Chapter 21: Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)

Medway High School, Arva, Ontario

8:47am, Monday, November 26, 1979

“As most of you know by now, our girls’ basketball team won ... no, they dominated ... the double-A Ontario basketball championship in Guelph on Friday and Saturday,” Mr. Williamson said from our gym’s stage.

After a brief announcement in our homeroom, the whole school was brought down to the gym for this set of morning announcements and championship celebratory event. “In case you didn’t know this, these girls, along with Coach Jacket and Coach Rose, won our school’s first Ontario team sports’ championship in thirteen years!” our VP said as he waved to the fourteen players, their student manager and their coaches with him on the stage. That immediately caused a rousing round of applause and shouts of joy from the nearly seven-hundred-and-thirty students, and teachers in our slam packed gym.

“Let me briefly related how dominant a performance these young ladies put on, this weekend,” Mr. W then said. “Our Lady Cowboys destroyed Peterborough Central by 33 points, 86-53, in their opening round game on Friday afternoon. Then, in the semi-final game on Friday night, our girls defeated Guelph’s Central Collegiate Vocational Institute by only... 11 points, 71 to 60.”

During a lull in our VP’s statement, Andy Lunby shouted out, “What a bunch of slackers!“ That immediately set the crowd to laughing at his sarcastic and playful put-down of our victorious girls.

Because I was standing near Andy and Jennifer, I heard him cry out in anguish as his girlfriend lightly stomped on his foot for that humorous statement.

“These slackers then put a world of hurt on the top-ranked team in the province, in Saturday’s Final. Our girls simply embarrassed Owen Sound’s West Hill Raiders by a merciful 28 point margin. They killed the Lady Raiders, 81-53 ... even with Coach Jacket slowing things down to milk the clock in the second half of that game.”

Mr. Williamson allowed the student body and our teachers a few moments to yell and holler after he fired us up with well-chosen words. After he used Coach Jacket’s ‘Bring it down, please‘ arm and hand motions, our VP then went on to inform the assembly about Zupena’s, Andi’s, Giselle’s and Lynette’s individual performances and accolades from this tournament. All four girls were nearly as red as Sammy’s locks after he called them forward to present their All-Ontario awards, and Lynette’s tournament MVP award in front of everyone.

The biggest outburst of applause came when the girls’ tri-captains, Janice Hurt, Sylvie Mitchell and Zupena picked up the large trophy and presented it to Mr. Matherson, our principal, and Mr. Williamson.

“This wonderful trophy will sit on our main office’s counter until we come back from our Christmas holidays!” Mr. Matherson said as the two leaders in our school, along with the tri-captains held up that four foot tall trophy. Our principal then added, “It will then be displayed, along with our undefeated football team’s championship trophy in a brand new display case that I’m now asking our shop teachers and wonderful students to make. Again, I want to offer my congratulations to Coach Jacket and Coach Rose, along with these talented basketball players...”

“And our student manager, Anita!” Cathy Cromartie called out.

“Yes, indeed. Anita Hilstrand and everyone associated with this wonderful group of ladies deserves our heartfelt support and applause, similar to the players and their coaches,” Mr. Matherson added as he waved his hand at the pleasantly plump, and blushing five-foot-two manager.

After the girls and the coaches exited the stage, Mr. Williamson returned to the microphone and hushed the assembly. He then called the girls’ gymnastics team out onto the stage. I now realized why Tempe wasn’t in our short homeroom class, as she was pulled aside when she went by the main office to get her ‘nearly personalized’ volunteer necklace and safety whistle prior to our regular homeroom.

I smiled and hollered for her, Kalena, Jennifer, Jamie Dietrich, Cindy ‘Mini-Sammy’ Daniels and Danette Newman, along with Coach St. Georges as they walked out onto the stage. I was glad see that Jennifer wasn’t showing any signs of her ‘minor’ ankle injury as she walked and bounced out onto the stage with her teammates.

Mr. Williamson then asked Coach St. Georges to tell how our gymnasts equally dominated the Wheels’ Resort Invitational Competition in Chatham on Saturday morning. After Coach St. George said the girls easily won the team title by a huge margin over Windsor Assumption High School, he called out Jennifer for her victory on the Vault; Tempe for her victory on the Balance Beam, and for finishing in second in the Overall Title. Lastly, Coach called out Kalena for her triple victories on the Parallel Bars, Floor and the Overall Gymnast Title. He added, “Kalena’s overall score at this meet would have won the Ontario championships last spring.”

