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and I was always just ahead or behind the guys. That made me even more stressed out, and then I missed more notes and so it continued. My only consolation was that Jared wasn’t doing so hot on bass either. The song ended, and the garage dropped into silence. I knew what we were all thinking—we were terrible. Less than an hour with the band and I’d ruined them.
    “Well, that was a disaster,” Hector finally said. “She may know the song but that doesn’t mean she can play it.”
    “It wasn’t that bad,” Kyle said.
    “Give her a break,” Jared said. “Maddie’s never rehearsed with us before.”
    My heart beat a little faster hearing him defend me, and I had to remind myself that he needed me for the audition and that was it. Once it was over, I’d probably never hear from him again. But still, it was nice to know he didn’t think I was a complete failure.
    “Sorry,” I apologized to all of them. “I’m just nervous. I’ll get it right this time.”
    “Anyway, the real problem was me,” Jared said, his forehead creased as he checked the tuning on his bass again. “I’m so out of practice with this thing, there’s no way I’ll be in shape for tomorrow.”
    “You’ll be fine,” Kyle said. “You wrote the bass line in this song. You know it better than anyone.”
    “Yeah, but that was a long time ago.” He rubbed his face, wiping away the frustration. “Let’s try it again. If we have to rehearse all night to get it right, then that’s what we’ll do.”
    We practiced the song for hours. Any time I lost my place, I focused on Hector’s drumming and got back on track, and when I wanted to throw my guitar pick in the trash, Kyle’s encouragement kept me going. Playing with them wasn’t as scary as I’d thought it would be in the end. And standing beside Jared while he sang was even better than listening to his voice in my headphones or through my computer, even better than seeing him perform live. Because this time, I was playing with him.
    “All right,” Jared finally said. “That was good. I think if we go any longer, we’ll have nothing left for tomorrow’s audition.”
    “Thank god,” Kyle said. “I was about to pass out here.”
    Hector stood up, twirling a drumstick in one hand. “You were right, Kyle, Maddie does pick things up quickly.”
    “Told you. It’s freaky, right?”
    I bowed my head, but couldn’t hide the small grin on my face. My arms trembled with exhaustion, my fingertips throbbed, and my hands had cramped up, but I felt whole, like I’d been missing a piece of myself all my life and finally had it glued back on. And I never wanted to lose it again.

T he guys picked me up bright and early in their van, their gear already packed inside. I squeezed my way into the backseat next to Kyle, who wore a faded black T-shirt and a studded belt. He gave me a quick once-over as I got inside. “Perfect.”
    I said a silent thanks to my two best friends. Julie had picked out a black babydoll dress with a hint of lace and loaned me some ropey chain jewelry and knee-high boots. Carla had given me smoky eyes, dark red lips, and a hint of curl to my usually limp brown hair. Somehow they’d made me look fierce, but still like myself, too. Even my black-rimmed glasses looked more ironic than nerdy now.
    Hector gave me a nod, too, which I supposed meant he approved. He was dressed similarly to Kyle, except with his usual baseball cap with the Villain Complex logo.
    Jared turned from the driver’s seat and looked me up and down. It might have been my imagination, but his eyes seemed to linger a little longer than the other two guys’ had.
    “You look great,” he finally said, making my heart skip a beat. “We don’t have much time, so let’s go.”
    The van’s door slid shut with a thunk, and we were off, driving along the sleepy Saturday morning streets of Los Angeles toward downtown. I picked at the hem of my dress, the whole situation surreal. I was in a car with