Plans Are Sometimes...Problems

 Hi!! Book 2 of 'Surviving Sixth Grade' is here!

1. Back To The Present

Welcome back!

You probably read about my adventures before. Well, technically they aren’t what I’d call ‘adventures’, but to be exact, making our new music video is kinda like finding a treasure chest made of gold filled with sparkling jewels. Yep. Kinda.

Hold on now, strap in your seatbelt, and get ready for the roller coaster ride in my story!

2. Friendships Last Everywhere 

I was getting my things out of my locker to school, when someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned around. A black-haired girl with bangs shielding her forehead and eyes stared at me. 

“Tana! What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to talk,” she said. 

I closed my locker door. “About what?”

She looked down. “It’s…that I visit you every counselling session, instead of normally.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda true.” 

“About that. I hope it isn’t irritating, but I heard Mrs. Bunsen complaining.”

She was right. Tana came to visit me every time, and she would talk about the day, and I’d tell her what I did. I was fine with it, but Mrs. Bunsen made a crack about our conversations.

“She’s just a friend,” I had said.

“Heh. Next time, you’ll tell me she’s your girlfriend,” she had snickered. 

I had fumed silently. Why do people care about this stuff?

“Yeah,” I said, “Making jokes about our talk is something I hate. For reals.”

She pulled a strand of hair. “I mean, if Mrs. B is doing that, we can talk any other time?”

I thought, nodding. “Yeah. We can.”

“Are you sure?” She whispered.

“Look, Tana, comms don’t need to be in the same place. You can talk to me during lunch, or come with me to class. Don’t worry,” I said, taking her hand and giving it a little squeeze. “We can be friends.”

She nodded, feeling less scared. It’s part of her nature. Shy and quiet, scared of everything. Poor Tana.

She waved goodbye and left. I looked on after her.

What’s with her?

3. On The Lookout

“So, what’s our next song?” Wylie asked me and Elijah. 

I shrugged. “I dunno. LIJ became famous already. Let’s take a fresh upbeat.”

Elijah started humming a tune. It was one of the popular J-Pop songs, ‘Savage Love’. 

“If I end up, without ya I don’t know what I’ll do

Thought I could be, single forever ’til I met you

Usually don’, be fallin’, be fallin’ fallin’ fast

You got a way, of keepin’, me comin’ back again”

I picked it up from there. 

“I just found out, the only reason that you’re here with me

Was to get back, with someone other but before you leave

Usually I, would never, would never even care

Baby, I know, I’m dreamin’, I feel it in the air,”

“Wait!” Wylie said.

“Aww, come on!” Elijah said.

“This,” she said, pointing to us, “could be our second video. Our own.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“We’ll sing the exact rendition, but dance differently!” She sounded triumphant.

“Goody!” I exclaimed.

“But how are we going to decide?” Elijah asked.

Wylie twiddled her thumbs. “I’ll compose our moves. You guys find the song and lyrics. We’ll start practice tomorrow.”

She soon left the garage. 

“Eli,” I asked Elijah, “d’you know anything about Tana?”

“You mean Tana Wells?” He said.

One thing about Elijah you need to know: He has a photographic memory, so he can spot really tiny details and remember things for life. It’s why he’s very vital. 

“Well, no,” he said, “Although her parents are Mr. and Mrs. Monite.”

“Woah,” I said.

“Woah, indeed. Her surname is Wells. Why would her parents be Monites?”

“I’ll go and ask her,” I said.

“I don’t want to trouble her.” Elijah picked his bag up. “I think it’s worse enough.”

“She knows you have that brain bite,” I said, “She wouldn’t mind.”

“Still,” he said, giving me a warning look, “Take it easy. Don’t alarm her.”

I nodded. “You have my word.”

Kinda.

4. Secrets Aren’t Meant To Be Shared

When I sat at my usual lunch spot with Wylie and Elijah, I noticed that Thomas and Tamira weren’t sitting with Tana today. Worse. 

They were sitting right in front of her, the table opposite. They kept giving her the stink-eye, and whispering things behind her back.

I picked up my tray, but Wylie grabbed my shirt. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Rescue mission,” I said, then yanked the fabric off her hands and trotted over to where Tana sat. I plopped in right next to her.

Tana’s eyes brightened. “Why, hello, Trevor!”

I smiled sweetly. “Hi.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Tamira and Thomas snicker. Oh, boy.

Tana sighed, as if she could understand. “They’ve been mad at me since the ankle thing.”

