by Jen Calonita
“Sort of,” said Gabby as the others said, “I think so.”
“That’s my favorite song EVER!” Donna said. “Ms. Heel and I will take lead! This is awesome! We’re already wearing school uniforms just like Brit in the video!”
Ms. Heel? There was no time to worry. “Okay, sing it!” Sydney said. “You okay with that, Whitney?” Whitney and Micayla moaned. “I think that means yes. Okay, everyone onstage!” She shooed them onto the stage. “Sing the best you can! Use the same choreography as before!” She was starting to sound hysterical.
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Viola told her.
“It doesn’t matter! Just go! Go! Go!” Sydney was shrill as she pulled Julianna onto the stage with her. “You know this one, right?” Julianna nodded. “Can you do the melody with me?”
“I think so.” Julianna’s voice was no more than a whisper.
Julianna, please don’t fail me now.
Whitney took two steps onto the stage and fell backward into Viola. Sydney couldn’t blame her for freaking out. There were a lot of people out there, including the Kingfishers, who were watching with beady eyes, and Lidia with her stupid pink sign.
Now she shows up? Now? When she can’t even help us? Sydney blinked back hot tears. She stared past the crowd and focused on the palm trees. She took a deep breath. Then she got into position. Be Britney! You are Britney! Channel Britney! she willed the group.
Then she blew into her pitch pipe. As soon as everyone heard it, they started to sing while Pearl improvised with her beatboxing. She sounded great, as usual. It was the vocals that were the problem. Everyone started the song in different parts. Sydney couldn’t hear herself over the racket. She tried to hear her own voice to attempt harmony, but Micayla cut in front of her, pushing her way to the front of the pack.
“Hit me baby, one more time!” Micayla shouted unevenly though it wasn’t the chorus. “Whoo! Whoo! Go Nightingales!” She did a split in the middle of the stage. The audience cheered, but the move threw the rest of the group off balance. Julianna crashed into Viola, who hit Gabby. Mercedes was singing way too loud while Donna’s puppet was making quite the impression on the audience. “Oh baby, baby!” Now Micayla was running, spinning, and leaping across the stage like she was in dance class. Then she stopped suddenly and clutched her stomach.
Two seconds later, she ran offstage and threw up into a trash can.
Whitney was so busy looking at Micayla, she crashed into the podium and sent it rocking almost off the stage. The audience gasped. Viola thankfully righted the podium in time.
“Keep singing!” Sydney whispered, but as she did, Whitney had a sneezing attack.
“OH BABY, BABY!” Mercedes shouted at the top of her lungs. “COME ON, NIGHTINGALES! WHO WANTS TO SPIN WITH ME?” She grabbed Donna. The two banged heads.
“Oww!” Donna cried, and stumbled off the stage.
“Don’t leave me out here alone!” Gabby cried, knocking over a mic stand. The stand hit Viola in the head and she hit the floor. Gabby quickly pulled Viola offstage to check on her. The feedback on the speaker made the audience jump.
Sydney could see Headmistress Sato on the side of the stage. “Shocked” wasn’t the word to describe the expression on her face. Mr. Wickey looked equally horrified. Lidia was in the audience. She and Sydney locked eyes and the word “failure” came to mind. Sydney wasn’t sure she could feel any worse.
Then Sydney heard laughter. She scanned the audience. It was the Kingfishers, of course. They could barely control themselves, and Sydney could hardly blame them. She, Pearl, and Julianna were the last members standing. The way things were going, Sydney expected Julianna to bail any moment now too.
Her a cappella career, along with the Nightingales, had just gone up in flames in front of the entire school.
Everything happened so fast. Whitney and Micayla getting sick, Donna and Mercedes hitting their heads, and someone saving the podium from falling off the stage. Pearl and Sydney were still standing, but the girls were so distracted the song was wildly out of tune.
“This is it,” Julianna heard Gabby say as she dragged Viola offstage. “The Nightingales are finished.”
No.
Julianna couldn’t let this be the first and last time she took the stage without having a panic attack. She’d finally gotten up the guts to go out there! And her new friends needed her! It was time to prove herself.
Sorry, Britney. But your song isn’t cutting it today.
Julianna took a deep breath and stared out at the audience. Taking tentative steps to the front of the stage, she stopped at the center and looked at Sydney. Sydney looked apprehensive. Julianna couldn’t blame her, with her track record.
Julianna winked at her. “I’ve got this,” she whispered.
Her heart was pounding, her legs were burning, and she felt nauseous, but she also felt more determined than she ever had before. She could do this. All she had to do was weave her song in with the Britney tune. Julianna opened her mouth and sang the words she’d written.
“I can smell it in the air. I can feel it on my skin. The rain is coming and I can’t stop it. No, I won’t stop it. Let the rain fall down on me!”
