Bad Rap Read Online Free Page B

T-Jon?
    Knock. Knock. Before Katie could answer, someone came to the door.
    “Who’s there?” T-Jon asked.
    “It’s room service.” The security guard opened the door and poked his head inside. “Okay to let him in?”
    “Awesome!” T-Jon exclaimed. “I’m starving.”
    As the guard opened the door, Katie ducked behind the couch. She didn’t want the guard to catch her there. How could she explain what she was doing in the room?
    Katie secretly watched as a waiter entered the room, pushing an elegant cart with a long flowing tablecloth and lots of silver-covered dishes.
    T-Jon reached into his pockets. “Oh, sorry, dude,” he said to the waiter. “I’m out of cash. But I’ll put a nice tip on the bill, okay?”
    “Thank you, sir,” the waiter said.
    “Don’t thank me. Thank the record company.”
    As soon as the security guard and the waiter left, Katie popped up from her hiding place.
    T-Jon walked over to the cart and took the silver lid off one of the plates. “Yum. Burger and fries.” He turned to Katie. “Did you order this for me?”
    Katie shook her head. “I think Fizzy did.”
    T-Jon shrugged. “Oh. Where is Fizzy, anyway?”
    Katie gulped. “He . . . um . . . he went for a walk or something.”
    “Oh, yeah,” T-Jon said, taking a big bite of a hamburger. “I think I remember that. Sort of. I’m not sure what I remember. It’s all kind of blurry.”
    Katie watched as T-Jon ate a huge handful of french fries. He might have been confused, but it hadn’t hurt his appetite.
    “I don’t even remember meeting you,” T-Jon continued, sounding even more curious about what was happening. But he quickly came to his senses. “Whoever you are, you gotta get out of here. And don’t tell anyone where we’re staying. All we need is a bunch of fans like you storming the place.”
    Katie frowned. If kids knew the way the Bayside Boys had just sounded, they wouldn’t even have any fans.
    For a minute, Katie thought about asking T-Jon for an autograph before she left. But she changed her mind. She didn’t want to wait around for him to ask her any more questions.
    “Bye,” she shouted, racing out the door.
    “Hey, how’d you get in there?” the guard demanded in a loud, booming voice as she passed by him.
    Katie just kept running.

Chapter 8
    The next morning, Katie and Suzanne walked to school together. Suzanne was in a really bad mood.
    “I waited in that hotel lobby for half an hour,” she complained to Katie. “And not one Bayside Boy showed up!”
    “Maybe that’s a good thing,” Katie said slowly.
    “How can you say that?!” Suzanne demanded.
    “Well, it’s just that they’re probably nothing like we think they are,” Katie said. “What if you met them and you didn’t like them?”
    “That would never happen,” Suzanne assured Katie.
    Just then, Emma W. came running onto the playground behind the school. Tears were streaming down her face. “I’ve just heard the worst news!” she cried to Katie and Suzanne.
    “What?” Suzanne asked.
    “It’s the Bayside Boys,” Emma sobbed. “They broke up.”
    Katie gasped. “Are you sure?”
    Emma nodded. “I just heard it on the car radio. The concert is cancelled.”
    “Did they say why they broke up?” Katie asked.
    “No,” Emma said. “They just made the announcement.”
    Becky Stern walked over just as Emma finished speaking. She’d obviously overheard the whole conversation. “ I know why they broke up,” she boasted. “My dad’s friend said the guys all want to record their own CDs. They’re leaving town on separate airplanes tonight!”
    Suzanne started crying, too. “I don’t believe it,” she said.
    But Katie believed it. She knew something about the boys’ big fight that even Becky’s dad’s friend didn’t know. The Bayside Boys’ breakup was all Katie’s fault.
    This was soooo not good!

    Katie spent the whole day thinking about the Bayside Boys. She couldn’t let them break up. Somebody had