'Heart'aches

Things go from bad to worse

At Hope's

"Well, Nick, I don't know." Said Hope, " I can't tell if I still feel hurt towards him. It's raining here." That can never take the pain away. " Yes I know. I know. Yeah, I'm listening." This will never go away. It hurts too much. " I gotta go, Nick. Love you."

Hope hung up slowly, thought about it, closed her bedroom door and started crying. Ten minutes later, the neighbors could hear the guitar amp from the park at the end of the road. She was upset, angry, and hadn't finished crying yet. Not like anyone was complaining. All of her neighbors were at least 15 or older, loved Led Zeppelin, or had forgotten to put in their hearing aids.

"Hope! HOPE! CANDICE!" yelled her mom, and then pulled the plug on the electricity. " Hope!"

" Yes, mom?" Hope said, sniffling.

"Dinner! Come down!" she said.

" OKAY!" Hope screamed, and bounced down the stairs, still crying.

Across town, at band practice

"And then she said ' I gotta go', and she left. But she gave me this C.D. of her old band, and they're awesome. No offense to you, Dewey, but the record company said that we had to have a singer our age, just in case we have to make a C.D. cover, and for good publicity. Don't talk yet, just listen to her. She's lead guitar and vocals." Summer finished and put a C.D. in there.

Freddy impatiently banged on his drums, " Why are we listening to this anyway? We've got the record deal in the bag, almost, and Dewey's not dying any time soon. So what's up?"

"Everyone except Spazzy and this C.D. are excused." Said Dewey. Everyone filed out, and Freddy was very mad. " Spaz, what's up with you? Listen to these vocals!" Sits for a second, just taking in her vocal stylings. The sound is like a Goo-Goo Dolls/Led Zeppelin guitar/No Doubt kind of band. It was very GOOD!

" Why do I have to tell everyone! We were kindergarten girlfriend/boyfriend. That continued till second grade, when I moved up here. We would go talking on the phone for hours until I joined the Band. Then I became a womanizer, and I broke it off. We got back together over the summer of sixth grade. But a groupie tore us apart. For about two years she's been avoiding me."

"Dude, we've gotta have her. Get her to forgive you. NOW!" replied Dewey.

"But…I don't know how!" Freddy sighed.

" Do IT! Go to visit her, talk to her, get her to reconcile with you. You're a smart boy. Figure it out. Take her to a movie, a concert, just kiss her again. She's not really that mad, just wants her old Freddy back. You have a soft side, I know that. Like when you watched ' The Lion King', you cried like a baby. That was no easy feat around all of the girls, and Zack." laughs " But so was Billy. And that was so funny. When he ran out of the room to destroy his zebra skin coat, that was just sad, you know? But, you, okay!"

"Alright! Alright! I'll try to get her to come tomorrow to practice, okay, Dewey? Why do you need a lead singer, anyway? You are our leader, Dee!" banging on the drums, Freddy looked very upset.

" I just found out that I have a stress condition when I got my physical for the record company. I can NOT perform on stages. It gets my heart pounding, and me nauseated, which is awful. Everytime I perform, it takes two years off of my life. DO you really want my life ending at 55? Do you really want to lose me? 'cuz I know I don't want to die because my heart failed! No, I can perform at practice, and be at performances and stuff, but the record company doesn't like the idea that I could die at any time, so that's why we haven't got the deal in the bag. I can't be the one holding all of you lovely little kids from a dream you've had for almost four years! I've had my chance, and I've dealt with those consequences. Now go and get your girl, Spazzy!"

Running as fast as he could, Spazzy McGee ran down the stairs, out of the building, into his dad's car, and told his dad to go as fast as possible towards his house, which was two blocks from Hope's.

BEWARE: I JUST GOT OUTTA SCHOOL! R&R for new chapters! Yay! LOVE YA!

K