Note: chapter 3 edited! (July 26 04)
Warning - foul language BEGINS in this chapter!
Chapter 3 - A Slight Problem
"Summer, you missed Marta's call, she'll be here in ten minutes so you guys can leave!"
Summer almost died when she heard her dad's message - she had missed Marta's call because she had been in the shower, and now only had ten minutes to make herself look half presentable before leaving for practise.
Luckily, for Summer's sake, she laid her clothes out before she got in the shower, so her complete outfit that she had concocted with Marta, right down to the silver studded earrings, was laying neatly on her bed and dresser. After a whole twenty seconds of getting dressed, plus another seven minutes in the bathroom, Summer was ready to go.
Once Marta arrived at the door, impeccably dressed for the occasion in a blue tank top and a jean skirt, the pair set off on the fifteen minute walk to Dewey's apartment, which doubled as the School of Rock headquarters. The walk was uncharacteristically quiet, as it seemed both girls were a little bit nervous about the evening ahead. Once they reached Dewey's building, however, huge smiles broke out across both of their faces. "Good luck, Tink," Marta said with a sparkle in her eye.
"Right back atcha, Blondie."
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"Hey, hey, look who it is! Time for the party to start!" Katie, Alicia, Zack, Lawrence and Dewey all laughed at Freddy's comment as Marta and Summer walked into Dewey's apartment. Summer smiled, but didn't laugh. "Okay guys, it's past 3:00, it's time to get down to business."
The kids and Dewey all listened, as they began to form the ceremonial "circle of love," as Zack fondly called it, which commenced all of School of Rock's meetings. "Okay," started Summer, "first things first: before I bring up some issues, does anybody have anything they'd like to bring up?"
Freddy lifted his head, and looked as if he was just about to talk, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Dewey snapped his head around. "Who is that? What type of idiot wouldn't know this place is off-limits right now?" He got up to open the door, and once he did, a very shocked expression came over his face. "Hi… come on in…"
None of the kids could see who was at the door, but Summer quickly noted that Zack's face had turned an interesting shade of magenta.
Dewey walked back into the room. "Uh, guys, we have a visitor."
Marta spoke up at that point. "We're not allowed visitors during prac--" Her mouth shot open as she saw the blonde-haired girl who walked in. "Eleni, what are you doing here?"
Eleni had a smug smile stretched across her face. "Well, I thought since I was invited to the little get-together tonight, it would be okay for me to sit in on your practise today, since you'd probably be called something else if it wasn't for me, right?" She let out what she obviously thought was a cute giggle, but Summer found it rather disgusting.
"Well, Eleni," Summer began, "you'll have to go sit over there, we're in the middle of something."
"Whatever you say, Tink." Eleni said with a wink.
"It's Summer," the raven-haired girl said with a death glare. It was obviously as cold as she had wanted it to be, as Eleni shut up and went and sat where she was told. Quickly, Summer looked over at Zack with a sad expression. How could he have invited her to the movie? It was supposed to be for us… Summer snapped out of her thoughts as she realized Zack was looking right back at her. To cover up her blooper, she snapped at him. "Well, are you happy? Not only are we breaking band policy, but we're fifteen minutes behind schedule. Maybe we'll miss the movie." The last comment escaped her mouth with unneeded sarcasm that Alicia would have been proud of.
Zack, again, turned a bold shade of red and didn't say anything. An awkward silence filled the circle. Summer looked over at Marta. She looks just as pissed off as I feel, she thought. She probably thinks that Eleni's here for Freddy… The tension could have been cut with a knife, but it was finally broken a minute later by Marta.
"Um… I have a question. Do you think that we'll ever be able to replace Tomika?" Summer realized Marta wasn't stressing about Freddy as she had thought, but about the band.
"Oh, God. I'm not sure. That was on my agenda for today, anyway. We have two choices when it comes to that - we can either audition someone else, or you and Alicia can take over," Summer reasoned.
Marta looked exasperated. "I'm not just talking talent-wise, Summer. She was a really good friend, you know? She always broke up the fights, 'cause she was the only one who saw how stupid they were. If it wasn't for her that day after Parent's Night, we wouldn't even be here."
Summer, instead of feeling sad, rolled her eyes at Marta. "Jesus, you're in one of your moods again. Don't be all like this, okay? Maybe we'll find someone, maybe not. We'll still be tight with her, even if she does live across the country. And no one will forget that she kept us together, alright? So you need to keep it together."
Marta looked at Summer with wide eyes, but it was Katie who spoke up. "Calm down, Tink. Marta brought up a good point, so don't kill the messenger."
"Yeah, c'mon," coaxed Dewey. "Just simmer, Summer."
Yet another silence overcame the room. This time, Alicia spoke up. "Well, now that we're down to two back-ups, I think we should have a main back-up, and a back-up to the back-up, you know what I mean? I'll be the main one."
Marta let out a snort. "You're joking, right. That made no sense at all, and plus, there's no way I'm backing you up."
The band members watched with wide eyes as they realized Marta and Alicia were gearing up for a huge argument.
