Two high school misfits who hate each other. One music competition where they have to work together. Can their love of classic 80s rock unite them?
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High...
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Bonus Track: Oz
The mood around the table doesn't feel like we just lost to a band called "We are the Walruses." Dave is shooting a straw at Mitzi, who's cowering in the corner of the booth and giggling. Reece is using his chopsticks to drum on the napkin dispenser, his cup, and a bottle of soy sauce.
To say I'm disappointed is putting it lightly. I sigh and tug at my hair.
"Maybe I need a new look," I mutter.
"What? No way, man," Dave says immediately.
"Yeah, you got that Axl Rose thing going on," says Reece.
I look at Mitzi.
"How are we going to build our brand if you change your look now?" Mitzi says, smiling a little. "You have to wait until we release at least two albums."
I sigh again. "We'll be lucky if we get signed for an EP after this." I'm only half-kidding.
"It's better that we didn't win," Reece says. "Our band name is The Losers. If we won, we'd have to change it."
"Yeah," Mitzi agrees. "Losing is so on-brand."
"That how we can sell ourselves when we try to get gigs," Dave says, holding up his hands like he's seeing a marquee. "The first loser in the Montbourne Idol competition."
"How do you know we were first loser?" I challenge. "Those B-Sharps could have come in second."
Reece taps off a ba-dum-bum-tss. "Dude, those guys were a snoozefest."
"We were definitely first losers," Mitzi nods.
My brain is already racing to our future gigs. "Next time, we'll have our outfits coordinated. I like Reece's idea of wearing all black with the colorful headphones."
"That's just how I dress every day," Reece says.
"And I've got a few logo ideas—once we vote we can stencil it on the drum kit and maybe make bumper stickers to hand out at our shows. T-shirts are probably too expensive for now, but we could order a handful for ourselves and our roadies."
"We don't have any roadies," Mitzi says. "Although Cam might be interested."
"And I've got a few original songs, I figure we can mostly do covers until we have more of a following, but if we sing like one original song at each of our shows—"
"Oz!" Dave yells. "Calm down. We gotta get a gig first, then we can deal with all that."
"Sure, sure," I say. I let it go.
But they can't stop me from dreaming. Dreams can sometimes come true, you know. Even if it doesn't quite happen the way you think it will.
THE END
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If you've enjoyed the music mentioned in this book, read on for a playlist based on the chapter titles!
