Music Lessons

Part 2

The Bands Battle

By Nick Maro

It was a cool May afternoon. A steady breeze blew in from the ocean. Pizzazz took a deep breath and helped Rio lift the amplifier off of the van. Together they brought the heavy speaker into the garage. Once set down, Aja hooked it up. Pizzazz raced back to the black van and checked if there was any equipment she left behind. She grabbed the guitar case and rushed back into the garage.

Pizzazz opened the guitar case and pulled out the new instrument she had just bought. She plugged it into the amp and took a few moments to tune the new guitar. Once satisfied, she began to play a small solo. Aja took a cue and joined in. Rio stood off to the side and watched the women enjoy themselves in their music. They stopped playing and set their guitars down. Both were all smiles.

Aja walked up behind Pizzazz and massaged the green haired woman's neck as they walked to the house. "That sounded great, Phyl—er Pizzazz. Buying new amps was a great idea. Although I still say I should've used it to fix up my car a bit. I barely won that last race and I'm not sure I can do that again. I barely have enough for a new nitrous tank."

"You'll do fine, Aja. You're undefeated on the circuit." Pizzazz slumped as she walked a bit when Aja hit the right knot in her back. "You've always been two steps ahead of everyone else. Besides, Stormer and I are coming out to watch you tonight. She's been looking forward to this for weeks now." She held the door open for Aja but let go when Rio caught up. She grinned innocently at him.

Rio opened the door and rolled his eyes. "Thanks for helping out, Rio," he said in an annoyed voice.

Pizzazz and Aja both laughed. "Oh you know you're appreciated, Rio. Stop being a pain in the ass about it."

"Whatever you say, Pizzazz." Rio walked past the two women and started up the stairs. "Jerrica wanted me to help rearrange her room after I was done down there. It's a good thing I work for food."

Aja waited until she heard Jerrica's door shut. "Man is he whipped. Was he ever that whipped when you two dated, Pizzazz?" Aja grabbed two cans of soda for her and Pizzazz out of the refrigerator. She opened Pizzazz's can for her and slid it over to her. "By the way, how do you feel about Jerrica and Rio becoming an item?"

Putting her feet on the chair next to her Pizzazz sipped her drink. "I'm over him. I'm just glad that Jerrica finally found someone. I thought for sure she was going to be a dateless wonder. I just think it's his nature to be whipped. Remember that he always carried my books in school. Overall Rio is just a nice guy. Maybe I'll buy him a cake for all the crap he's done."

"So what's with Mary calling herself Stormer?"

"Oh that," Pizzazz said amused. "She wanted a stage name as well. So we came up with it. She's using it for signing the music she and Kimber work on. I think on Saturday we should stick to doing covers for the gig and do original material for the Battle of the Bands. What do you think?"

"That sounds good to me. I'm just anxious to do this. I'm glad you're the lead singer. My voice is horrible." Aja went back to the refrigerator and pulled out a sandwich she had made earlier. "It's a shame that Jerrica is too afraid to do it herself. She has her mother's voice. I love listening to her sing the Starlight Girls to sleep." She cut the sandwich in half and offered it to Pizzazz, who happily took it.

"I'd prefer Jerrica being the singer. No offense to our songwriters, but it's just a tad too sugary for my tastes." Pizzazz shrugged and took a bite. "I'm off to go with Stormer to pick Kimber up from school. Seeya tonight." Pizzazz took her sandwich half and waved to Aja as she headed out the door.

The roar of the car engines echoed up and down the city block. It was a symphony of chaos, the sounds of loud music, the revving of engines and the cheers of the hundreds of people. All of whom had gathered to watch a person push their machinery to its limit. Stormer and Pizzazz made their way through the crowd to where Aja had her car parked. She was showing it off to a few people.

Pizzazz leaned up against the car and tried to look like she belonged. Stormer stood off to the side slightly and observed everything that was going on. Aja finally turned around and smiled at the two women. "About time you both got here!" she yelled about the noise. "We're racing in about fifteen minutes. We're just waiting for the all clear sign."

