CHAPTER 1

Monday lunchtime had arrived at Dalley High, and Millie had just sat down in front of her cheese sandwich and Cheetos when Reagan, her best friend, came screeching to a halt in front of her.

“Did you see what the Crowns just posted on Instagram?” She paused for a breath of air, having run to come tell Millie the big news. “The whole band just got new vests! Every single one of them!”

Millie grabbed the phone to see the post, and Reagan crossed her arms angrily as she examined the evidence.

“No way!” exclaimed Millie.

The Crowns, their rival band from across town, nearly dazzled in the photo, decked out in thousands of blue and green sequins. They matched their school’s colors perfectly, and they definitely looked good enough to compete for the best-looking band ever.

Millie handed the phone back to Reagan with a sigh and looked down at her lunch, suddenly less hungry.

“The Crowns’ high school gets all the nice things just because their parents are rich!” complained Millie. “They get nice instruments, new clothes, and even fresh pepperoni pizza every Monday!”

Millie thought of their own school band, the Bells, and their faded purple and gray uniforms. All bands had matching outfits, but theirs were old and worn out. Just last week, their trombone player had torn the back of his jacket by sneezing a little too hard.

Reagan sat down across from her to scroll through more Instagram pictures.

“At least our players are good, right?” She continued frowning at her screen. “Isn’t music the most important part of a band anyway?”

“Yeah, but not in The Showdown. It’s the biggest band contest of the school year. They judge all parts of a marching band.”

Millie paused to finally take a bite of her lunch.

“If this school can’t afford fresh pizza, then we definitely can’t afford those kinds of costumes,” she continued. “I even asked Ms. Finn a few weeks ago about new hair pins and hats, and all I got was a plain old ‘no.’ We’re probably lucky we can afford a band in the first place.”

“It’s just not right, though!” Reagan groaned, dropping her head onto the table dramatically.

School marching bands from all over the district had been preparing for this battle of the bands for months, and the Bells had made it to the finals this year. It was a very competitive event, and everyone wanted to show their absolute best.

Reagan picked her head back up and pouted.

“We practice every day,” she said, “and our teachers say we sound great for a high school band. But still, they’re beating us at everything else!”

Millie nodded with a mouthful of her sandwich.

“The judges seem to prefer a band that both looks good and sounds good,” she agreed. “New costumes would give us a big edge.”

Reagan frowned at her phone screen again, and Millie tried to think of something positive to say.

“Never mind them,” she finally said. “We’re getting close to the target for our fundraiser, aren’t we?”

Reagan brightened a little at that thought.

“Yeah, we’re almost there! We can add it all up at the band meeting after school.”

Parents from their school had been paying them to wash and polish their cars for the last few months. There had been many days of wet sleeves, sore arms, and occasional sunburns.

“All those long weekends have really started adding up,” Millie said.

Reagan nodded. “I can’t wait to see Daniel and Sienna get the new tuba and flute! Theirs must be over twenty years old. You can totally hear it, too.”

Band meetings were usually filled with laughter and chatting, but today, after hearing about the Crowns, the results from the fundraiser were more important. Sitting in a huddle on the bleachers by the soccer field, everyone watched Millie get their money jar out of her bag and count it all out.

“So? Do we have enough yet?” Sienna, one of their flutists, asked. Millie tucked the bills back into the jar and set it beside her with a clunk.

“It’s almost enough. We’ll have to look for the best deals at the music shops.”

Millie herself had been looking forward to competing in The Showdown ever since she learned to play the drums in middle school. The Showdown was famous all around town. The Bells would have their biggest audience yet when they competed.

At the end of the meeting, Reagan said, “Time for a group photo for Instagram! We need more publicity so everyone will know about our car wash fundraiser!”

Reagan loved being their official social media manager. Each week, some people who didn’t even have kids in the school showed up after hearing about the event online.

“We still have a couple of weeks,” Millie reminded everyone. “Let’s keep washing as many cars as possible!”

No one was terribly excited about more suds, more scrubbing, and more sweat, but new instruments would give them a fighting chance at the contest. Even if they had to march in worn-out uniforms, at least they could sound good, right?

CHAPTER 2

After their own meeting at the bleachers outside, the Bells headed to the gym for daily band practice with their music teacher, Ms. Finn. As always, Daniel’s tuba snorted sometimes, and Sienna’s flute squeaked once or twice, but Ms. Finn stayed positive.

