I highly suggest watching the music video for Lemonade Mouth's "Turn Up the Music" while you read this. It'll make it much more interesting, I promise.
"Dad," Adam Gifford groaned as his father parked in front of Wendell's old high school. "Do I really have to be here for this?"
Wendell sighed. "The others brought their children, so yes, you do."
"All this is is you meeting up with a few high school friends to cry because you're all officially single parents. What does that have to do with me?"
"They're all here to support me since your mom left. You're coming, now get out. I really don't want to have to carry you in."
"I'm fifteen. You couldn't carry me even if you did want to."
"So are the other kids. I'm sure you'll like them." Wen came around the cab of the truck and opened the passenger side door. "Now come on."
Adam rolled his eyes and climbed out.
Hayley Beech had seen a lot of things in her life, but the crowded, messy basement room that her mom led her to was something entirely different.
"Wow, this room hasn't changed at all." Stella seemed awestruck. "The band met together here. This is where it all started." Stella reminisced.
"But the sign on the door says 'detention." Hayley objected.
"Yeah." Stella said slowly. "So it does."
"Whoa." Naomi Banjaree watched as her mother walked across the detention room and propped up an ancient cello, saying, "I can't believe all of these instruments are still here."
She got into position behind the instrument and experimentally plucked a few strings. A smile spread across her face.
"Nothing has changed at all." she mused. "Except for the five of us. Do you want to try?" Mo tilted the cello towards Naomi.
"I all ready know how to play it. Maybe later, if you still want me to."
Blake Delgado slumped at a desk as all of the adults crowded into a corner, talking quietly about their deserting or deceased counterparts. It was a little depressing for his tastes. Around the room, the four other fifteen year olds seemed to have the same opinion. The girl nearest him, Bridget Hughes, Olivia's daughter, put her head down on her arms.
Blake began to drum his fingers against the top of his desk as Bridget got up out of her seat. The other three kids followed Bridget's lead and got up too. Naomi walked over to examine an old cello that her mom had pointed out to her earlier. Hayley followed her. Adam just stood in the middle of the room, playing with his dad's keys, as Bridget went over to check out some old costumes.
Blake began to time his tapping according to the rhythmical drip of water leaking through the ceiling. Adam looked at him oddly and began to toss the keys to the same beat.
None of the teens noticed when their parents stopped what they were doing to watch them.
Naomi began hitting the cello, adding a fourth layer to what they were doing. Hayley looked at Naomi before she began to clap, adding a fifth layer.
Blake jumped up from the desk and ran to a drum set in one corner. He had played around with his dad's old drums enough to know how they worked. As he sat down, Naomi propped up the cello and began playing strumming it.
Not a one of the teenagers noticed as their parents settled into desks in the back of the room, watching, awestruck into silence.
Adam began to tinker around with a metal xylophone and after a second, Blake brought in the drums. Hayley picked up a guitar and began to play as Adam switched to the piano that the xylophone was laying on top of. But they were still missing something.
Bridget watched the other kids out of the corner of her eye as they began to play some of the instruments that were scattered around the room. Adam caught her eye, and gestured that she should join in with them. She didn't know how to play any instruments though.
So she began to sing instead.
It was an old song of her mother's.
"Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Nah, nah, nah, nah."
Instantly taken up by the song, Bridget didn't notice the reaction of those around her. Adam did a double take. The other kids looked surprised. The adults though, save for Olivia, were floored. They knew that voice.
"Take a look around" Bridget did just that, looked at the other kids. They were all grinning, so she kept on singing.
"Who would have thought we'd all be here?" She turned away from the costumes and went to look at some old guitar cases that someone had left on the floor.
"So let's mess around
'Cause the future is unclear
We got nothing better to do
We're just trying to get through" She tripped on one of the cases, but Adam nodded at her to keep going, so she did.
"Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Yeah
Let the music groove you" Hayley began to move to the music and Bridget walked over to join her.
