Battle of the Bands Page 4

  Friday, June 10

  LOCATION: My bedroom, which I may never leave again!

  Well, that was REALLY BAD.

  Good Day USA should be renamed Bad Day Go Away.

  I’m sure it has nothing to do with Madam Celeste’s prediction. It’s just a coincidence. A really strange coincidence.

  As PS grabbed water after their first set, Thunder and Lightning was heading onstage. Jeremy and Cody shot daggers at PS as they passed.

  “Get ready, PS,” Jeremy said. “A storm is coming!”

  Zander’s head whipped around. “That’s our line.”

  “That’s T and L?” Heath sized up Jeremy and Cody as they took their mics. “We’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  “Hey, out there, I’m Jeremy,” I heard him say in a smooth voice. The crowd of mostly girls started to scream at the top of their lungs even though they had no clue who he was. “Along with my younger brother, Cody, we are Thunder and Lightning, and we’re here to make you fall in love with us.”

  Zander made a sound like he was choking.

  “I love you already!” someone screamed.

  “Some girls will crush on anyone with a microphone,” I said to Jilly, who laughed. Which made me laugh—until I heard the first words of Thunder and Lightning’s song. They sounded very familiar.

  “This is the story of a girl,” Jeremy and Cody sang in unison while their guitars backed them up. “See her standing there in her messed-up kicks, looking like she’s got the whole world to fix…”

  “Mac,” Jilly said worriedly. “Isn’t that…?”

  “That’s our song!” Zander freaked out, the color draining from his face. “Those rip-offs stole Kyle’s song!” Kyle shushed him to listen.

  Briggs and Mom came running over. “What’s going on?” Mom said. She looked the way she usually does when my keys accidentally fall into the garbage disposal. (It’s happened more than once.)

  “With a smile that feels like a million watts and a laugh that makes me wanna rock,” T and L continued to sing, and I knew for certain they were singing Kyle’s song. But how?

  Kyle’s face twisted with each word till it looked more like a wrinkly pug than a cute boy bander. I felt my heart begin to flutter at an alarming rate. It seemed to be screaming,

  The girls in the audience didn’t know anything was wrong. They were going crazy; they were screaming so loud. Some girls were even crying, and others were throwing flowers onto the stage that I was certain were meant for PS. Traitors!

  “They stole our song!” Heath said to Briggs. “How the heck did they get their hands on Kyle’s lyrics?”

  “I’m finding Ronald and getting answers.” Briggs ran off.

  “Oh! She’s a superhero in training, I’ll be forever waiting,” I heard T and L croon, and I cringed.

  “Piper, do something!” Heath flipped. “People are recording this right now. They’ll think this is their song!”

  “There’s nothing we can do till the song is over,” Mom said. I noticed someone nearby pull out a camera phone and start recording the guys flipping out.

  “Piper, this is rubbish! How could they get their hands on my song?” Kyle asked shakily. “You have to shut this down.”

  “Yeah!” I added angrily. “Pull the plug on those thieves!”

  Heath and Zander looked at me, then at each other. I could see their minds working…

  “No, mates, don’t even think about it,” Kyle started to say, but it was too late.

  Just as my mother started to say “Mackenzie Sabrina Lowell,” which was never a good sign, Zander and Heath dived for the plugs that ran from Thunder and Lightning’s guitars to the speaker system. They yanked them out, and the music died. Zander and Heath high-fived as the Good Day USA crew scrambled to figure out what had happened.

  I saw Jeremy’s head snap to the side of the stage where we all stood. Cody nudged his brother to keep singing a cappella. “This is the story of a girl, a girl who makes you want to whirl…” Jeremy snapped out of it and started singing again, too. “… a girl who makes you feel like you’re miles from shore and you don’t want for anything more. This is the story of a girl.”

  When the song ended, Jeremy and Cody picked up some flowers that had been thrown onstage and shook the hands of the girls within reach. Their smiles dropped the minute they got backstage. Jeremy came running at Heath, who barreled right back at him. I thought I was watching a wrestling match. The two boys collided in a war of words and hands, and the rest of us tried to pull them off each other. Mikey G., PS’s bodyguard, muscled his way into the middle and separated both groups.

  Cody and Ronald held Jeremy back. “You ruined our first live performance, you orange-haired freak!”

