Battle of the Bands

Any kid can tell you; fads come and go. If you’re a parent, it seems like they fly by at the speed of light. But no one is more surprised at the shelf life of a fad than the fad itself.

The P*lace has always meant music, and for the better part of a decade, music meant Kids Incorporated. Everyone knew that. No matter what happened, (and trust me, a LOT has happened!) they always came out on top due to their ability to evolve with the trends. No one had ever put that ability to the test. Yet.

This year’s Kids Inc. was relatively new to the game; the founding fathers (and mothers) of the band had trusted it to an unprecedented three new members at once. Actually, they’d done pretty well considering they had been thrust into the spotlight. But they weren’t the problem. Every once in a while, the crowd would drop to almost no one. The Kids had just attributed it to their newness and figured they’d win them over soon. But when no one at all showed up after that...

“Well, that was a huge disappointment” Kenny said as the band slunk back to their dressing room.

“What happened to our audience?” wondered Ana.

“I’m beginning to think they were abducted by aliens.” said Eric. No one felt like scolding him, because it was as good as any idea they could come up with.

Robin addressed a more down-to-earth problem. “What’re we gonna tell Flip? He counts on us to keep the customers coming.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth did Flip enter the room. “Now which one of you guys scared off the audience?” he joked, but it was clear he was not too happy, either.

“Not funny, Flip.” replied Haylie. She sighed. “I was sure a friend of mine was coming.”

“What friend?” asked Robin.

“This girl Peggy from school. Every day, she asks me about the band, where we rehearse, where we get our music. She seemed really interested.”

“Did she say why?” Ana said.

“No. But she did say some of her other friends were curious, too.”

“Wait a minute,” Flip realized, “is this sounding funny to any of you?”

“Yeah. Yeah!” Kenny said. “Strange how these kids get all fired up about the band the same time we’re losing our audience.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Haylie worried.

No don’t worry about it, Haylie. You were just being friendly.” Eric said, patting her on the shoulder. “You didn’t know you were being played.”

“Played?” echoed Haylie, confused.

“It sounds like this Peggy was pumping you for information.” Ana told her.

“But why would someone do a thing like that?” Robin wanted to know.

“Old business strategy.” Flip said. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

“Flip, we don’t have any enemies.” argued Kenny. Then he paused and gave it some thought. “Or do we?”

He was about to find out the answer to that question firsthand. During school the next day, Kenny was sitting out by the lockers when a classmate came up to him. “Kenny!” he called out.

“Hey, Jake!” Kenny replied. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, you know.” he said nonchalantly. “Some of the guys are getting together to hang out for a bit after school. I wondered if you wanted to join us. Oh no, wait, you’ve got that band of yours, right? How’s that working out?”

Why do you want to know? Kenny said to himself, but tried not to look too suspicious. “Oh, it’s great, man.” he said, keeping up the same casual attitude that Jake had initiated. “Well, actually we’ve been having a few problems with our audience and stuff” He studied Jake carefully for his reaction.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” sympathized Jake, but his facade was slipping. “That must be a real hard job, bringing them back everyday. I always wondered, how do you do that?”

Now Kenny was starting to get angry. “Well, if you’re so amped on seeing how a band works, why don’t you and the guys come by the P*lace and watch us?”

Jake laughed. “Ha ha! Amped! That’s funny, dude!” He held out his hand for a high-five, but Kenny wasn’t playing. “I’ll see you.” he said, and left.

When Kenny headed back to class, he sought out Robin in the hallway. “Emergency band meeting today. Pass it on, but be quiet about it.” he said in her ear. “We’re in deep trouble.”

That afternoon, Jake made his way back to the basketball court like he’d planned, carefully looking over his shoulder to make sure no one noticed him. He had no idea Kids Inc. was around the corner by the garage.

“Now what?” asked Eric a little too loudly.

“Shh!” said everyone else.

“Jake is up to something. It’s up to us to figure out what it is.” Kenny whispered to him.

