Chapter 25
When I went back to my room after eating supper, Melissa and Heather were already in there and were trying to decide what to wear. I was planning on going in my school uniform since I didn't have any decent clothes anyway, but they were making a big deal about what to wear. It might have had something to do with Melissa's crush on Michael. She definitely cared more than Heather did, though Heather told me she was going with Jack.
"I hope you don't mind," she said to me. "He just asked me yesterday, and I said yes. I've always thought he was really sweet, and it's the first time he's ever asked me to do something with him. I know you're his best friend though, so if you have a problem I won't go."
"Don't worry about it at all," I reassured her. I was actually really happy that they were going together. "You two make a cute couple," I said, and she blushed.
"What looks better, this shirt or that shirt?" Melissa asked us. She was starting to get flustered. The first shirt was black with sequins around the low neckline, and the second was silky and dark purple. We both pointed to the second. She held it up to her body, then threw it away and started putting on the black shirt.
"She really appreciates our sense of style, doesn't she?" Heather joked.
When the girls were finally ready, we made our way to the ballroom, which was filling up. We still managed to get seats in the front row though because Jack was saving them for us.
"What took you so long?" he asked us.
"Don't ask," I said. "Is the show starting soon?"
"Not for another ten minutes, I think. There are still a few empty seats."
Twenty minutes later the place was packed, and the show still hadn't started. The band wasn't even on the stage, and people were starting to get impatient. I started to worry that something was wrong.
Michael appeared on the stage suddenly by himself, and he went to the microphone. "Sorry folks," he said. "We'll just be a few minutes."
Instead of going back behind the stage, he hopped off of it and came over to me. He looked pretty stressed out.
"Juliet, I need to talk to you," he said, and he actually grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the door before I could even respond. He didn't speak until we got to the room beside the stage, where the other band members were sitting around and not doing anything, which seemed a little odd to me. I had thought they would all be scrambling to correct whatever was wrong, since there was obviously a problem.
"Okay, here's the deal," Michael said to me. "We just found out that our keyboardist has serious issues with stage fright. We didn't even realize it at first, but then as the day went on he started getting kind of pale, and then he started rushing to the bathroom to throw up. Finally, he told us he couldn't do it. It would have been really nice to have known about this issue before he joined the band."
"Seriously," someone mumbled. I thought it was Duncan, the bass player.
"Anyway," Michael continued, in a rush. "What I'm trying to say is that we need a new keyboardist, like, right now. At first I thought that seemed like an impossible task, since no one else even knows our music, but then I thought of you. It would be really, really great if you would play with us for tonight. I know you don't like playing other people's music, and you've never heard our songs before, but you're a musical genius and I trust you. All of the music is on paper, so you wouldn't have to worry anyway. Please?" He looked really desperate, and his eyes were actually pleading with me. I thought that only happened in novels.
"Do I have a choice?" I asked.
"No!" Leon said from somewhere on the other side of the room, and Patrick chuckled.
I sighed. This was definitely not how I had planned to spend the evening. "Then we had best get started," I said. "The audience expected you ten minutes ago."
"Thank you!" Michael exclaimed, and he gave me a quick crushing hug before hurrying to the stage. The others followed closely behind, so I went along as well, not really having a clue what I was doing.
The crowd cheered when the band finally went on stage. I sat down behind the keyboard, and quickly looked at the music while Michael was busy making an introduction. It took only a few seconds to memorize it, which was good because it was my job to start the song. I had never heard it played before, so I could only hope I was doing it right. I started anyway. I couldn't help but add a few touches of my own, and the rest of the band followed my lead.
They actually were a lot better than they were before. Michael had a good clear voice that he knew how to use, and Leon played the guitar with more passion than I had ever seen in him before. I was most impressed by Patrick though. He played the drums like a pro. I could definitely picture him with a real career in music. Their songs weren't fantastic, but they could have been much worse. At least the style was good.
We played six songs altogether, and the audience seemed to be enjoying the show. I looked out every once in a while to see my friends in the first row. I could swear I saw Heather and Jack holding hands at one point, and Melissa was practically entranced by Michael's singing.
Finally, the show ended. There was lots of applause and cheering, and the band stood up to bow. I wasn't actually part of the band, so I snuck off the stage instead of joining them. There was some food in the room beside the stage, so I helped myself to a cookie and sat to wait for the band to finish. They all seemed pretty excited when they finally came in the room, and they were all giving each other high-fives, which I thought was kind of cute. I couldn't help but smile.
"That was awesome!" Michael was saying, and the others nodded in agreement.
"I'm definitely going to have chicks all over me from now on," Leon said quite confidently. Patrick laughed at him.
"In your dreams, my friend," he said.
"Juliet! There you are!" Michael almost shouted when he spotted me. "You snuck off when you were supposed to be bowing. You probably deserve more credit than we do."
"I'm not part of your band. I was just filling in. It isn't even my music," I reminded him.
"Who cares? You played it way better than John ever did. We sounded a lot better than usual, and that was probably thanks to you. You should really reconsider joining."
"No thanks," I said firmly. "It's not really my kind of thing."
"It should be," Leon said. "You were great. I liked the notes you added; they really gave the music more depth without changing the melody."
"Yeah, it was pretty sweet," Patrick added.
"Thanks, you guys," I said, and I meant it. It was nice to be appreciated.
"Hey, are you sure you don't want to watch the movie with us? I think it's about zombies or something, but it should be good. We're going to go watch it in about half an hour," Michael said.
"I'm feeling kind of tired now, so I'm going to pass," I said. "I've had enough excitement for one evening. In fact, I think I'm going to go to bed now."
"Alright. Thanks again, and sleep well," Michael said.
I walked back to the south wing, though I stopped at the library on the way to get something to read. I wasn't actually going to bed, and I needed something to do. I asked the librarian for the list of pseudonyms used by Isadora, and I found a book by her that looked interesting, though it was fiction. It appeared to be about dragons or something like that, and it was published only twenty years ago. I ended up going to sleep later than I planned because I couldn't put it down. I secretly wished that dragons were real, though I'd never heard that they were. I made a mental note to look it up the next time I was in the library.