Chapter twenty-one

Kris was nervous when she came home from school a couple days later. Carefully she set her guitar down near the stairs and took a deep breath. She could hear Jon and Dot talking in the kitchen. Would he be happy for her? Would he let her go? What should she do when he wouldn’t? Should she fight for it or should she accept it? She bit her bottom lip and entered the kitchen with a small smile on her face.

“I made it.” She said nervously.

“You made what?” Jon asked curious.

“I won the audition. I’m the new singer in the school band.” Her eyes were shining with excitement now and her face was flushed. Please, let him be ok with it.

Jon choked at his coffee. “I didn’t know you want to sing?”

“Uhm…yeah, well I wasn’t sure, but they liked it, so…” Kris stuttered lightly.

Dot watched her husband and could see memories coming back to his mind. She had to smile. “So when do you meet?” She asked Kris.

“We rehearse on Monday and Wednesday after school in Dan’s Bar and play there Friday night. One of the guys will pick me up. They are older and already have their driver’s license.” Kris said and took some bits of the dinner Dot had put in front of her. Dot grinned. Seems she already organized everything, but she didn’t face her father yet.

“What?” Jon’s head snapped up. “You will not play in any bar!” There we go, Dot thought and watched Kris curious. How will she react to that?

“But we need a place to rehearse and Dan let us do it for free in his bar when we play Friday nights!” Kris explained and looked at him with pleading eyes. Shit, I knew he wouldn’t let me go. He’s way too protective for it.

Jon frowned. “Kris, you are sixteen. You will not play in a bar!”

Her eyes narrowed. “But, Jon…” she tried it again.

“No! Kris.” Jon stopped her in a strict voice. She hung her head. But I need to play, Kris thought despaired.

“Jon, can I talk to you in the living room for a second?” Dot said and left the kitchen.

Jon sighed, but followed his wife. He knew she wanted him to let Kris go, but she was sixteen. He wouldn’t let her play in a bar. That could be dangerous. Why doesn’t she see it?

“She finally finds something she likes; something she can find friends with, something that can help her to deal with her past and let her heal and you tell her she’s not allowed to do it?” Dot asked with her hands on her hips and lightly raised voice.

“Dot, she’s sixteen!”

“Well, as far as I remember you were sixteen as well when you were playing bars and your parents were very supportive!” She pointed out.

“That’s something different…” he replied and at Dot’s curious look he added. “…she’s a girl!”

Dot raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. “And?” she asked provocative.

Jon sighed. “I don’t won’t her to get in a difficult situation.”

“And that wouldn’t happen when she would be a boy.” Dot pushed further. He was still hiding his real intention; she could see it in his eyes.

“Well, no not necessarily, but…” he paused briefly and looked at his wife. “…but there are girls who someone puts drugs in the drinks and they get raped.” He finally admitted his fear.

“Don’t you think she’ll watch out for that…and I’m sure her band mates too?” Dot asked softly.

Jon snorted. “We are talking about teenage boys, Dot.”

“Yeah, I know. I met some 20 years ago too and they were really nice.”

He grinned. “They were afraid of you, because of your karate skills.”

Dot laughed. “When you feel better I show Kris some very useful tricks.” Jon sighed. He still wasn’t convinced.

Dot put her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes. “I know you wanna protect her, but how should she ever be able to handle men, when she never learned how to deal with boys? She needs that ‘training’.”

Jon sighed beaten. “Ok.”

Dot smiled and placed a kiss on his till lightly pouting lips. “Great! Go and tell her.” She pushed him out of the room.

Jon walked back into the kitchen, but Kris was gone. He realized that her dinner was hardly touched. Seems she stopped eating after they left the room. He sighed. She’s just like me.

Jon walked upstairs and stopped at her wide open door. She was sitting on her bed the huge black panther on her lap. He smiled. She was so surprised and happy when he gave it to her that day after the shopping trip. Now her fingers were running through the dark fur and her chin rested on the cat’s head.

“Sweetie?”

She looked up with teary eyes. It saddened his heart that he was responsible for her pain.

He hesitated shortly. “Ok, listen. You can do it, but…” he wasn’t able to finish his sentence. Kris jumped up from the bed into his arms and squealed happily. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.” She said over and over again.

