Competition's On The Line
Hi! Book 5 of Surviving Sixth Grade is here.
1. (Breathe, breathe, breathe.)
Okay, guys. Let me tell you something.
I. Am. Hyperventilating.
Like, right now.
Why?
‘Cause we have something big.
No, we need to face something big.
And, well, this time, it might etch itself in the history of the tagline ’Sung By Kids For Kids’.
Yep. No joke. No joke at all.
2. Egg-scuse Me?
“Mom!” Angela and I shouted.
“Yes, kiddos?”
“What’s for breakfast?” Angela asked.
“Why do I have to leave early?” I asked.
“Angela, it’s an omelette, with your favourite—sausages! Trevor, I have no idea why they called, but it might be something important.”
Let me fill you in on what was happening. Normally, I get up at 6:30 am, but today, Mom woke me up at 6:00 am, saying that she received a call from Mr. Bowers, who said that breakfast was to be done at the studio. I dressed up quickly and might’ve multitasked at the same time, because everything that normally takes me an hour to do was done in fifteen minutes. Angela took her own sweet time, but at least she respected it.
Five minutes later, I saw my somewhat groggy Jr. Pop friends drag themselves into the eight-seater car, too tired to walk.
“Why the long faces, kids?” Mr. Bowers asked when we met him at our studio door.
“Where’s breakfast?” We asked.
“Almost ready. It’s scrambled eggs and toast. Standard JPK protocol.” He beamed.
But I could tell that he didn’t receive happy news.
After a good tuck-in (courtesy of Elijah’s British fandom), Mr. B dropped the bombshell.
“We have rivals.”
Tana’s fingernails almost scraped my hand, Elijah and Wylie turned pale, and Thomas and Tamira looked like they had nausea.
I choked out a word. “Who?”
“They’re called the Record Kids. But they’re a good bunch, and we gotta beat them.” He held up his phone. “They want a battle with us. Who beats who? Who’s much better than who? And, most importantly…”
Mr. Bowers held the word. Mrs. Bowers nudged him. “Say it!” She whispered.
He sighed. “Who’s the rightful upholder of the tagline, ‘Sung By Kids For Kids’?”
We all swallowed hard. How come? Because, that was our tagline. Our identity. If the Record Kids think it’s universal, then, well, back off!
“But that’s who we are!” Thomas shouted.
Mrs. Bowers sighed. “Tom, I understand. But the world has made it clear now: Sung by Kids For Kids is official. Everyone tags it in social media. Everyone performs for it. More importantly, they are fans of the two bands that uphold it the most: us, and the RKs.” She held up a hand. “But, however, the other director, well, his name’s Mr. Cunningham, and, well…he is not someone you want to meet, honestly.”
“I’ve heard he’s abusive. He himself called Mr. Bowers and suggested this.” Ms. Gwen, along with Mrs. Henson and Ms. Tempi came out.
“Now, well, classes are dismissed, battle or not. It’s your photo shoot day.” Mrs. Henson clapped her hands. “Head upstairs to Wardrobe and Makeup. We’ll be there in a moment.”
As we got up to leave, I snuck a quick peek, but then stayed behind to listen.
“We’re going to keep Tana in safe hands when they meet. I know Mr. C. He has no patience for normal children, let alone orphans.” I heard Mr. Bowers sigh.
“I doubt it. We’ll have to pretend everything’s normal. Besides, how do we tell him that’s she’s okay?” Ms. Tempi sounded apprehensive.
Mr. Bowers rapped the table with his knuckles to silence the teachers. “Ladies, I’ll rather have you know that Trevor here, he’s very observant. If he knows Mr. Cunningham is bad, he’ll try to stick with her as much as possible. Everyone else knows, too.”
The women nodded. I nodded to myself.
I won’t let anything happen to Tana.
3. Meet The Record Kids
We waited at the door of the studio and a limousine pulled up near the door, bearing the red-and-grey Record logo. I saw a Canadian flag next to it. So the RKs were Canadian, in that point.
I saw 13 children pile out of the car. 13! Why, they might even beat us in number! We were just 6 individuals. We were gonna go down.
I saw a big, shaven man, with a beefy moustache, show himself to us. That had to be Mr. Cunningham. Even the kids didn’t look all great; they were whimpering a little.
“A-wight, show yourselves, ye blisters!” Mr. Cunningham hissed. The children raised their heads up a little and smiled at us. We plastered grins on our faces, but I felt like a liar. I was more furious with them than happy.
“Mr. C.” Mr. Bowers shook hands with him, then gestured to us. Mr. Cunningham frowned at each of us, but he sneered when he saw Tana.
