Ace of Spades

Ace of
Spades

Elle
Bright

Copyright
© 2014 by Elle Bright

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not
be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written
permission of the publisher.

For everyone
who has ever

been
bullied
or put down.

Here’s
to Karma.

Chapter 1

Two of a kind

    
He
was the bravest boy she’d ever met. Of that fact, Melody was certain.

Throughout
the first week at her new school, Melody had noticed him walking back and forth
to school alone, his narrow shoulders hunched forward under the weight of the
big, black trumpet case he hitched over his shoulder to carry on his back. Mel
knew he lived a few houses down the street from where she’d just moved. She
even knew he sat a few rows behind her in class. What she hadn’t known was how
incredibly brave that quiet little boy was.

Miss
Reyes stood at the front of the classroom, explaining the next activity with
enthusiasm characteristic of a young, tragically optimistic new teacher. Her
rail thin arms waved about as she explained the finer points of identifying the
best qualities in others.

“I’ve
made a card for each of you, with your picture and name at the top,” Miss Reyes
announced cheerfully, her voice high and squeaky like a chipmunk sucking
helium. “I will pass them around the classroom. I want each of you to think of
one thing you admire about each of your classmates, write it on their card, and
then pass it to your right. Okay?”

The
class mumbled their assent.  Bright orange five-by-seven cards spread
throughout the room as she passed one to each student. The scratch of pencils
on paper filled the room as the students set out to complete their
assignment. 

Melody
considered each name and picture thoughtfully. She was new in school and didn’t
really know any of her classmates, but managed to come up with something nice
to say about each of them. She carefully scrawled ‘nice smile’ on one and ‘pretty
eyes’ on another, before passing them to her right.

Melody
paused for fractions of a second when she held her own card in her hands. Tears
blurred her vision as she read the words hastily scratched and often misspelled
on her card. Where words of kindness and encouragement should’ve been, Melody
found cruel adjectives instead.
Ugly, nerd, four-eyes, fat, weird, carrot
head
… the only nice description of her was
smart
. The words blurred
on the card in front of her. Swiping at her runny nose, Melody passed her card
on.

Determined
to continue as assigned, she blinked away her tears and considered each card.
She wanted to write words like ‘mean’ and ‘bully,’ but she refused to let them
know they got to her. Besides, paying
one unkindness
with another never helped anyone. At least that’s what her dad always said. She
continued to scribble meaningless words like ‘smart,’ ‘pretty,’ and ‘nice,’
without even bothering to glance at the names and faces on the cards.

“Miss
Reyes,” a shrill voice whined from behind her.  Melody glanced over her shoulder
at the tiny, dark-haired girl sitting a few rows back and to her left. “Jackson
won’t pass me his card!”

The
corners of Miss Reyes’s mouth tipped down into a slight frown. “Jackson, what’s
going on?” she asked, her voice gentle, but laced with rebuke as she strolled
toward the boy’s desk.

“Nothing,”
the boy mumbled. “I just need to finish this real quick.” Jackson’s pencil
danced frantically across the card on his desk.

“Jackson,
you only need to write one characteristic. You’ve done that. Now, pass the card
along,” Miss Reyes chided.

All
Melody could see was the top of his dark head, his mop of wild hair hiding his
face as he continued to work on his project. “No,” he whispered softly, without
looking up. “Not until I’ve fixed this.”

Miss Reyes’s
frown deepened as she closed the space between them. “Fix what, Jackson?”

His
pencil didn’t stop moving over the card until Miss Reyes dragged it out from
under his grip. Miss Reyes’s eyes widened as she studied the card in her hand.
Melody caught a glimpse of her picture in the upper left hand corner.

“What is
the meaning of this?”

Jackson
looked up at their teacher for the first time, his blue eyes shining with a
haunting luminescence. “I couldn’t let her see it like that,” he muttered
semi-audibly under his breath. Miss Reyes looked back at him, her confusion
slowly making way for understanding. Her own face softened.