A man in about his early-twenties walked up to Aja. He sneered at her and Pizzazz. "So the girly thinks she can race, huh? Well no one has ever beaten old Zipper here and no one will." He moved closer to Aja. "So what do you say we make a wager on this? A side bet." He pulled out a thick roll of bills. "What do you say? Ten thousand versus your car here?"

Aja thought about it for a moment then nodded. "You're on, hotshot. But if anyone catches you cheating like I've heard you do, the deals off." Zipper smiled and left. She watched him head back to his car and a small group of what Aja would call goons. "Well Pizzazz, looks like I might be ten grand richer tonight." She got into her car and started doing a quick diagnostic of her systems.

"I don't like how easily he agreed he agreed to that, Pizzazz," Stormer said quietly. She walked up behind Pizzazz and watched Aja check on her car. "I think we should spread the word to watch out for any wrong doings. Just send the word out quietly so we don't arouse any suspicion by our creepy friend there."

"Yeah I agree, Stormer. We better get to the street and start." Pizzazz tapped Aja on the side to get her attention. Aja stopped briefly and nodded. "Stormer and I are going to the race path. We've got our suspicions about that Zipper guy that he'll try something. We're going to tell everyone to keep an eye on his car."

"Thanks. But I had enough money to install a few new features on the car. For example, the tires are puncture resistant. They're only good for one use, but I figure it's worth it." Aja looked up from her computer system and smiled.

Stormer and Pizzazz left Aja to check her car over once more. The two women separated once they reached the strip of road the cars would be racing down. They discreetly told the few people they knew to pass the word about the bet and the stipulations. They each took their spot to watch the race at the end of the strip. They stood on opposite sides of the road waiting for the race to begin.

At the start of the strip, Aja pulled her car up to the start line. Zipper sat in the car next to her. Next to him was nervous little racer she didn't know and on her other side was the man she simply knew as Turbo. He never removed his helmet. She was the one to beat him for the first time. She told him before the race about the bet and to watch Zipper. He had already been keeping an eye out for him.

The racers revved their engines in anticipation of the race. Their exhaust spewed flames from their pipes. Aja nervously glanced around her. She opened her laptop and checked the gauges a final time. She heard the signal to start and stepped on the gas and shifted into gear. Each of the cars spun their tires and took off.

Aja and Turbo were neck and neck for the first few seconds. Turbo finally took the lead but Aja was watching Zipper who was quickly over taking her lead on him. She let him overtake her for a moment. She stepped on the accelerator and shifted her car again, this time over took him and caught up to Turbo.

In her rearview mirror she saw Zipper start to catch up. Aja got Turbo's attention and shrugged. Turbo gave her a warning wave. Aja stepped on the brakes quickly when she saw Zipper attempt to ram her side. She slammed on the gas again, jumped a gear and pressed the button for her nitrous oxide injectors. Her car jolted forward, pushing her back into her seat for the inertia and she swerved past Zipper on his left side. Turbo blocked Zipper from gaining on Aja as she went over the finish line.

The crowd erupted in cheers as Aja turned her car into skid to a stop. Turbo, Zipper and the nervous racer stopped their cars as well. Aja got out of her car and confidently walked up to Zipper. He kicked the side of his car in frustration. "You cheated, bitch! You had Turbo block me so I couldn't speed up! That's cheating! I have witnesses!"

Aja smirked. "Well, the way I see it I have witnesses of you trying to ram my car. All I did was prove that my car was better than yours. Not my fault you can't win without cheating. I never asked Turbo to do that. I just asked him to watch for cheating from you. So, I think you owe me ten grand and an apology." She smiled wickedly.

"You ain't getting shit from me, skank. You cheated."

Zipper began to get into his car again a when Turbo grabbed him by the jacket collar. He slammed Zipper against his car and grabbed him by his throat. "You'll pay the lady and you will apologize for being rude. And then you'll stop racing here. No one here wants your kind of scum racing against them." Turbo reached into Zipper's jacket and took the roll of money.