“Mmm-hmm.” I nodded.

“How are you going to enter for Jr. Pop if they aren’t with you?” I asked.

“I might enter solo,” she murmured.

I looked at her, dumbstruck. “Solo? How are you going to do that?”

“Well, my parents will help,” she countered.

“Your parents whose names end with ‘Monite’?” I blurted.

She looked frightened when I said that. I tried softening the blow. 

“Elijah told me,” I whispered.

“Oh.” She was shaken up.

“So?” I asked her.

However, things went strange. Tana grabbed her tray and got up from her seat. As she was leaving, she turned to look at me. 

“I wish I was braver. I can’t change myself.”

5. Let’s Get That ’Savage Love’!

“I saw that!” Elijah said.

We were practising our aerials and flips when he blurted it.

I did a front roll, then grunted. “I really don’t know. I told her about the Monite thing, but it seems odd. She wasn’t liking it.”

“Why’d you even ask her that?” Wylie said, back-flipping. 

I did a neat aerial, spreading my legs out as far as I can, then landing squarely on my two feet. The feeling of being in the air for a few seconds made it my favourite dance move. It also centrifuged all of my thoughts to the upper side of my head, which stayed there for weeks. Doing it now, made it easier to remove Tana’s sentence out of my mind centre. 

“She just said she wasn’t brave enough.”

I finished my routine and headed to the TV to pick the ‘Savage Love’ single. 

“You composed our moves?” I asked Wylie.

She nodded. “Totally.”

Wylie stood on the rug. Me and Elijah stood facing her. She then performed a series of medium-complicated dance moves, and Elijah and I followed. We nailed everything in one take, but that didn’t mean a ‘woohoo we’re going to shoot the video tomorrow!’ expression. We still had to do the singing, and the concept prep. Fortunately, Wylie had done double the work. She presented a theme for the video, a swanky beach theme, as she said it had ’something to do with the background beat and instruments’. Elijah and I agreed with the plans, and we had the clothes to go with the thing. 

We were definitely going to get Jr. Pop’s attention.

6. Wait, What?

I went to my locker after homeroom and was startled to see a lot of sticky notes covering up the door. Wylie and Elijah were as stunned too. 

The sticky notes were having sentences written like: OMG! Your band is SO good! One thing: you guys r awesome, I am a HUGE fan! and stuff like that.

One note just plainly said: Meet me later. Lunch break.

I picked up the lunch note and stuffed it in my pocket. Wylie and Elijah grabbed all the fan notes.

“Who wrote these?” I asked.

“I’m pretty sure Tana wrote that,” Wylie said, pointing to my pocket.

“Well, yeah.” Elijah was scanning the notes very carefully. “But I don’t think the ex-3Ts member wrote the others. I compared her handwriting. Neither did Tom and Tam. These were written by other students. Some of them might be in the higher grades!”

“Whoa,” Wylie said, “You think high school students are watching our videos? That’s completely bonkers, Eli!”

“I know how crazy that really sounds, Wylie, but you gotta believe me,” he said.

I took in a deep breath. “If ‘Lost In Japan’ and ’Savage Love’ are already instant hits, we need to keep making more songs.”

“We’re doing that. Hadn’t we practiced singing ’Stuck With U’? That’s one song,” Wylie suggested.

“Then we need to sing more. Trevor’s right,” Elijah said, “More or less, we need to make our mark here to get recognised by Jr. Pop. Then, it’s a go.”

“And a go we’ll need to make,” I said.

7. The Big Project 

This is probably after a few months, when we finished a ton of videos, around sixty-nine, to be exact. We also got 200+ subscribers, so this was pretty special. 

“Seventieth video, seventieth video,” Wylie muttered.

“We need to do something special. Like some kind of cool song,” Elijah said.

We were actually in the kitchen. Wylie, Elijah and I were making Caesar salad for ourselves and Angela, waiting for Mom to come home.

“I wish that when people got in, we’d have some kind of system to play the song ‘My House’,” Angie was saying.

“That one from the ‘Middle School’ movie? I love it!” Wylie said, eyes brightening.

I started singing, and the others joined in.

“Welcome to my house

Come on, take control now

We can’t even slow down

We don’t have to go-o-o out!”

“Welcome to my house

Playback music too loud

Show me how you dance now

We don’t have to go-o-o out!”

“Wow, Angela, you sing pretty well!” Elijah complimented my sister.

“Wait,” I said, because the song popped an idea into my mind.

