Minutes after the gig ended at the Vincent Van Go-Go, the gang arrived back at the pad. They quickly put their instruments away. They had some thinking to do.
Micky had volunteered them to take part in a band contest the next week, but had failed to find out that it was a mixed band contest until it was too late. In other words the band had to be partially girls and guys.
The problem was, and both Chea and Karen knew this, there were no girls in the band. Not counting Davys weekly dates anyway.
"What are we gonna do?" Mike asked as they sat around the table. "The prize is a thousand dollars. That will be enough money to last us a while."
"You mentioned us girls at the club." Karen said to Peter with her business like demeanor.
"Yeah." Micky asked. "Where WERE you going with that anyway?"
"Well I was thinking maybe the girls know a thing or two about like playing music." Peter said. He smiled and pointed at Chea. "Chea wrote a song once, maybe we can play it."
Everyone looked at Chea. She seemed to shrink in her seat.
"Song?" Karen asked.
"I do, I mean I did write a song." Chea said. "I'll talk to you later." She whispered to Karen. "But its at home. And its not even done. Peter I told you that!" She said with a weird pout.
"You said I could help you finish it." Peter said.
"Oh thats right." Chea said.
"Don't we have a whole week to worry about this?" Karen asked.
"Yeah, but Mike likes to schedule his in ahead of time." Davy said. "Are we done here? I got a date tonight with a girl I met at the club. Lovely Michelle." He seemed to go into a dreamlike trance.
"Here we go again." Micky rolled his eyes.
"I feel a song coming on." Karen said. Mike tried hard not to laugh.
Davy shook his head and snapped out of his trance. "I need to get ready." He disapeered up the stairs.
"I need some air." Chea said.
"I'll come with." Karen whispered. "A little night air will be good."
The Beach
"Whats this about a song?" Karen asked after they got out of earshot of the beach pad.
"I did write one a long time ago but I was like fifteen." Chea said. "Its not even that good."
"Peter seemed real interested." Karen said.
"I know." Chea sighed. "But the truth is that I don't remember it anymore. None of the words at all."
"Oh." Karen said. "Why don't you just tell him?"
"I can't do that." Chea said. "It'd be like lying or something."
"And you don't like that." Karen said. "I gotta admit I don't like that idea much anyway." She thought for a minute. "This is TV right?"
"Right." Chea said. "I think we have that established."
"Why not take a song we both know and have them perform it for us." Karen offered.
"Yeah but none of the songs we know are like not 60's stuff." Chea explained. "We don't even know how to play anything, and now we gotta think of a song."
"I got it!" Karen said. "Why not use a song from tv?"
Chea looked at her strangely, didnt she just use this idea? "From our time. They would have never heard of it?"
"I dunno." Chea said. "Is there a song from a tv show from our time we use?"
"I'll be there for you!" Karen brightened as she said it.
"The Friends theme song?" Chea asked. "Heck, why not go for the gold and use any of Drew Careys theme songs?" She said.
"Was that sarcasm?" Karen asked her. Chea was not the type to come up with a comment like that.
"I guess."
"I'm rubbing off on you." Karen smiled.
"Next thing I know I will be liking Chandler Bing too!" Chea laughed.
Karens favorite character on the show "Friends" was the forever wisecracking Chandler Bing. She had her room decorated with posters of him and the actor that portrayed him. Friends was on summer reruns when they left, so she really wasnt worried about missing anything.
"We can use that song." Chea said. "We need a pad of paper and a pen to write the lyrics down. You know all of them, I'm sure." She laughed at Karen who did the same. "But what do we do about the music?"
Karen sprung to life. "Thats where Peter comes in. He can help you with that part. After all, it doesnt have to sound exactly the same as the one we know."
"Right." Chea said. "Wanna go back? Everyones gonna miss us."
"Ok." Karen said. They walked back to the house. Micky was at the door.
"Hey I was beginning to think you guys were gonna vanish into the sea." He laughed.
Chea laughed uneasily. Micky went up the stairs.
Karen looked at Chea.
"Is it me or are you changing your mind about a certain someone?" She asked.