Sydney stopped singing for a second and looked at her. Julianna knew they didn’t know the lyrics, but they thankfully kept going with the Britney track. Pearl picked up the melody and started to beatbox and Mercedes slowly made her way back out on stage. Julianna noticed Headmistress Sato’s facial expression slowly start to change.
“Let the rain fall down on me. Wash away what wasn’t meant to be. Help me start anew. Find something crazy to do. Let the rain fall down on me!”
The crowd started to quiet down. Donna staggered back onstage to join them, as did Gabby and Viola.
Julianna was singing her own song all by herself and she wasn’t trying to bail.
Someone in the crowd started to clap to the beat and others joined in. The moment was definitely scary, but with every new note she sang, she felt more confident. When she finally reached the end of her song, she let the last note hang in the air till the applause started. It wasn’t massive, but there was applause.
YES!
Instead of fighting, which was the norm, the girls all gathered around Julianna for a group hug. All except for Whitney and Micayla, who someone said had gone home quickly since it was clear they had the flu.
Even Sydney was jumping up and down. “You are the a cappella queen! You saved us! Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know,” Julianna said with a laugh as relief washed over her. “I just knew I had to do something, and that was the first song that came to mind.”
Gabby hugged Julianna tight. “You’re a rock star! At least now we don’t look like total fools.”
“Just partial fools,” Pearl said.
“I have no idea what song that was, but it was beautiful,” said Donna.
“Why have I never heard it before?” asked Viola, who was holding her head.
“I wrote it,” said Julianna shyly. “I didn’t know what else to sing. We were in a free fall and Britney just wasn’t cutting it.”
“That’s an original song?” Donna asked. “We should be singing that for competition.” People mumbled in agreement.
“You want to sing my song?” Julianna said in surprise.
“Donna’s right,” Sydney said. “That song was way better than anything we’ve come up with for Turn It Up, and we have to submit songs to them next week. Whitney’s too sick to weigh in, but I bet she’d say the same.” Everyone mumbled in agreement. “But first we have to go kill the Kingfishers.” The girls moved into the crowd to find them.
Julianna’s phone started to ring so she hung back, moving away to answer somewhere quieter. “Hello?”
“Hey, Ju-Ju!” said Naya in her always-excitable voice. “I saw your post about having your first a cappella performance today and I wanted to wish you luck.”
Julianna put a hand on her heart. Th
at was so sweet! She had never been as close to Naya as she had Amy, but they’d become good friends in the months prior to Julianna’s move. When she thought about it, she talked to Naya more now than she ever did in Miami. Actually, she talked to Naya more than even Amy now. “Aww, thanks!” She lowered her voice. “We just finished. It went well, considering I’ve never sung onstage before.”
“Yes, you have, haven’t you?” Naya asked.
“No, not unless you count my audition for Tonal Teens, and we all know how that went,” Julianna said.
“Well, I’ve heard you sing Adele in the car and your voice is killer.” Naya was so loyal. She cleared her throat. “That’s kind of why I was calling. I don’t think I’ve really been the best friend to you, Ju-Ju.”
Julianna was confused. “What do you mean?”
Naya exhaled slowly. “I swore I would never tell you this, but I feel bad because you’ve been writing all these aspirational posts. I got the feeling you didn’t think you were good enough to get onstage, and that couldn’t be more wrong.”
Maybe Julianna had gone overboard with the wordy posts lately. She’d found all these sayings online about “fear leading you to greater heights” or “Sing as if no one is watching … or listening.”
“I’m fine,” Julianna promised. “I was just trying to blow off some steam.”
“Still, there’s something you need to know, but you can’t say you heard it from me,” Naya said quickly.
Julianna stopped short. “Naya, what are you talking about?”
Naya sighed again. “I heard Amy on the phone with you the other day about being in the Nightingales. She made it sound like you didn’t deserve to make the group, but she was wrong! You belonged in the Tonal Teens too. That’s what I’m trying to say.”
Naya wasn’t making any sense. “I auditioned and didn’t make the cut. Remember?”
“That’s because Amy didn’t want you in the group,” Naya admitted. “She told them to cut you.”
“What are you talking about?” Julianna felt confused.
“When you sang that Carrie Underwood song at auditions, you were flawless. Everyone loved you! I think it made Amy jealous—she told the captain that you were difficult and would be tough to have on the team. That’s why they chopped you. I think she was worried you were going to steal her spotlight.”
Amy? Her best friend? “You’ve got to be wrong. Amy wanted me in the group. She told me so.”
“She was lying,” Naya said. “I wanted you to know the truth. I should have told you sooner. You’re a really good singer, Ju-Ju. Don’t doubt yourself just because Amy made you think less of yourself.”
