When we arrived at our room, Tiffany was bustling with clothes and face paints everywhere. She’d done a tremendous job with the outfits; they were all amazing! She was really talented!
Tristan didn’t allow much customizing on him, so he ended up the most “normal” looking of all of us. He had on his jeans and T-shirt, all black, and Tiffany had managed to convince him to wear some more beaded wristbands, mostly in gray and black. He had a short necklace string on his neck with a black stone, too. It looked sexy on him.
Josh was dressed in black jeans too, but with an olive T-shirt and ragged vest, and lots of necklaces and cloth wristbands. He looked tough and dangerous. Sammy and Seth wore gray jeans, brown-and-green shirts and vests. They also had beaded wristbands, and leather necklaces threaded with twigs, stones and feathers. They looked like a collection of wild adventurers!
Tiffany had created different “war paint” on each of our faces, mostly in black, gray and olive green; only Harry and I had orange and red marks. He wore his customary olive baggy shorts and his chest was bare save for a ragged vest, showing off his green and red tattoo. He was wearing lots of cool necklaces and wristbands, too.
And then there was me. Tiffany had chosen olive shorts for me, just like Harry’s, a red tank-top and my well-worn black boots. I had the coolest necklaces and wristbands of them all, because Tiffany was a tad biased and had picked the better-looking ones for me, the only girl in the band.
She’d insisted I leave my hair down, but had made lots of thin braids with tiny sparkly beads tied all around them. Then she made small marks with orange paint on my arms, my nose and cheekbones. It looked so cool! I beamed proudly at my reflection. I had never been much into dressing up, but I was having the time of my life with this! After she was done accessorizing, Tiffany left us to go in search of the best spot in the front row to record us playing. Then it was show time!
We all high-fived each other and headed to the auditorium, everybody cheering, feeling excited and a little nervous as well. The tension built up the closer we got to the stage door. There wasn’t any sound coming from inside, though. Weird. We opened the door a little and peeked inside. The lights were all on, but the room was empty. There wasn’t anyone in there. We all entered, our shoulders hunched. We looked around, trying to at least find our instruments. We had made a last soundcheck the previous night, and left our guitars, bass and drums all ready in there, but we couldn’t find any of them anywhere.
“Maybe it’s cancelled? And they forgot to tell us?” Harry suggested.
“Maybe they have changed the day? Maybe it’s tomorrow …” Sam added.
“I’m sure everything is fine,” Tristan reasoned, “We should find Professor Rubick. He’ll know what’s going on.”
We were huddled in a circle, discussing where to look for Professor Rubick first, when Tiffany bustled into the room, flushed and out of breath.
“There you are! What’s the hold-up, people? There’s a show to do, and you’re all here, chatting like you have all the time in the world! Come on!”
“Uh, Tiff? What’s going on? Why there isn’t anyone in here?” I spoke on behalf of the band.
“Because the show is outside!” she said, exasperated.
“What? Nobody told us!” Seth exclaimed in surprise.
“There were too many people wanting to see you guys, and there wasn’t enough room in the auditorium! And the crowd is getting impatient! Hurry up! Let’s go!” she said, clapping her hands urgently as she dashed out.
We all ran after her, with wide eyes and shocked faces. As soon we started to get near the west wing of the building, we could hear the noise of the crowd. All the boys looked nervous, except Tristan, who was smiling like he was having the time of his life. How could he be so cool about it? The noise was getting louder and louder by the second. And I was getting more anxious by the second too.
“Professor Rubick’s been freaking out at the amount of people that showed up to see you! It’s not just kids from our school, too.” Tiff chuckled, gazing at the distance. “Okay, then. I’ll be right at the front, recording the show! Rock on, Lost Boys!” she cheered, then kissed Seth hard and gave a quick peck on the lips to all the boys, including me at the end of the line. Then she darted outside.
“Did you all see that? She just kissed Joey on the lips!” Sam said, all excited.
