I'll Be

Chapter Five: Play

Caia stared at me, shaking her head when I walked into practice the next week.

            “What the hell?” Julianna gestured, from the top of my dress down to my Mary Janes and knee-highs. The rest of the girls were in jeans and long-sleeved shirts, but looked comfortable enough.

            I took a deep breath, “I talked to my parents, and they thought that it would throw people off. I think they might be right.”

            “Can you move around in those shoes?” asked Liv, “I mean, will you be able to keep yourself up?”

            “For such a big heel, they’re pretty stable.” I assured.

            Caia smiled, “I think it’s classy.”

            Jules raised her eyebrow, “It’s oddly brilliant. I mean if she shows up in a sundress and knee-highs, they’re not going to think she can play.”

            “Will you wear it on Friday?” Liv questioned.

            I nodded, “But I need to practice with it, to make sure I can move. Sound okay?”

            They all agreed, and we began discussing what the plan was for Friday. And of course, we started with the cause of all this.

            “Why would Sawyer…” Bree leaned against the wall, “I mean, what would make him think to ask us?”

            Jules said, “He didn’t ask us, he asked Ted.” She nudged my shoulder, and I just shook my head.

            We stood in Caia’s kitchen, staring at the flyer Sawyer had left with me, his number scribbled out on the bottom as a sort of ‘In Case of Emergency/Call If You Have Questions’ sort of thing.

            Liv looked at me. “Maybe he’s just trying to make up for last week.” I said.

            She nodded, “Maybe. But in any case, we need to figure out what we’re going to play.”

            Julianna took out her notebook, turning to a fresh page “How many songs are we allowed?”

            “I think he said three; four depending on how long each one is.” I said, watching as she scribbled notes on the margins.

            “So, let’s think of all the songs we know.” She said softly, writing out some of the most basic three-chord songs to things more complex, “Do we want to do our own songs, or just covers?”

            Bree scoffed, “They don’t want some cover band. We have to play some of our own stuff if we want to prove we’re good enough.”

            “I agree.” Caia nodded, “But at the same time, maybe we should throw in a cover that can, you know, show that we have as much skill as they do. I’m not saying we go full-on Halestorm, but we have to plan.”

            We wrote every band we knew. We started with the ladies: BarlowGirl, Paramore, Heart.

            “Could we get away with ‘Million Voices’?” I asked.

            Liv bit her lip, “Maybe. I mean, it’s Christian rock, but it’s still rock.”

            I nodded, and circled it quickly. I scanned the list for the umpteenth time before we moved on to the covers we’d done before: Incubus, Foo Fighters, Hey Monday, Michael Jackson…