Julia Jones' Diary - Boxed Set - Books 2 to 6

by Kahler, Katrina

  “But I’m so shy!” she replied. “I’m not sure I can sing in front of a big audience!”

  I could not help but roll my eyes at her comment. “Sara, you are definitely not shy! I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

  “Well, I hope so!” she beamed, not looking the slightest bit concerned about being shy. “Having my friends here will make it so much easier,” she continued, smiling sweetly at each of us.

  Suzy gave me a funny look just then. I kind of got the feeling that she was starting to see what Sara was really like. But I brushed thoughts of her behavior aside and we all settled into our meal. However, looking at Sara’s pretty face across the table, a kind of strange premonition crossed my mind and I couldn’t help but wonder what was ahead. I had been through so much with Sara already and I wondered what she had planned.

  A feeling of unease started to trickle down my spine as I scraped another spoonful of food from my plate.

  ***

  Heading into the performance room after dinner, I decided to shake all negative thoughts aside and focus on enjoying the night. We were going to be put into different groups and asked to perform together, which I found quite nerve wracking but exciting at the same time. Visions of being a rock star flashed through my mind. That was one of my secret dreams and the image I had formed in my head made me dizzy with the thrill of such a possibility ever happening.

  I knew that even a year earlier, I would have thought such an idea was crazy but now I understand that dreams really can come true and I’ve since added this to my list of goals for the future. I mean lots of kids become super stars, so why can’t it happen to me? With some hard work and persistence, maybe I can make that dream a reality!

  Totally unexpected…

  When we were all assembled in the performance room, the first group of kids was sent to an area where a mentor was waiting to help them work together as a band. The rest of us sat anxiously, wondering who we had been teamed up with. We kind of wished we could form our own bands but we’d been told that we needed to be grouped together with kids of a similar level and style.

  As I sat with my fingers crossed, the names I’d hope to hear were announced over the microphone. “Julia Jones on lead guitar, Brodie Sanders on bass, Blake Jansen on drums and Suzy Bartlett as the singer.”

  “Yesss!” I squealed, unable to withhold my excitement. Blake and I high-fived each other and stood to make our way to the back of the room. But just then the microphone crackled once more.

  “Sorry guys, I made a mistake,” Andy, the mentor said apologetically. “Suzy, we actually think you’d be better with a different group of kids who are more suited to your singing style. Sara Hamilton, you’re the one who we’ve decided would fit best with Julia and the others.”

  My mouth dropped wide open in shock at this announcement. “Noooooo!”

  I screamed the unspoken word wildly in my mind as I watched Sara race over to Blake and throw her arms around him in total delight. This really couldn’t be happening!

  I glanced in despair towards Suzy, the frown on my face betraying my feelings.

  “I wish we had you as our singer, Suzy!” I whispered dejectedly in her ear.

  “Yeah, me too, Julia! That would have been so much fun.” Looking as disappointed as I felt, she headed off in the opposite direction.

  Typical of her usual style, the minute we sat down together, Sara was bursting with ideas and couldn’t wait to share them with everyone else.

  “There are so many great songs we can do that will suit my voice,” she declared. “I actually have a list prepared, so how about we get started on these straight away.” Pulling the list from her pocket she held it out for us all to see.

  Just as I was about to speak, Andy, our mentor congratulated her for being so organized and keen. “This is great, Sara!” he exclaimed. “I love to see kids taking initiative. I’ll download the music for some of these songs now and we’ll see how you all go.”

  Before long, we were under way and even though I hated to admit it to myself, the songs that Sara had selected were pretty good. What I hadn’t been prepared for though was the quality of her voice. She sings very well and actually, if I was going to be totally honest with myself, she sings better than well. She is quite amazing and the boys obviously thought so too because they were giving her nonstop praise.

  “Sara! Your voice is awesome!” Blake’s response was genuinely sincere and I could see that he was really excited at having such an incredible singer for our band.

  Brodie quickly agreed with him and it was clear that they were both very happy with how things were progressing. Their comments, along with the praise from Andy, boosted Sara’s confidence even further and before long she had turned up the volume on her microphone and everyone was looking in our direction with open admiration at the sound of her voice.

  I knew that I should feel proud to be part of such a talented group. Andy had given me some tricky lead guitar to play and the boys thought that it was really cool to have a girl guitarist, especially one who could play so well. But rather than feeling honored, I was overcome with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “Here we go again,” I thought to myself. And as I watched Sara and Blake completely absorbed in each other and the sound that they were creating, I could not shake the uneasy sensation that this was not going to turn out the way I had imagined.

  The accident…

  The next day followed the same pattern as the one before and I was glad to be able to focus on my guitar playing without the distraction of Sara in my midst. I had noticed however, that she was spending every spare minute trying to get Blake’s attention. Just like a bee buzzing around a beehive, she barely left his side. And the way she flittered around him was sickening. I knew it was jealousy on my part, but I was having difficulty getting it under control.

