Page 15 of Finding a Melody

The music booth ended up being a table with a bunch of vinyl records, band posters, guitar picks, and soft rock music playing in the background. There were also band T-shirts and some shirts with funny sayings on them.

I spotted one and didn’t hesitate to buy it. It was too perfect for Seth. The dark blue shirt had white writing on it that said, ‘Earphones in = I don’t wanna talk. Earphones out = I forgot my earphones,’ and around the shirt was the simple white silhouette of earphones to decorate it.

“Is that for Seth.”

I chuckled and nodded. “Think he’ll like it?”

“Yes. Can I have a shirt too?”

“Sure, Cal. Pick one.”

That got him even more excited as he started flipping through shirts and settling on a black one with an artfully designed guitar on it that covered the front and wrapped around to the back. I even picked one out that said, ‘Music is life. That’s why our hearts have beats.’ Between the two lines was what looked like a heartbeat on a heart monitor, and centered on that was a heart, and to make the heart they used the treble clef and bass clef. It was so cool looking.

We didn’t even bother waiting, putting the shirts on over the ones we were currently wearing and giggling while doing it.

“You both look good,” Mr. Stokes said with a big smile as he joined us, taking in our new shirts.

“We got one for Seth too,” Calvin said, still laughing. He was holding on to the bag, wanting to give it to Seth himself.

Mr. Stokes chuckled. “I’m sure he’ll enjoy it. We should head over to the game. It’s going to start soon.”

“Is it already time?” I looked down at my phone and realized we managed to spend a good chunk of time here.

“We have to make sure we get the good seats,” Mr. Stokes said. “I want to make sure Paxon can see us so that we can be sure to embarrass him.”

Thinking about how well Toby seemed to do in embarrassing Paxon, I laughed. Was Mr. Stokes going to do something similar? He made me think about the time my own dad did the same to me early on in my performances. He’d be on the side of the stage always ridiculously dancing to my performance, making it fun and less stressful for me, but was also embarrassing to see. Even the stage crew would look at him like he was a crazy man.

But he’d be there. And he didn’t care.

I grew to love it very quickly and it became the first thing I missed when he left.

It was cool to see that dads embarrassing their kids was normal and by the little evil glint in Mr. Stokes’ eyes, it was going to be good.

Chapter Five

Mr. Stokes was right there with Toby, cheering on Paxon in the most embarrassing way possible. They wore bright colors holding up bright signs and even came up with a chant that left the people around us laughing and most likely Paxon embarrassed.

It was hilarious and all in good fun. I even joined in on some of the chants they had going on. My favorite was:

“Hold up, wait a minute,

Let me put some spirit in it!

Trilec High break it down,

Kick this team straight out of their own town!”

I couldn’t stop laughing as the whole group of us screamed at the top of our lungs when our side had the ball and were making a good play for it. Even the others in the stand around us joined in.

The entire game, I felt adrenaline like never before, feeding off everyone’s excitement around me. At the end, I was on my feet, jumping around too as we celebrated our win. Paxon and his teammates really did kick the other team out of their own town. It was great, even intoxicating.

I couldn’t stay still in the parking lot while we waited for Paxon to come out. Seth even lowered his tailgate and tried to park my ass on it to keep me in one spot. Instead, every time someone got too close, I swung my legs so I’d ‘accidentally’ kick them. Toby thought it was hilarious too and kept coming near so I’d hit him.

“When do we get to find out who won our little competition?” I asked Toby.

“How about right now?” Toby asked, brightening up.

“What competition?” Mr. Stokes asked.