“Oh,
Jackson…” Her tight voice shook. Sniffing, Miss Reyes turned in a circle to
level the remainder of the class with a reproachful glare. “Class, I have never
been so disappointed in my life. I will be speaking with each of your parents
to discuss appropriate disciplinary action.”

Melody
straightened in her seat, shifting uncomfortably on her bottom. She hadn’t done
anything wrong, but she was pretty sure the rest of the class was in trouble
because of her. As if making friends wasn’t already hard, now it would be near
impossible. They would all hate her for being the fat, nerdy girl who got them
all in trouble.

“I was
going to hang these on the wall, but now, I don’t think I can,” Miss Reyes
sighed, crumbling Melody’s card in her hand.

“Wait,”
Jackson protested. “I want her to see it. I want her to know.”

“Jackson,
I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Miss Reyes hedged, leading Melody to wonder
what else might have been written on the card since it passed from her hands. “How
about I read it to her?”

His dark
head bobbed in an approving nod and he gave the teacher a gap-toothed smile.

“Melody
Davis.
Beautiful, smart, original, wonderful, nice, special…
perfect,” Miss Reyes’s voice broke on the last word. Her soft brown eyes
gleamed with unshed tears. 

Heart
fluttering, Melody turned in her chair to gape at the boy. He’d stood up for a
complete stranger.
For her.
Though he surely
felt the weight of her gaze, he didn’t look up, studying his hands as though
all the answers to tomorrow’s spelling test were written there. But the softest
smile played on his lips. With that shy smile and kind act, the impish boy
stole a piece of her heart. Melody wanted to know him, to understand him.

The
school day continued much the same as any other day, with Melody relegated back
to invisible new girl status and Jackson blending into the background. It didn’t
feel any different. They were already social lepers, so not much had changed.

Jackson
showed up to school the next day with a black eye, but refused to answer Miss
Reyes’s questions about it. Melody could only guess the shiner was payback for
his actions the day before. The thought made her heart hurt. She needed to
thank him for what he’d done. But when recess came, he disappeared as soon as
they were dismissed. So, she set out to hunt him down.

Children
milled around the playground like ants on a hill, their combined shouts and
laughter creating a roar of white noise. Scanning the crowded schoolyard for
Jackson, Melody knew she wouldn’t find him there. She couldn’t imagine him
playing kickball or tag with the other children. So, where would he be? Melody
trekked away from the hoards to find his hiding spot.  

She
found him tucked behind one of the portable classrooms, lost in his own world
of self-imposed seclusion. With his back pressed up against the wooden frame of
the portable, Jackson drummed away on a basketball in his lap with two dry
sticks. The dulled percussion made an odd sort of music as he beat various
rhythms on the ball. Melody stood there, listening and
staring,
too intrigued to interrupt him. She didn’t know much about drumming, but she
knew the boy had talent.

The
playing stopped and Jackson looked up at her through the mop of his hair.
Swiping at the strands with the back of his hand, he studied her in silence
with the most piercing blue eyes she had ever seen. “Hi,” he said quietly.

“Hi,”
Melody answered, feeling awkward for watching him for so long without saying
anything. “I- uh, I like the way you play. Do you play the real drums?”

Those
blue eyes brightened. The result was electric. “Not yet,” he said, his face
glowing with excitement. “But someday, I will. I’m going to be the greatest
musician ever,” he boasted, then shrugged as though embarrassed by his sudden
fervor.

“I only
play the piano and my dad’s old trumpet now, but my mom promised to buy me
drums and a guitar and to sign me up for lessons soon.”

“Very
cool,” Melody said, giving him a friendly smile. “I’m Melody.”

The gap
in his front teeth showed when he grinned at her. “I know. Mom says you’re a
Navy brat like me. You just moved in down the street from me. I’m Jackson.”

Melody
returned his smile. “Nice to meet
ya
,” she said.
Tipping her head to one side, she studied him. “Thanks for what you did the
other day.”

He
shrugged. “Sure. It’s the least I could do.  I know how it is to be the
new kid. I also know how it feels to be picked on for being different. It
sucks.”

