Tracy

027:

Tracy, dressed in jeans, and a dark gray long johns knit shirt, that clung to her hips unfashionably, her flat footed soft moccasins hugging her calves, fringed and laced, sat at the keyboards as the sound engineer directed the musicians who had gathered on the small stage. His name was Thorburn Marley, and he was fairly well-known in most circles, although Tracy had never worked with him and found him far less organized compared to Michael. They all called him Thor.

Casey had managed to limp in behind Jancie Morell, the girl Tracy was going to call before all the mess with finals and Danny cropped up. She stared pointedly at the keyboard, lacing her fingers softly in a melody only she could hear, pretending not to notice as the others were placed and spaced. It wasn't billed as a reunion, thanks to Richard's timely intervention, and wouldn't be even slightly alluded to as one, even though all four of them would be on stage at one time. Only one Pepper's song would be played, and that was not going to be a Casey lead. He wasn't going to skate into this unscathed and profit.

Julian was the sole drummer on set, but there were a number of headlining singers none of them had ever worked with. Out of everybody, Tracy was the only one with a currently thriving solo career, and immediately marketing albums. She wasn't put off by this, just knew where the pecking order lay. Pepper's as a whole had easily been the biggest group of the decade, but it was a new decade now and new waves of music were building followings.

Julian was lost in his own world, headphones on, as he went through riff after riff tuned out to the technical stuff. Bridget was leaning her hip against a stool, her preferred perch on a stage this size, which wasn't very big, nor were the lights terribly interesting. She strummed her guitar as Casey, making himself important argued with Thor. Three others perched against stools as well, all guitarists, all parts of other bands, but well-known bands. And then Jancie, standing with her hands on her hips, trying to get in on the debate between Casey and Thor.

Seriously.

Tracy glanced at them and then away.

It wouldn't be long, she thought, before she simply got up and left. They'd had their chance at a run-through. She didn't have all night. She peeked back at the fairly crowded ballroom with its open air seating clear out to the slopes. Raine was seated at a white table-clothed round near the front where a single waitress was offering drinks to others who were waiting for the sound check now that the rehearsal was under way.

Tracy felt her blood pressure rising, tension in her back attested to her impatience.

She wanted to see Danny, had played the part of Raine's girlfriend all day, and was lonely for her boy. Not that she wasn't immensely enjoying being Raine's girlfriend, she was. But her mind was half way on the little guy back at Austin's.

She thought about taking him night skiing.

She thought about taking Raine hot tubbing. She thought about another kiss. And her headache blossomed aggravatingly. She stopped playing, pulled her knees up and rocked back wrapping her arms around her face locked into her boney kneecaps--- hard. Even pressure didn't help.

Forcing air in and out as slowly as she could hold it, she finally signaled Julian who stopped beating the heck out of his drums and twirled his sticks in the air, watching her. He pointed one stick at his forehead and when she nodded, eyes watering, he twirled the sticks back to their holder and got up.

"Hey Case. We've had enough for tonight. I'm taking the girls back to the cabin. We'll see you and Jolie tomorrow, okay?" He didn't wait for an answer as Bridget put her guitar down and the others did likewise, whispering among themselves in relief. Raine jumped up to escort Tracy who he could tell was on the verge of another migraine.