Five

We had just four weeks to sort out our song for the Battle of the Bands final, which was going to take place in the Town Hall. I still couldn’t quite believe that we’d made it through the qualifiers and would be singing up on the same stage that Bubbly had performed on just a few weeks earlier. Even more amazing, one of the Bubbly band members was going to be on the judging panel!

“We’re actually going to sing in front of a member of Bubbly?” Lucy said, looking dazed as we compared the letters we’d got, confirming our places in the final.

“You’d better start believing it,” I said, folding up my letter and tucking it back into my blazer pocket. “And we’ve still got half a song to write.”

Mel was frowning at her letter, but I could tell she wasn’t really seeing it. Something had been eating her all morning.

“Mel,” I said, “you’re supposed to be happy right now. We qualified, didn’t we? Anyone in there?” I clicked my fingers in front of Mel’s face.

“Hmm?” Mel looked up.

“Come on, Mel,” Lucy said patiently. “Time to spill.”

“It’s Mum,” said Mel with a sigh. “She’s still really down about missing that promotion. She acted pleased that we got through the qualifiers, but I could tell that she was thinking about her work. I wish I could think of a present that might take her mind off things.”

“How about another elephant?” I suggested.

“I can’t find one she hasn’t already got, or doesn’t cost hundreds of pounds,” Mel said glumly. “Maybe I need to check out the car-boot sale again in a couple of weeks.”

“Listen,” I said, thinking on my feet. I knew just the way to cheer my mate right up. “I don’t suppose you want to be our band manager, do you?”

Mel looked shocked. “Seriously?” she said, a delighted little smile spreading across her face.

I glanced at Lucy. Did she mind that I’d just sprung this on her? But Lu shrugged at me as if to say, “Why not?”

“Now we’ve reached the final, we need someone to really organise us,” Lucy said out loud, joining in with my spur-of-the-moment plan. “Book practice rooms, boss us around until we’re word perfect. That kind of thing.”

“I can’t imagine why we thought of you,” I added, punching Mel gently on the arm.

It took Mel two seconds to think about it. “How do I book a practice room?” she said, looking dead animated as she tucked her letter into her bag. “We’ve got to get on and finish writing our song. How’s dinnertime?”

“Good.” I grinned over at Lucy. It was working!

“I mean,” Mel went on, “every dinnertime?”

The grin fell off my face at that. I had a feeling Mel was going to be good at this job. Maybe a bit too good…

After two dinnertimes in the practice rooms, we had our second verse.

“Well done, Col,” said Lucy as I put my pencil down and stared at the finished song.

“I hope it’s OK,” I said, scribbling an extra couple of lines thoughtfully at the bottom.

“It’ll be great,” Mel insisted, doing her band-manager thing. “So now we’ve got our lyrics sorted, all we need is a drummer and a guitarist.” She made it sound so easy, like you just had to pop down to the local drummer-and-guitarist shop and take your pick.

“Ben’s free now,” I pointed out hopefully. To be honest, it was the first thing I’d thought of when Ben’s band flunked the qualifiers.

“You may have got Ben to do our fashion show,” Lucy said, shaking her head, “but there’s no way you’ll get him to play drums for Bounce Back.”

“If we get his mates involved like we did last time, maybe he’ll do it!” I said, wondering how Dave and Ali might look as a pair of backing singers.

“But you saw them at the qualifiers, Coleen,” Lucy pointed out. “Talk about World War Three. Ben doesn’t have any mates to involve right now. All he can think about is his ex-girlfriend, who isn’t talking to him either.”

Mel was drumming her fingers on the table, her forehead all furrowed up.

“You’ve thought of something, haven’t you?” I said to Mel, recognising the signs.

“Maybe,” Mel said with a slow smile. “Maybe not. Just get ready to follow my lead after Friday morning’s assembly and do whatever I do, yeah?”

Friday morning assembly was usually really boring. Mr Bulford read out a couple of notices, a bunch of kids did a bit of music and then we all went to class. I was dying to know what Mel was planning as we all filed in and sat down.

A group of Year Tens were doing this morning’s music. As usual with a Year Ten assembly, Jasmine Harris was sitting up on the stage with a couple of other girls I didn’t know. They were all fiddling with their guitars and talking quietly to each other. Automatically I glanced around the room for Ben. He was sitting on the end of a row as far away from Dave as possible, looking up at the stage. The whole world could see that he had this soppy face on as he watched Jasmine tuning her strings. Whatever Dave and Jasmine had or hadn’t done, Ben wasn’t over Jasmine – it was clear as anything.

