Chapter 2
Once Tim and Axel finished their show, Tim turned his attention to his cell phone, which had been buzzing repeatedly in his pocket the whole time, just begging him to answer it. Upon turning the screen back on, he discovered a small number of text messages from Ashley, saying that the band was going to meet at Garibaldi's for lunch at 11:30 that morning. Dashing off a reply of "yes," Tim went upstairs and put on some more decent clothes. Not that Garibaldi's had a dress code, but Tim just wanted to show the fine Italian restaurant some respect.
Tim was actually the first to arrive; Ashley, Tara, and Bobby were all fashionably late by about a minute. They took their seats and perused the menu before each selecting manicotti. "It's funny we're here to talk shop," said Bobby. "Remember the last time we did that?"
"What do you mean?" asked Tim, somewhat mystified.
Tara laughed. "Oh yeah. That day."
Ashley practically snorted water out of her nose in her haste to add to the story. "Didn't you ever wonder why we picked the name 'Lethal Tomatoes' for our band?"
"Well, it just sounded like a good name for a rock band, so I went with it, no questions asked," said Tim. "Now you're telling me there's a story behind it? Do I wanna know?"
"Three years ago, Garibaldi's didn't exist," Tara began. "This place was called Il Lessico. We came here, tried to come up with a band name, had no success - at first."
Bobby smiled at the memory. "See, Il Lessico made a wonderful marinara sauce, homemade, the whole deal. But that one day, it seemed we got a batch made from improperly washed tomatoes."
"Pesticides, poisons, what have you," Ashley jumped in. "We were in the hospital for a week because of the food poisoning. So when we come out, we learn that one of us" - here she gave Tara a filthy look - "has lawsuit-happy 'rents. Who sued the pants off the owners, allowing Mr. Garibaldi to come in and pick the place up for a song. And in honor of that day, when proper food came to this shithole town for the first time, we named our band after the instruments that made it all possible - the Lethal Tomatoes!"
Tim stared for a second, then finally he burst out laughing. "You named your band after foodstuffs that nearly killed you? What kind of sick souls have I joined forces with?"
"Well, we did think it would be funny to show you a video of Tim and Axel look-alikes in love," Tara pointed out. "Sorry if we offended you, by the way."
"No problem," said Tim. "I've gotten over it, that's all that matters. If Axel hates you, then everything in the universe is totally in order."
Ashley nodded. "Got it memorized. Now, to business. School's starting up again on Thursday - insert collective groan here- and it seems we've been asked to provide entertainment for the grand re-opening."
"Really now?" asked Bobby. "Suddenly the principal likes us?"
"Actually, it's the vice principal who asked for it," said Ashley. "Well, more like acting principal now. The real one is most likely gonna get fired because of what he did to us."
Tara clapped her hands in delight. "Yay!"
"So we're here to decide what songs are gonna be in our setlist," said Ashley.
"And eat merrily," Tim added, looking up as the waiter came back to serve them their four plates of manicotti.
Bobby tasted the manicotti and did the typical Italian kissing-the-fingertips gesture. "No poison detected," he says. "Most un-lethal tomatoes these are."
"Wonderful!" said Ashley, as she, Tara, and Tim followed suit and dug in.
