thank you.”
He hugged her back. “Um, for what?”
How could she even explain? “Come on,” she suggested, getting out her bus pass. “Let’s go find Sydney together.”
Griffin hopped on the bus after her and they took a seat in the front row.
“Lidia?”
She turned around. Jack was seated a few rows back. “Jack!” she said happily. “Hey!”
He didn’t look as happy as she felt right now. Then Lidia remembered who she was sitting with. “This is Griffin,” she explained.
“What’s up?” Griffin said to him.
“Hey.” Jack’s face was hard to read. He looked at Lidia. “Are you going to Kyle’s? I just tried texting you.”
“I can’t. I have to do something with Griffin before my dance class.” She’d explain everything to Jack later.
Griffin winked at her. “We’re off to save the a cappella world.”
She laughed. “We hope!” She looked at Jack again. “I’ll call you later?”
“Sure,” Jack said, putting his earbuds in his ears. He turned and looked out the window.
Lidia leaned over to the bus driver. “Excuse me. Did a girl with long, curly, blond hair in a plaid Bradley uniform get on this bus earlier?”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “She did the whole loop. Got off near Fifth Avenue.”
Fifth Avenue—that’s where Lidia’s dance studio was! Was she looking for her too? Lidia felt suddenly hopeful.
“Then she got back on at the next stop mumbling something about someone not being there. I dropped her back at one of the Bradley bus stops.” He scratched his chin. “I just can’t remember which one.”
“Wait, so she’s back at school and we’re on a wild-goose chase?” Griffin moaned.
“No clue,” said the driver, pulling up to the next stop.
Lidia looked at Griffin.
“She’s not going to answer her phone if either of us call,” Lidia told him.
“She’ll probably ignore our texts too,” Griffin added.
“We should split up and find her,” Lidia suggested. “Whoever finds her first texts the other one. Deal?”
“Deal. Let me take your number,” Griffin said and put Lidia’s digits in his phone as the bus stopped again. Jack stood up and started to get off.
“You staying on?” Jack asked her.
“Yes,” Lidia said and started to say more, but Griffin interrupted.
“Do you think she’s at Salty Sam’s?” he asked. When Lidia looked up, Jack was gone. She’d need to call him as soon as she took care of things with Sydney.
“Maybe. I’ll try it. I’m not sure where she is.” They’d always known what the other was thinking, like their own special brand of ESP. But since their fight, they’d been completely out of sync. “You check campus and her house. I’ll try work.” The bus pulled up to the next stop and Lidia jumped up to get off. “I’ll talk to you later.”
Griffin reached out and squeezed Lidia’s hand. “Good luck.”
Lidia tried Salty Sam’s and the dance studio, but Sydney wasn’t in either place. Syd, where are you? Lidia sat down on a bench and wiped her brow. The fall sun was still hot in Florida and it was making her loopy. She needed to cool off. She needed … ice cream!
She stood up. Chocolate was what Lidia craved when she was in the mood for something sweet, but Syd was different. She loved an ice cream sundae, probably because she’d been raised in the ice cream business. Maybe Sydney was at Pinocchio’s. Lidia half ran, expecting Sydney to already be there. She tried hard not to think about what had happened the last time they’d been at Pinocchio’s, the scene of Lidia’s first meltdown. She rushed into the ice cream shop.
“Syd?” she shouted.
People looked at her, but there was no Sydney. Instead, there was some guy she didn’t recognize behind the ice cream counter and no sign of a girl in a Bradley uniform. Lidia sat down at a table near the door. Her gut was telling her Syd would show up. She’d wait her out.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Ten minutes later, Sydney rushed through the door. As soon as she saw Lidia, she stopped short, while Lidia stood up so fast her chair tipped over. The two stared at each other for a second, then fell into each other’s arms, bursting into tears.
“I’m sorry!” Sydney cried.
“No, I’m sorry!” Lidia was teary too.
