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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Side A: Oz
On Sunday Mom wakes me up super early. "Your Gramps fell," she tells me.
"Okaaaaay," I said, because when I fell in gym class because that prick Jared tripped me during floor hockey, she didn't seem to give a fuck. It was a whole production. Mr. Hicks made me apologize to Jared at the beginning of class for starting a fight with him, and Jared apologized to me for talking about his car, which clearly made me jealous, and he also said he was sorry I couldn't admit to myself that I had a crush on the new girl, what was her name again? And then later him and his buddies attacked me with their hockey sticks and I skinned my knees on the floor and got a big bruise and guess whose Mom didn't care and told him it was "karma"?
"He's in the hospital," Mom explains to me. "Your dad is there with him now. Broken hip, the doctors said. He'll have to go to rehab, but we think we can move him into a nursing home after this."
"A nursing home? But he was fine last weekend. He even remembered my name."
"He shouldn't be living alone. A nursing home is the best place for him."
I can't imagine Gramps in a nursing home. "What about assisted living? It's like you're skipping a whole step."
"He fractured his hip, Oz. He can't go home like that, not in the winter. The nursing home is also a rehabilitation center. That's the part he'll be in. We're hoping he'll make friends there."
Mom pats my hair like she used to when I was little.
"Come on. We'll go bring your dad some lunch."
When she leaves, I flop over and pull the covers up over my head. As if life didn't suck enough. First my band auditions were a disaster, now this. Nothing in my life is going right.
My phone buzzes under my pillow, and I lift my head enough to pull it out and squint at the brightness of the screen. It's from Margot. I sit up.
Hi Ozzie :) I totally meant to go to your band audition yesterday but my dad made me do community service for church
Anyway, maybe I could have a private audition? Lock said you wanted to audition singers? I play keyboard too
I drop my head into the pillow, and feel my face smiling. After Friday night, I was hoping to see her again, and when Dave showed up to the audition an hour late, I was disappointed that she wasn't with him. But also not disappointing, because I don't want her hanging out with Dave and wondering if they're dating. With Dave playing guitar, and Lock on drums, I have the bare minimum for a band, but as Lock pointed out, it's a bit of a sausage fest. Dave didn't even really audition. "Band people are an automatic in," Lock said, and then suggested we go to the Burger King the next town over, so we didn't even get to play any of the songs on my list.
But if Margot is asking to audition, that means she hasn't talked to Lock and doesn't know band people are an automatic in - which they aren't, because Lock isn't in charge of my band. And the fact that she asked me rather than Lock proves it.