“You rock! Tox!“ a few of my football and basketball friends and I yelled during a break in Coach St. Georges description of the weekend’s meet.

“Now, before I let these ladies go, I want to say that this group has by far the most potential of any team I’ve ever coached here at Medway. That includes my football and basketball teams, as well as my prior championship gymnastic teams. While Kalena Kharlamov impressively won this meet, Tempe Sullivan and Jennifer Rathje, who had a minor mishap with her ankle were right on Kalena’s heels in Chatham. Then, when you add in the solid second to fifth place performances on various events from Jamie Dietrich, and our two ninth graders, Danette Newman and Cindy Daniels, we have six dynamos capable of putting up individual and team winning scores on all four events. These girls, as well as their personal coaches, are also a joy to work with. Let’s give them one more round of applause, please!”

When Mr. Williamson came back to the microphone, a murmur was felt in the packed out gym. After he slapped his notepad into his hand a few times, he said, “Now, you can’t still be completely worried about this next announcement, can you?”

“Oh, please! Not this week’s NIS students!” someone on the far side of the gym yelled out, which caused a round of groans to spread out through the gym. Those of us who had gone through this process just shook our heads at the eerie silence that fell over our seven-hundred plus sized assembly. With forty students already selected, the other students’ odds were still fairly low that they’d be selected for this ‘fun week.’

“We’re going to take a different track with our NIS program this week. We’ve selected students from the university track or with a sports-focus for the most part. Therefore, this week we’re going to take a different avenue. So...”

Our vice-principal then announced the ten NIS students, who were in the four-year or Community College track level courses. Even though I knew most of the tenth graders or above, I only had our two eleventh grade girls, Tracy Norton and Elaine ‘Roo-Roo’ Roonee in just two of my classes, Music, and our shared ninth period, PE class.

One other change to this week’s program was to have the ten NIS students vote to see if they wanted to strip on the stage or in the main conference room. I was surprised when the vote turned out to be six to four for stripping on the stage. With supportive encouragement from the other NIS students and a few volunteers like Tempe, Tracy VandenLoo, and Mike Locksley, the four highly nervous NIS students, including Elaine, got down to their birthday suits on stage with the six other NIS kids.

Because there was only ten minutes left in our first period, Mr. Williamson dismissed this assembly and told us to be on time to our second period classes or else suffer his wrath. He added that last part with one of his steely-eyed smiles, so it was hard to say whether he was serious or not about showing his wrath to class scofflaws.

That really didn’t matter to me or my friends in our English class with Mrs. Pierce as we had started a creative writing unit last week. We were allowed to write any type of story, including my writing of a Science Fiction (Ha-ha!) story about my evolving Energy based friends. Heck, I didn’t even have to make up any of the characters or storylines, as I simply enjoyed putting some of my ‘all too real experiences’ with the Energists down on paper. I also liked how Tempe used one of the Energist’s stories I shared with her and my friends to do a comic book version of the Energist’s decision to incorporate a public education system in their world. She used her artistic skills to put the true meaning of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 in a Sci-Fi comic book.

Between our English and Chemistry classes, Lynette corralled me and said, “Momma wants you to give her a call sometime this evening. Do ya know what that is all about?”

“Not really. I talked with Ms. Dillon for a few minutes down in Guelph, but that was mostly basketball oriented stuff. Heck, that was the first time I’ve talked with your mom ... or your dad in like two months,” I replied with a ‘no-clue’ look on my face. About half way through my reply, though, a light bulb went off. I immediately felt it best to keep my revelation to myself, because if it was what I thought it might be, it definitely wasn’t something for public consumption.

At the end of the day, I had to pretty much act as a buffer and semi-policeman for Elaine in the shower. While she had provided me with a shower relief experience during my week in the program, she was probably the most hesitant or possibly traumatized girl on the first day of their NIS week. Elaine was the first big and beautiful girl to be selected for the program, and she was still very self-conscious of her body. Even though a few of my friends and I told her she was beautiful, she knew she wasn’t in Tracy Norton’s league. Elaine had rolls of fat around her tummy and her chunky thighs and thick arms weren’t perfect like Tracy’s trim, knockout, but surgically enhanced build.

