“Tune in tonight for the first ever viewing of this seasons America Sings!” the announcer for America Sings, Terry Calado, tells us from the corner of the screen.
I bounce up and down and James puts his arm around me. “Calm down! You know what happens anyways,” James says amused.
“So. Every year we watch the Killer Round in my living room with licorice and popcorn. Now we are in an amazing hotel suite in California, but we don’t have any popcorn or licorice!” I exclaim and throw my hands up, which was hard to do with James’ arm around my shoulders.
“Zane will be here any minute with the licorice,” James assures me.
“But it’s tradition,” I mumble and lean against James. Just then Lia rushes in with a big bag.
“I got the licorice!” she announces proudly.
“And are you going to tell them where you got it from?” Zane asks, coming in from behind her. He rubs his head as if it had recently been hit.
Lia smirks but doesn’t reply. I narrow my eyes at them. Was something going on between them?
“I’ll finish popping the popcorn,” James says and gets up.
Just then the door to the room opens and Mom comes in. “Has it started yet?” she asks. Jane follows her in.
“It should start in any minute,” I tell her.
Soon we are all situated around the giant flat screen TV propped up on the dresser. Lia and I had pulled off all of the covers on the bed and asked for extra pillows, creating a bed on the floor. James was spread out on his stomach on my bed and was staring at the TV and Zane was popped up against the headboard on Lia’s bed. Mom and Jane sat on the chairs by the doors leading to the patio.
“And we are back!” Terry Calado announces once all of the sponsor commercials are over. “We have 200 contestants participating in the Killer Round this year. This breaks down into 40 groups. Some groups were outstanding,” Terry stops talking and a clip of our group comes on. It shows me holding out the last note to our song before it switches back. “While others just plain bombed it.” It shows somebody tripping as they go on stage, then somebody forgetting their lyrics, and it ends in an… interesting routine of Play That Funky Music.
“The judges responses weren’t always the most constructive,” Terry tells us and points to the screen besides him. The camera zooms in and we watch as Jake degrades performance after performance. Jessica tries to make them feel better but it doesn’t really help. Terry’s voice comes on telling us about all of the tears spilt. It shows girls crying in the hallway, in the bathroom, and all over the place. Then it shows the groups hugging together on stage while some cry.
“But not everybody got negative responses,” Terry tells us happily and directs his gaze to the TV again. It zooms in on some shots of people in the practice rooms getting ready for show time. I was surprised at how the camera crew was able to catch the anxiety that was going on backstage as they get some close shots on the people waiting their turn to perform.
I listen and watch as Jake congratulates a couple of groups and Jaycee smiles making me melt a little bit more every time.
“Sh, we’re coming soon!” Lia says excitedly.
After we had left the stage the cameramen had approached us and got us celebrating some more and interviewed us.
“It was so stressful to watch them perform,” Lia tells the camera.
“It was stressful to perform too,” Ashlic beams.
“This is the moment where you can make it or break it,” I tell the camera seriously.
“This is where it all happens,” James adds helpfully.
“Yes, this is where it all happens. You have watched as our contestants go through the stress and pain of America Sings. Some of them have come out on top, while others are on the first plane back home. Tune in next Friday when half of our survivors are eliminated!” Terry finishes.
“Did you see me?” Lia gushes as the commercials come back on.
I chew on a piece of licorice nervously. “Half of us will be eliminated,” I say nervously and trail off.
“There’s no need to be nervous, honey, you’ll do fine!” Mom reassures me.
“We need to decide what songs we are doing for round two,” James points out.
“Oh you should sing I Am the DJ by neon trees,” Lia suggests to James.
James thinks about it and smiles. “Yeah, that could work.”
“And you should sing Country Boy, Amber!” Lia announces, looking proud of herself.
“Isn’t that sung by a guy though?” I ask.
“Yeah but it could work for a guy to. Don’t you only get a couple of minutes?”
“You can choose any song under five minutes,” James says.
I shrug. “Let’s try it.”
“This is so exciting!” Lia claps her hands together.
James and I meet each other’s eyes. “One week.”
*************
“This is me,
I’m proud to be American
And strong in my belief.
And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
Because I’ve never needed the government to hold my hand,” I sing, reading the lyrics off of the screen. I had decided earlier that I wasn’t going to sing the last thirty five seconds of the song where Aaron Lewis talks.
