Rebecca Rocks Read Free

Vanessa’s ridiculous birthday party and fractured her wrist. Which of course meant she couldn’t play the guitar and the band had to go on hiatus for ages and ages.
    Of course, after Alice fractured her wrist, we had the whole school musical thing to occupy us, but even taking part in the greatest production of
Mary Poppins
ever didn’t make up for the fact that we were missing out on weeks and weeksof practising. A few months ago I thought we’d be, like, total band experts by summer. But Cass still sometimes gets the rhythms wrong in her keyboard basslines, and I still have moments when I sort of forget how to play the drums at all.
    Weirdly, Alice, the one who was actually physically unable to play her instrument for weeks and weeks, makes fewer mistakes than either of us. Maybe she was just, like, saving her musical strength during all those weeks in a cast. Anyway, she is very devoted to the Hey Dollface cause and has made lots of time to practise since the cast came off, which is particularly good because she is the only one of us with a boyfriend and she doesn’t get to see him during the week. There are some people who would ditch their old friends at the weekends when a new love came along, but not Alice. She is a good friend AND a good bandmate. Of course, her boyfriend, Richard, aka Bike Boy, understands because he is in a band too. They respect each other’s work.
    Sometimes I sort of wish I had a boyfriend too, but, actually, it is quite peaceful not having a distracting boy to think about. For ages I was thinking of lovely Paperboy, then he moved to Canada, and I was thinking about him in a sad way, and then I was thinking about John Kowalski from the musical,and then I realised that he was a selfish smelly fool and not worth thinking about at all. And since then there have been no boys at all. I was worried it might be a bit boring without somebody to think about and be excited about seeing. But actually it is a relief. I can think about lots of other things, like books, and the story I’ve started writing, and how we’re going to play loads of gigs this summer and become the greatest band ever. Well, you never know. As Alice said, ‘We’ve got to have ambition.’
    Which brings me on to number two on our list.
    2. Play gigs. Preferably loads of them.
    To be honest, I thought we’d have played more gigs by now, because when we finished the musical we were sure we were going to put on a show with Bad Monkey. But by the time Alice’s wrist was better it was so near the summer tests that none of us had time to organise a gig (or, rather, our evil parents won’t let us) so it somehow hasn’t happened yet. The problem is that, as we are all under eighteen, we have to arrange an afternoon gig, and that is easier said than done. I think it’s very unfair that we can’t play gigs in the evening. Mum explained that venues don’t want to host under-eighteens nights becausethat means they have to close the bar and they generally make most of their profits selling booze, but I think they should be noble and sacrifice a few euro for the sake of the future of music.
    But we’re going to manage to play a gig somehow. Whenever I remember the (very short) bit of the Battle of the Bands when it all seemed to come together and the crowd were all cheering and dancing, I feel all tingly and sparkling inside. It made all the annoying practising bits when I couldn’t play the drums properly worthwhile.
    And, well, that’s it. I suppose it’s not really much of a list if there are only two things on it. But anyway, it’s a mission statement: practise lots, and play gigs. And maybe get, like, a manager who could sort all that out for us. Although I don’t think that’s very likely.
    Right, back to my studies again. I know that in a few weeks I’ll be able to relax in the evenings and read anything I like, but that seems a very long way away right now.

    God, I can’t wait until school is over and I don’t