The High Note

by Harmony Jones

  Teddy sighed. “Okay, well, as awesome as this night has been, to be honest, I kind of wish that the album wasn’t such a huge hit.”

  Lark must have looked stunned by this admission, because Teddy hurried on.

  “Not that I wanted it to crash and burn or be some epic fail or anything like that. I mean, of course I wanted it to be a hit … eventually. Just not yet. I guess I was hoping it would take a while for it to climb the charts.”

  “So you could take your time getting used to it,” Lark finished for him. “Right?”

  “Exactly. Everybody in the whole world dreams of overnight fame, and here’s me, hoping for the opposite. Crazy, huh?”

  Lark shook her head. “Not at all. I totally get what you mean. I feel the same way.”

  “You do?” Teddy smiled and this time it lit up his whole face. “I guess that’s just one more thing we have in common.”

  Lark thought she might melt. “I guess it is,” she agreed. “I’m all for taking this whole stardom thing slowly. That’s why I only agreed to an artist development deal. I didn’t want things to happen too fast.”

  Teddy looked out over the city, trying to make sense of things. “I guess I’m just scared that I’ll never be normal again. What if I never get to hang out with my friends, or go fishing with my dad? What if this leave of absence turns out to be permanent and I never go back to school?”

  Lark felt another chill. It seemed colossally unfair that Teddy would be leaving right when they were getting to know each other. She couldn’t imagine what school would be like without him, which was odd since a few short months ago they’d never uttered so much as a word to each other.

  “What do your parents think?” she asked.

  “They’re torn. They know this is the opportunity of a lifetime and they don’t want me to miss it. I don’t either. I mean, I’m sure it will be fun. And the money I earn is going right into my college fund. I like that I’ll be able to pay my own tuition someday. It’s just that there are a lot of trade-offs, you know?”

  Lark nodded. Moving from Nashville to LA had been a major trade-off. She understood that sometimes you had to give up one thing to have another.

  “On the upside,” said Teddy, “the tutor who’s coming on the road with us is an Ivy League genius. So I’m hoping he’ll be able to catch me up on all the schoolwork I’ve been struggling with.”

  “Right,” said Lark, trying to be cheerful despite the sadness that was coursing through her. “And look at it this way. You’ll never have to eat in the cafeteria again. No more disgusting turkey-surprise casseroles.”

  “Definitely a plus,” Teddy agreed with a grin.

  “And you won’t have to sit through another of Principal Hardy’s assembly lectures on the evils of tardiness, or about how a tidy locker is a happy locker.”

  “True,” said Teddy, brightening a bit. “And don’t forget, no more crab soccer in gym class.”

  “Right,” said Lark, laughing. “I know you won’t miss that!”

  “I won’t,” said Teddy. “But there is something I will miss. A lot.”

  Lark was surprised that her next words came out in a whisper: “What’s that?” she asked.

  “You,” he whispered back. Then, with the silver moon shining above, Teddy Reese leaned in and pressed a kiss as soft as starlight to her cheek. “What I’ll miss most of all is you.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Lark awoke late on Sunday morning with Teddy’s kiss still tingling on her cheek. In a daze, she stepped into her slippers, threw on her robe, and dropped her phone into its pocket. Then, with a dreamy smile on her face, she practically floated downstairs.

  Ollie and her mom were already at the kitchen table. She deduced that Max must be at the hotel where, compliments of Lark’s songwriting earnings, he’d spent the night with his family.

  As she padded across the breakfast nook, Ollie and Donna just stared at her, speechless. Her first thought was that the mascara she’d worn the night before had smudged all over her eyes and left her looking like a rabid raccoon. But a quick glance at her reflection in the stainless-steel milk pitcher told her that wasn’t the case.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, sliding into a chair.

  “So … you haven’t been online yet?” Ollie ventured cautiously.

  “Nope. I just woke up.” She reached for a muffin from the basket Fitzy had set in the center of the table. “Why? What’s happening online?”

  Donna and Ollie exchanged glances. Then, with a heavy sigh, Donna slid her laptop across the table for Lark to see the celebrity-gossip website on-screen.

