Chapter One On the long list of reasons why Tig Ripley shouldn’t have set out to form an all-girl rock band probably the biggest was the fact that she couldn’t play an instrument or even sing particularly well But Tig had never been one to let details interfere with her plans After all there were so many good reasons to do it like major middle-school street cred for one If she were in a band and the leader of it no less she’d cease to be a background extra in the drama that was Lakeview Heights Middle School 1
Tig Ripley Rock n Roll Rebel She’d become the leading lady and girls like Regan Hoffman with their sixth sense of exactly how many bangle bracelets to stack per arm and when to put a belt with a dress for a touch of I-just-threw-this together well they’d just be gnats on an Alabama summer night Who could compete with a girl who plays drums But the real catalyst behind Tig’s interest in playing drums Truth was it had a lot to do with Will Mason No Will Mason wasn’t some dreamy unattainable guy Tig barely knew but had been pining away for since he’d accidentally brushed up against her in the hall or asked to borrow a pencil Hardly What Will lacked in dreaminess he more than made up for in annoyingness One might have said Tig and Will were friends except for the fact that she couldn’t stand him They sat at the same lunch table but that was more a function of their having the same social status basically none and the same circle of friends the pretty-smart B students who could have probably 2
Chapter One made As if they cared enough to try Will played drums in the school band and carried sticks in his back pocket at all times Tig felt that Will thought this made him cool so one day when he began teasing her about her hair her braces or one of the other billion things he picked on her about she decided to set him straight Let me guess you’re so into your music that you can’t be without your drumsticks for even a moment she asked Or do you just want everyone to know you’re a drummer because that’s you know such a big deal I suppose you think you could play the drums Antigone he countered Tig’s first name was Greek and pronounced Ann-TIG-ah-nee but Will liked to pronounce it AN-ti-gone as in against going away I’m sure I could if I felt like it Tig said Yeah right Girls don’t play the drums Of all the guys to get stuck next to at lunch Will always sat at the end of the adjoining table of his best 3
