As he hung up the phone after his conversation with Savannah, Rachel stood up and stretched. He pocketed his phone and opened the door to his room, ready to face the Skids. He was fairly confident that they'd say yes to his request, since they were the definition of that "any friend of his is a friend of mine" saying. Besides, Savannah was a likable person, too, so he couldn't picture her giving any of the Skids a reason to dislike her.

   A little voice in his head cautioned him about what happened with Deadly Complacency, but he quickly dismissed the thought; he was confident her bandmates were sensitive little pricks that couldn't take jokes, had serious superiority complexes, or both.

   Rachel walked out of his room and into the living room. Nobody but Scotti was there. "Hey, man," Rachel said, sitting on the couch that his guitarist was on.

   "Hey, Rach," Scotti responded.

   "Question: would you be on board with a band meeting right now? There's something I kinda wanna talk to you guys about."

   Scotti raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What's up? Did we do something?"

   "Dude, why is your first instinct that you did something?" Rachel asked, smiling. "No. I have a request for you guys."

   "Oh, no."

   "Hey! You act like my requests are outrageous or something."

   "Did you or did you not request that we let Sebastian win at Mario Party? We had to purposely fall off ledges, man! It wasn't fun!"

   Rachel chuckled. "He kept losing! I felt bad. Nobody should have that many losses under their belt. Besides, he was starting to get pissed. And you know what happens when Sebastian gets pissed."

   "But he's a grown man!"

   "And you're a bitch. So, can I have the meeting or not?"

   "Yeah, knock yourself out."

   "All right. BAZ, SNAKE, ROB, GET THE FUCK IN HERE!" Rachel shouted.

   Sebastian poked his head into the living room first. "What's up?"

   "Sit down. We're having a band meeting."

   "Oh, no. What did we do?"

   "That's what I said!" Scotti chimed in, laughing.

   "You guys didn't do anything! Just—just sit down," Rachel instructed, shaking his head in motherly disappointment.

   Sebastian slowly walked into the room, seeming scared for whatever was in store. "You're being very ominous, Bolan." He sat down. "You're sure this isn't about the booze thing?"

   Rachel looked at Scotti questioningly, who was sitting with his eyes wide and an incriminating look on his face. "What booze thing?" Rachel asked.

   "Sebastian!" Scotti scolded. "That was supposed to be between us!"

   "Oh, shit, really?!" Sebastian shouted. "In that case, nothing happened!" he backpedaled, smiling innocently. "I thought you knew about it, honestly."

   "I am not dropping this. What the hell happened?" Rachel demanded.

   Rob and Snake came into the room then. "Guys, do you know what they're talking about when they say 'the booze thing?' Baz thinks that I'm pissed about whatever it is," Rachel asked them.

   "No, don't ask them that!" Sebastian shouted.

   Scotti looked at his singer slowly. "You did not tell them."

   "Sure, let's go with that."

   "SEBASTIAN!"

   "WHAT?! You never said it was confidential!"

   "Guys, what the hell happened?" Rachel asked Rob and Snake.

   Snake blinked, a little confused at first. But, then, he remembered. "Well, Sebastian and Scotti got in a fight over the last bottle of booze, and they may or may not have ended up accidentally throwing the bottle on the floor, breaking it in the process," he explained, not above ratting on his friends. "And because they were so drunk, they ended up licking it off the floor."

   Scotti flushed in embarrassment, and Sebastian grinned, the embarrassing story not even seeming to bother him. "LICK IT UP!" he sang, thrusting his hands in the air. "Look out KISS, we're coming for your fucking brand."

   "Not even accounting for how unsanitary that is, you both are dumbasses," Rachel concluded. "That's not even worthy of ever being brought up ever again."

   "Agreed," Scotti mumbled, smiling through his regret. "Now sit down, guys. Rach wants a band meeting."

"What'd we do?" Rob asked, sitting down. Snake did the same.

