Lemonade Mouth Puckers Up (16 page)
CHARLIE (V.O.)
Those were crazy days for us. It all seems kind of dreamlike now. It might seem hard to believe but while all this stuff was going on, to us it felt as if it was happening sort of in the background. We were regular kids, right? That didn’t change. That never changed.
Rajeev and Mo’s little sister, Madhu, sneak like ninjas around the side of the house carrying a huge bucket of water balloons. They crouch behind a bush and peek commando-style over it, waiting for just the right moment to attack. The moment comes. They start hurling the balloons, dousing Mo and Wen—a nice barrage. Mo shrieks. But Stella has the hose and is quick to fire back. Soon Rajeev and Madhu are surrounded and dripping wet, with everybody cheering and whooping.
Dissolve to …
EXTERIOR. RECORDING STUDIO—DAY
Lemonade Mouth stands around a microphone at Z-Division Studios, all five of them with headphones on. They’re adding a group vocal track—the humming part of their song “No Words Can Say It.”
CHARLIE (V.O.)
(over the music)
We completed the recordings for Mr. Decker. One last session of finishing touches, and after that it felt like we
had time on our hands again. You know, time for
normal
things like summer jobs, hanging out at home, stuff like that.
Music continues over a montage of shots:
A. Stella answering the phone in the lobby of her mom’s lab, with Rajeev flipping through a magazine beside her.
B. Olivia helping out with her grandmother’s printing business, both of them stuffing envelopes at the kitchen table.
C. Charlie helping Mo’s dad pack a shelf with rice sacks at Banerjee Grocery while, nearby, Mo talks with a customer.
D. Wen and Olivia writing music together in Olivia’s backyard.
E. Stella walking hand-in-hand on the beach with Rajeev with the sun setting and waves rolling gently over their bare feet.
F. Wen in the wiener suit on a busy street corner. He’s playing his trumpet while Stella, grinning beside him, attacks her uke with some killer riffs. Charlie, hair flying, slaps an all-out merengue odyssey on a garbage can. They’re jamming out and having an amazing time. Rajeev is there too, popping and sliding and flipping like a mad dog to the music. (I’m telling you, he could dance like nobody else, as if he could defy space and time and gravity. The kid was unbelievable to watch.)
INTERIOR. STELLA’S FAMILY’S STUFFY LIVING ROOM—EARLY EVENING
Lemonade Mouth are back at a computer monitor again, only this is a different day and a different place. On the screen is Earl Decker, puffing on his cigar as he listens to Stella talking, asking him questions. Her words are indistinct to us as Charlie narrates:
CHARLIE (V.O.)
In retrospect everything was happening incredibly fast, but at the time it seemed to us like things were taking forever. We had the Too Shy to Cry shows to look
forward to at the end of August, but most of us couldn’t wait that long to play another gig—a real gig, wherever it was going to be. Mr. Decker kept telling us we needed to wait it out.
MR. DECKER
(Zen-like, a rock guru giving sage advice from the screen)
Patience, kids. It takes time for the tide to shift. The winds of opportunity are about to fill your sails, but first there’s work still to do in preparing the ship for the voyage.
REVERSE ON: The five faces taking this in, foreheads wrinkling.
CHARLIE (V.O.)
Mr. Decker had a way with words. In a parallel universe, maybe he could have been a sailor.
Dissolve to …
EXTERIOR. A QUIET BEACH—EARLY MORNING, THREE YEARS FROM NOW
Dressed in his favorite lambswool parka and Hawaiian shorts, Charlie, older and more mature, is looking pensive as he walks barefoot in the sand. Beside him, the ocean drifts in and out in gentle waves. Other than Charlie, the beach is empty. (Note to whoever directs this: I’m thinking this is kind of a documentary-style part here, where a future me is strolling along the edge of the water, hands in my pockets, talking to the camera.)
CHARLIE
But as for me, even with all the excitement, underneath it I was going through a personal crisis. I guess it started with the realization of my own stupid jealousy when it came to Mo and Rajeev, and the total disaster it might have caused for Lemonade Mouth. For me it was an important reminder that Lemonade Mouth was a delicate balance, just like everything else in the Universe—and my own
balance seemed to be out of whack. My whole life was changing, and I realized that something was missing, something I needed to find even though I didn’t know exactly what it was. I can’t explain it better than that.
Picks up a pebble and tosses it into the waves.
CHARLIE (CONT’D)
I didn’t understand it myself at the time, but I felt it, believe me.
Dissolve to …
EXTERIOR. SLEEPY SUBURBAN STREET NEAR STELLA’S HOUSE—PRESENT DAY
A long shot of the road. Lemonade Mouth gets smaller on the screen as they run laughing down the street, away from the camera. The sun is setting and the kids’ shadows stretch long behind them.
CHARLIE (V.O.)
Not to say that it wasn’t a happy time, or that I didn’t get caught up in the thrill of the moment just like everybody else. I did. In fact, maybe that was the problem. Looking back, sometimes you see the past in a different light. For a short while things seemed to be going so crazy good for us that it was like we were living in a dream. And maybe that explains why we made the mistakes we did. Maybe our recent taste of success somehow ended up throwing our judgment out of whack. Who can say? The fact is, even though none of us knew it yet, things were about to take an unexpected turn. The universal balance was about to shift, and Lemonade Mouth was on the verge of screwing up big-time.
