Face The Music Read online

  Chapter 5

  The mornings that followed elimination nights were always unpredictable. Depending on who had made it through, they could be very good or very bad days in terms of the kids’ moods. Since one of their own had been voted off, this promised to be a tough day.

  I’d been trying to facilitate a discussion about George and Lenny’s relationship in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, but from the looks I was getting I knew it was a waste of time. Their mental and emotional exhaustion was just too much.

  “Okay, everyone get up. Push your desks into a circle,” I directed.

  Jimmy, whose head had been down, lifted his freckled face. His brown eyes revealed how tired he was. “What? Why?”

  “You heard me. Let’s go! And get your journals out.”

  The noise level rose as desks were dragged across the floor.

  “I saw what happened,” I began once we were all settled in a tight circle. “Sabrina had a bad night. It could have happened to any of you.”

  “Oh man, it was more than just a bad night.” Jimmy shook his head. “Even I was embarrassed.”

  I offered an empathetic smile. “You have to remember that this is a game. A competition. The rules say that someone has to go home every week. You can’t let it get you down. In the end, only one person will win. And most of you, if not all, will go home. Then what?”

  No one said a word.

  “Here’s what I say. You’re all friends, but you’re also competitors. You have to learn from each other’s mistakes.” I could tell from their blank stares that they didn’t have a clue where I was going with this. “Take Sabrina, for instance. What can you learn from her? What can you take from last night that’ll help you with your own performances?”

  “Uh, not forget the words,” Sam said, stating the obvious.

  I shook my head. “Come on, I’m being serious. Dig deeper. After Sabrina forgot the lyrics, what happened? How did she react?”

  Riley sighed before speaking up. Her grey eyes were red around the rims. She and Sabrina had been close, so I knew this was hard for her. “She panicked. She completely freaked out,” she said.

  “Exactly. What can you learn from that? If, Heaven forbid, one of you should forget the words during a performance, how will you react? What will you do?” I spoke slowly and looked from one face to the next. “It’s always a good idea to have a plan. Take a minute and use your journal to write down what you will do.”

  The sound of pencils pressing against paper broke the silence as they scribbled away. After a few minutes, they finished and looked up at me for more directions.

  “Does anyone want to share?”

  “No way,” said Melody, shaking her head. “These are my competitors, right?” She gestured around the circle. “Why would I want to give them any good ideas?”

  We all laughed. Jimmy launched a notebook at her. She ducked just in time, and it hit the wall behind her before falling to the floor.

  I released the kids a bit early for lunch. Someone came in as I was pushing the desks back into rows.

  “Did you forget something?” I said as I turned around. It was Chris. “Oh, hi. I thought you were one of the kids.” A maroon sweater hung nicely from his broad shoulders. I had to make a conscious effort to keep from staring.

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  I sucked in a deep breath. “Good. You?”

  “Can’t complain,” he said, eyeing the cluster of desks.

  “I already released the kids for lunch,” I explained, assuming he was here for Sam. “They’re probably all at the snack bar.”

  He flashed me an incredible smile, dazzling me. “I’m not here for Sam.”

  I looked at my feet as blood rushed to my cheeks. When I got up the nerve to look at him again, he was staring at me. “You did great last night. I love that song,” I said nervously. Why is he here?

  “I thought you’d enjoy it. You seemed to really like it when it came on in the car the other night.”

  “What?”

  “You know,” he urged. “When I drove you home from the club. Don’t you remember? The song was playing when you got in. You said you liked it.” His smiled broadened enough to show a pair of perfect canines. “You even sang a little.”

  “Really?” My face got even hotter. “I had a little too much to drink.”

  He laughed and leaned against one of the desks. “A little? You could hardly walk.”

  “How about Sabrina?” I asked, eager to turn the subject away from my indiscretions.

  He glanced towards the door as someone walked by. “What a way to go,” he said. “Poor girl. The kids were sure bummed last night. How were they this morning?”

  “Worse than normal. Distracted, I guess. I tried giving them a pep talk, but I don’t know if it did any good.”

  He seemed thoughtful as he studied a poster hanging on the wall beside my desk. It was a picture of a child standing before a chalkboard. A series of complex molecular formulas were scribbled across it. The caption read: The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

  “Did you see the newspaper yesterday?” he asked.

  I groaned. “Yep. But unlike you, I tend to shy away from the extra attention.”

  He laughed and started to say something but was interrupted.

  “Knock, knock!” Eddie Ortega stepped into the room, dressed to kill in a pair of tight, black, leather pants and a long-sleeved turquoise blouse. “Hope I’m not interrupting.” He gave Chris an appreciative smile. “Hello there.”

  Chris blew out a long breath. “Eddie. What brings you by?”

  Eddie didn’t answer the question. Instead, he walked a wide circle around me before settling into a desk next to Chris. “My, my,” he said, his eyes coming to rest on my face. “You are a cutie, aren’t you?” He crossed his legs and folded his hands over a knee, his shoulders back and spine stiff and upright. “No wonder the kids like you so much.”

  “Oh, thank you,” I said, uncomfortable with the compliment.

