"No, actually," Drake interrupted himself. "I don't think it will be okay. I'm 30 years old and I'm homeless."
"Drake, you don't even have to worry about me. I'll be fine. My friend, Lindsay, has an extra bedroom and I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I moved in for a little while," Dawn reassured.
"And Drake, you and Lola can stay here with us. We were just about to buy a new bed for Rachael, so Lola can use her old one for a while. And the couch is always open to you," Josh cracked a smile.
Drake nodded, "As long as that's fine with Mindy."
Mindy snickered, "As long as you don't walk in on us anymore." She stuck out her tongue playfully.
Drake walked into work that day to see that one band again, DNAB. "So, we're looking for a small gig today. Anything in particular you want to suggest?"
Kyle sighed, "My mom owns a pizza parlor and they have live entertainment Saturday nights. We wouldn't get paid though."
"We just need publicity," Marie spoke up.
"Pizza parlor it is, then," Drake agreed. "Here's things you need to do before Saturday, and you only have six days to do them. By the end of today, I'll have flyers made. One of you has to come get them around four. Post them at school, on the pizza parlor, local community centers, wherever it's legal and appropriate. Next, get some sort of wardrobe put together, but listen to me closely: you cannot all match. You have no idea how many bands come in here wanting to look like the Olsen twins. Sometime this week please send me some sort of visual of your clothing, whether e-mail or you can bring in the actual clothes. Also, I'd like to have you check all your amps and instruments including getting extra strings, sticks, and cords. Any problems, call me immediately. Don't worry, I made a copy of all this for all of you. My number and e-mail are at the bottom, so please don't hesitate to contact me."
They all nodded solemnly.
"Drake," Brian said in a squeamish tone, "We changed our band name."
"Yeah," Ryan added in a twin manner, "now we're Free Parking."
"Any reasons for this name or were you guys high playing monopoly?" Drake chuckled.
"Well we were thinking of you," Matt said.
"And eventually we just found free parking," Marie said.
Kyle continued, "Yeah and it works perfectly because free parking is that space in monopoly when you get all the money and we wanna make it big time."
Drake's smile dropped. For once, someone had thought of him, to recognize him in a way that would make him proud for centuries. "I want you guys to listen to a song."
When they all pulled up chairs to an old boombox sitting on Drake's desk, Drake popped in an old CD and pressed the play button. Marie bopped her head to the beat of the song and the boys sat nodding at the wonderful use of instruments and such. The music ended and they all sat, expressing smiles because the music had given them an essence of joy.
"Who wrote that?" Matt asked.
Drake stared at him, "Me."
"That's your song!?! How come you're not famous?" Brian asked in shock.
"That's my point. That song was brilliant, it made tons of money. But one big hit didn't make me famous. It just gave me a little moment in the sun," Drake said. "With all that money, I was too distracted by girls, cars, and money and one day it all just blew up in my face. My cars and houses got repossessed, the girls left me and the money was just gone."
"That sucks," Ryan said solemnly.
"Yeah it does," Drake nodded, "But the lesson is that you can't let material things distract you from what you really want. If I hadn't chased all those rock and roll dreams around, maybe I would be famous, and maybe I wouldn't be stuck here leading a miserable life."
"I'm sorry," Marie said, "But I promise that I will work my hardest to achieve my dreams." And when all the other band members promised, Drake smiled and nudged them out the door.
An hour later, Drake was hard at work at designing a flyer for Free Parking when Dawn knocked on his office door.
"Hey Drake," Dawn greeted, "How's work been?"
Drake snickered, "Better than the rest of my crappy life."
Dawn sighed, "Well I took Lola shopping, but all we got was matching pink sequined purses because Lola insisted she needed something to hold her strawberry lip balm Marie got for her."
Drake smiled, "Thanks. Don't worry honey, we'll be back on our feet shortly. I have a very good feeling about this new band I'm working with and I feel like that if they can get their big break, I can get mine too."
"Drake," Dawn asked, "When's the last time you played guitar?"
"I don't know, why?"
"You might be able to get your big break."