Chapter One

46 1 2
                                    

Natasha Bedenfield's "Neon Lights" played into my ears as I slightly bobbed my head to the tune. My fingers blazed across the silver keyboard of my MacBook as I thought hard about what I wrote. I was writing the lyrics for my song that I had been working on for forever, and I thought long and hard about them all day every day. Music had been a passion of mine since I had been in kindergarten, so I had been wanting to write a song for forever. When I finally had enough talent to actually sound good while I played the piano and sang, I immediately started daydreaming about a song I could write. And this had started.

While my earphones were blasting out music, I could still hear my little brother, Nick, yell out, "Jess is here!" through my bedroom door. Excited, I shut my MacBook and paused "Neon Lights" temporarily. I threw my iPod onto my bed and burst the door open. I flew down the stairs, almost tripped twice, and rushed to the front door. I flung open this door as well, to the sight of my best friend with two suitcases in hand. She quickly let the suitcases drop to the ground so she could fling out her arms and hug me. We squeeled like a couple of two-year-olds at Christmas and started jumping up and down.

When we finally stopped squeezing each other, we stepped back to take a look at how we had changed. Jess, who used to have white-blond hair, had gained a few streaks of brown in her wavy tendrils. Her eyes, which were once a sharp grey, had more of a sky blue to them now. Her teeth, which used to be crooked, had gone through braces and were nearly perfect, except for her top left canine, which still tilted in that sly way I remembered. Jess was a little bit skinnier, and had more of a curve to her body since the last time I had seen her. Her chin, also, was held higher in a more courageous way.

Jess seemed to be taking me in as well. She observed me for a few moments and then asked the question I had long since learned to anticipate from everyone, "Wow, do you use dye in that hair? It's so red!" I grinned and answered, "Nope, it's just natural. It seems to get more red every time I go into the sun. Which is pretty often in San Diego."

Jess agreed with a smile and asked, "So where am I sleeping?" I was a bit confused before I understood what she was talking about. "Oh, you're sleeping in the guest room. It'd be kinda uncomfortable to sleep on a couch or in a sleeping back for two months, wouldn't it?" She nodded and picked up one of her bags. She reached for the other one, but I helped by grabbing it and rolling it through the door and over to our guest room at the end of the hall.

Jess, who hadn't been at my house for three years, looked around to see the differences in furniture or anything. "You guys got a new couch, I see," she commented, and kept adding new comments about other changes or that had stayed the same. When her bags were laid carefully near the guest room bed, I helped her open and unpack into the dresser we had prepared for her. Jess's father was in the Air Force, so they had been called up to Alaska three years ago. We had been in eighth grade, and were now juniors, so there was a lot to fill in about our newer lives. What music we were into, what movies, what books, what hobbies. And even, yes, what bands.

Jess had always been sensible. She had never become obsessed. We talked about all the boy bands, like N'Sync, New Kids on the Block, Back Street Boys, IM5, and (of course) One Direction. But I never thought it would have come to this. Sadly, I guess I couldn't have stopped it from happening unless we had been neighbors again, but there was no hope. Jess was obsessed with THE most popular band of our time, and possibly any time, the one and only Kool Kidz.

Ugh, their name still haunts me with cheesiness. Jess, like so many other poor girls, had fallen under their spell. She knew their heights, ages, weights, birth years, blood type, and she had memorized each of their family members' names going back to great-grandparents. I had no problem with her liking the band, or any problems with the band at all for that matter, but I was a bit wierded out that she was so obsessed with them.

Boy BandWhere stories live. Discover now