A special video for the 70th works with this song. We could shoot the video inside our homes, and at school. ‘My House’ will need everyone to pitch in, from Mom to Angela to Stevie to Mrs. Bunsen to Tana to Mr. Milne. 

It was going to be a mass project.

“Wylie, Eli,” I said, beckoning them, “I have a project I’d like to propose.”

8. ‘Our House’ 

“Will this work?” Wylie asked. 

It was a Monday, and we made the plans. We’d shot the video at our homes and on the street yesterday, and we spread the word on Friday to have the whole school participate. Everyone was in. 

“Yes.” I nodded, then took her right hand. Elijah grabbed her left and we stalked inside. 

We pulled out our cameras, ones that Mr. Milne lent us. It was a simple camera, not the movie-type ones you find on YouTube behind-the-scenes videos. But this one had high-definition video recording. He also gave us selfie sticks. 

I hooked my camera on one end and help it up. I turned it on and held it up a little away from my face. The angle was perfect. 

“WE’RE DOING THIS!” I shouted.

I switched it to video. Wylie and Elijah did the same. We split up and went in three different directions. I headed toward the main square of the school. All of the students saw what I was doing and smiled broadly. 

“Yeah, we’re gonna nail this,” I said, then clicked ‘Record’. 

The music started, and so did we.

9. A Strange Offer

“We loved your video,” Thomas said has he approached our table, “and we have an offer.”

“We’d like to work with you on a music video,” Tamira suggested.

“Which song?” I asked.

“‘Lonely’. Are you okay with that?” 

I held my face in my hands, thinking. Hmmm.

Just one day, they kicked Tana out, and the next day, the 2Ts want to work with us? Something’s fishy, Trevor.

I put up a finger. “One sec.”

Tana was sitting at the other end of our table. I rushed to her and whispered something.

“Your ex-BFFs want to collaborate on a music video ‘Lonely’ with us,” I said.

“That’s bad,” she said.

“I have an idea.” I took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Then, I lead her to Tom and Tam.

“She’s working with us,” I said.

Tana gave me an I am? look, until I told her to play along.

Tamira and Thomas were worried. I knew what they were doing: talk trash about Tana without her knowing. Even Wylie and Elijah understood and threw a question at them.

“Now do you agree?”

“Yes,” Thomas said quickly, but he pointed at Tana. “But she can’t dance. You don’t want to ruin your reputation.”

“She’s fine,” I said, furrowing my eyebrows. 

Tamira tried to put on a cocky face, but there was a flicker of apprehension in her expression.

They weren’t going to harm Tana. 

At least not yet.

10. Tricks Are Tricky When Figured Out

We started preparing for the joint production ‘Lonely’, and it was easier than I expected. Tamira, Thomas and Tana seamlessly fit into our practice routine. They never admitted it to us that it was a little weird. Or the fact that Tom and Tam were still behind Tana. And then the pranks started. They started big, with the bag.

One practice, we had to bring our bottles and sweat towels after a rough dance rehearsal. But when Tana opened her bag, a vat of oatmeal tumbled out of it and soaked her pants. She stared at the bag, which was wet from the gooey breakfast meal, and tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. But behind our backs, I saw her former bandmates snickering. Oh, boy.

And they weren’t done yet. 

We were supposed to go to the warehouse to see the effects we needed for the theme of the video. However, I think they rigged something when we were with Elijah in the computer room, because as we were going to leave, Tana accidentally stepped on a wire and water splashed onto her, soaking her from head to toe. Now, I was even more certain it was Thomas and Tamira.

The pranks went on for a long time. One evening, after they had attempted to steal and hide her lucky sneakers (which was eventually found by Wylie, hidden in the clutter of instruments), I found her crying in a corner. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s Tom and Tam,” she said, “They hate me so much, they probably told you and EliTreLie about me.”

I sat down next to her. “No. Do you know why I brought you here to practice?”

She sniffled. “Why?”

“It’s because I was worried the same thing might happen. They’d say bad things about you, getting us to hate you. And they knew you and I are friends, so they wanted to tell me,” I said.

She nodded.

“Plus, I wanted them to know that you’re really good at singing and dancing,” I said, “so that they can see through you.”

“No one actually does that when it’s me they’re talking about,” Tana whispered.

“That’s not true,” I said.

“It is, unfortunately.” She had stopped crying, but was gasping for air a little. “You’re the only one who can understand me better than anyone in my life.”

“I’m sure it’s your parents too.” I tried to take her hand, but I failed. She got up and stared at her phone.

