Lemonade Mouth (37 page)

So our heroes started up a conversation with them. Turned out, they were Spank and Dave, friends of Sydney’s who’d flown all the way from Australia to come to the wedding. She’d sent them a CD and, at least according to them, they were big fans.

“We play
Live at the Bash!
all the time at home, don’t we, Spank? What’s the name of that one that always brings tears to your eyes?”

“Nancy,” his friend said solemnly as he skewered his cake with a tiny fork. “Skinny Nancy.”

“Right, mate! That’s the one. Bonzer, that is. Lovely.”

I couldn’t help smiling. It was nice to be appreciated.

After the cake part was over, Mrs. Reznik went away to chat with Wen’s dad. Sydney strolled over and told us we could start playing any time we wanted. Almost immediately, somebody called her away and then it was just the five of us again. And that’s when I looked at the faces around the table and suddenly felt as if everything about each of us was changing right before my eyes. Maybe it was just the novelty that we were all dressed up and at a wedding together. Maybe it was Mo, the way she’d spent the afternoon sitting back and laughing with the rest of us. I’d never seen her so relaxed. Or maybe it was the way Olivia and Wen kept looking at each other like they shared a secret. Whatever it was, I felt like we were on a rollercoaster ride and there was no getting off.

We made our way to the corner of the dance floor where our instruments already waited. I grabbed my ukulele and took my position. I looked out at the audience and felt the thrill of their applause. And then we started playing. Soon I felt calm again. I knew I was exactly where I belonged, up there with my friends making the music we all loved.

And I was reminded once again how a song really can change the world.

About the Author

Mark Peter Hughes was born in Liverpool, England, and grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island. Mark’s obsession with music has led to many ups and downs. Setbacks included getting ejected from eighth-grade music class for throwing a spitball and the heartbreak of learning that the accordion has no place on a thrash-metal stage. Success came later when he fronted an alternative-rock band. He owns a pennywhistle, a broken violin, and a boxful of other musical instruments of mass destruction. He now lives and often hums quietly in Massachusetts.

Lemonade Mouth
is Mark Peter Hughes’s second novel. His first,
I Am the Wallpaper,
was a BookSense Children’s Summer Pick and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

Visit Mark’s Web site at
www.markpeterhughes.com
.

ALSO BY MARK PETER HUGHES
I Am the Wallpaper

Published by Delacorte Press
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by Mark Peter Hughes
All rights reserved.
Delacorte Press and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:

Hughes, Mark Peter.
Lemonade Mouth / by Mark Peter Hughes.
p. cm.
Summary: A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular local rock band.
[1. Musicians—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. High schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7. H8736113Lem 2007
[Fic]—dc22

2006020429

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eISBN: 978-0-375-89126-7

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