Secrets at the Kitchen Sink
Dear Ted
,
Got your letter. Let me get this out of the way so we can both move on, okay? No, I still haven’t told Brenda about the note from Mom yet. She’s stressed enough already, I can tell. In fact, I’ve been thinking maybe I’ll hold off on telling her until things calm down. It’s not just her either. Every time I think about Mom it makes me upset. Plus, my life is already going nuts, as you know, so adding even more chaos doesn’t seem like the best idea—not for Brenda or for me. Please understand. My mother made her decision long ago. Why should I let her shake up my world just because she decides all of a sudden to parachute back into my life after all these years?
That’s it. I’m done with that subject now. I love you, but I’m asking you to please stop pushing me about this
.
Moving on from the bizarre to the surreal …
Yes, the
American Pop Sensation
thing was a total fluke. Even now I find it hard to believe it actually happened. And no, we didn’t plan any of that ahead of time. Before we went into the studio my only goal was to stop myself from barfing on
national television. I barely made it, and afterward my hands shook for almost an hour. I’ve been doing what you suggested, trying to pretend that the people just aren’t there, but it’s not working. (I can almost hear your next suggestion, but no, I don’t want to quit doing this because I love making music with my friends, and, besides, I don’t want to let everybody down. I’ll figure this out somehow, Dad. I have to.)
Anyway, I’m glad to hear that the other inmates are treating you like a celebrity now. As long as you’re enjoying that, I’m happy for you
.
You asked for an update on Daisy: she’s the same—a complete mystery to me. This morning she dug a giant hole in the middle of the yard, dropped one of Brenda’s orthopedic shoes into it and then hissed whenever Brenda or I came near it. I never had a cat like that before. Good thing she’s cute, because I think she might also be certifiably bonkers
.
That’s it for now. Wen just stopped by with a new riff he wants us to work on
.
Love
,
Olivia
P.S
.
Wen just left. You might not know it, but you and he are quite a team. He keeps pushing too.
Again and again he’s been asking me what’s the matter. I don’t know how he picks up on it so easily. I don’t want to be a burden on anyone, so I’ve been doing my best to act like everything’s normal—or at least as normal as anything could be right now. Which is why I still didn’t tell him about Mom’s letter. I haven’t told anybody but you
.
Daddy, please understand what I said about this. I’m trying to balance a lot of things at once here. I’m doing my best
.
Dear Ted
,
I want to scream. I feel like jumping up and down and pounding my fists against the walls but I won’t because it’d only make Brenda come check on me. I don’t want to talk to her right now. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I’m just sitting here on my bed fuming
.
So I caved in and took your advice about talking with Brenda. But guess what? It turned out you were wrong—it didn’t make things better at all. Just like I thought it would, it made things worse
.
Much, much worse
.
Let me set the scene for you: Brenda was washing the dishes when I walked in and showed her the letter. She took a minute to read it silently. When she was finished she didn’t say a word; she just handed it right back without looking at me.
The weirdest thing was that she didn’t even seem surprised. She’d just found out that her long-lost daughter had reappeared out of nowhere after more than a decade, and yet she didn’t even bat an eye
.
“So … what do you think?” I asked her quietly
.
“Oh, honey,” she said after another long silence, “you don’t want to get involved in this.”
My mouth went dry. All at once it hit me that Brenda didn’t seem surprised because she wasn’t surprised. “You … already knew about her, didn’t you?” I asked, still trying to take it in. “You knew she was in Massachusetts.”
Brenda nodded. Her hands were gripping the counter now, and she had this empty expression. She still wouldn’t look at me. “She wrote me two months ago,” she said. “Olivia, your mother’s got … problems. Real problems. Health issues, among other things.”
“What health issues?”
“Well, for one thing, her kidneys aren’t working right anymore because she hasn’t been taking care of herself, but that’s nothing new. She’s never taken much care of herself, as far as I can tell. At least she’s with people now. She’s living in a halfway house.”
For a few seconds I couldn’t say anything else. I just stood there staring. Finally I managed to ask, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“Safe? From my own mother?”
Brenda closed her eyes. “Listen, I … I know she’s my daughter, and I’ll always love her, but believe me when I tell you that Jess isn’t like you and never was. You have a selfless heart and a bright future. I know it sounds unkind, but things might have worked out for the best when she left. There, I’ve said it. Now you can go ahead and think of me as a bad person, but one thing I’ve learned is that life isn’t always simple.”
“But, Brenda, you could have told me all of this! You could have said something two months ago!”
“I could have,” she said. “But the truth is, your mother asked me not to. She told me she wanted to write you but she wasn’t ready just yet. She begged me to give her a little more time, so I did.” At last Brenda looked at me. “Olivia, before you go and get yourself too involved with Jess, you should know that you’ll be opening up a world of trouble and grief for yourself.”
I didn’t answer. What could I say?
She eyed me like she was trying to read my mind. “But you’re not going to take my advice and stay away, are you? You’re going to go and see her.” She sighed. “I can’t say I blame you. It’s only natural for a girl to want to know her mother.”