Rock 'n' Roll Rebel (13 page)

Chapter Thirty

F
riday morning Tig gave serious consideration to the idea of faking sick.

Not only was she exhausted, she still hadn't perfected the song for the party. If she stayed home, she could work on it the whole day.

Plus, she could avoid having to tell Mr. Ellis that she didn't have her science project. She might get lucky, and Mr. Ellis would be too busy to call her mom until the beginning of next week—after the party was over.

But one thing stopped her.

Tig knew that if she were too sick for school, her mom would say she was too sick for Kyra's party, and although part of her desperately wished her mom would forbid her to go, she knew that if she didn't show, Regan would never let her hear the end of how she'd chickened out.

Tig had to show up at the party that night, and she had to play drums.

Oh, and sing lead. Who could forget that?

Tig muttered curses upon the universe as she thought of it all.

She tried to make herself small in science class that day so that maybe Mr. Ellis wouldn't notice her. As the class went in alphabetical order to present their projects, many of them took so long, Tig thought maybe they wouldn't get to the
R
s at all. Then on Monday she could quietly slip her display board onto the back lab tables with the others, and no one would be the wiser. She was so busy thinking about how great that would be, Mr. Ellis had to call her name twice before she heard him. “Ripley, you're up!”

The class turned and looked at her.

Mr. Ellis looked at her. “Ripley?”

Tig said nothing, just shook her head.

“Really?” Mr. Ellis asked.

Tig nodded.

“Okay, then. Roberts.”

When the period was over, Tig tried to exit without Mr. Ellis's catching her. “Not so fast, Ripley.”

She turned and walked back to him as though he were the executioner. “I'm sorry, Mr. Ellis.”

“Are you?” Mr. Ellis said. “I'm not sure you realize quite how sorry you need to be. Tig, this is a big deal. This is your nine-weeks' project.”

“I know. Can I bring it in on Monday?”

“How far along are you?”

Tig wanted to lie. She wanted to say she was almost finished. But she liked Mr. Ellis; everyone did. “I'm ashamed to tell you.”

“Tig, this isn't like you. Is everything okay?”

“No, sir.”

“How can I help?”

“You could not call my folks,” Tig said with a weak smile.

“Have we met?” Mr. Ellis said. “I'm Mr. Ellis. I'm the call-your-parents-when-I'm-concerned guy. Besides, if you're having trouble, your parents and I want to work with you to help you.”

“I know,” Tig said. “I'll turn it in Monday, I promise.”

“See that you do. If I don't get your project Monday, your parents will be getting a call. Fair enough?”

“Thanks, Mr. Ellis.”

Tig promised herself she'd do something spectacular after the party and turn it in Monday. A late grade would be better than a zero.

But she couldn't think about that now. One thing at a time. Her first order of business would be getting through the performance that night.

As she left Mr. Ellis's room, she ran straight into the Bots.

“Well, if it isn't Rihanna,” Regan said.

Tig didn't even bother trying to tell her that she was a drummer, not a singer. Because really, there was no reason trying to clarify an insult, and oh yeah, Tig was having to sing after all. So Tig said nothing.

“What, no comeback? Where's the smack talk you're so famous for? Or are you less cocky now that the big day has come?”

“I'm tired,” Tig said. “Too tired to bother with you.”

“No big,” Regan said. “There's nothing you can say anyway. Your performance at the party tonight will do all the talking for you, won't it?”

“I guess so,” Tig said. She had no more fight left in her.

Chapter Thirty-One

A
unt Laurie didn't like the idea of Pandora's Box playing at Kyra's party. Not one bit.

Finally something Tig and Aunt Laurie could agree on.

“Kyra, are you
sure
about this?” Aunt Laurie asked for the fifth time as the band set up their instruments before the party.

“We just need to get it over with,” Kyra said. Even Kyra couldn't pretend any longer that everything was going to be okay.

“Want to run through?” Will asked.

“No,” Tig said. She was sick of the whole thing. She'd practiced nonstop for days now and didn't want to be reminded of how bad they sounded all together. “Just give me some time to practice alone.” When everyone else went to the pavilion's kitchen area to help Aunt Laurie check on the food, Tig gave it one last try. She was still rough on the chorus, but maybe if she just kept going instead of trying to go back and fix what she'd messed up, no one would notice.

Will came back into the party room alone. “It's going to be all right, you know.”

“How?” Tig said. “How is any of this going to be all right?”

“It's not like anyone's going to die.”

“Death before dishonor?” Tig placed her sticks on the snare. “The crowd is going to eat us alive.”

“On the upside, I'm probably delicious,” Will said. “Nice and tender.”

Tig was too tired, too annoyed, and too worried to even think about laughing. Nothing was going to make her feel any better until this night was over. She almost didn't care anymore if they crashed and burned. At least the agony of dreading it would end.

