Casey Barnes Eponymous - By E.A. Rigg Page 0,23

room growled for everyone to be quiet. It did the trick.

“All hail the patriarchy,” Casey muttered.

The girl in front, who, as it turned out, was Samantha and the drama club’s representative for the selection committee, began to talk about talent show.

“Is Yull on the committee too?” someone from the back of the room called out. Casey sank down in her chair.

“No,” Samantha said, “He’s too busy with his other activities so he asked me to be.”

Leigh glanced at Casey. Casey rolled her eyes.

The other members of the committee were the head of jazz ensemble and the junior and senior year officers of the student government. The four of them would judge talent show auditions and ultimately decide who got to be in it.

Samantha began to describe how they were going to do the audition process. A guy at the front of the room raised his hand and spoke. “What’s the makeup of the acts?”

“What do you mean?” Samantha said.

“Last year over half the show was music. It kind of seemed like a battle of the bands after a while.” A few kids voiced agreement. “There’s already a battle of the bands in the spring,” he continued, “Plus there were some student comedy and drama groups who didn’t bother auditioning because they knew of so many music acts trying to get in and they didn’t think they’d make the cut.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I think we should cap the number of music acts this year.”

“How many total?” Samantha asked.

The guy considered. “I say we leave one spot open for a solo act and two for groups of three or more people.”

She looked around the room. People were nodding. “Okay,” she said.

Someone behind Casey whispered, “The bands are really going to have to compete for their slots this year.”

And that was when, in a manner as magical as when the choir starts in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Casey got an idea.

15

The next day she arrived early for Spanish class. She even had her homework ready. So what if Yull did half of it and told her how to do the rest. It was done and if there was anyone on the planet worth milking for a sympathy vote it was Yull Barnes.

Ben came in just as the bell rang. He ignored her. Señor Griffin circulated checking homework. When he got to Casey’s desk he hesitated. A frown crept across his features. “¿Señorita?”

She waved her homework in the air with a flourish. “Olé.”

Señor Griffin grinned. “Muy bien.”

As soon as he was gone Ben looked at her suspiciously and put a protective hand over his homework. “You wish,” she hissed. He rolled his eyes and turned back around. She glanced at his bag. Sure enough, the drumsticks were there. She composed a note.

They often say drummers are the least appreciated members of a power trio. I could not disagree more. Why? Two words: Lars Ulrich. Know the names of anyone else in Metallica? Actually don’t answer that as it may distract me from the exciting OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME I’m on the brink of dangling in front of your homework hoarding head.

He read it, penned a response and passed it back. I am not joining the band of that dufus you were talking to the other day. She paused. Why do you say Alex Deal’s a dufus?

He wrote back. Because he is. I’ve seen him around. And anyway I don’t like their music. The bassist’s in my math class and he was playing it for someone the other day. It’s boring and all sounds alike.

She smiled. I agree with you about that dufus’ band and it’s not his band I want you to play in. It’s mine. That’s right, mine.

She placed the note on her desk and paused. Then she passed it up. Ben read it. For a moment she got nervous. How could she have written that? He probably thought she was a freak. But then he passed a note back. When’s the first rehearsal?

Catherine Hightower got permission from Mrs. Edwards to do the Beowulf project on her own. She informed Casey and Sukh of this in a crisp voice as soon as they broke into project groups that day. Neither of them said a word, but as soon as she turned away, they flashed each other thumbs-ups.

Just then Mrs. Edwards walked over. “What’s this I hear about you two doing something that has to do with Elvis for this project?”

Casey and Sukh exchanged a look. “Well Mrs. Edwards, we