All Summer Long

Part One -- July
Page Three

      (July 18) Mari had had a busy couple of days. After soothing Pandy's tears and driving her sisters home, she'd come back home to find Blaine and his brothers running through a couple of possible songs. They'd been doing the "genetic folk trio" thing for a while at family gatherings and school functions, so they knew quite a few songs. What it was going to come down to, however, was what would be appropriate for Mari and Dani to sing on. They worked until midnight making a list, tossing in favorite oldies and current top-40 songs that might not be appropriate, just to beef up the possibilities.
      The next day, after not nearly enough sleep, she'd worked an extra-long shift at the Bodega, then rushed home to make dinner and set up for a practice session, during which time they managed to get two songs arranged, however loosely, and picked another three to work on.
      Today, she'd worked another long shift, broken up by long discussions with Kiri and Rhiannon (two girls from Surf Strip who were also cashiers) about the band and "those cute Brison boys". Everyone agreed that Blaine was the hottest, and it was just too bad that he was already shackled to Mari. Chris was the "cute" one, and Davy was "the rebel". Then they figured that if the guys were getting labeled, Mari and Daniela may as well be labeled, too. Mari got to be the "smart chick," and Dani was the "drama queen".
      She'd rushed home to start dinner again, but the phone had rung the minute she stepped inside (phones are psychic like that) and she'd been chatting ever since.
      Mari was just hanging up the phone as Blaine walked in the door. "We got a gig!" she cried joyfully.
      "We-- a gig-- oh boy!" Blaine shouted. Mari giggled. Sometimes he was like a little kid.
      They danced around the room, laughing and crying and generally making a huge racket, until the downstairs neighbor started pounding on the ceiling.
      "Oops," Mari panted.
      "So, where is it?" Blaine asked.
      "Where's what?" Mari frowned. "Oh, right, the gig! At the beach. Ocean Day."
      "Hold on-- that's only two days away! We need to rehearse. We only have two songs!"
      They scrambled around, calling the rest of The Family Act with the news, assembling instruments and lead sheets and the like. Of course, Mari had to change into her "sexy singer" clothes. And when Daniela arrived...
      "Oh-- My-- God!" they cried, in full Valley Girl.
      "I don't believe it," Mari gasped.
      "Since when do you shop at Duds Downtown?" Dani giggled. "That shirt is totally not you."
      The shirt in question was a ripped-up, off the shoulder, glitter-laden confection. Mari's was hot pink, Daniela's blue.
      "I beg to differ," Mari said, sticking her nose up in the air. "You know nothing about me or my style."
      "Um, yeah, I do," Dani snorted. "You are nowhere near as cool as me. You wear stuff like... um... khakis."
      "Dani. That is for work. I hate khakis. I own two pairs, and I only ever wear them to work. You wear khakis more than I do."
      "Well, shorts and tank tops. Never glittery, either." Dani was grasping at straws.
      "Quit trying to define me, because it's not going to work," Mari informed her. "Now, come on, we have to practice."
      "That is a good idea, though," Davy said. He had come in halfway through the conversation and was leaning up against the kitchen counter. "Dressing alike, I mean. It would give the band... cohesiveness."
      "Cohesiveness?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother's sudden vocabulary.
      "And did I mention how totally stoked I am about this? Dude, it's gonna be so cool!" Davy covered quickly.
      "Totally rad," Mari agreed dryly. She'd never been one for the slang of surfing, at least not in any quantity. She'd always been more concerned with the athleticism and... okay, she liked the way she looked in a bikini since she took up surfing. She'd lost twenty pounds doing it. "Can we practice now?"
      "Yeah, let's go," Blaine said. "We'll do a quick run-through of everything we've got so far, which would be... 'I Can Hear Music' and 'Love Song'." "Love Song" was the song that Blaine had premiered at the beach the night he proposed to Mari, a seeming lifetime ago.
      "And then we'll see what else we can do, since we're expected to do five songs for this gig," Mari added. "I'm thinking we should probably write a song a bit cheerier than 'Love Song', and then we can cover something Beach Boys and something Beatles. Classics that everyone knows."
      "Sumahama," Chris nominated. Mari threw a nearby pencil at his head, while Dani looked on, mystified.
      "Something easy," Mari said, "since we've only got two days. Sloop John B."
      "Works for me," Blaine said. "Dani, do you--"
      "Of course," she said, rolling her eyes. Then, when the boys turned to go into the living room, discussing Beatles songs, she latched on to Mari's arm and whispered, "Write the words down for me, okay?"
      Mari laughed.