“Sounds good,” James says grinning.
“I still haven’t heard you sing your song,” I tease.
“It’s going to be a surprise,” James winks.
I roll my eyes. Just then Zane walks in. “Hey James, I have a present for you!”
“What for?” James asks suspiciously.
“It’s a good luck present I guess you could say. It was Lia’s idea really. I have one for Amber too!” Zane says excitedly and hands each of us a box.
I open it curiously. Inside were big chocolate balls. “Aw Zane! Thanks!” I say happily.
“He did something to them, I just know it,” James says, eyeing the chocolate.
“Oh stop it. Here, we can take a bite of it at the same time if that makes you feel better,” I propose and pick up one of the balls. It was heavy and would probably be hard to bite into.
“Fine. On the count of three,” James says. We count down and each bite into one. My teeth slide into the chocolate easily and slimy insides start to run down my chin.
“What the heck?” I ask as I pull away the chocolate and spit it out into the box.
Zane is laughing his head out and Lia appears out of nowhere. Her phone is out and I can tell that she is recording this.
“ZANE!” James yells and runs at him.
I look down at the half eaten chocolate in my hand and that’s when I realize what happened. My eyes widen in shock and I know that Lia is recording all of this. They had dipped raw eggs in chocolate and given them to us!
“So that’s how you want to play?” I ask sweetly.
Lia nods and props her phone against a lamp on the desk.
I pick up another chocolate covered egg and throw it at her. It hits her squarely in the stomach. Her mouth forms an O and her eyes widen. Yolk slithers down her purple top. “You did not,” Lia says.
“Oh, but I did.”
Lia grabs James’ box and soon we are in an egg war while the guys wrestle on the ground.
“What in the world?!” Mom shrieks as she enters the room. I throw another egg at Lia but this time I miss and it goes right by her shoulder, hitting Mom.
“Give me one of those,” Mom tells Lia angrily. Lia obliges and gives her the whole box.
“Uh oh,” I mutter and dive behind the bed. Mom stalks up and breaks an egg over my head. I realize that I didn’t bring my box with me when I took cover. Soon Lia and Mom were pelting me and I raise my hands. “I surrender! I surrender!”
Just then James pins Zane who echoes my words.
“What was that for?” James asks Zane.
“Let’s just say that it was revenge for making us fall through those holes,” Zane smirks.
Lia picks up her phone. “And it’s all on camera.”
“I have got to see this,” Mom says excitedly. She calls Jane into the room and together we watch the video, laughing until our sides hurt.
“We’re even now,” I tell Lia. Lia just smiles.
“So who’s going to clean up the mess?” James asks.
Mom smiles at us. “You are.”
**************
“We need to come up with a plan of attack,” I tell James seriously.
We were sitting in the lobby and it was midnight. It was the only place where we could be sure that we were alone and wouldn’t be overheard. The only person here was the person at the desk and they were currently on the phone and at least thirty feet away.
“We need a good prank. Something big,” James says thoughtfully.
“Something that they will never forget,” I tell him. I scratch my head. I still hadn’t gotten all of the egg out of it.
“Maybe we could dye their hair green or something,” James suggests.
“No, then they would just do something worse and we have to be on TV,” I reason.
“So, no playing dirty?” James asks sadly.
“Oh no, we’re playing dirty.”
****************
Once again, I had put off finding an outfit to wear until the last minute.
“I bet that I have something that you could wear,” Lia tells me. She pulls out one of her suitcases. “You don’t want to look to fancy and dressed up, but you don’t want to add to our country stereotypes.”
“What about this?” I ask. I pull out a pair of dark jeans with a cute sparkly pink top.
Lia nods. “That could work. I just need to make adjustments.”
So for the next thirty minutes, I had to stand there while Lia worked. I was wearing the jeans and top while Lia added and took things away.
“Try on this jacket with it. How about these boots? Put on these earrings. Hair up, or down?” Lia was talking a mile a minute, constantly changing her mind.
Finally we settled. Black Uggs, the dark wash jeans, the sparkly pink top, a black jacket, diamond earrings, and hair straightened.
“Perfect,” Lia announces, looking happy with herself.
“I’m nervous,” I tell her.
“Don’t be. You’ve done this before,” Lia tells me, dismissing the thought of nerves.