“You guys sound great!” she said, also aware of The Showdown coming up in a few weeks. “Even the best instruments out there can’t beat regular practice and team spirit!”

“Money can, though,” Millie mumbled over to Reagan, who sat next to her. “Money always wins in the end.”

As Millie collected her things at the end of practice, she suddenly noticed how light her backpack had become. She unzipped it with a frown and checked inside. The heaviest and most important item was missing: the money jar!

“Okay, okay—don’t panic,” Millie whispered to herself. “Maybe I left it on the bleachers outside. I know I had it there.”

She left without her usual goodbyes and rushed down the hallway, dodging backpacks and elbows among the crowd of students getting ready to leave for the day.

But the jar wasn’t out there either. Millie stared at the empty benches in dismay.

“How did it just go away? What did I do with it?”

They were barely going to have enough money from the fundraiser as it was.

“But now we have nothing and it’s all my fault.”

Millie’s stomach churned with worry. “Could someone have stolen it? No way. Who would do that to our poor little group?”

Millie continued to look around. “Maybe it’s still here somewhere.”

She searched under benches, peeked in garbage cans, and even rooted through the bushes.

“With all those blue star stickers on the lid, anyone might be able to recognize the jar at this point,” she worried out loud. “I should have been more careful.”

From the top of the bleachers, Millie could see the whole schoolyard. Suddenly, she spotted a person on the sidewalk that she hadn’t seen in over a year.

“I would recognize that head of blonde curls anywhere!” Millie perked up. “I wonder what she’s up to.”

Distracted from her panic about the jar, she jogged across the field towards Cynthia Myers.

Even on a school day, Cynthia wore a dress shirt, plaid skirt, and glitter high heels. She looked prim and proper, as she always did since her father had been promoted to a big job. Her family had much more money than the rest of them.

Millie slowed down as she got closer. Now she felt nervous. The two girls had once been best friends, but lately it was like seeing a distant relative at a family reunion. She looked at Cynthia with sadness in her eyes thinking about their lost friendship.

I barely know her anymore. I used to know what she thought and what she liked. Now I don’t even know what she does all day at that fancy school on the other side of town. We might not even count as friends at this point.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Millie asked as she approached Cynthia.

Her former best friend looked surprised, almost like she had been caught doing something wrong, but she quickly smiled and waved.

“Hey, Millie! I was just running some errands. My dad’s driver is going to pick me up, so he said to wait for him over here. I keep forgetting that you go to this school.”

She waved to the buildings behind her like she pitied the place.

“Yep, I do go here.” Millie smiled awkwardly.

She noticed that Cynthia still had the ribbon in her hair from the Crowns’ new uniforms, and she tried to ignore her own jealousy as she thought about their band at the competition.

The Crowns will look so impressive up on that stage.

“What kind of errands were you running?” she asked Cynthia out loud. “There’s not much to do on this side of town.” Nothing that would be expensive enough for Cynthia’s tastes, anyway.

“Oh, well, uh, you know, just some window shopping,” Cynthia replied. “Stuff like that. Anyway, I hear we’ll see your little band in The Showdown this year. That’s so nice! The Crowns can’t wait to see you perform.”

Her tone of voice sounded sweet, but her smile looked a little too wide. She couldn’t truly be that happy to have rivals from the same town in the competition. If she actually wanted to see Millie and her band, she could’ve answered a call or text from Millie in the past three years.

Just then, a shiny black SUV pulled up to the sidewalk.

“Well, that’s my ride. See ya!”

Cynthia slipped into the car, fully hidden behind the dark tinted windows, and the driver drove off as soon as she pulled the door shut.

Millie watched the car disappear down the street, feeling sadder the more she thought about the missing money. The Bells already had a tough time competing with wealthier school bands.

“If we can’t replace those two instruments, we might not even have a chance. The team is going to be so disappointed!”

CHAPTER 3

Days passed, and the money jar never showed up. Millie had shared the news with the rest of the Bells, and over the next week, they searched the whole school for the jar. But all anybody found were dust bunnies, paper clips, and a hairband that Reagan had lost last year.

“We should tell the faculty,” Millie suggested at lunch the next day. “They can—”

“No, no, no. That’s a terrible idea!” Daniel interrupted. “If they know we lost our money, they won’t even let us enter The Showdown. You know the principal already doubted that we should participate. If she hears about this, she might decide we shouldn’t even try!”

“But should we even try?” Reagan asked sadly. “We can play, but that flute doesn’t stay tuned for long. And there’s that horrible tuba snort every few minutes! We’ll be laughed right off the stage!”