“I screwed up more,” Sydney wailed.
“No, I did!” Lidia insisted, hugging Sydney harder as they both cried.
“Um, could you two let us pass?”
Sydney and Lidia pulled apart. There was a group of people trying to leave the shop with their ice cream cones.
“Sure, sorry.” Sydney pulled Lidia into the back room where the Nightingales meet and greet had been. It felt like a lifetime ago. She pulled the barn door shut behind them.
They both started talking at once.
“I looked everywhere for you,” Sydney said. “I have been such a terrible friend. First there was everything with Griffin, then I was such a jerk at the open house. I shouldn’t have taken my anger about our lousy performance out on you. Here you came to cheer us on with this nice sign and I barked at you to leave. I went to your house, the dance studio …”
“You went to the studio? I have a class there later, but I was going to skip it if I couldn’t find you. I checked Salty Sam’s too.”
Sydney’s eyes widened. “I went there too! How did we miss each other?” They both started to laugh. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad I found you. I want to apologize for everything.”
“I want to apologize first,” Lidia interrupted. Sydney shushed her.
“Me first,” Sydney insisted. “I’m so sorry about everything with Griffin. You’ve liked him for such a long time and I had no right doing what I did. I’m so ashamed,” she whispered.
Lidia put a hand on her arm. “He told me he was the one who kissed you.”
Sydney wiped her eyes. “He did?”
Lidia nodded. “We talked and he explained what happened. I should have believed you.”
“I should have told you as soon as it happened,” Sydney said. She grabbed a napkin from one of the table dispensers and dabbed her eyes. “I felt so bad about the kiss. I was so surprised when he did it and told me how he felt that I didn’t know what to do. I knew how crushed you’d be so I tried to hide it and it backfired. I’m so sorry.” She started crying again. “You have every right to be hurt and mad and never want to talk to me again.”
Lidia started crying again too. “This is what I’ve wanted you to say the whole time!”
Sydney stopped crying. “What?”
Lidia laughed. “I wanted you to apologize and really mean it. You just tried to pretend like it was no big deal and that it was all Griffin’s fault. Even if it was, it still hurt, which is why I was so upset. You’re my best friend. Even if it killed me to hear that Griffin liked you and not me, I wanted to hear it from you. He really likes you, by the way.”
Sydney shook her head forcefully and started babbling. “It doesn’t matter. I would never do that to you. Even if you never spoke to me again, I would never get together with him. Even if we get along really well and he’s incredibly sweet and good-looking. NO! I just couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I can’t.”
“Syd!” Lidia tried to quiet her down. “Do you like him?” She looked Sydney directly in the eyes. “Be honest. I want you to tell me the truth. Do you like him?”
Sydney could have lied. She didn’t want to hurt Lidia any more than she already had. But if she kept lying, they’d have no shot at repairing their friendship. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Then you should be together,” Lidia said simply and pulled out her phone. She messaged Griffin to let him know she’d found Sydney and Sydney sta
rted to protest. “I want you to be happy, and if Griffin makes you happy, then you guys should be together. I’m okay, I promise.”
“But,” Sydney started to say.
“No buts,” Lidia told her. “Don’t fight it because of me. I’m okay.” Sydney looked skeptical. “I promise.” She hesitated. “I like someone else.”
“Who?” Sydney demanded. “Since when?”
“I met him on the bus,” Lidia explained, her cheeks brightening. “He takes a coding class next to the dance studio so we’ve met up at Kyle’s Candy Shoppe. We’ve hung out a few times. He gets me, and if Griffin gets you, go for it. Please.”
Sydney exhaled. “I’ll think about it. For now, I just want to focus on us. I miss talking to you.”