Olivia came in. “Tig, we've at least got to do a sound check before the party starts.”

Tig agreed. Olivia called Kyra in, and they played the song once through. “Kyra, have you been practicing at all?” Tig asked.

“Um, some of us had science projects to do!” Kyra threw back at her.

“You're the one who started this whole thing in the first place!” Tig said. But deep down, Tig knew she had only herself to blame. Yes, it was Kyra's stupid idea, but she had canceled the performance immediately after Tig had asked her to. Tig knew that, ultimately, it was her own pride—and her own big mouth—that had put her and the band in this position. “You know what?” Tig said. “Forget it.”

She walked off the stage.

“Tig, you want to try it once more?” Will called.

The heavy doors slammed shut behind her.

Chapter Thirty-Two

A
unt Laurie must've spent a fortune on the party. Tig wondered how she would top it when the time came for Kyra's sweet sixteen. There was so much food—shrimp, roast beef, fruit, a chocolate fountain, and all manner of sweets. It seemed a shame to waste it on a bunch of middle-school kids who would've been perfectly happy with a few pizzas.

It seemed a bigger shame to waste so much of it on middle-school kids Kyra didn't even know.

Amid Kyra's friends from school and youth group, the club's main room was also packed with County kids who Tig and Kyra had never met. Well, except for Edgy Abz.

Kyra was having a meltdown. “Why are all these random strangers at my party?”

Will handed Tig his iPhone. “This might clear things up.”

It was Regan's Twitter feed. She'd hashtagged County Middle School and written,
Big party! Everyone invited!

“And Regan's probably intimidated almost everyone from school,” Tig told her. “A lot of people you invited won't be showing.” In a way, she was glad. Maybe Regan had done her a favor without meaning to. At least fewer people from school would see them play. Tig handed Will's phone to Kyra.

“Why would she do this?” Kyra said.

“Why do you think? Or have you forgotten they have it in for us?”

“Well, I didn't do anything! You're the one who told them off, not me! All I've ever tried to do is be nice to them!”

“No, you didn't do anything, Kyra,” Tig said. “Except invite Haley to be our lead singer in the first place, thus forcing me to kick her out. And advertising that we'd play at your stupid party so we could look like idiots.”

“My party is not stupid!”

Before Tig could say anything back, Edgy Abz began shouting, “Where's the band?” and several County boys whooped their agreement. Soon the crowd of strangers was shouting,
“Band! Band! Band!”

“Looks like it's do-or-die time,” Tig said to Will.

“I hope we do,” Will said.

The band took the stage and settled in with their instruments. Tig spoke into the mic. “Our guitarist is out of town and our lead singer is sick, so we're just going to do one song tonight. Here goes.” She counted off with her sticks.

Tig didn't fall apart all at once. She was able to keep it together for the first few seconds of the song. The thought crossed Tig's mind that they might actually pull this thing off.

But when the chorus began, everything went crazy.

Tig and Kyra got way out of sync, and Tig couldn't hear Will anymore. The fill going into the chorus tripped her up, and Tig started dragging on the rhythm. Kyra couldn't stay in the pocket. Tig couldn't stop singing the lyrics so that she could pick back up with the proper count.

The crowd began booing and heckling. Tig could see that several guys in the audience were holding up their arms and giving thumbs-down. She could also see that several others were holding up their phones, recording the car wreck that was happening before their eyes. Tig tried to recover a few times, but it was all a complete mess. Finally she was so scattered, she couldn't even remember the words to the song anymore, so she just stopped. So did Kyra. Then Will and Olivia stopped too.

“Fail!”
Edgy Abz yelled. “Play something! Play something now!”

Tig recalled how she'd insisted to Regan that Pandora's Box would play at Kyra's party. She had no choice; she had to play something. Panicked, Tig started pounding out the backbeat of “Sweet Home,” but Will didn't know that song, and without a guitar, no one else knew what to do, so Tig stopped. Now, panicked even more, she started on “Plush,” but got through only the first couple of measures and the ruff before remembering that Will didn't know that song either, and Kyra had never mastered it. Olivia was staring at her in complete confusion.
What do you want me to do?
Olivia's eyes seemed to say.

Finally Tig threw her sticks onto the ground and walked off the stage and into the crowd, pushing past the cameras flashing in her face.

She knew it was wrong, as the leader, to leave her bandmates up onstage like that, with no hint of what to do. Like a captain going down with his sinking ship, she should have stood with her band and stoically endured the booing. She shouldn't have walked away. But she didn't care. She kept walking.

Just as she opened the doors, Edgy Abz shouted, “Pandora's Box in the house!” to which the crowd laughed uproariously.

Before even ten minutes had passed, the entire debacle was posted on YouTube.