Melody 5 - Rising Stars

7 (iii) - Amy

Then suddenly Olivia went completely off her game. It coincided with James Holland arriving and joining Sherri. Amy had no idea why someone fawning all over their wife should bother Olivia so much - unless....

Olivia and James?

No way!

There was no time to think about that now though. They still had four more songs to get through.

But by the fourth track - another one of Tony's efforts - Olivia was all over the place. She kept missing her lines and was off the beat. Amy, Molly and Jadine covered for her, but poor Rhian didn't know how to handle it and descended down a slippery slope herself. She forgot some of her words and whacked herself in the face with her microphone. Amy heard the audience stifle their giggles and saw a couple of execs at the back room get up and leave.

The girls shared a glance. They knew they had to take drastic action.

At the end of the track Amy raced over to Olivia and hissed, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Olivia didn't speak. Amy followed her stony eyeline and saw it land straight on James Holland, affectionately stroking Sherri's stomach.

Sherri was pregnant!

And it looked like Olivia had just worked out the same thing too!

"Pull it together!" spat Amy.

Olivia numbly nodded but wouldn't budge from her spot on the stage.

Amy looked across at Jadine and Molly in a panic. How they were going to make it through another soul-destroying Tony Ward number?

Quickly Jadine took to the centre of the stage.

"Ladies and Gents, thanks for your appreciation so far," said Jadine.

What was she doing? Sherri had said that they shouldn't speak to the audience - something about "maintaining their allure" and that industry types didn't like listening to "inane ramblings".

"Next we'd like to perform a track we wrote ourselves that really sums up the spirit of the band and we'd love it to be our first single."

Genuis! Get to the good stuff before they lost anymore of the room. Plus Olivia's part in the track was tiny, because she'd refused to give it any major input.

"Ladies and Gents," continued Jadine. "And anyone who works in Marketing..."

There was a light ripple of laughter around the room.

"...this is Melody Vibe!"

The girls were back!

The song and the routine were lively, sassy and full of fun. It didn't even matter that Olivia was in a daze - it suited her haughty persona. The girls rocked it! And Derren must have sorted the lighting, as it was an awesome display that complemented the number perfectly.

The girls finished on a high and got a well deserved round of applause from the room - and two disgruntled looks from Sherri and Tony. Sensing Sherri's annoyance Derren leapt to the front of the room.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please stick around and mingle," he said. "You can talk to the girls and their beautiful manager - the one and only, Sherri Holt. And of course feel free to offer these amazing girls a multi-million pound recording contract!"

There was a ripple of laughter around the room. The girls took a bow and were about to head off stage when Amy saw James Holland gently brush a small lock of hair out of Sherri's eye. It was such a small gesture, but one full of love and tenderness that you couldn't fail to be moved. It also moved Olivia - but in completely the opposite direction. She leapt off the stage, strode over to Sherri's table, picked up James' glass of champagne and tossed it in his face.

"You lying, cheating scumbag!" she shouted. "You said you were going to leave her. You said we'd be together. And now look at you! Fawning all over her just because she's up the duff!"

The whole room was desperately trying to keep up with what was unfolding before their eyes.

"Excuse me!" yelled Sherri. "What the hell are you going on about?"

"Your husband's been sleeping with me and said he was going to marry me - that's what I'm going on about!" screeched Olivia.

Sherri turned to James, who couldn't even look her in the eye. The whole room was completely enthralled.

"Is this true?" she asked.

James didn't respond. So Sherri picked up her drink and threw that over him too.

White as a sheet, she turned to Tony. "Take me home."

Tony was as gob-smacked as the rest of the room.

"Now!" she ordered.

Tony leapt from his seat and guided a shaking Sherri towards the exit.

Amy looked at the rest of the girls - they were all as stunned her.

What was going to happen to them now?