Chapter 1

 

            Blind date number 7. She was extremely short with short dark brown hair. Her large brown eyes sunk in with the rest of her pale face. Her laugh was identical to a hyena’s laugh. Greg had been hooking Matt up with the most hideous blind dates for the past month. Greg insisted that Matt would find a perfect girl in his own hometown.

            “Okay, now you try!” Liz, Matt’s blind date, shouted across the table set for two.

            “Try what?” Matt snapped out of his daze and looked up to face Liz. There was a large silver spoon dangling from Liz’s button-shaped nose.

            “This!” Liz pointed to the spoon on her nose. She leaned across the table to pick up Matt’s spoon and shoved it in his hands. Matt glanced around him and saw the other people in the restaurant staring at the two of them.

            “Uhh…no thanks,” Matt pushed away the spoon from his hand. He managed a fake grin towards Liz. In return, she made a pout with her bottom lip sticking out. She started to make these ridiculous whining sounds. Matt suddenly felt a hundred pairs of eyes stuck on him.

            “Where did Greg find you? Off of the streets?” Matt muttered under his breath as he sank in his chair. His cheeks turned to a rosy red.

            “What was that?” Liz eagerly leaned forward to Matt. Her eyes were squinting smaller.

            “Huh? Nothing,” Matt sat straight up and sighed.

            “Okaaay…well Nature’s calling me. Excuse me while I visit the Ladies’ Room,” Liz suddenly sounded disappointed.

            “I gotta tell Greg to stop finding me lunatic blind dates,” Matt said to himself as he watched Liz, the stump stroll away.

 

- - - - - - - X - - - - - - - - -

 

            Jillian fidgeted with the strings of her guitar as she sat between the bright lights. Her guitar made one of the most important sounds in her band. Behind her sat Gary, twirling his wooden drumsticks between his hands. He was one of the most impressive drum players she ever knew. On the opposite side of her was Calvin who was pressing lightly on the white keys of his keyboard. His eyes were closed as he pretended to sway through the music. In front of all of them stood McKenzie and Francis, the lead vocals of the group. All of them in the group knew how to sing, but McKenzie and Francis were the best of all. McKenzie had the high-pitched voice since she was the girl, and Francis had the deep bass voice since he was a boy.

            “Give it up ladies and gentlemen- for Granted Wish!” Sunny, the owner of Sunny’s  Diner, announced. The five-person crowd applauded. It was Granted Wish’s second gig, and largest audience they ever had. Their first performance only had three people.

            Jill listened for Gary to play his introduction on his drums, and then she joined in along with Calvin. All three of them made the most beautiful music in Long Island, New York. The two lead vocals made the trio even more entertaining.

 

            “Rhyme with no reason

            Time with no season

            I must have been waiting for so long

            Talk without doing

            Walk without going

            You must have stopped singing our song,” McKenzie started to swing with the song.

 

            “Show me the lovin’

            You’ve been promisin’ time and again

            Didn’t you know this

            Didn’t you notice

            Listen then,” Francis took the lead in singing.

 

            “Would you still give ‘til its hurtin’

            And not until the hurtin’ is gone

            Would you still give ‘til there’s nothin’

            For the love that is worth fighting for

            ‘Til it hurts…and ‘til it hurts

            No more…” Jill joined in singing the chorus with McKenzie and Francis. She struck her guitar to the beat of the pop music.

 

 

(*Lyrics to this song were actually written by Jungee Marcelo*)

 

- - - - - - - - X - - - - - - - - -

 

            Matt had been fiddling with his napkin at the table for 10 minutes. Liz still hadn’t gotten back from her trip to the bathroom.

            “Where is she? We didn’t even eat yet and already she’s taking a dump in the bathroom?” Matt complained aloud. An old lady suddenly turned around from her seat to face Matt.

            “Will you keep quiet?” the lady advised. She then turned around back to her table and mumbled something that sounded like “Darn teenagers!”

 

- - - - - - - - X - - - - - - - - -

 

            Granted Wish had just gotten off the Sunny’s Diner stage when they finished their song. Jill spotted a tall boy with bleached hair sitting at the back of the diner, near the bar. She noticed that he wasn’t there before. She blinked her eyes unbelievably. Jill couldn’t help but slip away from her band and creep over to the boy. She had to find out whether or not her eyes were lying to her.

            Jill sat down at the stool two seats away from the boy and placed her leather guitar case down on the floor. The boy had an unusual hat and sunglasses covering his face.

            “Here’s your coke, Mr. Raposo,” Suny said lightly from behind the bar as he gave a full glass to the young boy.

            “I knew it!” Jill suddenly jumped up with thrill. She immediately scooched closer to him.

            “Excuse me?” the boy asked with a puzzled expression.

            “You’re Greg! I mean, Greg Raposo. From Dream Street, right?” Jill asked excitedly.

            “Uh-huh,” Greg nodded his head in Jill’s direction.

            “Ummm…” Jill searched frantically in her guitar case for something, “I have a band. We’re called-”

            “-Granted Wish?” Greg cut her off, “I know. I heard you guys up on the stage. You’re pretty good.”

