Patty shrugged.
“Come on, Patty,” Kristen insisted.
“When?”
“Friday… no… wait. Jim and I have a date. My last day at seventeen. How about tonight?”
“I have to be at Roman’s tonight,” Patty said, referring to the recent part-time job she got at a pizzeria.
“How about after school?” Kristen said. “Oh, wait… the rehearsal. I missed it last week…”
It suddenly hit me what Patty was doing.
“I think the band will survive another rehearsal without my muse,” I said.
Kristen looked at me suddenly, her eyes narrowing.
I think I might have agreed too easily.
Kristen said, “How about tomorrow after school, Patty?”
Patty forced a smile. “That sounds fine.”
The subject changed, but I noticed that Kristen continued to look at me suspiciously during the entire lunch period.
Kristen made damn sure she was at rehearsal. Mr. Proilet saw that and smiled. I asked Kristen if she wanted to do a solo on the electric piano.
My girlfriend was still suspicious that something was up, and so she just shrugged.
The music teacher was handing out arrangements of Gershwin’s ”Summertime,” which he suggested as an encore. As he handed it to Kristen, he apologized to the two women for the cold reading.
I was at the podium and counted down a slow tempo.
Kristen played the number flawlessly, albeit a bit stiffly. I stopped the number about halfway through.
“You’re doing great, Kris!” I said, smiling at her.
Kristen simply shrugged.
I turned to the chorus members, and asked “Who has the vocal range to sing this song?”
Stacey volunteered, and I decided to do it with a soloist.
I took the number again from the top, and this time, Kristen sounded much better. The song sounded better having a vocal part, and Mr. Proilet agreed.
We spent the rest of the session rehearsing ”Summertime“ and ”Anything Goes.”
After the rehearsal, Kristen came over to me. “I’m sorry, Jim.”
“Sorry for what?”
“I didn’t… I thought you didn’t want me at the rehearsal today.”
It was true, but having Kristen there didn’t seem to be a bad thing.
“I always do better when you’re around. Also, after watching you play ’Summertime,’ Amy hit the Cole Porter song with a vengeance!”
Kristen smiled. “Amy’s definitely better than when she started last year.”
Camille was coming out of the gym, as cheerleader practice just finished up. She saw Kristen and me and came over and said, “Hi!”
“Patty’s coming over to Kristen’s tomorrow to find an outfit for the party,” I said.
“Yeah,” Camille said. “She told me.”
“Kris and I have a date. Would you and Patty like to tag along to celebrate Kristen’s last day as a seventeen year old?”
“Like a bachelor party?” Camille asked.
“No. Just friends celebrating privately,” I said. “We were thinking of the Islander.”
“Chinese… yum!” Camille said.
Kristen said, “Think you guys can come?”
Camille looked at Kristen. “Are you sure that we wouldn’t be intruding?”
Kristen shook her head. “I wanted to do something like go out with friends, but didn’t know how Jim would feel. Since he brought it up, I must say that both of us would like that.”
“I’ll have to find out if Patty is working tomorrow night.”
“Hey, Cammy… if Patty can’t make it, then let’s bring the party to her.” I turned to Kristen. “How about Roman’s?”
“Do you think Patty will mind?” Kristen asked.
“Patty will love it,” Camille laughed. “She says the biggest problem with her job is that she doesn’t see her friends as often as she used to see them.”
“Great. Let us know tomorrow,” Kristen said.
We were now at Kristen’s Camaro. Camille waved good-bye as Kristen drove me home.
“Are our plans still on for after dinner, Jim?”
“Of course, Kristen,” I said. “I want to make love to you before midnight and after midnight. Your last as a minor and your first as an adult.”
“You don’t mind that I’ll be eighteen?” Kristen asked, gunning the engine.
“Who knows? I might find that I have a fondness for older women!”
Instead of laughing, Kristen sighed. “You’re spending too much time with Camille.”
On Friday, I located Sam and handed him a piano arrangement and asked if he’d be able to work out a bass line for it.
Sam glanced at the music I handed him and furrowed his brow. “I can’t place the tune.”
“It’s something I wrote.”
“Oh,” he said. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. Do you have a demo of the piece on keyboard?”
“Actually, yes,” I said. “Electric piano, actually. I was thinking acoustic would be better.”
Sam continued to study the music. “Electric is probably perfect for this one.”
“You think?” I asked. Sam had a great ear for music, and I valued his opinion highly.
“Ask your music teacher after class,” Sam suggested. “I’ll get the tape from you during seventh. If you see Amy before that, we have orchestra together and she can get it to me.”
“Thanks, friend!”
After music class, Mr. Proilet saw me hanging back. “What’s up, Jim?”
“Can you listen to this?” I asked, showing my teacher the cassette. Sam was still hanging around, interested in the teacher’s reaction to my song.
I watched Mr. Proilet look around for a cassette player and he finally found one. He took the tape and put it in.
The two of us listened to my rendition of a song that I’d had been working on for the past month. At the end of the song, Mr. Proilet said, “This is for Kristen?”
“Yes.”
“It needs a bass line, more than you do on the keyboard. The electric is perfect for the melody line.”
“I was thinking a bass and a drum.”
“Sam and Derek?” Mr. Proilet asked, looking at Sam hanging around.
“Yeah. They’re going to be at the party, and…”
“Do you have the bass part written?”
“I gave a copy of the score to Sam.”
My music teacher smiled. “That’s a good idea. Give him this cassette so he can get your meter as well.”
Sam laughed in response.
I nodded, seriously.
“Your song reminds me of Pachelbel’s Canon.”
“Whose cannon?”
“You’ve never heard that song in church?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t much of a church person.
My teacher walked to the piano and started playing what appeared to be arpeggios. The melody became familiar as he played it, except that there were many more motifs in the song my teacher played.
“I’ve heard that melody before,” I admitted. “It may be where I got the idea for the beginning.”
“Nothing wrong with inspiration, Jim.”
I shrugged. Now that I heard Canon, I saw the similarity.
My music teacher asked, “Do you have words to go with that song?”
“Unfortunately, only part of it. I am running out of time getting this done before Kristen’s birthday.”
“Pity. It sounds as if it would be a lovely song.”
“Maybe I’ll come up with some, but I’m not much of a poet.”