Loveless Summer - "Substitute"

With the support of their families and a new manager, Superhype charged ahead, entering what was unequivocally the most productive period of musical progression any of them had ever taken part in. And when George Bellamy secured them the headlining gig at their weekly restaurant show, also getting them a hefty $200 raise per gig, the band's confidence in his management abilities skyrocketed, especially for Ben, who watched as the hapless record store manager completely changed his entire persona, abandoning Dr. Jekyll in lieu of Mr. Hyde when the venue owner seemed uneasy about promoting the band's time slot after what was then their third live performance. The week after that, the band found itself booked for two shows that weekend, with George landing them a Saturday night gig at a brand-new venue that had just opened its doors the night before. A weekend later, the band was taking the stage at three different venues, with a Sunday show scheduled, also by George. As much as everyone initially doubted Joe Winters' judgment in bringing George Bellamy into the group, the decision had quickly proven itself to be a wise one.

By Halloween, Superhype had performed in a dozen shows, their fan base growing considerably each time they took the stage. Their momentum was unlike anything any of them had ever seen. Each show seemed to get larger, even if only slightly, and their new website, which Bethany Foster put together using free tools she'd found on the Internet, was raking in more hits than any of them initially thought possible. By Ben's birthday on November 11^th, the forums on their website had breached three hundred registered users, and by Kyle's birthday on December 16^th, another hundred or so had signed up. By the time the public-schooled members of the band had reached their winter breaks, they had started seeing Superhype t-shirts proudly sported by their fellow students, and none of them had any idea who was making them. Mark even reported that someone at his high school had been selling bootlegs of a few of their shows, though no one in the band was able to find copies, nor had they any clue who was distributing their music. Not that anyone really minded. After all, bootlegs were nothing more than a sign that Superhype's music was entertaining people, and the added exposure was probably a good thing, even if the band itself wasn't actually profiting from it.

By the time spring had rolled around, Superhype's popularity had reached staggering levels. They had been invited to perform at countless private parties, turning down most of them, and every venue owner in the area seemed to want to book them, knowing they'd sell out if the group took to their stage. They were even contacted by a few venue owners in nearby cities, with George taking calls from Ithaca, Syracuse, Oneonta, and Scranton, though George decided that until the band had visited a recording studio, producing something worthy of selling, traveling was probably a bad idea, or at least an ill-advised one, especially in the winter.

This got the band talking about the possibility of recording an album. They were pulling in a decent amount of money, probably enough to record something that was at least of moderate value. None of them had ever actually been inside a recording studio before, so the prospect seemed as exciting as it did productive, but after placing a few phone calls to potential local studios, they found out that recording an album wasn't nearly as cheap as they'd hoped. The cheapest studio in the area charged thirty dollars per hour for studio time, plus sixty dollars per song for "mastering," not that any of them knew what that was, or why it was important.

The average length of each of their songs was four minutes. Taking into consideration the fact that each member of the band would need to individually record each of the twelve songs they hoped to put on the album, so the engineer could mix them all together later, they'd be looking at no less than one-hundred and ninety-two minutes of studio time. George calculated that it would probably take them each at least ten takes per song to get enough material for the engineers to mix the final product, a number that Takumi and Joe both agreed with, having been to the studio themselves in the past. This came out to be one thousand, nine-hundred and twenty minutes of studio time... thirty-two hours to record the album. And considering set-up times, breaks, and everything else under the sun, the band would most likely need to pay for at least fifty hours of studio time, which would come to cost $1,500. Then, there was the mastering fee, which tacked on another seven hundred and twenty dollars, plus miscellaneous smaller fees, not to mention the deposit. All told, the band would end up spending around $3,000 recording the album. Upon realizing this, everyone agreed that all of the band's profits would go toward the album, but even so, it would be several weeks before the band could head into a recording studio. But just when it seemed like the group would have a lot of waiting to do, Kyle's parents and Cynthia's parents stepped up to the plate once again, offering to pay for the band's recording time on the stipulation that it was a loan, and that the band would need to pay them back over the course of the months that followed. With this, George called the recording studio, scheduling fifty hours of recording time, broken into six to eight -hour blocks over the course of four weekends. The band wouldn't be performing live during the month of April, short of their standard Friday-night gigs. Every Saturday and Sunday, Superhype would be in the studio, working on their very first album.