  “I’m Eddie, in case you missed that.” He held out a limp hand, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to kiss it or shake it. I went with the latter, and Chris coughed back a chuckle. “So you’re our newest starlet? Your hair was different in the picture. It was curly, wasn’t it?”

  Damn article. I reached up and touched my stringy ponytail. “Yeah. My sister…” I stopped and shook my head. “I’m sorry, is there something you needed?”

  “No. I just had to come by and meet this girl who’s been distracting Chris from his work.”

  My jaw dropped. “What?” Why this strange little man thought I would be distracting to Chris was beyond me.

  Eddie laughed. It was a high pitched, snorting type of sound. “I’m joking. You shouldn’t be so serious all the time.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Everything about the guy, from his eccentric outfits to his guiltless way of barging in on a conversation was too much. How could anyone not like him? He was downright hilarious.

  “I was never much into school,” he continued, looking around the classroom. Aside from my one poster, a white board, light blue walls, and fluorescent lights was about all there was to see. “I was too easily distracted.”

  I laughed. “I can see how that would be a problem.”

  “I didn’t see the need for a good education. I wish I had been a better student though. Ah, well, no need to bore you with details. I’m off to the pound. I’m going to adopt a cat.”

  Chris and I exchanged a curious glance.

  “Are you looking for anything in particular?” I asked.

  Eddie nodded and waved a finger in the air. “A calico, but he has to be male. They’re so much more affectionate than females, don’t you think?”

  “Naturally,” I agreed, although I didn’t have the faintest idea. I was never really a cat person. “But don’t be too surprised if you can’t find one. Male calicos are rare.” I tried to explain, “It’s a sex-linked trait on the X chromoso
me. Kind of like colorblindness. That’s way oversimplified, of course.” I should have stopped there, but with Chris so close, scrambling my senses, I blabbered on. “Calico males are the result of a chromosomal mutation. If you wanted to get into the actual genetics-”

  They both looked at me as if I’d just spoken Greek. Eddie threw his hands up in the air. “Lord no! Honey, that’s already way more than I needed.”

  I wanted to crawl under a rock. “Sorry. This is my thing. It’s what I do.”

  Eddie patted me on the back and turned to Chris. “We’ve got a smart one on our hands, don’t we? You’ll have to be careful with her.”

  Chris nodded, still looking at me. “For sure.”

  “Okay, Miss Allie, thanks for the lesson.” He headed towards the door, waving at Chris and me from over his shoulder. “Bye-bye, dearies.”

  “He’s quite entertaining, don’t you think?” I asked once he was out of earshot.

  Chris stared out into the hallway. “He’s something, that’s for sure.” He returned his eyes to me. “These kids are lucky. My Biology teacher was an old crow.”

  “What can I say? I have a gift.” I gave him a crooked smile and glanced at the clock. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I have to get over to the university. I’ve got some work to do before tonight.”

  “What’s going on tonight?”

  “I get Molly, Emily’s kid. She’s four. I watch her in the evenings while Emily works.”

  “Yeah? I have a niece too. She’s a real kick. She’ll be six this summer.” He sighed. “I miss her.”

  For the first time I saw Chris as more than a Superstar. He wasn’t just some gorgeous guy who could sing. He was a real person. My heart went out to him.

  “That must be so hard. I never thought of it before. I mean, I know the competition is stressful and all, but I never considered how difficult it would be to be so far away from your family and home.”

  “Some days are harder than others.”

  “It’s supposed to be a nice evening. If you don’t have plans, you could meet Molly and me at the park.” I immediately regretted asking. Now he’d have to come up with some excuse to let me down easy. “But it’s okay if you don’t want to,” I said, offering him an easy out. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than hang around a playground, so-”

  “I’d love to,” he said, standing. “What time?”

  Seriously? I couldn’t believe it. “I’ll be home a little after five. You can meet us at the apartment if you want.”

  “I’ll see you then. Thanks, Allie.” He looked at me for a long second before turning to go.

  ***

  My friend Lauren was waiting for me by the lab. “Hey, stranger,” she called from down the hall. “Why have you been ignoring me?”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “I’ve called, left messages, sent texts. And I haven’t heard a peep from you. So that means you’ve either been ignoring me or that P-O-S phone of yours still isn’t working.”

  I laughed. “Like I could ever ignore you. Even if I wanted to.”

  “So it is the phone.” She was holding back a grin. “I knew it. Why don’t you get a new one?”

  “Are you going to buy it for me? I don’t have a spare red cent to my name.”

  She held up the picture from Maury’s. “When did you go and become so famous?”

  “Not you, too,” I complained as I unlocked the door. Would that stupid picture haunt me forever?

  Lauren and I met a few years ago. We were both enrolled in freshmen Biology and had been assigned to be lab partners. She and I hit it off right away and became good friends. I was even a bridesmaid at her wedding. She was now expecting her first child and was staying busy with her own life, so we didn’t get to hang out much. But every now and then we’d run into each at the university. She took an occasional class here and there.

  I flipped on the lights and froze. “What are they doing in here?” I asked, pointing a shaky finger at a cage filled with spiders.

