“It’s not even that hot or dusty,” Andi complained, shoving them all into her strappy white bag.
“It could be later,” Bex insisted, sliding a pair of aviator shades over Andi’s eyes. “Now, have fun and please be careful!”
Andi rolled her eyes. “Trust me?” she asked as Jonah grabbed her elbow and guided her away.
“I trust you!” Bex called out as Andi disappeared into the crowd.
Since Jonah had arrived a couple of hours earlier—and had been to Mountain Jam once before—he was already pretty familiar with the setup and had all sorts of suggestions for where they should go and what they should see. After Andi told him everything that had happened to her and Bex on their way up the mountain, including that they had lost their VIP passes, Jonah seemed especially determined to make sure she had fun. First he took her to an incredible art installation with giant balloon animals that were at least thirty feet tall.
“What if it pops?” Andi gasped as she and Jonah posed for a selfie at the base of a metallic-blue balloon dog.
“They’re not really balloons,” Jonah said with a smile. “They’re just built to look like they are. I think they’re made out of stainless steel or something.”
“So cool!” Andi laughed as she and Jonah ran from a pink snake to a purple rabbit and then to a rainbow-hued unicorn.
“It’s a balloonicorn!” Jonah laughed and made a goofy face, and Andi did, too, before snapping a photo of their distorted reflections in the metallic unicorn’s leg.
“Oh my gosh, I have to send that to Buffy and Cyrus!” Andi giggled but then frowned, realizing that anything she sent to her friends from the weekend would make them angry all over again. If only she could have gotten tickets for them!
“Ready for the next stop?” Jonah asked brightly, clearly sensing Andi’s somber mood and wanting to cheer her up.
“Oh, um…yeah!” Andi said, and she followed Jonah to an area where people were playing all sorts of giant board games, from chess and checkers to Connect 4 and Candy Land.
After playing a few games of checkers, they headed for the area Jonah said Andi would probably love most—the Crafting Coliseum. It was an enormous arena with dozens of booths where people could either buy crafts or make their own. Andi immediately spotted a huge tent with a sign that read DIY FLOWER CROWNS.
“I’ll make one for you if you make one for me!” Jonah proposed.
“Okay!” Andi agreed.
After exploring buckets upon buckets of real and artificial flowers, colorful ribbons, organza, and more, Andi and Jonah selected their materials and went to separate tables to privately craft each other’s crowns. When they were both satisfied with their work, they reunited and presented the fabulous new floral headpieces they’d created: Jonah made Andi’s with big orange and yellow gerbera daisies, and Andi made Jonah’s with black and white satin roses. As they placed the crowns on their heads, Andi heard the alarm on her phone going off and checked the screen. “Oh! It’s time to go find Bex and Mona.”
In spite of the huge crowd already gathered near the stage for the band’s set, Andi and Jonah managed to spot Bex and Mona within a few minutes of arriving.
“Aw! Your crowns look so awesome!” Bex smiled. “Did you guys have fun?”
“So much!” Andi said. “And it looks like you did, too…. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
Bex and Mona had both gotten serious glitter makeovers. Bex’s lips were covered in blue glitter, while Mona had opted for green, and they both had gold glitter around their eyes and pale pink shimmer on their cheeks. Plus they had sparkly round and star-shaped rhinestones lining the tops of their eyebrows.
“Do you like?” Mona asked, placing one hand on her hip and extending the other arm high in the air.
“Yeah, you both look so shiny!” Jonah smiled.
“Thank you. Shiny is my favorite color,” Mona replied with a laugh.
“Hey, is that Bowie?” Jonah asked, taking off his sunglasses and squinting at someone near the stage.
Andi followed Jonah’s line of sight and immediately recognized Bowie’s mop of dark curls. “Yeah!”
“Bowie!” Bex shouted out, and waved.
Miraculously, he heard his name through the crowd and headed over.
“Hey!” Bowie gave Jonah a high five and then shook Mona’s hand after Jonah introduced them.
“How’s it going?” Andi asked. “Are you finished with the orchid deliveries? Can you hang out and enjoy the festival now?”
