Who Am I (A Jai Courtney Fanfic) Book 2

Chapter 82-Jai

Jai

It's getting closer to time and we all leave the dressing room together.  We walk down the hallway and I can see Meg trembling.  I reach out and hold her hand.  She looks to me and smiles through the nerves.  We arrive behind the stage and we all wait while Dante goes out.  He greets the crowd and the roar is deafening.  I smile at how this will be my girl's future, how she'll be a performer like me, just a bit different. I wrap my arms around her and continue to give her support since she's still shaking.  She sighs and slowly calms in my embrace.  We watch the performance and he is exceptional. I think the acoustics are better here than the other locale.  I feel a tap on my arms and remember that she needs to go out soon.  I release her and notice that she's calm now—excited even.  She goes out and sings with Dante.  The crowd rolls again with thunderous applause and screams at her voice and I can see... that they do love her whether they know her yet or not. 
She stays in the middle of the stage and Joel joins Megan and Dante onstage. Joel introduces her telling them that she just signed a contract with Capitol Music for a record.  The crowd goes wild.  I smile at that. 
He laughs and when they finally calm, he explains a bit about her... and me.  "So... I don't know if you've been watching the latest goss," he grins. 
"Gossip," Meg chuckles into the mic. 
"Right, she has this habit of helping Americans understand us Aussies," Joel grins. 
"Yeah, Moriah's been helping me," Dante teases and the audience laughs. 
"Well, I have my American translator and Jai Courtney has his," Joel continues.  The crowd roars at that once more.  "So... I've seen him in passing over the years in our hometown of Sydney.  We both rose to fame at about the same time.  He'd always be wearing his sunnies—sunglasses," he says catching himself so the crowd can understand.  "For someone with a familiar face in public... that's kind of like, let me do my business and leave me be.  But I'd always pray for him in passing."
He continues on telling his story and I'm just as touched as the first time—that someone would see me going by and just pray for me.  That someone would intercede for me and speak to God on my behalf just really means so much to me.  I know that God truly answers prayers.  He speaks on how Megan and I met at the airport in Jamaica in passing and how I couldn't get her out of my head.  He tells of how I joined her mission trip and got to know her... and eventually came to know God.  He plays my baptism for the crowd and they're all screaming and cheering for me. 
"So... without further ado, I give you all Megan Wright," Joel smiles and walks off the stage. 
Meg grabs her guitar and starts playing.  Everyone is cheering so loud that she and Dante have to wait, going through the first verse instrumental intro twice.  She laughs and waits, singing at her first available cue.  They cheer again but calm quickly.  They're singing along.  They must know this one.  I hadn't heard it until her last performance.  Dante joins her and it's so beautiful.  The crowd is really into it and I feel like this is an actual church service. I smile at the thought and listen to their performance. The crowd goes wild as they finish and Dante walks off the stage, leaving the audience all to her.
She plays the next on the keyboard and the words are up above on the screen. It seems like some know this one, some don't but they join in quickly enough. It is a simple and engaging song. They're all singing along with her and even everyone backstage around me as well. I grin at her skills, encompassing even the rest of us to worship.
She finishes the song and talks a little to the crowd as she switches from keyboards back to her guitar. "If you can't tell, I started out with worship at church," she tells the crowd and they laugh and cheer. She explains the next song, that it's an older cover song. She, of course, dedicates it to God... and me as well. There's actually a cameraman that catches me. I smile and wave to the crowd and they roar with applause and screaming. I laugh at that. I cross my arms and listen as she sings that same gorgeous song to me. The only sounds in the convention center is her voice and the guitar. The echo is hypnotic and incredible, the words—heavenly. I can't believe she chose this of all songs to sing to me. It really means so much to me. It's so beautiful and I'm so completely touched.
She ends the song and Joel goes back out—playing MC. "Lovely, wasn't it?" he asks the crowd. They cheer—a tumultuous sound. "Would you like me to let you in on a secret?" They cheer again and he laughs. "So... Moriah and I played a little trick on Megan a few weeks ago. We actually met Jai and her at the airport in Sydney at the start of our tour. When Megan and our wives went to the ladies room, Jai confided to Luke and me that he wanted to do something special for her. They were both going to be at our concert in Ypsilanti, Michigan—only because she's from Ohio due to the proximity, you know. Luke came up with the ingenious idea to get her on stage. She's fabulous, isn't she?" The crowd cheers again. He explains the trick with Moriah's allergy meds where she played sick to get her up on the stage.
"So... we're going to play you a recording from that night to see why we were all attempting to coax her onto the stage," he explains.
They both look back at the screen. They play my proposal and the crowd goes wild—more so than they have yet at this concert. I laugh in surprise.
When it finishes, Joel calls me out. I head straight for Megan and kiss her. The crowd explodes. It feels like the building is shaking. We laugh as we part.
"So, Jai?" Joel asks. "What do you have to say to our fans?"
"Let's do this," I tell him and the crowd goes wild once again.
Moriah, Courtney, and Dante join us, as well as all the additional hands on the instruments. Megan grabs her guitar and she nods to the drummer.  He hits his drumsticks together and she plays—along with someone on electric guitar, the drums, and keyboards.  Meg begins singing and the crowd goes wild once more.  I start singing my part and the crowd increases in volume like when I kissed her.  I smile as I sing and look back to Megan.  She glances at me as well.  We all sing the chorus together and for the bridge, we take turns.  The fans are really getting into it, singing as well.  Dante sings a solo and gets the crowd involved.  They're all pumped and into it.  We finish and the crowd is going insane.  I hear them all shouting our names—even mine. 
"Do you want us all to do the next one together?" Joel laughs into the mic. 
The crowd roars again. 
"That's fine," Meg tells everyone away from her mic.  "Do we all know this?" she asks. 
I nod.  So does everyone else. 
"Jai?  Do you want want to take the second verse?" she asks me. 
"Sure," I shrug. 
"Alright.  Lead the second round on the chorus as well.  They want to hear more of you," she grins. 
I laugh lightly and think she's right. 
We sing Graves Into Gardens and she's leading first.  She starts playing on her guitar and the crowd roars again.  I'm just in awe of this.  She takes the lead and sings beautifully. We all sing the chorus together and then I'm up. I nail my cue and sing my part probably better than I ever have. We sing the chorus together again but I'm still leading. We go into the first bridge as a group, then the chorus once more. Next is the second bridge. We sing the chorus again and then Megan slows it down singing the chorus one last time a cappella with all of us. It's beautiful and I think back to the band card game we played. She's rocking the audience. I laugh at how amazing this moment is.
Dante and I leave the stage together as the ladies back up Luke and Joel. We take our turns joining them on our various songs but I notice that when Megan does something new and different, the crowd reacts. Her skills are impressive—moving from vocals and also several instruments.
The crowd is cheering at the end for an encore.  Joel and Luke look to us, then to the ladies. 
"We could do one," Megan nods shrugging. 
"What do we all know, though?" Joel asks. 
Megan smiles and looks to Dante, "Jai knows Champion.  Does everyone?"
"We could do that," Dante nods grinning. 
I look to Joel and Luke.  "We know the chorus," they say in tandem. 
"Ladies?" Megan asks. 
"Chorus," they shrug. 
"What about backup music?" Joel asks. 
"I can do the keyboards or the acoustic with my eyes closed," Meg jokes grinning.  "I play this during prayer.  Which one?"
Dante looks touched.  "How about acoustic so we don't have to worry about anything else?" he suggests. 
She nods and lets the backups know. 
"Who's singing what?" I ask. 
"First verse," Dante points to himself.  "Second," he motions to Meg.  "Third," he gestures to me.  "The three of us can handle the bridge.  And we'll all do chorus after that but we'll have the Smallbones out front leading on those.  We'll back you up in case you forget the words," he jokes and we all laugh. 
I tell Megan she's second verse, bridge together, and back up chorus.  She nods. 
"They know it already and they'll follow our lead," she tells everyone. 
"This is when you know you made it," Dante laughs. 
He addresses the crowd.  "So, we're all doing one of mine," he tells the crowd and the roar shakes the building. 
"They're not going to shut us down are they?" Meg jokes.  "We're not breaking fire code or something, right?"
We laugh at that. 