“But half of us will be eliminated!” the butterflies in my stomach had babies and took off.
“Half of you were eliminated last time. You made it, you’ll make it this time,” Lia tells me. She sounded so sure.
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course.”
****************
“Mom, do you really have to be here?” I ask grumpily.
Mom gives me a look and goes back to reading her magazine. Her voice drifts up lazily from the pages. “You know our agreement.”
“It’s not an agreement,” I mutter. I cross my arms. Uncross them. Cross them again.
“It’s going to be okay,” Mom tells me.
I ignore her. Uncross my arms. Cross them again. Lia walks up holding to coffee cups from Starbucks. “Here you go. A hot chocolate, just what the doctor ordered.”
“Thanks,” I thank her and take a sip. I blow on it. Take a sip. Put it down. Pick it up again. Take a sip. Cross my legs. Wiggle my toes.
“Seriously, you’ll do fine,” Lia tells me and rolls my eyes.
“Stop fidgeting,” Mom tells me, her eyes never lifting from the magazine.
I distract myself by watching James and Zane hit each other playfully at the other side of the room. Once again, James would be going before me.
I take another sip of my hot chocolate. The announcer comes out of the door leading to the stage and calls the next person in. Here they didn’t have a TV so that we could see who got in and who didn’t. I didn’t like it.
“Just don’t forget your lyrics and you’ll do fine,” Lia tells me confidently.
“Easy for you to say, all that you have to do is watch,” I pint out.
Lia shrugs. I listen to the other contestants as they practice, making each other listen and give them pointers.
“Hey Amber!” Ashlic walks up. I groan inwardly.
“Hi, Ashlic,” I greet.
“Isn’t this so exciting? This is just so exciting,” Ashlic says happily and smiles.
“How many cups of coffee have you had?” Lia asks carefully.
Ashlic waves off the question. “Who cares? I’ve had enough that I really have to pee.”
I laugh. “You should probably go take care of that then.”
“And miss out on everything? No way!”
I shrug. “Suit yourself. When do you perform?”
“What time is it?” Ashlic asks.
Lia checks her phone. “It’s 2:43 right now.”
“Then in like two minutes,” Ashlic tells us.
“Aren’t you worried?” I ask. She looked so unconcerned.
“Why would I be?” Ashlic asks, confused.
I start to reply and stop. Why would she be nervous? Why am I nervous?
“Well I guess I should probably go,” Ashlic says after the announcer comes out and calls her name.
“Good luck,” Lia calls after her.
“Lia, why do we get nervous?”
“I guess it has to do with our fears,” Lia replies after thinking for a while.
“But why are we afraid of things?”
Lia pauses. Then she whispers, “Because things trigger bad memories.”
I thought about her and Luke and how she was afraid to go out with Zane. I thought about how I was afraid to sing in front of people. Then I realized that I wasn’t afraid to sing in front of people; I was afraid of being judged.
“Sometimes, sometimes you just have to let the memories go so that you can make new ones,” Lia whispers. She sounds uncertain. She sounds like a little kid again.
“James Stratton!” the announcer calls. James and I meet eyes and I smile. He gives me the thumbs up and follows the announcer through the door.
“He better make it,” I say to nobody in particular. Another thing that I didn’t like was that once you perform, you walk into a lobby on the other side of the stage so you can only talk to other performers who have already performed. You also don’t find out until the next day who got through and what your rank is. The suspense is horrible.
An eternity passes. I watch as Audrey goes through the door. Some people that I recognize from the tryouts go through the door. I finish my hot chocolate.
“Amber Goering,” the announcer calls out. My body freezes. Lia nudges me. I try to remember what Ashlic had said. What is there to be afraid of? With that thought, I manage to get up. I follow the announcer through the door. There they are. The judges sit behind the panel. The whole stage is mine.
“What will you be singing for us today?” Jake asks.
“C-country Boy,” I stutter. “By Aaron Lewis.”
Jake nods for me to continue. I start to sing the song.
“Now I grew up on an old dirt road,
In a town you wouldn’t know,” I sing. I try to remember all of the good singers that I have heard. This was a country song, so I needed a good country voice. I starts to change it as I sing. My voice gets low and powerful. I forget about being afraid and being judged. I just go back to being on the roof with James, singing just to sing.
“This is me,” I sing, getting to the end. Once done, Jessica smiles at me.
