Mixed Messages (15 page)

“Thanks a lot, Jasper!” Jen said angrily.

“Yeah,” Landon agreed. “I guess you're not so hot after all.”

“There is no way I'm performing today,” Kathi told Mr. P.

“Me neither,” Jen announced. “I'm so out of here!”

“Me too!” echoed Zee and the rest of the group.

The Beans started to leave—in separate directions.

Chapter 15
The Show Must Go On

A
nother loud whistle split the air. “Stop!” Mr. P shouted in a firm voice Zee had never heard before. “No one is going anywhere,” he boomed.

Everyone froze. Zee wondered how long they would have to stand around feeling awkward. Ms. Vardolis finally spoke up. “I know you're upset,” she said. “But right now that doesn't matter.”

It matters to me!
Zee thought. She had expected the assistant teacher to be more understanding.

“You worked really hard this week,” Ms. Vardolis reminded them. “Are you going to throw that away?” Landon and Missy shook their heads. “Or would you rather show everyone what you can do?” Conrad and Marcus nodded yes. “Besides, you made a commitment to play at Brookdale Day. You may be upset, but you promised your town a show, and that's what it deserves.” Chloe and Ally shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. “You're a real band, and real musicians don't let their audiences down.”

Zee looked from one band member to the next.
We
are
a real band.
“We should sing,” she said. “We'll never be a professional band if we don't act like professionals.”

“That's the spirit, Mackenzie,” Ms. Vardolis said. “Just like a leader.”

Ohmylanta!
Zee thought. Kathi was looking at Ms. Vardolis, squinting her eyes and squeezing her lips together. The last thing The Beans needed right now was to remind Kathi how impressed Ms. Vardolis was with Zee.

Chloe and Jasper moved closer to Zee, and Ally gave a little nod. But the other band members shifted in their places and looked at the ground.

“Roxy's right!” Kathi suddenly blurted out.

“She is?” Jen asked.

“It would be stupid to let Bluetopia ruin everything,” Kathi said. “More than it already has, that is. Right, Jen?”

Jen nodded. “Definitely!” She turned to Marcus.

Marcus looked over at Chloe. “I'm in,” he announced. “What about you?” he asked Conrad.

One by one, The Beans headed across the park to the stage.

Once they had gotten there, Kathi turned to Zee. “
That's
leadership.”

Zee had to agree with Kathi. She had gotten the group back together—even if it was just because she wanted to make Zee look bad.

The instruments, microphones, and amplifiers were already set up. “The only thing missing is the band,” Zee said.

“And the cool T-shirts,” Ally said, pointing to Zee's backpack.

“I almost forgot.” Zee slid the backpack to the ground and started handing out the T-shirts to the rest of the group.

“Cool,” Marcus said quietly as Zee handed him his.

Landon took his. “Thanks.”

“This was such a great idea, Zee,” Missy told her, pulling her orange tee over her head.

Things weren't back to normal, but they were better than they had been fifteen minutes before.

Mr. P stepped onto the stage. “Hello, Brookdale!” he announced. A cheer went up from the small crowd that had gathered on the grass. As he began thanking the Brookdale Day committee, people slowly moved over from the vendors and food stands to find their place on blankets and lawn chairs.

Then Mr. P was ready to announce the main event. “We are pleased to kick off Brookdale Day with a hometown band.”

“Woo-hoo!” someone in the audience hooted.

“All right!” another person yelled.

The crowd made Zee feel better. She noticed that the rest of The Beans were starting to smile.

“I'm pleased to introduce to you—” Mr. P continued. “The Beans!”

The audience applauded politely. With Zee leading the group, The Beans hurried onto the stage. The others followed behind and picked up their instruments. Zee looked out at the faces in front of her. As she scanned the crowd, she saw her mother waving. Zee smiled. Her smile grew bigger when Adam gave her a thumbs-up.

Zee pivoted around to look at the others. “Are you ready?” she mouthed. They nodded. “One, two, three, four!” she counted off loudly.

On the beat, The Beans started playing. At first, they had some trouble with timing, and Zee was afraid they might fall apart altogether. But little by little, as people filled in the empty spots on the grass and started clapping along, they played better. By the end of the first song, there was even a small group of girls dancing with one another.

Zee tried to remember everything that had worked in rehearsals and everything that hadn't. But it wasn't until Zee thought about the fun everyone had had with the karaoke machine that the music fell into place.

By the final song, The Beans were as amazing as they had been during rehearsal. Zee got so caught up in the music, she completely forgot about Bluetopia, her crush on Jasper, and Landon's crush on her. When they finished their set, people rushed the stage.