I turned to see all the boys staring at me with glazed, dreamy expressions. “Huh. Only boys could get hung up on that, with all this happening right outside!” I said, nervously gesturing towards the noise coming from the entrance. That seemed to snap them all back to reality.
Tristan turned to look at us, smiling broadly. “Come on! This is going to be great! We have nothing to worry about! Let’s just go and have some fun!” he said, all cheerful.
“How are you not freaking out over this?” I asked, a little scared.
He shrugged calmly, still smiling. “I’m just not. I just enjoy each day as if it were my last, that’s all. It takes the edge off, you should all try it!” And then he looked intently at me. “And you are Joe Gray! You don’t scare easily, remember?” he said with a wink.
We all stared at him still with worried faces.
“Look, it’s like this,” he said. “The best thing that can happen is people will like us. The worst, people won’t. What’s so horrible about that? Who cares what they think? We are here to do something we love to do. So let’s just go up there and do it already!” He clapped his hand firmly on Seth’s back before heading outside. Well, he already had the rock star attitude nailed down, that was for sure!
Harry seemed to be thinking on the same lines because he grinned and shouted, “Hell, yeah!” before following Tristan. And then we heard him yelling outside, “Don’t need to shout any more, The Lost Boys are in da hooouse!”
We all laughed hard and followed in his footsteps, ready to face a loud, electrified crowd.
I don’t remember much of the show, apart from the noise and cheers. I do remember stepping up on stage and looking out at a whole lot more people than I’d been expecting, and seeing Tristan smiling reassuringly at me. As soon the boys picked up their guitars, the crowd began to cheer even louder. We heard Josh banging his drumsticks three times, our cue to start the first song. The rest was a blur.
I also remember stepping down off the stage, and walking inside the building again, to avoid the mass of people crushing us. Girls huddled around me, shouting and asking questions. I don’t remember what they asked and what I said. It was all totally insane and surreal and very, very chaotic. Then our parents came over to congratulate us – the Hunts, Ledgers and the Harts. My mom was also there, shouting something and hugging me with a big grin on her face. Professor Rubick did almost all the talking with our families. He was beaming with so much pride. It took almost an hour for the rumpus to subdue and the crowd to disperse a little. I left my mom talking with the other parents and went in search for my band.
I found Tiffany first. She hugged me tight, saying I had kicked ass up there, and we walked slowly out of the mess of people. We spotted Seth far away at the school front doors. He was talking to the same middle-aged man that Tristan had been talking to earlier – Lisa’s father, I remembered. We were walking in their direction when the man shook Seth’s hand vigorously, and scurried quickly away before we could reach them.
When we got to Seth, he turned to look at us with a blank, unfocused stare. He looked pale and in deep shock. Something had happened. I couldn’t get a good read of his eyes because he had a jumble of emotions crashing inside. I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him gently, trying to nudge him back to reality. He was staring behind me to a spot on the horizon, gazing at nowhere in the distance.
“Seth! Are you all right? What happened?” I asked. Tiffany was looking worriedly at him too. He finally shifted his gaze, focusing on me for the first time.
“Uh … hey, Joey. When did you get here?”
I glanced at Tiffany in concer
n. “Seth, is everything all right?”
“Uh, it’s …” he mumbled incoherently, and then he shook his head lightly. “You’re never gonna believe this …”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Recording
“What? Believe what, Seth?” I asked again, getting impatient now. He stared down at his hands. He held a small, silver-edged business card between his fingers, and he kept flipping it over, again and again.
“I’ll have to get my dad to look at this,” he said again in wonder.
“Seth, come on! Talk to me. Is this something to do with Lisa’s father? The guy you were talking to just now?” It had to be.
Seth glanced up, looking at me curiously. “You mean Mr. Silver?” he asked. “You know him?”
“No. I saw him speaking with Tristan earlier …” I said.
“That was Scott Silver,” Seth told me, with admiration in his voice.