Jon had a huge grin in his face. “Ok, sweetie, ok…calm down, there some conditions…” She stopped and watched her father expectant.

“You can do it, but I will drive you to the bar tonight. I wanna meet the band members and the owner of the bar.”

Kris nodded; she already expected something like that. Especially since she told him that the boys in the band were all older than her.

“And…” Jon continued. “…when you get problems in school, you stop with the band.”

Kris sighed. “Ok, but I won’t get problems.”

He smiled. “Good. Let’s go then.”

Kris grabbed her guitar and they left for the bar.



*****************************



“Ok, tell me the names again.” Jon said when they were walking towards the backdoor of the bar.

“Steve plays guitar, Daniel keyboard, Eric bass and Teddy drums.” She said and entered the building. When they reached the bar area Jon had to smile. Looks like a bar from my youth. He shook his head.

“Hi Kris.” A rather corpulent looking guy in his mid fifties walked towards them.

“Hi Dan. This is my father.” Kris said a bit nervous. How would they all react when they’ll see him? Jon shook the bar owner’s hand who didn’t seem surprised at all to meet him.

“I wanted to see the place where she’ll play at night.” He explained his presence.

“I would have been sad when you weren’t here.” Dan said smiling. “I already had that talk with the boys’ parents. They are over there by the way, Kris.” He pointed at the stage and smiled when Kris rushed off immediately.

“So, let’s see what would you like to know?” He paused shortly and continued before Jon could say anything.

“The kids won’t get any alcohol, their set is most of the time two hours long, 10 pm till midnight, they have a fifteen minutes break in it, they can come here earlier to set up the stage and can have dinner for free if they want to and I have security people here when they are playing. About five in front of the stage.” Jon looked at him questing.

“We had to learn that drunken men have the tendency to try to get close to a female singer. Sarah, the former singer wasn’t really happy with it, so I made sure some of the security men are at the stage. Nobody will come close to her accept she wants it.” He explained.

“Well, that sounds good. What about photographers?” Jon asked.

“They are not allowed in here, Mr. Bongiovi.” Dan said with a grin.

“It’s Jon. Thanks.” Jon grinned as well and walked over to the band.

“Hi folks.” He greeted the boys. Kris gave him a pleading look. He tried hard not to laugh. She wanted him to leave that was obvious.

“Hi Mr. Bongiovi. I’m Daniel.” The boy with shoulder length blond hair extended his hand. “These are Steve, Eric and Teddy.” He introduced the other members of the band.

Jon was greeted by all of them and was surprised when he found out that huge guy who was standing silently in the background all the time, was the drummer Teddy. He was a 6’7’’ guy, looking like a sumo fighter and was a member of the school’s boxing team, Kris told him. Jon grinned. He really liked the idea that this guy was around his daughter.

“Ok, everything set?” Daniel asked. “Then let’s start.”

“Here, Kris let me help you up.” Steve said and reached for her hand to pull her up to the stage. Eric offered his hand either; while Daniel made sure she wouldn’t fall down again.

Jon smiled. Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing that they were all one or two years older than her. They seemed to see the little sister in her and he was sure they would watch out for her. Surprisingly Kris didn’t seem to be angry or mad about their behaviour.

“Don’t you think it’s time to leave?” Kris said with a little bit of anger in her voice.

“Ok, ok. Calm down. When are you finished?” he asked and looked at the boys.

“Probably around 10 pm. We have school tomorrow and we ain’t such good students like Kris.” Steve admitted laughing.

“We will take her home, sir.” Daniel added.

Jon eyed him for a second and then agreed. “10 pm. See you later, sweetie.” Kris rolled her eyes at the endearment, but was happy that Jon was finally leaving. Nothing would have made her sing in front of him.

When Jon was outside he could hear the band starting to play. Not bad, he thought. Let’s see whether they can keep their promise and bring her home in time.


*********************


Shortly after 10 pm Kris was home. Daniel, the keyboard player even escorted her to the door and waited till Jon opened it. He had to grin about such behaviour. Kris hugged Daniel a bit longer than common and told him not to overact. Does she have a crush on him, Jon wondered.