"Why not? C'mon, Marta," Alicia said in what she obviously thought was a soothing tone, "you don't have to be frontin' like that. Everyone knows that you need to have a really, really good voice to be a lead, and, well…" She didn't finish her sentence, because the implication had gotten through.
Summer couldn't believe what she was hearing, and had half a mind to laugh out loud. The words coming out of Alicia's mouth were so ludicrous that it was possible it was all a joke. Marta, though, was taking this completely seriously.
"Bullshit, Alicia, bullshit! Ever since we started, you've always thought you were better than me, and you've had absolutely NO reason to think that. We're both on the same level talent-wise, if I'm not better, and just because you fucking swear every fucking five minutes doesn't make you a better singer than me!" Marta's eyes had become as huge as biologically possible, and the colour of her face was rivalling Zack's five minutes earlier.
"Okay guys, that's enough." Dewey cut in. "This is a stupid argument that I'm ending right now."
No, Dewey, too late… Summer realized that the pair hadn't been stopped quick enough, and that if Dewey was going to try and stop them, he was way too late, because Alicia looked ready to kill.
Alicia's eyes narrowed dangerously after Marta's last comment. When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice was deathly quiet. "What did you say? You think you're better than me? You think that just because you don't swear that it makes you better than me?" Alicia's voice started to rise. "Well let ME tell YOU something, Goldilocks, you better damn-well be happy you haven't been through HALF the SHIT I've been through. You think you're all high and mighty with your little prim and proper ways. Well FUCK YOU, Marta, fuck you."
The room was so quiet, Summer could have heard a pin drop in a room 2 floors down and down the hall.
"I quit." Alicia stood up suddenly and started to make her way to the door.
"Alicia!" Summer tried to stop her. "You can't go! Come on, we've been through worse, we're all best friends here, you can't leave, we need you! Marta's sorry, she is!"
"Are you kidding?" Was Marta's response.
Alicia shook her head. "It's been fun guys. But the fun's over. See y'all at school." As she was about to walk through the door, Alicia turned around and stared daggers into Marta. "Oh, by the way, you'll always be a blonde in my eyes, bitch." And the door slammed behind her.
The room couldn't have gotten quieter, and 5 minutes later no one had spoken a word. Marta's eyes were stained with tears, and Summer's head was about to burst. Suddenly, a giggle could be heard from the back of the room.
"Well, that sucked, eh?"
"Shut the HELL up, Eleni. We don't need your crap right now." It seemed to take all of Freddy's concentration not to yell at the top of his lungs.
Dewey let out a huge sigh. "Well, that has had to be one of the stupidest arguments I've ever, ever witnessed. And it lost us a member of a band."
Marta hung her head, but didn't back down. "She's always thought she was better than me, and there's a point where I just can't stand it anymore."
"I understand. But do you realize that it was just a stupid thing that set if off? I mean, I'm not even sure that she was being serious." Dewey said.
"I don't care if she was being serious, Dewey. She always makes jokes like that, like it's common knowledge that she's just so good. I can't take it."
The room went quiet once again. This time, it was Lawrence's turn to speak up.
"Well, we are able to look at it this way: things cannot get worse, can they?"
For some reason, Dewey's shade turned a sickly shade of green. "Guys, I think it can."
Freddy smirked at the colour of Dewey's face. "You getting sick is not the end of the world."
Dewey didn't laugh. "Summer, remember yesterday, when I told you I had something to bring up? Well… yeah."
The tension shot up in the room.
Dewey swallowed and started to talk. "I have an audition in California with this killer band; they're not known yet. They got a hold of me and asked if I would be interested in trying out for lead guitar, and I decided to take 'em up on it. If I get it, I'm moving to SoCal."
Zack spoke up right away. "But you already have a band. 'School of Rock.'"
Dewey shook his head. "Guys, this has been awesome, and I totally respect everything we've done here, man. But... I'm draggin' you down. You're all the same age, and here I am. I think we'd both be better off if we… I don't know… split?"
Zack's face turned a light shade of pink, as if insulted by the idea. Freddy, though, was the one to speak up. "Right. And what happens if you don't make it? There's no way you'd come back to School of Rock asking for re-entry, is there?" Dewey opened his mouth, but no sound came out. "Exactly," Freddy started, "exactly what I thought. You're not doing this for us, you're doing it 'cause you got a bunch of kids bringing you down. Dude, do whatever the hell you want, but don't lie to us."
Dewey looked at the group pleadingly. "Guys, that's not how it is, I swear…"
Summer had been watching the whole scene with an unbelievable expression on her face, but it dawned on her that Freddy was completely right. "I think it is, Dewey… I think it is." The whole group was now looking at Dewey with something worse than anger in their eyes: disappointment.
Dewey didn't seem to know what to say. "I'm sorry, dudes…" No one said anything. Dewey sighed. "I'll leave for a bit, let you guys finish up." And with that, the second member of the day to quit the band left the room.
Again, no one spoke for a long, long time. Then the silence was broken with a ditzy giggle.
"Wow, you guys really aren't having a good day, are you?"
A/N - Okay, hopefully that was a little bit more interesting than the last chapter and you enjoyed it - please tell me what you think, okay? Thanks!