CHAPTER 17
It was finally happening.
After all that had occurred--the excitement, the disappointment, the twists and turns--Bo and Jimmy were sitting backstage in the Huckabee Auditorium on Saturday night, waiting for the talent show festivities to begin.
It was a livelier scene than they remembered from last year. Even after all the seats were filled, people kept coming in through the rear doors. Many adults were standing along the side aisles and a large group of Huckabee kids was sitting on the floor between the front row and the stage.
The whole place was loud.
"I don't know, B-dog," Jimmy said. "I let you get me into these situations."
"Ah, you'll be fine, as soon as you hammer out your first few notes," Bo said. "You'll feed off the energy of the crowd."
"Yeah, right," Jimmy said. "Either that, or else pull a 'Mackie'."
"Anyone pulls a 'Mackie'," Bo said, "it'll be me. I got four songs I barely know!"
"I got complete faith in you B--always have, always will."
"Good, that makes one of us," said Bo.
"Wow, check out Old Man Riggins," Jimmy said.
Mr. Riggins was making his way to the podium. He was wearing an expensive looking tuxedo, with a white jacket, a bow tie and a red carnation in his lapel.
"It gives me distinct pleasure," he began, "to acknowledge this year's particpants in the 12th Annual Huckabee Middle School Talent Show. These young men and young women have spent long hours dedicating themselves to developing their various talents, and they should be commended."
The audience applauded. Bo and Jimmy could see Mr. and Mrs. McCoy sitting in the center section. Jimmy found his mom and little brother further back on the left. Jenny, Melissa, Mackie and Adler were together in the front row of the right side section. Bo noticed Henry Pacheco, along with Stanza and Denzell, standing back near the far exit. He couldn't find his parents--he hoped they had made it, but he wasn't sure.
"Furthermore," Mr. Riggins said, "On a personal note, I know how difficult it is to get up in front of an audience--especially an audience that includes one's own classmates--and perform. To each and every one of you students waiting backstage: on behalf of the Huckabee faculty--I'm proud of you. Now then...let the entertainment begin!"
Bo and Jimmy were scheduled ninth, out 16 acts.
First up was Stuart Hill, a 7th grader playing "Greensleeves" on the clarinet. Second was Dirk Lefroni, wearing a cowboy hat and doing unicycle tricks to a Tim McGraw song. Next were Bryce Daags and Richie Linares dancing hip hop. Then Karey Dean singing a Nelly Furtado song, followed by Chelsea Anton and Ashley Rasmussen acting out a scene from "Miss Congeniality". Then a 7th grade band called "Bold" did a hard rock song, "Bad to the Bone". Rachel Wainwright followed with "Over the Rainbow".
"Everyone's doing a good job, unfortunately," Jimmy said. "The audience loves it."
"What we do," Bo said. "When we look out there, we only look two places--Mrs. McCoy, and Jenny and Melissa and the chess dudes. We ignore everyone else. We play it just like we're back in Cameron's room."
"Okay," said Jimmy, taking deep breaths. His mouth was so dry he could barely swallow.
Marty Zuckerman was on stage in the middle of his magic act, and The Destroyers were next. Bo had his tuner attached to the headstock of his guitar and was making his final adjustments.
Zuckerman finished it off by waving his wand and pulling a fake rabbit out of a top hat, and everyone cheered and the curtain closed. Jimmy scrambled to get the drums set up. Bo had decided against using his cheap amp. He was doing as Adler suggested, which was plugging his guitar cable directly into the mixer, to take advantage of the power of the school sound system.
"These next two gentlemen, we've known only as students," Mr. Lewis was saying on the other side of the curtain. "Tonight, we are about to know them as performers. Please welcome--making their talent show debut--The Destroyers!"
There was a little applause, but the curtain didn't open right away. Gardner Garrison, who was in charge of it, was having trouble with the controls. Someone had to run on stage and begin pulling the curtain by hand, and then Garrison got it to open.
What surprised Bo was how you had trouble seeing the audience. The lights were right in your face, and they seemed to be coming from every direction. He looked back at Jimmy, Jimmy gave him a weak nod, and Bo stepped to the microphone.
"I'm Bo Ridley on guitar, and that's Jimmy Martin on drums," he said, "and what we have for you tonight is some instrumental music--a few songs we've strung together that we call: 'Manhattan Beach Medley'."
There was some polite applause.
"You may recognize some of this," Bo continued. "If you do--great. If you don't--well, too bad."
The audience was slightly stunned and quiet for a second. Then Bo broke into a big smile, and a lot of people started laughing.
I have no idea what made me say that, Bo thought, but maybe they're with us a little bit now.
Bo strummed a quick C chord, an A minor, an F and a G7 as a final tune up. His eyes met Jimmy's, and he called out: "One, two, three, FOUR!" and launched into the guitar line of "Wipeout":
Da da da DANG da dang da dang dang, da da DANG da dang da dang dang...
After 30 seconds he came to the end of the first verse:
Da da da DANG da da da dang daah, da da da da da da DANG!
