Chapter 6

It was just beginning to get dark when I went in my room. The usual shadows were becoming more dark and apparent as the sun began to set. "What a boring day," I heard my dad say from down the hall. "Lucky you," I heard myself say in the empty bedroom. Nat hadn't gotten home yet; I guessed he was out playing basketball with David somewhere. Like always I felt myself envy my older brother right then. He had to be home by 9:00 as long as dad knew where he was, but under no exceptions was I allowed outside past 7:00 even if it was still light out.

I went over to my bed and laid down and stared at the ceiling. The bad and unfortunate things always happened to me. Why couldn't it just go away for once? I wish I could get away from it all and-. "Hey Alex." Nat came in, waved at me, then climbed up on his bunk. "So what you been up to today?" he asked me. "He seems awful cheerful to me. I wonder if that game went well," I thought. "Well I don't know, school maybe," I said in an almost sarcastic voice. I heard Nat laugh above me, "oh yeah, I almost forgot it was a school day sorry." "How do you forget a school day," I wondered.

I heard the sound of movement on the top bunk again and Nat jumped down. His hair bounced for a moment on his head then he flipped it back. It was then that I noticed that Nat was wearing a new shirt. It had NBB plastered on it in bold white letters against the black shirt. A picture of the band together was featured under it along with the Nickelodeon symbol. It complemented his dark blue jeans pretty well. (But then again what the heck do I know, I'm no a girl). I stared at Nat who had a big grin on his face. "What?" I said.

Nat came over and sat down on my bed. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked at me gently. (I was NOT prepared for what he said next.)

"It's Cooper," he said, "he's found a new cello player.

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Hold up, hold up-hold the phone, or what ever they called it; yeah I know what you're saying. Something probably on the lines of: "Oh no they found a new cello player," or, "I thought Thomas was coming back there can't be a new player; it ain't right." Well guess what; it isn't right! Look this is how it went Nat was trying to be all 'sympathetic' and stuff but it didn't work and you wanna know why? Because Nat hadn't even seen the new cello player himself! Cooper didn't tell anyone about her; that's right her. No one even knew the new cello player was a girl!!

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12-year-old Stephanie Cameron walked into the studio. Like all the members I was shocked to find out she was a girl and a beautiful at that. She had long blonde hair that came down just below her shoulders and the face of an angel, well at least that's what I overheard Qaasim and David say over and over before.

I've never heard Nat talk about her that way, well I guess that's a good thing since he's dating Rosalina and all but I always wonder does he think it.

Anyways, we started playing 'Mystery Girl'. We were all rocking out to it as we played and Cooper was nodding with approval. When we had finished Cooper gave us two thumbs up. "That was awesome," he said, "you guys are ready for the concert next week." I heard David hit a key on his keyboard on purpose and say, "I guess we don't need T-bone anymore." I opened my mouth to disagree but to my horror I saw my band mates nodding. They thought Stephanie was better! I bet it was only because David and Qaasim had a major crush on her. That's not fair; not to Thomas, the fans, or even me!