“You mean, the Scott Silver?” Tiffany asked, looking stunned.
Seth turned to her, squinting his eyes suspiciously. “Did you have anything to do with this, Tiffany?” he suddenly accused.
“What? With what?” I asked cluelessly, getting frustrated.
Tiffany grabbed my arm excitedly. “Scott Silver is a big music producer! He owns several record companies!” she explained, her voice getting high-pitched. “What did he say to you, Seth?”
“He just offered The Lost Boys a record deal,” Seth told us plainly.
I gaped at him in total shock.
“Tiff, did you ask him to do this?” Seth repeated sharply. He hated asking Tiffany for any favors. It was a big issue between them.
“I swear to God I didn’t do anything!” Tiffany bellowed, offended. “I know his name, but I’ve never actually met the man! My father knows him, but you forbade me to try anything, so I never did!” she said, emphasizing the “forbade” part, because she was always a little miffed when anyone ordered her around. Worthingtons weren’t used to it!
Tristan appeared behind us then, looking at our little group with curious eyes. “Hey, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you!” he said, wrapping an arm around my waist.
“So this means you guys have a record deal, then?” Tiff squealed loudly.
“Ah, you talked to Mr. Silver, then?” Tristan asked, grinning. Everybody stopped abruptly and gawked at Tristan. “He came and talked to me this morning. Joey was there, she saw us, right?” he said, looking at me and winking.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, shocked.
“I did tell you. Well, part of it, that is. Lisa is a big fan of our band, and she talks about us all the time. She’d even recorded a few of our classroom concerts on her cell, and showed them to her dad. He came today to see us perform live. I didn’t tell you because you were all freaking out enough already. I knew it was a done deal, though,” he said, smiling broadly. “Because I know we are amazingly good. We just needed to show it today.”
“GET THE F—!!” I started to shout, and Tristan clapped his hand over my mouth.
“Okay, no need to swear, now! So, a record deal, eh?” Tristan asked, uncovering my mouth and tapping Seth cheerfully on the back.
Then Tiffany began shrieking and jumping, hugging Seth, who just stood there limply and let himself be hugged and squealed at.
The rest of the band arrived at this moment and I fought with Seth to see who was going to tell them first. Seth and I kept talking over each other, while Tristan and Tiffany laughed at our overly-eager, excited faces.
When we’d finished our battle to share the big news, we looked at the boys to watch their reactions. Sam laughed so hard that he ended up on rolling on the floor, pulling Seth along with him. Josh went pale with shock, just like Seth had a few minutes ago, but then he snapped out of it and jumped on top of Seth and Sam on the floor, joining in their celebration. Harry just watched them in silence, a huge grin plastered on his face, before climbing on top of the pile of Lost Boys on the floor. I shouted “Pile-up!” and jumped on top of Harry, and Tristan and Tiffany followed my lead. It was the best pile-up of all time! We celebrated our asses off that night.
The next day would be our last at school, and it was the day we were supposed to say our goodbyes and head home before we decided what we were going to do with our lives. Josh had been accepted at Harvard, but it wasn’t really what he wanted to do, more what his parents wanted. He was incredibly relieved when the news of the record deal came up. Seth and Sam both had a place at a Performing Arts school, but were putting that on hold as well. Harry hadn’t considered anything for the future yet. Now he didn’t need to worry about it any more. This was everything he had dreamed of happening for his future life.
All our plans were going to change completely now, because of the record deal. We needed to sign contracts with Mr. Silver as soon as possible, and then begin the recording and producing process of our first album. I couldn’t believe it: we were going to make our own album! All our parents had been flabbergasted at the news, but they were very supportive and rearranged everything they could to make this happen for us.
Tiffany was supposed to travel to Europe to stay with her parents, but she postponed it to stay with us until her Christmas visit. Mr. Silver told us we had a year to produce this album, with six months to record the songs and soundtracks in a small studio he’d found for us in Esperanza, and the other six months to finalize producing, marketing the release, radio interviews and a few shows to help promote the album around the state. After all that, we had to sit and wait for the response of the public and go from there.
