Chapter Three: Something’s Missing!
Taylor heaved a sigh and banged carelessly on the keys of her synthesizer.
"Let's play it again once more," Leisha urged.
Kelly shook her head, "Well, we can play it again…and again. But that doesn't mean it will sound any better."
Taylor said plaintively, "It's not the same! I know you're trying your best, Leisha, but you don't sing like Susan. None of us do."
Leisha nodded, "I know. Susan's voice is a lot stronger and higher. Maybe if we took it down a couple of keys-"
"It's not just the key, it's the style," Ashley pointed out, "I don't think we should do a song that doesn't show our best."
"But this is the song we told the judges we would play, and I don't know if the rules would allow us to make a switch," Leisha replied.
"Yes, but now that Susan is gone, we can't really do it. We've got to do something different. Let's ask to see if we can change the song," Ashley said.
Taylor shook her head, "It's not the same without Susan! I think we should just forget the whole thing! We're going to lose anyway."
"No, we won't!" Leisha insisted, but she knew that nothing she said would make her friends feel any better. Everyone was discouraged about Susan quitting. Even after sleeping off her drunkenness, Susan still insisted that she was no longer with the group, and she packed up her things and left before the band left for rehearsal.
"But maybe we'll win," Kelly argued, "I don't think we should just quit."
"I certainly don't want to!" Leisha cried, "We came out here to do this competition and to try our best. Quitting is not an option for me."
"Then let's try to change the song," Ashley said, "Call Joey and see what he thinks."
The girls took a break from rehearsal as Leisha punched Joey's number into her phone. When he answered, she told him about their dilemma. After a short conversation, she hung up.
"He's going to call the head judge right now and see what he says."
The girls went to the Coke machine in the hallway at the television studio. They bought drinks and sat around waiting for Joey to call back.
At last the phone rang and Leisha picked it up.
The girls watched her face intently as she listened to his reply. Finally, she hung up.
"He said the judge told him that there is nothing in the rules that says we can't change the song. We just have to make sure we don't do any songs that Rock Solid is doing. He gave me the titles of their songs. Get this: one of them is Another Day!"
Taylor cried, "But that's the tune we were supposed to play!"
"Yeah. Susan probably talked the guys in Rock Solid into doing that one because she sounds so great on it."
Taylor folded her arms across her chest and shook her head in disbelief, complaining, "I can't believe her! She left the group and she stole our song!"
Kelly shrugged, "Well, we'd better get busy and start looking for another tune."
They went back to the room where their equipment was set up and began searching through their lists of songs to find something to play.
Since it was the semi-final competition, they had to play a fast song, a slow song, and one other that could be anything they liked. They found a slow song that Leisha sang well, and rehearsed it several times, making some changes by adding background harmony to improve the sound. The fast song they chose had four-part harmony, so they practiced it several times until everyone got her part perfectly.
"Let's think on the third song. Maybe we'll get an idea tonight and we can rehearse it tomorrow," Kelly suggested.
The others agreed and they packed up their instruments. Kelly and Leisha always took their guitars back to the hotel with them. The drums and synthesizer were left in the studio for the next day’s rehearsal.
That evening, Susan was rehearsing with Rock Solid.
They played the last chord of Another Day and Susan held the last note as long as she could. When she stopped singing, the guys grinned at her.
"That was awesome!" the guitarist, Juan, cried.
Pete said, "We are gonna win this thing hands down!"
Susan smiled and began to laugh uproariously.
"You know it! Those girls are nothing without me! They haven't got a chance!"
Juan shrugged, "So why don't they just quit now and save themselves the embarrassment?"
"Because they're so stupid!" Susan said, "I wish I had met you guys before I met them so I wouldn't have joined their dumb band."
The guys made a few critical remarks about Nightingale, mostly making fun of them, and Susan joined in.
"I hate all their stupid rules! I can't even go out for a few beers without Joey getting all ticked off!"
"We don't have any rules in this band," Pete said.
Susan grinned, "I am SO glad to hear that! I just want to have some fun!"
"Sounds good to me!" Pete agreed.
"Yeah? Well, what are we waiting for?" Susan grinned.
Back in the hotel room, Leisha was playing something on her guitar when Kelly came over and offered her some of her popcorn.
"Thanks," Leisha said, taking a handful.
"I've been working on this tune," Leisha said, "Wanna hear it?"
"Sure," Kelly nodded, plopping down next to her.
Leisha strummed the guitar rhythmically and sang her new tune, "Ain't No Shame". When she finished, Kelly said enthusiastically,
"Hey, I like that!"
She picked up her own guitar and began to learn it. Soon they were both working out the chords and melody to the chorus. After an hour, they had it finished and played it for the other two girls.
"That’s awesome!" Taylor said, but who's going to sing it? Not me!"
"Kelly, what about you?" Ashley suggested.
Kelly shrugged, "Well, I can try."
Taylor suggested, "We can each try singing it, and whoever sounds the best will be the lead singer and the rest of us will do backup vocals. But I don't want to sing lead, so somebody else should go first."
Each of the girls did their own rendition of the song, but couldn't decide which one was best.
"Let's get Joey to decide," Leisha suggested.
They dragged Joey from his room and told him about the song.
After each of the girls sang the song, he asked Leisha and Ashley to sing it again.
"I think both of you sound great. Why don't you both sing the verses and all four of you sing the chorus?"
"And Kelly and I can sing back-up harmony," Taylor suggested.
Ashley and Leisha both thought it was a good idea and began writing down the words and melody for the next day's rehearsal while Taylor and Kelly worked on making up harmony parts. By midnight, they had their new original song finished.
As Taylor got into her bed, she said, "You know, I actually feel like playing in the competition again. This morning I didn't think we should. But I love this new song!"
"Well, it'll be fun, even if we don't win," Leisha shrugged.
"Yeah!" Kelly said, "Besides, who knows when we'll ever get to be on TV again."
"You've got that right," Ashley laughed.
The next morning, the girls reached the TV studio by nine a.m. and went down the hallway to their rehearsal room. When they opened the door and stepped inside, the room was empty.
"Hey, where's our stuff?" Leisha cried.
A security guard was coming down the hallway at that moment.
"Excuse me, sir," Kelly asked him, "Can you tell us what happened to the equipment we had in here?"
The guard, an older man with slooping shoulders said, "Some guys came in here last night and took it."
"Who? What guys?"
He shrugged, "I don't know who they were. Just two guys who said they were road managers for your group."
"Jake? Did one say his name was Jake?"
The guard shook his head, "No, they didn't tell me their names. They said they worked for you."
"Let's call Jake," Ashley suggested.
"Good idea. I'll call Joey," Kelly said, taking out her phone.
As soon as the two girls hung up, Kelly said,
"Joey doesn't know anything about our equipment getting taken."
"Neither does Jake!" Ashley declared, "Our stuff has been stolen!"