Chapter 9

"It's over at 5:00 this afternoon and I haven't finished my song," Craig replied as he shoved a flyer in front of Sean's face. The top of the flyer stated "contest" in large, bold letters. One of the popular radio stations were sponsoring a contest to promote the grand opening of a new night club. The band or songwriter with the best original song would perform live on the club's stage opening night. The deadline was today and the announcing of the winner was going be Monday morning. Craig had been racking his brain all week to come up with a winning song.

A tired Sean rubbed his eyes as he popped his locker open. He could barely read the words on the flyer because he was so tired. He and Devon had stayed up late the night before to clean up the mess they splattered all over the school halls. He pushed Craig's hand out of his face to reach inside his locker. "Why don't you use one of the songs you've already written. Don't you have, like, a million of them?"

Craig agitatedly leaned against the locker next to him. He knew that it was useless explaining anything to his friend. He just wouldn't understand. He looked around and decided to change the subject. "Wow! Is it me, or does this place look...cleaner than usual..." he replied sarcastically as he looked around the sparkling hallway. He purposely said it to aggravate Sean.

"Ha, ha." Sean closed his locker and looked at Craig. He was obviously not amused.

Craig looked up and spotted Marco and Spinner walking to their next class. "I've gotta go," he told Sean as he started to walk away. "I have to talk to the guys and figure out a time to practice the song." He lightly patted Sean on the shoulder. "Wake up, buddy," he said with a smirk. "Only 7 hours left to go until the weekend."

Sean sighed. "Don't remind me!" As he watched Craig walk off, he felt a light thud behind him. He turned around and noticed that Devon had walked up to him and tiredly collapsed against a locker.

She groggily looked over at Sean. "Remind me never to do anything that will cause me to serve detention EVER again," she groaned.

Sean laughed lightly. "You always say that," he answered back. "But it never happens..."

At that moment, Manny walked up to them. "Hey, Sean. Hey, Devon," she said with a smile.

They both made a face at her. It was almost sickening seeing how perky Manny was so early in the morning.

"What's up, Manny?" Sean asked as he looked behind her to see if anyone was close by.

Manny gave a suspicious grin. "Emma's not here yet...if you're wondering..." She looked over at Devon. "Actually, I wanted to ask Devon something."

Devon opened her eyes when she heard her name. She didn't even realize that she was close to dozing off in the middle of the hallway. "Huh?" she asked confused.

"I'm having a sleepover at my place tonight," Manny replied. "Emma, some girls from the squad, and some other girlfriends are going to be there. I just wanted to extend the invitation."

Devon blinked. "Huh?" she asked again completely dumbfounded. She barely knew Manny. In fact, she didn't even know the girl's name until Sean mentioned it.

Sean jabbed Devon's side with his elbow when Devon didn't give an answer.

Devon quickly woke up. "Uh...thanks for the invite, Manny, but...I don't think I'll be able to make it."

Manny shrugged her shoulders. "No big deal. Just call me if you decide to change you mind, okay?" She looked over at Sean. "I'll see you in class, Sean. I'll tell Emma you were looking for her."

"I wasn't looking for her..." Sean mumbled as Manny turned and walked away. He looked back at Devon.

"What?" Devon asked when Sean said nothing.

Sean cocked his head to the side and sighed.

Devon sighed back. She knew what he was thinking. She shook her head. "No—no way! Is that bandana on your head on so tight that oxygen can't reach your brain?...or are you just sleep-deprived?" The bell rang and she started to walk to her next class. "In case you forgot—I don't 'do' sleepovers."

Sean trailed behind her. "Dev, you promised that you were going to be nice to my friends, remember? This is the perfect way for you to get to know them."

Devon stopped to turn around and face Sean. "No. You want me to get to know EMMA. I get that. And I know that it will mean a lot to you if she and I became friends." She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Fine. I'll take her out to lunch...or even try to attend one of those environmental club meetings. Whatever. But I'm NOT going to get to know her between the giggling, toe nail painting, and pillow fights."

Sean laughed. "Girls don't REALLY do that at sleepovers." He stopped to think for a moment. "...do they?"

"I don't know!" Devon answered back frantically. "And I assure you that I'm not going to find out."

She continued to walk down the hall, while Sean split off to walk into his next class. He stopped at the doorway. "Just think about it, okay?" he called out as Devon continued walking without looking back.

As Devon walked into her next class, she noticed the bold letters written across the chalkboard: "Book reports due today." "Great," she mumbled to herself. She completely forgot about the assignment. Instead of taking her seat, she turned around and walked out of the classroom before the late bell rang. She wasn't in the mood to get a dirty look from Ms. Kwan. She needed to hide out for a little while until her next class.

Craig tapped the eraser of his pencil against his desk anxiously as he looked down to read the lyrics of his song for the fifth time. He was in the middle of study hall and he has been running the song in his head over and over again. Somehow...the song was missing something and he couldn't figure out what it was. He looked up at the clock. There was 35 minutes left and he didn't want to spend it sitting in his desk. He needed to put the finishing touches of his song together. He raised his hand. "Restroom break?" he asked the teacher in front of the classroom.

He folded his lyrics and stuffed it in his pocket as he started to head towards the music room. He figured that the teacher wouldn't even notice he was gone the rest of the period. As he turned the corner, he realized that someone had beat him to it. There was music playing from the music room. He stopped for a moment and raised his eyebrows impressed. Whoever was playing sounded pretty good. He walked up to the room and leaned against the doorway. Sitting at the piano was a dark haired girl. He looked carefully and recognized that it was the new girl that was in a few of his classes.