  After lunch, though, I saw that Blake had teamed up with a few kids to play guitar, but Sara was nowhere to be seen. Blake is so talented! Even though he’s an awesome drummer, he’s actually pretty good on the guitar and before long a group of kids were all sitting with him, singing songs while he played.

  During that time, I had decided to take the opportunity to have a one on one lesson with Andy. I was determined to really impress everyone with some lead guitar that I’d been working on. I thought it would be so cool to become a really good lead guitarist as you don’t see many girls who actually excel at that. It’s usually boys. But there’s this famous girl guitarist whose video clips I’ve watched on YouTube and I’ve decided that she’s my inspiration. I’d love to be able to play as well as her one day!

  After finishing my lesson, I’d planned to join Blake and the others who were still sitting on the grass together, but just as I stood up to join them, Sara suddenly appeared and grabbed Blake by the hand. I stayed transfixed, wondering what she was up to. Then I saw her pull him in the direction of the swimming pool.

  “I wonder if they’re going swimming,” I thought to myself, knowing that the pool was out of bounds unless there was an adult to supervise. Then just as I decided to head over towards them, Andy called me inside to help set up some gear for the rehearsals later that evening. To my disappointment, by the time we’d finished the sun was starting to set and everyone was beginning to fill the dining room in time for dinner.

  Looking around, I could see no sign of Blake or Sara and wondered why they’d taken so long to come back.

  Spotting Suzy, Brodie, and a few of the other kids who we had become friends with, I asked if they knew what had happened to them.

  “I saw them down around the swimming pool a bit earlier,” snickered Jack, a surly type of kid who was sitting nearby and had heard my question. He flicked back his long black fringe and looked at me with a kind of smirk. His hair was so jet black, I was sure that it was dyed and he had several piercings in his ears. His outfit consisted of a black T-shirt and black skinny jeans, which he even wore through the middle of the day when it was very hot. And hi
s skin was so pale, I was sure that he rarely went out in the sun.

  To his credit though, he was a very good guitarist. I think that was all he lived for and he probably stayed indoors all day, constantly playing guitar.

  Ignoring him, I sat down in the spare seat that Suzy had saved for me and tried to join in the conversation. They were discussing the different songs that they’d planned to play for the concert the following night. All the parents were coming to watch and that was when we were going to perform the ‘Battle of the Bands’ which everyone was super excited about.

  Intently, I looked around, scanning the room for signs of Blake or Sara, my anxiety growing with every second. I caught my dad’s eye and gave him a wave. I had been so busy that I had hardly seen him throughout the entire weekend.

  It had become quite dark outside and I was just on the verge of alerting one of the camp leaders that they were missing, when Blake came running into the room. I saw him quickly glance towards me as he sprinted over to my dad and spoke to him in a very agitated manner.

  Filled with concern, I raced across the dining room towards them. By this time though, Dad had leapt from his seat and was following Blake out the door.

  As I ran after them, I called out to Blake but he had either chosen to ignore me or hadn’t heard my voice and kept racing down the pathway in the direction of the swimming pool.

  Dad had grabbed a torch on his way out and was shining it along the path to light their way. By that time, it was pitch black out there and very difficult to see the path.

  Panting, I had to quicken my steps to keep up with them and continued on past the swimming pool area and along a track that led into the bush. My heart thumping, I finally managed to catch them, and in the dark, I almost ran right into Blake, whose dark colored T-shirt was camouflaged with the surroundings.

  It was then that I heard the unmistakable sound of Sara’s voice. “This way!” Blake called as he charged along the winding dirt track.

  Following the sound of his steps and the dim beam of the torch light, I made my way through the dense bush land and found Sara sitting on the ground, leaning awkwardly against a tree trunk.

  “Blake!” she called out. “Thank goodness you’re back. You took so long; I was beginning to get worried.”

  “Oh Mr. Jones!” she cried. “Thank you so much for coming to get me! And Julia! You came too!” Her look of surprise at seeing me there was quickly whipped away when she tried to stand. Wincing with pain, she gratefully took the offer of support from Blake and my father.

  “What happened?” I asked, frowning with curiosity but also concern. “And what were you doing out here anyway?”

  “Well, I found this really cool track and Blake and I wanted to see where it led. Didn’t we Blake?” In the dim light of the torch, I could see her looking towards him for confirmation of her story.

  Without giving him a chance to answer, she quickly continued, “But I tripped on a tree root and when I tried to save myself from falling, my foot kind of twisted then I couldn’t get up again. It hurt so much that I couldn’t put weight on it, so Blake decided to go back and get some help. Thank goodness you’re here and thank goodness for Blake!”

  Smiling in a coy manner, she stared directly at him and grasped his waist firmly, hanging on tightly for support.

  As we slowly made our way back towards the campground and the dining area where we had hurriedly left everyone, Dad shined the torch on the ground ahead of us so that we could navigate the rutted track. There certainly were lots of tree roots that had grown across and walking along behind, I could see that it would be easy to be tripped by one, if you weren’t careful.

