Chapter Ten: Amalia

11/8

Long weekend, NBook. Let me start at the beginning. It might take a while, but I'm going to do it.

Friday had to have been the longest day of my life. After school we were going into LA to start RECORDING ON A CD.

Once we get there (Thank you, Mr. Chavez for dealing with us!) Rainah meets us at the door of the studio. I didn't know what to expect, but the studio looks kind of a like a hole in the wall. It's just a small, brown building. However, I smile and shake her hand.

She smiles too. "Hi, Amalia." She looks around at everyone and nods. "Hi, guys. I you are all really excited about this, not a lot of high schooler get this experience. Just stay calm, and don't touch anything that looks expensive."

Everyone laughs. We go inside and, well, honestly, nothing looks that expensive. It looks like the same hole in the wall on the inside that it is on the outside.

The band sets up in the studio and I meet the producer, Clark Henry. He's young, like twenty-two. He explains how the recording process goes, which is different from just playing. They put everything down on layers, percussion, guitars, etc., then vocals last.

I sit in a room with Clark and Rainah that was separated by a glass window to the room the band is in. They play through a couple songs to get a feeling of the sound, and, I guess who they want it produced? I have no idea. Clark and Rainah are talking in another language, I think.

I'm still wondering what I'm doing there. I feel like a tag-a-long. I guess my face is pretty obvious to how I feel, which happens a lot, because Rainah taps my shoulder. "Let's go out and talk."

I can see the band playing through the window, but Maggie catches my eyes. She casts me a confused and worried look. I shrug.

Rainah leads me into the hall. Before she can say anything, I blurt out, "What am I doing here? You don't need me!"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," she says. "I could tell you've been sort of... hesitant."

I nod.

"If you're wondering why I keep you around, it's simple. They know you. The trust you. You're a great liaison to them, Amalia. And I've heard them complain about slave driver practices and all of that. You're a good manager. And somehow you manage to be their friend too."

"So I'm just around to be liaison?"

"If I said something that you didn't agree with, would you push it on the band?"

"No."

"Exactly. Believe me, I have their best interest in mind, but you do even more than I do. Listen to me, Amalia, I think Vanish has the potential to make it beyond local band. I really do."

My jaw drops. "Wow."

Rainah grins. "Yeah. However, when that happens, I'd say a year or two from now, given that things stay on the course they are now, which isn't a guarantee, they could easily be picked up by any major record label. They're amazing."

I grin too. "I know they are."

"The thing is, when that happens, they're not going to take you with them."

My grin drops off. I nod. "Yeah, I'm surprised that I lasted this long."

Rainah shrugs. "Maybe that point you'll be ready to be their manager professionally and go with them. Time will tell."

I smile.

Lunch is spent with me repeating what Rainah said about the band. I leave out the part about a year or two away from success. Something inside of me is telling me to keep that one under my hat. Though I don't wear hats. I don't know why. I just didn't want to tell them. Maybe I didn't want to get their hopes up.

Saturday is spent at the studio again. I have the feeling this is going to take a lot longer than we expected it to. I know we didn't think it would take one afternoon, but by the end of Saturday, they've only recorded the total of one song.

I have never eaten so much taken-out in one day in my entire life.

I need a break. A break before I get to Sunday.

11/8 - later

Sunday the band went down to the studio, but I stayed home with Brendan. Well, Brendan's home. I guess it's not mine.

I make lunch for the Jones'. It isn't bad. It certainly isn't what they're used to, but it's better than take-out again. Or a frozen meal or something.

Other than that, I don't really do anything. Brendan and I watch a Lifetime movie. We try to make fun of it, but neither of us are into it.

I look over at him. His eyes are glazed over. "Do you want to get out of here?"

He looks at me for a moment, and nods. "Yeah."

We tell Dedree and John that we'll be back in a couple hours. They say okay, of course.

We walk down to the Ice Cream Palace (former horrible employment) and get a giant ice cream sundae and share it.

"What's been going on with the band?" Brendan asks.

That's all it takes. I'm babbling away, like I always do, telling him everything Rainah said to me on Friday. The whole time he's got this bemused smile on his face.

"What?" I ask.

"What?"

"What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing," he replies, obviously trying to wipe the smile from his face, but fails, only smiling wider. "You, that's all."

I blush. I try to joke. I wave my hand at him. Oh, whatever."

He grabs my hand and looks at me, pretty seriously, though he's still smiling. "No, really."

I can't stop blushing. I feel really uncomfortable, just in the fact that he's paying me this "next level" compliment. Does that make sense, NBook? No?

"Let's do something," Brendan says.

"What?"

"I haven't done anything out-wise since we spent that night in Hollywood. I want to do something."

"Well, it's Sunday afternoon. We have time, I guess. What do you want to do?" I'm sort of wary, because, really, I was getting some cabin fever, I can't imagine what Brendan was going through. I thought about how Sunny went kind of crazy when her mom had cancer, and I'm wondering if Brendan is going to do the same thing.

"Let's go swimming. This is California, we can go swimming in November."

"...I guess..."