  “Pictures from the party?” Lark asked. “Cool. I guess Julia was right to let some of the paparazzi in.” She smiled, popping a piece of muffin into her mouth as she admired a shot of the boys singing their tribute medley. “This is great publicity.”

  “Scroll down, love,” said Ollie, his tone ominous.

  Lark took another bite of the muffin and grazed her fingers over the track pad. “Hey, that’s a great one of you and Jas, Ollie. And look, there’s Max with his parents, and there’s—” She broke off, nearly choking on the unchewed bite of muffin.

  There on the screen was a shot of Teddy and Lark.

  On the roof.

  Under the stars.

  With his hand lingering gently on her waist … and his lips pressed softly to her cheek!

  “Oh. My. God! Ohmygod-ohmygod-ohmyGOD! No! Tell me this isn’t happening!”

  “Lark, calm down,” said Donna, patting her arm. “Please. Relax.”

  “Relax? How can I relax? Did you see this?”

  “Oh, we saw it,” Ollie muttered, sipping his tea.

  “I don’t understand how this picture even got taken,” Lark wailed, “let alone posted! There was no one else on that roof. We were alone.”

  “Which is a conversation we’ll definitely be having at a later date,” said Donna sternly. “Honestly, Lark, did you really think I’d be okay with you going up to the rooftop alone with a boy?”

  “Mother!” shrieked Lark, glaring at Donna. “That is so not the issue right now.”

  “I’m sorry, you’re right.” Donna looked instantly contrite. “I guess there was a photographer hiding up there somewhere. He must have taken the photo with some kind of high-powered zoom lens.”

  Lark’s eyes shot back to the screen. “Can we make them take it down?” Her voice quivered on the cusp of hysteria as she frantically pounded the computer keys, desperate to make the photo disappear. “Can you sue somebody, Mama? Can we delete it?”

  Ollie shook his head. “Sorry, Lark. It’s there to stay.”

  Lark stared at the photo. The irony was that it was an absolutely gorgeous picture—soft lighting, flattering angle, Teddy’s hair falling just so, and just the tiniest hint of a surprised smile on Lark’s face. She would have thought it was the best picture ever taken, her favorite photo of all time … if only it hadn’t been posted online!

  She was so engrossed in the image that it took her a moment to notice the headline looming over it in big block letters.

  ABBEY ROAD’S KEYBOARD CUTIE COZIES UP TO THE BOSS’S DAUGHTER

  Lark felt queasy, but forced herself to move on to the article beneath the photo. To her horror, she was mentioned in it by name. Even worse, there were already hundreds of comments from readers. None of them were happy with Lark. Several of them begged her to leave Teddy alone because “he belongs to his fans” and because “U R not good enough for him!”

  To Lark’s horror, some of the insults had been hashtagged—and were trending:

  #ScrawnyRedHead

  #WastedKisses

  #TweenTease

  #PastYourBedtime

  More than a few joked that the kiss had to be a publicity stunt, since an up-and-coming star like Teddy Reese could have any girl in the world, so why would he settle for a middle-school nobody like her?

  Lark didn’t know how long she’d been staring at the laptop when she felt O
llie reach across the table to gently slide it away.

  And it wasn’t until she saw the tears puddling on her breakfast plate that she realized she was crying.

  Lark set her phone on Do Not Disturb and spent the rest of the day and night in bed, huddled under the covers.

  She thought about texting Teddy, but decided against it. She had absolutely no idea what to say to him, and she was sure he was feeling as embarrassed as she was, maybe even more. What kind of messages was he getting? She was afraid to even imagine.

  On Monday morning, she considered skipping school.

  Then she entertained the notion of dropping out altogether.

  And then she got out of bed, got dressed, and marched to the bus stop. Because deep down Lark knew that if this was a country song about a girl’s first kiss getting hijacked by the media, the girl in question would not go down without a fight! She’d pull on her boots, muster up some Southern sass, and jerk a knot in somebody’s tail!

  Too bad there isn’t a song like that, Lark thought.

