On the point of bursting from the prospect of what this "news" could be, I blurted, "What? WHAT! Tell me!"

He paused; he loved the suspense. "I got us our first gig!" he cried, flinging his arms up.

"Oh, my god! Are you serious!" I exclaimed. I probably acted a little more surprised than I felt, for his sake.

"And, to top it all off, it's a club right on the beach!" he informed me. As an afterthought, he added, "Jitterbugs is the name, I think..."

"When is it?" I wondered. I figured we'd have at least a month to practice and get everything perfect.

"It's Friday!" he said, cheerily.

I blinked. And then I blinked again. And then I think I may have scratched my head or my back or something.

"Friday?" I repeated.

"Yup."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" I strangled him. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? WE'LL NEVER BE READY TO PERFORM BY FRIDAY!"

He slowly loosened my grip and stepped back. Smoothed his collar. "It's just a fifteen minute slot, Gene. Calm down." He punched my shoulder. "Surely we'll be able to play three songs by Friday."

I nodded (begrudgingly) in agreement.

So, we practiced only stopping for school, sleep, and food for three days. Brinker and Ollie were ecstatic when they found out that we had a job. It was paying $150, which, split five ways, was not much at all. A cut of the profits had to go to Leper, because, being the publicist, he had gotten us the job in the first place. Or at least that's what Phineas told me. I was pretty sore that he still got paid even though he wasn't putting in thirty hours of practice a week. But, I was too tired to think about it too much.

On Friday, we left school at noon and took Finny's convertible to the beach. I was pretty sure that part of the reason we were taking a job so far away was because Finny hadn't driven in six weeks and needed an excuse for a road trip. We were all living in North Carolina, and the club was on a beach in South Carolina. The drive took about six hours, with frequent stops. We saw the ocean at 6:20. We went on at 7:10. That gave us just enough time to grab a bite to eat and get into place.

Fortunately, we didn't have to cram all of our own instruments into Finny's cocker spaniel-sized trunk. The club already had a drum kit, guitar, and plenty of other instruments for the various bands to use. We were one band of six that were playing that night. We were opening for the other bigger bands, the biggest of which was called Phant.

We were performing three songs, all our favorites which Finny had written: "Be Free," on which Finny sang the first parts and we all sang the chorus of; Finny's solo song, "Not a Color"; and my solo song, "Blind."

We were sitting on pins and needles at 7:05. The club was just starting to fill up. The minutes flew by and before I knew it, I was standing on the makeshift stage, holding a foreign guitar. I was frantically going over all the keys and chords in my head.

The manager gave us a thumbs-up and Finny stepped up to the center of the stage. We were all wearing mini-mics pinned to our shirts. The manager, whose name was Jay Ed, told us that the stand-up mics had a tendency to be knocked over during the random acts of extreme dancing that some of the bands did.

Finny, full of confidence, addressed the buzzing crowd. "Are you guys ready to make some noise?" he yelled.

The majority of the crowd screamed out the affirmative.

"Then go crazy, because we are ECLECTIC!"

As the crowd "went crazy," Finny hopped behind the drums and got set to begin the first song.

My heart was pounding in my ears. I didn't think that I was nervous, but my body certainly did.

Brinker gave me a nod and Ollie waved that he was ready. We began the intro to our first song, and our first steps toward fame.

Finny sang beautifully. Or screamed beautifully, anyway. "Be Free" was our "Screaming" song, as dubbed by Phineas himself. I tried to breathe steadily as Finny belted out the lyrics.

"Why do you look at me

Like I'm your fantasy

All the others blindly stare

While I am painfully aware!

Cursed to rot inside this place

Never to show my face

Something tells me that you're wrong

This is not where I belong!"

Then, the four of us sang the chorus, which was a little slower, but still screamed.

"How can you sit there and say

This is the way

Things are meant to be

When will you be free!"

Finny started up again. The crowd was going crazy.

"Fading into darkness now

To anywhere you will allow

My faith has brought me this far

Or haven't you seen the scars!"

We yelled the chorus twice and the song was over.

Finny, sweating from his vocal efforts and his wild man routine on the drums, galloped back toward the cheering mob of soon-to-be fans.

"WOOO!" he yelled, receiving similar calls. "That was 'Be Free'!" He raised his arms up, working the crowd. "Now, here's our guitarist, Gene, with 'Blind'!" He jumped up, and his black shirt came up, exposing his back. I saw something questionable, but had to ignore it, because my three and a half minutes of fame were upon me.

I began the entrance to the song and then began to sing it. I was having an out-of-body experience. I was particularly out of control of my own functions, and all of that practice took over. In the blink of an eye, I was done, and the crowd was jumping and throbbing and screaming.

Finny, this time with a little less energy, jogged over to the audience again. "ALL RIGHT!" he cried. "Now, for our final song of the evening, we bring you 'Not a Color'!"

For this song, Leper had shakingly agreed to play the minor drum parts. Finny had wanted to have complete focus for this song because it was the "Gooshy" song.

I loved this song the most, because it was perfect for his voice.

"Whenever you feel like we're going too fast

Tell me, I'll stop and we'll look at the past

Don't hesitate to let me know how you feel

Tell me anytime; my heart won't be sealed.

The only thing I'm left to wonder about

Is whether or not you hold any doubt.

When we pray and talk together

I can't help thinking is this forever?

Because love is not a color you can touch.

But I don't like to think about it too much

Wherever this road can take you

You can bet that I'll be there too.

Listening to this wind

Telling you all of my sins

Something tells me that you're still here

Protecting me from evil, my dear."

He sang the chorus once more and was done. The crowd cheered for us and danced amongst themselves.

Finny spoke to them once more. "WOOO!" he screamed. "Thank you very much! We are Eclectic!" He paused for the screaming to subside. "You remember Gene on the guitar!" I played a short riff. "We've got Brinker on the keyboards!" Brink blew a peace sign kiss to the audience. "Ollie's the man on the bass!" Ollie strummed his chords once. "We had our awesome substitute drummer, Leper, who seems to have left the building. And I'm Finny!" This got the most screams. "Drum-playing extraordinaire! Drive carefully, guys, g'night!"

We carelessly made our way off stage through the twenty or so girls who wanted autographs (among other less feasible things).

I thought to myself, We done good.