Page 65 of Two Hit Wonder

"It's a headline slot." Cam was already claiming the mirror by the window, applying eyeliner with her tongue stuck out. "Our names are on the poster. In big letters. Above the door. I took seventeen photos."

"Only seventeen?" Ellie asked.

"My phone ran out of storage."

Iona squeezed past a stack of amps that someone had wedged into the corner and found a tiny sink. The kettle next to it was ancient and had a piece of tape over the on switch that said DO NOT USE in aggressive capitals. Someone had ignored this and boiled it anyway; steam was still curling from the spout.

Ellie reached past her for the tap, water bottle in hand, turning it on and letting it run as she undid the top of her bottle. Then she reached out again.

"Whoa, wait." Iona grabbed her wrist just as Ellie's fingers were about to hit the stream. "That's the hot tap. You'll scald yourself."

Ellie blinked at her. "Oh. Right."

"Add some cold first, else we’ll be out a bass player."

Ellie smiled at her. "Yeah, thanks, I wasn't paying attention."

"Clearly." Iona adjusted the taps, tested the temperature with her own hand, and stepped back. "There. Now you can rinse your bottle without requiring skin grafts."

Ellie gave her a look that was half grateful, half annoyed. "Thank you, mum."

"You're welcome, child."

Cam had paused her eyeliner application to watch this exchange. "Is this a bit? Are we doing bits now? Because I don’t think I like it. You’re both actual mothers. That takes away from the sexiness of the whole ‘serving mother’ thing, I think."

"We're doing basic safety awareness," Iona said. "Some of us didn't pay attention in home economics."

"I paid attention," Ellie said. "I made an excellent Victoria sponge."

"And then Cam nearly burned the school down."

"The oven was faulty," Cam said.

"The oven was fine. You forgot it was on for forty minutes."

Maeve was watching them with amusement. "Are you three going to bicker all night, or are we actually going to play music at some point?"

"Both," Iona said. "We're multitaskers."

THE VENUE FILLED up fast. An opening band played, something rocky and male-led, not bad, not that Iona was in the head-space to really listen. And by the time the women took the stage, the room was packed, bodies pressed together, faces tilted up toward the lights. Some of them were singing I Wanna Be a Star before they'd even started playing.

For a millisecond, she was nervous. But it had always been that way. Nerves were like old friends. Until she looked at her actual old friends. Ellie grinning, Cam bent over her drums, Maeve holding the microphone stand. And then the nerves disappeared, and Iona took a deep breath, her fingers finding the opening chord of their first song, and the crowd cheered, and something in her chest expanded until she thought it might crack her ribs.

This. This was what she'd been missing.

They played tight and fierce, the four of them locked into something that felt inevitable, like the music had always been pent up for years and they were just finally letting it out again. Cam was a menace on the drums, all energy and precision. Ellie held the bass line steady, the backbone they all leaned on. And Maeve's voice filled the room like it was the only thing that had ever mattered.

When they finally launched into I Wanna Be a Star, the crowd lost their minds. The new arrangement was sharper, faster, built from arguments and accidents and late nights in the rehearsal space. It didn't sound like nostalgia. It sounded like now.

Iona looked over at Maeve during the second verse. Maeve was grinning. Actually grinning, teeth and everything, her hair wild in the stage lights and her eyes bright with something Iona had almost forgotten existed.

She looked like herself. The self she'd been before everything went wrong.

The song ended. The crowd screamed. Iona's ears were ringing and her fingers ached and she felt, for the first time in years, like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

BACKSTAGE WAS CHAOS. People kept appearing, wanting photos, wanting autographs, wanting to tell them about the time they'd seen the original tour in 2011 and it had changed their life. Iona signed programs and phone cases and one very enthusiastic woman's forearm, using a Sharpie that leaked over her fingers.

"You were amazing," the forearm woman said.