"Fine, I apologize for being rude," Zipper said in a somewhat sarcastic voice. Turbo let go of Zipper's throat. He glared at Turbo and rubbed his hand on his throat and pointed at the man in the helmet. "I'm not gonna forget this Turbo. I'm not forgetting what any of you assholes have done today." He started to get into his car. "You'll all pay." He started his car and took off. A small group of men with a skull and crossbones tattooed on their heads ran to their cars and followed their leader Zipper.

"He's a harmless toad, Aja." Turbo put the roll of bills in her hand. "You earned this. You're the best racer I've seen in my time. Hell, you beat me."

Aja turned the roll of money over in her hands. She unrolled the money and counted it carefully. She frowned a bit and looked up at Turbo. "I knew he was lying. There's only one thousand here." She counted the money again and gave Turbo half of the roll. "That's five hundred. That's my thanks to you for helping out. Don't spend it all in one place, handsome." Aja smirked and winked.

A cry that the cops were on their way cut off Turbo from saying anything. He nodded and got into his car. Aja gave a small wave to him and got into her own car. Stormer quickly got into the passenger side after Aja put the laptop under the seat. "I couldn't reach Pizzazz with the crowd running around like there was an alien invasion."

"Seatbelt," Aja said weaving around cars and people. She glanced at Stormer started to drive faster. "Put on your seatbelt." Stormer did as told and Aja smirked. "When I get this baby to eighty-eight miles per hour," she smiled at the younger woman, "you're gonna see some serious shit." Aja finally made it to a clear patch of road. Behind her she heard the wail of police sirens. She went the speed limit and took the back roads home. "I take it you're staying the night, Stormer?"

"Yeah, my mom is working tonight at the hospital. By the way, you were great tonight. I mean, I've seen you race before, but tonight was something else." Stormer smiled and relaxed in her seat when she didn't hear the sirens anymore.

"Thanks. This helped me relieve a bit of nerves I had over tomorrow. We've never performed before a live audience outside of the Starlight Girls. So this is a big thing for us. I just hope we don't suck too much." Aja glanced at Stormer again. She had her head leaned up against the window and was fast asleep. Aja smiled and let her friend sleep. She drove home without any further incidents. She was surprised to see that Pizzazz had beaten her home.

"Jerrica, just get off my back about what happened at the birthday party," Pizzazz said starting to unload the Holograms equipment. They had finally arrived at the Battle of the Band Tournament. "I apologized to the kid's parents already and they understood. We got paid, the kid and her friends got a decent show and I didn't have to sing any damn Britney songs."

Shana helped Aja lift an amp out of the van. "Besides Jerrica, we didn't know any songs by her. Pizzazz just handled it wrong. She should've just said sorry, we don't know any instead of telling the girl to get some musical taste." Kimber chuckled behind Shana. "Anyway, if we win this thing, we won't have to take gigs that require us to do any covers that we don't want to do."

Jerrica set the two guitar cases down and started helping with the drum set. "I'm still not happy with the way that it was handled. We're trying to be professionals here."

"I don't know about you guys but I'm doing this because it's fun. I enjoy playing music, but it's just for fun." Shana checked her drum equipment. "I don't think this is something I want to do forever. Right now it's something to do while I study and try to get into the police academy."

"I still find it funny that you want to become a cop when I race street cars illegally," Aja said with a slight smirk.

Shana smiled. "Just don't let me catch you. Until then I don't know anything about it."

Jerrica relaxed a bit and pulled out a clipboard with some papers on it. "I think I'll go register you guys. Kimber why don't you, Pizzazz and Stormer check out the other bands. Try and make some contacts, find who else is playing, what their styles are. Y'know, that kind of stuff." Jerrica walked off at a brisk pace towards a booth marked registration.

Waving to Aja, Shana and Rio, Kimber and Stormer caught up to Pizzazz who was already making her way backstage. A security guard stopped the trio from entering the arena's backstage area. "You ladies need passes to get through. Head over to registration and sign in and pay the fee."

Sighing to herself, Pizzazz turned around and met Jerrica halfway to the registration booth. Kimber and Stormer stood behind her and talked quietly to each other. "We need passes to get in. Should've figured, huh?" Jerrica handed the three women their passes and they put them on.

