Small Steps - Louis Sachar [29]
“We’re just friends, that’s all,” he told her.
“He’s my best friend,” said Ginny.
“I’m so sorry!” Kaira said. Because Ginny was a white girl, and Armpit was older and an African American, she had just assumed he worked for her family. Talk about racism!
Armpit had no idea what she was sorry for.
“This is Fred, my bodyguard,” Kaira said. “He’s here to protect me from Ginny. You think you can handle her, Fred? She looks awfully dangerous.”
Armpit smiled at the joke, but he and everyone else knew Ginny wasn’t the one Fred was closely watching.
“Just doin’ my job, Miss DeLeon,” said Fred.
They reached a flight of stairs and Kaira asked Ginny if she could make it up by herself.
“I need to hold on to someone.”
“Hold on to me,” said Kaira, extending her hand.
Armpit was amazed by Ginny’s calmness. She didn’t seem one bit nervous around Kaira DeLeon. He, on the other hand, could hardly think straight.
Kaira led them up a flight of stairs, then through a door and into the backstage area. Several people hurried toward them.
“These are my friends,” Kaira said. “Ginny, and . . .”
“Theodore,” said Armpit, helping her out.
“We need to set them up somewhere they can see the show.” She turned back to Armpit and Ginny. “David will take care of you.”
David wore a vest but no shirt. He had red hair, a red beard, and a red hairy chest. Tools of various sorts were attached to his belt and in the many pockets of his vest.
“Come with me,” David said as a Hispanic woman led Kaira away. “We’ll set you up behind the soundboard.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” said a very pretty woman in a short skirt and tight T-shirt. “Hold on, honey. Let me get you cleaned up first. David, get them some T-shirts.”
The woman introduced herself as Rosemary and brought them to a makeup area, where the three backup singers were smoking.
While she was helping Ginny wash up, David returned with a box of souvenir T-shirts. “What color you want?”
“Red,” said Ginny.
“One for him, too,” said Rosemary, indicating Armpit.
“I’m fine,” said Armpit.
“You’re a mess. Now take off your shirt.”
David grabbed a couple of folding chairs and led Armpit and Ginny out onto the stage. He walked close enough to the keyboard that he could have played a note.
The audience, which had been yelling and stomping impatiently, suddenly stopped and applauded, glad that at last something was happening.
Ginny squeezed Armpit’s hand.
David set up the chairs behind a large piece of electronic equipment. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll be invisible here.”
They were near one of the speaker towers, but back behind it, so they wouldn’t be blasted by the sound.
The soundboard operator introduced himself as Terry. He wore headphones. The soundboard consisted of a panel of switches, dials, and lights. “This is so the band members can hear themselves and each other,” he explained.
“Cool,” said Armpit.
David returned a moment later with two souvenir cups filled with lemon-lime soda. He hurried off just as everything went pitch dark, and then the music shook the stage, nearly knocking Armpit out of his chair.
Strobe lights flashed on the various band members, and then a green spotlight settled on Kaira DeLeon.
“You’ve heard she’s naughty,
You’ve heard she’s wild.
You’ve heard she’s just
A sweet innocent child!
“Well, now’s the chance
for you to find out!
’Cause I’m the she
You been hearin’ about!”
It was hard to imagine that this was the same gum-chewing girl he had just met a few minutes earlier. She was dazzlingly beautiful.
“You wake up screaming
In the middle of the night
Was it a nightmare?
Or was it too much delight?”
The floor beneath him bounced with each beat of the drum, and he could feel the bass vibrating right down to his bones. He hoped it wasn’t too loud for Ginny, but she just stared at Kaira DeLeon, mesmerized.
“Better open your eyes,
If you want to find out,
’Cause I’m the she,
You been dreamin’ about!”
The spotlight on Kaira kept changing colors and her fringed outfit seemed to shimmer and change