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shrugged in response.
    John and I had become our own little group inside this rock band. We hung out together during breaks and made jokes, especially since the other three guys hung out together and made their own jokes. Every Thursday after school, I’d go over to John’s house and we’d practice together, or we’d listen to some classic rock songs so we could sound like we knew as much about rock music as the other guys. And then we’d make suggestions about what songs we could play. So far, we had suggested “Yellow Submarine” and “Eye of the Tiger.” But Elijah, Harry, and Ennio had nixed them both.
    That was fine, though, because I was really into “The Final Countdown,” which had been Mr. Bowles’s suggestion.
It’s the final countdown!
    “I don’t know, guys,” Mr. Bowles said. “I’m not sure there’s going to be enough time between today and Wednesday to learn a brand-new song. Maybe we should stick to ‘The Final Countdown’ for now?” He played the opening notes of that song on the keyboard, and John started bopping his head.
    Then Elijah started playing a great riff on his bass, which turned out to be the opening of “Seven Nation Army.” As if on cue, Harry and Ennio started playing, too. It was pretty obvious that they had practiced the song a lot of times before today. I have to say, they sounded amazing.
    Somewhere in the second chorus, Mr. Bowles put his hand up for them to stop jamming.
    “Okay, dudes,” he said, nodding. “You’re sounding absolutely awesome. Killer bass, Elijah. But everyone’s got to be able to play the song for the spring concert, right? These two dudes need a chance to learn the song, too.” He pointed at me and John.
    “But it’s just basic chords!” said Elijah. “Like C and G! B. D. You do know D, right?” He looked at us like we were an alien species. “You seriously can’t do that?”
    “I can do that,” I answered quickly, forming the chords with my fingers.
    “I hate the B chord!” said John.
    “It’s so easy!” said Elijah.
    “But what about ‘The Final Countdown’?” John whined. “I’ve been practicing that for weeks!”
    He started playing the same opening part that Mr. B had just played, but he honestly didn’t sound that good.
    “Dude, that was awesome!” said Mr. B, high-fiving John.
    I noticed Elijah smiled at Harry, who looked down like he was trying not to laugh.
    “Guys, we have to be fair here,” said Mr. B to Elijah.
    “Here’s the thing,” answered Elijah. “We can only play one song at the spring concert, and we want it to be ‘Seven Nation Army.’ Majority rules.”
    “But it’s not what we
said
we were going to play!” yelled John. “It’s not fair that you guys agreed to play ‘The Final Countdown,’ and me and Chris have spent a lot of time learning it….”
    I have to admit, John had guts talking back to a sixth grader like that.
    “Sorry, dude,” said Elijah, fiddling with his amp. But he didn’t seem sorry.
    “Okay, let’s settle down, guys,” said Mr. B with his eyes closed.
    “Mr. B?” said Ennio, holding up his hand like he was in class. “The thing is, this is going to be our last spring concert before the three of us graduate.” He pointed his drumstick at Harry and Elijah and himself.
    “Yeah, we’re going to middle school next year!” agreed Elijah.
    “We want to play a song that we feel really good about,” Ennio finished. “ ‘The Final Countdown’ doesn’t represent us musically.”
    “But that’s not fair!” said John. “This is an after-
school
rock band. Not just
your
band! You can’t just do that!”
    “Dude, you can play whatever you want next year,” Elijah answered. He looked like he wanted to flick John’s glasses off his face. “You can play ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ for all I care.”
    This made the other guys laugh.
    Mr. Bowles finally opened his eyes. “Okay, guys, enough,” he said, holding up his hands. “Here’s what we’re