TBTILAF

Part 1, Chapter 6

The vibe en route to the radio station was downright cordial, like there had been no arguing at all. Mandi's comment about her mother, still fresh in Vyola's mind, caused her friends to cajole her back to better spirits. In fact, it seemed it was the impetus that renewed their good will toward each other. So much so that Vyola wondered, cruel as the remark was, if Mandi had intended exactly that. In light of what Sandi Bardell had said to her, and knowing from personal experience how shrewd Mandi was, Vyola couldn't put it past her. Bringing up Vyola's mom to the girls, Patience especially, would diffuse the situation and make their gripes seem rather petty. It would also pit them all against Mandi for her callousness, and restore their camaraderie. If it was the case that Mandi's remark was deliberate, despite being the target of it, Vyola had to respect that. It bothered her, though, how easily Mandi thought she could manipulate them, and how easily she, Patience and Jjenni could be manipulated.

As they pulled up to the radio station's building, they were amazed to see they were getting station's "Red Carpet Treatment." Vyola looked at the time on her phone and cringed inwardly. There were barely thiry-five minutes of morning drive-time left. While she cursed herself for feeling guilty she had to admit that if she and her band had focused on their schedule, the whole ugly scene might have been avoided. Now they were late, which was at best rude and at worst a publicity nightmare depending on how the radio jocks handled it. Vyola hoped they weren't too pissed. She couldn't fault Mandi for shining a light on their negligence; it was her methods that were suspect.

Mandi, seeing the crowd and set up, leapt from the car almost before it stopped. The girls laughed.

"Hah," Patience said. "No way she knew about this."

"Doesn't seem like it," Vyola agreed.

"Wow, we are going to hear about this," Jjenni said. But she laughed as Mandi began to gesticulate wildly that they get out of the car.

Patience, just to bust balls, cupped her hand to her ear like she couldn't hear her, even as she opened the door and jumped out with Vyola and Jjeni hot on her heels.

The crowd screamed as the band emerged from the car and jogged down the velvet roped path to where the DJs were set up with their mobile unit under a great white tent right on the corner of Sixth Avenue. The producer quickly set them in their chairs and slapped headphones on their heads. As they came out of commercial, they were live on the air.

"If you're just tuning in, or if you've been waiting for thirty minutes like we have, we are here with girlRulz."

The radio team cheered and clapped.

"Nice to meet you ladies. I'm Kyle and this is Ethan, Marcus, Joana, and our producer Allison. Thanks for joining us on the Morning Power Drive."

"You're welcome," Vyola said.

"Hey," said Patience.

"Hola, guys," Jjenni said.

"There has been some crowd waiting on you," Kyle said.

"You mean they're not here for us? I thought they were here for us," Marcus said.

"Why would they care about us when girlRulz is here?" Ethan said, causing shouts from the pressing crowd.

"You ladies are so beautiful so early in the morning. Thanks for making me feel like crap," Joana said.

"Okay, we get it," Kyle said, laughing.

"Let's meet the girls. Introduce yourselves please and tell everyone what you do in the band."

"I'm Vyola Katz. I sing lead vocals and play guitar and bass."

"Patience Smith. I sing backing vocals and I play bass, guitar and keyboards."

"Whoa," Kyle said, "Patience is a virtue."

Patience flipped her hair and smiled. "Never heard that before."

"Jjenni Wang. I play drums. You can call me J-j."

"Okay, Jj. I feel like we're friends now. So girlRulz has a smash hit album out, WWW.How, which for the older members in our listening audience stands for When, Where, Why dot How, and it's continuing to climb the charts. The single you released earlier this month, 'When, Where, Why,' is in the top 25 of the Hot 100," Kyle said.

"It's at number sixteen this morning," Joana said.

"Yeah? Wow. That's some great success. How do you feel about it, Patience?" Kyle asked.

"Well, Kyle, we try not to look at the numbers. Our manager does that. We just like to make music for the fans and for ourselves and have a really good time doing it."

"But it must feel great to get that validation for your music. Vyola?"

"Sure it does, but like Patience said, we just want to rock it."

The crowd squealed with delight as Vyola made her trademark sign to them, knuckles together, thumbs touching.

"Hey, what does that sign mean?" Ethan asked.

Jjenni answered him. "It's something Vy came up with. The knuckles together stand for strength and the thumbs touching forms a triangle, symbolizing the three of us and our unity. When we flash it to our fans, we show our solidarity with them."

"Strength and unity, solidarity – that's very cool."

"Deep," Joana said, "Who knew? I thought maybe it stood for your Va-jay-jays."

They all laughed.

Allison, the producer, now chimed in, "I had to dump that, Joana."

"Really? That's so disappointing. I'll say flower – how about that? I thought it stood for your flowers."

"Since our conversation is deteriorating, anyway, let's play ′Make You,′ another track off your album. After the commercial break and traffic and weather, we'll come back and play a game. You ladies like games?"

"Absolutely," Jjenni said.