Bowie nodded. “Yup. My work here is done. Although…I do have some kind of crazy news.”
“What is it?” Bex asked.
“Turns out the Renaissance Boys might be back on the schedule—but only if I fill in for Rafe.”
“What? That’s amazing!” Andi threw her arms around Bowie and hugged him.
“Seriously, man—that’s beyond awesome,” Jonah agreed.
But Bowie didn’t seem nearly as enthusiastic. “Yeah, honestly? I’m not sure I can pull it off.”
“Of course you can!” Andi insisted.
“Totally!” Jonah agreed. “You’ll completely rock.”
“You have to do it, Bowie,” Bex interjected. “Don’t you?”
Bowie grimaced. “I don’t know. I’ve gotten so used to my nice, chill life, working with the plants—and in all honesty, plants make a much better audience than people.”
“Seriously?” Bex narrowed her eyes, more than a little skeptical.
“Oh, most definitely.” Bowie got a blissful look on his face. “They blossom and grow and appreciate me for exactly who I am…and they never boo or make me feel like I’m totally bombing.”
Andi scowled. “But you won’t bomb. You’re such a great singer, and you would basically be saving the whole festival. I mean, think about how psyched everyone will be if the Renaissance Boys are back on!”
“But will they be psyched when they realize it’s me singing and not Rafe?”
“We will!” Bex said, giving Bowie’s shoulder a squeeze.
“I dunno, man. I feel like that part of my life is over,” Bowie insisted, staring into Andi’s eyes. “I really don’t miss it—especially now that I have you in my life.”
Andi searched Bowie’s face, certain he wasn’t being completely honest. But this time his eye wasn’t twitching at all. Was he actually telling the truth? Would he honestly rather work at a nursery and hang out with Andi than headline a huge music festival? In a way, that made her feel nice. But it also seemed like he was giving up on a fun, exciting part of himself.
Andi couldn’t help wondering if she was at least partly to blame for that. How could he not be leaping at this chance? How could Andi make him see that it was the opportunity of a lifetime?
Andi decided that once Bowie watched some of the other bands performing at the festival, he would realize that he had to get up and play, too. But unfortunately, the Hemlock Brothers didn’t have a particularly great set. First their sound cut out, then the guitar went out of tune, and at one point it was pretty obvious that the singer had forgotten some lyrics. Eventually, the crowd started to dwindle. Even Bex turned to Andi before the band had finished playing and asked if she wanted to go get matching henna tattoos or something.
“Oh, um…” Andi thought about the plan she had made to get matching tattoos with Buffy and knew how upset her friend would be if Andi returned from the weekend sporting any sort of henna. “Shouldn’t we be trying to track down Jagger and his friends so you can get your wallet back? Did he ever reply to your text?”
Bex pulled the phone out of her leather bag and saw that there was a reply from Jagger. “He says he didn’t see it, but he’ll check the truck when he gets back to their tent tonight and let me know.”
“Oh.” Andi pouted.
“So? Tattoos?” Bex widened her eyes hopefully.
“I can’t…. I sort of promised Buffy I’d do that with her, so I’d feel weird doing it with anyone else.”
Bex d
raped an arm around Andi’s shoulders. “You’re a really good friend.”
“Then why don’t I feel like one?”
“What would make you feel better?” Bex asked.
“Having Buffy and Cyrus here.”
“Okay, but what would make you feel better that we can actually make happen?” Bex tried again.
Andi glanced over at Bowie, who—along with Jonah and Mona—actually seemed to be enjoying the band’s performance. “Honestly? I feel like I need to convince Bowie to do the show with the Renaissance Boys.”
“Hmmm.” Bex nodded. “Then let’s convince him!”
“But how?”
“We have to show him what he’ll be missing.”
Andi looked over at Bowie again. As she watched him put his fingers in his mouth to whistle for the Hemlock Brothers, who were just wrapping up their set, she knew Bex was right. Moments later, Andi and Bex had shared the plan with Jonah and Mona. Together, they would go from one stage to the next, making sure Bowie saw as many bands performing as possible. If that didn’t give him the itch to perform himself, nothing would.
