by Beth Garrod
“Did you know Brian had posted it too?” Adam’s face dropped, meaning he definitely didn’t. Tegan scrunched her nose. “It’s not exactly the world’s most positive comments section to read.”
“Bells…” Adam crouched down, concerned. “You OK?” I’m guessing the fact I’d stopped being able to blink answered that. “If it helps, I thought you looked awesome…”
C’mon, me. Be the Bella you want to be. Breezy, confident, cool. Try and laugh this off.
I sat up robotically. “Yeah, yeah. No big deal.” Aka, the British for “my life is ending but let’s not make a scene”.
Tegan was jabbing her finger towards my shoulder. I felt across with my hands. There was something there. I pulled it off.
Oh, excellent, I’d accidentally given myself a shoulder pad of My Little Pony pants. And now I was holding them out like they were a piece of scientific evidence.
I HAD TO GET ADAM OUT IMMEDIATELY BEFORE I DID SOMETHING EVEN WEIRDER LIKE DISCOVER I’M WEARING A TAMPON AS A TINY HAT. “I’ll come find you in a bit.” I was officially gabbling. “I just need a moment.”
“If you’re sure?” He didn’t sound convinced. More sort of concerned. “Still want to meet later?”
I nodded, but in the absence of me being able to think straight, Tegan made an arrangement to meet in a couple of hours and Adam cleared the area. When he left she shuffled over and put her arm round me. “You know this will be OK, right?”
But I couldn’t lie to her. “I’m not so sure.”
“Well, I am.” She stood up as best she could in a tent that was only rib-high. “So let’s go find Rach and help get SO many people to the protest that Brian decides to go and live in a hole for the rest of his life … while campaigning for equal rights around the world.” She lolled her head from side to side. “His hole will have good internet, OK?”
But after half an hour of looking round the campsite, Rach’s phone was still going to voicemail, and there was no sign of her. We had a new biggest worry.
We should never have left her with Marge and co.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
By the time we’d done a lap of the festival looking for Rach, it was half ten. When we arrived back at our tent, on the other side of the fence the only sign of life was Marge, flicking through photos on her phone. When she saw us she walked over to the fence.
“Hey, viral sensation.” Great, Marge knew about the video already. “You guys missed a mad one last night…” She turned her phone round, showing us a video of what looked like Rach standing on her shoulders, being supported either side by Britney T and a man dressed as a giant pencil.
There really was nothing we could say except, “Whoa.” Tegan glanced towards Rach’s tent, only one thing on her mind.
“Did Rach get home OK?”
“She …” Marge bit her lip. “… definitely got home OK.” Well that was a massive relief. “Though it miiight have been slightly later than planned. Like … maybe just before you guys headed out?” She slapped her hand over her mouth like she’d let a secret slip. “We saw her this morning when she went for a wee and told her you wouldn’t mind…” She held her hands up. “Don’t shoot the messenger!”
“As long as she’s OK.” Tegan’s reply had a coolness that was so subtle maybe only I picked up on it.
I tried to ease the tension.
“She’s probably out now, which is why there’s no sign of her.”
Suddenly there was the noise of what sounded like a giant hedgehog rustling in the undergrowth.
“I AM SOOOOO SORRYYYYY!!!!” Rach’s tent wailed. After all that she was here all along?! “I fell back asleep?!”
A mass of red hair – more of a knot than a style – poked out of the tent, followed by the blinking and bleary face of Rachel. She stumbled towards us, still in last night’s clothes. “I have failed us.”
“Morning, Rach.” Tegan walked towards the fence. “Am I right in thinking this means you haven’t started handing out the flyers yet?”
Rach wrinkled her nose. “Sorry. You know what I’m like…” We did. She was a girl who once fell asleep having a filling. So why had she stayed out so late if she knew she had important stuff to do for the protest? Didn’t she care any more? I needed to fill her in on the latest development.
“Well, Brian’s been a complete twonk today, so I’m completely fuming.” I sounded as annoyed as I felt. “Slash totally mortified. While we were looking for you, people kept shouting ‘bin-bag girl’ at me.”
