When Tig typed how to kick someone out of your, the search engine offered to finish the statement with the word house but not band. But when Tig went ahead and finished typing the entire statement, there were nearly thirty-one million results.
Well, at least she wasn’t the first person to have this problem.
Just to delay things, she typed, how to kick your cousin out of your, and the search engine once again offered house. When Tig finished the whole statement, there were nearly two million hits, but none of them dealt with the actual problem, just contained the words somewhere.
So maybe Tig was the first person to have to kick her cousin out of a band.
There was actually some pretty good advice on a few musician websites about how to get rid of a band member. Tig read for about half an hour, and it seemed the consensus was to be up-front and honest about the whole thing. But there was no unless the band member’s parents are also getting a divorce and he/she is in denial about it. But honesty was supposed to be the best policy, wasn’t it? And if Tig didn’t tell Kyra herself, and tell her gently, there was bound to be a mutiny at the next practice. Robbie would blow up and say something harsh. That would be way worse.
So Tig decided she’d rather be up-front and honest with Kyra herself.
But maybe over the phone. And to delay the confrontation, she thought maybe it could wait until tomorrow night.
Just as Tig had been awkward around Robbie a few weeks before, the next day she was awkward around Kyra at school. Kyra, though, was oblivious. Maybe she was so preoccupied with the divorce, she wasn’t even thinking about the band. Or maybe she knew she was in danger of being kicked out of the band but didn’t want to know. Either way, she didn’t challenge Tig on her behavior and seemed completely normal at the lunch table that day.
“Let me guess,” Robbie whispered to Tig. “You haven’t told her yet.”
“I’m going to do it tonight,” Tig said. “Over the phone. That way, she can be upset in private for a while.”
Tig followed through and called Kyra after supper that evening. “I need to talk to you about the band,” she said.
“You and that band,” Kyra said. “Don’t you ever want to talk about anything else? I’m so sick of the band all the time.”
“Well, maybe that’s good,” Tig said. Up-front and honest, Tig reminded herself.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Kyra, you know you haven’t been pulling your weight. Not for a long time. And the other girls don’t know your situation, and you won’t let me tell them, so they can’t be very understanding about something they don’t even know about, and . . .”
“So you’re kicking me out of the band?” Kyra laughed. “Yeah, right.” There was a pause. “You’re not laughing,” Kyra said.
“No, I’m not laughing because I’m serious,” Tig said. “Kyra, I don’t want to hurt you. I know this is a difficult time for you.”
“Tig, come on,” Kyra said. “If you’re trying to get my attention, then fine. You’ve got it. I’ll practice more.”
“Come on, Kyra. We’ve already been down that road,” Tig said. “Just think of it as a nice long break. You just said you’re sick of the band. Now you won’t have to worry about it anymore. You’ll have plenty of time to focus on feeling better, and then maybe you can come back when things have calmed down and you can give it more effort.”
“This is coming from Robbie, isn’t it?” Kyra said. “Oh, that’s just perfect. One minute you’re all ‘it’s our band and Robbie can’t push us around,’ and the next, you’re doing whatever she wants! Well, Olivia and Claire won’t go along with it.”
“Kyra, they already have,” Tig said as gently as possible.
“What?” Kyra said. “So you’ve all been conspiring against me behind my back, huh?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, you must’ve discussed it sometime, and I certainly wasn’t there for it, so I’d call that going behind my back! How could y’all treat me like this?”
“We didn’t conspire, we aren’t ganging up on you, and we’re not trying to treat you unfairly. You know this is nothing personal,” Tig said. “We all love you to death, Kyra. It’s just that the band thing isn’t working out for you. We all still want to be your friends.”
“Friends don’t treat friends like this!” Kyra said. “And neither do cousins! How could you? Wait until my mom hears about this! And then you can be sure she’ll call your mom, and then your mom will kill you!”
“I don’t think so,” Tig said.
“You mean Aunt Julie knew about this?”
“I mentioned it to Mom, yes.”
“And she’s letting you do this to me?”
“Come on. Be fair. No one is doing anything to you. It’s just not working out. It’s been a long time coming, and you know it.”
Seeing that anger was getting her nowhere, Kyra switched to pouting. “I think you’re mean,” she said.
“Kyra, you know I’m not trying to be mean! You know I love you! And the other girls do too. If you’d just let me tell them about the divorce—”
“No!” Kyra shouted. “I keep telling you, there isn’t going to be any divorce! Why do you keep trying to gossip about my family to the band?”
“That’s not fair,” Tig said. “You know that’s not what’s happening. Kyra, please—”
“You think this is over, but it’s not,” Kyra said. “You’re not going to get away with this.”
“Please, calm down. It’s going to be all right.”
“Oh, trust me. I’m calm. I’m seeing things very clearly now. And soon so will everyone else!”
“Kyra . . .”
But all Tig heard on the other end was silence. Kyra had hung up on her.