By noon, the news of what had happened was everywhere.

Tony Newton’s friends heard it on their ghetto blaster radios, and the central news broadcasting corporation in the United States had interrupted regularly scheduled programming to provide minute-by-minute coverage. The Canadian news was a little more conservative; they chose to interrupt programming only whenever there was truly any new development in the situation.

When the lunch hour was finished, Tony’s grade twelve math teacher knew she was facing a classroom full of agitated and excited adolescents who had spent the previous hour speculating on what exactly had happened to two of the members of their favorite rock group. She tried to refocus them but gave up eventually, instead instructing them to work quietly on their math problems in chapter three.

Evelyn Sanborn sat down at her desk and looked around the room at her students. She had heard about the incident on her lunch break. She always went home for lunch to watch her soap while she ate the sandwiches she had prepared in the morning.

But there was to be no love in the afternoon today. The American News Network was broadcasting over almost every channel, showing helicopter shots of Drake Russo’s Los Angeles home. She had lived through the O.J. Simpson thing, and now some other craziness was happening in the States.

Initially, she really didn’t want to know about it. These celebrities were a whole different breed, and if they changed the type of cereal they ate, the media made a big deal out of it. But then as she was more or less forced to listen to what had happened, she was frozen to the spot. She couldn’t believe it.

Drake Russo had shot his younger brother Johnny. What made this such a sensational case was not only the high profile of the Russo Brothers Band but the fact that Johnny was actually shot by his brother. The trademark of the Russo Brothers was that they were brothers, the epitome of familial harmony. Aside from being good musicians, the fact that they always appeared to be so happy together was a large part of their appeal. Sure, there was gossip about them, but it was always what you’d expect from rock stars; drugs, sex, lashing out at journalists, former lovers revealing secrets, things that rock stars were allowed to get away with simply because they were rock stars.

She understood the kids in her class who were crazy about the Russo Brothers would be disturbed by the news, and were anxious to sit in front of the television sets at home to hear more.

And there were no bigger fans of the Band in her classroom than Tony Newton and his buddy Sam Ashman, who had even started a fan club at the high school. Newton and Ashman had stood outside in the rain for ten hours last year to get tickets to their Toronto concert, only to be told they were all sold out.

She noticed how upset they looked when they came back into the classroom this afternoon and had considered bringing the subject up, let the kids talk about it, but decided against it. It might make matters worse to give it too much importance. After all, they were rock stars. Crazy things happened to rock stars.

When the bell rang for the students to change classrooms, Evelyn Sanborn headed home early and switched on her set.

* * * *

When the final bell sounded, signaling the end of the day, Tony and Sam sprang out of their seats only to be told by Mr. Foreman, their English teacher, to sit back down. “I haven’t dismissed you yet,” he barked in a severe voice, wiping his hand across his greasy, balding head. “I want you to finish reading ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ over the weekend, please. The American news coverage on the Russo thing will break once in a while. You can read in between interviews.”

There were groans.

Mr. Foreman mawkishly lifted both hands, indicating that they could leave. “Quietly…and in a civil manner, please,” he emphasized, but his words were lost to most of the students, who were already halfway out the door.

Tony Newton was a handsome boy for his seventeen years, with his sherry-colored eyes and shoulder-length curly brown hair. He was very popular at Champlain High, not only because he was handsome, but because he had a sensitive soul. He was outgoing and smart, but he treated everyone with kindness and respect.

Tony Newton had been Sam Ashman’s best friend since grade school. Even though Tony came from a more prestigious family than his, he never flaunted it.

Tony’s parents, Sandra and Tom, were great people. Sandra owned a woman’s bookstore, and Tom was a pediatrician with his own practice. They had always treated Sam like a second son, and for years he had called them Sandra and Tom. The Newtons were in their mid-thirties, younger than his own parents and far less uptight. Tom was handsome and wore an earring in his ear, and Sandra was a gorgeous blonde.