Gordon had decided before the girl opened her mouth. He'd actually decided two days ago when Karyn Black convinced him a proper band needed four members. But Eric and Ryan needed some convincing. Not much convincing, though: Sarah McMillan had monster pipes hidden in her lithe neck. After one song, they welcomed her in with open arms.
The rest of the practice was spent going over what songs they knew in common and jamming a little. Sarah, as it turned out, was not a bad lyricist. The group clicked quickly, and played for hours into the evening, stopping only when a blue Camry pulled into the driveway and let out three teenagers.
Jen Gibson, Karyn Black, and Biff Meadows strolled into the garage leisurely.
"So this is what you ditched us for?" Karyn said with mock accusation.
"Yeah," Biff said, "You passed up gym for, what, some dorks with guitars?" Biff stuck his tongue out at Gordon.
"Hah hah, guys," Sarah said, "You all know you put me up to this in the first place."
Jen brought her hand to her chest and said innocently, "Us? All we did was tell someone how good a voice you had."
Tears started to form in Sarah's eyes. She had it so good now. Not only was she a gymnast now, but something in one of the wishes they'd made at he football field must have made Biff and Karyn switch from cheerleading to gymnastics, too. Now the four were inseparable, and made up a secondary tier in the gym's staff. They were called "the mini-coaches," much to Biff's chagrin.
Renee and Isabella were still a tight part of their group, surprisingly more because of Biff than anyone else. He remained an incredibly devoted boyfriend to Isabella, and always made an effort to include Renee in whatever was going on, whether she indicated she wanted to be a part of it or not.
Kyla and Karyn had become incredibly close. They had already started on their campaign for president and vice president of student council for their senior year. In a similar way, Jen and Jamie had as well. No lunch hour seemed complete without Jamie beating Jen soundly in chess or go.
But somehow, it felt like Sarah was the glue that held the eight of them together. Any one of the seven of them would drop what they were doing in an instant in order to help Sarah. Not that she ever asked them to. The band was a good example of that.
The band. Sarah had a feeling the three of them would soon start joining a particular lunch table, too. If Sarah expanded the group much farther, there wouldn't be any room left at that table. It would be nice for Biff, though. Having more guys around.
Mrs. Gibson rolled down her window and called "You coming back in the car?"
"No, mom," Jen called back, "We're gonna hang out here a bit. We can walk home."
"Alright."
