set up a makeshift studio with what Hector had begged or borrowed.
They ate pizza in the main level dining room with Loren’s playlist of ’80s hits rocking out.
With Wham! demanding to be waked up, Adrian finally had to ask. “Why the eighties?”
“Why not?”
“Because none of us were born?”
He pointed a finger. “That’s a why, not a why not. It’s history, dude. Music history. I’m thinking of doing one of the nineties next. You know, to analyze the societal fabric—where music plays into it—during our birth decade.”
“That is totally nerd.”
“Accepted.” He bit into another slice. “I dig on music, man.”
“The Music Man,” Teesha said between bites. “Robert Preston, Shirley Jones—the movie version, 1962. Preston also played the lead in the 1957 Broadway production, with Barbara Cook as Marian.”
“How do you know that?” Adrian stared in wonder. “And why?”
“She reads it, she remembers it,” Hector supplied.
“Hey, I should do a playlist of Broadway musical scores. Now that is total nerd.”
“You get right on that, son.” Hector glanced around. “This is an awesome space.”
“Says the kid who lives in a mansion every other week and a penthouse not unlike this one the next.” Teesha gulped some Coke.
Hector just shrugged. “Parents split, so I bounce between. Step-parents are okay, so far. And I got a little bro from the dad, little sis from the mom. They’re cool.”
“I used to want siblings. I had to get over it because that’s never happening. What about you?” Adrian asked Teesha.
“Two older brothers, and parents stuck together like glue. The brothers are mostly okay, except when they’re pains in my ass.”
“Sister.” Loren peeled a pepperoni off the pizza, popped it into his mouth. “She’s ten. Parents separated for a few months back when, worked it out, got back together, and out popped Princess Rosalind. Kind of a brat.”
“Kind of?” Teesha said with a laugh.
“Okay, a complete brat, but she’s way spoiled, so it’s not her fault so much. You got the only child deal,” he said to Adrian. “All the attention.”
“My mother’s career gets that, and I get what’s left. That’s okay,” she said quickly. “It means she’s not on my back most of the time. And I’m going to have my own career. You guys are helping me start that.”
“And when you’re a YouTube star …” Teesha heaved a big, exaggerated sigh. “We’ll still be the three nerds while you sit at the cool kids’ table.”
“Not a chance. And since it’s the nerd table for me for the duration, I should be an honorary nerd.”
“No honorary about it. You are a nerd,” Hector told her. “You drink carrot juice and eat granola on purpose. Your mom’s gone for a couple weeks, but you’re working instead of running on the wild side. You’re the fitness nerd.”
She’d never considered herself a nerd, by any standards, but when she’d finished her bedtime yoga practice and slipped under the covers by ten, she realized the term applied.
And she really didn’t mind.
CHAPTER FIVE
They started before dawn on Saturday morning. Adrian had what she called “craft services” set up with juices, bagels, fresh fruit, and since she’d learned all three of her friends went for fancy coffee, a pod coffee maker with a variety.
She’d have to store that in her room afterward, as Lina ran a strict no-caffeine household.
Pleased with the first segment—the light had been perfect—she went down to change her gear, maybe her hair before starting the next.
Teesha went with her as wardrobe assistant.
If it surprised Teesha that Adrian stripped down to the skin without a blush once the bedroom door closed, she tried to pretend otherwise.
“I was going to see if I can get my hair pinned back, but unless I spray it with concrete, it probably won’t stay through fifteen of cardio dance.”
Teesha pursed her lips as Adrian wiggled into sleek, snug, midcalf leggings. “Why don’t you braid the sides, pin those back?”
“Braids?” Adrian pulled on a matching blue sports bra. “With this hair?”
“Hey, I got Black girl hair. You see these braids? I can do it. What product you got?”
Adrian slipped a bright pink tank over the bra. And since she’d choreographed a hip-hop-influenced routine, she’d tie a plaid hoodie around her waist and wear high-tops.
“All of them, out of desperation and despair.”
“Sit down, girlfriend. I got this.”
And she did. Adrian stared in the mirror, awed with the results. “I can’t believe it. It’s a miracle. It looks cute and, you know, funky, but contained. You’re going to have to teach me.”
“Can do.” Teesha smiled into the mirror.