“I’m sorry, but I need to go. Tomorrow?” She asked.

“Okay.”

As she started to leave, her sweatband came off. But I saw what it was hiding.

Three angry red marks were etched onto her forearm. They looked to have been caused by a whip. A whip? 

Why was a whip being used on her?

Tana must’ve saw my surprise, because she quickly picked the band up. She slipped it back, covering the three lines and ran out, leaving me dumbstruck. In a bad way.

There was a secret she hid. Why did no one else know about it?

…

“I swear; I saw those lines,” I said, lying down on my bed.

Angie and I were resting in my room. We had our HomePod play some Jr. Pop songs. I told her about the whip marks on Tana’s arm. 

Angie cupped her face in her hands. “Don’t tell Elijah and Wylie about the lines, then. It’ll make things hard.”

“Are you sure?”

“Look, Trev. I just don’t know. Maybe don’t ask her about it.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Don’t dig up info.”

“I need to be prepared.”

“For what?”

“For—“ I started, but then decided not to tell Angela about the fact that if her secret is revealed to me, it’d come as a shock if I didn’t already know. I hated hiding things from my little sister.

But what choice did I have?

11. Fanfare Rings In Our Ears…But More In Others

I saw more sticky notes on my locker door than usual, but they were mainly strange than scream-y. 

Some said: Did you get the 3Ts to make up again?, Are Tom, Tam, and Tana finally friends again? and It’s probably good you got them to rejoin! We were all confused, because none of that actually happened. Tana was still being shadowed out by Thomas and Tamira and we didn’t have any connection to the whole problem.

Tana came running to us when we were reading all the notes. 

“I saw,” she said between breaths, “They’re covered all over my locker door, too, and over the whole 3Ts locker group. But…mine were…”

“Nicer?” Wylie asked.

“Scream-ier?” Elijah countered.

“Meaner?” I double-countered.

She couldn’t say, because she probably ran too hard, but she pointed at me. I understood.

“Meaner. The notes were meaner,” I said, slowly.

Tana nodded. 

I shook my head. “This keeps getting worse! People think we got the 3Ts to regroup, but everyone still has a grudge against Tana. Unfair!”

“And we get all the stardom,” said a voice behind us.

Oh, boy.

Thomas and Tamira were walking toward our huddle, smirking. And everyone was watching with interest. This is getting bad.

Tana swallowed hard. Elijah, Wylie and I stood still, bracing ourselves for an insult hurled at us faster than the speed of light. 

“Thank you, Trevor,” said Thomas.

“We appreciate this,” said Tamira, unwinding a strand of hair. 

“I thought you did everything for your friend.” Tom was still on us. “But now, you made things worse.”

As they skulked away, a feeling came over me. It was like a pile of bricks collapsed from above me and buried me alive. And there was no way of getting out.

I just realised. They filmed the pranks. They did everything while we could do nothing. And the everything was bad. And our nothing didn’t help.

All of the students looked away. Wylie and Elijah busied themselves with collecting notes. Tana stared at her denim jacket.

Me? I just didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t help Tana. Not one bit.

Instead, I just flipped everything upside down.

12. Rumours Spread; And No One Believes You

I didn’t go to peer counselling today. In chemistry class, I told Mrs. Bunsen that I’m taking a day off. She was mellow about it, and told me she heard the ‘defeat of the defeats’.

I thought that was a suitable title, for I’m pretty sure no one had a defeat like our defeat. And worse? The person I tried to save wasn’t even talking to me.

This lunch, Tana didn’t speak to me. She didn’t even sit at the end of our table. I saw her taking her food and sitting near the windows. Nowhere near me.

“Apologise,” Wylie said, “Tell her it’s a misunderstanding. We all tried to help, Trevor. Don’t feel bad.”

“I already do,” I said. I hadn’t cried, but I felt sad. Sadder then I had ever been. Tears could’ve popped into my eyes the minute I realised, but they seemed to be too much in sorrow at the same time. 

“Just do it,” Elijah said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “She’ll know, and she’ll be fine.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t paying attention. I stared at my taco. Poor me. But it was worth a shot.

…

Ever since ‘Lonely’ released, the 3Ts, have stopped coming to our garage and our warehouse. We practiced and made more songs, and our count was slowly increasing. We never shot behind-the-scenes videos, so we were all right.

After a vocal practice of singing our song ‘Best Time Ever’, Elijah and Wylie went home and I went to my room and collapsed on the bed. I buried my face in the pillow. Angie wasn’t home; she had gone to a friend’s place. And my tears started. 