“What’s she doin’ ‘ere?” He asked Mr. Bowers.
Tana bit her lip. “I joined Jr. Pop, Mr. Cunningham. I’m Tana Bow—sorry, Wells.”
I raised an eyebrow. Was she just going to say ‘Bowers’? I thought Mr. and Mrs. B had children.
“Wells, if you ever get kicked out, you’re never going to end up anywhere. And not in my band.” He squinted at her.
Mr. Bowers shifted uneasily. “Er, my good sir, would you like to take a look?”
As Mr. C walked away, I cast a glance at Tana. She looked half-terrified, half-furious for revealing her secret. I patted her shoulder. She nodded and softened a little.
Mr. Bowers directed me, Elijah and Thomas to a group of five boys talking indistinctly to us. When they saw us, they stopped and waved to us. We waved back, sullen.
We were introduced to them: Camden, Noam, Tre, Vasili and Peyton. They all knew how to sing and dance, but they almost freaked out when we told them our talents.
“We all know how to sing more than dance,” Noam told us. “But we all have to do it forcefully under Mr. Cunningham’s command. Now, we’re all used to his screaming curses and insults.”
“But, you’re kids,” Elijah said, dumbstruck. “You’re supposed to be treated fairly.”
Vasili nodded, his face sullen. “But it’s no use. And, well, the girls over there are going through worse.”
I nodded, remembering Tana telling me about her experience at her old home.
“So, yeah, long story short, life is miserable,” Camden said.
“Well, I don’t know who wins,” Thomas said, “but may the best band do so.”
4. A Dark History
Narrative Continued by Wylie
We met the Record Girls of the Record Kids. ‘We,’ in the sense, means me, Tamira and Tana. Even though we didn’t all like the idea of another band taking our rightful tagline, we decided that they wouldn’t be of much harm.
They introduced themselves to us. They were Abby, Aliyah Rose, Jazzy, Julia, Kayleigh, Kyra, Leyonce and Liv. I kinda liked the names, of course. We all did. But they looked a little surprised when I mentioned my doing in martial arts.
“Honestly,” Kayleigh said, flipping her hair back, “the boys over there won’t be freaking out. Kyra here is like you.”
Kyra smiled at me. “I am a black belt in karate.”
I widened my eyes. “Cool!”
As we were talking, someone stepped up to us. I saw Elijah, Trevor and Thomas arrive with the other boys, behind Mr. C.
“I trust we all had it smoothly, huh?” He smiled, but it looked evil. Tamira gulped. Tana froze. The girls stood still, including Kyra.
“Kayleigh, when’s your dad’s birthday?” Mr. Cunningham sneered.
Kayleigh looked faint. “This month.”
He giggled maniacally. “I hope it goes well.” I noticed that Kay was on the verge of tears. Then, Mr. Cunningham left, leaving the boys with us.
“What was that about?” I heard Trevor whisper to Tana.
But before any of us could answer, Kayleigh suddenly burst into tears, crying and sobbing wildly. I saw one of the boys, Noam, put an arm around her shoulders.
“How dare he!” Julia was fuming.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Kayleigh’s father died three years ago, when Kay was ten. But it’s very frequent for Mr. C to badmouth him,” Abby cut in.
“That’s wrong!” I turned red in anger.
“It sure is.” Kyra patted Kayleigh’s shoulder. I walked towards her.
“Hey, my mom died too,” I said, trying to swallow the lump that appeared in my throat. “I miss her every day.”
She sniffled. I reached out and hugged her tightly. She cried on my shoulder.
We released. I held out a hand to Kyra.
“Truce. Until the competition.”
5. The Ceiling Can Hold Us (Unless No Paranoid Directors Need To Be Stopped)
Narrative Resumed by Trevor
It seemed that Wylie’s actions burned out the flame that erupted between us and the Record Kids. Mr. B was also keeping Mr. C cool. He could probably know what it was like.
I think I got the closest to Camden. He was a nice guy, and we had a lot in common. We even swapped numbers with each other to talk more often. Maybe Wylie really meant it when she said truce. You didn’t really know that the next day the people you used to hate start making friends with you.
The battle song we all were given was ‘Can’t Hold Us’. I’d never heard of the song, but Vasili told me it was a great hit by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, along with Ray Dalton. When I listened to it, it sure was. We started practising the dance and the song, but in our respective groups.
“I sure think there is something wrong with that Cunningham fella,” said Elijah. I had never seen him say ‘fella’, for he’s Mr. Old English. But I think he was too frustrated to see his check of Dickens.
