Sorta Like a Rock Star (22 page)

“Damn,” Chad says.

“I’m so sorry,” Ty says.

“So I’m thinking of setting up a variety show and selling tickets to raise money to pay for my dog’s operation. I can get Prince Tony to give us the auditorium, no sweat,” I say. “I just need to find some acts. Who’s with me?”

“You want us to perform?” Jared asks.

“Yeah, or find performers,” I say.

“I’ll give you money,” Lex Pinkston says. “I have some in the bank. It’s yours.”

“No. I don’t want anyone to give me money. I want to
raise
it for myself. I’m not a charity case.”

“What’s a variety show?” one of the football players asks.

“How will we find acts?”

And then everyone is talking all at once—sounding very confused.

Until Franks loudly says, “I’m in!”

Everyone gets quiet.

All of the boys look at Franks and he nods confidently.

“Cool,” I say.

“I’m in,” Ty says.

“Hell yeah,” Chad says.

“Why not?” Jared says.

“Ricky Roberts is in—yeah-shhhh!”

And then all of the boys present agree to help.

“First thing to do is shut off those Xboxes, because this is going to take some planning,” I say.

Lex shuts off all of them.

“Franks, you’re the sales and marketing teacher, so how do we make this kind of money?” I ask.

“Well, we need to advertise all over town and include as many people as we can in the show. It’s all about inclusion. People will give because of the situation. People like dogs. Yours is a sympathetic story. But the more people we include in the show, the more parents and community members will buy tickets and make donations. I have a special folder in my car, it’s red and it has a lot of ideas for advertising in it. It says ‘Advertising Ideas’ on the front. Would you mind going and getting it for me, Amber?” Franks says, and then holds out his keys toward me.

“Sure,” I say, and then take his keys.

I leave the room and go to Franks’ car—an old rusty Jeep with a hardtop—in the faculty parking lot, but when I key in, there is no red folder on the front seat. There is no folder of any color in the car at all—not on or under any seat. I check the glove compartment and the trunk, just to make sure, but there is no folder, period, so I walk back toward Franks’ room feeling sorta annoyed, because I want to get this plan rolling.

When I return, Franks has the boys all fired up.

Lex tells me that the football team is going to do a secret performance.

“What are you going to do?” I ask him.

“You’ll see.”

“I’ve got a little something planned for you,” Chad says from Das Boot.

“I’m going to do math problems on stage!” Ricky says.

“I can do the lighting and stage stuff,” Ty says, because he is the head of the theater’s stage crew.

“Jared’s performing with me,” Chad says.

“What?” Jared says.

“Don’t be a wuss,” Chad tells his brother. “Maybe we’ll get prom dates, eh? Girls dig what we’re going to do onstage.”

“Umm,” Jared says. “I don’t—I’ll handle finances and incoming money.”

“And do that thing we are going to do onstage, because you are a Fox brother and not a wimp,” Chad says pretty aggressively from Das Boot.

But then the homeroom warning bell sounds and everyone scatters.

“There was no red folder in your car,” I tell Franks, and then give him back his keys.

“That’s weird,” he says, and then eats a few peanut M&M’s from his desk drawer.

“What did you tell the boys when I was out of the room?”

“Just brainstormed ideas for acts. That’s all.”

“So will you be the faculty advisor for The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show?”

“Sure,” he says.

“Can we make an announcement over the loudspeaker this morning?”

“Sure,” Franks says.

“All right. Let’s go tell Prince Tony.”

Franks and I go up to the main office, and Mrs. Baxter goes nuts when she sees me.

“Amber, come here!” she screams, and then runs around her desk to plant some lipstick on my cheek and give me a big old hug. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I’ve been so worried about you. Did you get the flowers I sent you?”

“Yeah, thanks,” I say, even though I chucked all the flowers without even reading one damn card. “Do you like variety shows?”

“What?” she says.

“Amber Appleton,” Prince Tony says from his office doorway. “How the heck are you?”

“Cool,” I say, “but I need to book the auditorium for a variety show. It’s got to be a Friday night, because that’s when the most people will come out. I need to raise money to pay for my dog’s operation.”

“What are you talking about, Amber?”

“Can I talk to you in your office?” Franks says.

“I’m not sure I—” Prince Tony says, but Franks forces him into the office and then closes the door before I can sneak in.

I’m sorta mad at Franks for excluding me while making the Prince Tony pitch, so I decide to make my own announcement before homeroom even starts.

I walk over to the microphone Franks uses to make the morning announcements and ask Mrs. Baxter how to make myself heard all over the school.

“You just push the red button, but I don’t think you should be—”

I push the red button and say, “Attention fellow Childress High School classmates. This is Amber Appleton. The girl whose mother was murdered. I don’t want to talk to you about that, so please do not bring it up, okay? I would like to invite you to participate in The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show, which will raise money for my dog’s operation, which he had last night. He might have cancer. I have to pay two or three grand for that, and I’m broke. So please help me do this by signing up to be in the variety show, or by buying a ticket—those will go on sale soon after I iron the details out with Prince Tony. Cool? Thanks. Peace out. Amber Appleton.”

When I finish my announcement, Prince Tony and Franks are smiling at me from Prince Tony’s office.

“Are you cool with my making an announcement?” I ask.

“I think this variety show is a great idea. I’m one hundred percent behind it,” PT says, and then takes me into his office so we can discuss dates, while Franks does the morning announcements. PT shows me all of the available dates for the auditorium, I pick a Friday night three and a half weeks from today, and he tells me that Mrs. Baxter will handle all ticket sales, but that we should feel free to collect donations and sell program advertisements around town; PT says that all of the advertisement checks should be made out to the high school. “You can get Mr. Valerie to do the programs. He does all of the theater programs. I’ll talk to him about it today. It’s good to have you back in the building, Amber. It’s so good to see you.”

