Battle of the Bands Read online

  “So this is”—Kyle’s head was swallowed up by a wave—“cool, huh?”

  “Yes! I’m just happy we don’t have to see”—I went under myself—“Lightning,” I said when I came up for air.

  Kyle’s smile clouded over. “Now that the pranks have started, I think things are going to get worse instead of better. I’m just glad you”—my head went underwater again and I missed half of Kyle’s sentence—“back.”

  Back? Back what? Had Kyle’s back? I didn’t feel like I did lately. Kyle was looking at me like I was supposed to say something, which made me start to panic. Did he say “chillax,” which sounds like “back”? I opened my mouth wide and shouted, “THIS IS—” And a giant wave took me out. I swallowed half the pool, choking on the chlorine as I went under. I felt Kyle reach out to grab me. He helped me to the shallow end, where I continued to hack up pool water.

  “Are you okay?” Kyle patted me on the back like I was choking. How embarrassing! In the distance, I heard a whistle. Little did I know it was Mikey G. with a warning.

  “Aww, did the baby swallow too much pool water?”

  I wiped water from my eyes and saw Lola Cummings, who was wearing a black bikini that looked like it belonged on the cover of a magazine. I was in a blue-and-white-striped swim tee that said LOVE in the same color pink as my swim bottoms.

  “Mackenzie, didn’t your mom ever get you swim lessons?” Lola asked. “Maybe you should go back to the hotel so she can take you shopping for pool floaties.” The bestie and babysitter giggled behind her.

  Kyle helped me up. “Were you looking for someone, Lola?” He was trying to sound polite, but I could hear the edge to his voice. It made me giddy to think he didn’t like Big Bird, either.

  “You guys, of course,” Lola said brightly. “We haven’t hung out in for-EVER.”

  She touched Kyle’s arm, and I prayed for a rogue wave to knock her down.

  “That’s why I flew in for tomorrow night’s show,” Lola continued. “I miss you guys! I checked into the same hotel and ran into Briggsy in the lobby…”

  Why did Lola get to call Briggs Briggsy? He hated when I called him that.

  “He gave us passes for the water park to meet up with you guys.” She held out her cell phone, which was in one of those waterproof cases. “Selfie!” Lola grabbed one of her and an annoyed-looking Kyle before I could stop her.

  I heard the alarm go off again, and the waves died down. People started to make their way out of the pool, including Zander and a bunch of female fans.

  “Where to next?” he said as girls snapped pictures. If anyone could pull off that ridiculous swim cap, it was Zander. “Oh, hey, Lola. What are you doing here?”

  Lola blinked rapidly. “Don’t I get a hug?” She pouted.

  Zander motioned to himself. “I’m kind of all wet,” he said as girls all around him started begging for hugs, too.

  Heath and Jilly came running out of the water. Jilly scowled when she saw our archenemy. Well, my archenemy, but as one of my best friends, she took the role on herself, too. “I heard Hurricane Harbor has something called Shark Bait,” Heath said. “Want to go?”

  “That attraction has limited tickets, but guess what? I already put all your names down for the eleven AM spots because I knew you’d want to do it,” Lola said, then looked at me and Jilly. “Even yours.”

  “Sweet!” said Heath.

  She held her arms open for a hug, and Heath blew past her.

  Shark Bait. I didn’t like the sound of a ride that had the word “shark” in the title.

  “What is Shark Bait, anyway?” I heard Bridget ask Lola in between pops of gum. “Do we have partners? I call Zander.”

  Lola stopped short. “Hello? If we have partners, I get Zander.” Bridget frowned. “And Shark Bait isn’t a ride. It’s their new shark tank experience. We get to swim with sharks! Is that AH-MAZING or what?”

  “Swim with sharks?” I repeated meekly.

  “Small ones,” Kyle assured me. “They couldn’t eat you.” He grinned. “Well, unless you looked like a super-tasty snack.”

  Kyle was kidding. Right? RIGHT?

  “Awesomesauce!” Heath said, stopping for a second to sign an autograph on a girl’s beach towel before Mikey G. waved her away. She ran off screaming happily.