            “Really?” Jill’s eyes suddenly lighted up. At last, she found what she was looking for. It was a small gray tape with the words Granted Wish across it. “Well, I was wondering if you could umm…like give this tape of us to your managers or something?”

            “Uhh…I don’t know,” Greg hesitated.

            Jill completely ignored Greg’s response and went on. “There are five of us-3 boys, 2 girls. We are really hoping to become famous one day. We all had experiences playing in front of audiences,” Jill smiled wide and placed the tape in front of Greg’s coke glass.

            Greg removed his sunglasses and examined Jill. “I don’t usually do this, but I’ll try,” Greg finally said. He figured that if he just took Jill’s tape than she would stop chatting about her band. He grasped her tape and stuck it in his wide side-pocket of his gray pants.

            “What would you like today, Jill? The usual?” Sunny suddenly cut in of their conversation.

            “Yeah, banana split with strawberry, coffee, and chocolate ice cream. And whip cream, one cherry, and marshmallows. No nuts,” Jill assured Sunny.

            “So Jill is your name?” Greg asked.

            “Yeah. It’s short for Jillian,” Jill laughed.

            “How old are you?” Greg moved his stool closer to Jill’s.

            “Four and proud,” Jill smiled at Greg’s shocked expression.

            “You’re one big four year old,” Greg laughed, “but I’m not kidding. How old are you?”

            “Four! I was born on a leap year,” Jill reassured him. Greg’s shocked face easily formed into a grin.

            “Here you go, Jill,” Sunny slided the banana split across the bar to Jill. “Oh yeah, and don’t forget to tell McKenzie to go to the lacrosse game tomorrow. We’re gunna need her badly.”

            “Okay, Sunny!” Jill snapped her fingers and pointed at Sunny.

            Greg suddenly chocked on his coke. He started to cough loudly and hold his hands to his throat. His face turned as purple as a grape. Jill kept on smacking him in the back.

            “I’m okay!” Greg managed to yell out of his purple throat. He began to stand up and take hold of his balance.

            “What happened to you?” Jill giggled at Greg.

            “Who’s McKenzie?” Greg blurted out immediately.

            “She’s the lead singer of my band. Why?” Jill’s face crunched closely together.

            “She plays lacrosse?” Greg asked impatiently.

            “Yeahhh,” Jill looked at Greg like he had three heads, “She’s right there.” Jill pointed to a girl with red, curly hair who was standing next to her fellow band mate, Francis.

            “Is she single?” Greg observed McKenzie up and down.

            Jill shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She could’ve smacked her head into the wall right then. She actually thought that Greg was interested in her, when he was really interested in McKenzie.

            “Why?” Jill asked disappointedly.

            “I have a friend who likes lacrosse. I’m trying to hook him up with girls he would like. He’s had bad luck so far. Would McKenzie go for him?” Greg slanted his head to face Jill.

            Her frown suddenly turned into a smile. “Actually she sort of has a boyfriend now, but what’s your friend like? Maybe she’d be interested.”

            “He’s Matt from my group. You’ve heard of him, right?”

            “Yeah, well tell me more about him,” Jill exhorted him on.

            “He’s outgoing I guess. He likes lacrosse, and as you should know, he dances and sings,” Greg continued.

            “Ooh! Sounds like my kind of guy!” Jill squealed.

            “Really?” Greg sounded disappointed, “I was kind of hoping I’d be your kind of guy.” He shrugged his shoulders at Jill.

            Jill could feel her face burning red from being flattered. She looked down and played around with her banana split. She didn’t feel too hungry then.

            “I was kind of hoping I’d be your kind of girl,” Jill looked up at Greg with a wide smile. She tried to bring down the corners of her mouth from smiling, but she couldn’t.

            “Do you always smile?” Greg asked while starting to laugh.

            “You think there’s something wrong with my smile?” Jill frowned and waited for Greg’s answer.

            “No, no. It’s a very nice smile,” Greg said in a matter-of-factly tone.

            “Good ‘cause I wouldn’t be talking if I were you. What’s with the hat and sunglasses?” Jill grabbed the hat off of Greg’s head.

            “My managers said if I went out, that I should use a hat and sunglasses. They said that the fans wouldn’t notice me.”

            “Well they were wrong,” Jill grinned, “Try dressing up as an old man next time, and bring a cane!”

            “Uh-huh,” Greg smiled, “So if you can, try to get your friend Mickey to come here on Sunday at 6:00. Matt should be here.”

            “Her name is McKenzie! Anyways, I don’t know. McKenzie has a boyfriend, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind meeting Matt of Dream Street,” Jill rolled her eyes as she put the black hat on top of Greg’s head again.

            “Oh, and make sure you’re there,” Greg pointed at Jill’s nose.

            “Me? Why?”

            “Because I’m going to be there, of course,” Greg cackled. Jill rolled her eyes at him.

            Greg quickly grabbed his coat behind him and stood up. Before leaving, Greg stopped to stare at Jill. “I’m kind of glad that my manager’s hat idea didn’t work,” Greg said softly. Without saying another word, he left the diner.