  And then, suddenly … there was. Her emotions were so pumped up that the lyrics came into her head like a hurricane. The song formed so quickly, she didn’t even have time to pull her journal out of her backpack and write the words down:

  Caught on camera, private touch.

  Picture perfect? Not so much!

  Somebody launched a sneak attack

  But it’s my moment, so give it back!

  You can’t get away with this,

  Go on and give me back my kiss!

  From the minute she entered the school building, Lark was the recipient of a lot of dirty looks—from the girls who had major crushes on Teddy the pop star, and also from the ones who’d probably liked him long before he became part of the band. Just like Lark herself had.

  The seventh and eighth graders muttered and sneered. The sixth graders mostly giggled and pointed. Lark heard the word “kiss” whispered and hissed behind her back so much that she felt as if she were being followed around by a giant snake.

  By the time she reached her homeroom, she almost wished she’d stayed home. If only she could go back and erase all the publicity! But as her father would say, “the horse was already outta the barn.” The damage was done and she had no choice but to face it.

  The only upside (which, of course, was also a downside) was the fact that Teddy wasn’t there. The announcement of the imminent tour had prompted his parents to take him out of school immediately. He was probably sitting down with his brand-new tutor at that very moment, catching up on science terminology and mathematical properties.

  Somehow, Lark managed to get through homeroom and her first four classes without dying of embarrassment. Then she hunkered down in a far corner of the library during lunch to avoid the widespread exposure (not to mention the turkey-surprise casserole). The worst part was that she had yet to talk to Mimi about any of it.

  Lark would have called her, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to even look at her phone, for fear of seeing more nasty comments online. The last comment she’d read had been last night, just before she fell asleep, and it had forced her to power down her phone completely:

  #Teddy’sGirlFIEND.

  At first she mistook it for a compliment with an unfortunate typo, but she soon realized that the absence of the R was no accident. She’d been called a fiend … as in a demon! The fact that it was overly dramatic and ridiculous didn’t make it any less hurtful.

  Unfortunately, Lark’s self-imposed phone fast had resulted in zero communication with Mimi. And if ever there was a time she needed to talk to her best friend, this was it.

  Finally, the part of the day she’d been dreading most arrived: sixth-period history. The only class besides gym that she had with Alessandra Drake.

  Luckily, Mimi was also in that class.

  Lark entered the classroom, murmured hello to Mr. Corbin, and took her seat. Mimi came in one minute later.

  But she didn’t even spare Lark a glance.

  Lark’s heart sank. Uh-oh. This isn’t good.

  Ally Drake wasted no time. “Nice kiss,” she said in her snarkiest tone. “I’m not sure if you realize it, but kisses usually take place on the lips.”

  “It wasn’t that kind of kiss,” said Lark through her teeth.

  “Well obviously. Anyway, I’m sure Teddy wasn’t kissing you because he wanted to.”

  “Why else would he kiss her?” Jessica piped up, although Lark suspected it was more out of curiosity than any desire to defend Teddy’s romantic impulse.

  “Duh!” Ally tossed her hair and began ticking off the reasons on her fingers. “One, he’s the new kid in the band; two, he’s not British; and three, he’s younger than the other two.” She snickered. “Clearly, he wanted to stand out and make an impression on the boss.”

  “The boss?” Duncan echoed.

  “Lark’s mom. She hired Teddy, so she can fire him.” Ally gave Lark a cold look. “But Teddy knows that no mom would ever fire her daughter’s boyfriend.”

  “So you’re saying Teddy kissed Lark just to suck up to Mrs. Campbell and get on her good side?” Jessica concluded.

  “Well, it’s either that or the boy just can’t resist skinny girls in ugly boots.” Ally gave a sarcastic roll of her eyes. “My money’s on the sucking up.”

  During all of this, Lark had been gripping her pencil so tightly she was surprised it didn’t shatter into a million yellow splinters. Every muscle in her body had gone tense and she was sure her face was redder than the stripes on Mr. Corbin’s authentic Revolutionary War–era American flag.

  She could have told Ally to leave her alone.

