Battle of the Bands Read online

  Wow. Who’d have thought? I stuff my hands into my pockets and get this little jolt when my fingers find the five-dollar bill, the one from the fridge at home. I put it in my pocket when I got home last night. I glance at Rowan and notice she’s expecting an answer.

  “Looking at my shoes means what, exactly?”

  “Well, how many people take the time to really look at things? You go below the surface, Jay. That’s where the important stuff in life happens.”

  I stare at her and she waits patiently. I like this about her, maybe more than anything else. She’s not in a hurry. I don’t want to disappoint her and tell her I hardly ever look at my shoes. Instead I take my hand from my pocket and hold up the bill, show it to Rowan. “See this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well this. This is something. It’s meant to go somewhere.”

  “Is that a fact?” she says.

  “It is. It’s a fact. It goes with a pair of shoes, to take you places.”

  Her eyes narrow and she studies me closely. “What places?”

  “I don’t know. Any place you want.”

  “Special places?” she asks.

  I shrug. “How can you tell if a place is special when you haven’t even been there yet? Sometimes you have to take chances.”

  Her lips curve into that little half smile and I’m dying to know what’s going through her head. She says, “I’d like to get to know you better too, Jay.”

  I stand there and blink. Huh? I’m talking about going places and she comes up with that smile and says she wants to get to know me? And then, just like that, it’s all clear. The only place I really want to go right now is closer to Rowan. Funny how that can happen. Two people talking about two different things, but it’s really the same thing if you look at it the right way.

  I stare down at the bill in my hand and say, “There are all kinds of trips, right? “ Then I hold my hand above my head, letting the bill flutter in the strengthening wind. I let it go and the wind takes it into the water. I see it briefly on the crest of a wave before it disappears below the surface.

  Rowan says, “That was strange.”

  I say, “Why?”

  She says, “Because I thought that was for that coffee you promised me and you just had a funny way of getting around to it. What exactly have we been talking about here, Jay?”

  Man.

  “Oh, you know. You were right. I’m just abnormal.”

  “Oh really?“ She gets that wicked gleam I’ve seen before, steps sideways and stomps her foot into a tidal pool. Salt water splashes all over me.

  “Hey!”

  “Gotcha!” she laughs and takes off running.

  Of course I chase her. I catch her too and give back as good as I got. By the time we’re done we’re both soaked, and I haven’t felt so good in a long time.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kel, Cia and me are in the garage. It’s our first time getting together since the battle and it’s been a couple of weeks. So far, we’re just sitting around, pretending that we’re tuning up.

  “So,” I say.

  “Yeah,” says Cia.

  “Guess who I saw?” Kel asks.

  I bite. “Who?”

  “Amy. She’s working at the new donut joint. Wearing one of those brown dresses.”

  “No way.” I try to picture Amy in the donut dress and it doesn’t look good.

  “Yeah. She pretended she didn’t see me so I went along with that. But I heard she sort of needs the money.”

  Cia grins. “Couldn’t be for a certain guitar she needs to pay off, could it?”

  “Hey,” Kel says, “could be.”

  We laugh but not too loud. It’s okay that Amy is putting things right, but somewhere in there I guess we feel sorry for her too. It must suck to be so dumb. But who knows? Maybe after this she’ll be smarter. Maybe Amy will know who Amy really is. Or at least she could be figuring it out. Like me.

  But what I need to know just now is if The Lunar Ticks know who they are. As in, do we still exist?

  “So,” I say again. I pluck a string on my guitar, let the sound fade. “What do you think?”

  They know what I mean. “Well,” Kel says. “I think we were pretty good last time.”

  “Yeah,” Cia agrees, “we were. Just not quite as good as some of the competition.”

  “That’s how I see it too. The question is, will we ever be as good?”

  We look at each other. It’s down to this. Is it time to call it quits? Or do we still share the dream?

  Kel’s the first one to speak. “The Fender is still at the music store.”

  “And final exams are over,” Cia says.

  Kel and I stare at her.

  “Well,” she splutters, “they are.”

  I nod. “So what you’re saying is it’s too soon to give up? We’ve got some time?”

  “More than that,” Cia says. “We’ve got us. And the music.”

  “For sure,” Kel says. “We just gotta keep paying our dues.”

  A warm flash of excitement pulses through me. It’s still there. I want to do this. “All right then! So, do you wanna hear some new lyrics?”

  They grin and lean forward. “Bring it on,” Kel says.

  “It’s called ‘Spying on the World’...”

  I went out and hid

  There in the dark

  Tried to look through your eyes

  Feel with your heart.

  I felt so cold

  Like a guy in a lab

  Experience,

  I wanted you bad.

  But here I am

  Still just me

  Skimming the surface

  Won’t let me be free

  Spying on the world

  Living like a fly

  Feeding on the crap

  Will never take me high

  So I’m gonna live

  Every day, all the time

  And I’m gonna be

  Just fine. Just fine.

  It’s all gonna be

  Just fine.

  Kel is thoughtful for a while. Then he says, “I like the line about the fly feeding on the crap. My science teacher told us about flies. He said we should keep flies off our food because of what they do. They land on the food and then they barf on it. I think that’s to kinda soften it up. Then they walk around in the barf, stirring things up. Finally they eat. Then they poop on the food before they leave.”

  Cia and I need a moment to consider this information.

  “Gross!” Cia decides.

  “Yeah, man. That’s disgusting,” I say.

  Kel shrugs. “So? That’s the way it is.”

