Chapter 4: Invitation

School on Monday was different. Many of the students, maybe most, knew that the kids played in a band, but they had never played a dance at their own school and most of their venues precluded their fellow high-school students from hearing them play.

By second period the school bulletin-board had the stories from the Saturday and Sunday papers about the band and the Monday write-up on Tammy's Wheels posted. While they were relatively minor celebrities before because they were known to be in a band now they were known as being in the band.

"Tony Smith! Why didn't you tell me about all this?" asked Mrs. Finch when Tony walked into his debate class.

"I'm not sure Mrs. F, it just never came up before. It's just what I do out of school I guess. Rebecca gave you the passes last week, what did you expect? You of all people have figured out we pretty much do everything together."

"I guess." Mrs. Finch rolled her eyes.

"I don't know what to say. I've been playing music all my life. The whole band thing came together only in the last year or so. Tina's the real one behind it. We just do what she tells us."

"And Rebecca, where did that come from?"

"New Jersey," Tony deadpanned.

"Tony!" Mrs. Finch exclaimed and slapped Tony's arm.

"Really though, Tina heard her sing at church. Then she found out she played piano and it all kind of rolled from there. Once we all heard her she just kind of got sucked into the whole thing. Funny thing is that we all thought we had talent before we heard her, but my god. If there is a god or fate or whatever, we found out exactly what Rebecca was put on this earth to do."

"Oh my, are you getting religious on me Tony or is it metaphysical?" Mrs. Finch was a product of a very liberal education.

Tony just laughed. "Either, or both, or whatever. She just has a gift and she has Tina. Tina knew more about music when she was 12 than I'm ever going to know. With her talent and Tina to coach her there's no limit to what she can do."

"She's happy you know Tony. I see her now and I saw her when she first came here. I think she has some pretty good friends."

Tony smiled. "Her friends think she's pretty special too."

Tony took his seat as more students filed in.

Rebecca's almost constant physical and aquatic therapy over a six month period had transformed her. Outwardly little had changed, but her 95 pound body had gained a full ten pounds simply by converting what was formerly fat to lean muscle. Exposure to the sun during the pool sessions left her skin a light golden tan. Except for the waning balance issues she was the epitome of a healthy 15 year-old girl.

She and Tony were swimming laps that same Monday afternoon when Tina burst out of the back door. "We're in! We're in!" she shouted.

Tony pulled up to the side of the pool and gave his little sister a puzzled look. "Well, we're in," he said motioning toward Rebecca and the pool, "you, most definitely, are out."

"No, no, Gilchrist Tony! We got invited!"

Tony looked from Tina to Rebecca who latched on to the side of the pool beside him. She shrugged and said, "Some music thing she mentioned a couple of months ago. She told me we really didn't have a chance to do it but she applied anyway."

"OK, I think we need to cut our workout a bit short and see what has a bee up Tina's bonnet." The two worked their way to the steps and dried off before joining Tina inside.

Rehearsal Tuesday saw very little music played as the band sat to discuss the new wrinkle in their musical careers. Tony just had everyone take a seat with a soft drink and started in. "OK, what we say in this room really, really needs to stay in this room. You're going to find out certain things about Tina and me that we really would rather stay private. Actually it will affect Rebecca as well and eventually all of you. If this becomes known people will come flocking to us and by extension those known as our friends. Our lives will be miserable and yours probably will be too eventually unless you choose to stop associating with us."

"Um Tony," Gwen said, "how bad is this? What have you done?"

Chrissie giggled. "No Gwennie, it's not like that at all."

Tony looked Chrissie, not the least bit surprised. Academically, at least, Chrissie was the most gifted of the group. If anyone had figured it out on their own it would have been Chrissie. "Does Kyle know?"

"No. Honestly I haven't told a soul. I just suspected and I did some research."

"What are you all talking about?" Jerry asked.

Tony chuckled, "It's the answer to a question that hasn't been asked. Let's hold off for a while and let Tina tell you the news she's been bursting to tell you all day."

"Well," Tina began, "back in December I sent in some tapes to Gilchrist. It's something I always wanted to do."

"What's Gilchrist?" Gwen asked. Tony noticed that Jerry had a small smile of understanding on his face.

"Gilchrist is a festival, the Gilchrist Youth Music Festival. It's held every year. They only invite 300 musicians a year, all under the age of 18. It's the cream of the crop, mostly classical musicians. Well if you want to get into, say, Julliard, then you pretty much have to have a Gilchrist invite on your resume. They've never invited rock musicians, ever. I sent in our tapes anyway thinking nothing would come of it. I got a package back yesterday. Six of those three hundred musicians from the whole country are sitting in this room. All six are the first rock musicians ever invited."

"What do we do at this festival?" asked Kyle.

"Oh we would do couple of performances over the two weeks, but in between there are seminars and things. Like I could do a theory workshop and you could do one for bass. Dewayne may want to do one for classical guitar. Rebecca and Tony may go to one on piano or voice; percussion theory or something like that for Jerry. All of this is taught by some of the best professional and academic musicians in the world."

"Oh man, count me in! That sounds like a blast!" Kyle exclaimed.

There were excited conversations breaking out all over the room. Everyone was excited.

"And one more thing, on the final day there is a big concert. The headline act is Ziggurat," Tina said interrupting the hubbub. Ziggurat was probably the most popular mainstream rock band at the time. "The opening act for Ziggurat is, well, it's us."

Silence permeated the room. It dominated for a full two minutes.

"Oh my," Gwen finally said. "That is kind of big isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. Now the catch, we get paid a percentage of the gate for the final concert but nothing for anything else. We have to get ourselves and all our gear to the festival and there is a $2500 per person fee for the festival. We aren't exempt and it needs to be paid in advance. That's for the instructors and seminars and the like."

"Oh, that sucks," Kyle said, "no way I can come up with that kind of money."

The same sentiment was echoed by Dewayne and Jerry.

"Which brings us back around, full circle, to the beginning of the conversation. Tina and I will pay the entry fee for the whole band," Tony said.

"What?" Gwen exclaimed, "You can't afford to do that! That's fifteen thousand dollars!"