Chea thought a minute. A minute too long Karen thought but she didnt mention it. "It's you." She said and walked to the living room.
Karen sat down next to the instruments. She spied Mikes guitar. She looked around, she had an idea that the guys were a little touchy about just anyone fooling with their stuff. She picked up Mikes guitar and looked at it. She then held it and sighed. Chea didn't know it but she had started to take guitar lessons. She was ok but nothing spectacular yet. She put her hands on the spots she learned and started to pick out a tune. Since they were talking about the Rembrandts song "I'll be there for you" she started to pick out the beginning chords of the song. Then she surprised herself as the notes suddenly came easily to her and somehow she ended up playing the entire song. Karen was in her own little world. She came to the final note, and stopped playing. She looked up when she heard the distinct sound of applause.
It was Mike.
"Oh my god." She said. "I'm sorry. I was just fooling around."
"Thats ok." He said.
Karen blinked quickly. "He never lets anyone touch his guitar let alone play it." She thought.
"What was that song you were playing?" He asked as he took a seat next to her.
"I'll be there for you." Karen said. "It's that song Chea was talking about." That was a bit of a lie there, but then again she had already told him one about the stupid luggagge when he asked. Oh Michael, why do I have to lie to you?
"Sounds really good." Mike said. He got up and yawned. "I'm gonna go to bed."
"Ok, I'm coming." She said getting up. He looked at her. "I mean I'm going up too."
"We can show the guys that song in the morning." He said to her. "I think that has a real good chance of winning the contest next week."
"Great." Karen said and followed him upstairs.
Later
The next day the gang was gathered around the living room.
"Karen and Chea have a great song we can use for the contest." Mike said.
"We worked on it last night." Chea said. "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to work on it with Peter, but it seemed to happen pretty fast."
"Here are the lyrics." Karen said passing out some paper. "We have six days to learn it."
"Plus Karen will help play guitar on it." Mike said.
Chea smiled at her. "I knew you were learning that thing." She laughed. "I thought it was a really bad song on the radio at first."
"Chea will sing backup." Karen said. Cheas eyes grew wide.
"Ok." She said while everyone else looked at her.
"We'll split the money 6 ways then." Davy said.
"You don't have to." Karen said. "With that money you can pay Babbitt for rent for three or four months ahead of time. He'd stop bothering you for a while then."
"Well we'll have to do something for you guys." Micky said.
"Thanks but if we win, that will be enough." Karen said.
Karen sat outside on the porch. As excited as she was about the prospect of helping the guys win, she still hasnt completely gelled to this time period. She stood up and sighed.
"I need a change of scenery but what do I do?" She thought to herself. "I can't leave Chea here but I need a break."
She had an idea, she ran inside and grabbed the crontomnion from the hiding place. They stowed it once they knew where they would be sleeping. Peter and Davy had to come in once in a while to change so they had to find a place where it wouldnt be found. Its been three days. So far, so good.
"Karen?" Chea snuck up on her.
"Wha!" She turned quickly. "What?"
"Listen I know you havent been really happy while you have been here." Chea started.
"Chea..."
"Let me finish. I'm being good here." Chea said. "I been thinking why don't you go and do something that will make you happy. I mean if we can't be happy here, then whats the point right?" Chea smiled.
"Ok." Karen said. Chea didn't know she had the device on her. "I think I'll do that."
"Great." Chea flashed a thumbs up sign. "See you in a while."
"I'll be back later." She said to Chea.
"Good." Chea said. "And give me all the details when you return.
Chea walked out the door. She looked down at the scene, the guys were fooling around with the song. Even Mr Schneider was in on the act, even though he didnt actually say anything. Karen bounded down the stairs with a newfound energy. Chea joined Peter at his side.
"Where you going Karen?" Peter asked as Karen threw on her jacket. "We were gonna go over the song again."
"Uh I'm going out for some bread." She said. "Yeah, bread."
Karen walked out the door.
"Mike do we need bread?" Peter as Mike watched her leave.
He looked down at some envelopes. "More than ever."