“Alright, guys,” I said, with Brad at my side, as a couple of my classmates tried to persuade Elaine to let them wash her body and hair under the hot shower stream.

“We know you’re not being disrespectful or nothing, but let Elaine take her shower in peace,” Brad added when we thought Elaine was about to cry from their playful badgering.

“You gonna be alright, Roo-Roo?” I asked as I put my hand on the rear of her shoulder. When she just about jumped out of her skin, I quickly lifted my hand and apologized for touching and startling her.

“I don’t know if I ca-can do this for a week, Ma-Mike. Wa-why did they want to have a fa-fatso like me in this program?” Elaine stammered as she leaned forward with her head against the shower wall.

“Elaine, you’re a beautiful girl,” I replied as I mirrored her position with my head resting on my forearm against the shower wall.

“Yeah, Elaine,” Brad and Wyatt deBoer added. Wyatt then softly asked, “Can I give you a hug for a moment to prove something to you?”

“What?” Elaine confusingly asked.

“May I give you a hug, Elaine?” Wyatt repeated in a soft voice.

“Yeah ... I guess,” Elaine sniffled as she looked over her shoulder at the dripping wet eleventh grader.

Wyatt then stepped up and wrapped his arms around Elaine’s shoulders, purposefully keeping his hands above her full, firm breasts. He purposefully didn’t keep his erect five to six-inch cock from pressing into Elaine’s large left butt cheek, though. He then softly whispered, “You feel that? That’s from seeing your wonderful body, Elaine.”

“No! I bet that’s from seeing and wanting to wash Tracy’s Playboy like body,” Elaine fired back.

“No... No, it’s not!” Wyatt vehemently denied Elaine’s assertion. He then whispered, “I did see Tracy’s naked body when I walked in here, but I walked past her ... to be near you, Elaine.”

“That he did, Roo-Roo,” I added as Elaine pushed herself back from the wall into Wyatt’s still hugging body.

Elaine then looked at the three of us who were standing around her in the shower. She then whispered, “Please don’t lie to me. I’d just die if this is some kinda joke.”

“I’m not lyin’ to ya, Elaine,” Wyatt replied as he loosened his hug and ran his hands down the outside of her thick arms.

“He’s telling the truth, Elaine. Wyatt walked right past me and stood by you as you were getting wet under the shower,” Tracy added as she pushed her way out from her three body wash helpers, and came over to give her NIS partner a gentle hug.

“Wyatt isn’t the only guy in here with a hard-on from seeing you naked, Elaine,” Brad added.

“Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, Roo-Roo,” I added I nodded down to my hard-on for her to see.

Elaine quickly peered at Wyatt’s, Brad’s and my hard cocks and then she turned to Wyatt and softly said, “I’m sa-sorry for snappin’ at you ... after you tried to help me, Wyatt.”

“You don’t need to apologize, Elaine. I can’t begin to imagine what you’re feeling or going through right now,” Wyatt replied with a smile. He then softly added, “If, uh, like tomorrow or Wednesday, if ... if you’d like, I could kinda like wash your hair or maybe your back. Just don’t think you have ta let me, though.”

“I think ... I think I might like that, Wyatt,” Elaine softly replied with the traces of a smile on her face.

“Oh, I know you’ll like having your hair washed for you, Elaine,” Tracy added as she dropped her just washed wet head on the taller, bigger girl’s shoulder.

“You just do what you’re comfortable doing, Elaine,” Brad add as he lightly patted her wet rear shoulder.

“Thanks, guys,” Elaine softly said as Tracy lifted her head from her female partner’s shoulder.

Labatt Guest House, London, Ontario

5:31pm, Monday, November 26, 1979

Because I was the last one to our band practice, the girls were itching to get going with things, as I tried to gobble down a few peanut butter crackers and two cans of Coke. If anyone has had just peanut butter crackers, you know you can’t really wolf them down, either.

“What’s that you two Mascio’s are jammin’?” Cano asked as our two youngest members were ripping out a new sounding, driving drum-bass line jam.

“We, ah, we were fooling with this over the last week or so ... with just our voices, so we’re seeing how it sounds on our toys,” Lisa laughed as she matched her sister’s drums in powering out a killer new sound.

“Is this another YYZ type thing, or do you have some lyrics to go with that monster riff?” Sammy added as she grabbed her Stratocaster from its case.

