Contemporary Character 2017: Tenney in the Key of Friendship

Published: 2017. Author: Kellen Hertz. Cover illustration: Juliana Kolesova and Sonya Sones

Summary

Tenney's excited to start recording her songs in a professional studio. There's a steep learning curve though; things that she thinks sound perfect aren't quite right and need tweaking from Zane Cale (the recording person who sought her out) and Portia. Then Zane pairs her with Logan Everett, a drummer her age. Logan seems to think pretty highly of himself, barely giving Tenney the time of day while taking over her songs with his drumming.

Tenney's also distracted by the fundraiser Jaya's working on. Jaya's cousin lived in Bangladesh, and her school was badly damaged in a storm. They need three thousand dollars for the necessary repairs, or the school year won't be able to continue. And if all the teachers leave to seek work elsewhere, there might not be school the next year either. Tenney wants to help Jaya, but she's so busy with her songwriting that she can't devote the time needed. Jaya ends up enlisting the help of Holliday, of all people. While Tenney acknowledges that Holliday is great at organizing things, she can't quite over Holliday's mean streak. And then Jaya agrees with Holliday that Logan might improve Tenney's music.

Fuming at the idea of Logan touching her songs, Tenney tries to get sympathy from her family and from Portia, but they all remind her that much of music is collaborative, and encourage her to set aside the abrasiveness and irritation from her first meeting with Logan and really try to listen to his music. Tenney has to admit that he has some good ideas; the drum beat that he sent her via text is a good fit for her song. She takes Portia's advice to focus on the music rather than the tension between her and Logan, and the next recording session goes much more smoothly. They get the new song sorted out, and everyone agrees it sounds great.

But then Zane mentions the date of the performance he has booked for Tenney and Logan: the same day as the book sale fundraiser for Jaya's cousin. Tenney doesn't want to screw up her chances with music, so she doesn't tell Zane about the time conflict, reasoning that she can just be late to the fundraiser. She's sure Jaya will understand, but Jaya gets very terse with Tenney when she tells her about it.

The performance goes well, despite Logan playing faster than they had practiced. He says he was reading the crowd and responding to what the people wanted, but Tenney feels like he was competing against her rather than playing with her. Still, she had fun playing, and even gets to talk to her younger sister's favorite musician, Belle Star, and get some advice about keeping friendships through all the hard work. And it's then that Tenney realizes she's stayed too late. She rushes out to her dad's car, but by the time they arrive at the book sale, it's been over for half an hour and everyone's cleaned up and gone home. Tenney calls Jaya and leaves a message, but Jaya doesn't respond. After a while, Tenney takes her dog on a walk to Jaya's house. She starts out apologizing fine, but then it deteriorates into an "I'm sorry you're mad" rather than "I'm sorry I screwed up" apology. Jaya says they need to accept that since Tenney's been "discovered" she doesn't have as much time for friendships, and their friendship will have to take a backseat.

Tenney is surprised to find guidance in Holliday, who points out that Jaya feels ignored, and she's worried about her cousin, who she wasn't able to help as much as she wanted (they only raised a third of the needed amount from the book sale). Holliday suggests Tenney do something to show Jaya that she cares about the things (and people) Jaya cares about. Tenney thinks if she puts on a benefit concert at her dad's music store, she can raise the remaining amount. Given the limited number of people who can fit in the store, the tickets would need to be $15 each, a lot for a benefit concert. But maybe between Tenney have personally talked with Belle Star and Holliday's dad being vice president of Star's recording company, they can get her to come. That would be worth $15! Jaya is touched and happy that Tenney is showing such interest in helping her cousin. And Holliday is ready to help organize. Together, the three girls are sure they'll raise the money easily. Portia will play in the concert too. Tenney even reaches out to Logan to have him perform with her. Due to some rude things Tenney said (both intentionally and unintentionally), Logan says he'll perform to help the cause, but then he and Tenney are going back to solo. She happily agrees--Logan's not the most polite person, either.

Unfortunately, Belle Star is touring out of the country, and can't make the show. But she does post about on Twitter and encourages her fans to go--resulting in more people showing up than can safely fit inside the building! Quickly, they set up in the parking lot, allowing more people to see the show--and buy tickets to rebuild the school. The crowd loves the music, and they raise $5,000, more than enough to rebuild the school. Jaya's cousin sends a thank you video of her class singing Tenney's newest song, inspired by her friendship with Jaya (Jaya's mom recorded the performance). Between the success of the concert and the publicity from Belle Star, Zane says that they should start booking small venues, a step on the way to a recording contract. "They"--he wants Tenney and Logan to be a package deal. When Tenney sees that Logan has already signed the contract (her parents looked it over to be sure Tenney was being treated fairly), she agrees. She and Logan are learning to get along, and to play well together. She's excited to see how far they'll go.


Misc

Dedicated to "Mom and Dad, who taught me to sing my own song, and Katie, who was always there to listen to it."

A boy is added to a traditionally-female group (American Girl dolls; Logan's available as a doll), from the South, with blonde hair, named Logan... Remind you of anyone? Louisville isn't even three hours from Nashville.

This book is better about people liking different styles of music than the first one. The big performance that Tenney and Logan have is even at the home of the pop star Tenney's little sister likes, and Tenney is a bit star-struck by her. The pop star's music isn't Tenney's taste, but she's still a professional musician like Tenney wants to be. Tenney also specifically mentions liking Taylor Swift.