Melody
kicked at the dirt and nodded with a small frown. “Yeah, it does.”

“If it
makes you feel any better, I don’t have any friends here either.”

“I’ll be
your friend,” she offered shyly.

Jackson
seemed to consider her proposal for a minute, chewing his lower lip. His skinny
shoulders bunched up in a shrug. “Okay.”

That was
it. From that moment on they were inseparable.
Two peas in an
odd little pod.
Two unusual toys on the island of
exiled misfits.
He taught her how to play the piano. Although, the
rhythmic chords of ‘Chopsticks’ summed up the extent of her musical abilities.
But then Jackson would sit beside her on the piano bench to accompany her,
composing a complex version of the melody
all his own,
and the
plunky
music turned into a masterpiece. Music
was Jackson’s first language. It came so easy to him, as natural as breathing.

Words
did not. Jackson struggled with dyslexia, so reading was difficult for him. His
disability made him feel stupid, so he refused to even touch books. 
Melody couldn’t imagine life without her books, so she insisted on reading her
favorite stories to him. Jackson would listen in captivated silence, seemingly
spellbound by the tales he’d been missing amid the jumble of letters on the
page.

When he
played his music, he took Mel to another time and place. And when she read to
him, she returned the favor. As military brats they already had plenty in
common, but it was their differences from the rest of the world that bound them
as friends. They didn’t need the approval of anyone else. They had each other.
Best friends. That was more than enough for them.

Chapter
2

Two Pair

Seven years later

         
“Guess what, Mel?” Jackson practically shouted into the speaker of his phone,
his voice filled with excitement.

         
Melody held the phone away and rubbed her ear with a soft chuckle. “I would ask
what it is, but I think I’m too deaf to hear the answer now,” she teased.

         
“Well you have to hear this,” Jackson boasted, his voice filled with
excitement.  “I’m going to be in a band.”

         
“That’s great, J,” Melody said, thrilled, albeit confused by his news.
“Except for one tiny little detail.”

         
“What’s that?”

         
“You don’t like people,” Melody answered dryly. “Bands typically involve more
than one person.”

         
“Who cares?” Jackson countered. Melody could practically see the accompanying
non-committal shrug through the phone. “I’m going to get
paid
to play
music.”

         
“But… how did you end up in a band?”

         
Mel knew he’d been up in Los Angeles, filming episodes of the competitive
talent show he’d been chosen for, but he’d been competing as a solo artist. He’d
done well too, from what she’d seen so far.

         
“Don’t tell anyone,
cause
the episodes haven’t aired
yet, but the judges gave me and a handful of other guys the choice between
elimination and working together. We all jumped at the chance to stay, so we
put together a band. And they
love
us, Mel. Me and the guys, we’re
competing in the finals in a couple of weeks.”

         
“Congrats, J.”

         
A pang of jealousy stung her heart. Not because Mel wasn’t happy for his
success. She knew it was only a matter of time before the world discovered how
talented Jackson really was. Eventually, she’d have to share him with the rest
of the world. It was just hard not to be jealous of these new band mates who
were so suddenly part of Jackson’s life. She’d had him to herself for so long.
She didn’t want to lose her best friend.

         
“Will you come see us perform?” Jackson asked. “The finals are live and I could
really use a friendly face in the crowd.”

         
Melody chuckled at that. Although a band geek at heart, the boy was quickly
outgrowing the awkward transitional phase she herself seemed to be permanently
stuck in. With his electric blue eyes and devilish smile, Melody was pretty
sure he would find plenty of friendly faces in the crowd.
Especially
when they heard him sing.
If she was going to dwell on that thought, she’d
need cookies to survive, so she pushed it aside.

         
“Of course I will,” Melody agreed, just thrilled that he wanted her there for
his big moment. Maybe things wouldn’t change that much.  “What’s your band’s
name? I’ll make up some signs and stuff for your cheer squad.”

         
 
Embarrassed silence.
“It’s really dumb.”

         
“Nah, it can’t be that bad? What is it, J?”

         
More silence.
“Union Jack.”

