Bad Rap (5 page)

Unfortunately, the other Bayside Boys
didn’t
say so. In fact, they hated it!

“School? Homework?”
Ace asked her. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“This song is about a guy on the road, missing his girlfriend,” Spike added. “He’s a little old for teachers and homework. Who in the audience is gonna relate to that?”

Katie bit her lip and tried to fight back the tears. She couldn’t believe they were being so hard on her.

Suddenly, Ace announced, “I’m not going on stage and making a fool out of myself.”

“What are you saying, man?” Spike asked him.

“I’m saying I’m not going to do a show with you guys,” Ace snapped. “No one’s taking this seriously.”

“I am,” Spike insisted.

“So am I,” Fizzy agreed.

“Fizzy, all you care about is ordering room service, and all the stuff the record label will pay for,” Ace argued. “You don’t care about the music anymore. Even T-Jon can hear that.”

Fizzy looked shocked. “T-Jon can’t even rap anymore! Why are you listening to him?”

“Because he’s right,” Spike interrupted. “You didn’t sound so great before.”

“Exactly,” Ace agreed.

“And neither did you,” Spike continued, looking at Ace. “T-Jon wasn’t kidding. You did sound boring. And your harmonies
were
totally off.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ace shouted. “Well, the
fans
think I’m great. Who do you think they come to see, anyway?
Me
. That’s who.”

“Hey, that’s not true,” Spike disagreed.

“I’ll prove it,” Ace said. “I’m going to record my own CD. I’ll bet my solo album sells more copies than the Bayside Boys CD
ever
did.”

“I can’t listen to this anymore,” Fizzy said. He picked up his jacket. “I’m out of here.” He stormed out of the room.

“Me too,” Spike agreed. “I need a break from you guys.”

“Funny, that’s just what I was thinking,” Ace said, angrily grabbing his jacket and leaving the room just behind his ex-bandmates.

Katie sat there in the hotel suite, thinking. She was kind of sad. The Bayside Boys were nothing like the magazines said they were. For one thing, they didn’t sound very good. At least not when they sang separately. And they weren’t very nice to one another, either.

Suddenly, Katie felt a familiar breeze on the back of her neck. Within seconds, the breeze began to blow harder . . . and harder . . . and harder, until it was a wild tornado, blowing just around Katie.

The magic wind was back!

Katie shut her eyes tight and pulled her knees to her chest. She held on tight, trying not to get blown away.

And then it stopped. Just like that.

Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked around. There was the couch and the TV and the bathroom door. Okay, so she was still in the Bayside Boys’ hotel suite.

But she wasn’t alone anymore. The
real
T-Jon was right there on the sofa next to her. He seemed really confused.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be here!” T-Jon shouted at Katie. He leaped up from the couch. “No fans are allowed. How did you get past that big guard at the door?”

“I . . . um . . .” Katie didn’t know what to say. How could she explain the magic wind to T-Jon?

Knock. Knock.
Before Katie could answer, someone came to the door.

“Who’s there?” T-Jon asked.

“It’s room service.” The security guard opened the door and poked his head inside. “Okay to let him in?”

“Awesome!” T-Jon exclaimed. “I’m starving.”

As the guard opened the door, Katie ducked behind the couch. She didn’t want the guard to catch her there. How could she explain what she was doing in the room?

Katie secretly watched as a waiter entered the room, pushing an elegant cart with a long flowing tablecloth and lots of silver-covered dishes.

T-Jon reached into his pockets. “Oh, sorry, dude,” he said to the waiter. “I’m out of cash. But I’ll put a nice tip on the bill, okay?”

“Thank you, sir,” the waiter said.

“Don’t thank me. Thank the record company.”

As soon as the security guard and the waiter left, Katie popped up from her hiding place.

T-Jon walked over to the cart and took the silver lid off one of the plates. “Yum. Burger and fries.” He turned to Katie. “Did you order this for me?”

Katie shook her head. “I think Fizzy did.”

T-Jon shrugged. “Oh. Where is Fizzy, anyway?”

Katie gulped. “He . . . um . . . he went for a walk or something.”

“Oh, yeah,” T-Jon said, taking a big bite of a hamburger. “I think I remember that. Sort of. I’m not sure what I remember. It’s all kind of blurry.”

Katie watched as T-Jon ate a huge handful of french fries. He might have been confused, but it hadn’t hurt his appetite.

“I don’t even remember meeting you,” T-Jon continued, sounding even more curious about what was happening. But he quickly came to his senses. “Whoever you are, you gotta get out of here. And don’t tell anyone where we’re staying. All we need is a bunch of fans like you storming the place.”

Katie frowned. If kids knew the way the Bayside Boys had just sounded, they wouldn’t even have any fans.

For a minute, Katie thought about asking T-Jon for an autograph before she left. But she changed her mind. She didn’t want to wait around for him to ask her any more questions.

“Bye,” she shouted, racing out the door.

“Hey, how’d you get in there?” the guard demanded in a loud, booming voice as she passed by him.

Katie just kept running.

The next morning, Katie and Suzanne walked to school together. Suzanne was in a really bad mood.

“I waited in that hotel lobby for half an hour,” she complained to Katie. “And not one Bayside Boy showed up!”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Katie said slowly.

“How can you say that?!” Suzanne demanded.

“Well, it’s just that they’re probably nothing like we think they are,” Katie said. “What if you met them and you didn’t like them?”

“That would never happen,” Suzanne assured Katie.

Just then, Emma W. came running onto the playground behind the school. Tears were streaming down her face. “I’ve just heard the worst news!” she cried to Katie and Suzanne.

“What?” Suzanne asked.

“It’s the Bayside Boys,” Emma sobbed. “They broke up.”

Katie gasped. “Are you sure?”

Emma nodded. “I just heard it on the car radio. The concert is cancelled.”

“Did they say why they broke up?” Katie asked.

“No,” Emma said. “They just made the announcement.”

Becky Stern walked over just as Emma finished speaking. She’d obviously overheard the whole conversation. “
I
know why they broke up,” she boasted. “My dad’s friend said the guys all want to record their own CDs. They’re leaving town on separate airplanes tonight!”

Suzanne started crying, too. “I don’t believe it,” she said.

But Katie believed it. She knew something about the boys’ big fight that even Becky’s dad’s friend didn’t know. The Bayside Boys’ breakup was all Katie’s fault.

This was soooo not good!

Katie spent the whole day thinking about the Bayside Boys. She couldn’t let them break up. Somebody had to do something . . .

And that somebody was Katie!

But Katie was too shy to talk to the boys all by herself. She needed someone to go with her. Someone who wasn’t afraid of anyone. Not even the big security guard who stood at the Bayside Boys’ door. She needed someone like . . . Suzanne!

Right after school, Katie raced over to talk to her best friend. “We have to go to the Cherrydale Inn right away!” she told her. “We have to find the Bayside Boys!”

Suzanne shook her head. “I can’t go back there today. I have my modeling class in half an hour.”

“So what?” Katie demanded. “I have my cooking class. But I’ll miss it if it means getting the Bayside Boys back together. What’s more important?”

Suzanne thought about that for a minute. “You have a point,” she said.

“Okay, so let’s go now,” Katie said. “We have to get to their suite and convince them to stay together.”

“But we don’t even know what suite they’re staying in,” Suzanne reminded her.

“It’s on the eighth floor,” Katie told Suzanne.

“How do you know?” Suzanne asked.

“Never mind,” Katie told her. “I just know. Now come on!”