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"Anything hazardous, liquid or perishable?" the clerk asked Ty.
"It's a CD."
"Any batteries?"
"No, it's a CD."
"Perfume or nail polish?"
Ty looked at the clerk. He couldn't tell whether she was putting him on or not. He decided to just answer the questions as asked. The questions kept coming. Priority or not? Overnight or two day? Ty decided on overnight. Insurance or not? Finally they were done and the padded envelope, with the CD, was on its way to Sara.
Ty jogged back out to the limo waiting for him. It wasn't his limo, it was Covalent's. Ty had run into Rich, Covalent's lead guitar player, as he was heading out of the arena. Ty had asked Rich the best way to get to a post office and Rich had offered Ty the use of Covalent's limo. Ty had been a little hesitant to accept, but Rich had insisted that they weren't using it so Ty might as well.
The day before had been spent getting ready for the opening night of the tour, which was tomorrow night. There really wasn't a lot to do unless the band was needed for something specific, but they had to stick around the arena. The guys in Covalent, Rich, Jon, James and Connor were all pretty cool. None of them really seemed to talk to Steve, who was the lead singer, very much. Steve had barely acknowledged Ty, or his band, when they had been introduced. Rich had shrugged it off.
This morning a roadie had come and found them with a box from the huge merchandise shipment that had been sent to the arena. In the box was a selection of CD's, t-shirts, posters and assorted other merchandise, all with Ty's name and/or face plastered on it. The CD's were numbered and the one Ty had sent to Sara had been number one. Ty had wondered if it actually was the first one or if it was just symbolic, but either way he wanted her to have it. The limo stopped and Ty went to get out, but the door opened and the musicians from Covalent started piling in, followed by Ty's friends.
"Thanks for bringing our limo back, asshole," said Steve.
Ty was too stunned to say anything and he was half wondering if Steve was messing with him, but Rich spoke up quickly.
"I told him to take it, chill out."
"Yes, and thank you, I appreciate it," Ty said.
"No problem," Rich said.
Jon threw himself down on the seat next to Ty.
"Fucking primadonna," Jon muttered, under his breath.
Ty was absolutely certain that no one but him had heard Jon, so he couldn't understand the looks Nate, Dale and Mack were exchanging. That passed quickly and everyone took out their phones and busied themselves, checking for messages.
"Shit, check it out," James said and leaned across Ty to show Jon something.
Ty caught a glimpse of a picture of a little girl smiling widely. Jon smiled at the picture and went back to his own phone.
"Is that your daughter?" Ty asked.
"Yeah, that's Katie, she's five. She just got her Daisies uniform, Elena, that's my wife, she said kid was so excited she couldn't get her to bed last night." James flicked the touch screen on the phone and pulled up another picture to show Ty. "Elena, Katie and Jack, he's three. That was the day I left to come here."
"What's Daisies anyway?" Rich asked.
"It's Girl Scouts, like the first one."
"Thought that was Brownies," Connor said.
"No, they changed it a while ago," Jon said. "Gina, that's my sister," he said to Ty. "She told me when my niece started it, last year."
Steve snorted loudly which Ty took to mean Steve found the conversation somewhat lacking. Steve was staring out the window so he probably missed the rest of his band glaring at him. Ty however, did not miss it. Ty looked across the limo at Dale, who met Ty's eyes for a second and then promptly looked at the ceiling.
Ty wondered what that was about, but he didn't have to wonder long. The limo drove into the parking garage, under the hotel. Ty had already learned that a hotel with underground parking was preferable for security reasons. He had also been told by Rich to enjoy the hotel because there were going to be a lot of nights sleeping on the bus, on the way to the next location, over the next seven months. The bands went up to their floor. The Covalent guys promptly split up and went to their individual rooms. Ty's friends, however, followed him into his.
"So you got your package mailed, huh?" Dale said.
"Yeah, why?"
The guys all looked at each other.
"Steve went ape shit," Mack finally said.
"Full blown temper tantrum," Nate agreed.
"Over what?" Ty asked.
"We had to wait for the limo, well first Steve didn't really want us in the limo," Nate and Mack nodded in agreement. "But then when the limo wasn't there and he found out you had taken it, he went nuts."
"I didn't take it," Ty said. "Rich offered it to me."
"I know, Rich said that," Dale said. "I think, we just have to watch it around that guy."
"I don't think it's that big of a deal," Nate said. "They all hate him, from what I could see."
"Yeah, if anyone is in charge, it's Rich. But Steve has the potential to be a real pain in the ass, if he wants to be," Mack said.
"Alright, we'll watch out for him," Ty said.
Ty wasn't a hundred percent sure what they were agreeing to, but he did know that outside of Steve, everyone in Covalent had been really nice to them. Ty didn't have any desire to cause trouble for any of them.
"Just stay out of his way, I guess," Dale said.
Nate and Mack agreed too, then the guys started to leave Ty's room. There was some talk of getting out of the hotel, for dinner, later, maybe. When Ty was alone he pulled out his phone. Part of him wanted to e-mail Sara and tell her the CD was on the way. Then he decided to wait and e-mail her tomorrow, after he'd checked the tracking and saw that it had been delivered.
Nate, Dale and Mack were worried about Steve, but Ty's thoughts, about the limo ride back to the hotel, had nothing to do with Steve. They were about the other guys in Covalent and their families. They were on the road for seven months to do their job, but they made it work, somehow. Ty knew that his dad had given him the wrong advice with the best of intentions. Listening to Mo had been a big mistake.