Tenney

Just the Beginning

Tenney wakes up Monday feeling like she’s slept for a hundred years, the Jamboree behind her. She grins through breakfast and the drive to school, wondering if she and Portia might play together again.

At her locker, eighth-grade girls whisper and stare, and a girl with curly blonde hair gushes that Tenney was awesome at the Jamboree. Others crowd in, asking where to buy her songs and when she’s performing next. Flustered, Tenney admits she hasn’t recorded any. “Yet,” echoes a redhead who’s watched “Reach the Sky” online 1,000 times. Tenney blushes with pride, then catches herself. What video?

The redhead explains that someone filmed the Jamboree and posted it online. Jaya drags her to a classroom computer to search “Tenney Grant Magnolia Hills Jamboree,” and up pops a freeze frame of Tenney onstage with her guitar, captioned to spotlight her duet with music legend Portia. By the time class resumes, more than 10,000 people have watched it.

After school, Mason meets Tenney at the flagpole—the count has already passed 15,000. They hurry to Dad’s shop, where Tenney freezes at the sight of Zane Cale talking with Dad by the register. Mason shows him the video, but Zane, who hadn’t heard about it, simply calls it an accomplishment.

Zane had come to support Portia at her first show since her stroke, and watching Tenney command the stage was an unexpected bonus. Mason eyes him warily, but Zane clarifies he doesn’t sign people over viral clips and has no interest in molding Tenney into the next Belle Starr. Instead, he offers to mentor her. It’s not a deal yet, but he can help with her songwriting and booking as she grows. He asks what she thinks.

Tenney hesitates. She believes he means it, but she can’t shake what happened to Mom years ago, when someone in the business stole her songs. “I need to think about it,” she admits.

That night, Aubrey tracks the view count past 20,000 from the kitchen computer while Tenney retreats to the porch with her guitar and songwriting journal, paging through her earliest songs about Waylon and Christmas to the lyrics of “Reach the Sky,” and sees how far she’s come.

Mom joins her, and Tenney admits she’s scared history will repeat itself. Mom takes her hand and insists this isn’t about her past, but Tenney’s future, and that she and Dad will never let anyone take advantage of her music. The choice is hers alone, and she can walk away anytime. When Tenney worries she isn’t good enough, Mom asks, good enough for what? Tenney admits it’s to make an album. Mom assures her that doesn’t matter. As long as Tenney believes in herself and keeps making music that’s really hers, she should say yes, knowing that whatever happens, Mom and Dad are proud of her.

Tenney thanks her, and Mom kisses her head before heading inside. Alone on the porch, Tenney looks up at the stars, feeling like she’s floating among them, shining with her whole heart. She tucks the feeling away, certain it will make a great song someday.