Tenney Shares the Stage

Be Professional

In the school hallway, Holliday stops short when Tenney mentions that she and Logan might record an EP someday. Tenney downplays it, insisting it won’t happen for a long time and she doesn’t want to sound like she’s bragging. Jaya squeals that it’s amazing regardless, and Tenney’s excitement sends her into a happy twirl that knocks into a passing eighth grader, who tells her to watch it. She apologizes, but can’t stop grinning.

At lunch, Holliday predicts the EP will be a huge hit that launches Tenney’s career, and Jaya offers to design the cover and website while Holliday, whose dad works for a record label, volunteers to organize a tour. Tenney appreciates the help, but what touches her most is how happy her friends seem for her. When Holliday adds that all that’s left is choosing songs, Tenney’s happiness curdles into nerves, and she glances at the journal peeking from her bag.

Jaya notices and asks what’s wrong. Tenney admits Zane wants her and Logan to write new songs together, grumbling that their clashing tastes turned “Where You Are” into one argument after another. Holliday counters that they sound great onstage regardless, but Tenney insists the songwriting matters more, since it could decide their future as a duo. Jaya teases her about being stubborn, and Tenney protests, then admits it’s true, especially about her own music, since she hears exactly how a song should sound. Holliday suggests focusing on the songs, not on Logan, and Tenney admits that’s easier said than done.

Jaya and Holliday offer to help, and relief floods through Tenney as she pulls out her journal. Jaya suggests a song about protecting the earth, and Holliday pushes for one about friendship, then, unexpectedly, otters, insisting they’re too cute not to have their own song. Jaya jokes about how hard it is to get up on Monday mornings. By lunch’s end, her friends have filled her journal with a long list of ideas, and even if she isn’t sure how many Logan will like, she likes them enough to feel happy.

After school, Tenney walks the few blocks to Grant’s Music and Collectibles, Dad’s shop beside a pizzeria. The cluttered store feels like a second home, walls covered with gleaming guitars, mandolins, and banjos, the air smelling of cedar and guitar glue. A memory surfaces of being younger than Aubrey is now, watching Dad hang each instrument as though it were a rare jewel, the same day she first asked him to teach her guitar.

Through the window, Tenney spots Logan setting up a drum kit while Dad supervises. Inside, Dad greets her by her full name, Tennyson Evangeline Grant, teasing her about the poet she’s named for, Alfred, Lord Tennyson. To her relief, Logan doesn’t join in. Since he doesn’t own a guitar yet, Dad lends him a small-bodied acoustic and heads to the stockroom for inventory.

Tenney tunes up and runs scales, watching the mother-of-pearl songbird inlaid on her guitar and reminding herself to focus on the music. Logan keeps scrolling his phone instead of warming up, and annoyance buzzes through her when a text interrupts her just as she starts listing ideas. She asks him to turn off his phone, but he refuses, snapping that some things are more important. “Like your phone?” she shoots back before catching herself, and the exchange recalls the tension from writing “Where You Are.” Logan finally agrees to silence the ringer.

Logan rejects the friendship idea as unoriginal, since Zane wants songs that feel unique, and calls her missing-summer-in-winter idea, pulled from an old poem she liked, too sappy. She works through the rest of her list, and he shoots down every idea. Fury builds in her chest, but she reminds herself that professional musicians don’t lose their temper just because someone disagrees; they stay focused on the music.

When Tenney finally asks if Logan has any ideas, he admits he hasn’t thought about it and suggests they just play their set for Portia on Thursday. Furious but unwilling to show it, Tenney tells herself Portia will handle it. They spend the next hour running through old songs, including “Reach the Sky,” pausing only for customers and water breaks. The music calms her enough to consider bringing up songwriting again, but unsure how Logan will react, she stays quiet until Dad flips the sign to closed at six o’clock.

Outside, Logan discovers his bike tire has gone flat again and grumbles, nudging it with his sneaker. When Dad offers to toss the bike in his truck and patch it at home, Logan hesitates before accepting, and Dad invites him to stay for dinner, too. Tenney’s surprised “Really?” comes out sharper than intended, and Logan’s face turns red.

Logan pulls out his phone to text his own mom for permission, and they all wait in silence while Dad, grinning, waits on a reply of his own. Within moments of each other, Dad’s and Logan’s phones chime. “My mom says it’s okay,” Logan reports. “Georgia says no problemo!” Dad adds, using Mom’s name the way he always teases her. Logan finally cracks a smile, the first one Tenney has seen from him all day.