At least he wasn't dating a thousand skanky girls. Swimming I could handle. It's cool out, but Brendan is right. This IS California. Swimming wouldn't be unbearable. Not exactly a huge pleasant experience, but not the end of the world, freezing our butts off. UNTIL.

"Let's go, then," Brendan says, taking my hand.

"Don't we need bathing suits and towels and stuff?" I ask.

"I don't want to go back. Let's just go."

"What are we going to-" I stop. I realize what we're going to do for bathing suits. We're not going to be wearing them. Or anything. Instead of blushing, I feel all the color drain from my face.

I'm wondering he's planning on going to the beach. Like the ocean. But, no, we walk (which takes forever, I wish we at least had bikes or something) to Las Palmas park. I don't know what he's thinking, but he leads me to this small lake (large pond?) that's really secluded. It even goes into a little cave. Chances are, you'd have to know it was there to find it. I know people rock climb over the hill the cave is in, but you'd have to be on the total other side to even know where the pond is.

The park isn't exactly hopping anyway. Probably because it's a crisp November day. There's a few people hiking, and a couple playing frisbee. That's pretty much it. However, I'm pretty sure there are RULES about what we're doing.

Brendan grins. "Let's do this." He pulls of his shirt.

I turn away from him and start pulling off my clothes. Okay, it's kind of embarrassing, but I try to convince myself that it's natural. I contemplate leaving my underwear on and then not wearing them as we walk back, but then I'd just have wet underwear in my pocket so I drop them on top of my jeans.

I look over my shoulder for a moment before turning around. Brendan is already in the water, looking away. It's nice to know that while he's going on a crazy raid (and dragging me along with him), he still respects me. I jump into the water without thinking about it.

THE WATER IS FREEZING. California or not, that water is cold. I gasped out loud.

"You okay?" Brendan asks.

"Cold," I say.

He swims over to me, smiling. "Yeah, I know. But it feels good. After... a minute or two."

I tread water, shivering, and Brendan is right. After a couple of minutes, when my skin is used to the water and it doesn't feel like icicles are stabbing me, it doesn't feel too bad.

Once I can move, Brendan grabs my hand and pulls me toward the cave. "Come check this out," he says.

"How did you find this?" I ask

"Dad brought me here," he says without a lot of emotion. "He went to college at UCLA, and he'd spent a lot of his college years here. Of course that was mostly spent smoking pot and skinny dipping in this pond."

I laugh. We swim into the cave, and inside it's beautiful. The entire cave is lined with crystals (I couldn't indenitfy them if I tried) and the way the afternoon sun is shining into the cave, the just... GLOW.

"Wow," I say. "This is beautiful."

Brendan's arm snakes around my bare waist and that makes me tense up. He's not moving his arms anywhere they haven't already touched, he's being rather gentlemanly, but it's still weird and nervewracking since we are both naked.

Which, let's stop for a moment and talk about HOW WEIRD IT IS THAT I SPENT MY AFTERNOON NAKED IN A POND WITH NAKED BRENDAN?

I can't even conceive that I A) Did that. B) No one found out. And C) I did all of that and I resisted the urge to sneak a peek. I don't think Brendan did either, but I have to admit that I was CURIOUS. Other than sex ed drawings and what not, I've never seen a boy naked. But, you know, I'm 14. I've got time for that. But I did miss a perfectly good opportunity.

"Yeah, the only way to get in here is to swim through," Brendan is saying. "But it's worth it."

"It is," I said.

There the pond ends and the cave goes in further, but neither of us get out, since... well. We're both naked. I feel really young and really adult all at the same time. It's hard to explain.

We get out of the pond and I feel cold and damp and my clothes are clingy. I ring out my hair, which I didn't get too wet, but the ends are pretty well soaked out of fear of letting the water hit me below the neck.

Brendan looks at me with this sheepish expression. "I'm sorry, Amalia. I sort of-"

"Don't worry about it," I say. "You didn't MAKE me do anything."

"But you didn't... like... do it all out of guilt? Because of Dad?"

I shake my head. "I'd never do that to you. I do all of this because I want to too."

He smiles and we walk back to his house.

My secret afternoon.

Sunday evening was... interesting.

I went home and ate dinner. Over desert Isabel taps her plate with her fork.

"I have an announcement to make," she says, grinning.

"What is it?" Mami asks.

Isabel keeps grinning. "This is kind of sudden, I'd guess, but Simon asked me to marry him."

"WHAT?" Papi says. He looks a cross between angry and exasperated.

"I know, I know," Isabel says. "But for all the reasons I could think of for not doing it... besides, Papi, we're planning a long engagement. More than year."

"Well... you're an adult, I guess we can't say anything." Mami gets up and gives Isabel a hug. "Congratulations, honey."

Isabel looks at me. "What do you say, Amalia? Or miss bridesmaid?"

"Wow," I say. "Congratulations."

I couldn't think of anything else to say. Isabel is only twenty years old! I couldn't imagine getting married so young. But I guess people do it everyday. I don't know what to think.

I don't like the way things are changing around me.