“You were amazing!” one girl told Kathi.

“Thanks!” Kathi beamed.

“I want to download your CD,” another girl told Missy.

Zee stopped signing autographs long enough to look over at Jasper. She felt a little tug as girls waited for a chance to talk to him. She was embarrassed when he looked over and saw her staring, but the feeling went away when he smiled.

Marcus interrupted Zee's thoughts. “Pretty good for a band that was broken up half an hour ago,” he said, nudging Chloe.

Chloe put her arm around Ally. “Pretty good for any band!”

“Yeah, I'm glad we're all friends again,” Landon said, staring right at Zee.

“The Beans are the best friends I have,” Zee said.

“You're right about that,” Missy put in.

Zee searched the crowd for her parents and was shocked to see Kathi's parents pushing their way through. “How could you do this to us?” Mrs. Barney asked her daughter.

“Um . . . I . . . don't know,” Kathi responded. From the scared expression on her face, Zee could tell that Kathi had no idea what her parents were talking about.

“You publicly humiliated us when you said those things about Roxy,” Mr. Barney said.

“You made the family look bad,” Mrs. Barney added.

Kathi shrunk back from her parents. “But those notes were supposed to be private. I didn't expect anyone to see them.”

“Well, they did, and I'm sure they'll have a fabulous time talking about this little incident at the tennis club.”

Ms. Vardolis suddenly burst into the group. She leaned in and kissed Kathi's mother on the cheek, then did the same to her father. “Aunt Roni and Uncle Skip! I didn't see you standing there. I am just so proud of Kathi. If it hadn't been for her today, we might not have had a show.”

All three of the Barneys stared with their mouths wide-open.

“Really?” Kathi said.

“Do you mind if I borrow my cousin for a sec?” Ms. Vardolis asked the Barneys.

“Uh . . . no,” Mrs. Barney stammered. “Go ahead.”

With a relieved look on her face, Kathi followed her cousin. “Thanks,” Zee heard her say as they walked past.

“I owe you,” Ms. Vardolis told her. Even though she wasn't trying, Zee could hear most of their conversation. “I was very impressed with how you got The Beans onstage today—especially since I know you've been pretty mad at me.”

“How'd you guess?” Kathi joked, glancing over at the blank screens.

Ms. Vardolis laughed and put her arm around Kathi's shoulder. “I expected a lot from you because I know how incredibly talented you are. But I'm sorry I didn't praise you more for what you do well.”

“You think I'm talented?” Kathi asked.

“I've always admired you. Ever since you were born, my mother has told me you were the cutest baby and you sang the sweetest.” Ms. Vardolis leaned a little closer to Kathi. “When I was a teenager, I even tried to straighten my hair so it would be more like yours.”

“My mom wanted mine to be curly like yours!” Kathi gasped.

“Today I realized I was unfair to ask so much of you,” Ms. Vardolis went on. “After all, that's what everyone did to me when I was your age. I'm sorry.”

Then Zee heard Kathi say something she'd never heard her say before. “I'm sorry, too.” She hugged Ms. Vardolis.

By now, the crowd was settling down and the next band was getting ready to go onstage.

“Heads up, Beans!” Mr. P shouted, motioning for everyone to gather around him. “You all did a fabulous job today. And I think you learned a valuable lesson about teamwork. So don't give up on The Beans and don't give up on Bluetopia.”

“You don't want us to get rid of Bluetopia?” Jasper asked.

“Just because something has a couple of problems doesn't mean you have to get rid of it,” Mr. P told him. “If you only focus on what went wrong, you'll never accomplish anything.”

“But a lot went wrong,” Conrad pointed out.

“And a lot went right, too,” Mr. P said. “We featured Bluetopia because of all the great things about it. You created a place for people all over the world to hang out and get to know one another. Now you guys should talk about what you liked about Bluetopia and start from there.”

“All right!” Jasper agreed.

Marcus walked over to Chloe. “I didn't mean to make fun of you,” he said. “I like you.”

“You do?”

“You're really cool and funny,” Marcus explained. “That's why I thought it was okay to joke around with you.”

“Whose photo was that?” Chloe asked.

“Some model,” Marcus said. “I got it off the internet.”

“Too bad! He was really cute!” Chloe wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

Seeing Chloe forgive Marcus so easily gave Zee courage. She walked over to Missy. “I'm sorry all I ever wanted to talk about with you was the twins. But that's not the reason I wanted to be friends.”

Missy ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, it's not like I didn't have a ton of complaints about them lately.”

“Now at least we can also talk about what it's like to have short hair,” Zee pointed out.