  “Who are you calling a freak, you song-stealing hack!” Heath yelled as Jilly, Zander, Briggs, and I tried to hold him.

  It was tough. He was really strong.

  “You’re just puppets with gelled hair,” Jeremy yelled at him.

  “My hair is naturally like this,” Zander shouted, touching his hair to be sure it was as perfect as always. (It was. Even in the middle of a fight.)

  “You probably perm it!” Cody shouted.

  “Don’t talk trash about my mates!” Kyle shoved him, and that’s when I really began to worry.

  Mom grabbed Jilly and me and pulled us out of the line of fire, but I could see people everywhere holding up phones and recording the fight.

  “That’s enough! Everyone in the greenroom now!” Briggs ordered, and the guys all stopped shouting and looked at each other. Heath’s chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate. Jeremy’s cheeks looked red. We all filed off the side of the stage and into the greenroom, away from the prying eyes of cameras. When we were all there, Briggs looked at Ronald. “Where did you get that song your band just played?” he asked calmly.

  Ronald scratched his head. “The boys came to me with it. I thought they wrote it. Didn’t you?”

  Jeremy folded his arms across his chest and stared at the ground. “No. A songwriter gave it to me personally.”

  “Then that songwriter stole it from us!” Heath said. “It’s not yours!”

  “Yes, it is,” Cody huffed. “Rock Starz wants us to record it. Maybe it just sounds the same.”

  “Dude, it’s the same lyrics!” Heath shouted. “You guys stole it!” Everyone started yelling again.

  “Quiet!” Briggs said. “Ronald, there is no way someone wrote that song for them.” Jeremy tried to interrupt, but Ronald shushed him. Briggs continued, “That song was written by Perfect Storm’s Kyle Beyer. We’re recording it as a single off Perfect Storm’s next album.”

  “Rock Starz wants it to be my boys’ first single,” Ronald bragged. “They’ve hired a killer producer to rerecord the song with the guys next week so we can get it on their album.”

  “They can’t record it,” said an agitated Kyle. “I wrote that song, and you don’t have my permission to use it.”

  “Well, this is a pickle,” Ronald said, even though he was smiling. “Briggsy, you and I better go talk to the label. They’re not going to want to pull this song from T and L. Especially not after they see the YouTube views for this.” He held up his phone as proof. Someone had already uploaded T and L’s performance of “The Story of a Girl.”

  “Let’s go. Now,” Briggs said to Ronald before glancing at Jeremy and Cody. “Do not perform that song again till you hear from our lawyers.”

  “You’ll be hearing from our lawyers, too,” Jeremy said smugly as he took a cup and dipped it into PS’s Roaring Dragon fountain. “That song was given to us, and you can’t take it.”

  “Yes, we can,” said Heath, taking the cup from Jeremy. (He wasn’t sharing anything today. Not even energy drinks.) “You’ve got a storm coming for you, and it’s a big one.”

  Storm. A perfect storm. And I was right smack in the middle of it. Madam Celeste’s words rang in my ears: “You have dark days ahead of you.”

  Thunder
and Lightning left the greenroom, and the Good Day USA crew rushed in to get the guys ready to go back on. I leaned against the wall, feeling exhausted.

  “They totally stole Kyle’s song about you,” Jilly said, leaning her head on my shoulder. “This is a mess, but we can’t just stand here.” She grabbed my arm. “We’ve got to go cheer on the guys.” She dragged me out of the room, then stopped short.

  “Is that Lola Cummings?” Jilly pointed to an adjoining tent, where Jeremy was huddled with his arm around a blond girl in ripped jeans and a tank top. They were both watching something on the girl’s cell phone, so I couldn’t see her face.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “Why would she be with Jeremy?”

  “You’re right,” Jilly said. “I’m just freaking out. Mac, this is bad. Really bad. How would someone have gotten their hands on Kyle’s song?”

  My heart started to beat faster. A tiny voice in the back of my head was pestering me, but I tried to ignore it. I had a copy of Kyle’s song. He’d given it to me last spring in the hotel hallway right before I asked him to my school dance. But I never let my copy out of my sight. It was in my journal, which was always with me—except when I left it behind at SoundEscape.