It all seemed to be going pretty well at first. The next band they saw was stylistically similar to the Renaissance Boys, and Bowie was definitely getting into their performance along with the rest of the crowd. After each song, the applause got even more enthusiastic, with people screaming out band members’ names and “You rock!” and “We love you!” Bowie totally bobbed his head along with the crowd and pumped his fists in the air, whistling and cheering.
“See?” Andi gave Bowie’s shoulder a squeeze after the applause had died down. “People are so into the music here. How can you even think about depriving them of that? How sad will they be if they don’t get to hear the Renaissance Boys tomorrow?”
“Pretty sad?” Bowie guessed.
“Exactly!” Then Andi came up with a brilliant, if slightly cheesy, argument: “And if you really think about it, depriving all these people of hearing the Renaissance Boys would be as cruel as depriving a plant of sunlight…or water…or, you know, compost! But if you get up on that stage? They’ll be like these thirsty, hungry flowers finally getting to blossom in the presence of your music.”
Bowie’s eyes grew wide and he nodded slowly. “Whoa. That’s pretty deep.”
Jonah, who had been standing on the other side of Bowie, chimed in, “It’s also pretty true, man. I mean, I’m completely in awe of people who can make music like you do.”
“Yeah?” Bowie tilted his head.
“Totally,” Jonah said. “I wish I had half the talent that you do.”
“Nah.” Bowie rolled his eyes and shook his head, the picture of humility. “I bet you have at least half my talent—maybe you just haven’t discovered it yet.”
As Bowie turned his attention back to the band onstage, Andi pulled Jonah aside and whispered urgently, “What are we going to do? I really thought you had him there for a minute.”
“And I thought you did.” Jonah kicked the toe of his black sneaker into the grass.
“I feel like the next performance we see is going to have to really blow him away,” Andi said.
“Yeah,” Jonah agreed. “We’ll just have to hope for the best, I guess.”
Sadly, the next performance was a bit of a disappointment—and then, after the band left the stage, one of the Mountain Jam announcers got up and told the crowd that it was time for the Community Open Mic. “If you have something you’d like to share—a song or a poem, art or dance—come on up here and connect with us!”
Andi sighed. How could Bowie possibly get inspired by anyone now? Within minutes, some people near the front of the stage had grabbed instruments and a jam session had taken shape. Andi looked over at Bowie, hoping against hope that he would get up there and start singing. Maybe this was actually the perfect moment for him to get a taste of what it would be like if he decided to perform with the Renaissance Boys!
But then Andi heard someone else singing. She turned her attention to the stage, where an incredibly charismatic guy was belting out what sounded like an original ballad—or at least it wasn’t a song Andi had heard before. As his dark curls fell into his eyes and he got more and more into the song, Andi got chills. Not only did he look kind of like Bowie, but he had the most intense, soulful voice. Apparently, Andi wasn’t the only one who was blown away; the other people onstage, who had been jamming on bongos and keyboard, bass and guitar, either got quiet or stopped playing altogether so the guy’s voice could be the focus. Meanwhile, the crowd grew larger and larger as passersby heard this incredible singer and stopped to listen.
By the time the guy wrapped up his performance, at least a hundred people were crowded around, all cheering like crazy—including Andi, Bex, and Bowie. The singer must have been in a serious zone while he was up there, because he suddenly looked out at the crowd as if he were waking up from a dream and had no idea how he’d gotten there. The other musicians on the stage embraced him or shook his hand, and then he jumped down into the crowd, where throngs of people began asking him if he had any recordings they could buy or if they could at least get his autograph.
“Wow,” Bex gushed, turning to look at Andi and the others. “That was incredible.”
“It really was,” Andi agreed, glancing over at Bowie. “Do you have any idea who that was?”
“Not a clue,” Bowie replied in a hushed tone. Andi studied Bowie’s face. At first she thought his eyes were filling up with tears, and she worried that he might be bummed about this super-talented complete unknown getting so much love from the crowd, not to mention from Bex and Andi. But then she realized his eyes weren’t teary; they looked like a fire had been lit behind them.
