Hughes - Lemonade Mouth

ALSO BY MARK PETER HUGHES
I Am the Wallpaper

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2007 by Mark Peter Hughes

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ember,
an imprint of Random House Childrens Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Delacorte Press,
an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, New York, in 2007.

Ember and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:
Hughes, Mark Peter.
Lemonade Mouth / by Mark Peter Hughes.1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular local rock band.
eISBN: 978-0-307-97486-0
[1. MusiciansFiction. 2. Interpersonal relationsFiction. 3. High schoolsFiction. 4. SchoolsFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H8736113Lem 2007
[Fic]dc22

2006020429

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v3.1_r1

Id like to thank my editor, Stephanie Lane Elliott, for her keen eye and sound advice, and my agent, Andy McNicol. Thanks also to all the folks at Random House who helped put this book together, especially Shameiza Ally; Anjulee Alvares; Lesley Krauss; Barbara Perris and her eagle-eyed cohorts; Tamar Schwartz; Trish Parcell; and the fantastic Random House sales team. Special thanks to the following for their assistance and support: the Commando Writers (Michael A. Di Battista, Scott Fitts, Geoffrey H. Goodwin, Dalia Rabinovich and John Smithgo commando!), Suzanne Winnell Hughes, Peter Hughes, Susan Green, Hamilton Hackney, Ayesha Khanna, Raymonda Khoury, Shauna Leggat, Lauren McGovern, Kevin McGurn, Claudia Sorsby, Guru Swamy and Margarita Winnell. This book was made possible, in part, by a Society of Childrens Book Writers & Illustrators Work-in-Progress Grant.

Last and most, Id like to thank my wife, Karen. Muchos besos, sanda de amor.

For Evan, Luca and Zoe
mi tiburn, mi mariposa y mi frijol

Dear Reader,

As anyone can tell you, the facts surrounding the rise and fall of the late great Lemonade Mouth are steeped in legend and shrouded in mystery.

But I was there. I know the real scoop, the honest dish.

As a member of that historic Opequonsett High School freshman class and a close friend to the central players of the phenomenon, I have insights that future biographers will no doubt lack. Not that getting the full story out of each of those involved was easy. Stella, for example, had so much to say during my interviews that I ended up having to treat her to lunch three separate timeswhich cost a bundle. Olivia, on the other hand, left me only a small stack of photocopied letters with such faint handwriting that I had to hold them up to the light just to read them. Getting Charlies part of the story should have been easy, since he was supposed to type it up for Mr. Levesque over the summer in order to avoid a failing grade in English Comp, but he ended up taking so long hunting and pecking at the keyboard that for a while it seemed like Id see old age and death before Id ever see his report.

But fear not, Dear Reader. My patience and efforts were well rewarded. And Im pleased to be the only reporter with exclusive permission to tell the whole story, even the prickly, embarrassing parts.

At least the stuff they admitted to.

So its fair to say that the document you hold in your hands is the definitive anthology of Lemonade Mouth, presenting a unique opportunity to peer inside the heads of each of the Fab Five. In keeping with the best practices of journalism, I have endeavored to report the facts in as truthful and unbiased a manner as possible.

Except when I didnt have all the facts.

In that case I just had to guess.

Naomi Fishmeier
Scene Queen & Official Biographer of
Lemonade Mouth

It all started when Sydney climbed out of the truck. Somehow, even though I didnt know it yet, what happened that autumn morning is what set everything else in motion. The second the passenger door banged shut, I turned to my dad.

So tell me, is she living with us now or what?

My dad kept us idling at the curb while she promenaded all the way to the bus stop, finally turning to blow him a kiss. No, not at all, he said, snapping out of his trance. Shes just going through some roommate problems. Its not permanent.

Until August or so, my little brother George and I had hardly ever run into Sydney, my dads girlfriend, even though theyd been seeing each other since the spring. Unfortunately, over the last month wed started seeing a lot more of her.

Which, for me, was a real problem.

As we pulled away from the curb I snuck one last look in her direction. I tried to will myself not to, but I couldnt help it. Today, an early October morning as warm and humid as summer, she was wearing a halter top and a pair of tight cutoff jeans.

Dad was obviously going through some kind of midlife crisis.

At twenty-six, Sydney was sixteen years younger than he was. I sometimes even caught myself staring at her, which wasnt something I was proud of. I felt terrible about it, horrible. After all, this was my dads girlfriend.

I hated myself.

My eyes followed her across the window until she slipped out of sight.

You couldve fooled me. She spends more time at our place than I do. I immediately regretted saying it. My dad wasnt about to let a comment like that go, and I had other worries at that moment. Not only had we wasted time dropping off Sydney, but before that wed taken too long getting George to school, and before that wed left our house late because Sydney took forever in the bathroom. So now Id already missed homeroom and would probably arrive late for my social studies presentation. I was first on todays list.

Thats not true and you know it, Dad said, racing us through a yellow light.