Chapter 7

"Hey, Jackie, you excited about tonight?" Trevor asked her as she took her seat behind the drum set. She had come straight to Trevor's garage from the salon for a couple of hours of rehearsal time.

"Tonight? What do you mean? Who told you?" Jackie asked, pulled from her anxious thoughts. She was mentally kicking herself for promising Hyde a meeting with Blue.

"What do you mean, who told me? I told you just last week how tonight is our last night at this dive. From next week we're playing at Smoky Joe's – I tell you, this band is going places, baby."

"This nameless band," pointed out Jackie.

"Not anymore," Trevor replied smugly.

"We picked a name?"

"No, a name picked us. We are now known on the circuit as "That band with the hot chick".

"Really?" Jackie squealed. "It's named for me? Ha! In your face, Hot Donna!"

"I'm telling you kid, this is just the beginning. We're moving on to better clubs, better pay, better clientele. Soon we'll be strong enough to start playing some of our own songs." Trevor played a guitar lick to express his excitement. "Once people hear the lyrics you've been writing lately, we'll really be established as an angry rock band."

Jackie looked a bit self-conscious. "Hey, they're not all angry."

"What was the chorus of your latest effort? Oh yeah,

You don't have two brain cells to rub together

If you thought that you could cheat on me

I'm gonna rip your head off and spit down your neck

Just give me opportunity"

"Well, if you're going to take it out of context like that," Jackie answered a little huffily. "Anyway, I was just coming out of a bad break-up when I wrote that. I'm not feeling so angry anymore."

"Shame," murmured Trevor.

"I've been thinking out a song lately which has rainbows and unicorns and little bluebirds that are the colour of his eyes," Jackie said dreamily.

"Oh God, no," Trevor said in horror. "You're not falling in love again, are you? Dammit Blue, you can't write music for a rock band when you're falling in love. For The Carpenters, maybe but not a rock band."

"Do you think you could stretch your mind to embrace a concept outside of this band, Trevor?" Jackie asked in exasperation. Trevor's blank look at this idea was answer enough. Music was his life; all other aspects of existence were just ghosts on the outskirts of his consciousness. "But if you fear I will find happiness, don't worry. The guy I'm falling for can't stand me."

"Aw, c'mon, Jackie," Trevor said, made uncomfortable by her woe-begone face. "I'm sure he can. Studies made on prisoners of war have shown how human beings can adapt to the worst mental tortures, so I'm sure this poor schmuck you've targeted will eventually accept his fate." He laughed when he saw indignation chase the sorrow from her face, so she slapped his arm for teasing her.

"For your information, he happens to be falling in love with me," she declared.

"What, he can't stand you but he's falling in love with you? How does that add up?"

Jackie chewed her bottom lip in indecision before she made up her mind to let Trevor into her confidence. "Trev, you have to swear that the secret I am about to tell you can never leave this unbelievably ugly garage."

"Alright."

"Will you swear by the Pukawangi oath?"

"We can't use the oath. That involves a spit in the hands handshake and you would never go for that."

"Trev, this secret is so big I will even spit for it," Jackie said solemnly. "The laundry sink is just through that door, right?"

"Right."

"Good, so if you'll just say the sacred words… there's proper anti-bacterial soap in there too, right?"

"Jackie, I can see from the lengths you are willing to go to that this secret means a lot to you so how about I swear on the life of Don Henley that I will take it to my grave."

"OK," Jackie agreed, and then proceeded to explain the whole double identity dilemma she had talked her way into. "So I have to meet him at the Club tonight as Blue," she finished on a wail. "How am I going to fool him at close quarters? I'd have to take my glasses off at some point and then he'll know and he'll be mad at me for deceiving him and hate me and get me into trouble with my folks and my friends – "

"Whoa, back away from the deep end, Blue," Trevor said. Jackie looked to him hopefully as she observed his frown of concentration. Perhaps he could see a way out of this corner she had painted herself into.

"Why do you have to take off your glasses?" Trevor threw the question at her.

"Why?" Jackie repeated, nonplussed. "Because… I mean, on a date a girl is supposed to – "

"Right there, that's your problem," Trevor analysed. "You're thinking like a well brought up young lady. Doing the proper, conventional thing under the circumstances. Well, you've got to throw that kind of thinking away, baby!" Trevor flicked a paint can lid across the garage to lend drama to his point, then winced as he heard glass crash and tinkle from the area where it landed. "OK, if my mom asks, those jam jars were like that when we got here."

"Back to my life, Trevor," Jackie insisted. "Focus on what's important."

"Your problem is you're still thinking like Jackie when you're Blue. You've got to get yourself into character when you put on that wig and dark glasses."

"In character," Jackie repeated, thinking this through.

"Yes! Blue is not some middle-class priss who does what people expect her to. She's a rebel, kicking down bourgeois conventions. If she wants to wear dark glasses indoors, who the hell is going to tell her she can't? This chick makes her own rules!"

"She does?"

"Damn straight! Jackie, if you want to come out on top tonight, you've got to remember that you're the one in control. Because you are! I'll tell you a secret - when a guy is on a first date with a girl he really digs, she has got 100 per cent of the power. You start simpering at this Hyde dude and asking what he would like from you, he'll snatch that power away from you. But if you tell him 'This is the kind of no holds barred chick I am and what are you going to do about it' he'll lie down at your feet and beg you to walk your clogs all over him."

The prospect of Steven Hyde making himself into a carpet for her pleasure was delicious. "You're right, Trevor! I keep thinking of Steven as someone who is immune to the hot chick rules because he's never drooled over me like the other lovesick geeks at our school. But when I'm Blue then I'll be the kryptonite to his Superman and bring him to his knees."

"God forgive me, I've created a monster," observed Trevor.

"Thank you so much, Trevor," Jackie cried, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek.

"Hey, don't press your boobs up against my Queen T-shirt," Trevor reproved, setting her at arms length. "You know Freddy doesn't like it."

"Well, he'll have to come to terms with it because there may be more of that coming," Jackie replied. "That was the other thing I had to tell you – I told Steven I was dating a member of the band to explain how I knew Blue, so this is your lucky day, loverboy."

"What? No way! You can stretch the friendship only so far, Jackie," Trevor insisted, holding his hands up in protest.

"Aww, come on, Trevor," Jackie implored with puppy dog eyes.

"Forget it! I'm not getting dragged into this bad Nutty Professor send-up. Ask Chip or Dave – they'll be sickeningly grateful for the privilege to be your fake boyfriend."

"I don't want either of the chipmunks in on this," Jackie said, her pout turning to a sulk. "You've gotta do this, Trev. You owe me – this whole double identity thing was your idea."

"Jackie, I'm a lead singer in a rock band," Trevor whined. "That right there is hot babe currency and I don't want anything holding me back from maxing out my credit." It took a subtle blend of begging, flirting and out and out intimidation but in the end Trevor buckled and reluctantly agreed to be Jackie's beard.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the garage door Chip was grinning from ear to ear at the juicy fruits of his eavesdropping. There were so many ways to manipulate this information to his advantage, he would have to plan carefully so as to get the optimum satisfaction out of the situation. That would serve that bitch Blue for her constant rejections –or should he say, Jackie?