“We might have a lyric or two for this,” Eda replied as the two girls wrapped up their jam session.

“So, which one of you gets to sing this lyric or two?“ I asked from the kitchen island between bites of my crackers.

Eda and Lisa looked at each other for a moment and then shouted in unison, “You do, Cuda/Mike!“

“You don’t say?” Cano laughed as she played an eerie sounding motif on her Yamaha keyboard.

“And what if I don’t wanna sing what you’ve come up with?” I laughed and popped the last of my five crackers in my mouth.

“Oh! You’ll wanna sing this, Mike! Trust me...” Brick laughed.

“Trust us!“ E added with her own wonderful laugh. Our drummer girl then seriously added, “I honestly think what Lisa and I have come up with is the perfect opening song for our NIS concert.”

“Now this is definitely something we gotta hear!” Sammy exclaimed as she fluffed up her red locks after putting her guitar strap around her neck.

“Instruments or the island?” Cano simply asked of the two grinning girls.

“We can do it over here,” Lisa replied as she dug out a sheet of paper from the front pocket of her blue jeans. After she straightened and smoothed it out some, she said, “Here’s what we have.”

“Oh! Fine! I just put my guitar around my neck and you say we’re just talking lyrics,” Sammy playfully groused as she pulled her Strat’s strap over her head.

“Poor baby!” Cano laughed.

“Because we’re gonna be playing for like three hours, we think it would be good to call this, Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)“ Eda said as she replayed her wild drum opening to their new song before she hustled around to join the little pow-wow in front of her kit.

I moved over from the island and followed Cano to the couch where Sammy was scanning the sheet with the lyrics. I could tell her demeanor was quickly changing, too.

“Holy Moly! Cuda! You’re gonna love this!” Sammy exclaimed as she looked up at Cano and me.

Not surprising to any of us, Cano playfully snatched the lyrics from Sammy’s hands and held them up for us to read. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” Cano softly said as she looked up from the sheet. She stared at me for a moment before she turned at Lisa and Eda and added, “This is freckin’ awesome!”

“You seriously want me to sing this ... this second stanza?” I laughed as I read through the lyrics.

“Ain’t it true?” Brick laughed.

“There’s really gonna be women to your left and women to your right, Cuda!” Sammy laughed and gave my left thigh a light, straight jab as Cano and I read through the rest of the lyrics in front of her seated position.

“And what happens if our mammas do see us?” I chuckled.

“Well, at least we know Sammy’s parents are okay with what we’re doing,” Eda laughed and gave a little imaginary ‘ba-da-boom’ drum and cymbal crash with her arms and vocalized actions.

“Okay, music or lyrics, first?” Lynette asked as she handed me the sheet to study these lyrics.

“Music with the lyrics,” I replied with a smile. “Let’s let E and Lisa set the pace and we’ll build off what they already have. Do either of you have a suggestion for how our guitars should sound?”

“Not really, other than this needs to have as big or bigger sound than Danger Zone,” Lisa replied with a smile and an eyebrow raise.

Our two ‘driving members’ went to town with what they had created. Cano immediately had a grin spread across her face and quickly adjusted a few things on her keyboards. In a flash, she added an eerie sounding organ background to the Masciotro girls’ hard-driving introduction.

Sammy timed her Strat’s rhythm guitar to E’s hard drumming and Brick’s pounding bass. I patiently waited to add the full force of Silverburst until they kicked their playing up a notch. With a about a ten second lead in with Silverburst raising the roof, I nodded to Lisa and began to sing:

“Hold onto your hat, hold onto your heart,
Ready, get set, to tear this place apart.
Don’t need a ticket, only place in town,
That’ll take you up to heaven, and never bring you down!
Anything goes! Anything goes!” (Lisa, E and Sammy all sang this line with me)

“Women to the left, women to the right,
There to entertain, and take you thru the night.
So grab a little heat, and come along with me,
‘Cause your mama don’t mind, what your mama don’t see!
Anything goes! Anything goes!” (All the Bandettes sang along).

(Note: Rock! Rock! [Till You Drop] was written by Steve Clark, Rick Savage, Joe Elliot of Def Leppard and Mutt Lange, the record producer of their 1983 album, Pyromania. This was the lead song on this album but was never ‘officially’ released as a single. It was often used as the opening song in Def Leppard concerts with it being the lead off to their successful, Mirror Ball tour and concert CD-DVD.)

