Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Performance, Part 4 (Kathy)

I thought I'd do a quick update, then post the final two chapters of this (really just a chapter-and-a-half) later in the week. I wish I'd written more of it! Better yet, I wish I could find the original version of The Performance (written in 1990 or so) which DID have more to it. Sigh. Maybe someday.

Meanwhile, if you thought Racquelle was bad, wait until you read about her best friend Kathy, who's a little like Racquelle and Christie Wellman combined. (shudder)

However, I secretly kind of love Miss Jewell.

Chapter Five - Kathy

Oh, does Kathy Bell love California! It is terrif-a-jific! Absotively, posolutely wonder-nifi-cent! Fabu-tastic!

(Gigundoly super!)

I mostly can't wait until my 14th birthday party! I'm glad that school group is here, but it's going to be awfully hard to cram everyone around the pool. But I will anyway. I can't leave anyone out!

Oh, a pool party! I've never had anything like it!!!

Anyhow, we had to practice in the middle of the day today because our first concert is tonight! We'll be performing songs from our first album, including "My Best Friend", "It Should've Been You", "In the Land of Dreams", "Eerie Shadows", and my personal favorite, "Forever Mine"!

This is so exciting!!!

(For the record, the original version of The Performance included a chapter about Kathy's pool party, which ... didn't go very well. Poor Kathy.)

We were in Disneyland!!!

I couldn't believe it. After months of planning and waiting, we were finally here.

I looked around Main Street, a big grin on my face. I wanted to take it all in at once. It was so exciting, so...

"Kathy!" snapped my old friend Kristy O'Hara.

Oh, no, I thought. Oh, I was caught daydreaming! How mortifying, how...

I noticed Kristy, Becca, and Jennifer Worness staring at me impatiently, so I smiled and said sweetly, "Sorry."

"I'm glad we don't have a teacher with us," Kristy declared. (Kristy and Jennifer were a grade ahead of the oldest kids in the school group, so they were along as "junior helpers" or something (is that like junior CIT's?), which meant they didn't have to be assigned to a teacher-supervised group. Since Becca and I were their best New York friends, the four of us decided to walk around together.)

"What'll we do first?" Kristy continued. "I want to go on Star Tours!"

"Oh, but Kristy, won't you go on the carousel with me?" I asked. I had been dying to go on King Arthur's Carousel.

"Star Tours first," Kristy said firmly. "We're closer."

"Kristy," I whined.

"Wha-at?" she asked, sounding irritated.

"I WANNA GO ON THE CAROUSEL!" I screeched.

"Personally, I want to shop," spoke up Becca.

"Same here!" agreed Jennifer.

"NO, NO-NO, NO, NO, NO!" I yelled.

(No, Kathy was not supposed to be mentally challenged.)

"Will you shut up?" Kristy muttered. I glared at her.

Just then, Miss Jewell ran past us. "Lunchtime! Anywhere you want!" she yelled, and disappeared.

"Let's eat!" cried Becca.

We walked to the nearest restaurant, Plaza Inn, which was between Main Street and Tomorrowland. (Our map was helping us find everything easily.) Becca and I were using Disney dollars to pay for our food. Miss Jewell had paid for the Disney dollars. She's a wealthy woman, like myself. Still, I didn't want to spend too much of her money. I settled for a tuna salad and a Coke. They were scrumptious!

After lunch, I agreed to go on Star Tours, since it was so close by. I have to admit, it was a very neat ride!

We let Becca and Jennifer look around in the Star Trader, a shop right next to Star Tours. They didn't buy anything. So we rode the skyway (RIP) to Fantasyland ... to experience King Arthur's Carousel!

It was everything I thought it would be and more. I wanted to ride it again and again.

But we didn't have time for that. Becca wanted to ride Pinnochio's Daring Journey and Jennifer wanted to try Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

They were both neat rides. I was all set to request the spinning teacups when Jennifer whined, "Can I please buy something from Tinkerbell Toy Shoppe?"

"I want to buy a camera at Kodak Kiosk," added Becca.

(I had a little Disneyland guide handy when I was writing this, in case you couldn't tell.)

"Fine," grumbled Kristy, who also wanted to go on rides.

But I switched gears quickly. Maybe Becca and Jennifer were buying presents for me!

"Sure!" I cried happily. "Go ahead and shop!"

We went to Tinkerbell Toy Shoppe first, since it was closer. Right away, I noticed an adorable puppet.