“What do you mean?” Tana did an aerial and landed on her feet.
“I mean, as in—“ Elijah paused to back-flip. “—he treated Tana wrong, and Kayleigh, and…well, who knows who else?”
I finished my array of stunts, then shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t think so, Eli. Besides, who should we ask for help? It’s not like—“
“—The Record Kids will help us, Trevor,” Tamira said. “I was texting Jazzy, Aliyah Rose, and Leyonce right now. They say that they can help us.”
“Let’s enlist it, then,” Wylie said, vigorously nodding.
Five minutes later, we stood in front of the office where Mr. Cunningham worked for the time being, with the Record Kids.
Kayleigh and Vasili were initiating Part One of our plan. Elijah had hooked up all the cameras to his laptop, by some miracle, and now we can see all of our section on YouTube Studios. Tana and I were scouting at the back of the room, just in case.
“I wonder what Triple Threat and Kay would do,” I whispered to her. Triple Threat was Vasili’s nickname.
She shrugged. “I already know. They’re going to be practising, real loud, the song, ‘Stuck With U’.”
“Ah.” I nodded.
We giggled, then Tana held up her phone to record the video. Elijah was also doing the recording through his laptop, but all the sound had to be taken care by us.
“Okay, Vasili,” Kayleigh was saying, “let’s start on one, two, three…”
The song commenced.
“I’m not one to stick around
One strike and you’re out, baby
Don’t care if I sound crazy—“
Kayleigh took over.
“But you never let me down
No, no, that’s why
When the sun’s up, I’m singing
Still ain’t in your bed singing—“
Before both of them could start the bridge, Mr. C roared at them to be quiet, muttering ‘fleas’ over and over again.
The next part was entirely coincidental. It actually happened when Tamira was sitting, listening to our earlier songs of Jr. Pop 35. She was nodding away, smiling, until The Devil swooped in like a hawk.
“What are you doing, blister?” The Devil asked her.
The brown-curly-haired girl responded, “I’m listening to music.”
“What kind of music?” The Devil pressed.
“‘Ocean Eyes’, which we sung,” she said.
“Where’s the other song?” The Devil’s nostrils flared.
“Which one?” Tamira asked innocently.
“‘Can’t Hold Us’, you little blister! Are you dumb?”
“I have already finished practising, Mr. C.”
“Don’t you ‘Mr. C’ me! And practise more!”
“Yes, sir.” Tamira sighed.
But I was nearby, with the camera of my phone sticking out of the brim of my pocket. The place was also linked up with cams, so Elijah had a backup feed. Even Wylie was hiding and recording. Adrenaline rushed through my veins as the whole operation was run throughout the day. We also managed our competition training, hence, we weren’t falling behind either way.
Now, we needed to transport our evidence.
6. Apparently…
“How do we get to the police?” Jazzy asked us.
“Maybe we send the vids?” Tana suggested.
“We don’t have an email.” Aliyah Rose looked sullen.
Just before any of us can counter her, Mr. Bowers came to us.
“Break?” He asked.
We nodded.
“Tana? Come here.”
Tana uncertainly stepped up to him. Mr. B also motioned for me, Tom and Tam to come. We got up and went to him. He put his hands around our shoulders, and gently turned us to face the others.
“I have some frightful news for you all. You might have heard Tana’s story, right?”
We all nodded.
“Well, here’s the bad part. Mr. Cunningham, well, he’s Marge Monite’s father, and Tana’s…great-uncle.”
Tana clamped her hand over her mouth in horror. Everyone gasped, but too loud. So loud, that Mr. Cunningham stepped in. He laughed.
“Well, well, well,” he said, “little Miss Damsel. No one to protect you now, mm?”
Tana clenched her teeth. I almost stepped up to do my duty, but this time, it was Mr. B. Even though he was whispering, I could catch his words. The two men were nose-to-nose.
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on my daughter.”
Daughter? I didn’t expect that.
“Where are the adoption papers, Andy?”
“Nowhere nearby, Stephen, but she still is.”
“Be it, then. But one day, she’ll be sorry for what her ego and personality made her.” Mr. C’s eyes narrowed, then he left the scene without another word. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad that we cleared that up, kids.” He looked worried. “I hope none of you heard that.”
We did. And we found a big secret he was keeping from us the whole time.
7. We’ve Got Proof, Ma’am!
Maybe we sort of stopped Mr. C hurting us, but getting the police to grab him—well, it was harder than expected. We had to do something.
