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"Hi, I'm Hazel Fine. I'm a singer/songwriter from Austin, Texas, and I'm going to be the next winner of TheSing Along!"
"That's great, Hazel," the director of the promo spot said after Hazel's tenth take. Her name was Sheila, and she had a bright red mane of hair that she wore in a thick braid. "Can we do it one more time? Maybe with the guitar?"
"Sure, no problem."
Hazel walked back to her starting position by the star-shaped pool. The sun was beating down, and there was a trickle of sweat snaking down her back. If she stayed out there much longer, she was going to start to smell.
The guy in the black T-shirt from her audition, Nick Barnes, was standing at the edge of the pool with her guitar in hand.
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Hazel had learned that morning that he was the musical director for the show. A lanky six feet with short curly brown hair and green eyes, he was once again wearing a black T-shirt, though this time he had his ID badge around his neck on a lanyard. Hazel had been issued a similar badge when she'd signed into the competition in the lobby of their hotel in Universal City.
"You need any help?" Nick asked as he held out her guitar by the neck.
"I got it." Hazel took the guitar and slipped the strap over her head.
"I tuned it for you. Your E string was flat."
"Oh, thanks." That set her teeth on edge. The slightly flat E string was on purpose, but he probably assumed she didn't know what she was doing.
He'd intimated as much earlier when he started to explain what a "mark" was. When she'd told him she knew what she was doing and had counted out the steps to the red x in the grass made of painters' tape, he'd nodded and went back to scowling at the other contestants. She didn't expect him to give her a medal for basic blocking skills, but some acknowledgment would've been nice.
"You ready for me?" she asked Sheila after she'd adjusted her guitar and smoothed down her hair. Sheila was over sixty and was wearing a pair of white coveralls. She was patient with the contestants as they stumbled through their promo spots, and she'd been especially kind to Zoey, who was terrible on camera, flubbing her lines over and over.
Zoey had texted Hazel the day after the auditions, and they'd been exchanging messages ever since. Zoey talked a bit too much about her girlfriend, but Hazel knew she probably felt that way because she was jealous. Hazel wished she had someone special to leave behind. The only goodbye for Hazel had been the one to her boss. When she'd told him she needed a week off for the show, he'd given it to her. As in, he'd fired her and told her not to come crawling back when things didn't work out.
She hadn't bothered to let Vern know she was leaving the motel. Instead, she'd snuck out in the early dawn catching a knowing nod from Amber as she let her last customer out of her room. But he'd caught Hazel rolling her suitcase away, anyway, and had started crooning about her never being able to check out but never leave in a painful voice.