'Champion'—Dante Bowe

She starts out on the acoustic and I've never heard her play this one.  I've actually heard this done at her church but Dominique at Southside was always the one to play it on the keyboards.  She's incredible.  Dante looks exceptionally happy.  Singing a little early.  He sings his chorus and verse.  Then Megan sings hers.  The crowd is going wild for both.  Then we all sing the chorus and I'm singing my verse next—twice, if I remember correctly.  The cheers for me are still surprising as I start, the lyrics applicable. 
"Now I can finally see it
You're teaching me how to receive it
So let all the striving cease
This is my victory," I sing. 
I repeat it and we all sing the chorus again.  The Smallbones leading is exceptional.  They are a perfect four part and the three of us added kind of fill in rounding out the harmony.  It's truly incredible.  The three of us sing the bridge next and the four add on as we repeat.  We move onto the chorus once more and I've never been involved in something so incredible before.  I notice the crowd all singing with us, phone lights flashing as we sing.  We end the song to thunderous applause once more. 
"Thank you, Anaheim!" Joel shouts into the mic.  We all come to the front and take a bow.  We stand here arms linked together as they cheer. The other concert was fun, but this one was even more so. We leave the stage. If we didn't, it would be never ending. We make it back to the dressing room and talk about how well it went. I'm finally holding Meg again and I'm so glad about that. She and the ladies walk off for a moment.
"I'm dying to ask you something," I tell Joel.
"Alright," he grins.
I ask him if it was his contacts that got Meg the offer.
"You wouldn't believe it, but I talked to Tori Kelly—the blonde from Together," he tells me and I nod. "I knew we'd be here and I was just looking for them to come. Capitol represents her as well as other Christian artists—tobyMac, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong United—but lots of secular, too. She said they put her info into a pile and kind blew her off.  Then, I surprisingly received a call from them asking about her performance. I gave them all the info. Then, I called Tori back to thank her. She said they never asked her about anything. She said she was surprised, too. I emailed her links to Megan's performances and she thought she could make it. She didn't get past the name on a piece of paper according to Tori. So... it might've been someone else."
I nod, "I have an idea who."
"Your connections?" he inquires.
"I think she made her own way this time," I admit. "I took her to the Academy Awards and I think she met some influentials who pulled some strings."
"It's not what you know but who," he nods. "It's like that sometimes."
"Yeah," I agree.