“I miss talking to you!” Lidia said. “And I’ve got some apologizing to do too.” Her voice was suddenly shaky. “I’m sorry I quit the group and left you to deal with the fallout. I didn’t think about the fact that you’d have to take on a new co-captain like Whitney or how my outburst would ruin the Nightingales auditions. I was being selfish. I know how important this group is to you and you had such big plans for us this year. I screwed them up.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose,” Sydney said diplomatically. “The group was already a mess before you and I took it over. Getting good talent to auditions was a long shot anyway.” She nudged Lidia. “And you know what? You were right about Donna. Even with that puppet, she has a great voice. And Pearl is beatboxing now and she’s really good.”
“I heard.” Lidia nodded. “I’m sorry I made the a cappella season harder for you before it even started. I just didn’t know how to handle being captain with you after what happened. I couldn’t stand seeing you, and it felt like every time I saw you, Griffin was following you around like a lovesick puppy. It seemed easier to quit than watch the two of you together.”
“Do you miss it?” Sydney asked quietly. If she and Lidia were okay again, maybe Lidia would come back.
“Yes,” Lidia said truthfully. “But I wasn’t lying when I said I had made another commitment.” She smiled shyly. “I made the senior competition team at the dance studio.”
“Lid!” Sydney screamed, hugging her again. “That’s fantastic!”
“Thanks, but it’s a lot of work, and we practice four days a week and have competitions throughout the year.” Lidia frowned. “It would compete too much with the Nightingales’ schedule. It’s not fair for everyone to put in the work and me to just show up once in a while.”
“I guess you’re right,” Sydney said, but she hated the idea of Lidia not being part of the group anymore. “It doesn’t matter now anyway.” Her face clouded over. “The group is finished. We’d never be able to pull things together by Turn It Up. I’m sure everyone is going to quit after how we humiliated ourselves at the open house.”
“Hey! You’re Sydney Marino! You don’t give up that easily!” Lidia said gruffly. “Remember that time our volcano for the science fair exploded the night before it was due? After all the stores were closed? Did you give up? Nope! You Googled how to make a volcano out of stuff in your kitchen cabinet and we had a new volcano by the time we left for school the next morning.”
“And it smelled like cake batter, which was way better than the original version,” Sydney recalled.
“Exactly!” Lidia said. “Turn It Up is weeks away! You have more than enough time to get this group in fighting form.” Lidia boxed in place, pretending to hit Sydney in the arm. “All you need is a coffee with a caramel swirl running through it, and I promise your mind will be whirling with ideas.”
Sydney had missed their banter. Their pretend fighting. The way they knew how each other took their coffee. She was happy to have her best friend back.
“I know you’re busy, but will you help me?” Sydney asked shyly.
“Of course! I may not be in the group anymore, but I owe it to you to get this group back on track. What if you made a peace offering—like free ice cream?”
“No, I already did that, remember? This has to be bigger. What’s going to get people to show up for a Nightingales meeting on a Saturday morning?”
Lidia and Sydney looked at each other. “A free cruise,” they said at the same time.
“Jinx!” Sydney said with a laugh. They were back. “Salty Sam’s is perfect. They can tan and eat. There will be no stress like at rehearsal.”
“Sam would probably give us comp tickets if we pick up an extra shift,” Lidia suggested. “Once we’re out to sea, you do your Sydney spin on things and convince everyone to stay.”
Sydney picked up her phone to call Sam and get the tickets. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but with Lidia’s help, she just might be able to pull it off.
The Nightingales might still be able to take flight after all.
Nightingales! Join me for a FREE voyage on the high seas! Saturday morning, Salty Sam’s, downtown Naples, docks, 8 a.m. We have lots to talk about—over bagels. I’ll even let you take pictures of me in my pirate uniform so you can humiliate me online.
After Friday’s open house performance, Julianna wasn’t expecting to get a text from Sydney about a free boat trip. She was actually waiting for an email from Mr. Wickey saying the Nightingales were shut down for the season. Maybe this meant there was still hope. Now that Julianna knew the truth about Amy and what had happened with the Tonal Teens, she wanted to compete in a cappella season more than ever. Her dream now was to go up against the Tonal Teens in a competition and leave Amy in the dust. That couldn’t happen if she wasn’t in an a cappella group.