As their musical lives propelled forward, their private lives seemed energetic as well. Kyle and Tara had seen each other during the Winter break, when Tara and her mom flew back to Binghamton to spend the holidays with her grandparents, and shy of Tara's occasional outburst of worrying that Kyle was cheating on her with a fan, or perhaps Cynthia, their relationship seemed to be rock-solid. Mark had started dating someone new in January, a girl he'd met after one of the band's shows, who'd taken an interest in his drumming techniques a few hours before she'd taken a liking to his groping techniques. Ben was also involved with someone, though he kept the relationship highly secret, never revealing it to his band-mates, or even his best friend, simply joking that he was seeing the substitute math teacher that he had commented on at the beginning of their school year. The only person in the band who wasn't involved with someone at that point was Cynthia, not that anyone seemed to think much of it, Cynthia herself included. She hadn't told anyone outside of her best friend, Megan, but Cynthia's heart belonged to one guy and one guy alone: Kyle Winters. But with his relationship with Tara seeming to cruise along without a hitch, she was starting to wonder if anything would ever develop with him. Little did she know that Kyle, too, was infatuated with her, though his was a bit more confusing and less direct. He felt as though he genuinely loved Tara, but every once in a while, with increasing frequency over the course of their friendship, Cynthia would say something or do something that would turn Kyle's world upside down for a few moments, and in those instances, Kyle couldn't spell the name Tara, let alone picture her in his mind. Even so, he kept telling himself that there was nothing to it; that Cynthia wouldn't dig him even if he wanted her to, that Tara is all he ever wanted, and that any feelings he held for Cynthia were some bizarre side-effects of their sharing the stage together, or a byproduct of the intimate act of writing songs together with the level of attention they both applied to it.

With only a few days before their first recording session, Superhype gathered once again at the Skylark diner, their favorite hangout, for an informal band meeting, hoping to discuss the set-list they'd bring into the studio, and whatever preparations they'd need to make before their first recording session. It was the last weekend of March, and the roads weren't clear of snow, but the conditions were manageable, and when Ben, who'd gotten his license by that point and was driving his mom's car to the meeting, was running late, no one thought much of it. But when he finally arrived, half an hour after everyone had already ordered their food, Kyle could tell something wasn't right within moments of seeing his best friend's face. He looked outside, but the car appeared to be fine, so he didn't have an accident. But you'd never know that if you were only looking at Ben's face. He was obviously bothered by something, and when he sat down with the band, taking his leather jacket off and shivering as he asked the waitress for a coffee, Kyle braced himself for what he was sure would prove to be bad news.

"Hey Ben," Mark announced, seemingly unaware of the expression on Ben's face, or simply not processing it. "What's going on?"

"Guys... you aren't going to like this," Ben began, ignoring his standard ritual of stealing french fries from Kyle's plate. "I got into college."

"That's great news, Ben," George started. "I remember when I went to college... The year was..."

"In Georgia. The college is in Atlanta, Georgia."

Everyone stopped smiling. George's anecdote was done formulating. A few seconds passed before anyone said anything, but each of those seconds felt like an hour, if not an eternity. If Ben went off to college in Georgia, it would spell the end of Superhype, without a doubt, and without fail. Everyone else had applied to Binghamton University and schools within a short drive of Binghamton in the hopes of keeping the band together, though Mark's parents had insisted that he apply at Boston University as well, claiming he could drive or fly back for shows if he were accepted. After quickly processing this, Kyle decided to break the silence. "I didn't even know you applied to a school in Georgia."

"It was last year. My dad... my dad made me apply to a bunch of colleges that he liked, over the summer after Junior Year. I snuck in an application to Binghamton, and another one to Oneonta, but, yeah... Georgia sent me an acceptance letter today. It gets worse."

"Worse?" Cynthia asked. "How could this possibly get any worse, Ben?"

"My parents want to fly down to Atlanta with me to check out the school... And we're leaving... this Friday."

"Dude, we have a show this Friday! And..."

"We're going into the studio this weekend," Ben said, cutting off Mark mid-sentence. "You think I don't know this?" He cursed under his breath, not at Mark, but at the situation itself. "I don't know what to do here, guys."

Everyone returned to their silence again, wondering how they could possibly escape this situation. Everything had been going so great for so long, that no one could have anticipated anything like this happening. It started making everyone wonder what might happen if another member of the band also found out they'd been accepted to another school, and if their parents were pushy about it. No one was really worried about their own parents doing something like that to them, but they couldn't help but consider the possibility that someone else's parents might, especially Mark's, who'd invested far less into the band than Kyle's parents or Cynthia's parents had, and were far less supportive or otherwise involved in the band's growth overall.

"There's something else, guys."