"Let the melody move you
Feel the beat and just let go
Get the rhythm into your soul" Bridget began to dance in place before she made the room her stage, dancing around.
"Let the music take you
Anywhere it wants to
When we're stuck and can't get free" Bridget took a wad of paper from the teacher's desk and pitched it at Adam, who swerved without missing a note, and laughed.
"No matter what, we'll still be singing
Come on, come on" Adam and Naomi watched as Bridget picked up a piece of chalk.
"Turn up the music
It's all we got" Bridget wrote on the chalk board.
"We're gonna use it
Come on, come on
Turn up the music" When she realized what Bridget was writing, Naomi caught her mother's eye and jerked her head towards the board.
"Yeah" As Bridget turned away from the board, Adam squinted to read her writing. "LEMONADE MOUTH!"
"All we have is now"
Naomi joined in to sing as Bridget plucked up a blue feather boa. "Let's make the most of this
Come on break it out" Bridget put the boa around Naomi and pretended to applaud her.
"So everyone can hear it" Blake was next, and Bridget placed a pharaoh's crown on his head.
"They don't have to understand" She adjusted the crown.
"But we'll make them if we can
Do you hear me?" She indicated that Adam should put on the cowboy hat that was also on the piano.
"Are you with me?" So he did, making a funny face.
"Yeah" Bridget hid a pair of glasses behind her back as she approached Haley, trying to look innocent.
"Let the music groove you
Let the melody move you" Hayley let Bridget put the glasses on her, and shook her head.
"Feel the beat and just let go" Bridget began to dance with a one-armed skeleton.
"Get the rhythm into your soul
Let the music take you
Anywhere it wants to
When we're stuck and can't get free
No matter what, we'll still be singing
Come on, come on" She let go of the skeleton and picked up it's unattached arm which had been abandoned on the teacher's desk.
"Turn up the music
It's all we got
We're gonna use it"
Bridget jumped onto one of the boxes and began to dance on it, singing into the skeletons' arm. Naomi began to sing along again. "Feel the beat and just let go
Get the rhythm into your soul" Bridget picked up a fistful of the packing peanuts that were scattered over the box she was standing on and threw them at Naomi. Adam began to sing, too.
"Let the music take you" Hayley joined in.
Bridget broke away from the main lyrics and sung with a little more feeling, "Take you…"
Blake began to sing as well. "Anywhere it wants to"
"Oh, oh." Bridget broke away again.
"Come on, come on
Turn up the music"
The others stopped singing, so Bridget faded out, "Yeah…"
Hayley played and ending strum on her guitar and all the kids threw up their hands, laughing. Bridget jumped down from off of the box.
Hayley exclaimed as she tore off the glasses, "That was so awesome!"
Then they noticed the adults in the back of the room.
"Oh," Naomi gasped and started to take the boa off.
"Don't move!" Olivia told them all with a sense of urgency that the kids found unnecessary.
They listened though, and each stayed put. They watched as their parents looked around at each other. Stella got up from the desk she had been using and walked towards the chalkboard, a smile slowly growing across her face. She picked up the chalk and wrote a decisive "2" behind "LEMONADE MOUTH!".
"You guys!" Stella turned to the kids, directing the comment towards them.
Bridget frowned as she noticed the way that the adults kept looking at each other.
"Our basement is empty." Charlie spoke up. "If you want to do anything like, say, have band practice down there, I'd be more than willing to let you guys."
Bridget looked around at the other teenagers, a smile spreading across her face. One by one, they all began to smile as they realized, at least partially, what they had just done.
"Looks like we have a band to start." Blake spoke up, doing a drum roll on the drum set.
"No," Haley shook her head. "We have a legacy to continue."
Please tell me what you think. This is my first "Lemonade Mouth" fic, so I'm kinda nervous about it - but please be honest. And it is just a one-shot. Thanks!:)