Chapter 16: Birthdays!

Savannah, Georgia
November 1984

The audition was scheduled for the following Wednesday. At everyone's urging Tina had convinced Beth and her committee to come to the house. As bands go, Chaos was pretty large. They currently had 3 keyboards, 6 guitars, and Jerry's double bass drum kit, as well as his veritable menagerie of percussion devices. Rebecca ended up with most of those as well as a small xylophone that was Tina's. Whenever needed she doubled as a percussionist, even having a set of bongos at her disposal. Rather than take all of that and amplifiers, stacks, the PA, monitors and various other equipment and set it up for four or five songs it made more sense to just have the audition at home.

Beth was a knockout. She stood about 5'8" and had wavy auburn hair. Other than the obvious, her svelte frame screamed 'athlete'. The obvious was a set of breasts that dominated her body and seemed to defy several laws of physics; just the major ones, like inertia and gravity and such. Tony was pretty sure a sudden left or right turn would cause her to topple. She brought with her a cheerleader named Gina, and a tall boy named Josh. Tony was sure the girl had to be a cheerleader because that much 'perk' could only be gained otherwise through illegal substances. Her platinum hair was almost surely straight out of a bottle. Josh was also athletic, and while Tony hadn't played baseball for a few years he was sure he wouldn't want to be in a batter's box with Josh on the mound.

Appearances aside, the new teens all seemed very personable as they greeted the band in the basement, Tina having led them in from upstairs.

After greetings, Beth spoke first. "If I hadn't heard you guys at the mall I'd think you were too young."

Tina fielded the comment. "Well all the guys are juniors. Rebecca and I are freshmen so you wouldn't be wrong thinking we were a bit younger than normal."

"And all of you are from Central-West?" Josh asked.

"Yeah," Tony replied. "The guys and I started playing together over a year ago in the summer after we met as freshmen. Tina started playing with us just this summer. Rebecca's the new kid in town." Tony bent down and kissed her.

Gina giggled. "Well I guess we know how Rebecca fit into the band. But Tina, how did you meet these guys? Did you just meet them at school?"

It was Tina's turn to laugh then. "No, Tony's my brother. We've been playing music together since we were old enough to hold a recorder. I was mostly into classical music until recently. But really, Rebecca is Tony's girlfriend, but that's not why she's in the band, I'm the one that kind of drafted her. Wait 'til you hear her sing."

"So who all does sing?" Josh asked.

"Everyone's a vocalist," Tony said. "I do most of the male lead vocals, Tina does most of the female things, but we're putting in quite a few new songs for Rebecca now. Really though, everyone in the band is pretty good. We do a few songs that will show that off."

After their guests were given refreshments and made comfortable on a couch and chairs around the basement the band took their places and started. They were still most comfortable warming up with 'Drift Away'. It was, if they had one, their signature song. Because Tina was already playing violin and Tony had his acoustic they decided to play the first song they had ready for Rebecca, Juice Newton's version of 'Angel in the Morning'. They had rehearsed the song repeatedly, but when Rebecca cried Bay-ay-ay-bee every spine in the room tingled.

Tina was just beginning to impress however. Tony had actually put down his guitar having only vocals on the next number. Tina swapped her violin for her sax and when she was ready, Rebecca started the distinctive piano roll to John Cafferty's 'On the Dark Side'. The song was wildly popular, having been made famous by the movie 'Eddie and the Cruisers'. Until the saxophone part actually began, Tony could tell the three teens conducting the audition were incredulous; Tina made believers of them.

She didn't stop there though. For the next song, she strapped on Pink Piggie to play rhythm guitar to Tony's lead. At least someone in the band had found an instrument Tina had not yet learned to play (Kyle was currently teaching her bass) and they needed Dewayne's harmonica. Jerry kicked off the syncopated drum intro to The Pretenders' 'Middle of the Road'. Tina did her usual first-rate job belting out the female rock vocals; Tony even had a short guitar solo, but in the end, Dewayne's wailing harmonica stole the show.