She buried her face in her hands at the thought.

Millie felt sick looking at everyone’s disappointed faces. If only she hadn’t been so careless by leaving the jar sitting out. If only she had put it back in her backpack sooner.

“Hey.” Marge, a tall girl who was usually the best dressed in school, approached their circle shyly.

Millie recognized her as the head of the sewing club.

“I don’t want to barge in or anything, but we overheard you guys talking, and, well, we get it,” Marge said. “It’s tough when you love something but don’t have the money for it. The sewing club actually just got a donation of fabric, though, and we had a thought.”

Marge pointed to the rest of the sewing club, who smiled and waved from across the cafeteria.

“What if we made you new uniforms?” she offered. “We could make vests and jackets for everyone, new ties for the boys, and even hair ribbons for the girls. It’s nothing like new instruments, but—”

“You would do that for us? That would be amazing!” Millie exclaimed.

The rest of the Bells nodded along, their eyes suddenly lighting up at the idea.

Marge showed them the pretty purple fabric she had in mind for the jackets, and together the group picked out a silver material for the inner vests. By the end of their meeting, the sewing club was excited to create the clothes, and the band members were even more excited to practice the songs.

“Maybe we’ll have a shot at this after all,” Millie thought hopefully.

CHAPTER 4

“I’m so glad the sewing club finished just in time!” Millie exclaimed.

She and the rest of the Bells had just arrived at The Showdown in their school van, all dressed up in their new purple and silver costumes. Everyone was both nervous and excited for their performance, whispering to each other and fiddling with their instrument cases, hats, and hair ribbons.

“I can’t believe the day is finally here!” thought Millie.

The Showdown was taking place at the Crowns’ school this year. The football field had been covered with plastic chairs and a huge temporary wooden stage. There would be hundreds of spectators who had bought tickets. Millie had never played in front of so many people at once.

“All of our parents got a front row seat!” Reagan yelled to Millie over the growing crowd noise. “We can finally show them what we’ve been working so hard on!”

The girls grinned at each other. The day had finally arrived.

The bands were instructed to stay huddled in groups to keep everything organized. The event began with opening music, an MC, and some speeches from music directors in the area. The Bells waited behind the stage in the shadows of one of the school’s buildings.

“I think we’re right outside the Crowns’ music room,” Daniel noticed.

They took turns peering into the windows and marveling at their fancy equipment.

“Wait—is that—” Sienna gasped. “Is that our money jar?”

Millie rushed to look in beside her. “Hang on.”

Sure enough, on top of a barstool in the corner sat a big glass jar, its lid covered in familiar blue star stickers.

“How many jars look just like that?” Millie wondered out loud.

“Wait!” Suddenly she remembered. “I did see Cynthia outside our school a few weeks ago. And it was the same day that the jar went missing! She had said she was going on errands, but she’s never in that part of town, not even for birthday parties.”

“That’s so weird.” Reagan scrunched her nose. “Would the Crowns really do something like that? How would they even know where we keep the money?”

Suddenly, Millie thought of their Instagram account. “Hold on!” She looked it up on her phone. “Our weekly band pictures! I’m holding the jar in almost every one. And look, you can tell there’s money in there.”

Millie’s heart sank. Even if someone had stolen the jar, this problem was still partly her fault.

“That must be what happened,” Sienna said. “Someone saw the jar and the meeting place from the photos and snuck over here to see if they could take it.” She twirled her hair as she thought it through.

“So much goes on after school that it would be easy to grab it even in plain sight. Especially with all the soccer kids and parents wandering around by our spot.”

Reagan pulled out her phone and took a picture of the jar through the window. “There. Some evidence.” She turned to Millie, who was staring at her phone sadly. “Don’t worry about it, Millie. You didn’t know this would happen.”

There was no time to dwell on the matter. Their turn was coming up. The MC called their band name, and they headed out to the giant center stage.

The Bells played their best. Their tuba snorted a few times, and the flute squeaked a little. Millie’s drum rattled, and Reagan vibrated the whole stage with her cymbal when it crashed together. Still, they played on, and Millie loved it all. The performance wasn’t perfect, but they all had fun.

After every band got a chance to show their stuff, the MC burst back onto the stage.

“It’s time to announce our winners!” He held up his cards. “The award for ‘Best Sound’ goes to… the Songbirds!”

The audience applauded, and the band came across the stage in single file to receive shiny gold ribbons.