I cried hard; the sadness now shaking my whole body. I had pretty much stained my pillow, and was sniffling worse than when I have a cold. Suddenly, my phone vibrated on my nightstand. 

I picked it, hoping to see a text from Wylie or Elijah. But it wasn’t either of them. It was Tana.

I’m the last person she wants to see, let alone message or call. Why did she even say something on her phone?

I read her message.

Hi. You okay?

I wasn’t.

No.

There was a probable pause. We both were giving each other a chance to give a message. Then, I popped in my own text.

I’m sry. I wish this weren’t true.

Tana said: Don’t be.

I was responsible, Tana.

No, you weren’t.

Then…why didn’t you talk to me?

That’s so that the school thinks we’re done.

So…everything was fake.

Yep.

We waited again.

Tana sent me another message: Go to your doorstep.

I signed off with a thumbs-up and got out of my bed to take the door. When I opened it, someone was standing outside. The someone gasped a little, then put her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. 

I wasn’t sure who it was, but I saw black hair. No way. My knees went weak a little. 

I hadn’t expected Tana here.

13. Change Of Heart

“Why?” 

That was the first thing I had expected Tana to ask me. 

“I told you, it wasn’t your fault,” she said.

“I can’t forgive myself,” I sniffed. 

We were in my room, Tana on a chair, me on my bed. I hadn’t expected her to show up at my home, but it seemed so that she really wanted to talk.

“I—“ I started, then swallowed hard. “I can’t…bear…to think that my friend will be hurt.”

Tana got out of the chair and sat next to me. “That won’t happen. I don’t know why you think such thoughts.”
“I just…” I wanted to tell her, but I was afraid I’d start blubbering again. 

“No.” Her voice was firm. “I won’t hear it. All I want is that you don’t cry for whatever happened, which is nothing.”

I nodded, wiping my eyes. 

She patted my hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Okay.”

As she left, she turned to look at me. I saw that she was genuinely concerned. My stuffy nose probably worried her. 

I don’t know why people don’t like her, but they probably have no reason.

Tana had a heart, a real heart. She wasn’t fierce or scary. She was kind, trusting, loyal. She was a good friend, but with a dark past. 

What was it?

14. I Can’t Believe It!

This part also happened a few months after our joint production ‘Lonely’, and, trust me, this was a very surprising part that probably changed my life forever.

It was at school, English class. We were learning finite and non-finite verbs.

“Now,” our teacher, Ms. Mandrake, was saying, “Can someone tell me what is the difference between a gerund and a—“

But before she could continue, the door opened. Principal Gottin came striding in. She was looking apprehensive and surprisingly elated at the same time. She whispered something to Ms. Mandrake, and kept glancing at me, Wylie and Elijah.

“Psst!” Stevie tapped my shoulder. He was sitting right behind me. “What’s going on? They’re looking at you!”

Wylie and Elijah turned back to talk to him.

“I dunno, but I think it’s bad,” I said, “if it’s me. You know?”

Stevie nodded. “I know. Those 2Ts are jerks.”

“And don’t wallop them in the hallway,” whispered Wylie from the corner of her mouth.

Principal Gottin was now facing me. “Trevor? Wylie? Elijah?”

We looked back at her. Stevie busied himself with writing notes.

“You three are needed in my office.”

We gulped, then got up from our seats and walked to her. I was shaking in my sneakers. 

The principal took us through the school to the office. She didn’t say a word, and that confirmed that she was already furious with us.

When we reached the principal’s room, I found Mom, Mr. Milne and Wylie’s dad, sitting on a couch. I wanted to hug Mom and say that whatever Tom and Tam did wasn’t fair, and that they harmed Tana instead of me. But I couldn’t. One: the principal was there—duh!— and two: she was crying. 

Crying? My mom never cried, not even when I got a fever so high it almost reached 105°F. And now she was.

“Mom,” I said, ignoring that people were watching, “is everything okay?”

She nodded, still crying.

“Mom, is Angela all right? Is something wrong?” I was worried. 

She shook her head.

“W-what’s happening? Mr. Milne? Mr. Wilson?”

The two men were strangely quiet. But then, Wylie’s dad spoke. 

“Come on, you three. We’re getting in the car. We need to get you somewhere.”

We rushed out with our parents and stuffed ourselves in the large van of Mr. Milne’s. I sat at the window, beside Wylie. Elijah sat next to her. They seemed scared too, and they were thinking the same thing I was: What happened to our parents?

