Miyuki Takahashi loved music, and she loved playing it, too. She loved her friends, she loved her boyfriend, she loved band club and the band she and her friends had formed within the club. And she was eager for the school day just to be over and to hang out with her friends. Classes seemed like they would never end, but patience was a virtue Miyuki could summon… sometimes. Finally the final bell rung and school was over for the day. She only had the one item she treasured: the worn blue keyboard waiting in the portable classroom out behind the school. She played keys and sang backup for Radiant Crystal Rhythms, an all-girl band with a shot at the regional showcase this spring. She had heard rumors of the school looking to cut costs and that worried her… Losing the club would end all of that. She just didn't know it was already slipping. Caterina walked beside her, cat-ear headband crooked, twirling a drumstick. "You made that same worried face in gym," she said. "And in math. And at lunch." "I'm fine," Miyuki said. "You are a terrible liar. It's charming." Inside the portable, Junko already had her bass on. A fresh bandage sat across her nose. "Okay, joke first," she said. "My bass teacher walked into a music stand today. Finally, someone else." She pointed at her own nose and grinned. "That's your teacher, not you," Rikka said from behind the mic. She tuned her guitar slowly. She sang better than she played, and everyone knew it, but she'd built this band member by member, so nobody said so. "Details," Junko said. Miyuki sat at the old blue keyboard. The paint was chipped down to metal, but the keys still felt like home under her hands. She counted them in. "One, two, three, four." The song came alive. Junko's bass locked with Caterina's drums. Rikka leaned into the melody, and Miyuki caught the harmony under it, the way she always did. For three minutes the budget cuts, her parents' fights, all of it, fell away. When they hit the last chord together, Junko whooped. Caterina spun a stick and dropped it. Even Rikka laughed. Their song, “Love in a Pencil Box”, was alive at last, and the girls were (quite literally) rocking it. ♪Third row, second seat, you passed it back A folded note, a sharpened attack Broken crayons and a busted zipper latch That's where you kept my heart, in a pencil box Eraser shavings on the windowsill Your name in bubble letters, still gives me a thrill Ruler straight, but nothing about this is chill You put my heart in a pencil box Snap the lid shut, hold on tight Little wooden coffin, keeps my love alright Love in a pencil box, rattling around Sharp little secrets making sharp little sounds Shake it and it's ours, nobody's allowed Love in a pencil box, we keep it locked, we keep it loud Traded my lunch just to sit by your side Wrote you a song on the back of a lie Told everyone nothing, kept it inside Buried in a pencil box, that's where it hides Love in a pencil box, rattling around Sharp little secrets making sharp little sounds Shake it and it's ours, nobody's allowed Love in a pencil box, we keep it locked, we keep it loud Snap Snap Snap the lid Nobody sees what we did Snap Snap Snap it tight This is ours, this is mine tonight Love in a pencil box, rattling around Sharp little secrets making sharp little sounds Shake it and it's ours, nobody's allowed Love in a pencil box, we keep it locked, we keep it loud Love in a pencil box, rattling around Sharp little secrets making sharp little sounds Shake it and it's ours, nobody's allowed Love in a pencil box, we keep it locked, we keep it loud Keep it locked Keep it loud Love in a pencil box ♪ "See?" Miyuki said, breathless. "Nothing can stop us." The door opened. Sakura Yamamoto stood there, their advisor, the new teacher from class 3-C. Students liked her. She usually smiled. She wasn't smiling now. She held a single sheet of paper against her chest like it hurt to carry. "Girls," she said. "I need to tell you something, and I'm not going to soften it." The room went quiet. Junko's smirk faded. "The school is cutting the club's funding," Sakura said. "The band room, the equipment, all of it. We have three months. After that, the club closes." Nobody spoke. Caterina's dropped drumstick rolled across the floor and stopped. "The showcase?" Miyuki asked. "If there's no club by spring," Sakura said, "there's no band to send." She set the paper on a chair. "I'm sorry. I fought it. It wasn't enough." Miyuki looked at the chipped blue keyboard under her hands. Three months. She thought of the empty practice rooms she ran to at night, and how there might soon be nowhere left to run. She stood up. "Then we save it," she said. "We have three months. We use them."

The day after the bad news, the band crowded into a booth at McDaniel's Hamburgers. Fries went cold. Nobody had a plan. Miyuki pushed a pen across a napkin covered in crossed-out ideas. Three months. No money. The club would close, and the keyboard she ran to at night would be gone with it. "Bake sale," Rikka said. "Car wash. Flyers." "We'd need a hundred car washes," Caterina said. She stole a fry from her brother's name, since Alessandro wasn't there to steal from. "The numbers don't work." Junko balanced a straw on her bandaged nose. "Okay. New plan. We rob a bank." The straw fell. "Fine. We politely ask a bank." Nobody laughed. Junko's smirk slipped, then came back. "Tough crowd. My teacher's gonna love that." Miyuki capped the pen. The napkin held nothing they could use. "We'll think," she said, short, the way she hated. "We'll keep thinking." But the booth went quiet, and she knew they had come up empty. That evening she met Alessandro in the park. They sat in the oak gazebo, the one with the wide open frame and smooth timber posts. She loved him, and she told him everything. The funding. The deadline. The empty napkin. Alessandro listened. He didn't talk over her. When she finished, he was quiet a moment, then quieter still, the way he got when something mattered. "The park is losing guests," he said. "Rides closed. People stopped coming back." He turned the second access key over in his hand, the one Caterina had finally accepted. "We need something new. A reason to come." "What does that have to do with us?" "Play there," he said. "Your band. A live show at Dreamscape Wonderland. Guests come for the music. The park pays you for it." He looked at her. "You save your club. We fill our seats." Miyuki stared at him. It was simple. It was real. Not a car wash. Not a bake sale. A stage, a crowd, and money that could actually cover three months. "Can you even do that? Your father—" "Caterina and I will convince him and our mother," he said. "We fixed the train together. We can convince them." A small shrug. "I'll talk to her about it tonight before we go in for the parental attack." He flashed Miyuki a playful smirk. Miyuki pulled out her phone and called Caterina on the spot. She said it fast, before doubt could catch up. A gig. Paid. At the park. Enough to save the room. The line went quiet. Then Caterina said, "Say that again." Miyuki did. Caterina laughed, short and sharp, her Italian accent dashed with Japanese speech ringing through. "My brother had one good idea. Don't tell him I said it." It was set— well, hopefully. Radiant Crystal Rhythms would play Dreamscape Wonderland. Miyuki hung up and gripped Alessandro's hand and she kissed his lips in a silent thank-you. They had a way to raise the money. They had a stage. They also had a park full of closed rides, a crowd that had stopped trusting it, and one show to prove the band was worth coming back for.