Five Flavors of Dumb - Antony John [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
Author’s note
Acknowledgements
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
John, Antony.
Five flavors of Dumb / Antony John.
p. cm.
Summary: Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates’
popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents
and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.
eISBN : 978-1-101-44530-3
[1. Rock groups—Fiction. 2. Bands (Music)—Fiction. 3. Deaf—Fiction.
4. People with disabilities—Fiction. 5. Family life—Washington (State)—Fiction.
6. High schools—Fiction. 7. Schools—Fiction. 8. Seattle (Wash.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.J6216Fiv 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2009044449
http://us.penguingroup.com
TO MY PARENTS, ROY AND ANGELA JOHN,
WHO DIDN’T MISS A BEAT WHEN
I SAID I WANTED TO BE A MUSICIAN ...
THEN A WRITER.
AND TO TAMSIN: DANCING QUEEN AND
INDISPENSABLE RESEARCH ASSISTANT.
Please don’t put your life in the hands
Of a rock ’n‘ roll band
Who’ll throw it all away
“Don’t Look Back in Anger”
— Oasis
CHAPTER 1
For the record, I wasn’t around the day they decided to become Dumb. If I’d been their manager back then I’d have pointed out that the name, while accurate, was not exactly smart. It just encouraged people to question the band’s intelligence, maybe even their sanity. And the way I saw it, Dumb didn’t have much of either.
But they weren’t in the mood to be reasoned with. They’d just won Seattle’s annual Teen Battle of the Bands, and they were milking their fifteen minutes for all it was worth. Never mind that no one else at school even knew the contest existed, the fact is they won. The Battle organizers had even hired Baz Firkin—lead singer of defunct band The Workin’ Firkins—to mentor their inevitable ascent toward rock stardom during three all-expenses-paid recording sessions. Baz hadn’t heard them yet, of course—he wasn’t up for parole for another week—but he was a man with experience and connections, both of which were sure to come in handy as soon as he was released.
Meanwhile, Dumb celebrated their victory by giving an unscheduled performance on the school steps first thing Monday morning. It would have been the most audacious