He also lent us a small house right next to the recording studio, as we were going to spend most of our time in there, working on our songs. We called it the Green House because it was all painted in vivid green outside. The house had all we needed to do our work; it even had three bedrooms and two sofa beds in the lounge if we wanted to crash there for the night. The recording booth was booked only for a few specific dates, and we would play there only when we had everything worked out perfectly to be recorded. Recording studio sessions were really expensive, so we couldn’t waste any time in there.
Since Seth was the only one who lived out of state, and was theoretically “homeless” in Esperanza, it was decided he would stay with Tiffany in one of the many houses the Worthingtons owned in the area. But Tiffany and Seth were constantly in my house anyway. They had adopted my mom already, and vice-versa. They had a lot of sleepovers, and I was happy to share my room with Tiff whenever she wanted to, and Tristan shared his with Seth. So, when we weren’t at the studio, or at the Green House next door, we hung out mostly at my home. Harry, Josh and Sam already crashed at mine too whenever they wanted. My mom was so happy with so many kids around the house all the time, she looked like she was going to explode with joy! It was like she had adopted a bunch of loud, hyper-active kids all of a sudden.
Now we were not only best friends, we were like family. We worked, ate, slept and played together. And Tristan and I didn’t have to hide anything from anybody any more. We agreed to keep it low-key when we were around my house, because we hadn’t told my mom about us yet, but otherwise we were free to be an official couple. He hugged and kissed me all the time at the studio, and made me sit on his lap even when there were plenty of places to sit elsewhere. I was on cloud nine with all his lovely attention.
The guys that worked at the studio teased and laughed at us constantly, saying we were the cutest couple they had ever seen, which always made Tristan grin from ear to ear. Tristan, of course, knew all the guys working there by the end of the first week – their names, the names of their families and their life stories, from the producer and sound-check guy to the janitor and security guards. And they all loved having him around, and tried to get his attention as much as they could, to talk to and even ask for advice. It was funny hearing them talk sometimes; a bunch of old guys asking advice from an eighteen-year-old kid, even if he had been around longer than any of them.
&nb
sp; During those months working on the album, we also paid regular visits to Miss Violet. She was trying to find out more about a conjuring spell that could help us with Vigil. She kept saying she needed more time and that we couldn’t do anything but wait patiently. But time was becoming increasingly valuable for Tristan.
There was a shadow looming over my heart; a weight constantly on my shoulders. The excitement of what was happening with our record deal might keep it at bay, but I felt it more keenly every time we walked out of Miss Violet’s house without a plan.
I tried to cover up my anxiety the best I could, to help Tristan remain strong, but I could see that as the end of the year approached, Tristan began to falter. He didn’t laugh as much, his eyes didn’t shine so bright, even when we were playing. He was growing afraid we might have no way out of this.
We had all signed our contracts with Mr. Silver, except Tristan. He kept putting it off, making up excuses every time he was asked to sign the paperwork. He’d managed to stall Mr. Silver and his record company for a long time. And by the end of October, when we started to actually record our tracks, Tristan had convinced everybody to let his songs and his parts be recorded last. I started noticing he had drifted from being inside the booth playing, to staying outside, helping out with the producing part. Nobody else in the band noticed his strategic shift; everybody was busy and focused hard on playing the best they could. The boys thought he was having more fun working on the mixing desk, and they left him to it. But I understood well enough what he was up to. He was discreetly stepping back, little by little, taking care that no one noticed what he was doing. And why.
“You’re trying to stay off this album!” I accused him bluntly.
Tristan sighed, knowing I would catch up with his plan sooner or later. “Joe, please.”
“You are and you know it,” I insisted. “Why haven’t you signed your contract yet with Mr. Silver?”
The Lost Boys Page 36