Soul Revenge

I’m in the car. My older sister is dropping me and Matt off at the Westfield Mall. We’re fighting over what radio station to listen to.
“I want 98.7, Jessica!” I scream as she puts down the top of the convertible.
“Too bad, it’s my car! And you’re lucky that I driving you and your little friend.” She snaps.
Matt is in the back seat huddled into the car door (he doesn’t have other siblings). He’s looking pretty scared. I’m choosing to ignore Jessica and her obnoxious music.
“Matt, sorry that you have to listen to this stuff every time you wanna go to the mall. Or we have a gig.” I apologize.
“Dude, it’s alright.” Matt says putting himself back into normal position.
Today we have a gig and we are the opening act. We’re playing three of our best songs. I’m the lead singer and do some electric guitaring. Matt’s the drummer and we’re meeting the rest of the dudes (and girls) there which consists of our backup singers: Haley and McKenzie, then backup guitarist Soul and our bass player Tommi. Our band’s name is “Soul Revenge.” The whole idea of that came from Soul.
We are in the parking lot of the mall. “Okay kids, once the concert is over I’ll meet you at Claire’s, the earring store, okay?” Jessica laughs.
“No, Jess, no!” I protest, “How about Hot Topic?”
“Um… I don’t see why not. I just might shop in there come to think of it,” she thinks while hopping out of the shiny red convertible that she proudly says is her’s.
Matt and I get out of the car and by the time we actually get into the mall Jessica already has shopping bags in her arms. Matt has his lucky drum sticks in his hand and I’ve got my green and black electric guitar.
We strut over to the little stage that we usually play on. “There’s Haley and McKenzie!” Matt points out. McKenzie has her long wavy blonde hair down to her waist, and Haley (as always) is in her gray hoodie with her hair tucked under a black Fox surf hat. No one would think she’s a girl especially in those baggy jeans.
McKenzie runs over to us, “Hey guys, OMG! There’s gonna be a guy in the audience specifically for the opening acts! And this means… IF WE’RE GOOD WE COULD GET A RECORD DEAL! Group scream!” Only Mckenzie screams. We think doing “Group Screams” are for girls.
People stare at McKenzie while she screams. I actually thought I heard some guy say “Who’s the crazy blonde chick?”
“Okay McKenzie… you can stop now.” Matt says quietly, not looking directly at her so people wouldn’t see that he’s with the “Crazy Blonde Chick.” I start laughing inside my head. Soon I’m laughing so hard (in my head) that I start breathing through my nose weirdly.
Ok. Getting over that, I see Soul and Tommi coming into the mall. McKenzie sees them too and runs over to where they are (I guess to tell them the news).
We walk over to our stage and Soul and Tommi follow. Everybody in our band gathers around next to the stage. As the lead singer I am put in charge of the band so I give them a quick talk, “Okay dudes and dudettes, as you heard from Mckenzie, there is going to be someone special in the audience- someone from All Star Records. So in order to get a record deal, we MUST get our act together and go out there and…” I say as a cue to begin our motto, everyone screams together, “DO SOME SOUL REVENGE!” Our motto is kind of corny but oh well, it’s a band!
Now everyone in Soul Revenge is pumped up to rock the socks off of whoever it is from All Star records. The first song is the best so we can get everybody to love it and stay for more. It’s called “Spin Me Round.” Tommi was the best on the first song, the bass he played was so distinctive.
On the second song, “Crashing Down,” I sing heavily “We all come crashing down crashing smashing down, down, down.” As I try to wrap up the next few verses I get distracted by a guy that look exactly like Ozzy Osbourne in the audience. I try to pick it up a notch to impress him. Suddenly I see him walk away with a head shake as in saying no.
All of a sudden it hits me, my band just got rejected by the guy who eats bat heads. My legs feel unstable and I want to barf. Ozzy Osbourne, my idol, just rejected my band.
I can’t say any more but the last word of my Crashing Down song, then fall light headedly down off the stage. I close my eyes to the stopping of music. I can’t hear anything anymore, or maybe the mall just became completely silent.
Suddenly I hear shouting in my ear, “Dude your band totally rocked! Nice gimmick, falling off the stage at the end of Crashing Down!” It sounds just like… just like Ozzy!
I suddenly crack open my eyes to see if it is Ozzy Osbourne. It is! Ozzy Osbourne is touching me! Wanting to know if I’m ok (or checking out my “Gimmick”)!
I push myself up to stand, grabbing the mic off the stage, I scream into it, “Yeeeeeeeeeess!!” The whole mall joins in, “Yeeeeeeeeeess!!”
“Get back on stage and finish up our last song!” McKenzie shrieks. So I did, but first I want to ask Ozzy something, “Yo Ozzy, why’d you walk away from our band?”
“Oh, well, it was that out of all the songs, I did, this one would have been so great for me, I guess it was a little too good. Now do as she says and finish up your gig!”
Ozzy was the record dude from All Star Records, and of course we got the deal, but it didn’t all turn out great… my sister, Jessica (as you know) totally spent too much money on ridiculous things like candy that makes you cry (so sour) at Hot Topic. She’s grounded but, she still has to drive us around. (My mom is proud that I got the record deal!)

-By Daisy Karnas
Age 10