***
      (July 20 -- Ocean Day Celebration) Mari gulped audibly when she saw the size of the crowd. Daniela, peeking through a different hole in the curtain, was grinning and fairly shimmering with excitement. Or maybe it was the faery dust she'd sprinkled in her hair. But, darn the wench, she was eating it up. Not an ounce of nervousness. Mari, on the other hand, was the Queen of Trepidatious tonight. Why, oh why, was she singing lead? Dani could have done it just as easily. They had the same voice, mostly. But, no, she'd insisted that for once in her life she get to stand out front.
      Yikes.
      "Two minutes," someone called. Mari whimpered. Where was Blaine, anyway?
      "Hey, babe," Blaine whispered in her ear. She jumped. "Whoa. Nervous?"
      "Terrified," she confessed. Dani, listening in, snickered. "Shut up, applause-whore."
      "Well," Blaine sighed, "You can't be too nervous if you're coming up with new names for your sister."
      "No, actually, I've been saving that one up for a few weeks now."
      "Mari, think of it this way. The audience is mostly our friends and family, plus a bunch of drunken environmentalists."
      "That's supposed to make me feel better?"
      Blaine rolled his eyes and kissed Mari on the forehead. "They are not your executioners. They are friendly, supportive, or at the very least, oblivious."
      "Still not helping."
      "Picture them in their underwear."
      "Dear Lord NO!" Mari collapsed in giggles.
      "Do environmentalists even wear underwear?" Dani said, eyes wide with mock innocence.
      Mari started hyperventilating.
      "Oh good, now our lead singer is suffocating herself," Blaine sighed. "Dani, why don't you go look for your tambourine?"
      "Isn't it supposed to be with Davy's drums?"
      Blaine glared. Dani disappeared.
      "Mare... breathe."
      "I... think..." she gasped out, "I am not... so scared... anymore."
      "Good."
      "I might... however... be dying..."
      "You are not dying." Blaine helped Mari to sit up, and slowly to stand. "Now, breathe, don't talk. You need your breath to sing."
      "I know." Mari breathed quietly for a moment, until her heart and lungs were back to something approximating normal. "I'm good now."
      "Good, because we're on."
      "We're... on?" Mari squeaked. Blaine shoved her through the curtain, following close behind. Davy, Chris and Daniela were emerging from another curtain about three feet away.
      Mari glanced out at the audience. Hundreds of murmuring environmentalists. Probably not wearing any underwear. Despite herself, Mari felt a huge grin growing on her face.
      She bounded up to her mic, pulled it off of the stand and smiled at the blur of faces before her. "Hi! We're the Family Act!"
      They'd chosen the name in a fit of giggles the night before, and since nothing else seemed to describe them quite well enough, it had stuck. Kind of like the pool cleaning service Mari had once read about in Readers Digest, called "Those Pool Guys".
      While Mari was still internally chuckling over underwear and the pool guys, the band started playing "I Can Hear Music". It was a great, strong song that they all enjoyed singing. However, it was a short song, and Mari soon found herself facing the audience again.
      This time, the audience was on its feet cheering.
      Mari grinned again. Her face was starting to hurt. "Hey, thanks! You all should know this next one, too!"
      They launched into "Day Tripper," Mari's kind of bizarre choice for a Beatles cover. They played, sang, bantered with the audience. The last three songs, "Love Song," "Sloop John B," and Dani's pick, "Car Wash" went by too quickly for Mari's liking. In less than half an hour, the set was finished and the Family Act had made its professional debut.
      "Thank you all so much!" Mari cried. She stuck the mic back on its stand, grabbed Dani's hand, and forced her sister into a stylish bow. "Thanks again!"
      The band retreated.
      Mari was panting with excitement by the time they stopped moving and got into a tight huddle. "We did it!" she exploded. "We didn't die up there!"
      "Far from it," Blaine laughed. "We're a hit!"
      Chris and Davy just pounded each other on the back.
      And Daniela...
      "Dani, what's wrong?" Mari asked, seeing the look on her sister's face for the first time.
      "I... I don't know." Dani looked like she was about to cry, something Mari had rarely, if ever, seen.
      "Let's go for a walk," Mari suggested gently. She put an arm around Dani's shoulders and escorted her away from the boys.
      "I totally froze," Dani confessed.
      "You were singing," Mari protested. "You didn't miss a single note."
      "Because that's all I was thinking about. I didn't, y'know, interact with the audience like you did. Even Davy had more presence than me, and he was all the way back on the drums." Dani whimpered.
      "Knock it off. You just got a little stage fright. Next time, it'll be better."
      "But you were terrified before the show, and when you got out there you were all cool and stuff."
      "Yeah, that was weird, huh?" Mari noticed Dani's expression. "Well, I guess it's because I can focus where I need to... it's like meditation. Maybe if you take up yoga or something, it'll help you."
      Dani stopped walking. She looked contemptuously down her nose at Mari. "Yoga? To help my stage presence? Ha! I laugh at that. I am fine. I will be fine." Dani flounced away.
      "Yeah, she's fine alright," Mari muttered, and rolled her eyes. "Hey Blaine! I'm starving, let's go for food now!"