  “Kyle is the songwriter, and he never would have asked T and L to record it. He doesn’t even know them! He loves that song! He wrote it for you!” Jilly was saying almost to herself. “Someone had to steal it. But who?”

  I was starting to break out in a cold sweat. Could someone have found my journal and ripped out the lyrics before Mom found it and gave it back to me?

  My lips felt dry. I knew I should say something to Jilly, but I couldn’t find the words. I pictured myself telling Iris and Scarlet my fears. Scarlet would yell at me like a drill sergeant, and Iris would cry that I’d ruined the boys’ career. What would Jilly say? I didn’t want to find out.

  Jilly gasped, and her eyes widened. Could she read my mind? “Do you think that janitor at SoundEscape took the lyrics from the studio? Remember how he kept hanging outside the studio door waiting for the boys to sign a napkin?” She pulled out her phone. “I should call Dad and tell him to look into that guy.”

  I wasn’t sure if the janitor was creepy or just an overexcited dad who had kids who liked PS, too. I didn’t want the guy losing his job over a napkin. “Jilly, wait!” I said, and she stopped dialing. “I have to tell you something, and it’s not good…”

  Jilly looked at me. “What’s wrong? You can tell me anything.” She grabbed my hand.

  I looked down at our wrists. We were wearing identical rainbow-colored rope knot bracelets. Iris, Scarlet, Jilly, and I had bought them in Stone Harbor together. Jilly had been so excited. “I’ve officially joined the Mac Attack band!” she’d joked, but it was true. Jilly was one of the Fab Four now. I trusted her like I trusted Iris and Scarlet. And in this case, she might be the only one who would understand. “About Kyle’s lyrics,” I started to say.

  “You’re right!” Jilly cut me off. “I’m probably jumping to conclusions. Chances are the only people who have a copy of Kyle’s lyrics are in the band.”

  “They’re not the only ones who have a copy,” I said shakily. Then I took a deep breath and said the words that I dreaded saying aloud. “I have a copy, too. Taped in my journal that I lost for a minute that night Thunder and Lightning was also at the studio.”

  Friday, June 17

  LOCATION: Beacon Theatre—New York City

  I wish I had a helicopter like Mac Attack did in my comic book. I would have whisked Thunder and Lightning away before they started playing Kyle’s song at Good Day USA last week.

  If I had, some ridiculous vlogger, who calls herself Bad Kitty, wouldn’t have grainy video footage of the PS and T and L fight backstage. Scarlet and Iris found her vlog when they were doing their daily PS search online. It’s Bad Kitty’s only post, but it already has thousands of views.

  Bad Kitty wore big, black sunglasses that hid most of her face and a hoodie with cat ears that covered her hair. Her nose and cheeks were painted to look like she had whiskers, too.

  “Hey, kitties!” the vlogger purred. “Bad Kitty here, your new music guru, with a catfight alert! Is anyone else over Zander Welling, Heath Holland, and Kyle Beyer of Perfect Storm? I am!” She raised her hand. “They’re never going to be huge when they don’t treat their fans right. I’ve heard from numerous sources that the guys don’t appreciate their followers. They actually ignore fans when they approach them on the street! Hiss!” She clawed at the screen. “Who needs that when new band Thunder and Lightning is the exact opposite?” Bad Kitty was sitting in a dark room, so you couldn’t see much around her, but she had a spotlight on a Thunder and Lightning poster. I couldn’t believe those guys already had their own poster! “These two sweet brothers—Jeremy and Cody Callum—had their first performance on Good Day USA last week, and their song, ‘The Story of a Girl,’ has gone viral! The guys have a record deal with Rock Starz, the same label as PS, and are heading out on the road soon. We hear PS is super jealous of the guys’ song and is trying to get it pulled. Don’t let it happen! Watch T and L’s YouTube clip, and demand to be heard, cats!” Bad Kitty pawed at the screen with her super-long dark purple nails. “You can also—”

  Scarlet clicked off the video. “It’s not their song! This is why I hate cats. They’re mean!”

  “Shouldn’t a vlogger know the facts before she posts videos?” Iris was angry, too. “She should be fired from her own vlog!”