"We start at eight on stage B," Jerrica told them. "We should meet there at seven-thirty to set up and everything." She checked her watch. "It's about five right now, so I'll see you then." Jerrica stopped Kimber. "Here's some money for fun." She winked and let her sister catch up with Pizzazz and Stormer.

"Hey, wait up!" Kimber yelled. Pizzazz stopped and pushed her sunglasses up on her nose. "So where are we going first? We have three stages to check out."

Pizzazz thought for a moment. "We should start with the first stage. It just makes the most sense. Now, I want both of you to stay close to me. No running off without telling me. Last thing I need is to lose track of either of you. If you need anything just ask I have you covered." She grinned when they both smiled.

They walked up to the guard and showed their passes. He let them enter with a small wave. Just inside the arena was the beginning of the chaos. Kimber moved closer to Pizzazz and grabbed one of her belt loops on her jeans. Pizzazz patted Kimber's shoulder in reassurance and Kimber let go. They made their way to where the first stage was and listened to the band. They were extremely sloppy in their playing and singing. The constant feedback made Stormer cover her ears.

The band on the second stage wasn't much better. They looked to be no more than thirteen and sounded like they just started playing the day before. Kimber made a gesture of her gagging causing both Pizzazz and Stormer to laugh hard. They nodded in agreement. At the third stage was a band that caught all three of their attention. The band looked to be all Japanese members. The lead singer was a woman who Pizzazz thought was an excellent singer. She motioned for Stormer and Kimber to follow her.

Stormer, Pizzazz and Kimber made their way backstage and watched the band from just off stage. Kimber pointed to another trio who also watching. They were two women and a man. All three were blonde. The man was watching the lead singer and the drummer of the band who was also woman. He finally looked at Pizzazz and smiled, giving a sly wink. Pizzazz rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. She watched the lead guitarist of the group. He wore no shirt and showed off his many tattoos. He had dark, wild green hair. Pizzazz looked at the bands name on a sheet: Pulsar.

Pulsar finished their set and made their way off the stage. The blonde trio stepped forward and waited for the band to reach them. The lead singer stopped in front of the blonde man and looked at him expectantly. The man smiled. "Allow me to introduce ourselves. We are the Stingers. I am Riot and these two ladies are Rapture and Minx." He gestured to the two women behind him.

"Yes, I know. We heard you earlier," the beautiful Japanese woman said a little coldly. "Now if you'll excuse us we just played our best set ever and we're quite thirsty." She tried to get past the Stingers but Riot blocked her way.

"Not so fast. Your style and sound is quite impressive," Riot smiled again and looked at the two women in Pulsar. "We were talking that if you continue to improve, maybe one day you'll be able to open for us. The Stingers only use the finest opening bands to get the crowd going." He leaned in closer to the lead singer. "We should discuss this more privately. Maybe after dinner tonight?"

The lead singer smirked. "Well, you'll have to excuse me if I don't get all wet and weak in the knees. But quite frankly I find that you dress in the manner of a circus performer. A rather poor one, mind you. Your sound is dated. Your hair looks like you don't even bother to take care of it. I won't even mention what I think of the two so called women you perform with."

The look of rage in Riot's eyes shocked Pizzazz, Stormer and Kimber. They stood off to the side and watched the confrontation. The lead singer turned away from Riot and started walking in their direction. Riot grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to face him. No one saw the lead guitarist move he was just a blur of motion. He rammed his guitar into Riot's chest breaking the hold on the female singer. He continued to push Riot until he was up against the wall. Riot punched the guitarist in the face as hard as he could. The guitarist looked up at Riot with the lens of his sunglasses broken. He wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth and smiled. "Ow," was his only reply.

The guitarist set his guitar down and backed up several feet. Riot stood there confused. That was all the time the guitarist needed. He punched Riot in the face several times then began with a flurry of kicks to the blonde man's chest. Pizzazz's jaw dropped as she watched the green haired man assault the singer of the Stingers. The guitarist stopped and backed up again. Riot stood on wobbling feet. The guitarist turned to walk away, he jumped in the air and did a spin kick to Riot's face. Riot dropped face first to the ground.