***

      (July 26) After Ocean Day, the Family Act was in demand all over Layla:) for summer music festivals, charity fundraisers, and other kinds of large-audience gigs. Mari had to put a big calendar up in her kitchen to keep track of all the requests. She'd never realized there were so many events in Layla:). To keep her sanity, she gave priority to the beach-based events, then to charitable events, and then everything else.
      So it was that on July 26 the Family Act played a Newshregsburg Private School fundraiser for the Greater Layla:) Animal Shelter. After the show, Mari, Blaine, Dani and Davy wandered out to the soccer fields at NPS. Chris, being such a nice guy, had volunteered to drive Pandora and her little middle school friends home after the show, although he'd be back later to pick up Davy and Daniela.
      Mari lay on her back on the field, looking up at the stars "There's Orion," she said, gesturing to the three belt stars.
      "Always with Orion!" Daniela snorted. "Don't you know any other constellations?"
      "Sure. There's a coupla dippers floating around up there, too. And the sun signs. Gemini... you know, I did get my Astrology patch in Girl Sprouts."
      "That was Astronomy," Dani said.
      "Same diff."
      "You took Astrology in high school, for... umm..." A distinctively dark mood settled over the sprawled sisters.
      "Say it," Mari growled. "Wizarding." She would have spit if she hadn't been lying on her back.
      Blaine, on her left, shifted uncomfortably. "So... Mare, how about that convention thing you were talking about earlier? Isn't that why we came out here?"
      Mari had, despite the challenges of band, work, and home obligations, found the time to daydream up an insanely large project to keep her busy during the coming year. It was one of her many talents. And, indeed, it was why she'd asked her bandmates to come out here where it was quiet and the sky was bright with inspirational stars.
      "Oh yeah!" Mari brightened considerably. "See, I was thinking we need a big party to celebrate the end of the school year."
      "That was a month ago, and the school system throws the big bash," Dani pointed out.
      "Um, duh." Mari rolled her eyes, not like anyone could see. "I meant for next year, and a real party. Not bobbing for apples and going home at sunset. Sheesh."
      "Mare."
      "Right-oh. So, I thought a birthday party for Brian Wilson would be a cool thing. I mean, the man practically invented summer."
      "Cool," Davy said, from the other side of Daniela. "And we could have surfing competitions and hot rod shows. It could be an all day thing."
      "Precisely!" Mari grinned.
      "How about a dance contest?" Dani asked.
      "Daniela, knock it off with the dance contests, huh?" Ever since LPHS had started offering dance classes in lieu of P.E., Dani had been obsessed with choreography and dance contests. There were none, actually, in all of Layla:) County, so Dani had made it her mission in life to establish one. And win it, of course. To that end, she nagged everyone she knew, and also taped the Front-Avenue Folks' music videos to analyze and memorize their moves. It was tiresome at best, and damned annoying most of the time.
      "Actually..." Blaine started.
      "Not you too," Mari groaned.
      "It would have to be a 'Dance Dance Dance' contest."
      Mari smacked him.
      "Oof. Thanks."
      "Welcome."
      All was quiet for a moment, then Davy said, "Blaine, I'm going to the pool hall tonight. Want to come? You haven't been out with the guys for a while."
      "Because he's been busy with the band," Mari said.
      "I'd love to come," Blaine said, rolling over and clamping a hand over Mari's mouth. She licked his palm. "Mare."
      "Hmm?"
      "You can take my car and drive Dani home, right?"
      "Mm-hmm." Blaine's hand was still over her mouth. This time, she bit him.
      "Ow! Okay, I'll let you talk again."
      "Gee, thanks," Mari muttered.
      "So I'll see you later tonight, okay?"
      "Yeah, whatever." Mari shrugged, but since she was on the ground it didn't work very well.
      "We'd better get going," Dani pointed out. "I still have a curfew."
      "Yeah," Mari said.
      Blaine glanced at her curiously as she and Dani got up and walked away. "Dave-- does it seem like Mari got really subdued all of a sudden?"
      "Beats me," Davy shrugged. "She's not my wife."

***

August -- Page One