Unmanageable

Jules Kendall sings in a garage band led by Gunner Martin, and with a big performance at the fair only a couple of weeks away, the group is hard at work on a new song. During a break, Jules learns just what kind of friends she has fallen in with. One bandmate cheerfully explains how he gets free meals: he strolls into Frankie's Barbecue, reads the names on the to-go bags behind the counter, and announces, "Hi, I'm picking up for Stanley." Razz brags that when his car needed new tires, he rented a car, swapped its good tires onto his own, and returned it with nobody noticing, and Dominic admits he used to swipe bouquets off cemetery graves to give to his girlfriend. Jules is troubled, but the boys laugh it off as harmless fun, insisting nobody gets hurt. Then Gunner takes a phone call with thrilling news: someone who heard the band at the fair auditions wants to be their manager.

At home, Jules's older sister Connie is worried. Jules is skipping tutoring and church, her attitude is slipping, and Connie warns her that the people she spends time with are influencing her more than she realizes. Jules bristles; she insists she thinks for herself and wants nothing to do with Connie's constant nudges toward God. Connie has been laying it on thick, reprogramming Jules's radio stations to worship music, praying a second prayer just for the cheesecake when her old friend Pamela and Pamela's daughter Sadie come to dinner, and even serving cross-shaped pancakes. Jules dodges it all, even stepping out of the dessert prayer to take a phone call.

The mystery manager turns out to be Jay Smouse, a fast-talking kid whose business card is a playing card with his number written on it in cursive. Jules wants nothing to do with him, but Jay has already booked the band a real gig, a half-hour show for two thousand people at an aeronautics conference in Connellsville, and the boys outvote her. The band rewrites their lyrics to be about science, and the crowd of space scientists loves them, chanting "Hydrogen!" because, as Jay explains, hydrogen is number one. Best of all, Pamela and Sadie happen to be attending the conference. Sadie loves the music and mentions that her mom's cousin, Jacqueline Henderson, runs the biggest music festival in the state. Pamela promises to pass the band's card along when she visits her cousin, and suddenly the band's big break seems within reach.

Jay's next booking is less glamorous: toddler time at the library, where the band follows a juggling clown and performs "Itsy Bitsy Spider" for preschoolers. Jay defends his strategy, declaring that "children are the crumbs that lead to the pineapple upside-down cake of opportunity," but the band unravels backstage. Gunner introduced the group on stage as "my band," and the others erupt over how he hogs the songwriting, the credit, and every decision. As the argument boils over, Jay fires them all on the spot, mentioning he already has a new client, a rap group of librarians called Literally Librarians. Gunner shrugs off the disaster; as long as their information reaches Jacqueline Henderson, he figures they will be fine.

Meanwhile, Pamela gently tells Connie that her pushy tactics are not helping Jules. She tried the same things with Sadie, who is also hesitant about faith, and she has learned that God is the one who changes hearts, in his own time. The two friends pray for each other before Pamela leaves. Later, while writing a defiant song with Gunner about not needing rules or chains, Jules discovers that Gunner does not believe in God at all. To him it is all fairy tales; since you are only young once, you might as well have fun, and pranks like stolen flowers and swapped tires are no big deal as long as nobody gets hurt.

That very night, somebody does get hurt, or very nearly. Driving their rental car up slippery dirt roads toward cousin Jackie's house, Pamela and Sadie skid out of control and slide off the road, mercifully up an embankment instead of over the drop-off on the other side. When they climb out, they discover why the car was sliding: the rental's tires are completely bald, without a bit of tread, exactly the kind of trick Razz had bragged about pulling. Shaken, Pamela decides to skip the visit to her cousin and fly home early, and with that quiet decision, the band's card will never reach Jacqueline Henderson.

Back home, Jules notices something surprising: Connie has taken the Bible bookmark out of her magazine and apologizes for being pushy. Jules softens just a little and thanks her. Alone, Connie admits to God how hard it is to wait, asking him to make her obedient and patient, and ends with a simple prayer for herself and her sister: "Help us both to trust you."