Tenney in the Key of Friendship

New Ideas

Tenney has a math test coming up on Monday, but as she studies, she can’t shake a new melody ringing in her head. Music has a habit of taking over her brain at odd moments, like when she should be thinking about fractions. She pulls out her songwriting journal and jots down the chord progression before it buzzes away, barely finishing when Jaya rushes up, bursting with news.

Jaya’s mom got a response that morning from the director of Mina’s school. The repairs, replacing part of the roof and fixing water damage, will cost about $3,000, and Tenney is stunned by the number, since the most she’s ever raised for anything was forty-six dollars, from a jog-a-thon back in third grade. Worse, Mina said the school will close for good if the money isn’t raised within the next month and a half.

The girls toss around ideas as they head to class. Tenney suggests a poster, since Jaya already designed one for the school Jamboree, but Jaya points out that selling enough to cover $3,000 would take forever and cost money to print besides. Jaya counters with a bigger idea: what if Tenney recorded a fundraiser song, and if it became a hit, sold enough copies to cover the rest? Tenney has to admit that even if Zane agreed to it, recording and releasing a song would take far longer than six weeks.

That’s when Holliday Hayes appears in the doorway. Tenney’s stomach tightens, since Holliday has a habit of making everything feel like a competition, and Holliday usually wins. Jaya doesn’t notice and fills Holliday in on the plan to repair Mina’s school in Bangladesh. Holliday brightens and offers to help right away, but Jaya explains she’ll loop her in once she and Tenney settle on a plan. Holliday looks stung at being asked to wait, but covers it quickly, saying she just wouldn’t want to see them crash and burn from not having enough help.

After school, Tenney and her older brother, Mason, head to Dad’s shop, Grant’s Music and Collectibles. Their little sister, Aubrey, comes out from the storeroom wearing a flower crown, with Waylon, their golden retriever, trailing behind in a matching one. Tenney sets her songwriting journal on a stand in the shop’s listening room and tunes her guitar, admiring the flowers and birds inlaid on its aquamarine body. She thinks about “Reach the Sky,” the song she performed at the Bluebird Cafe, the first “real” song she ever wrote, the kind Portia insists has to come from something true, not just a silly story about a vacation or the time Waylon got loose in the backyard.

Trying to figure out what to write about, Tenney runs through everything that’s made her feel something lately. Math tests make her sad, but she can’t imagine writing a meaningful song about long division. Mina’s tears make her sad, too, though Tenney knows that feeling will lift once she and Jaya figure out how to save the school. Then she thinks of Holliday, and the sting of that afternoon’s comment resurfaces, along with older memories of the same stinging feeling. Angry heat rises in her throat, and before she knows it, she’s picked up her guitar and started strumming a chord progression to match. The hurt finally has somewhere to go, and the first real lyrics of her new song start pouring out. By day’s end, she’s written a full verse and chorus, eager to play it for Portia and Zane tomorrow.