"You mean this gets worse?" Kyle asked, using the tone that he'd established over the many years of their friendship to be the one he used when it wasn't Ben's fault.

"Yeah... a lot worse, actually. So..." Ben paused, unsure of how to say whatever it was he needed to get off his chest. "Okay, so... okay... you know how I said I've been seeing someone?"

"Yeah, the mystery chick," Cynthia replied. "What of it?"

"Well... my parents found out who that `mystery chick' is. And... well... they aren't happy."

"Dude, I don't even know who this girl is, and I'm your best friend!"

"I know, I know... we were keeping it secret, because... well... she could lose her job, you know?"

"Lose her..." Kyle paused, and suddenly things started clicking together in the back of his mind. "Dude, you can't be serious... you aren't talking about..."

"Yeah. Maria... Miss Bianchi."

"Ben, if you're joking around..."

"Do I look like I'm kidding, Kyle? Miss Bianchi... Maria... I'm dead serious."

"Okay," Cynthia interrupted, her face speaking on behalf of everyone in the bewildered group. "Back up. Whose Miss Bianchi?"

"She's a sub... a substitute teacher. She taught a math class at BHS, and Ben here joked around about... well, you know Ben."

"Okay, so..." Cynthia had to pause again to process everything she was hearing. "You're telling me that Ben hooked up with his teacher?"

"Yes... well, substitute teacher. She's not like, old or ugly or whatever."

"Oh, well that's good at least," Cynthia sarcastically replied. "Can you please back up and tell us this story from the beginning?"

"Yeah," Mark said, "And what happened with your parents?"

"Okay, okay," Ben started, motioning with his hands for everyone to calm down. "Let me start this off at the beginning, okay?" He paused, sipping the fresh coffee the waitress was bringing out at that moment, almost as if he'd lifted it to his mouth before the saucer had touched the table. "Okay, well, Kyle knows this, but Maria... Miss Bianchi... was subbing for our math teacher one week back when school started, in September. I was goofing around in class a lot, telling jokes and... well, you guys know what I'm like. So anyway, one day she put me in detention."

"I remember that day. You said something about George Washington."

"Yeah, George Washington didn't know calculus, and he was our first President."

"Is that true?" George Bellamy asked, leaning forward as if he was about to hear a well-guarded government secret.

"No... I don't know... anyway, that night I had detention, but she didn't make me go to the lecture hall detention, you know, the regular detention. She had me sit in the class, and she was asking me about myself and stuff, and I told her about the band, and music. So she goes into the typical teacher thing, you know, trying to relate math to music and all that. But I kept joking around with her until she started laughing at the crap I was saying."

"Okay, what does this have to do with..."

"Dude, Kyle, relax... I'm getting to that! So anyway, she told me she worked in the mall on weekends, you know, extra money and stuff, and I told her I worked there too, and so that Saturday after work, I went and visited her at the jewelry place."

"Oh! We're talking about that girl," George announced. "I know who you're talking about, I saw you talking to her on your lunch breaks a few times, she's quite pretty." When he realized everyone was staring at him angrily, George stopped himself. "Sorry Benjamin, please continue."

"So yeah, we started talking, and then one thing led to another, and... well, you don't need the gory details. But last night, my dad comes home from the bar, drunk as a skunk, and he picks up the phone to order a pizza, and... well... I don't know how to say it..."

"What?" Cynthia asked, sitting on the edge of her seat.

"Well, Maria was... you know..."

"Dude, we don't know," Kyle explained. "Just say it."

"Well, she was... sort of... moaning... a bit..."

"Oh my sweet, sweet god Ben," Cynthia proclaimed. "Your dad caught you... and her..."

"Yeah. He did. And when he asked who was on the phone, Maria blurted her name out, so my dad looked her up on Facebook, and that's when he found out how old she was, and what she did for a living." He paused, sipping his coffee again and calming his nerves before he continued. "so, long story short, my parents are saying that if I don't go to the college they want, if I don't stop seeing Maria, and... if I don't quit the band... they'll call the cops on her."

"Dude, you're eighteen though," Cynthia quickly offered, having formulated this in her mind as Ben finished his statement. "She didn't break any laws or anything."

"Yeah, but I wasn't eighteen when it started. I was seventeen. We'd already... you know... before my birthday back in November."

Once again, the table returned to absolute silence. Everyone had briefly found themselves wondering how Ben could do something like this, but knowing him as well as they all did, the surprise wore off pretty quickly. What didn't wear off, however, was the serious threat this situation posed to the band. They couldn't go into the recording studio and start laying down tracks without their bassist present, could they? And with Ben's parents demanding that he quit the band, what would they do if he was no longer their bassist in the first place?

