That night Paul went over to John’s mother’s house, where John was. The two
practiced playing their guitars in her bathroom, because the acoustics were good. After
their usual greetings of ‘hello’s,’ Paul said to him, “You know, I think that Autumn really
likes you.” John looked at Paul non-chalantly. “Oh yeah?” He asked.
“Yeah, why don’t you ask her to our gig tomorrow? I’m going with Ariel, maybe we could double date or something.”
John agreed with a nod. “All right, I might give her a call then. She was kind of cute.” Picking up his guitar, John started playing “That’s All Right Mama,” and Paul played and sang along.
After practicing for several hours, Paul left and headed home. He still had homework to do, but decided to call Ariel instead. “Hello?” Ariel answered on the second ring. “Hey,” said Paul on the other end.
“Hi!” I said, excited to hear Paul’s voice. “How are you?”
“Great, I just came home from John’s. He’s going to call Autumn and invite her to the show tomorrow. I told him she really liked him.”
“You what?” I exclaimed shocked. “I don’t know if she’ll kill you or hug you. Anyway, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
“I think he’ll call her. He said she was cute.”
“Well, that’s good. I just don’t want her to be hurt.” I said, overly protective of my best friend.
“If he hurts her, then he’ll have to listen to me. I think Autumn is a sweet girl, although not half as sweet as you.” Paul said, almost as an after thought. I smiled to myself.
Meanwhile, John had just gotten up the courage to dial up Autumn’s number.
“Hello, Autumn speaking.” Autumn said, always polite.
“’Ello Autumn,” John’s voice boomed through the speaker.
“Hi John,” Autumn immediately recognized his voice. She had quickly gotten over the shock that John had actually called her.
“I was wondering if you would like to go to our gig at the Cavern with me tomorrow. I know Paul and Ariel are going. Would you want to go with them and get something to eat?” John asked.
“Sure, I’d love to!” Autumn said, clearly excited.
“Okay luv, I’ll pick you up around 5 then.”
“Goodbye John, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye-bye.” John hung up the phone and sighed. He had never felt this way before about a girl. He didn’t know what he was getting himself into.
On the other end, Autumn dialed Ariel’s number. The line was busy...apparently she was still chatting with Paul.
“Well, Paul I should let you go, although I hate to. I really need to finish my Chemistry homework.” I said regretfully.
“All right dear, I suppose I should do mine too. I’ll see you tomorrow in the cafeteria.”
“I can’t wait to see your concert,” I said, not wanting to hang up.
“I hope you enjoy it Ariel, good bye now.” Paul said, ending the conversation.
“Bye Paul.” I hung up as I said it.
I had just opened my Chem. book when the phone rang. “Hello?” I asked, slightly annoyed.
“Ariel!” exclaimed Autumn. “You’ll never guess what just happened!”
“John called you and invited you to the concert tomorrow?” I guessed.
“How’d you know?” Autumn accused.
“I just got off the phone with Paul, and he told me. Apparently he hinted to John that you liked him and that John should ask you out.”
“I knew it! I knew it was Paul! And I knew that you were talking to him too.”
“Well, he meant well. And now you have a date with John, so don’t be mad at him.” I tried to lessen Paul’s crime of telling John she liked him.
“I’m not mad, I guess. Hopefully it will all work out and you can thank Paul for me.”
“I hope so too. Now, I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I really have to finish my homework.”
“OK Ariel, I can take a hint. If you’d rather do homework that talk to me...” Autumn whined.
“Goodbye Autumn.” I stated.
Five minutes later, my head was in my book and I was fast asleep.
When I met up with the other girls the next morning, Autumn was telling of her date that afternoon with John. “Hey guys,” I greeted.
“Hi Ariel,” Mary, Drew and Autumn answered.
“Are you guys coming to the Cavern tonight to see the guys play?” I asked.
“I’m going! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Mary said excitedly.
“No one invited me.” Drew pouted.
“Nobody invited me either, and I’m going!” Exclaimed Mary.
Drew was very sensitive, so I said “Of course you’re invited. You can go with Mary.”
“She can?” Asked Mary. “Oh yeah, you can come with me, Drew.”
Drew smiled, looking satisfied. I rolled my eyes; she was so fickle.
