Chapter
1
“You
guys, I’m so nervous,” Ashalyn James whispered.
“Ha! You’re nervous? Look at this,” Jenna Evans said, holding out
her hand. Ashalyn could see it
shaking. She giggled slightly.
“Guys,
don’t worry. We’re gonna do great!”
Elyssa Adams assured her two friends. “I
mean, come on, how many times have we practiced?”
“I’m
pretty nervous too,” Serena Del Toro admitted.
“I mean, this is our first time actually performing in front of a
crowd. There’s tons of people out
there!”
“And
we’re going to impress them all,” Elyssa said confidently.
The
four of them watched as the young man on stage strummed his guitar and sang a
song. He’s pretty good, Ashalyn
thought, but I think we’re better.
She
hoped they really were better. They
should be. After all, they had been
waiting and practicing for this moment for months.
***
The
whole thing had started the summer before, the summer before they were seniors
in high school. It was Jenna who brought
the idea up, the idea that they should start a singing group. All four of them loved to sing, and they all
had good voices, but Jenna was the only one who had even taken voice
lessons. For her, it was something she
was serious about. For Ashalyn, Serena,
and Elyssa, singing was only something they did for fun. However, they had to agree that singing in a
group could be a lot of fun. But they would
need songs to sing and instruments to play the songs.
The
song part wasn’t too hard. Ashalyn had
already written three songs. When she
had written them, she never thought they’d ever go to use. It was just something fun she did. In fact, two of her three songs were written
when she was only 12. The other one was
written when she was 15. She didn’t
consider any of them exceptionally great, but at least they had something to
work with.
Then
came something more difficult: instruments.
Ashalyn had taken years of piano lessons, and Serena wasn’t bad on the
piano either. But the other two couldn’t
play any other instruments besides the clarinet and flute, which they had
played in grade school band.
Jenna
didn’t consider that a problem though.
She was visioning a pop group, a group that didn’t need to play
instruments, just to sing and dance. She
figured a piano was all they needed to start out. With a piano, they could play the songs
enough to find their pitches and sing along to.
And if they actually became serious with the group, she figured they
would hire a band to play their songs for them.
Then
came one more problem that Jenna considered very serious: what to call their
group. They spent days thinking about
it, tossing ideas back and forth. It was
Ashalyn who came up with the name.
JADE. It was made up the first
letters of all of their last names: James, Adams, Del Toro, and Evans. The other three girls all liked the name a
lot. It sounded cool, simple, yet
mysterious. So, from that day on, they
were to be known as JADE.
***
It
had been a year since JADE had started, and now, they had all graduated high
school and wanted to get serious with the group. They figured they needed to get noticed by a
record company. So, the first place they
decided to go was at the Stellar Café, a bar and grill in their hometown of
Atlanta, Georgia that had an open mic night every Thursday. The girls knew that lots of important people
came to places like this to scout out new talent. This was their chance
***
“And
next up, we have a group right out of Atlanta, JADE!” the manager of the café
announced into his microphone. The
crowd clapped politely as Elyssa, Jenna, Serena, and Ashalyn took the stage.
“Hey,
ya’ll,” Elyssa cried. “My name’s
Elyssa.”
Jenna
stepped forward. “Hey guys, I’m Jenna,”
she introduced, smiling flirtily at some of the young guys in the audience.
“Hi,
everyone, my name’s Serena,” Serena said, smiling.
“And
I’m Ashalyn,” Ashalyn said finally.
“Tonight we’re gonna sing a song for you that I wrote myself. It’s called ‘Why Don’t You See?’” The four girls took their places on the
floor, and Ashalyn turned around and nodded to the guitar player of their
band. He nodded back and strummed the
first chord of the song. After a shot
introduction, Ashalyn stepped forward and began to sing:
Everything I do,
I think of you.
You’re the one for me,
But why don’t you see?
Then,
Elyssa took over the next verse.
You make me toss and turn,
But when will you learn?
You’re the one for me,
But why don’t you see?
Then
the four of them sang the chorus together.
You’re the one for me.
I know it’s true,
‘Cause I realize it,
When I look at you.
You’re the one for me,
But, baby, why don’t you see?
Jenna
sang the next verse by herself.
I yearn for you, everyday.
You broke my heart when you went away.
I know that you’re the one for me,
But why don’t you see.
Then
came the chorus again.
You’re the one for me.
I know it’s true,
‘Cause I realize it,
When I look at you.
You’re the one for me,
But, baby, why don’t you see?
Then,
Serena took the bridge.
Every time I look at you,
Those feelings come back to me.
If you were never in my life,
I don’t know who I would be.
“Why
Don’t You See” Ó 2000 by Julie Lewis
All
four of them then repeated the chorus three times and ended the song. The audience cheered wildly. Ashalyn, Elyssa, Jenna, and Serena grabbed
hands and took a bow before leaving the stage, waving and grinning as they did
so.
***