“I love your voice! I’m about to get pretty poetic but your voice is so silky, it caresses you, soothes you,” Jessica pours, her soft voice dripped like honey.
“Thank you,” my cheeks get warm.
“Well, it was good but time for the next person,” Jake tells me and starts to write something down.
“Excuse him, he it just jealous of your voice,” Jaycee tells me and laughs.
“Thank you,” I say once again and quickly leave.
I see James waiting for me and I immediately go to him. “So, how’d you do?” James asks.
“I don’t think that Jake liked it,” I mumble, my eyes sting.
“Jake never likes anything,” James comforts and pulls me into a hug. “Let’s get out of here.”
So we walk out and meet up with Mom and everybody. James still has his arm around me and I let him. Did I just screw everything up? Was I bad?
I vaguely remember the cameras recording me sing and when I met up with James. I’m surprised by how much it didn’t matter.
“Let’s go get some dinner, shall we?” Mom asks.
We all agree. We don’t get back to the hotel until about eight o clock. James and I’s eyes meet. I nod.
“Hey Zane, let’s go back to our room and change,” James tells Zane. They go off to their room.
“Good job,” Jane tells me again as they head to their room.
“Thank you.” I close the door. I grab a root beer out of the fridge and toss a Pepsi to Lia.
“Thanks,” she catches it and opens it.
Two hours later Lia had had five pops, a bag of chips, and a bag of peanut butter M&M’s. She was never going to sleep. But when she did, she would be out. That’s just how she was. I remember when we went to her Grandpa’s and he let her drink a bunch of pop. Once she finally went to sleep, we couldn’t wake her up in the morning, she was so tired! I remember her mumbling in her sleep that night. She even got up once and walked around. In the morning she didn’t remember any of it, but I sure did!
We watched TV and talked about the competition until she finally fell asleep. I waited until I could poke her and she didn’t do anything. Then I went across the hall to James’ room.
“Is she asleep?” James whispers. I nod. “Let’s start with Zane first.”
The good thing about Zane, James had told me, was that when he was out; he was out. He had to get at least ten hours of sleep if he was even going to function the next day. “This might be a little hard,” I mumble. I open the door wide and put a door stopper in front of it. We then lay out a sheet onto the ground. James slowly pushes Zane and his mattress off of the bed while I make sure that he doesn’t fall. A soft thud resonates around the room. I hold my breath, hoping that he doesn’t wake up.
He doesn’t. We each grab part of the sheet that is now under the mattress and start to pull. I was so glad that this was a fancy hotel with huge doors. We pull him all of the way to the elevator. A lady stares at us as we go by. I smile at her. She hurries down the hallway. James starts laughing and I put my finger up to my mouth.
The elevator doors ding and it takes us at least five minutes to figure out how to get the mattress inside. Eventually we make it to the lobby. We had already arranged with the hotel manager for us to leave them down here sleeping. They even set a security camera on the front desk for us to record them waking up. I push away a couple of chairs for room for both mattresses. Zane snores loudly.
“Let’s get Lia,” I whisper to James. He nods and follows me.
We go through the whole process again with Lia. There was one scary moment when the elevator doors dinged and Lia started to wake up. We held our breath until her breathing evened out again.
Finally we were done. As we walked back to our rooms to sleep, we both busted out laughing.
“Mission Accomplished.”
************
My alarm goes off at exactly six o clock. Usually I would have hit the snooze button and slept for another thirty minutes, but this time I jump up out of bed. James meets me out in the hall and we hurry back down to the lobby, stopping to pick up some coffee at the café.
“I can’t wait to see their reactions,” I whisper excitedly.
We reach the lobby and I was surprised to find it already filled with people; businessmen on their way to work, actresses practicing their lines, and workers bustling about.
“The more the merrier,” James chuckles and we sit in the chair next to the beds that Lia and Zane slept on.
I look over my shoulder at the security camera sitting on the desk, getting this all. The lobby keeps getting noisier and noisier. “How can they sleep through this?” I wonder.
“Just give it a couple of minutes,” James smirks. Some kids go running by screaming and somewhere a bell dings. It was now seven and my coffee was gone.
“I can’t wait any longer,” I tell James. I pick up a pillow on the couch and throw it at Zane while I kick Lia.