Grabbing Riot by the hair, the guitarist whispered in his ear. "You touch her like that or you even make a proposition like that again, and what I just did is going feel like heaven with one of your sluts." He looked up at Minx and Rapture. "Do not fuck with us." He stood and glared at Rapture and Minx as they ran to help Riot. He joined the rest of his band.

Pizzazz nudged Stormer and Kimber to follow her as she ran up beside Pulsar's lead singer. She nervously spoke to her. "Ex-excuse me, my name is Pizzazz." The band stopped and their leader looked at her impatiently. "I don't mean to hold you up. We can talk and walk at the same time." Pulsar began to walk again. "I just want you to know that you guys were amazing. I'm in a band called the Holograms with Kimber and Stormer here." She motioned at her two friends.

"I'm Kyoko," the lead singer stuck her hand out. "I'm sorry for that scene back there. That guy was just a big asshole." She looked at Kimber and Stormer. "Excuse my language." They group stopped and grabbed bottles of water. "Let me introduce you to our band. We have Kenshiro our bassist," Kyoko pointed to a short haired man who was looking through his backpack.

"Next is Eiji, our rhythm guitarist." Kyoko leaned in and whispered a bit about the young man with red and blonde hair. "Careful, he's a smooth one unlike that Riot guy. But next is Hitomi, our drummer. She's Kenshiro's younger sister." The blonde drummer smiled and waved. "Then there's Shin our manager." The tall Japanese man nodded. Kyoko smiled as she put her arm around the green haired guitarist. "And finally we have my protector simply known as Ikari."

Pizzazz told Kyoko about the Holograms and talked with her for a few minutes. Stormer and Kimber were a both a bit shy talking to the other members of Pulsar. They eventually warmed up to them and began laughing and joking. Pizzazz noticed that Ikari sat by himself not talking to anyone. She excused herself from Kyoko and walked up to him.

"Hi, I noticed your sunglasses were broken. I just wanted you to have mine. I was very impressed with your martial arts. I never knew a person could do something like that." Pizzazz took off her sunglasses and handed them to Ikari. He took off his broken pair and put on the new pair. Something about how he looked without the glasses bugged the back of Pizzazz's mind. She shook her head and thought nothing of it.

Kimber tapped her on the shoulder. Pizzazz turned around with a questioning look on her face. "It's almost seven-fifteen. I think we should get going if we want to meet Jerrica on time. The crowd is pretty insane out there." Kimber looked around Pizzazz and smiled at Ikari. He just sat there ignoring her.

Impatiently tapping her foot, Jerrica looked at her watch again. It was seven forty-five and there was no sign of Pizzazz, Stormer or Kimber. Jerrica pounded her fist on the amp in frustration. Rio came up behind her and massaged her shoulders. Jerrica tried to relax. Rio hugged her around her shoulders from behind. "They'll be here in time. The crowd out there is pretty tightly packed. I barely made it back in time."

Jerrica sighed. "I know. I'm just nervous and anxious. I didn't think it was going to be so huge. Hell, I don't think Pizzazz even knew this was going to be a big deal." She smiled to herself. "I keep thinking how proud my mother would be of me if I was up there. Anyway, I just hope they're okay."

"Who is okay?" Pizzazz asked coming up behind Jerrica, who jumped at the sound of her voice. "Hey, easy there, the goddamn crowd wouldn't part like the Red Sea when Kimber started yelling, 'Outta the way! Talent coming through!' Instead they wanted to know who we were and if we'd sign autographs." Pizzazz chuckled when Jerrica giggled. "I'll be ready in five minutes. I'm not putting on that make up again. Made me feel like we were on an Eighties children's cartoon."

"Then just don't stand there get changed." Jerrica pointed at Kimber who was snacking on some cotton candy. "And you get changed also and wash your hands." Kimber rolled her eyes and handed the rest of the cotton candy to Stormer. Jerrica pointed at Stormer. "You…" she hesitated and dropped her hand, "…just stand there and enjoy the show." She turned around and sighed. Being a manager was more frustrating than she expected.