Wylie grabbed my hand and held it so tight I thought my bones were going to crack in half. But I didn’t notice and squeezed back harder. Elijah saw and took her other hand. We were quiet during the whole ride.

When the car came to a stop, we tumbled out and stared at the place it stopped at. We were at a huge tall building, surrounded by other buildings. On the centre building a logo glowed. A logo with a microphone and the words ‘Jr. Pop’ stencilled on its handle. No. It can’t be.

We slowly walked to the steps and were greeted by a man with a huge and bushy grey beard and moustache. He looked quite friendly. 

“Hello! Welcome to J-Pop Studio! I believe you are…EliTreLie?”

“How do you know us?” Wylie asked.

The man smiled kindly at her. “Why, because I selected you three to be the next Jr. Pop Kids!”

“Wait,” I said, slowly taking it in, “This is not a prank?”

The man shook his head. “Oh, no, son! I am your director, Mr. Anderson Bowers, but you can call me Mr. Bowers, or Mr. B! And welcome to your next chapter,” he said, gesturing to the studio in front of us.

Yes. We made it. We are official Jr. Pop Class of New Gen!

Wylie and Elijah turned to me, eyes brightening and a slow smile creeping up their faces. The next minute, we were leaping and jumping around, whooping with glee. We cried too, but they were cries of joy. I hugged Wylie and Elijah, I hugged Mom, and I surprisingly hugged Mr. Bowers too. He beamed and patted my back. 

Yep. We were official JP Performers.

…

“I have some news to inform you: You aren’t the only ones, though,” said Mr. Bowers as he led us into the studio. “There is another kid, and she’s quite talented, too. An expert, in my opinion, in singing, dancing and acting. Come on.”

When we were in the hair, make-up and wardrobe section of the studio, I saw a kind woman, about Mr. Bower’s age, smiling at us. 

“Everyone, this is my wife, Mrs. Bowers,” our new director said, gesturing to the lady. “She’s my assistant director, and chief of the H&M division here.”

Wylie and I waved at her, and Elijah dropped a bow. 

We then came to the wardrobe, and OMG! There were sooo many clothes hanging on a rod fixed inside a cupboard.

“We prepped them before,” said Mr. Bowers with a chuckle.

But what surprised me more was the figure looking through the dresses. A black-haired girl with bangs. She looked at us and smiled.

“Hi!”

15. Here Comes Trouble

“Tana!” I rushed over to hug her. “What are you doing here?”

She squeezed back, then released. “I got selected! My solo YT channel worked.”

“You went solo?” Wylie asked, embracing her warmly.

She nodded smiling. Elijah slapped her a five. 

“I…believe you have met?” Mr. Bowers was grinning warmly at us.

We nodded, beaming. 

But before either of us could say anything, his phone rang. Who could be calling now?

“Hello?” He picked it up. “Yes? But—but I haven’t told the four new children yet! Oh, well. Wait, who? No, no way! I thought they’d be kind. Look, we’ve got problems. Oh, all right. But this is a nasty shock to them. Especially one girl, and her name I wouldn’t want to state. Thank you.”

When he put the line down, he sighed. It was the first time I saw him so worried.

“Kids, I believe there is some complication right now. There are going to be…six Jr. Pop Kids. Unfortunately, the thing was made but I couldn’t tell you in the hurry.”

“No problem.” Elijah was optimistic. “Who are they? Part of EliTreLie’s job description is making new friends!”

Mr. Bowers nodded, his cheery smile appearing again. “Well, they’re coming here, and you can take a look.”

Two figures stood in front of us. One had deep brown eyes and freckles scattered across his face. Another had brown hair she kept twirling in a cocky way. Oh, no.

Thomas and Tamira were back.

16. Problems Do Occur

"Oh, hello, Tana," Thomas sneered.

I glanced at her. Tana was feeling scared, like the time she met us.

"I never knew you came in," said Tammy, giggling like mad.

Tana fixed both of them with a piercing stare, but her voice was shaky. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. Just wondering about how lousy you were in dancing," Thomas replied.

We looked back at her again. I could see her eyes watering. 

What's going on? I trembled.

Tana couldn't stop. "You don't know about my life, you don't know about my feelings, you don't know anything! There you are, and look at what you've done."

With a sob, she ran out of the room, into the makeup area. I stared, jaw open.

This was bad. This was really, really bad.

It could even extinguish your happiest feelings.