Before we got to the chorus, Cano sickly ran her fingers over her keyboard to let us know she wanted to stop and talk about what we had just done.

“Hey, everything sounds great with the music. I may try something with a little more spice to match up with your guitars. Now, on that last line with us, Cuda, you really need to take control and add something to show the crowd that you, and by extension, us, that we’re bloody well here to entertain them for the night!”

“Yeah, Girlfriend,” Sammy added with her evil rock-chick glare. It always is fun to see these normally sweet, loving girls transform themselves into hell-raisers when the situation calls for it.

“What are you thinking of adding, Mike?” Lisa asked as she stepped up to me.

“Nothing major, ‘cause it doesn’t need a lot,” I replied as I picked up the lyric sheet to take another look at the next few lyrics.

“I’ve adjusted my keyboards, so if you wanna run through that again, I’m good to go,” Cano replied from her position.

“Okay. I think I’ve got it,” I replied with a smile.

The Bandettes once more tore into this song. The simple addition I added to that last line was to input, “That’s right!“ and then, “C’mon!“ with just the girls singing that last, “Anything goes!“ I finished out that line with long drawn out, “Goooesssss! I said... “

We didn’t stop after those simple changes as it just felt right to us. Eda and Brick powered into the chorus, which we all sang:

“Rock! Rock! Till you drop!
Rock! Rock! Never stop!
Rock! Rock! Till you drop!
I say, Rock! Rock! To the top!“

I reserved my hard edge playing for the short gaps after the lines. At the end of the chorus, I stopped us and said, “Cano, you need to rip your keyboard on the lyrics, and leave the transitions between the lines to my guitar. I think that would be a wicked pairing of sounds with their hard-driving back sound.”

I could see the wheels turning in her head after I made that suggestion. She quickly did a wicked pass on her keys as she sang the first line of the chorus with her fingers in lightning fast motion. With just that one pass over her ebony and ivories, she looked up at us and said, “Got it! I’ll add it to the next chorus, and we’ll see if it matches with your imagination, Cuda.”

Sammy, Lisa and I simply nodded at our keyboardist. We all knew if Cano said she had it, ‘She had it!‘

Eda though, said, “I’ve got a little change in what I wanna do in that chorus. Can we blast through this again?”

“From the top or just from Mike’s redone lead in line?” Brick asked her sister.

“Is it gonna hurt to rip through this from the top?” E asked with a smile.

“Nope, nope,” Sammy laughed.

We fired through the whole song, again. Both Eda’s jacked up drumming and Cano’s keyboard changes sounded powerful and appropriate for what I wanted to achieve with this possible concert opening song. Our new sound led me into singing:

“Ridin’ into danger, laughin’ all the way,
Fast, free and easy, livin’ for today!
Gotta lip service, get it while you can,
Hot, sweat ‘n’ nervous, love on demand!
Anything goes! Anything goes! (All the Bandettes sang this)

All night long! You gotta... “ Chorus:

“Mike! Mike! Mike!” Sammy called out to put an end to our playing after that chorus. “You’ve got to seriously raise the roof on that last ‘To the Top!‘ line. That’s what’s gonna bring the JLC to its knees.”

“Amen to that, Sammy! That line leads into your guitar solo where I think you should head out onto that curved walk-way for the first time,” Lisa added with a little curved finger walking motion to signify what she wanted me to do when we played it on our frecking huge JLC stage.

“Ad lib a line or two, Cuda, while the rest of us set the stage for your guitar solo,” Cano added with a killer grin.

“So, at the JLC, are you saying I should do my guitar solo and sing the rest of the song from out on the curved walk-way?” I asked with a frown.

“That’s exactly what you should do,” Sammy replied with her rock-chick look in full bloom, minus one of her kick-ass outfits.

“Sammy and I will join you out front, if Devin has a couple of mics out there for us to use. But you just have to be the first person to make use of that walk-way during your guitar solo,” Brick added with a grin.

“Okay ... you know I’m still not real good with being singled out as the leader like that,” I added.

“Damn it! Get over yourself, Cuda! You’re Mike and we’re the Time Bandettes. As much as we’re all equal voting members in this band, you’re the front man for the most part,” Cano said with a touch of annoyance in her voice.

