The Hush Society Presents... by Izzy Matias (best desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

"He heard about the change of vision for the music festival"—Cassie looks at me, Eric and Benji—"and absolutely loves it. I told him it was your idea, Cameron, and that we helped you flesh it out."

"You’re as much a part of it as any of us," I say.

Cassie takes a dramatic pause before continuing. "He also told his mates at Willowfields about The Hush Society and how we’re using our music festival to raise funds for a good cause. We’re totally on their radar. It’s too late to hope for slots this year, what with the line-up final, but there’s always next year."

We explode in cheers, screams and expletives. Our neighbours give us scandalous glares.

THIS IS MASSIVE.

We all talk and shout at the same time, so we can’t understand each other.

"How?" is all I manage to choke out in disbelief. "I mean after what happened with The Gramophones two years ago…"

"He’s mates with one of the organisers. He didn’t tell me more than that. Maybe they smoothed things over?" Cassie says.

"What did you tell Callum?" Dan looks like he’s about to explode.

"What do you think?" Cassie replies, grinning, and once more we explode into screams. "I invited them—the organisers and Callum—to our music festival. They said they’re coming. We must be at our A-game when they watch our show! It’ll make or break our opportunity. Actually, it’s best for them to attend our festival in Manchester since there are twenty bands in the line-up."

"Oh," I say. I try to keep up my enthusiasm, but I can’t help but think of all the competition there will be with all the other bands in the line-up for a single slot at Willowfields. The Hush Society’s roster of bands in the festival is talented. Their songs are already on my road trip playlist. I even recommended some of them to URadio and they’re already airing some of their tunes. There’s no way we can compete with those bands…

But, I remind myself, it was hard at first to believe that Cassie invited The Fortunate Only on this tour and play at their first festival. If I thought I was impulsive, she gave a whole new meaning to it.

"Cameron," Cassie says, seeing my face, "your band is pretty much guaranteed a spot already since it was your idea. The Fortunate Only is definitely on their radar, especially with all the noise online. Have you seen what people are saying about your music?"

"He’s comparing again," Benji groans. "Cassie’s right. Our music has been received positively online. Loads of people have already shared the link we posted a few hours ago."

"Don’t put out any bad vibes thinking otherwise," Eric warns me.

"You’re right. Sorry," I say. "Doubt has gone out the window."

#

TONIGHT’S Hush Society episode will take place on the second floor of a modern office building tucked in London’s business district. Since the venue for the show is inside a corporate building with other offices on the floor, we can’t make much noise. Instead of switching venues, the organisers took it upon themselves to think out of the box: Our instruments will be plugged in into cords that transmit the sound to this ultra cool contraption that lets the listeners experience a live show via headphones, as if it were a recording.

We should be in quiet corners, getting into the zone, but Cassie calls for an emergency meeting in the pantry.

"This is the worst timing ever, but I ought to let everyone know," she begins with the same tone she used when our gig in Bristol was cancelled. "We are in the red."

"You gals have your monthly visitor?" Eric exclaims. "We did not need to know that."

"Eric!" Amber swats his arm. "This is serious."

"I was only trying to lighten the morose mood."

"Morose," I tease. "So deep."

Cassie clears her throat and gives us the same look I get from Mum whenever she finds me mucking about.

"You each chipped in a fixed amount based on my forecasted budget of expenses, but I’m afraid we won’t have enough money for the rest of the tour with so many unexpected billings—petrol prices hiking, hidden charges, actual food prices, to name a couple of whys. We only have four cities left, but I need everyone’s help on how we can address this…because we won’t have enough money to pay for our next hostel booking by the looks of it."

We gasp.

"You’re not going to cancel the rest of the tour, will you?" Eric asks.

"No," Cassie says. "Not unless we don’t have any other choice…but I do not want it to come to that."

I knew she was having a hard time planning out our expenses, but when Benji made her an Excel sheet to track them, I thought everything was all right.

"Any ideas?" Cassie asks.

"Car wash!" Eric shouts with a mischievous expression. "Boo yah!"

"I refuse to be objectified," Amber quips. "So cliché!"

"We can chip in some more and add to the lot," I offer on impulse, and my hand goes straight to the pocket where my wallet is. I am going to have to do the maths to check if what I chip in will last me until the end of tour. It’s all the money I have from my bank account. When we get back to Beverley, I need to get a part-time job.

"It’s easier at individual gigs since putting together the show is on a volunteer basis, so pretty much everything is free or given at a discount," Cassie says. "Now that we’re shelling out our money, the dynamics are different. I gave you all a specific amount months ago, and that’s what you agreed to spend. This is my fault for not planning things the best I could; I do not want you to shell out any more than you already have. I apologise."

"Don’t be so hard on yourself," Amber says. "You couldn’t have planned all those last-minute expenses, but next time you could give a buffer or let us chip in for an emergency fund."

"It’s