  My ears had a whooshing sound in them, and I was suddenly very cold. The Sharkinator Returns flashed in my head. I could have sworn there was a scene in a water park. Wasn’t there? When sharks got loose and flooded a lazy river and ate people? “Sharks eat people!” I shouted as they kept walking.

  “Please,” Lola snorted. “Don’t be such a baby, Mackenzie.”

  “Why would we want to swim with sharks when we already have one here?” Jilly asked.

  “Hang back if you want. I’m sure the guys won’t notice.” Lola slid her giant sunglasses off her face and onto her head.

  “I’m not sure the guys would miss you, either, Lola,” Jilly said, pointing to the boys, who were racing in front of us. Lola’s eyebrows furrowed. “I think we’ve spoken to you more than they have.”

  Lola looked at Bridget and began to stutter. “I… well…” She growled. “Sometimes I can’t stand them!” she yelled, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I mean, I can’t stand you two,” she snapped. “If you’re scared, you can go sit on a lounge chair and write about your fears in your little journal.” Bridget’s gum popped in agreement.

  Jilly’s head whipped around. “What did you just say?”

  I was so mad, I spoke over Jilly. I tried to think like Mac Attack. “I’m not scared. I’m going because the guys actually want me there.” I pushed ahead of her to walk with Kyle. Being Kyle’s partner was the whole reason I had wanted to go to Hurricane Harbor. I couldn’t let him down.

  Lola was laughing like a hyena as she ran ahead of me and hooked arms with Zander. When would that boy learn? “There it is! Shark Bait!”

  I saw the great white shark hanging as a sign in front of a tiki hut and stopped. SHARK BAIT was written on the shark in what looked like—GULP—blood.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Kyle asked as my right eye began to twitch.

  “Fine. Not getting eaten,” I mumbled as I took the steps to the attraction two at a time, walking through the hut and toward a pool that had a half-sunk pirate ship in it. I stared at the coral on the sandy bottom and saw things moving. BIG things moving. I jumped backward, banging into a guy in a wet suit. “Sorry.” Wait. I recognized that cranky look.

  “What are you doing here?” Jeremy zipped up his wet suit. “This session is booked.”

  “Hey, Jeremy!” Lola cooed, her arm firmly linked with Zander’s. “Isn’t this great? I registered Heath, Kyle, Zander, and their little friends to do Shark Bait, too.”

  “You said this was our thing.” Jeremy eyed Heath, who gave him the stink eye back. “Why would you invite these guys? You said they’ve been ignoring you.”

  “Jeremy!” Lola laughed, hanging on Zander, who was trying to pull away. “What are you talking about? Let’s put all that bad blood aside and have fun today. Besides, Hurricane Harbor wants to take promotional photos of both your bands for their website.”

  How did Lola know that? Was she a publicist now, too?

  Jeremy growled. “I don’t trust them. This morning they hid alarm clocks all over my hotel room that went off every five minutes from four AM to six.”

  Heath stifled a laugh. “I have no idea how that happened.” He grimaced. “Or how someone poured mac and cheese powder into our orange juice containers on the bus.”

  “Beats having room service send up caramel-covered ONIONS,” Jeremy said.

  “Or someone replacing all the gummy bears in the greenroom with sugar-free ones.” Zander blushed. “They make you… Well, let’s just say I cleared out a room.”

  Jeremy grinned. “Works every time. It also makes you ripe for retaliation. There is no way I’m getting in a shark tank with you guys. One of you will t
ry to get me eaten.”

  “See?” I panicked to Jilly. “Even small sharks do eat people!”

  “It’s up to you, Jer,” Lola said, “but I’m going with Zander. The Hurricane Harbor photographer is already waiting in the water to take our picture, but if you don’t need the social media love, stay on dry land.”

  I couldn’t believe it when Jeremy listened to her. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear, grabbed a snorkel mask and fins, then waited at the pool steps.

  No one else backed down, either. Jilly ignored my shark warnings and started looking through wet suits for one that fit. The park employees helped the guys get ready. One of the workers approached me, but I waved him off. “What if we’re the first people to try this tank?” I asked Jilly. “If they haven’t figured out the sharks’ feeding schedule yet, they might get hungry and take a nibble of my big toe.”