The Holograms barely made it out on stage by the time eight o'clock came around. They each looked at each other nervously. Pizzazz checked her headset microphone while the band was introduced and announced. The curtain began to rise. Pizzazz took a deep breath and let it out very slowly.

Once the curtain was all the way up, Pizzazz froze as the rest of the Holograms began to play. They stopped when they saw Pizzazz not moving in front of the increasingly restless crowd. Aja whispered in Pizzazz's ear. "Hey, are you okay?"

Pizzazz shook her head no and then ran off stage. The Holograms stayed in their places and watched Pizzazz run past. Shana cleared her throat and spoke clearly. "We're sorry. We have a slight problem here. It'll only be a moment I assure you."

Almost on cue, the sound of Pizzazz vomiting was heard through the speakers. The audience moaned in disgust and erupted in sparse laughter. The sound was heard again followed by a gagging Pizzazz moaning. "Aw shit, I still had the headset on!" There was a brief pause. "I don't remember having that for lunch." The audience started laughing again.

Backstage Jerrica patted Pizzazz on the back. She had a look of concern on her face. "Are you going to be okay?" Pizzazz nodded and wiped her mouth with a towel. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Pizzazz covered the microphone on the headset. "It's just nerves. I'll be fine." She took a drink of water that Rio handed her and rinsed her mouth out. "Look at it this way, it'll make the show that much more memorable." She cleared her throat, it felt a touch raw. Pizzazz figured it would just add to the overall sound.

Pizzazz walked back out on stage to a surprising thunderous roar of applause. She smirked and took her guitar from Aja. She turned back to the audience with a smirk of mischief in it. "Not to alarm everyone, but I think the free shrimp has gone south!" The crowd laughed at her joke. "Well, now if I can do this without showing everyone what my eating habits are, I say we start this rock show." Pizzazz half turned to the Holograms and did a quiet countdown and started playing with them.

The Holograms played a full thirty minutes and then left the stage to one of the loudest receptions at the contest. They went back out again and bowed together. They were all smiles that they were able to bounce back from Pizzazz's earlier embarrassing display of stage fright. Much to Pizzazz's surprise, Kyoko and Pulsar were waiting backstage for them. Pizzazz made the introductions to the Holograms.

The two bands talked and waited together for the results of the contest. There was a slight air of disappointment when the contest promoter announced that the Battle of the Bands was going to have to be completely rescheduled. All of the bands were invited back free of charge. No one felt a real sense of disappointment because they did get to play in front of a large audience. Pizzazz and Kyoko exchanged numbers and promised they would get in touch with each other before the new contest.

It was the day before Pizzazz and Jerrica's birthday. About three weeks after the Battle of the Bands. The announcement had been made that the next contest would take place in a month's time. Pizzazz and Stormer were watching television with Kimber and the Starlight Girls. They were watching a local wrestling promotion on a cable access channel.

"I don't see how you guys can watch this garbage?" Aja said coming in the room.

Kimber peeked over the back of the couch and smirked. "It's just like your soap operas, Aja, just more violent."

Stormer chuckled to herself. "Looks like Brit Rox is breaking up." She moaned in mock pain. "Yeah, they're splitting up. That sucks. I liked them as a tag team. Hey Pizzazz, did you know they play their own entrance music and all?"

"Really?" Pizzazz said with a hint of surprise in her voice. Stormer nodded and the doorbell rang. Pizzazz got up and answered it. A man in a somewhat expensive suit stood before her. He slicked back his hair quickly and picked up his briefcase. He flashed a quick smile. Pizzazz cautiously returned it. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm looking for a Phyllis Gabor. Are you she?" he asked in a professional, but friendly voice. Pizzazz nodded. He put out his hand and smiled again. "My name is Eric Raymond. I'm the executor of your father's estate. May I come inside?"

TO BE CONTINUED IN "BRIT ROX"

PART 3 OF MUSIC LESSONS