“If you want us to vote on how to use the whole stage, you know it’s gonna be FOUR to whatever,” Lisa chuckled and gave my left shoulder a shot. I simply shook my head because there wasn’t any use in continuing to argue with these girls on this matter. After thinking about it, they were probably right, anyway.

We spent the next half hour or so working on this song and fine tuning the inter-mix of Sammy’s rhythm and my lead guitars. After my guitar solo, I sang:

“Rock! Rock! Give it to me,
It’s what I got, goin’ thru’ me,
Don’t ever stop, do it to me,
Yeah, Rock! Rock! You really move me!“

I then told my bandmates that I wanted to show off Sammy’s guitar skills right from the get-go of our concert. Even though she put up a small fight, she knew she wasn’t going to outlast me on this point. On our next pass of this section, our redheaded rock goddess ripped out her own guitar solo, which lead to our concluding chorus and the final two lines, which I sang:

“Hold on ... hold on ... hold tight!
We’re gonna rock toni-i-i-ight!“

When we finished with this rough first complete pass of this song, Sammy turned to Eda and Brick, and said, “By George, I think your little prediction of an opening song just might come true.”

“Those were some great lyrics, Brick, E!” Cano added as she stepped out from her keyboards, and went over to give E a hug at her drum throne. I was glad she did that because E sometimes tends to get lost back there with all the bantering and comradery that Sammy, Brick and I have out in front of her big drum kit.

“Can you play the whole thing, again?” Katie Labatt asked as she and her husband walked in the guest house with four large bags from Jade Palace.

“Yes, we didn’t hear the whole song,” Sammy’s dad said as he carried our dinner over to the kitchen island.

“You want us to play ... before we get to eat that wonderful smelling Chinese?” I fumed, but with a smile on my face.

“This is the classic, ‘Playing for your dinner,’ situation,” Katie laughed as she set her one bag down, and then moved to the cabinets to get the plates and other serving things out in preparation for when we’d get to eat.

“The sooner we play...” Eda said.

“The sooner we eat!” Cano added as she hustled from alongside E over to her keyboards.

“Oh! My!” Katie simply cried after we finished a complete run through of Rock! Rock!

“And when or where are you planning to play that song in your concert?” Mr. Labatt asked with a huge grin on his normally stoic face.

The three of us ‘older’ kids turned to our two youngest members. When E and Brick saw us waiting on them, they both said in unison, “That’s gonna be our opening/lead-off song!”

“I don’t think you could have picked a better concert opener, guys,” Ms. Katie said as she got up off the sofa.

“Have you figured out how you’re going to use that curved walk-way on this and your other songs?” Mr. Labatt asked as he walked behind his wife, leading Sammy, Brick and me over to the kitchen area.

“Yeah, we’re having Mike lead us out onto it when he does his guitar solo in that song,” Lisa replied with a huge grin on her face.

“That’s what I thought would be the perfect first use of that stage addition,” Katie replied as she started to open up the containers of Hot & Sour soup, and the various Chinese entrees, Fried Rice and Chow-Mein for us.

After we ate, Mr. Labatt said, “Mike, Sammy can you come outside with me for a second, please.”

We heard Lynette ask, “What’s this all about?” towards Sammy’s step-mom as we walked out the front door to his BMW sedan.

“You’ll see,” Katie replied as her husband, daughter and I walked out the front door.

In a little over a minute’s time, we came back inside with a couple of ‘little presents’ in our hands or tucked under our arms.

“Oh! My! God! What did you get us!” Eda and Lisa cried in unison as they saw us carrying in a couple of boxed up floor toms, a smaller tri-set of toms, and a package with duel-cowbell blocks and a xylophone with three triangle chimes. The hardware to hook these additional drum pieces was tucked under Mr. Labatt’s arm. Sammy carried in a new guitar case, which obviously held an extra-long neck bass guitar.

“We just thought you might like to expand your drum kit, a little, Ms. Eda ... as an early sixteenth birthday present,” Katie laughed as she stepped up behind Eda and wrapped the excited and dancing teen in her arms.

“And you hadn’t received anything from us, Lisa, so we got you a new bass. Take a peek at it,” Mr. Labatt said as he moved behind E’s drum kit with his armful of drumming pieces and supplies.

“I think you’ll like it, Ms. Lisa,” Katie said as she let Eda go, so our excited drummer could help her husband and me set up her new toms and specialized drum pieces in the manner she thought would work best.