Soon it was once again lunch time. I approached the table and saw that Paul had once again saved us a seat. He was so sweet. I smiled at him and set down my bagged lunch. I had remembered to bring my lunch today, after the horror of eating school’s food yesterday. I saw Paul had his usual sardines and peanut butter sandwich. (Yuck!) And George also had his usual - scones. Blueberry today.
“George, are them those lovely little scones your mother made ya?” Paul picked on George.
George looked at Paul, annoyed. “Oh you pick on your own!”
“I don’t know,” I said, “which is worse, scones everyday or sardines and peanut butter? I prefer my P&P loaf.” I said, looking at my sandwich.
After school, Autumn and I rushed back to my house to get ready to go to the Cavern Club.
“I love to hear Paul sing!” I giggled. “It turns me on.”
“Anything with three legs turns you on!” Autumn said as she applied a stroke of lip gloss.
“That’s not true, only Paul possesses the power to turn me on.” I then launched into singing, “There were bells on a hill, but I never heard them ringing, no I never heard them at all, till there was you!”
“You’re sad. Very sad...” Autumn laughed at me.
“No I’m not, I’m in love!” I exclaimed.
“Okay, whatever you say.” Autumn said unconvincingly.
The clock was nearing 5, and there was a knock at the door. I ran to get it, certain it was Paul and John. I saw Paul’s bug out the window. “There’re here!” I yelled up the stairs to my friend.
“Okay, be right down,” she shouted back.
A few minutes later she came down, and we were off. Autumn and John sat in the back while Paul drove, and I got shotgun. I must have looked good, because Paul kept glancing my way and smiling. John noticed, and laughing, said, “Better keep your eyes on the road, Paul. I’d like to make this gig in one piece.”
We all laughed, and I blushed. I noticed the the speed limit sign was 75 km/h. I then looked at the speedometer, a shocking 100 km/h. “Paul! Slow down, you’re going to get us killed!”
John chuckled. “It’s amazing he can get this car to even go that fast, but he does.”
Paul slowed down a bit, just as we were entering the parking lot of the Country Spot. John opened the car door for Autumn, and Paul the same for me. What gentlemen.
We ordered, and our meal came quickly. John and Paul both had fish and chips. Autumn had grilled chicken and french fries. I ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
After a dessert of ice cream, we left for the club. John and Paul had to arrive early in order to set up and get ready. Autumn and I took our place in a table up front, and saved two seats for Drew and Mary. We ordered two sodas and waited.
No sooner had the guys started setting up, than people (most of which were young girls) began filtering in. Five minutes before the performance was supposed to start, Mary and Drew still weren’t there.
“Where are they!?!” I was clearly annoyed. “They said they’d be here!”
“I’m sure that they will be here soon,” Autumn reassured. “They’ll probably be just a little late, you know how Drew is with punctuality.”
I answered with a simple “Huh!” It would be just like them to not show up at all. As I took one more anxious look towards the door, John began to speak.
“Good evening ladies and genitiles. We’d like to start by opening with Besame Mucho.”
“Wow, this place is packed!” I recognized Mary’s voice behind us. I whipped around.
“Where have you been?” I scolded. “The show’s already started!”
“Don’t yell at me,” Mary said defensively, “it’s Drew’s fault. I got to her house, and she just stood there for five minutes on the porch while I blew the horn. Then she just had to put the dogs in. So if you want to blame someone for us being late, blame her.”
The two girls sat down, and Paul began singing, “Besame, besame mucho..ah love me forever and make all my dreams come true.” I smiled at the sound of his voice, and he winked at me. Mary was very excited about this. “He winked at you!! Oh my gosh!”
“Calm down, Mary. It’s not that big of a deal.” I brushed it off, but inside I too was flipping out.
The next song was the song John had promised to sing. “This next song is a song that I wrote for a special someone,” John started. “I’d like to dedicate it to the brunette in the front table, Autumn. The song’s called Hello Little Girl.” With that he charged into singing the song.
“Wow, those guys really like you!” Mary said, sounding jealous. “Hey, that guy with the sunglasses is pretty cute.”
“You mean Stuart? Yeah, he is. He’s a painter.” I filled Mary in.
“Oh, I love art..” Mary cooed.
“Shh!” Autumn grumbled. “I can’t hear my song!”
We quieted down, and the rest of the concert was uneventful.
At the end, Mary and Drew left together, and Autumn and I waited around for a few minutes for Paul and John.
John and Autumn went off somewhere together, and Paul drove me home. It was a wonderful evening.
*This was written with help from my friend Jamie.*
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