Soon, the Goshima triplets' last day of school was over and done. Now all they had to look forward to was being backup dancers for Fingerbang. But first, they had to tell their parents the news.

"Hey, Mom!" Momoko called out to her.

"What is it, Momoko?" Mrs. Goshima called back.

"Nyoko and Miyako and I have big news!"

"What kind of news?"

The Goshima sisters all looked at each other with a smile and then announced with a flourish, "We're gonna be backup dancers for Fingerbang!"

Mrs. Goshima was in shock. She had no idea how to react. Her children being backup dancers for something called Fingerbang? This wasn't exactly what she'd envisioned her children would be doing, but if it meant they got to be part of the concert, there were bound to be some benefits along the way. Mrs. Goshima decided to step out and make her presence known in front of her children.

Mrs. Goshima was a sansei, a granddaughter of Japanese-born immigrants who experienced the horrors of anti-Japanese racism firsthand during World War II. Just like her ancestors, she had dark brown hair that appeared to be black under certain lighting, dark brown eyes, and pale skin. Her hair was done up into a stylish short crop a la Carol Brady, and she wore subdued pink lipstick paired with smoky gray eyeshadow along with silver chandelier earrings. For clothes, she wore a lavender plaid tube top, a matching cardigan, and a matching mini-skirt with purple high heels.

"Well, if that's what you girls want, then I don't see the harm in it. Just as long as you're not hooking up with the band, okay? That, I see the harm in."

"Okay, Mom!" the triplets all replied in unison.

Mrs. Goshima then gave a soft smile. "Alright, let me go talk to your father about this on the phone. I'm sure he'll be somewhat happy by this news."

Mrs. Goshima then disappeared into the kitchen for a moment to go talk with her husband on the phone. The girls tried to listen in on as much as they could, but their mother didn't reveal much of anything besides what they already knew. Mrs. Goshima then proceeded to segue into a conversation about what their past summers had been like, like the time they took a trip to Aruba, but again it wasn't anything the girls didn't already know.

"Man, I swear Mom and Dad's phone conversations always take forever!" Miyako whined just loudly enough to be heard within her sisters' range.

"I know," Momoko rejoined. "I wish Mom would just hurry up. I wanna know if we're actually gonna do this or not."

"Me too."

"You think this will make us popular in high school?"

"I sure hope so. It'll be like we're celebrities!"

By this time, their parents' phone conversation had already started winding down, and they started exchanging goodbyes. Just a few seconds later, Mrs. Goshima hung up.

"What did he say, Mom?" Momoko asked.

Mrs. Goshima just chuckled. "He said he'd have to think about it. Besides, he's still working, so he probably won't tell us until he comes home."

"Are you sure?" Miyako also asked.

"I'm fairly certain," Mrs. Goshima replied. "You know how your father is about these kind of opportunities."


Just a few minutes after Mr. Goshima came home from work, Mrs. Goshima and the girls waited with bated breath to hear what the family patriarch would have to say on the matter.

"Well?" Mrs. Goshima asked. "Do you think it's a good idea for these girls to be backup dancers for the opening act?"

"Hmm..." Mr. Goshima had to think about it for a minute.

Despite what his last name would indicate, Mr. Goshima wasn't Japanese at all. Instead, he was a white man with Swiss and Italian ancestry who had taken his wife's last name when they married. He had tan skin, messy dirty blond hair, and different-colored eyes (one of them blue and the other gray). For clothes, he wore a dark pinstripe suit with a white dress shirt underneath and black pointed shoes.

"Sure, it's a good idea," Mr. Goshima finally replied.

"Alright, you heard your father," Mrs. Goshima said. "You'll be backup dancers for Fingerbang, but I don't want to hear about how you tried to hook up with them or Organization XII. You're too young for that nonsense."

Miyako just laughed. "Mom, we're only thirteen. We're not gonna be having sex until we're close to being in twelfth grade, maybe even college, and even then we're saving ourselves for marriage."

"Okay, okay, that's just what I wanted to hear. Do you want to go shopping for your dancing clothes this weekend?"

Momoko and Miyako nodded their heads while Nyoko replied with a shrug. Nyoko didn't tend to care for shopping all that much, especially when it came to shopping for clothes that they could wear as backup dancers.

"Okay," Mr. Goshima said. "Looks like we'll be hitting either Southwest Plaza or Chapel Hills Mall for clothes this weekend. I want you girls to look fabulous while you're up on stage."

"Okay, Dad!" Momoko and Miyako replied in unison.


Later that night, Nyoko sneaked down into the computer room, turned on her family's Dell desktop, and then logged onto AOL Instant Messenger to talk with her long-distance friend Buster Baxter. The two eighth-graders had been talking with one another online since the summer before seventh grade in 2000. He lived close to 1,700 miles away from her in Elwood City, Pennsylvania, but that didn't seem to affect their friendship in the slightest. If anything, the distance between them seemed to have made their friendship stronger. When they talked on AIM, their respective screen names were Xxlapislazuli88xX and Busterbun91979.

"Hey, Buster, u up?" Nyoko typed.

She waited a moment before he responded.

"Yeah lol whats up?" Buster typed curiously.

Nyoko then typed: "Guess what?"

She waited a moment before he responded again.

"What, chicken butt?"

"No, me and my sisters r going 2B backup dancers for Fingerbang!" Nyoko typed with excitement.

"OMFG really? Thats awesome!"

"Yeah no kidding. I can't wait. This is gonna b the best summer ever!"

"OMG I cant wait!"

"Me neither." Nyoko then typed, "Alright, I guess I'll talk to you later. Man, I can't wait until next year so I can brag about this to my friends."

With that, Nyoko logged off AIM and then shut the computer off. Things definitely seemed to be looking up for her this year. She knew this was bound to be one of the best ones around. If only she knew what came next...