The band's forte was not the most up-to-date music, but they were making an effort to include as many songs on the current charts as they could. Tina finally went to her keyboards for their final song of the audition. The song had almost no guitar but needed two keyboards and a massive amount of vocals. Foreigner's 'I Want to Know What Love Is' started with Jerry's solid, crisp beats to Rebecca's keyboards on an organ setting. Tony had set down his guitar and uncharacteristically removed his microphone from its stand and began to sing the first verse for Tina.

I gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines
In case I need it when I'm older

Now this mountain I must climb
Feels like a world upon my shoulders
And through the clouds I see love shine
It keeps me warm as life grows colder

In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
Can't stop now, I've traveled so far
To change this lonely life

As much as the group was filled with instrumental talent, they were a vocal tour-de-force. All six voices rose with the melody, and belted out the chorus.

I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me

Tony then sang the second verse for Rebecca.

I'm gonna take a little time
A little time to look around me
I've got nowhere left to hide
It looks like love has finally found me

In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
I can't stop now, I've traveled so far
To change this lonely life

Again, six voices rose to build an irresistible wall of vocal sound for the chorus. From there they moved to a complicated finale with the band repeating the chorus to a counterpoint by Tony on each line, occasionally punctuated by Rebecca's crisp, high voice.

"Dear Lord!" Beth exclaimed when the song was complete, ending the agreed upon five song audition.

Tony chuckled, "Is that good or bad?" The band was putting down their instruments and moving to join the group from Riverside High. Tony moved to help Rebecca walk over and sit on the couch.

"That depends on whether or not you're here or one of the other bands we had planned to audition." Beth looked at her two companions who nodded their heads enthusiastically. "It seems you've got the job."

The party was on the third of November. Tina's birthday was the first and Rebecca's on the fifth so it only made sense to combine the two. Tony knew very well that there was no way he could try to sneak a surprise party by either girl, let alone both, so he went entirely the other way and made it a Big Deal. The only surprise was that he told neither girl before sending out over 100 invitations and it was too late for either one to object.

The invitations had gone throughout the school. The band was encouraged to invite guests, half the invitations went to Richard Marcus and a few of Tina's other high-school friends to distribute. Tony had even thought to give Rhonda some invitations for Tina's friends from Jr. High who were a grade behind. In spite of the fact that it was a birthday party for two freshmen, it was the hottest invitation of the year for both schools.

The Smith and Harris parents made their own, smaller party in the upstairs living room. It was not to be a wild party. Of course, anyone with knowledge of teenagers knew some might sneak out to their cars, or off the property, to do whatever they wanted, but appearances could be maintained.

In the basement, Tony and the guys were playing without Tina and Rebecca. There was still a large volume of material that they knew, and had played together for a year, before Tina and Rebecca joined, and they were certainly no slouches on their own. The girls didn't know it yet, but they would join them later. Tina would because she could never resist playing music, Rebecca would be eager to try her birthday present that was still a secret.

Rebecca was, as well as she knew how, holding court in a chair on the other side of the room. She looked stunning in a silvery-white cocktail dress that fit her form perfectly and came to just above her knees. Rebecca was blessed with an attractive, if petite, figure by birth. Weeks of intensive physical and aquatic therapy had brought that form to physical perfection. Sitting there in that dress there was no longer any doubt in the minds of the girls Tony had referred to as 'wildcats' that Rebecca was at least their equal. Much to Tony's amusement Chrissie was nearby at the soundboard watching over her like a hawk. He knew Rebecca could take care of herself, but it warmed him to see Chrissie watching over her whether she needed it or not. Tony was the first to realize that Rebecca was not some shy wallflower to be taken advantage of or manipulated, the rest would come around he figured.

Tina was mixing. She wore a classic little black dress with spaghetti straps that finished in a much fuller, and significantly shorter, skirt than Rebecca's. Tina was always an enigma. She was a certified musical and academic geek. She was beyond simply attractive. Her figure was compact like Rebecca's only a bit fuller top and bottom. She simply loved people and people loved her. Still, it bothered Tony that there was no love in her life. She certainly didn't shun boys and often went on dates, but except for Richard Marcus, it was normally only one date. Richard had only gotten three, but that had ended months ago.