After Mr Bulford had finished droning about fundraising events and upcoming exams, the girls started playing. It was pretty good actually. All the guitars were overlapping each other and doing different things which somehow sounded like one piece of music.

As we all jostled to our feet at the end Mel hissed at us, “Follow me.”

Mystified, me and Lucy followed her out of the seats as she headed up towards the stage. Jasmine and the other girls were still putting away their guitars.

“That was fantastic, Jasmine,” Mel said warmly.

Jasmine looked surprised as we clustered around her. “Thanks,” she said, smiling slightly.

“You were brilliant,” Mel continued, treading hard on my toes.

“Ouch!” I squeaked. This was obviously where Mel needed us to do what she was doing: buttering up Jasmine Harris like she was a piece of toast. But…she wasn’t seriously trying to get Jasmine to join our band, was she?

“Fantastic!” Lucy said, obediently beaming at Jasmine. She’d obviously twigged what Mel wanted from us as well.

“Great,” I said, racking my brains for something to say. “Very – Jimi Hendrix.”

“C’mon, Jas,” said the girl packing up beside Jasmine. “We’re gonna be late back to class.”

“Hold on, Sita,” said Jasmine. She glanced at Lucy. “Do you have a sec, Lucy?” Lucy nodded.

Jasmine leaned in. “Has Ben said anything to you about me?” she asked.

“What kind of thing?” Lucy said, looking confused.

Jasmine stood up. “Nothing,” she said. “Forget it. Wait up, Sita…”

“Jasmine?” said Mel quickly. “Listen, we know it’s dead cheeky to ask, but – I don’t suppose you’d like to play in our band for the Battle?”

She’d said it! I almost gasped out loud.

Jasmine actually laughed. “Thanks, but no way,” she said, shouldering her guitar. “I can’t play with a bunch of juniors. See you.”

“Shame,” Mel sighed as Jasmine moved past us. “Ben wondered if maybe…”

Jasmine spun around as Mel left the sentence hanging in midair. “Wondered what?” she demanded.

“Forget it,” Mel said breezily. “We’ll do without a guitar. Ben’s drumming should cover it. Practice room three would probably be kind of a squeeze on Monday and Friday dinnertime for a five-piece band anyway.”

“You got Ben to play for you?” Jasmine asked, looking astonished.

“Like I said, forget it,” Mel said. “It was too much of us to ask. See you.” And we walked away, leaving Jasmine frowning after us.

“HeLLO, nutcase!” I hissed at Mel as soon as we were out of Jasmine’s earshot. “Ben isn’t in the band! And anyway, why would we want Jasmine?”

“Er, radar to Col. Jasmine just happens to be the best guitarist this side of the Mersey, and anyway, in answer to your question, Jasmine doesn’t know that Ben isn’t actually in our band,” Mel pointed out.

“But she’ll find out,” Lucy wailed.

“Jasmine and Ben aren’t speaking, remember?” Mel said, smiling wickedly. “So all Lucy has to do is get to Ben over the weekend and tell him Jasmine’s playing in the band. You saw for yourselves: she’s still crazy about him. And everyone can see that he feels the same way, even though he dumped her. They’ll each do it for sure if they think the other one’s up for it.”

I gaped at her. “That’s the maddest plan I ever heard!” I said. “But I like it.”

“Me too,” Lucy said, starting to laugh.

“I know,” Mel grinned. “And see how I made sure Jasmine knew we’d be rehearsing in practice room three on Monday and Friday dinnertimes?” She clicked her fingers. “Sit back and watch the magic, girls.”

It was dead clever. Dangerous, loop-the-loop – but clever. The only problem was: did I really want to see Ben and Jasmine get back together for the sake of our band? My last faint hopes of a romance with Ben Hanratty would all whoosh up in sad little flames if Jasmine joined. But would it be worth it if we won the trophy?

“Hope you’ve got clean knickers on today, Coleen,” Summer said to me as she and her mates pushed past us in the corridor outside the hall. “The ones we all saw on Saturday were gross.” Giggling, she wafted her hand across her nose and wiggled off.

Well, that pretty much made the decision for me. I tucked away my little Ben Hanratty dream and started focusing on the contest. Bounce Back would bounce back – with a drummer, guitarist and then some. We had to win this, or die trying!