The MC stood back at the mic. “The award for ‘Best Look’ goes to… the Crowns!”

Millie wasn’t surprised. They did look great in their fancy uniforms. She clapped as they received their ribbons with fist pumps and grins.

“And, finally, the award for ‘Most Spirited’ goes to—”

The pause felt like forever.

“The Bells!” the MC announced.

“No way!” Daniel shouted.

They had won an award! Millie could hardly believe it.

As she walked along the stage, gratitude filled Millie’s heart. Just weeks ago, she thought they would have to cancel their performance entirely.

Right when I was feeling hopeless, it turned out that our little group just needed more practice, some creativity, and helpful friends!

Thoughts of gratitude filled her head as she accepted her very own gold ribbon. Maybe the Bells could help the sewing club with a project of their own sometime soon.

The audience began clearing out after the award ceremony. The bands stuck around to celebrate and socialize with each other. Millie noticed Cynthia in the crowd, and the lost money came back to mind.

She headed over with a soft smile. “Hey, Cynthia. Good job out there. The Crowns really looked nice.”

“Yeah, congratulations to you.” Cynthia shrugged stiffly. “You guys really tried, didn’t you?”

“Hey!” Reagan overheard Cynthia’s comment and rushed over to stand by Millie. “At least we—”

Millie interrupted her with a hand in the air. “Yeah, we did try. Even with all the obstacles. Oh, by the way, did you hear anything about a missing jar lately? Our group was collecting money for new instruments, and suddenly it vanished. Almost as if someone took it.”

Cynthia frowned and crossed her arms. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Reagan frowned back. “Oh, really? You seriously haven’t—”

“All right,” Millie interrupted her again. “Let’s say you have no idea what we mean. That’s okay, too. Would it be okay for us to peek into your music room, though? Just to be sure.”

Cynthia’s face paled. “Oh, you don’t need to—that’s not— that can’t happen, sorry.” She looked nervous and angry at the same time.

“Oh, that’s okay, too,” Sienna spoke up, joining Millie and Reagan. Cynthia glared at all three of them.

“We took a quick picture of the room before our performance,” Sienna explained. “We’ll just examine that again. And then we can also show it to the school staff, and they can just check out their security cameras to see if anyone was by the bleachers when the jar went missing, and—”

“Okay! Okay! I’ll just give you the jar back! Are you threatening me? You poor losers couldn’t have won ‘Best Sound’ no matter what equipment you had!”

“Actually, never mind.” Millie backed away, and Reagan and Sienna followed. “We’re just happy to have been able to perform.”

Cynthia only glared harder, and it struck Millie just how miserable she seemed. With her rich and glamorous life, she had thought she’d be the happiest drum player of any band in the world. Now, she wasn’t so sure.

CHAPTER 5

The next week at school, Millie sat down with their principal, Mrs. Pickett, and explained the situation.

“The rest of the band can back me up on this. We all saw the jar that night. Reagan even took a picture of it.” She slid her phone across the desk to show her.

“Yes, that does look like the jar you described,” Mrs. Pickett replied, squinting at the screen. “I guess now I need to check those cameras.”

Millie waited quietly while Mrs. Pickett sorted through her flash drives of security footage. She found the right date and fast-forwarded the recording to the afternoon that the jar had disappeared.

“Well, I’ll be!” Mrs. Pickett pursed her lips like she did around all misbehaving students. “That sure looks like a thief. The blond hair looks just like you described. I’ll make a call to the school and talk with the staff. If this turns out to be true, I think we’ll be getting your money back.”

Millie sighed a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Thank you, Mrs. Pickett. I feel terrible about tattle-taling.”

“It’s a lot of money.” Mrs. Pickett leaned back in her chair and lowered her reading glasses. “Watching the Bells all year has reminded me just how significant money can be in life. Sometimes it really does make the difference between success and failure. I want you to know how proud we all are of the Bells, though.”

Millie blushed at the unexpected compliment, and Mrs. Pickett continued. “Money can get you the tools to work with. But a team as fun and kind as yours? That only happens through friendship and teamwork. Something like that just can’t be bought.”

Two weeks later, their old earnings were returned along with an additional donation from some parents of the Crowns who had heard about their struggles. The music department would finally be able to buy a new tuba and flute! Excitement and planning filled the next weekly band meeting.

“I can hardly wait for next time,” Millie said. “With even more practice and our team’s positive thinking, next year’s band battle will be even better!”