Rach’s face softened. “You’ve been looking for me?”
Tegan raised her eyebrows and nodded. “Just a bit.”
Rach put her hand over her face. “I’m so sorry, guys. Won’t happen again.” Marge coughed as if she didn’t believe her. We all ignored her. “Bells, do you mean the video? I can’t believe Brian did that.” So she’d seen it too. “I mean, fair enough, I laughed when Tommy K originally posted it.”
Marge sniggered. “To be fair, we all did when Rach showed us…”
Rach had passed the video around? Great. I knew we didn’t have sides, but if we did, I’d wonder whose she was on.
Rach carried on, unaware of how much that had stung. “But they were being sweet about you. Brian reposting was a douche move. I meant to message to check you were OK.” She cringed again. “But I must have drifted off.”
“Yeah. You must have done,” Tegan muttered.
This conversation wasn’t going anywhere nice. I tried to move it on.
“Good night though?”
Rach’s trademark massive smile came back. “One of the best.” She laughed to herself. “Seriously, Bells, who knew Jo had it in her? She was wiiild.”
It was deeply satisfying to have found something Jo was truly terrible at.
“I would never have guessed that was your sister. You could have warned us you were related to the world’s worst dancer.” Marge flung her arms and head about all out of sync. It was actually quite accurate. Marge and Rach cracked up at the impression, but I had to force my laugh. It was one thing me thinking mean thoughts about my sister – after sixteen years of being tortured by her, and always having to sit in the back seat of any car journey, and her turning up here, I’d earned it – but somehow it didn’t feel as funny when it came from someone else.
Rach caught her breath. “We did some more filming after you’d gone. Absolute classic. Remind me to show you later.”
But did I want to see it? Or watch any more of them laughing at my sister?
Gah. It wasn’t even eleven and already today was too full of confusing things.
“And guess what, Bells.” Marge bit her lip like she’d made the most exciting discovery. “Rach was saying we might be college mates?”
Was it just me, or did that sound less of a friendly offering and more of a threat? I looked at her, trying to work her out, but Rach jumped in to explain. “Not quite what I said. I just meant if we end up going to separate places.”
So she’d told them I’d messed up my exams.
Marge smiled sweetly. “Yeah, we’re going in to our final year at Shire Sixth Form.”
I smiled back. “Great.”
I had a feeling neither of us thought that was true.
I couldn’t deal with any more of this convo so made an excuse to duck out and see Adam. There was a phutt-phutt-pad-a-phutt coming from outside his tent. He was sitting on the grass in front of it, deep in concentration, humming to himself and drumming on some cans.
I walked right up to him before he noticed. He stopped with a start.
“Pretend you did not hear that?!” He looked mortified.
“Practising? Your drumming sounded ace.”
“Stop flattering me.” He fanned his face, smiling. “NO! IN FACT DO NOT! …Never stop?!”
I grinned and ran through all the compliments I could give him. Wondrous forearms. Weirdly cute way of hiccupping. Excellent taste in pizza toppings. All totally appropriate to think ab
out him, but probably not to say to him. I needed something less weird. “…Nice tune?” TUNE?! Who says tune?!! Was I suddenly a forty-year-old piano teacher?!
“You kidding?” Adam stuck his tongue out. “Somehow Dad’s got the stupid Session in my head, and now I keep finding myself humming it.” He shook his head, disgusted. “PLEASE KICK ME NOW.”
“I TAKE IT BACK THAT SONG WAS AWFUL. But … I will not be kicking you.” I poked him hard in the head. “A disappointed prod is all you’re getting.”
“Not the disappointed prod?!” he fake protested, but I did it again as it was a nice excuse to touch him, and then sat down next to him. He put his arm round me.
I rested my head on his shoulder. This was pretty perfect. We sat quietly for a couple of seconds, before I spoke.
“How are you feeling about tomorrow?”
“Oh, Bells. I’m BRICKING IT. I mean, practice was great, but the stage and stuff, it’s just so … big.”
I smiled, gutted yet again that I couldn’t be there.