  She could have told her she didn’t know what she was talking about and was just jealous that Lark had gone to such a cool music-industry bash.

  She could have, but she didn’t.

  Because she was waiting for Mimi to do it.

  But for the first time since Lark had known her, her quick-thinking, outspoken best friend didn’t appear to have anything to say.

  And for Lark, Mimi’s silence was way more heartbreaking than anything Alessandra Drake could have ever said out loud.

  When the bell rang and the rest of the class scrambled out of their seats, Lark hung back.

  “Mimi, wait.”

  Mimi looked up from angrily stuffing her history textbook into her backpack. “Why? Do you have something to tell me?”

  Lark almost laughed. “You must be kidding. I have like a million things to tell you! Starting with—”

  “Forget it,” Mimi interrupted with a snort. “I don’t even care.”

  “What? Meems!”

  “Anything you tell me now is old news,” Mimi said stiffly.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Mimi shrugged. “You want to tell me how you wore your hair to the party? Too late—I already saw an in-depth analysis on Seventeen.com. Or maybe you want to tell me about how you danced with Max and then you and your mom got serenaded by the band? Sorry, already saw the video on E! Online. Hmmm, how about the mystery artist who’s signing a development deal with Lotus? Don’t bother, Entertainment Tonight covered that on their Sunday edition. I’m not stupid; I know the mystery artist is you!”

  She let out a phony gasp of excitement. “Oh, I know! I bet you want to tell me all about how Teddy Reese, who as far as I knew was ‘just a friend,’ kissed you on a secluded rooftop terrace under the stars? Well, save your breath, Campbell, because I already know all about it. Just like everybody else on the planet!”

  Lark felt as if she’d been slapped. “Mimi, I don’t understand why you’re so upset!”

  Mimi’s eyes flashed. “I’m upset because you and I are supposed to be best friends, which means that I should have known about that kiss before anyone! Before Perez Hilton and TMZ, and definitely before Ally Drake! You promised I’d be the first to know if anything changed between you and Teddy, but suddenly it seems like your life is going in a whole new direction and I’m th
e last person to hear about it.”

  Lark shook her head. “It wasn’t like that! I wasn’t trying to keep any of it from you! It’s just, with the party, and the kiss, and then all those nasty comments online, I never got the chance to call you. I couldn’t find the time.”

  “So that’s how it is?” Mimi jerked her backpack onto her shoulder and scowled. “You’re just sooooo busy with your boy-band boyfriend, and your cowboy music career, that you can’t find time for me?!”

  “No …!”

  “Just because you’re going to be famous and hang out with pop stars, you think you’re better than boring old middle-school Mimi Solis.”

  “I didn’t say that!”

  “You didn’t have to.” Mimi narrowed her eyes.

  “Mimi, please let me explain …”

  “I would, but that might take a while, and I’m sure you’ve already wasted enough of your precious time on me. You probably have big plans with your teen-idol boyfriend.”

  “I told you!” shouted Lark. “Teddy is not my boyfriend!”

  “Tell that to the Hollywood Reporter!” Mimi snapped, then turned and stormed out of the room.

  CHAPTER 16

  Every concert venue in America, it seemed, wanted Abbey Road on their schedule, so requests for dates and engagements continued to roll in. New York, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver …

  Lark tried not to dwell on the fact that these additional concerts would only make the band’s tour last longer. Instead of the three months they had originally booked, the extra dates had extended the tour to four months, pushing their time on the road well into June. Which meant Teddy would not get to finish out the school year.

  Somehow, her schoolmates had convinced themselves that Teddy’s leaving RRMS was entirely her fault. It was hard to shake off the fact that everyone at school was basically giving her the cold shoulder. But worst of all, Mimi still hadn’t forgiven her.

  Since Abbey Road would be performing a two-hour concert complete with a light show and dance numbers, Lark’s former music room no longer cut it as a suitable practice area. So Donna rented a real rehearsal space in the downtown area where the boys could prepare for the tour. Consequently, they were hardly ever at home, which was terribly disappointing to Lark. She had hoped to spend as much time as possible with them before they left.