"Okay," George began, saying the word at length and with enough wind in his voice to fill a balloon, and then pausing for a brief moment to gather his thoughts. "We all knew something would end up threatening the band eventually."

"We did?" Cynthia asked, having been wholly optimistic up to that point, obviously to a fault.

"Every band has its ups and downs, gang. As your manager, it's my job to minimize the downs and maximize the ups, so if you'll excuse me, I've got some work to do."

"What are you going to do, George?" Ben asked. "You know my parents... they aren't going to budge on this. It's hopeless."

"Benjamin, the only thing that's ever hopeless in life is hopelessness." He paused again, appearing to index the quote in the back of his mind for later use. "I'll talk to you kids later. Stay out of trouble... especially you, Benjamin."

After finishing their room-temperature drinks, Kyle drove Cynthia home. They both remained silent for most of the drive, terrified that this might bring an end to the band that they'd worked so hard to build. All of the songwriting, all of the rehearsals, all of their performances, all the fans they rubbed elbows with to keep them coming back... was it all for not? Could this really be the thing that sank Superhype, after they'd poured their hearts and souls into making the band what it was? As Kyle pulled onto Cynthia's street, now only three blocks from her house, he decided to break the silence. He wasn't sure if George Bellamy could pull off a miracle with this, but after having heard his dad's story about George's interactions with Sting, he found himself hoping, if not praying, that this would be resolved soon. If it wasn't, Superhype would most likely be no more.

"I guess this is in George's hands now," Kyle began, fighting off the temptation to gulp. "There isn't really anything we can do."

"Kyle..." Cynthia paused, glancing off toward her house as Kyle pulled into her driveway. "Whatever happens... I..."

"Don't think like that, Cynthia. We've come too far, worked too hard... we'll find our way out of this."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried."

"Well, don't lie, then. I'm worried too. But worrying won't help us out here."

"I wanted to tell you something..." she stopped, the butterflies in her stomach urging her to be quiet.

"You don't have more bad news, do you?"

"No... it's just... well..."

"Look, I know you're worried Cynthia," Kyle explained, completely misreading the direction she was trying to take the conversation in. "But whatever happens, I'm sure we'll figure something out. We have to figure it out."

"Okay..." she paused once again, trying her best to resist the urge to espouse her true feelings for him right there in her driveway. "So... how's Tara doing?"

"Huh? Oh, Tara, she's good. She'll be back in Binghamton this summer, then she's going to BU with us."

"Oh... that's nice... Um, I need to go. Call me if you hear anything, will you?"

"I will, Cynthia. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Kyle."

"Ben did WHAT?!" Barbara Winters always thought of herself as being too young to have a heart attack, but in that instant, she felt a sudden pain in her shoulder, which made her start to wonder.

"George says he's taking care of it."

"What can he do? Oh, god, this is just awful! How could he be this irresponsible! How could she be this irresponsible!? Was she your teacher too?"

"Yeah, for a week..."

"That slut!"

"Mom..."

"Sorry! But if this twit ruined my baby's musical career... so help me god..."

"Mom, we need to figure this out..."

"I know, I know. Your father is out with Tak and Steve Boon right now, actually. They're becoming good friends..."

"Back on the subject, mom..."

"Sorry, sweetie. I'm just, you know. How could Ben do something like this?"

"I don't know mom. I wish I knew."

"I need to call your father. We need to talk about this."

"You know Ben's parents better than anyone. How serious are they? Would they really..."

"Knowing that jerk of a father Ben's stuck with? Yes, they really would. But... oh, what am I saying? She took advantage of him! She should go to jail!"

"Mom, seriously, Ben's a smart guy. I know you don't think he is, but he really is. He wanted to be involved with her. And I mean, she's twenty-three years old, it's not like she's in her forties or something."

"Yeah, but..."

"Mom, Ben started seeing her a few months before he turned eighteen. It's not like you wake up on the morning of your eighteenth birthday, and suddenly you're wiser or something."

"This could kill your band, Kyle. Your father and I have put far too much into this to see it go out like this. If it comes down to choosing between her or the band..."

"Mom, do you think we could live with ourselves if we knew a woman was sent to jail because of our band?"

"Well, that might not matter, Kyle. We don't know what they're going to do. They could be on the phone with the police right now. Or they could use this to send Ben off to military school or something. Who knows... but, I mean, seriously... how could he do this?"

"I don't know mom, but I wish I did. I really wish I knew."