         
“I’m guessing all the good ones like ‘Jackson and the Funky Bunch’ and ‘The
Beat Boys’ were taken?” she quipped.

         
“Funny,” Jackson said dryly. “The other four guys are from the UK, so
it’s
four Brits united behind me, Jack.”

         
“How original,” Melody said with a hint of sarcasm. “I take it that means you’re
the front man?”

         
“
Mhmm
,” he mumbled, discomfort evident in the sound.

         
“How do you feel about all that attention?”

         
Melody would bet on another unseen shrug. “I guess it comes with the
territory.  But who cares? If we win this, I’m going to get paid to play
music.”

         
“Yeah, you mentioned that.”

         
“Why don’t you sound happy about it?”

         
“I am, J, I am. I just hope it doesn’t change everything,” Melody confessed,
feeling a little bit sheepish and a lot selfish.

         
Jackson scoffed. “Don’t be silly. You’re my best friend,
Melly
-Belly.
Nothing and no one will ever change that.”

         
“I hope not.”

         
“You’re stuck with me, girly. Better get used to it.”

         
That was the problem. She was a little too used to having him all to herself.

A

Two weeks later

         
Melody sat in the front row between Jackson’s mom and her own, waiting for the
show to start. A bundle of nervous anticipation, Mel swiped her sweaty palms on
the legs of her jeans and bounced in her seat. Crazy how she wasn’t the one
competing, but she felt like she was.

         
Was Jackson nervous? Sure, he was born to play, but there were so many people.
And people had never been kind to either one of them.

         
With the stage, the lights, and the crowd, the set for the live finale of
You’ve
Got It
felt like a professional concert venue. A sea of fans swelled clear
back into the darkness of the nosebleeds. Their excited chatter filled the
massive room as they waited in excited anticipation.

         
As she expected, there were quite a few Union Jack supporters in the masses.
Brandishing signs reading, ‘Go Union Jack,’ ‘Marry Me, Jackson,’ and even
propositions too scandalous to repeat in polite society, the female fans were
out in full force.
Teenage girls and their hormones.
Melody wished she could understand her peers, but they may as well be from
another planet.

         
The show’s theme music blasted through the stadium and the stage lights danced
in flickering patterns. A dapper man, oozing typical Hollywood fakeness,
strolled out into the center stage.
Their host, David
Derrhing
.
The crowd roared and David beamed, waving
and flashing a broad smile filled with straight white teeth. Probably all caps
in a
botox
-smoothed face.

         
“
Laaaaaaadies
and gentleman,” David announced, his
rich baritone booming through the stadium. “Welcome to the live finale of
Yooooooouuuuu’ve
Got It! Together, we’ve watched some of
the greatest new talent in music take the stage, each fighting for the
recording contract of a lifetime with Rebel Records. Let’s take a look at how
far they’ve come.”

         
David swept his arm in a grand gesture, indicating the jumbo screen behind him.
Video clips from previous episodes flashed across the screen, highlighting the
contestants over the past several weeks. The crowd cheered and clapped for
each, but Melody would’ve sworn their cheers rose in volume every time Jackson
flashed across the screen. The crowd loved him.

         
“As you’ll remember from last week, our celebrity judges decided there was so
much talent on the show, it would be a shame to send so many competitors home,
so they matched similar solo artists and put them together to create three
groups.

         
“Tonight, our grouped finalists will take the stage one last time in a battle
for the hearts of the judges and the public. At the end of the night, only one
group will remain standing. Who will it be? Let’s meet them and see…

         
“Let’s hear it for The Si-
ren
Sisters,” he announced,
turning to face the three young women in skimpy red dresses striding across the
stage toward him. Their presence was received with hoots, applause, and plenty
of cat calls.

         
David kissed each of their cheeks and congratulated them. A video flickered to
life on the jumbo screen. The clips highlighted each girl’s background and solo
performances,
then
transitioned into their new group
dynamic.

         
All three were sexy and soulful, everything Mel wasn’t. She’d kill for an ounce
of their confidence. The crowd roared their approval and the Sirens blew kisses
into the darkness.