  I nod. “Okay. I can live with that. Reality as it happens.”

  “Too right,” Kel agrees. He looks at Cia and they smile. Do Rowan and I look that connected when we smile at each other?

  “So do you wanna work on this number with me?” I ask. “Get the music part happening?”

  “What are you saying?” Cia asks.

  “I’m saying that I can’t come up with the tune on my own. Got any ideas? Like, what kind of rhythm do we want here? What’s the bass going to do?”

  Cia’s eyes light up and she grabs her sticks. “How about this?” She lays out a pattern, settles down and picks up a beat.

  “Yeah. I like that. It feels right. Kel?”

  Kel gets intense. He drops his head, closes his eyes, starts false. Then he finds the groove to match Cia. He goes farther and comes up with a sweet undertone. He’s echoing Cia, but the bass is alive, making music.

  I can feel the grin coming on before it breaks out on my face. “Cool! That sounds good. Real good.”

  “Jump in any time, Jay,” Cia says.

  And I do. I connect with the strings and the whole wide world is busy making music.

  This is K.L. Denman’s first novel. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

  Other titles in the

  Orca Soundings series

  Blue Moon


  Marilyn Halvorson

  Breathless

  Pam Withers

  Bull Rider

  Marilyn Halvorson

  Charmed

  Carrie Mac

  Chill

  Colin Frizzell

  Crush

  Carrie Mac

  Dead-End Job

  Vicki Grant

  Death Wind

  William Bell

  Exit Point

  Laura Langston

  Exposure

  Patricia Murdoch

  Fastback Beach

  Shirlee Smith Matheson

  Grind

  Eric Walters

  The Hemingway Tradition

  Kristin Butcher

  Hit Squad

  James Heneghan

  Home Invasion

  Monique Polak

  Juice

  Eric Walters

  Kicked Out

  Beth Goobie

  My Time as Caz Hazard

  Tanya Lloyd Kyi

  No More Pranks

  Monique Polak

  No Problem

  Dayle Campbell Gaetz

  One More Step

  Sheree Fitch

  Overdrive

  Eric Walters

  Refuge Cove

  Lesley Choyce

  Saving Grace

  Darlene Ryan

  Snitch

  Norah McClintock

  Something Girl

  Beth Goobie

  Sticks and Stones

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  Stuffed

  Eric Walters

  Tell

  Norah McClintock

  Thunderbowl

  Lesley Choyce

  Tough Trails

  Irene Morck

  The Trouble with Liberty

  Kristin Butcher

  Truth

  Tanya Lloyd Kyi

  Who Owns Kelly Paddik?

  Beth Goobie

  Yellow Line

  Sylvia Olsen

  Zee’s Way

  Kristin Butcher

  Visit www.orcabook.com for more information.

  More Orca Soundings

  Stuffed

  by Eric Walters

  “So, do we have a deal?” Mr. Evans asked.

  “Unbelievable,” I muttered under my breath.

  “I don’t understand,” Mr. Evans said.

  “The whole thing is unbelievable. First you try to threaten me. Then you try to bribe me. And now you do the two together, trying to bribe me and threatening me if I don’t take the bribe.”

  “I don’t like to think of it in those terms,” he said.

  When Ian and his classmates watch a documentary about the health concerns of eating fast food, Ian decides to start a boycott against a multinational food chain. Can Ian stand up for what he believes in? Can he take on a corporate behemoth and win?

  Exit Point

  by Laura Langston

  “I’m not dead. I’m still me. I still have a body and everything.”

  “You are still you, but you don’t have a body. What you’re seeing is a thought form.” He points to a tall gold urn up by the minister. “Your body is in there. You were cremated.”

  Thunk thunk, thunk thunk. My heart pounds in my chest. Dread mushrooms in my stomach. Sweat beads on my forehead.“But everybody knows death is the end. That there’s nothing left but matter.”

  “Death is only the beginning, Logan. Hannah knows that. Lots of people do.”

  Logan always takes the easy way out. After a night of drinking and driving, he wakes up to find he has been involved in a car accident and is dead. With the help of his guide, Wade, and the spirit of his grandmother, he realizes he has taken the wrong exit. He wasn’t meant to die. His life had a purpose—to save his sister!

  Crush

  by Carrie Mac

  Isn’t she fazed by any of this? Does she do this all the time? Make unsuspecting, seemingly straight girls squirm? Or am I making it all up? But making up what? The butterflies are real. The fact that I want to kiss her is real.

  Would kissing a girl be different from kissing boys? If all I did was kiss her, would that make me queer? Are you queer just for thinking it? Or does doing it make you queer? And what if I don’t want to be queer? Do I get a say in this at all?

  Because of a moment of indiscretion, Hope’s parents send her to New York to spend the summer with her sister. Miserable, Hope ends up meeting Nat and developing a powerful crush. The only problem is that Nat is a girl. Hope is pretty sure she isn’t gay. Or is she? Struggling with new feelings, fitting in and a strange city far from home, Hope finds that love—and acceptance—comes in many different forms.

  Exposure

  by Patricia Murdoch

  I was happier than I had been for a long time. Everything was crashing down around Dana. Finally I was getting some justice. But I wanted a bigger helping.This wasn’t enough. I had to do something.

  I went into the washroom and dug a marker out of my pencil case. I drew a box and a couple of circles, with lines for a flash going off, on the outer wall of the first cubicle. No one would be able to miss it. It didn’t look exactly like a camera, but it would do. And for the finishing touch I wrote SMILE DANA, with a happy face right beside it.