Julianna watched her phone blow up with the group’s text replies. “I’m in,” everyone said. Julianna added her name to the list. The next morning, her mom dropped her off at the docks.
“Don’t forget to wear your life jacket!” her mom yelled out the car window as she left her near the pier. “It can get choppy on the water when it starts to rain.”
Julianna looked up at the cloudless sky and recalled the weather app forecast: 10 percent or less chance of rain. Thunderstorms popped up in Florida almost daily, but usually during the heat of the day, which was late afternoon. It wasn’t even eight a.m. yet. “Mom, there isn’t a cloud in the sky.”
Her mom scrunched up her nose and sniffed the air. “I don’t care what the weatherman says. Smells like rain. Be careful out there.”
Julianna shook her head. She had a greater chance of encountering a great white, but she didn’t tell her mom that. At the pier, the rest of the Nightingales were waiting.
“Where is she already?” Whitney asked as she slathered sunscreen over her tan arms. “Micayla and I had food poisoning yesterday from that burrito we ate and we’re still here.”
“I think our illnesses were brought on by embarrassment,” Micayla told the group.
“Or by eating that funky-looking chicken in the cafeteria,” Viola told them. “Told you that chicken marsala looked nasty on Thursday.”
“Whatever it was, I’m here early like a captain should be,” Whitney said. “If she’s going to call a meeting without her co-captain’s approval, the least she could do is be waiting for us.”
“With coffee,” Donna added, a fresh Ms. Heel drawn on her hand. “This is kind of early for a Saturday.”
“I’m here!” Sydney said, holding up two giant bags from Don’t Be Crabby’s. “I’ve got coffee, bagels, and a special guest.” She motioned to the girl on her right.
“Lidia!” Gabby cried, hugging her. “Does this mean you’re back?”
“Not exactly,” Lidia said. “But I want to help the Nightingales, so I’m all in.”
Whitney folded her arms. “I hope you don’t think I’m giving up my captain position.”
“No one is going anywhere,” Sydney said with an uneasy smile. “I’ll explain everything when we get on board.” She motioned to the gangplank, which a group of tourists was already walking up. Apparently, the cruise wasn’t just for the Nightingales. It was open to the public, so h
opefully that meant they’d all be on their best behavior. “Are you guys ready?”
Mercedes pushed past the others. “YES, I’M SO EXCITED FOR THIS!” she said so loudly that a seagull nesting on a dock post took flight. “DO I GET TO DRESS UP? WHERE IS MY PIRATE COSTUME?”
“I am not wearing a costume,” Whitney said as she followed the group up the ramp.
“Me neither,” said Micayla. “I don’t even know why we’re doing this. Everyone knows the group is done for.”
“Says who?” Sydney questioned. “Julianna was amazing yesterday at the open house. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have even had a performance.”
Julianna blushed. “Thanks, guys.”
Sydney gave her arm a squeeze. “You came through just when we needed you the most. I think that means there is some life in this group yet.”
“What song was that anyway?” Lidia asked.
“I wrote it,” Julianna said proudly. “I’ve been working on it for a while and it was the first thing I thought of when our performance went sideways.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call what we did up there a performance,” Micayla said huffily.
“Julianna sang and Pearl beatboxed,” Gabby countered. “If it weren’t for them, we would have looked like fools.”
“We did look like fools,” Whitney mumbled.
“Who’s ready for a pirate cruise?” Lidia tightened a red bandana around her head. “There are prizes for finding buried treasure and singing in tune.” She motioned to the guy with the goatee waiting at the top of the gangway. “This is Sam, our boss, and pirate captain.”
“The sea is looking mighty fine this morning, so let’s get on our voyage and find some treasure!” Sam said as Lidia and Sydney passed out eye patches and swords.
