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“Good evening, everyone. I hope you’re all having a good time. Our next guest is a very talented group—they don’t have a name, but if you’ve been to the Riverwalk you might’ve seen them performing. Give them a warm round of applause—”

She was cut off by Kaitlyn, who came up and whispered in her ear. The woman looked surprised and then nodded. “Okay, they’ll be up in just a couple minutes. To remind everyone, the artwork you see throughout Shadetree is produced by students of the art department at Beasley…”

Melany and I went up to Kaitlyn, who was speaking closely with a girl holding a violin, who I could only guess was her music partner.

“Everything alright, guys?” Melany asked.

“Oh, hey guys. Everything is fine,” Kaitlyn said, with a distracted smile. She turned back to Brianne. “It’s not a problem. We just play our stuff as a duet, like before. Nothing has really changed.”

“It just fucking sucks to give up the songs we’d practiced. Dammit, how embarrassing.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I found the guy, I feel responsible.”

“Anything we can do to help?” I offered. “What’s going on?”

Kaitlyn looked over at me, and then his eyes widened. “Oh, shit. I don’t want to put you on the spot, Kendra, but our drummer just bailed.”

“He was arrested for drunk driving,” Brianne chimed in grimly.

“This girl, Kendra, is a Beasley drum student,” Kaitlyn told her.

“Oh, shit,” said Brianne.

“Kendra, maybe you could step in and help us out?”

All three of them turned to look at me.

“Uhh… uhh…”

“It’d be a cinch for someone from our music program,” Brianne said. “We can improvise. Do loose versions of the songs we were going to perform.”

“What do you think?” Kaitlyn asked.

I looked to Melany, and she shrugged. “Guys, Kendra has kind of been…”

“I’ll do it,” I said.

Melany looked stunned, and then broke into a wide grin.

“Fuck, yeah,” Kaitlyn said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Oh, my God, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Thank me after I play,” I said.

6

Melany

I watched Kendra sit down behind the drum set, and my pulse started to race nervously for her. I knew that this was the first time she’d played real drums in months, and I could see the anxiety in her eyes. She looked around at the kit in front of her, like she only just realized what she’d agreed to do, and slowly picked up the sticks sitting on top of the kick drum.

“You can do this, Kendra!” I shouted. “I know you can do it!”

She looked up, saw me, and then smiled.

“Is that your girlfriend?” a girl next to me said.

“Oh, no,” I said. “No, she’s, uh…”