The Rockstar Chronicles

The cabin

They have the longest driveway I've ever seen, I thought as we glided down the dark lane leading to Bridge Berkeley's house. We had turned off the main roads and onto the narrow road leading to the gate of Bridge's home after a twenty minute drive. The gates had been locked and we had been buzzed through only after the driver confirmed our identities.

And now we were driving down the wide drive bridged with carefully manicured grass and shrubs with white fencing running behind it. Every twenty feet or so, a light on a tall fencepost dimly lit our way.

"There it is, Tom," Bridge said, pointing out the dark window as the car turned off the main drive and onto a narrow lane.

A log cabin stood in the clearing before us, much smaller than what I had been expecting the family of Bridge Berkeley to inhabit. Much, much smaller.

"What's this?" I asked as the car pulled to a stop and we all scrambled out.

"It's one of our guest houses. Dad filmed his first video in this cabin. It's really old and was all broken in his video. A few years ago he heard they were tearing it down and he bought it and had it brought it and restored it."

I felt only a smidgen of disappointment that I wasn't going to get to see the main house as Bridge led the way up the porch steps and into the cabin. It dissipated however, when I saw the inside.

"What do you think of my home away from home?" Bridge asked as he spun in a circle, hands outstretched to take in the cabin.

It was small, but cozy. A large fireplace took up one wall with a large screen tv above the mantle. A second TV stood on a stand nearby, with video games overflowing from a box on the ground next to it. The kitchen in the background was compact and several boxes of snacks and cookies covered the counter.

"It's only got one bedroom, but the whole basement is a recording studio and a dance studio. Mom used to do yoga here on her "weekend retreats"," Bridge rolled his eyes as he spoke. "But then got bored of it."

"Wow!" Tom breathed as he stood awkwardly in the doorway. "I don't know if this is a good idea..."

"You're right," Bridge said as he crossed the room to stand in front of Tom. "It isn't a good idea. It's a great idea. Both Mom and Dad think so."

"What are you talking about?" Hardyn asked as he helped himself to a soda and plopped onto the couch.

Bridge clapped both his hands on Tom's shoulders and steered him into a chair near the fireplace. "Tom's going to live here."

Hardyn choked on his drink. "But Grant will...," Hardyn spluttered.

"Freak. I know," Bridge grinned as he threw himself into a second chair. He gestured to the couch. "I think that's why Mom and Dad are so happy to do it. Come on, guys, have a seat."

"Are you going to tell him?" Tom asked nervously.

Hardyn hesitated, but finally shook his head. "No. He should be concentrating on my career anyway."

I sank into the pillowy couch. "So you're going to live here? By yourself?"

"Yep," Bridge answered for him. It was the most I had ever heard him speak. "I live up at the main house. This has been my man cave for a while. But Tom needs it more than I do. Besides, we have some stuff to work on."

"Stuff?" Grady asked, his eyes shifting to the video games. I could tell he was dying to play and I hoped that this wouldn't turn into just another night of video games.

"The songs we're working on," Tom reminded him.

"So about the meeting," Ryder said as he loaded up his arms with bags of potato chips and ice-cold drinks. "We should probably get back on track, right?"

"Yeah," Bridge said as Ryder dumped the food into the coffee table in front of us. "So what do you think we should do?"

"Lindy, you were watching us practice. How bad was it?" Ryder asked. He sat on the stone stoop in front of the fireplace and opened a bag of chips, shoving a handful into his mouth.

I hesitated. I didn't feel comfortable criticizing the boys. It wasn't like I was exactly an expert.

"Come on, Lindy," Tom said as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I know you were watching and we all know how we're doing. What did you think?"

Focusing on the corner of the table, I blurted it all out. "Tom, you need to memorize the moves and stop looking for cues from the other guys in your reflection in the mirror. Bridge, you've got to be sharper. And Ryder, you need to practice your footwork and slow down. I mean, it's pretty much the same thing that Sarah's been saying."

"Yeah, but she makes it, like, ten times more complicated," Ryder said. "I think we should start practicing here with someone else."

"But who?"

None of us could answer that.