Free The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey Page B

mum’s job has something to do with the U.N.). And when I told him about my plans to start a band with Cass and Alice and about how Alice had an electric guitar but no amp he lent me a little amp and some microphones and their stands as well. ‘Someone might as well put them to good use,’ he said. He is brilliant. I sort of wish he wasn’t going to America at all. I would like to see him again. Even though he is (a) too old and (b) my heart belongs to Paperboy.
    Anyway! We got the drum kit and the amp and the microphones and stuff into the car and took it out to Alice’s. Mum went off to chat to Alice’s parents, who were all excited about her stupid new book. They both love Mum’s books, God help them. Alice says Germans love sloppy books about Ireland, and that’s why her mum first came over here in the eighties, because she’d read loads about the beauty of the countryside and how friendly and magical the people supposedly were. That is why she loves Mum’s books so much. Although Alice’s dad is fromClontarf, so he doesn’t have any excuse. Anyway, I put the kit back together again (the diagram helped, and so did Alice and even Rachel). And then there it was. Our band room (well, band garage). Alice’s guitar was there already, and it was propped up against the bass drum and it really looked like a proper band rehearsal room.
    ‘Except you can’t play the drums and you don’t have any songs,’ said Rachel. She is so annoying. She and Mum went home (Mum came back later to collect me – she is still feeling guilty about destroying my life so she is being very good about lifts) and Alice and I sort of looked at the drums and then at each other and then we got very excited and jumped up and down and cheered.
    ‘Let’s play something!’ said Alice, and I said she should start playing something and I’d try playing along. Alice has been learning classical guitar but of course she can play chords and stuff too, so she plugged in her dad’s guitar. But we couldn’t start rocking straight away because she had to tune it first which took about five years. Then she did a big chord. Even though the amp is tiny it sounded pretty good. It sounded very rock and roll.
    ‘Wow,’ said Alice. And we both looked at each otherand started laughing. Then she started playing a song by that sixties band the Kinks – the one that goes ‘all day and all of the night’. It only has three chords in it so she could just about manage it. I started drumming along and it was a bit wonky and I couldn’t work out the foot pedal thing but it worked! Well, I was more or less in time with the music. I am a drummer! We tried a few more songs and Alice sang a bit (she says it’s hard to play and sing at the same time but she did quite well) and I was surprised at how tiring it was, bashing away. But it was brilliant. It was the most fun I’ve had in ages and ages. We’re going to have another practice tomorrow – Cass is coming out too.
Sunday
    First proper band practice today! It went really well, to my surprise. I say surprise, because the way Cass was going on I thought we’d have to spend the entire time helping her turn on the keyboard. She was acting like she barely knew how to play the piano even though she’s done her grade 4 exams, which apparently means she should be able to playfairly complicated stuff. When we got off the bus at the end of Alice’s road (or rather, country lane, because it’s not really what you’d call a road. There’s grass growing in the middle of it and only two other houses apart from theirs. Also, it’s about 20 metres long) she was still moaning on about how crap she was going to be which was weird because Cass is hardly ever nervous. On the worrying scale, Alice is probably the most neurotic, then me, and then, a long way away, Cass. But today she was all over the place. It was very surprising. However, when she saw the practice room (as we are now calling the garage) she cheered up a