At the moment, Jake seemed to be impatiently waiting for someone. Just then, a girl walked up. “‘Bout time you got here!” Jake said to her.

“Sorry! I had detention!” she grumbled.

“That’s Peggy!” said Haylie.

“Shh!”

“So, whatta you got for me?” Jake was saying.

“Nothing! The kid clammed up. Now she won’t say a word!” Peggy griped. “They’re onto us, Jake, I’m telling you.”

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter now. We got what we need.”

Peggy laughed. “Yeah, their audience!” They both continued laughing as they headed off

“Maybe we should follow them.” Robin said.

“Shh!”

“Oh, would you quit with the ‘shh’-ing already! They’re gone now!”

“She’s right, though,” said Ana, “we do need to find out what we’re dealing with.”

“But you heard them. They know we’re on to them. What if we get caught?” said Kenny.

“They’ll be expecting to see you or Haylie. They don’t know about the rest of us.” Ana explained.

“So, you’ll just be 3 kids taking a walk?” Haylie figured out. “I like it.”

“I don’t.” said Eric. “This is sinking to their level. We should just ask them what they’re doing.”

“Do you think they’d tell us?” Kenny said. “They weren’t honest with us in the first place, Eric. We’re just playing by their rules."

“C’mon. If we don’t hurry, we’ll lose them.” Robin said as she and Ana headed in the direction Jake and Peggy went in.

Eric sighed and threw up his hands. “Okay.”

Their trail ended about ten minutes out of town at what appeared to be an old warehouse. It wasn’t abandoned, though. They could see lights and hear sounds as they approached. “Is that music?” asked Ana. They entered cautiously.

It was! Just past the huge crowd (“So this is where everyone’s been going!” Robin said) was an old loading platform that was doubling as a makeshift stage. Jake, Peggy, and a few other kids were singing.   Their sound carried pretty well considering they didn’t have amplifiers and their microphones looked like those toy ones little kids use.

“They’re not bad.” said Eric.

“Well, now we know.” Ana said.

“I just wanna know how they got everybody to abandon us and come here.” Robin said. “What do they have that we don’t?”

“We’d better go tell Kenny and Haylie so we can start planning our next move.” Ana decided. They soon discovered it was harder to sneak out than it was to sneak in. The girls managed to get out okay, but as Eric was leaving, he accidentally knocked over an old shipping crate.

“Uh oh.” he gulped.

Someone stopped the tape player on stage, and everyone turned around. “Yo, new kid!” yelled Jake.

Eric cringed. “It’s Eric.” he corrected.

“Seeing how the other half lives?” Jake jeered.

“You know what? I was just leaving.” Eric said nervously. He backed towards the door. “Don’t mind me. Enjoy the show, guys.”

“Hey, ease off, Jake.” Peggy scolded. “He’s kinda cute.”

“Will you stop thinking about guys for a second? He’s a spy, Peg. Them snobs sent him down here to check out the competition.”

“Snobs?” said Eric.

“All that fancy equipment and that nice setup, and we got their audience!” laughed Jake, and his band laughed with him.

“Look, I don’t see what the problem is.” Eric said to them. “I actually think you’re pretty good.”

“As good as the high and mighty Kids Incorporated?” said Peggy.

“Uh, sure, probably.”

“Oh, that’s just peachy.” Jake said. “Then you won’t mind handing over your turf”

“What?”

“It’s simple, Eric.” Jake spelled it out for him. “We want the P*lace.”

“We should go out there.” Kenny said for about the fifth time.

“It’s too risky.” said Ana. “Besides, maybe they’ll go easy on him.”

“I could have sworn he was right behind me.” Robin said. Then Eric returned. “Eric! We were worried. What happened?”

Eric looked sheepish. “I sorta... got busted.” he admitted. Peggy, Jake, and a whole slew of others were behind him.

“Oh, well, at least this time you had the guts to confront us face to face.” Kenny remarked.

“Instead of pretending to be our friends.” added Haylie, glaring at Peggy.

She returned the glare. “Sorry, kid. Nothing personal."

“Talk about being chickens! You’re the ones sending your boy here to make sure we weren’t getting any better than you.” Jake accused.

“What’s your problem?” Ana asked him.

“You are! You guys think you’re so great with your name up in lights and everything. Well, guess what? You’re not the only band in town.” He summoned his group forward. “From now on, the spotlight belongs to Amalgamated Youth!”

Everyone snickered. “That is so lame!” laughed Flip.

“I thought of it!” Peggy said hotly. “M.. .My dad works for a big company.”

“Sorry, Peggy.” Haylie teased. “Nothing personal.”

“Look, you little brat...” Peggy raised her fists, but Robin interceded.

“I think we’d remember a name that...unusual.” she said. “How come we’ve never heard of you?”

“Because we don’t have some big-time showplace!” snapped Peggy. “Some stuck-up band is hogging the only one!”

“Well, you’ve done a good job so far.” Kenny pointed out. “Everyone’s gone to see you instead of us these past few weeks.”

“And we’ll have an even bigger crowd when we take the P*lace.’ said Jake. “So hand it over! You don’t own it, you know.”

“No, but I do.” Flip spoke up. “And Kids Inc’s been here for years, but only because they’ve got the goods. You wanna play here, you’ve gotta do what they did and get the P*lace the old fashioned way – earn it.”

The Kids were shocked. “Flip, what are you doing?” said Eric. “Are you actually going to let them play here?”

“Well, it’s not up to me to decide.” Flip explained. “I propose we have a Battle of the Bands. Let the audience pick the winner. Whoever wins gets the stage.”

“Unless you’re scared?” Jake taunted.

“No way!” Eric said.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll be back.” said Jake. “And you’d better be prepared to lose.” Amalgamated Youth sauntered off while Kids Incorporated booed and sneered.

“All right, you guys, don’t get too full of yourselves.” Flip warned. “If they’ve got the audience in their corner, there’s a good possibility they could win this thing.”

“Aw, Flip, don’t you know by now that nobody can stop us?” Eric bragged. “We’ll wipe the floor with those punks!”

“Yeah, it’s like you said. We’ve got the goods. They’re just wannabes.” added Ana.

“Still, a little warming up couldn’t hurt.” reasoned Flip. But the Kids paid him no mind. Everyone started talking at once.

“When we win, we should have this huge party...” Robin was saying.

“...and make them apologize in front of the whole school!” suggested Haylie.

“This is not going to be good for business.” Flip said to himself

That night, the P*lace was packed to the rafters. Word had spread quicker than ever about the Battle of the Bands, and everyone had turned out to see Kids Inc’s fate.

Haylie peeked out from behind the curtain. “I’ve never seen so many people here before.”

“Is anyone else starting to get nervous?” asked Ana.

“We can do this, guys.” said Kenny. “There’s nothing to worry about. Besides, I bet those losers won’t even show up at all.”

“Oh, so we’re losers, huh?” Jake said as he appeared behind them. “Hope you’re hungry, ‘cause you’re gonna eat those words when we cream you! Outta my way!” he snarled as his band lugged their hand-me-down equipment onto the stage.

“Why are we letting them go first again?” wondered Robin.

“They’re just warming up the stage for us.” Eric said confidently. “Everyone knows you save the best for last.”

“Let’s just hope the audience knows that.” Ana said.

Loud screeching noises resembling dying cats were coming from the stage. “What did you DO?!?!?!” roared Jake.

“Nothing!” snapped Peggy. “I tried to turn the volume up, and this piece of junk starts sounding like my mother!”

“Oh, great, you broke it!” He looked to the rest of his band members. “Who’s supposed to be in charge of this stuff?”

“Don’t look at us!” another kid said. “We don’t even know how to turn it on.”

“Hey!” whined someone else. “The batteries in our microphones are dying!”

“What’s the holdup here?” Flip asked as he came on stage. “Amalgamated Youth, you’re on.”

“We got some bugs in our equipment.” complained Jake.