“Cool to all of that,” I say, and then go to my first period class.

No one—not even teachers—asks me about my mom all day, but craploads of people—many of whom I’ve never even met—want to be in BBB’s variety show. At first I write down the names and ideas in a notebook, but after I fill seven pages, I realize that we will need to have an elimination audition, or something, and I’m sorta amazed at how well my plan is working.

During lunch Ricky and I blow off socialization time in the lunchroom and go to The Franks Lair, where kids aren’t playing video games but are actually brainstorming marketing techniques for The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show.

When Franks sees me, he says, “Amber, will you take a walk with me?”

“Sure. Why?” I ask.

The Five are looking at me really funny.

“Come on,” Franks says, and then leads me outside of the building, where it is pretty springlike and sunny.

“The guys want to surprise you with the acts,” Franks says. “They want to put together the variety show for you, and then let you emcee the event.”

“What? Why?” I ask.

“They think it would be fun.”

“So they don’t want me to be involved at all?”

“We want you to drum up support and enthusiasm. We want you to emcee and to be the star, but we want the acts to be a surprise.”

“I don’t understand why they would want that,” I say.

“Because they want you to be surprised.”

“How will I emcee if I don’t know what acts are involved?”

“We’ll make you note cards.”

“So I have to trust you?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Franks says. “Trust your friends too.”

“Do you think we can raise enough money to pay for BBB’s operation?”

“I do,” he says, and then smiles confidently. “We will. I promise.”

Franks is a man of his word, so I start to feel better—relieved, excited. “Okay,” I say. “Just leave one slot open, because I got an act lined up already. As soon as I confirm the act, I’ll put you in contact with the right people.”

“Cool,” Franks says.

I go back into the lunchroom and buy some food with Donna’s twenty.

A billion people ask me to sit with them, which is weird, so I go outside, eat alone, and start to worry about how BBB is doing.

After I finish my turkey hoagie, I go to the pay phone by the gym, drop in some change, and dial Weissmuller Pets of Childress.

“Hello, Weissmuller Pets. How may I help you?”

“May I speak with Dr. Weissmuller please?” I ask.

“He’s with a patient, can I take a message?”

“It’s Amber Appleton, I just want to—”

“Hold on, Amber, I’ll put him on the line. Just hold for a second, okay?”

“Okay.”

I hear easy listening music for a few long moments—before Dr. Weissmuller says, “Hello?”

“This is Amber Appelton. Bobby Big Boy. My dog. Is he okay?”

“The surgery went well. Your dog’s tumor was sent out for a biopsy. BBB is recovering, but he is fine.”

“Thank you so much, Dr. Weissmuller. I’ll be in later today.”

“Bobby Big Boy should be ready to go home by seven tonight.”

“Thank you,” I say, and hang up, trying hard not to cry like a chick, but of course, I do leak a few tears.

I say a little thank-you prayer to JC, and then I finish my school day—working on my prom dress a little in Life Skills and daydreaming through my real classes.

By the end of the day there are posters and signs hung up all over the hallways.

The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show

Presented by Amber Appleton

April 24—Friday Night

Save the Date

Some have pictures of Bobby Big Boy on them and I wonder how that came to be.

Weird.

Bearded Ty drives Ricky and me home in his Volvo station wagon, and as we drive, I ask him why The Five want to keep the acts a surprise.

“Don’t you like surprises?” he asks me.

“Sure,” I say.

“So?”

“Ricky Roberts is going to do Stump the Mathematician.”

“Well, I know one act, eh?” I say.

Ty looks at me in the rearview and smiles through his beard.

CHAPTER 54

After I get Ricky doing math problems at the kitchen table, I ride Donna’s bike through the ghetto to the Korean Catholic Church for the first time without BBB, doing the “I hope you are having a great day!” trick the whole way there, which always makes me feel good, because I dig lighting up people’s faces.

When I get there, Father Chee is not out front because he is not expecting me. I haven’t talked to him since I told him I couldn’t be what he needed me to be anymore.

The church door is locked, so I knock, and after a few minutes, Father Chee appears.

I ride my bike inside, and Father Chee locks the door behind me.

“You left your room,” FC says to me.

“I’m out,” I say as I hop off Donna’s bike. “And I’m sorry.”

“For what?” FC says with a smile.

I give him a big old hug.

“Welcome back,” FC says as he pats my back all fatherly.

When we let go, FC asks, “Where is BBB?”

So I tell him all about B Thrice’s tumor, The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show, and also about how we will know whether BBB is going to live within a week.

“I will pray for BBB,” Father Chee says. “The KDFCs have missed you. Want to say hello?”

“Hell yeah,” I say, and then we walk into the sanctuary.

The KDFCs are sitting around with English-Korean dictionaries. They are all writing Korean into what looks like new songbooks.

“Jesus sent us Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits,” Father Chee explains, and then yells something in Korean.

The Korean Divas for Christ look up and then attack me, giving me so many long drawn-out hugs that I think I might pop!

In English, they all tell me that they are sorry about my mom, and then they say a lot of things to me in Korean, which Father Chee translates into English.

These things they say in their native language are so heartfelt, so beautiful, The KDFCs make me cry, which makes them cry and hug me even more.

Finally, I tell them about Bobby Big Boy’s tumor, and The KDFCs start hugging me again and shaking their heads and talking very quickly in Korean.

So I tell them about The Bobby Big Boy Variety Show and ask them if they will perform—if they will do a few Supremes songs to help me raise money to pay for BBB’s operations.