“So what are you thinking?” Andi said to Bowie.
“I’m thinking”—Bowie paused and took a deep breath—“that I really should have gotten up on that stage before that guy did.”
Andi gasped. Had the plan worked? Had Bowie been inspired to do a bit of singing himself?
“But since I didn’t,” Bowie continued, “I guess I’m going to have to get up on the main stage…tomorrow night…with the Renaissance Boys!”
“Really?” Andi bounced up and down, her heart racing. “You’re actually going to do it?”
“Yep.” Bowie smiled as Andi, Bex, Jonah, and Mona engulfed him in a massive group hug. “I’m actually going to do it.”
As soon as Bowie gave the Renaissance Boys the good news about his decision to perform with them, Mountain Jam got better and better—thanks in large part to the fact that the band gave Bowie eight VIP passes.
“What am I gonna do with the rest of these passes?” Bowie wondered after handing the first four to Andi, Bex, Jonah, and Mona. “I guess I could wander around the festival and make a few random people’s days?”
“Actually…” Andi had a much better idea. “Maybe Pops and CeCe could use them—and if it’s not too much to ask, could I see if they might be able to bring Buffy and Cyrus, too?”
“Andi.” Bex’s tone was sharp as she narrowed her eyes. “You seriously think Pops and CeCe are going to want to drive up here, after everything CeCe said—after the way she made it sound like the world’s most dangerous road trip and did everything she could think of to stop us from going?”
“Ham definitely will,” Bowie interjected. “He already asked if I could get tickets for him and CeCe, but I couldn’t hook him up as a vendor. Now I totally can!” Bowie gave Bex a sly grin and winked before lowering his voice and adding, “I think your dad wants to relive his youth with your mom.”
“Ew.” Bex grimaced.
“Bowie’s right,” Andi said. “Pops told me that he and CeCe had plenty of adventures of their own back in the day, including going to music festivals and camping. I think coming here this weekend could be really great for them! Even if they can’t get here until tomorrow, they’ll still be able to hang out for a while and see the Renaissance Boys, right?”
“Totally.” Bowie nodded.<
br />
“All right.” Bex sighed. “I guess you can at least call them and see what they say.”
“Yay!” Andi pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her white jeans. As soon as Ham answered, she gave him the full rundown at lightning speed: “Bowie’s going to fill in for the singer of the Renaissance Boys because he’s in the hospital, and so he got a whole bunch of VIP passes for all of us, meaning you can bring CeCe to Mountain Jam after all—if you want to, that is. But if you think you can make it—even if it’s not until tomorrow—would you maybe be willing to bring Cyrus and Buffy with you, too?”
Ham chuckled into the phone and Andi could picture his blue eyes sparkling as he processed everything she had told him. “That’s fantastic—except the part about the hospital. But good for Bowie! I’ll make sure we get up there, one way or another, and I’d be happy to drive Buffy and Cyrus.”
“Oh, Pops! Thank you so much! I’ll call Buffy and Cyrus now. Just let me know how soon you can get up here. Can’t wait to see you!”
Andi’s hands were trembling as she tried to decide who to call next. She was a little worried that Buffy might not pick up—but she also worried that Buffy would be upset if Andi called Cyrus first.
“Hey,” Buffy said tersely after waiting three rings to answer. “How’s Mountain Jam?”
Andi squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. “It’s been fun, but it would be so much more fun if you were here.”
“Well, we know that’s not gonna happen.”
“Actually, it could! Bowie got a bunch of VIP passes because he’s going to be filling in for the singer of the Renaissance Boys. So Pops and CeCe are going to drive up, and Pops said he would bring you and Cyrus with them—I mean…if you want to. Please say you want to!”
There was a painfully long pause, but at last Buffy replied, “Okay.”
“Okay?” Andi frowned. “That’s it?”
“I mean, okay…see you soon, I guess? And thanks?”
Rockin' Road Trip Page 7