Monkey Business (21 page)

There were four other stages—smaller ones—two on each side. And lots of booths in the middle selling T-shirts and french fries and popcorn and burritos.

I checked my watch. It wasn't yet noon. We still had time.

“Let's wander,” said Claire, linking her arm through mine.

“Hold on a second!” said Yumi's mom. “We need a plan. You girls need to stick together. No one can go off by themselves. If you need to go to the bathroom—take a friend. If you need to get a snack—take a friend. We are going to meet at this flagpole every hour. Everyone understand?”

“You mean you're not coming with us?” Claire asked, her eyes bright.

Vanessa put her arm around Claire's shoulders. “We discussed this with everyone's parents and decided you girls are old enough to be on your own. As long as you check in with us every hour.”

Yoko pointed to the flagpole in the center of the field. “You'll be able to see the check-in spot from wherever you are.”

I couldn't believe we were going to get to wander around by ourselves. It was thrilling and scary and amazing we were old enough to do this.

We got popcorn, and elbowed our way as close to
the front of the stage as we could get. There were teenagers and old people and every age in between.

“We still have ten minutes. Maybe we should walk around some more!” Yumi shouted over the noise.

“But then we'd give up this spot,” said Emma.

Suddenly a loud clap of thunder boomed across the sky.

“Wow, that was so loud, I felt it in my bones,” I said, covering my hands with my ears.

The crowd let out a huge moan of disappointment.

“It cannot rain,” said Emma. “We worked too hard to get here. It cannot rain!”

Except as Emma said this, the skies seemed to open up and the rain came pouring down in giant sheets.

We ran for shelter, except there was so little. Just one area near the food where they'd constructed a gigantic wooden overhang, and everyone seemed to have the same idea that we had.

“The concert cannot be canceled,” yelled Claire.

My face was soaking wet, so you couldn't have seen the tears. Three businesses, three months, a three-hour car ride, and here we were. Claire was right—the concert could not be canceled. The universe couldn't do that to us!

I glanced at my watch. At twelve o'clock, precisely, the rain let up, as if by magic, or through the sheer force of our collective wills.

The clouds drifted away and the sun came out.

The ground was soaked and there were giant puddles everywhere, but none of us cared. We grabbed hands and ran back to the stage and ended up in an even better spot than before.

Soon a woman in a navy-blue suit came out to talk about the pandas.

“Thanks to your help, more than one million dollars have been raised to help the pandas!” she yelled.

“Yay!” We all clapped.

And then the lights dimmed and the spotlight shined in the center of the stage and out she came. The crowd roared so loudly, my ears hurt. We were in the center of everything!

We were shaking with excitement and shivering from cold and soaked through to our underwear, and I didn't know where the shivering stopped and the shaking began, but it didn't matter. This was our moment.

As the first band stepped onto the stage, fireworks shot through the sky. And when the lead singer began to sing, I felt just about ready to explode with excitement.

I could give you a play-by-play, list every single song that every single band played. Show you all the dance moves. But it wouldn't do the night justice. It was simply something you had to be there for, the kind of experience that was impossible to re-create. In a word: perfection. In two words: pure bliss.

I was twelve and so were my four best friends. We
were at the concert of our dreams. When it ended, we'd still have the entire summer to look forward to. Life was awesome. In fact, it was beyond awesome.

Well, except for the disaster that happened right before Labor Day. But that's a story for next time!

THE ANNABELLE UNLEASHED SERIES
Boys Are Dogs
Girls Acting Catty
Everybody Bugs Out
One Tough Chick
Monkey Business

*

THE MAGGIE BROOKLYN MYSTERIES
Girl's Best Friend
Vanishing Acts
Secrets at the Chocolate Mansion

Copyright © 2014 by Leslie Margolis

All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published in the United States of America in September 2014
by Bloomsbury Children's Books
Electronic edition published in September 2014
www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children's Books, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Margolis, Leslie.
Monkey business / by Leslie Margolis.
pages    cm
Summary: A huge music festival is coming to town, and sixth grader Annabelle and her friends
can't wait to rock out … that is if they can come up with enough cash to buy the expensive
tickets.
[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Moneymaking projects—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M33568Mo 2014    [Fic]—dc23    2014005048

ISBN: 978-1-61963-394-0 (e-book)

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