  Jilly held up her footwear. “You’re wearing flippers.”

  “Sharks can eat through shoes!” I reminded her. “In The Sharkinator Returns, one shark ate a whole gas pump! Then he blew up, but still.”

  Kyle walked over to us. “Do you need help finding a wet suit? I can’t believe you’re going. Way to fight the fear, Mac.”

  Kyle was smiling at me in a way that made my heartbeat slow down. I focused on Kyle’s gleaming teeth and saw a picture of the two of us walking along the Champs-Élysées in Paris talking about the day everything changed between us. “I knew you were the girl for me when I saw you jump in the shark tank that day in Virginia,” Kyle would say. “It made me realize how brave you were.” Then I’d say, “I channeled my comic book alter ego Mac Attack and knew a little leopard shark wasn’t going to keep me from swimming with you.” Then Kyle would take my hand and say—

  “Do you need flippers?” Kyle waved a pair of smelly black ones in my face.

  “Oh!” I held my nose. “Maybe I should try them on over there on that bench.”

  I could hear the Shark Bait guy explaining the rules to everyone already in their wet suits. I was the only one not wearing one yet. Something about swimming slowly across, no horseplay, how the water was a cool sixty-eight degrees. Why wasn’t he talking about shark safety?

  “You’re not going, either?” Cody walked over. He looked sweaty and nervous, and it made me wonder if he had shark fears, too.

  “I’m undecided,” I said warily, as I didn’t want Heath to see me talking to him.

  Cody sat down next to me. He didn’t even have a bathing suit on. “They’ve got an octopus in the tank. I’m allergic to calamari, so I didn’t think it was a good idea if I swam with anything else with tentacles.”

  Why didn’t I try an excuse like that? I’m allergic to sharks. That would solve all my saltwater-based dilemmas. I had to remember this conversation.

  I became momentarily distracted when I saw Jeremy walk over to Lola and Zander. “I want to go with Lola,” he said.

  “I’m going with Za—” Lola started to say at the same time Zander said: “She’s all yours. No offense, Lola. I’d rather head out with an instructor.”

  “But, but…” Lola looked after him mournfully.

  “Told you so,” Jeremy smirked. Lola hit him in the arm of his wet suit.

  Did Jeremy have a thing for Lola? I almost felt sorry for the boy if he did.

  “Heath and Jilly are teamed up, so that leaves me and Mac,” Kyle said as he turned to me, eyeing Cody again. “What do you think? Will you be okay out there? I really don’t want to make you wait here alone.”

  Kyle meant he didn’t want me saying anything that could compromise Perfect Storm. Well, he didn’t have to worry. My fear of sharks had rendered me speechless. “I… I…” I started shaking my head vehemently. Cody was looking at me now, too. “I’m… not… sure…”

  “I’ll go with you, Kyle,” Bridget said. In their matching wet suits and flippers, they looked like a couple from a comic book. Bridget had Princess Leia braids high on her head that only made her look more sci-fi. I was not happy. I tried to shoot her a few lasers with my eyes, which were the only part of my body still working.

  “Well, if Mac’s not going…,” he started to say, but I could tell he was disappointed. So was I. What if Bridget was the one who wound up walking along the Champs-Élysées with Kyle instead of me and it all came down to this moment? My heart was revving when I saw Heath and Jilly slide into the pool. Zander was next, then Lola and Jeremy. I heard Lola give a scream when she hit the water.

  “Sorry,” I managed to blurt out. I was sorry. For so many things, I wanted to add.

  “Me too,” Kyle said with a shrug, and then he walked into the shark-infested waters without me.

  Friday, July 8

  LOCATION: The sun*

  *At least that’s how hot it feels in Savannah, Georgia, right now!

  When Briggs came onto the bus coughing and gasping, we all panicked.

  “Dad!” Jilly jumped up from the heated game of Heads Up! we were playing with the guys.

  Mom came running, like moms usually do at the sound of screaming, and had her arms around Briggs’s waist before we all could even figure out what was going on. She was attempting to do the Heimlich when Briggs quit coughing and started yelling at us.

