Stage Two Hullabaloo Even better than those stuck up show offs from the Quetlock Heights Academy with their silly tartan ties and blazers The snooty academy concert orchestra might have won the title last year and the year before that and every year stretching back to the beginning of talent show time but their reign was over now There was a new school orchestra champion in town waiting behind the curtain in their red Quetlock Quavers T shirts ready for the performance of their lives The orchestra had been practicing nonstop for weeks For months They knew their opening piece Foxtrot for Elephant back to front and inside out They knew it so well they could have played it in their sleep In fact one of the flautists Piper Lewis had been doing just that for the last three nights in a row She was still humming it when she woke up each morning her fingers picking out the notes on imaginary flute keys as she lay there under the covers And Cody Clendon the Quetlock Quavers's percussionist was no better He'd been tapping out his part on every desk in school for the last two weeks much to his teachers annoyance Stop tapping Cody and work on your math problems Less tapping and more Spanish please Mr Clendon CODY CLENDON STOP THAT TERRIBLE TAPPING It wasn't just Cody's fingers drumming out the opening bars of Foxtrot for Elephant now though Nervous excitement had
Where's Bert set his arms and legs off too elbows jerking up and down like a hyper chicken BUMP CLATTER CRASH Ow ow ow cried his neighbor as the cymbal went flying off after the triangle Watch out clumsy that's my other toe Shh hissed the conductor Mrs Allegro waving her baton at them We don't want the judges to hear you arguing Good luck everyone she added Let's make it a good one Our best performance yet Good luck whispered the violins to the violas Break a leg said the clarinets to the oboes May the force be with you said the bassoonist who was a bit of a Star Wars nut Psst Ying it's time to put your book away and get warmed up What Oh Sorry Ying Cheung put down her library book and picked up her trombone squeezing her lips into shape Tick tock tick tock Six minutes to go The nervous chain of good luck wishes carried on rippling across the stage in soft whispering waves Good luck hissed the first cello to the second Good luck mouthed the second cello to Dev Shah on third Good luck with the solo Bert said Dev turning to his
Stage Two Hullabaloo neighbor Retired music teacher Bert Bishop wasn't an official member of the Quetlock Quavers but he came in to help whenever whenever one of their pieces called for a double bass Like Foxtrot for Elephant with the four bar solo at the start the first four bars of their entire set Wait a minute said Dev clocking the empty stool beside him Where is Bert His glasses were still there on the music stand where he'd left them after rehearsals but there was no sign of his music And there was no sign more importantly of Bert himself Dev stood up and peered over the top of his spy style sunglasses sunglasses looking for a tell tale crop of gray hair peeking over one of the other music stands Bert was surprisingly small for a bass player But there was no sign of him No sign of his mischievous grin No sign of his light up musical bow tie And no sign of his bass Oh dear That wasn't good That wasn't good at all Where's Bert Dev said again louder this time Mr Bishop Where are you HAS ANYONE SEEN BERT What's going on back there called Mrs Allegro Sit down Dev it's time we got tuned up ready to start Dev shook his head No We can't start yet Bert's not here What Mrs Allegro turned pale What do you mean he's not here Where is he then