“Adam, you’ll be great. Just go out there and do what you do best.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek, and my most confident smile.
But I had my own worries too.
The Session and their fans were out for us.
Was this protest really going to make any difference? Or just make me even more of a target than I already was?
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Reunited, Rachel, Tegan and I went on a mission handing out protest flyers in every campsite we could get into without the security guards chucking us out. Tegan had stopped being in a mood with Rach, and Rach was being extra helpful to make up for this morning. The only blip was when she quietly asked if we were sure the protest was a good idea, and if there was a better way to make the band listen, but Tegan shot her straight down, telling her not to listen to Marge. It sounded like a direct quote from her. But after Rach had said it, she didn’t mention it again, and threw herself into handing out the most flyers out of all of us. She even blagged some material and pens to make flags on Sunday.
And by the time we’d dropped them off at the tent, eaten some crumpets (Rachel’s treat), jumped around to five bands, and seen two amazing talks, things felt back to normal. I felt loads better. Especially as we’d had another twelve people say they’d be at the protest, and three were going to come and make posters with us first. The crowd was going to be thousands strong, so we needed a lot more people to make a difference, but at least we knew some people were on our side.
I always took Polaroids of extra-special moments, and the three of us here lying in the afternoon sun felt like a moment I wanted to have on my wall for ever. My camera whirred, and after a few seconds the picture of Tegan, Rach and me squashed together, doing peace signs, a mixture of pouting (Rach), tongue out (me) and ginormous smile (Teeg) slid out and started to develop.
“ICONIC!” Rach grabbed it out of my hand and kissed it. It was ace. I stuffed it in my bra for safekeeping. Fingers crossed it’d be sweat proof.
“Oh, hiyer, guys.” A voice that wasn’t one I expected came from above our heads. I looked up. “Or should I say bin bag girl?”
Oh, hello, person I least want to see. Is what I wanted to reply. What I actually said was, “Oh, hi.”
I congratulated myself on my restraint. Had Luke just come over to gloat?
“Loved that vid this morning, Bells. You’re hilaire.” Yup, he’d just come over to gloat. “First loo roll, then bin bags. You really are a quality bird.”
I tried not to gag at the “bird” bit. He’d done that just to wind me up, so I ignored it.
“Got to give the fans what they’re after.” I fake laughed, flaughed, as best I could.
“Reassuring to know you’ve got a future in litter picking though, Fishy. You know. If college doesn’t work out.”
He was such a barrel scraper.
“Oh, it will.” Tegan was straight in there to stick up for me. I looked at the ground, not sharing her confidence but not wanting to give it away. “And even better – ’cos Bells will be with us, you won’t need to obsess over her any longer.”
But he didn’t have time to insult me any more as Adam, Marcus, Mikey and Jay arrived, chomping their way through what I think was their second pizza each of the day. We’d last seen Mikey heading towards the food stands, on a passionate rant about why “brunch” was acceptable, and how he was going to make lunch/dinner – linner – happen.
“Nice panda suit.” Luke sneered at Mikey.
“Nice face,” Mikey shot back.
“Well, I’ll leave you guys to it.” He looked at us all as if we wasting his time, rather than him coming over to us. “And if you want to listen to some proper music –” he looked at Adam “ – not like the Damp Donald Problem…” He knew exactly what their band was called. “Ska is on stage in thirty. It’s going to be the set of the festival.” I couldn’t think of anything worse. But at least it meant Luke headed off. I shuffled next to Adam and lay down with my head resting on his shins, the sun beating down on my face. Give or take Brian’s attempt to ruin things, we were having a perfect day together. Hanging out with everyone, seeing bands, laughing at all the fancy dress outfits which had seen better days.
Marcus cleared his throat and wiggled his eyebrows. “So, shall we do it then?”
No one knew what he meant.
“Explain,” Adam demanded.
Marcus shrugged as if it was obvious. “Go see Ska?”
I gagged (quite hard when lying down). Marcus threw a plastic fork at my head. He meant it to bounce off, but ’cos I hadn’t brushed my hair in ages, it speared my hair and just sort of stayed there.