Bo's hard C was Jimmy's cue for his first solo. Jimmy started off on the air tom-tom playing fast, too fast, and he was making a lot of mistakes. Bo began hitting rhythm chords to try to slow him down.
By the second solo, Jimmy was on the floor tom and had steadied himself, and the crowd was getting into it and making some noise. When Jimmy played out his third solo on the snare drum and Bo took over the melody the final time, a huge cheer went up.
What Bo had decided overnight was instead of playing the final chord of "Wipeout" when the time came, he'd play a filler line that he made up, and then he and Jimmy would go straight into "Pipeline":
Da da daah, da da DANG da da daah da,
Da dang da, dang da da daah...
Jimmy's forearms hurt and his hands felt all cramped after putting so much energy into his three "Wipeout" solos. But he knew all he had to do now was keep a strong, simple back beat and let Bo do his thing, and not screw anything up.
As "Pipeline" blended into "Diamond Head", it occurred to Bo that he was totally relaxed. His tones were clear and clean, and his timing was there. Everything about playing the instrument and being up on stage and having the crowd respond--it all felt right.
When "Diamond Head" turned into "Secret Agent Man", first a few people--and soon much of the audience--began clapping in rhythm. The clapping continued into "Walk, Don't Run", which was supposed to be Bo and Jimmy's closing song.
One thing about being best friends was you sometimes knew what the other person was thinking.
Right before the end of "Walk Don't Run", Bo took a sideways glance at Jimmy, and Jimmy nodded. Bo strummed a heavy A chord one octave up and let it resonate for a moment, and then BOOM, they were back doing one more verse of "Wipeout".
Jimmy was slowing down, but he did his best to pound out a solid final solo. He made a few mistakes, but Bo realized he was probably the only one hearing them at this point.
When "Manhattan Beach Medley" finally ended with a suspended G chord from Bo and a cymbal crash from Jimmy, an ovation rang out that seemed thunderous. Many people were standing.
"And once again," Mr. Riggins was saying, "for your listening pleasure tonight--The Destroyers!"
The audience started cheering again, and some of the Huckabee kids that knew how were putting fingers in their mouths, whistling. A group of 6th grade girls was screaming in high voices.
Jimmy came out from behind the drums and took a funny looking little bow, which only made Bo decide that he was never going to do that. The curtain closed.
"How'd I sound?!" said Jimmy as soon as they were off stage. "It was loud--I couldn't always hear you that great--so I wasn't sure if I was staying with you."
"Dog, let me put it to you this way," Bo said. "Ringo Starr would have been proud of you tonight."
"Who's Ringo Starr?"
"A famous drummer," Bo said.
"Oh," said Jimmy. "So I guess that means it went okay, then. Funny thing--I got up there, I couldn't see out worth jack."
"Me neither," said Bo. "It was definitely different being center stage."
"You rang that guitar like a pro though, B., you really did. You glad now I talked you into doing it?"
"Wait a second--YOU talked ME into it?"
"Darn right I did. Right there in 7th period, Mrs. Matters'."
"Dude, I talked YOU into this, remember?"
"No way! When?"
"Right there at the taco truck!"
"Dude, forget THAT! If I didn't drag you out of your room to go to the beach that day when you were feeling all sorry for yourself, you never would have figured out anything to play!"
"Oh really," Bo said. "How about this, then? If you didn't drag me out of my room, we might not have run into HAMBURG and ARRINGTON at the beach that day, and then you wouldn't have had to open your BIG MOUTH later and get us locked inside a dang BATHROOM!!"
"Hey Ridley, SHUT UP over there!"
It was Myers, yelling at them from on stage in the middle of his own performance.
He'd been readying himself for his grand finale, where he would to attempt to juggle three clubs and an apple, but Bo and Jimmy's arguing kept on breaking his concentration.
"Oops, sorry Roland," said Bo.
Mr. Riggins appeared. "Gentlemen," he whispered, "I must insist you lower your voices immediately and show respect for your fellow performers!"
Bo and Jimmy slumped into a couple of chairs and neither one said another word. They could see the rest of the show through an opening in the side curtain.
After Myers was Hale Blalock, playing his acoustic guitar and singing a folk song; then Angie Landry with mallets, doing something reggae-like on a marimba; then Allison Sturgeon and Makena De Soto doing their dance number to a modern jazz tune; then Jason Bruno with his double yo-yo tricks; and then Eva Laggerman playing classical piano. The talent show ended with Becky Hamm and Fiona Murphy singing the Smash Mouth song, "All Star".
"Actually," said Jimmy, when it was over, "the level of this thing really wasn't bad. For a bunch of kids."
"I know," said Bo. "When we finished I thought we were strong, but after watching everyone else, I'm not so sure now."
"I'm sure," said Jenny, suddenly showing up backstage.
"And I'm sure," said Melissa.
Jenny gave Bo a big hug and Melissa gave one to Jimmy.
"Whoa," Jimmy said, "don't stop there. Now we need to switch it around."
"Very funny," Jenny said.
"Isn't he a riot, the way he runs his mouth?" said Bo. "You hear Myers have to stop right in the middle and yell at him?"
"Actually, we heard Myers yelling at you," Melissa said.
"Oh," said Bo.