         
The Sirens stepped to David’s left as he turned to announce their next
contestants. “Please welcome to the stage The Fantastic
Fi-iiive
!”

         
Three guys and two girls jogged out into the spotlight, waving to the cheering
crowd. David greeted them and a similar video played on the screen behind them.
They were hip and cool, also everything Melody wasn’t.

         
She’d always considered the cool kids severely overrated, but she had to admit,
these guys were pretty awesome. From their stylishly distressed street clothes
to the casual manner in which they moved, they owned the room. From the sexy
Sirens to the funky Five, these were the types of people in Jackson’s new
world. And she was terrified there would be no room for misfits like her.

         
The Five stepped aside to David’s left and Melody held her breath as he turned
to announce the final group.

         
“And last, but not least, give it up for Union
Ja-aaaaack
,”
he crowed into the microphone as the five boys ambled to the center of the
stage.

         
Shrill female screams filled the stadium. Mel flinched and covered her ears.
Ugh
.
Melody was so not a
shrieker
and had little patience
for them.  

         
Jackson scanned the front row until his blue eyes settled on her and his mom.
He waved to Mel with a broad grin and she waved back, giving him a big ‘thumbs
up.’ He tucked his hands in his pockets and waited as their video played behind
them.

         
Ranging in age from fifteen to eighteen, each of the boys had his own style.
Each was undeniably handsome in his own way. And each could sing. But none of
them like Jackson. Maybe she was a bit biased, but Jackson was the obvious star
of this contrived little boy band.

         
It disgusted her that pop culture relegated him to this. He was so much more
than a pretty face and a decent voice. He was a real musician. But, this was
what he wanted, so she swallowed her feelings and cheered her heart out.  

         
“Ladies and gentleman, are you ready to
see
who’s
go-
ooooot
iiiiiiit
?”
Derrick called out to the adoring crowd. The fans went wild.

         
The Siren Sisters performed first -- a bluesy song that showed off their
throaty voices and abundant sex appeal. Their performance was sensual and
evocative. The judges provided approving commentary and the girls stepped
aside.

         
The Fantastic Five followed, performing an awesome rendition of an R&B/hip
hop/rap combination. They too, were impressive, doing little to relieve Mel’s
nerves. Again, the judges said their piece, praising the group’s efforts, and
The Five stepped off stage.

         
At last it was Jackson’s turn.

         
“Ladies and
gentleman,
put your hands together for
Union
Jaaaaaaaack
!”

         
The five boys stood in posed silence beneath the flood lights of the stage,
waiting for the roar of the crowd to die down. At last, the stadium fell quiet
and the world waited for their music. Jackson led the group in an emotional
R&B ballad, the five young men’s voices harmonizing in a breathtaking
barber shop quartet style
A’capella
.

         
The crowd listened in collective mesmerized silence, soaking in the beautiful
blend of young male voices. Then the music transitioned into something
completely different. With a catchy beat and hip hop style. The boys broke into
a dance, showing off their versatility as they moved and sang.

         
Though she’d never seen him dance before, it came as no surprise to Melody that
Jackson excelled at dancing. If there was music involved, Jackson was born to
do it. He moved to the music as though the rhythm was a part of him.
The chorus of feminine squeals around her faded into a muted
backdrop.

         
For the first time, Melody really saw Jackson. Not the shy, quiet boy she’d
been joined at the hip with for the past seven years. Not the reserved musical
genius enraptured in his heart. But a performer, a teen idol, and a boy so very
far out of her reach.

         
Her heart sank in her chest. Who had she been kidding? Of course things were
about to change. She didn’t need to hear the hoards of hormonal teens cheering
his name. One look at Jackson was proof enough. Things already had.

         
The performance finished, the judges shared their thoughts with overwhelming
approval, and the voting lines opened. The jumbo screen replayed performance
clips as they waited for the results to come in. The electric glow of
technology lit up the black seas of spectators like stars in a massive galaxy
as each person texted their vote in.