“Sounds like one of your worst ideas to be fair.” Mikey put his arm around Tegan and planted a massive kiss on her head.
“You might wanna wash that, Teeg.” One of Marcus’s favourite pastimes was teasing Mikey. “He’s been what? Almost forty-eight hours straight in that panda suit?”
“IT’S A LEEEEEMURRRRR.” Mikey leapt over and bundled Marcus under him, Jay following in with his pincers. I pulled my proper camera out. Silhouetted, they looked sort of epic and gladiatorial – if gladiators had worn fluffy animal suits and one of them had half an uneaten pizza slice stuck to one foot.
But Marcus hadn’t been joking, and with nothing better to do, we found ourselves pushing and shoving into the middle of the crowd at the New Bands Tent to see Ska.
Even though it was her, I was still excited. There’s nothing better than being in the middle of a crowd you can’t see the edges of, everyone waiting to hear the first booming note play out, looking for clues something might be about to happen on stage. Luke had already posted a thousand pics of “how his baby girl had the biggest crowd yet”. She didn’t, but his pics did make it look like she had. He’d ended up standing near to us. Probably to strategically gloat. Well, this was going to be fun, aka, not at all fun.
And as soon as Ska came out, I knew I was right.
She was in a gold reflective unitard.
Her hair looked like something Selena Gomez would class as a good day.
She didn’t even walk – she was carried on by a group of guys, all dressed in black, literally standing on their shoulders. Was that even possible? Sometimes I fell over just standing on the floor.
She looked like a goddess.
I, however, was wearing a white T-shirt I’d just dropped mozzarella on, had third-degree sunburn on my chin, and when I’d just blown my nose, glitter had come out. I wouldn’t say I was at peak #SelfLove right now.
Luke leant over to his mate, transfixed by Ska. “Soooo fit, mate. I mean. Seriously.” He said it loud enough for me/most of the crowd to hear. I picked a bit of cheese stain off my top self-consciously.
Ska’s man-platform slinked to the front of the stage and stood still. Ska eyeballed the crowd.
Luke snapped his fingers in the air and hollered, “THAT’S MY BIRD!” Tegan shouted back “people aren’t property”,
but the crowd was too loud for him to hear. Everyone was whooping and clapping, desperate for the set to start.
There had been a buzz about Ska and the Lets all weekend. Until a few days ago, nobody had really heard of her or her music, but this weekend she’d got all her #ModelSquad to post about her, and in just seventy-two hours she’d basically made herself a bona fide celeb. The sides of the stage were packed with people I recognized from other bands, as well as smartly dressed groups of people all whispering behind their hands, like they might be from record labels. Luke hadn’t been exaggerating about the interest in her.
Could I definitely bear to watch this? It couldn’t be nice for Adam either – I knew how worried he was about no one turning up for his gig. That if tomorrow didn’t go well, this could be his first – and last – time playing a proper stage. Why did I agree to come?
But I’d left it too late to leave. The crowd fell silent (give or take a few wolf whistles) as Ska slowly dismounted her human pyramid. Luke turned and gave me a double thumbs up. I mustered what dwindling spirit I had to smile back. He was loving this.
Ska walked up to the microphone. I closed my eyes, wishing I was anywhere else. Even sitting my exams again.
But … nothing happened. I reopened them.
Ska was … doing a handstand. Had I missed something?
I sideways glanced at Adam. He had his head tilted, also trying to figure out what on earth was happening.
Someone shouted “sing something” at the front of the stage. Was the mood shifting?
BOOM.
The first note played out. A band marched out. And just like that, the crowd were back on side, cheering wildly. Ska stood up from her handstand. Bleeping started. Was she some kind of modern-day Lady Gaga?
BOOM.
BEEP.
BOOM.
It sounded a little like when Mum’s smoke alarm starts to run out of batteries.
Ska strode up to the mic. But instead of singing, she … did a forward roll??
I put my hand on Adam’s shoulder to push myself up to see more. What was happening? Why was noise playing and not a song? Hadn’t they soundchecked? Or was this it?