Leona was worried.

It had been a week since she had seceded from the band, but in that time she was given no additional information about her upcoming performance at the Mayor’s Ball. She had a few songs picked out but had not gotten any phone call nor any mail instructing her further of what to do.


“Why the glum face?” her father asked her as she sat in the townhouse's kitchen by herself.

“Well, I gave up on the band and it’s been a week and no one has contacted me about going to the Mayor’s ball!” Leona all but unloaded her troubles and then covered her face while panic exploded in her chest, “What if I don’t end up being able to sing at the event? Then I will have lost out on any opportunity to sing in front of people! I would have pissed Illyana off for no reason!”


Her father put a comforting arm around her shoulder, “Have you tried talking to Illyana?”

He knew his daughter’s stress was more than about singing. There had been an instant silence between her and her best friends for a straight week. She hadn’t responded, proving she had not talked to Illyana, so he persisted, “Maybe you should call Illyana and explain things now that she’s cooled off?”

She took in a steady breath to calm her nerves and nodded, “Okay.”



It took three rings before Illyana answered, “What do you want?”

Leona was surprised Illyana had checked caller ID before answering. That meant she was screening calls.

“H..Hi…I just wanted to say I didn’t handle the news about singing at the Mayor’s Ball well. Sorry I just dropped it on you like that…”


“It’s fine,” Illyana interrupted curtly. “We got someone else to sing.”


Leona’s brain took a second to process that news, “Wait, who? Are they good? Do they know our songs?”

Was she so easily replaceable? It seemed Illyana had wasted no time, and didn't even think about asking Leona to reconsider. The thought that Illyana wouldn't even try made Leona a bit sad.


“They’re my songs, because it’s ‘my’ band remember? You said so yourself,“ Illyana snapped a bit harshly, obviously still bitter over the whole situation, “Anyway, I have to go, Iago is home from school and we’re in the middle of playing cards. Bye.”


Iago was Illyana’s older brother. He seemed to be silently laughing as she rejoined them at the poker table, “Who are you mad at now?”

He knew his little sister to have an unparalleled temper.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled and re-took her seat.


Downtown, Leona held a phone in her hand that was ‘beeping’ because the line was cut off. That could have gone a lot better. Leave it to Illyana to hold a grudge, and now Leona was probably just as bad as Nick Hart in Illyana's eyes.

Leona hung up the phone and went to the mailbox for the second time that day. She had been obsessively checking it every morning the past week. To her surprise, there was an envelope in there - not a regular bill or coupon.


She took it out and it read ‘Miss Leona Hillenburg’ with fancy calligraphy and she felt her anxiety transform to joy.

At least something was going her way that day.