"Jesus Christ, nothing!" Rachel sighed in agitation. He loved his friends, but sometimes they were annoying as shit. "I was wondering if you guys would be opposed to getting a new fashion director."

"Not at all. We need one, don't we?" Rob asked.

"Yeah. After Jamie so rudely left us," Snake said, referring to the band's old fashion director. None of them really knew why she bailed; it was kinda out of nowhere, and she did it with a bitchy tone to her voice, as if they should have known.

"I think we were just too cool for her," Scotti suggested, grinning stupidly. "Do you have anybody in mind, Rach?"

"Yeah, actually. My friend," Rachel answered. "Her name's Savannah. She just got run out of her band and needs a new job. She got involved in a shitty contract, so she can't make any money from her old band anymore."

"Ugh, that blows," Sebastian commented sympathetically. "What's her experience?"

Rachel thought about that question. "Uh. . .none," he chuckled, scratching his head awkwardly. "But she's real good with fashion, guys. She has that exact look we're going for. Besides, it—it's not like we're obligated to keep her until the end of time. She just needs to get back on her feet. If we don't like her, then we can replace her after she gets enough money to get her foot in the door." He realized how uncool that sounded and added, "But, I think we'll like her. She's kickass in every sense of the word."

"I don't doubt you, man. Can we maybe get an interview with her, though? See what we're getting into?" Rob requested.

"I was just gonna suggest that," Snake added.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too," Rachel replied. "Is everyone okay with that?"

Rob, Snake, and Scotti nodded, while Sebastian gave a big thumbs up.

"All right. What day are we thinking?" Rachel said.

There was silence among the band as they thought about it. "To hell with it," Sebastian said, "why not tomorrow at, say. . . 11:00? It's not like we have anything going on, and we'll be giving Savannah enough time to get prepared."

"That sounds good to me," Rob said with a shrug, Scotti and Snake chiming in with their agreement as well.

"All right. Tomorrow at 11:00 it is. Do you think we should ask Doc about it just to make sure? He should probably have some say in when we're about to hire someone."

"Probably. HEY, DOC!" Sebastian yelled, causing Rachel to shake his head in that motherly disappointment again. Even though Doc was the band's manager, Sebastian treated the guy like a casual best friend. It got annoying to Doc sometimes, but Rachel knew there was a part of him that liked that relationship.

"WHAT?!" the band's manager shouted back.

"COME IN HERE!"

The short manager known as Doc McGhee came into the room. "What's up, Baz?"

"We wanted your approval on something."

"All right, shoot."

"Rachel has a friend that needs a job, so we're thinking of having her as our new fashion director. It's not decided yet; we still have to interview her and all that fun stuff. But, we just wanted to make sure we have your blessing if we do want her to work for us."

Doc shrugged. "Yeah, that's fine. We've needed a new one of those anyway. I'll take care of her pay and whatnot if it works out."

"Killer, man. Thanks a ton," Sebastian said with gratitude.

As Doc said "you're welcome," Rachel grinned and pulled out his phone, happy that Savannah was one step closer to working with him and the Skids. He opened her contact and send her a text:

Everybody's down with it! They wanna interview you tomorrow at 11:00, if that's good with you.

Savannah came back with a response around ten seconds later. She was always good at answering back quickly, sometimes creepily so.

The capital letters of her response filled Rachel's screen:

OMG REALLY?? AWH HELL YEAH! THANKS RACH, YOURE THE BEST, TELL EM ILL BE THERE!

Rachel smiled again at her enthusiasm. He looked up at his bandmates and declared, "Sav's all set for tomorrow."

His band grinned, and his lead singer said, "Can't wait to meet her."

"I can't wait for you guys to meet her, either," Rachel said back. He surveyed his friends and nodded. "I think she'll fit in great."

None of the band members could place why, but for some reason, they felt that way, too. They had good vibes about Savannah, and they were eager to meet her.

Meanwhile, bouncing around her house with relief at this chance, Savannah was eager to meet them as well.

She sat down on her couch after her bouncing and began the wait for the time of her interview.