Adios to My Old Life

Chapter 1

"Girl, you do realize you're crazy, right " the voice hissed in my ear. "Like, as in, gone softer in your head than one of our nasty school cafeteria tacos "

I didn't look up. "Would you shut up, Sosi " I strummed a chord on my acoustic Bernab ' . No, not yet. The humidity was so freaky high, I was probably going to have to adjust again, but I had to get it as close to perfect beforehand so I wouldn't waste time. I reached over to the tuners, making a few adjustments, even while my best friend kept going on. And on . . . and on . . . and on . . .

"Sos, I can't hear with you babbling, girl. Please -- just for thirty seconds -- zip it, then you can tell me again how crazy I am." I looked up for a second and grinned, even though I totally felt like I was gonna hurl. "Besides, you've been all over this from the beginning and don't even try to lie by saying you haven't. 'You should do it, Ali. Send in the audition tape, Ali. It'll be so cool to see you on TV.' You need to quit being all bipolar about this."

"Yeah, mija, but that was before we got down here." Sosi's voice was squeaking -- a sure sign she was nervous. The nuns at school always knew when she was up to something because she'd start sounding like Mickey Mouse. "I haven't seen a single person go on out there who's not wearing spandex, rhinestones, leather, or some combination of all three."

After practicing a final run, I carefully propped my guitar against the wall. Sosi's round face looked seriously panicked as she kept reporting on what she'd seen during her "scouting mission," as she'd called it.

"And they're all out there shaking their asses like someone took DNA from Shakira, Celia, Selena, and Ricky Martin, mixed it up, and said, 'Oye, here's the perfect Latin entertainer.'"

"Sounds like the perfect Latin nightmare to me." I stretched my arms above my head, trying to keep them limber, and took a drink of water so my throat didn't dry out. Deep, calming breaths were always good but had a way of leaving you parched.

"That's the benefit of playing an instrument, I guess. Can't shake my ass and play at the same time." Mira, I couldn't believe I was trying to keep Sosi calm. She was supposed to be keeping me from losing my mind.

"Besides, I'd never wear stuff like that." I nodded at the bleached-blonde chick who was stalking past us in a cropped black leather vest with laces that crisscrossed the front and wound around her waist to lace down the back of her silver-studded leather pants. Looked painful.