Lia mumbles and turns over. Zane covers his eyes. “Get up, Lazy,” James says loudly.
“Five more minutes,” Zane groans.
“Lia! We are going to be late,” I screech.
“Who cares?” Lia grumbles.
“You won’t be able to do your make up,” I say in mock sadness.
“I’m up!” Lia says and sits up. She rubs her eyes and look around. “What? Zane get up!” She hits him and he moans before finally opening his eyes.
“James!” Zane yells.
Lia looks down at herself and tries to cover up with her blanket. “Amber!” she screams. When she was getting ready I had put out her pink pajamas with a big cat on the front. Why she even brought them, I have no idea. But she was too tired to really notice.
James starts laughing and runs away while Zane gets up and starts to chase him. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t completely woken up and trips over James’ chair. I get up and follow James, laughing.
“Best. Prank. Ever!” James manages to say between laughter.
******************
“The list is out! Tune in at eight to find out who passes in the battle of America Sings,” Terry Calado tells us from the corner of the screen.
I bounce up and down. “I can’t watch, I can’t watch, I can’t watch,” I repeat over and over again.
“Then don’t,” James says, amused.
“No, I can’t stop,” I say anxiously.
“And, we’re on!” Terry announces. “Last night, one hundred singers came in and sang for our three judges. Listen to what they have to say about the performances.”
Jessica’s smiling face comes on. “They all did so wonderful!” Jake comes into the picture with her and shakes his head. “None of these singers are professional. I wasn’t impressed. Even the best person wasn’t the best.”
Jaycee comes on next. “Jake is so negative. They all did great, even if they weren’t all the best.”
“He is so sweet,” Lia sighs. Zane rolls his eyes.
“They should just get on with it already; I want to know who passed!” Mom exclaims.
“I can’t take the suspense!” I moan and bury my head in James’ shoulder.
“After this break we will announce who passed,” Terry tells us and smiles. Then a commercial about window cleaner comes on.
“Why do they do that? Now I have to wait a whole three more minutes!” I say angrily.
“Oh, you poor thing,” Lia teases. She still wasn’t over the whole waking up in a lobby thing. We watched the video and it was hilarious, especially when Lia and Zane trip over each other to chase us.
“And we are back!” Terry announces.
“Finally!” I say happily. James shakes his head at me.
“Now it is time to find out who is moving on. But first, some clips from the competition.”
“Ohmygawd!” I say angrily and stand up.
“Calm down,” James tells me and pulls me back down onto the couch.
“Never,” I grumble.
We watch anxiously as it shows people singing and the judge’s feedback. It shows James singing I Am the DJ by Neon Trees.
“Your song remains the same,
Spinning on the airwaves,” James’ sweet voice says through the TV.
“So now, it is time to finally find out who passes!”
“Took him long enough,” Lia grumbles.
“In first place, Tommy Burea!”
“Who’s that?” James asks.
“I think he is from Illinois,” Jane tells us.
For the next five minutes, Terry slowly reads off the names. “In forty fifth place, James Stratton!”
“Yes!” James shouts and fist pumps.
“Congratulations, Honey,” Jane says warmly and hugs him.
“Good job, Jay, but there are only five places left! What if I don’t make it?” I ask worriedly.
James puts his arm around me again. “You’ll make it. You have to.”
“Forty sixth place, Abby Bower. Forty seventh place, Hunter Long.”
“Three more places!” Lia informs us. I glare at her.
“Forty eighth place, Amber Goering.”
“Ohmygawd!” I exclaim in shock. “I made it!”
“I think that this calls for a celebratory dinner,” Mom announces.
“What really exciting is that Audrey, Tyler, and Ashlic all made it,” Jane says.
“That’s because we are all so amazing! Now let’s eat,” James says excitedly.
“Sh, let’s finish this,” Lia says and turns the TV up.
“So that’s it for this week. Tune in next time!” Terry waves good bye. Then a clip of me singing comes up. “I’m proud to be American,” my voice comes out, finishing the show.
*************
Wow, Chapter 15! Can you believe it?
And they all made it! Did you think that they would?
Give me feedback(:
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Oh and if there are any songs that you think that any characters like Amber or James should sing, just pm me or comment what song and I will dedicate the chapter to you! Thanks(: This chapter is dedicated to TroublDoll who recommended I Am the DJ by Neon Trees(: