Page 18 of Rocked: The Price of Dreams

For the next half hour, we tossed around ideas, but nothing gelled. We had plenty of time to come up with a name. It was nice to get the cogs turning.

We were close to finishing for the evening when I opened another huge cardboard box. It was full of more of Kyle’s dad’s boxing gear. I pulled out an oval leather ball and held it up to show Kyle. “What’s this?”

He dusted off his hands and wiped them on his jeans. “It’s an Everhide. A boxing speed bag.”

I turned it this way and that. “It looks like it’s never been used.”

“Yeah.” He jabbed his hands onto his hips. “Because you have to be superfast, coordinated, always in rhythm, unrelenting and quick. That’s not my dad.”

Warmth stirred in my belly. “As in...if you don’t watch out, it will hit you in the face? As in...be on-speed, strong, resilient? Keep your eye on the ball? Focused?”

“Yeah...why?” Kyle straightened.

I eyed the ball, admiring the smooth leather and fine stitching. “Like something your dad has never touched. Like you’d pummel the crap out of anyone who stood in your way?...Like us?”

“Oh, yeah.” Hunter grinned, his azure eyes glinting in the bright fluorescent light. “That sounds like us.”

“Yeah.” The breath rushed from Kyle’s lungs. “Like us.”

“So...” My heart barreled up to the top of my ribcage. “We’re an Everhide?”

“Everhide.” Kyle nodded.

“Holy shit.” Hunter’s eyes widened. “I fucking love it. Every time we kick a goal, nail a song, play hard and fast, we’re Everhide. No one will keep up with us. It’s fucking awesome.”

Kyle’s lips twisted into a wicked grin. “We’re gonna kick ass. Everyone is gonna know our name and our music one day. Gem...you’re a genius...I love it.”

We rushed to the center of the garage and hugged.

Fire swirled deep in my belly. This was the start of something amazing. I was determined to make it happen.

The only question was how?

How did less-than-poor losers from the back streets of Montgomery crawl out from the gutter and become stars?

I had to find a way. But for now...we’d officially became a band. Freaking. A-ma-zing!

My friendship with these guys couldn’t be reckoned with. I held them tighter. Breathed them in. Locked them into my soul. “From this day forward...we are Everhide. We’re gonna take on the fucking world.”

Chapter 7

JUNE 2007

During the summer, after the guys had been on family vacation for a month—Kyle had visited his cousin Kade in Seattle; Hunter, his relatives upstate—we’d landed part-time jobs. Hunter worked two days a week at Rosa’s burger joint. I had a shift or two per week at the local grocery store, and Kyle tutored music with his mom. Our goal was to save up for new equipment—better mics, bigger amps, and a bad-ass mixer. If we weren’t working or practicing or learning everything we could about songwriting and producing songs, we spent the hot days down at the creek with friends, swimming, playing volleyball, and listening to music. I even spent time with my girlfriends, mainly Laura and Vicki, going to the movies and shopping.

But that summer wasn’t all good times. Kyle’s sister had taken a turn for the worse. Weak and feverish, she’d been admitted into the hospital in mid-July and wasn’t able to come home. It was horrific to think she’d never do so again. We visited her as often as we could. We sang to her, read her stories, and watched her sleep. Each day, she grew frailer and weaker. It broke my heart every time we left her hospital bed.

Music kept our spirits strong.

By the time we hit sophomore year, we were jamming, rocking, and pumping out new tracks.

Thanks to Claire, we scored our first gig in mid-October at the local community fair.

As I paced the grass behind the stage, my palms grew sweaty. We were about to perform after the tiny tots had finished their ballet performance.

Covering popular chart-topping hits and classic rock songs, we’d blow the crowd away. The noise alone would shatter the parklands near the Princeton airport in two.

Dressed in black jeans we’d bought at the local thrift store, and T-shirts screen-printed with our Everhide logo across the front—Hunter’s mom had Jenny’s class make them for us—we screamed teenage rockstars.

---