“What do we do, now? We didn’t catch any clue. We have got to do something!” An irritated Kyra burst out during our sneaked-in break. That was also getting harder to do, because Mr. C was always checking in on us. Tre said that’s how it goes in the studio—‘work until the director tells you to stop’. ‘Work until you die’, seemed like it.
But what troubled me more than Mr. C, was the adoption of Tana. It was likely someone would notice that she was in trouble, but very unlikely that the ‘someone’ had to be Mr. Bowers.
I tried to picture Tana, Mr. B and Mrs. B, all in one family photo. That didn’t quite fit. But when I tried thinking of Tana with them, having one happy life, it fit. It fit perfectly. There was no danger involved, and if there was, I knew Mr. Bowers will protect her. She will be away from Mr. Cunningham, away from the Monites, away from anything and anyone that wants to hurt her.
Then again, when was the adoption? I had asked Mr. B, but he shook his head saying that info was classified. When I asked for the umpteenth time today, he sighed, exasperated, and answered my question.
“Trev, listen, that will only happen in secret, at the end of this year, okay? Now, no more questions. Enough. Peace.”
He made the sign, and I laughed. Mr. B sure was funny. Tana would be really lucky.
Today, as we were eating lunch, someone knocked on the entrance door to YT studios.
We exchanged glances as Mr. B opened the door. A woman, maybe a little younger than Mom, all decked out in a police suit, complete with a bulletproof vest and a pistol, plus the trademark NYPD hat, looked at him sternly.
“Are you Mr. Anderson Bowers, sir?”
“That I am.” Mr. Bowers gave a crisp two-finger salute to the woman. He always was happy and cheerful even if the police were knocking our door.
“And I believe an individual named Mr. Stephen Cunningham is also present with you, sir?”
Mr. Cunningham was actually with us, and he rose from his seat with a growl. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Oh, it has everything to do with you,” said the lady as she strolled in. She waved to us. “Hi, kids. Everyone’s been enjoying you all back at the station. Wish we were like you!” She laughed heartily. We softened. She was good news.
“Did I forget to introduce myself? Superintendent Sierra, that’s my name. And I’m here to arrest you, Mr. Cunningham.” She pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
“Oh, really?” Mr. Cunningham snarled. “What for?”
“A girl from here, I suppose, sent an array of videos portraying you, abusing the children. But first, might I know who did?”
We were all quiet. Then, Tana raised her hand.
“I did. I’m Tana wells. I sent the videos to NYPD. We were in a really bad condition when they reached you.”
Superintendent Sierra smiled. “A valiant display if courage, girl. Mr. Cunningham, come with us.”
Mr. C grumbled, and followed her grimly. But before he could step out the door, Kayleigh got up from her seat,
“What about us? The Record Kids? Who’s gonna direct us?”
Mr. C might’ve found his opening, then. “That brat’s right. I have been directing these monkeys for the past two years. No one is there to take my place.”
Actually, I knew that last part was a lie. Vasili and Peyton told me that another guy named Jamie was the apprentice. He was to take over after Mr. C. I nodded to myself as I remembered. But, before I could start, Camden beat me to it.
“Ma’am, another guy will help us. He’s bound to be the new director. Arrest Mr. C.”
“Plus, he’s an American. Permission granted. Bada-bing, bada-boom.” Thomas grinned.
Mr. C grumbled, then followed Superintendent Sierra sulkily out the door. The sirens blared. And we were all happy, happy, happy, as we saw the devil, the monster, the evil director, gone, gone, gone, from our lives.
8. A Grand Finale
Jamie flew to NYC when he heard that Mr. Cunningham was arrested. He was glad that Mr. Bowers had taken good care of the Record Kids. He decided to resume responsibilities as the RK’s new director. Good for us, and for them.
But, there was something missing. I couldn’t figure it out at first, but then I realised—we hadn’t done what the whole world was waiting for. The competition.
I talked to everyone else about the idea. Camden said that they were prepared. So did we. Even Mr. B and Jamie were on board with it. But, then, everyone’s gotta see it. Then, I thought of something.
“Let’s collaborate on ‘Can’t Hold Us’.”
That was my modification. 19 kids are a part of this song, instead of two groups. Mr. Bowers liked it. And, thankfully, Jamie did, too.
Everyone did.
We were ready. We stepped on to the set and took our positions. I prayed that this would go well.
Please. Please. Please.
An hour and a half later, we were screaming. In joy.
We did it.
I’m proud to call this teamwork.
“Who won?” We were asking. “Who won?”
It was anyway unanimous. We all did. No one stopped us.
We faced all odds.
We all got an evil thrown out the studio doors.
And, most importantly, we stayed together.
Wow good plot so far!
ReplyDelete