  Lauren shuffled past me into the lab. Her chestnut hair, which was styled in a short, pixie cut, seemed to bounce with each step. “I don’t know. The entomology lab must be locked up.”

  “W-w-would you get rid of them, please?” My pulse was racing along in overdrive.

  “I can’t believe they bother you so much.” She picked up the cage and pressed her nose to the glass. “They’re kind of cute.”

  “They are not. They’re the complete opposite of cute. They’re monsters with hairy legs and creepy little faces. I can’t stand them.” My heart palpitated.

  Lauren put them in a cabinet under the sink. I felt a little better since they weren’t in plain sight, but I was still uneasy knowing how close they were.

  She returned her attention back to the picture of me and Chris. “Is he really this hot in person?”

  I had to laugh. “No, not really.”

  “That’s too bad. They always look better on TV, don’t they?”

  I thought about him wearing that maroon sweater. “He’s even hotter.”

  She looked up at me. “So you’re seeing him? What happened to Jake?”

  Who knew what was going on with him? He’d been acting so strange lately. “Jake and I aren’t dating. We hang out, but it’s completely platonic. And it’s not like that with Chris.”

  “Not like what?”

  “Not like you’re insinuating. There’s nothing going on.”

  She waved the picture. “Looks like there could be. When will you see him again?”

  I bent down to adjust the objective lens on one of the microscopes. “Tonight, actually. He’s meeting me and Molly at the park.”

  A corner of her mouth pulled up into a half-grin. Her hazel eyes narrowed. “The park, huh?”

  “Will you stop it?”

  “I’m just saying. You’ve got this incredibly hot, talented guy following you around. You should be a little more interested. What’s the problem?”

  “He’s not following me around.” I put a slide on the microscope and fumbled with the knobs until the image came into focus. “And there’s no problem.”

  She waited for me to look up before asking, “Have you ever heard anything from Paul?”

  I glared at her. “Nope.”

  “Do you want to? Because it would be totally understandable if you did. The way he ran out, you never got any closure.”

  “No!” I made another adjustment to the lens. “Why would you even ask me that?”

  She shrugged. “Just curious. Trying to figure out why you’re so reluctant about Chris. Is there someone else then, besides Jake or Chris?”

  Because she was married, Lauren thought I needed to hurry up and find someone, too. “I don’t have time for someone else. You know how busy I am.”

  She got up and walked to the door. “All work and no play makes for a very boring Allie.”

  “But you still love me, right?”

  She paused and pretended to think about it. “Yes. I suppose I do.”

  Chapter 6

  “Hi sweetheart!” I said, setting down my things and pulling Molly into a hug.

  She craned her little neck and peered into the living room. “Look, Allie!” she whispered. “Sup-a-star Chris is here.”

  He and Emily were on the couch, laughing. When I walked in she gave me a look that seemed to ask, Why is he here?

  “I was just telling Chris about that confrontation you had,” she said.

  “My what?”

  She laughed again. “Remember when you told one of your student’s mothers that she needed to be a better role model for her son?”

  “Oh, yeah, how could I forget?” Her son had fallen asleep in my class. When I questioned him about it, he said he was so tired because he had to pick his mom up from a bar at three in the morning. “I was so mad! How am I supposed to educate kids if their parents don’t even give a crap? Some days it’s like I’m banging my head against a wall.”

 
Chris pressed his lips together. “Parents these days. Sometimes they don’t have a clue.”

  “Seems that way.”

  “Well, anyway, it was hilarious,” Emily said. “Allie was charged up for weeks. It was all she could talk about. Tell him about the letter you had to write.”

  I smiled as I remembered. “She complained to my principal. He told me to write a letter of apology.”

  “Did you?”

  I nodded.

  “And? What happened?” he asked.

  Emily was excited. “The lady probably didn’t understand a word of it. I know I didn’t!”

  I gave an innocent shrug.

  Emily continued, “There are only so many five-syllable words you can cram into a sentence. What was that one part, where you twisted it all around? What did it say?”

  I did a mental tally and shook my head. “There weren’t any five syllable words. The longest one was only four, and that was ‘respectfully’. Hardly a brain teaser.”

  “Okay, anyway.” Emily rolled her eyes. “Tell him what you wrote.”

  I recited it slowly so I wouldn’t mess up. “It said, ‘I respectfully ask your accession for my veracious comment.’”

  Chris and Emily exchanged a look. “You see?” she said. “No sense.”

  He looked dumbfounded. “Accession?”

  I smirked. “Acceptance.”

  “And veracious?”

  “Truthful.”

  It didn’t take him long to figure it out. “That’s really funny,” he laughed. “I wish I had your vocabulary.”

  “Naw.” I waved a dismissive hand. “I just know how to use a thesaurus.”

  Emily stood and smoothed out the front of her slacks. “It was sure good to see you again, Chris. I’ve got to go get dressed for work. Don’t let her give you too much trouble.” She flicked her head in my direction. “She can be a bit mouthy.”

  He looked at me and winked. “I think I can handle her.”

  My stomach did a flip-flop.

  “Have you been here long?” I asked, watching as Molly piled a stack of books on his lap.