"Look at this Pinnochio puppet," I said to Jennifer. "It's so exquisite, such carefully featured..."

"It's thirty-seven dollars," Jennifer said bluntly.

I sighed.

(You barely even know each other, Kathy. She's Becca's one friend, remember?)

A few minutes later, I saw something else -- a huge stuffed dalmation from 101 Dalmations. "Look at this huge stuffed dalmation from 101 Dalmations," I said to Kristy. "He's so cute! I'd like to find him in one of my birthday packages."

"Look how much it is, Kathy!" Kristy practically shouted.

Darn it! I thought.

Jennifer ended up buying a stuffed Cheshire cat. Then we went to Kodak Kiosk, where Becca bought her camera and Kristy bought some film.

By that time, Becca and I realized that we had only ten minutes to get back to the hotel for concert practice. We took the shuttle bus back to Stovall's Inn, but it was still another thirty minutes before we entered Miss Jewell's room. (Of course it makes so much sense for them to warm up there).

"It's about time!" Carrie cried when she saw us.

"I wouldn't talk, Carrie," Cyndi said jokingly. "You just came in about five minutes ago because you were so busy talking to that guy..."

"Fine, fine," Miss Jewell interrupted."Let's get down to business. What's the schedule for tonight?"

"Here," said Lisa, handing her a typed sheet. I peeked over Miss Jewell's shoulder. This was our official seven-day schedule:

(Snipped because I don't feel like typing the titles of all of Lisa and the Angels' songs. However, the schedule shows they have a "covers night" on Day Five, which includes such classics as "Forever Your Girl" by Paula Abdul, "Foolish Beat" by Debbie Gibson, "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago, "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles, "Soul Provider" by Michael Bolton, and -- oh, good lord -- "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega.)

Miss Jewell caught me looking over her shoulder. "KMB!" she cried. "Get crackin'!"

(KMB are my initials. Miss Jewell does that sometimes. I don't know why.)

"Lisa, put on the tape!" Miss Jewell ordered.

"But where's the band?" I whined. (I prefer live music to canned music.)

"Do you think we can fit a band in here, KMB? They're at Disneyland, warming up."

"Okay, MLJ," I snapped. (I was embarrassed by her rudeness to me. And "L" stands for Lynne, Miss Jewell's middle name.)

(Marianne Lynne Jewell? What kind of name is that?)

Carrie snickered after I said that. Miss Jewell glared at her and clapped her hands.

"We haven't got all day! The concert is tonight, remember! Spit-spot!"

"Okay, Mary Poppins. I thought the concert was next month," Becca whispered sarcastically to me. I giggled.

"Spit-spot! LRM! RAA!!!"

"WHAT?!!" Racquelle screeched, nearly deafening me.

"GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!!!!" Miss Jewell roared in an even louder voice.

"Jeez, Racquelle and Miss Jewell, the whole hotel's going to hear you," Jennifer commented. "Then they'll come down and bombard us and ask us for our autographs."

I giggled again. This time, Miss Jewell's glare was focused on me!

"KMB! IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU, YOU'LL CRACK DOWN!"

"Okay," I muttered.

We began the scales (snicker), and I stifled a sigh. Disneyland was looking better every minute!

**********************************************************************
Up next -- Lisa and the Angels perform! (For real this time.)

Also, in case you feel like commenting but don't have a Blogger/Gmail/AOL account, I changed the settings so that everyone can post, even if you're anonymous. Thanks again for the comments.:-)

4 comments:

Media Peasant said...

Can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this... and between you and Sada, I'm feeling MUCH better about the fact that I spent most of my childhood writing stuff like this, too. :)

I'm at www.mediapeasant.com

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Jewell needs to can it, can it, cut it out...
Wasn't she supposed to be abot 21 or something?

Anonymous said...

You answered many of my questions in your little comments throughout the story. I was wondering: A). Whether Kathy was mentally-challenged and B) how you knew so much about Disneyland. I don't remember if you said that Kathy's birthday was coming up or not, but regardless, she's a pain in the ass. Also, Miss Jewell seems like she's a very flustered, overly-stressed woman who is starting to show shades of Aunt Josephine's rage. What was with the initials? Finally, the skyway used to scare the crap out of me when I was younger, since I was terrified that I was going to fall out.

Sada said...

Whoa, MLJ is crackin' the whip! Figuratively, I mean. Unless she had the foresight to borrow a whip from Aunt Josephine!