  “I’m fine! BLECH! Fine! BLECH!” Briggs said between gagging fits. He ran to the fridge and popped open the first drink he found, which was an orange Roaring Dragon. His face relaxed as he drank it. Then he turned and looked at us. His face was filled with fury. “Who. Put. Horseradish. In. The. Vanilla. Cream. Doughnuts?”

  “Oops,” Heath muttered. “Briggsy, those doughnuts weren’t meant for you. Thunder and Lightning was supposed to eat them. Vanilla cream is Jeremy’s favorite.”

  “How do you know that?” Zander asked.

  Heath shrugged. “I’ve been doing my research. Jeremy must be doing his, too, or he wouldn’t have thought to put toothpaste in my Oreos.”

  “This has got to stop!” Mom reprimanded the boys. “Look what’s happening. You’re not just hurting each other; now you’re… burning your manager’s mouth.”

  Jilly started to giggle, which set off the rest of us. Neither Mom nor Briggs was amused. They sounded like total parents. Just then we heard banging on the door. Mom opened it, and Mikey G. walked in with a huge box of WHEY OUT! bars. “I heard yelling. All okay? What did I miss?”

  “We tried to prank Thunder and Lightning, but got Briggsy instead,” Heath said.

  Mikey G. held his heart while trying to balance the box of WHEY OUT! bars on one hand. “But you’re all okay? Thank God. I had to go to the front desk of the hotel to get this package. Glad you guys were here, actually. It’s impossible to open the door to the bus when you’re holding a box this heavy.”

  “We’re fine,” Briggs said, “but we won’t be if one of these pranks injures someone. The press will have a field day!”

  “They already do. Bad Kitty blames everything bad on us,” Zander said. “Or she tells her viewers something embarrassing about us, like how I use a facial steamer at night to soothe my vocal cords.”

  Heath cracked up. “That is embarrassing.”

  Zander glared at him. “Maybe you’re the one who told her, then.” Heath’s eyebrows shot up. “The people in this room are the only ones who know that I use one. So which one of you is the traitor?”

  “Chill, bro,” Heath said. “We’ve been down this road once already. We’re your bandmates. No one is a traitor.”

  “Someone has to be,” Kyle said. “Things on this tour are right dodgy. You guys are the only ones who know how hard I am trying to come up with a decent song. I can’t find the inspiration with everything going on. How does Bad Kitty know that?”

  “Guys, remember, The Raven offered you three songs as a replacement for ‘The Story of a Girl,’” Briggs said.

  “None of those are right, and you know it.” Zander dropped onto the couch with a thud. “Nothing’s as good as Kyle’s original.”

  “Thanks, mate,”
Kyle said. “Too bad we lost it somehow. I just wish the world didn’t know we were desperate to find a new tune.” For a moment, Kyle’s eyes flickered to me, and I knew why. He had come to me last week complaining about how slow his songwriting was going. Did he think I blabbed?

  “Maybe we should pack up and call off the rest of this tour,” Heath said. “Thunder and Lightning is seriously getting inside our heads. We can’t write, we’re always looking over our shoulders, the press is writing garbage about us. Yesterday Bad Kitty wrote about my stuffed-animal collection! How’d she know I have one?”

  “Didn’t Zander out you in Vegas last spring?” Jilly asked.

  “That was only about my Tigger.” Heath’s face flamed. “No one knew I have a few other animals I sleep with, too.” He coughed and looked away.

  “Let’s stop with the killing the tour talk.” Briggs took another swig of his Roaring Dragon, probably to wash the horseradish taste out of his mouth. “I’m already stressed enough thinking about your Perfect Storm/Thunder and Lightning photo shoot for Popstar! today.”

  Popstar! was here? That was Scarlet’s, Iris’s, and my favorite magazine! They always had the latest gossip on celebs and included all these foldout posters of stars to hang on our walls. How cool would it be to have a poster of PS on my wall that was taken at a photo shoot I actually went to?

  “They flew into Savannah just to do a spread on the Sizzling Summer Boys Tour, and the label wants you to play nice,” Briggs told the guys, who moaned. “You go, smile, say nothing bad about Thunder and Lightning, and you’ll be out of there before you know it.” Briggs looked at Heath. “If you don’t prank each other and screw this up.”