“If you can’t perform, you’ll have to forfeit.” said Flip. “That means Kids Incorporated wins by default.”

The Kids were happy at first, but it was a hollow victory. “Wait, Flip.” said Kenny. “They can use our equipment.”

“What’re you trying to pull?” Peggy asked suspiciously.

“Nothing.” Eric said. “We just want to beat you fair and square.”

Once everything was settled, Flip began the show. “Welcome, everyone, to the P*lace’s Battle of the Bands. Now, it’s up to you to decide which of these two bands here tonight has really got their act together. The winning band will get the right to headline at the P*lace. You ready?” The audience cheered. “All right! Our first band tonight is...” he tried not to laugh this time, “Amalgamated Youth.” They received a fair amount of applause.

“Do you think we did the right thing, letting them use our equipment?” Eric asked.

“Sure.” Ana told him. “We’re supposed to be the bigger people. And winning like that wouldn’t have proven anything. That’s not what Kids Inc’s all about. Why shouldn’t we share?”

“Are we sharing our song, too?” Robin asked suddenly.

“What?”

Somehow, Amalgamated Youth had decided to perform the exact same song that they’d been planning. “Oh, this just keeps getting worse and worse!” moaned Kenny.

“Those sneaky little jerks!” Haylie said angrily.

“Now what do we do?” said Ana. “If we go out there, it’ll look like we’re copying them.”

“We’re sunk.” sighed Eric.

“Wait. Not necessarily.” Kenny had an idea. “Where’s that new stuff we just got?”

“But Kenny, we haven’t had a chance to rehearse that yet.” Robin said to him.

“We’ll have to wing it.” he said. “It’s all we’ve got.”

The music ended, and Flip returned to the stage. “Amalgamated Youth! Let’s hear it for them! Okay, next we have one of my personal favorites, I hope they’re one of yours: our current headliners, Kids Incorporated!”

They gulped “Showtime.” said Kenny.

“I’m gonna miss this place.” sighed Haylie once they’d left the stage.

“C’mon, we weren’t that bad.” said Ana.

“But we weren’t that good, either.” Eric said. “I really thought we had a shot.”

Jake and his motley crew happened to overhear. “Well, you were wrong!” he teased. “We’re the new attraction here, and you’re the dopes who let us win!”

“What are you talking about?” Robin asked.

Flip was out by the audience when he heard feedback from the amplifier and then voices.  Thinking slyly, he turned on all the speakers in the P*lace.

“...so pathetic!” Jake’s voice came through loud and clear.” ‘Here, we’ll let you use our equipment! You can go first!’ Thought you’d be nice to the poor losers?” he mocked. “Well, nice ain’t the way you play this game!”

“So you admit to stealing our song?” asked Kenny.

“It was like taking candy from a baby! And the best part is, no one knew!”

“Oh, really?” Kenny smiled as he saw Flip opening the curtain. The audience had heard the whole thing.

“I think it’s time we wrap this up!” decided Flip. “By applause, who do you think should win? Amalgamated Youth?”

“Boooo!” yelled the audience.

“Ooorrrr. . .Kids Incorporated?” Now the audience cheered wildly.

“Then it’s unanimous. Kids Inc wins!”

“YEAH!” the Kids cried, hugging each other and jumping up and down.

“No fair! We want a recount!” Peggy griped.

“Shut up, Peg.” said Jake.

“You shut up!”

“No, you shut up!” They continued to argue as they stormed off the stage.

“Yeah, get out of here.” laughed Flip. To the Kids, he said, “Well, congratulations, you guys, you pulled it off.”

“Thanks Flip, but it was only because you were sneaky enough to trick those guys.” said Haylie.

“Well, I wasn’t about to stand by and lose my favorite bunch of kids.” said Flip.

“Awww.” they said, and hugged him.

“And I know they’re gonna return the favor and help me clean up later.” he added.

“Awww!”

“I’m kidding. Go party!”

So once again, Kids Incorporated came out on top, where everyone agreed they belonged.

The End