Devon sat at the piano and allowed her thoughts to get lost in the music. She was getting ready to hide out in the ladies room that period, but came across the music room. It had been weeks since she's played and she wanted to get some creativity out of her system before her next class. She playfully hit a few jazzy chords. She suddenly stopped when she noticed a figure standing in the doorway. She tensed up for a moment, because she thought it was the principal getting ready to serve her another session of detention for skipping class. She took a sigh of relief when she noticed that it was only another student.

Craig jumped up slightly when he realized the girl had noticed he was standing there. "Sorry," he replied. "I didn't know that someone was going to be in here." Devon continued to stare at him nervously. "Please," he continued. "Don't stop on my account."

Devon pushed back and stood up. "Actually I'm not supposed to be here."

Craig chuckled. "Neither am I. I was hoping to do a little practicing before my teacher notices my unusually long bathroom break."

Devon started to walk away from the piano. "You're more than welcomed to practice." She looked at Craig carefully. "You're Craig Manning, right? A friend of Sean's?"

Craig nodded and walked up to Devon to shake her hand. "Yeah. And you're Devon, right? You're in some of my classes." He looked over at the piano. "What were you playing anyway?"

Devon shrugged. "Nothing special. I was just piddling around."

Craig was impressed. "You mean you made that all up?"

Devon nodded. She didn't see what the big deal was. "Well, yeah. My grandmother taught me how to play piano when I was younger. I used to play from all of the old piano books she used to own. After I learned all of her books, I didn't have the money to buy new material...so I just make up my own stuff."

"That's awesome!" Craig complimented. "I wish stuff came that easy to me." He slipped the sheet of lyrics from his pocket. "I've been working on this thing for days!"

Devon walked passed him. "Well, don't let me take away your practice time."

Craig shook his head. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's really no big deal—" He turned around and realized that Devon had already left the room. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the guitar that was resting against one of the corners of the music room. He hopped on a stool and started to strum. He looked down at his lyrics and started to sing his song. After he finished his song, he frowned. There was still something about the song he wasn't completely satisfied with. "It just seems like I'm missing something..." he muttered to himself.

"A bridge," a voice called out.

Craig looked up startled to realize that someone was listening to him. He saw Devon standing at the doorway. "Hey...I thought you left!"

Devon walked up to one of the chairs that had her flannel shirt hanging off of it. "I just came back to get this," she answered back. "It's a bad habit of mine. I'm always forgetting things." She grabbed the shirt off the chair. "Just continue with what you were doing..."

Craig stood up. "Wait!" he called out.

Devon stopped and turned around.

Craig walked up to her with the guitar in one hand and his sheet of lyrics in the other. "You were saying something about a bridge..." he showed her his lyrics. "Where should I put it?"

Devon looked down at the page of words. She pointed at a certain spot. "Right here," she replied. "You should have the bridge here instead of a third verse. The song started to sound monotonous if you do a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, then ANOTHER verse. Make the lyrics to the third verse into a bridge..." she paused to think for a moment. "...then, make the final chorus a step higher." She looked up at Craig. "That way, it'll sound like you're building up to the end...and not just 'ending' the song." She looked at the lyrics one more time to see if she forgot anything. "And I guess, that should be it!"

Craig looked down at the words again, and everything started to sound clearer. Why didn't he think of that before? It was so obvious! "That's it!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Thanks a lot, Devon! I—" He stopped when he looked up and realized that she had left the room again.

The bell rang and everyone scattered out of the classrooms to go to lunch. Devon quickly walked out of her class to hopefully catch Sean at lunch. She started to feel guilty for refusing to do Sean a favor by going to Manny's sleep over. She turned the corner and stopped when she noticed that Sean was in a deep conversation with Emma.

"I didn't know that you were here after school," Sean told Emma. "Why didn't you tell me? I would have met up with you."

Emma shifted her notebooks from one arm to the other. She tried to avoid eye contact. "I was with Manny, and you..." she looked up at him coldly. "you just seemed busy."

Sean was completely dumbfounded to Emma's sudden coldness. "I was just at detention. Trust me...I would have had no problem skipping out on it for a few minutes to hang out with you if I knew you were still at school." He paused for a moment to allow Emma to respond back, but suddenly became nervous when she didn't say anything. He figured that she was mad at him for getting into trouble and for breaking their study date. "Let me make it up to you, then," He looked down to gently take Emma's hand. "Let me take you out to dinner this weekend."

Emma felt her stomach flutter. Just touching him made her completely lose herself. She struggled to stand her ground. She forced herself to stay aggravated with him. She pulled her hand away. "I'm going to Manny's sleepover tonight, so I'm busy."

Sean shrugged. "So, why not Saturday, then?"

Emma started to walk away. "I'm busy that night, too," she stated nonchalantly.

Sean stood quietly in the middle of the hallway for a moment and watched Emma walk away. Devon saw the look of disappointment on Sean's face and felt bad for him. It was obvious that Emma was angry because he spent the entire day in detention with her. It was even sadder to see that Sean had no clue of Emma's jealousy. Sean sighed sadly and walked away to go to his locker. As Devon watched him walk off, she realized that she had to apologize to Emma for taking up Sean's time. She knew that if Emma was refusing to speak to Sean at school, she will refuse to speak to HER if she tried to approach her. There was only one place she can force Emma to talk to her. She looked up and noticed Manny walking by her. "Manny?" she called out.

Manny turned around and noticed Devon standing behind her. "Hey, Devon." She smiled. "Changed your mind about going to the sleepover?"

Devon gulped. She knew she was going to regret what she was going to say next. "Actually...I have." She forced a fake smile. "Just tell me the time and the place."