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Jilly pried the tablet from Iris’s hands, which wasn’t easy to do. All those years of tae kwon do have made her really strong. “You can’t get caught up in what one blogger says anyway,” she told us, sounding a lot like a mini version of her dad. “No one will pay any attention to some silly girl in a cat hoodie.”

  But the media did pay attention. Bad Kitty’s video began popping up on entertainment shows and music blogs. It even had a link on CNN’s website. (“I told you this would happen!” Scarlet freaked out. “You need to call Nicole, Ryan, and Stanley T. at The Morning Mash Up on SiriusXM immediately!” Iris added. “They can tell the world PS’s side of the story.”) But Briggs didn’t listen to my friends. Within days, everyone was talking about Thunder and Lightning’s song “The Story of a Girl.” And the worst part was, Rock Starz wanted to keep the truth about the tune being Kyle’s quiet! Briggs and Ronald met with the label to hash out an agreement, and Briggs was not happy with the results. I’m not sure of all the legal lingo—I yawn when my grandparents watch Law & Order—but I do know that Kyle gets songwriting credit on “The Story of a Girl.” Yay! But it’s Thunder and Lightning’s version that will be released, since it already went viral. Boo! The guys have been in such foul moods I haven’t talked to Kyle in days (although I did text him a picture I drew of PS in superhero costumes, and he texted back a happy-face emoji).

  And things were still going from bad to worse.

  “What do you think of the name ‘Sizzling Summer Boys Tour’?” Mom asked one night while I was working on my comic. She made a bizarre face that I associate with bad news. “It’s the name of the Perfect Storm–slash–Thunder and Lightning tour.”

  “WHAT?” I Hulked out, slamming the table so hard my sketchbook slid off. “They can’t go on tour together!”

  “It’s not ideal, but Briggs and I don’t know what else to do,” Mom said grimly. “The label thinks a ten-city East Coast tour will benefit both bands.” I opened my mouth to argue. “The media coverage has upped the profile of each group. Now the label wants them to make nice on tour and stop taking swipes at each other in the press.”

  “But they can’t stand each other,” I reminded Mom. “They’re going to get into fights, the media is going to report it, the guys are going to be miserable, and…” This tour did not sound fun. I couldn’t picture Kyle laughing with me on the bus, or Heath shooting spitballs at Briggs, or Jilly and me facing off against the guys at a game of mini g
olf. Not with the boys in their current mood. I was about to say all that when I stopped short.

  Had I lost my mind? Was I really about to suggest we NOT go on the road with my favorite band in the world? The guys NEEDED me now more than ever! I could be their lighthouse in the storm on this tour. (Oooh! That was a great idea for a new PS tee. A lighthouse guiding a ship through a major storm. I needed to get on that.)

  Mom hugged me. “I know with you on the road with them, Perfect Storm will cheer up in no time.” She looked at me. “This is going to be a challenging tour. I’m counting on you to be a mini tour manager for me.”

  “I get a title?” I pictured my new pass: ASSISTANT TOUR MANAGER MACKENZIE S. LOWELL. Pink glitter paint would make those words pop.

  Mom laughed. “Well, unofficially, but I mean it. I need you to be my eyes and ears on the road. Don’t let Thunder and Lightning get to Perfect Storm.”

  “I can do that,” I said, saluting Mom for added effect.

  “Then I can handle catching up on this week’s episodes of Life After Life and ordering in takeout from La Piazza for dinner,” Mom said.

  Things were starting to look up.

  Or so I thought. Darn Madam Celeste!

  When Jeremy and Cody Callum showed up for our first Sizzling Summer Boys Tour appearance at the Beacon Theatre in New York, Lola Cummings was with them.

  “Aww, look! If it isn’t the Perfect Storm fan club.” Lola walked toward us in heels so high I thought they were stilts. Her cheetah print pants clashed in a cool way against her leopard print top.

  “I guess Perfect Storm fans are dropping like flies now that the world knows how they treat their fans,” Jeremy sneered. “You two are the only ones they seem to have left.”

  Jilly folded her arms across her chest and glared at T and L. Jilly was five feet of pure fury. Cody seemed a tad scared of her. “The only reason there aren’t fans here right now is because there is no meet and greet backstage tonight. With all these lies about PS out there, everyone backstage needs to sign a confidentiality agreement now. We don’t want anything else of PS’s stolen.” She looked pointedly at Jeremy.