by C. Fennessy
Chapter Four: Sabotage!
It took most of the day to rent new equipment from a local music store and to have it delivered by late afternoon. Jake and Joey came to the studio to find out what they could about the theft. The police arrived to interview the security guard who saw the two young men who had taken the equipment. However, the descriptions he gave them were not very helpful.
When Joey came back from talking to the police, he found Jakeand the girls setting up the new equipment. Jake was twenty-one, and the girls called him the ‘Pooh Bear’ because of his round face and matching tummy. He was always sweet and helpful.
"Did you get everything?" Joey asked Jake.
"Pretty much," answered Jake, as he uncoiled a cable and plugged it in.
"What did the cops say? Will they get our stuff back?" asked Leisha.
"They said that the descriptions they got of the thieves are pretty vague. They were both about twenty years old. One had long black hair and the other had brown hair, and they both wore jeans and T-shirts. That could match a million people in LA."
"Great!" Taylor sighed, "I'll probably never see my keyboard again."
Joey held out his hands and shrugged, "But look at the bright side. You've got a brand new model."
"But it's different than the one I had,” she complained, “I mean, the controls are all different. I'll have to relearn everything."
"Joey, how are we going to pay for all this stuff?" asked Kelly.
"I put it all on my credit card," Joey said, "But don't worry. I took out insurance on everything before we left home, so I should get enough money back from the insurance claim to pay for the equipment rental and to replace most of the gear."
The girls did a sound check as Jake tried to figure out the controls on the sound system they had rented temporarily for rehearsing. Finally, everything was working and the girls warmed up with a song they knew. Jake soon got the sound mix up to his standards.
They spent the next three hours rehearsing without a break. When they played their new original song, Jake and Joey both grinned with excitement.
"That's a cool tune! And with all of you singing on it, you sound totally awesome!" Jake said, grinning.
"Thanks, Pooh. The ending still needs something, though…" Leisha mumbled, strumming her guitar and thinking about the structure of the song.
They took a break and ordered a pizza and drinks from a nearby take-out place.
During the break, Ashley was listening to music on her ear buds when she suddenly stood up, spilling her cola everywhere.
"I've got it!" she cried.
"Not anymore," joked Taylor as she mopped up the drink, "It's all over the place."
"No, the song! I just got the greatest idea for the song! Here's what we can do: You know the part just before the last chorus, after the bridge? We can go into a beat and get everyone in the audience to clap, and we'll just keep singing the chorus over and over. Then we can launch into it one more time with the instruments and end it that way!"
They looked at each other, their eyes wide with excitement.
"Yeah, that's a great idea! Let's try it!"
They hurried back to the rehearsal room and talked over where the break in the song would come and how they would play the ending. After playing it a couple of times and adjusting the number of times they would repeat the chorus, they finally had a perfect ending.
"This is awesome!" Taylor shouted, "I can't wait to play this on the show!"
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Leisha agreed, and then turned to Ashley.
"So, how did you get such a great idea, Ashley?"
She smiled and sighed, "I guess it's just my extraordinary talent--a gift I was just born with!"
They all laughed and teased her in fun. By the time they left the rehearsal that night, they were all excited about performing on the next show.
“I just can’t wait to see Susan’s face when we play this,” Kelly said with a smirk, “She will be SO mad that we might just win!”
Friday came and the girls felt they were ready for the competition. They had rehearsed their three songs for the last six days and knew them so well they felt they could play them in their sleep.
They were in their dressing room, changing into their new outfits when someone knocked on the door.
Leisha called through the door.
"Who is it?"
"Ah….it's me… Danny…from Rock Solid."
The girls looked at each other.
"What does he want?" asked Ashley.
"He probably wants to try to get us to quit the competition," Kelly suggested.
Leisha opened the door wide, asking,
"What's up?"
Danny was tall and wore his dark hair long, and combed to one side. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and said nervously,
"Look, ah, I just wanted to wish you guys luck and to say…I'm sorry about what happened… I mean, I heard about your stuff getting stolen, and I wanted to tell you that I had nothing to do with that. I'm sorry it happened, okay? Well, good luck tonight."
Leisha had opened the door wider and Danny gave Taylor a nervous glance before leaving.
"Okay. Thanks!" Leisha called after him as she closed the door.
"What was that all about?" Taylor wondered.
"Beats me!" Kelly declared, "Why did he come to tell us that he didn't do it? Do you think he knows who did take our stuff?"
"Yeah," Taylor nodded, "It almost sounds like he knows who did it and he doesn't want to get blamed."
"I bet it was a couple of guys in Rock Solid who took it," Kelly speculated.
"What's the point of that?" asked Leisha, "I mean, they knew we would replace it anyway."
"Yes, but maybe they thought they could make us give up on the competition."
"I think we should get Danny alone sometime and find out what he knows," Ashley suggested.
They all agreed and then put the finishing touches on their make-up.