  When we finally got back inside, I went to find the camp medical officer to check on Sara’s ankle and as we had suspected, it was a sprain. Although, the swelling was only minor and it didn’t appear to be too serious. She was then helped into a comfortable chair where she was told to raise her foot up high on some cushions that were placed on a chair in front of her. She was also given some ice packs to place on the injured area.

  Quickly settling in and reveling in all the attention she was getting, she seemed quite comfortable, with no further complaints of any continuing pain. Smiling at all the faces surrounding her, she gushed appreciatively, “Thank you so much, guys! I’m really grateful for your help. And especially you, Blake! You’ve been so wonderful!”

  “Oh, that’s ok,” Blake mumbled, clearly embarrassed by the praise.

  “I’ll come and check on you a bit later,” my dad said to her, “And I’ll help you make your way back to the dorms as well.”

  “I’ll be fine thanks, Mr. Jones,” Sara assured him in her sweetest voice. “Blake will help me, won’t you Blake?”

  Glancing awkwardly in my direction, Blake nodded in agreement and then murmured, “Yeah, sure, that’s fine.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the look of triumph in Sara’s eyes as she sat back against the cushions supporting her, appearing completely satisfied with the situation at hand.

  “Can you pass my microphone, please Blake?” she asked him. “We may as well get on with our rehearsal. My ankle doesn’t hurt so much anymore and I can still sing, so that’s all that matters.”

  And smiling broadly, she started on her favorite song.

  The concert…

  By the next afternoon, Sara’s ankle had made a remarkable recovery and if I hadn’t seen what I thought looked like swelling the night before, I would never have believed it had been injured at all.

  Luckily for our band though, she was still able to sing and we all became more and more excited as the afternoon wore on. We’d been rehearsing for quite some time and had finally decided on the song that we would perform that evening.

  There were going to be lots of acts, including some solo performances and I was surprised that Sara hadn’t also wanted to perform on her own. Knowing how much she loved being the center of attention, it would have been the perfect opportunity for her to show off her voice. And I definitely had to admit, that it was a voice that was worthy of showing off. Although I begrudged her talent, I reminded myself to feel grateful that we had such a great singer amongst us.

  Much to my amazement, she had actually spent the afternoon being very friendly and extra nice, particularly towards me. However, too much had gone on between us in the past and I could not bring myself to trust this sudden change of attitude. I knew Sara too well and I found it very difficult to believe that she was being genuine.

  I then wondered, with a sudden rush of concern about what she was actually up to.

  Perhaps the accident the night before had completely changed her outlook somehow and she had decided to become a nice person? Maybe she had hit her head and been overcome by a personality change?

  Those thoughts held my attention for a fleeting moment before being whisked away.

  I could hope that was the case, but deep down, I really didn’t believe that such a transformation could be possible. Even though her desperate attempts to get Blake’s attention had also seemed to disappear overnight, I had to trust my instincts. I decided to beware and take note of what was going on around me. But before I knew it, the time had come to head back to our dorm to get ready and I needed to focus on the concert and the song we had been practicing all afternoon. Suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of excited anticipation, I looked forward to the night ahead.

  ***

  A few hours later, I peered out from behind the curtain at the crowd of parents and spectators who had arrived and were seated in the audience. It seemed to be a full house and I was abruptly overcome with a bad case of nerves. But forcing myself to take a deep breath, I walked out onto the stage to introduce our act. There had been several awesome performances ahead of us including a group of three with a saxophone player. They were younger than us but were definitely tough competition.

  As the rest of my band joined me on stage, I pictured in my mind, the applause I hoped we would receive at the end of our
song.

  We got off to a great start and I knew that we sounded pretty amazing. We had turned up the volume and when I peered into the audience, I could see the proud faces of my parents looking up at me. Even my brother, Matt had made the effort to come and I was eager to really impress them all. Then just as I was about to start my lead guitar solo, the one that everyone had been raving about and even my mentor, Andy was super impressed by, the sound from my guitar suddenly went dead.

  I looked down towards my instrument and turned the knobs to adjust the volume. But nothing happened. Looking at the other guys in despair, all I got in return were blank looks and a shake of the head from Blake, indicating that he had no idea what the problem was.

  Sara just shrugged her shoulders at me and returned her focus to the audience. Then, completely out of the blue, she took the microphone off its stand and strode to the front of the stage. Unexpectedly and with total confidence, she broke into a spontaneous solo performance that none of us had been at all prepared for.

  Frantically, I continued to fiddle with the controls on my guitar but it was to no avail. The sound had completely died and I may as well have not been there at all!

  Scanning the stage in desperation, I suddenly noticed that my guitar lead had been unplugged from the amplifier. That instantly explained why there was no sound!

  “How on earth did that happen?” I wondered, completely overwhelmed with embarrassment and feeling like a fool.

  When the song ended, Sara bowed proudly to the audience while I stood there feeling more awkward than ever before. Memories of our school musical where I had been totally humiliated came flooding into my mind. Then, with a gasp of realization, I looked in Sara’s direction.

  “Did she have anything to do with this?” I wondered wildly. “Surely, she wouldn’t stoop so low as to wreck the performance of her own band?”