Julianna felt like her stomach was going to drop out from under her. She could have been in the Tonal Teens? All this time she had what it took to be an a cappella singer, and Amy had made her feel like a talentless hack. What kind of best friend did that?
But in a weird way, the news also made her happy. She did belong on that stage, and she had come to that conclusion without even knowing the truth! Julianna felt like she was bursting at the seams. She had to tell Sydney.
“Thanks for telling me, Naya. You have no idea what this means to me to know the truth.”
“Of course,” Naya said. “I’m just sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“But you told me, and that’s what matters. I won’t forget it.” Julianna’s breath was coming fast. “Listen, I have to go, but I’ll call you tonight, okay?”
When she hung up, she headed back to the crowd and spotted the Kingfishers squaring off against the Nightingales. Sydney and Dave were arguing when she walked over.
“That went beyond pranking,” Sydney was yelling. “You completely humiliated us.”
Dave held his hands up. “All’s fair in love and a cappella, sweetie. That’s what you get for infesting our performance jackets with ants.”
“That only happened today!” Sydney protested as Gabby looked on guiltily. “Who told you what song we were singing?”
Dave only grinned wider. “We have our sources.” He turned to the guys. “Let’s go, gang. I’m not sure we should be seen associating with a failing a cappella group.”
“Failing a cappella group? You’re going to be a group of dead fishes after we get our hands on you,” Gabby declared as the girls followed the Kingfishers out of the crowd, both groups still trading insults. Julianna hung back to talk to Sydney, but Lidia beat her to it.
“Syd?” Lidia walked up to her tentatively. “I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?” Sydney asked. “Griffin told the Kingfishers our song!” She covered her face with her hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”
Julianna and Lidia looked at each other.
“You don’t know Griffin was the one who did it, do you?” Julianna asked.
“It has to be him,” Sydney said. “No one else could have done it.”
“Do you really think Griffin would do that to you?” Lidia asked.
Sydney groaned. “Great! Now you’re defending him? You know what? You two deserve each other. First you ruin the Nightingales, then he does.”
“I … ,” Lidia tried to say.
“It doesn’t matter,” Sydney said, looking at Julianna tearfully, then walking away. “The Nightingales’ days are done.”
“What? No!” Julianna ran after her. She grabbed Sydney’s arm to get through to her the way Sydney had done with her once before. “So what if we had a screwup today. Tomorrow we start again. I got up there and sang today! You did that! We’re finally coming together. You can’t throw in the towel now.”
“I’m sorry.” Sydney sounded choked up. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.” She slipped farther into the crowd and Julianna watched her go. She knew the move well—she had mastered it—but this time was different. Julianna couldn’t let Sydney give up just when she’d started to believe they could do it herself.
“I’m going to go try to talk to her,” Lidia told Julianna.
Julianna watched Lidia head into the crowd to find Sydney and wondered, Would Lidia do a better job of changing Sydney’s mind, or was this really the end of the Nightingales?
Lidia just missed the bus as it pulled away with Sydney on it.
Great. This whole thing had gone too far.
The catalyst for their problem ran up beside her. He was out of breath. “Wow. You girls run fast for a cappella chicks.”
Lidia glared at Griffin. “Just because we can sing doesn’t mean we can’t run. It wouldn’t hurt you to do some cardio. Helps onstage.” What did I see in him?
Whoa. Had her brain really just thought that?
“The bus is gone. How are we going to find Sydney?” Griffin asked.
Lidia sat on the nearest bench. “I’m waiting for the next bus. The bus makes one loop and it only has a few stops. Chances are it will be the same driver, so I’ll ask him where she got off and then go there to talk to her.”
“Smart.” Griffin sat down next to her. “I’m going with you.”
“No way. I’m going alone.”
“Why?” Griffin argued. “I need to talk to her too.”
Because I need to talk to her about you. “Because you’re the reason she’s upset,” she said instead, her tone changing. “You guys humiliated the Nightingales today! Wait till you hear from the headmistress. My mother is not someone you want to make mad, believe me.”
“That’s why I have to come with you.” Griffin looked at Lidia pleadingly. “I had nothing to do with the Kingfishers poaching the Nightingales’ song, I swear. It was all Dave’s idea! I told him he was going too far, but he was still mad about the Nightingales’ ant infestation in our gold jackets and he made a game-time decision.”
Ant infestation. Lidia smiled. Only Sydney. “You guys came up with that routine today?”
Griffin shrugged. “Yeah.”
Wow, the Kingfishers really were good. Not that Lidia was going to give Griffin the satisfaction of tellin
g him that.
“So can I come with you? If anyone knows where she went, it’s you,” Griffin said.
“I’m not sure if that’s true anymore.” How could six years of best friendship go up in flames so fast? Sydney had hurt her and she had hurt Syd. Was there any way to come back from what they’d done to each other?
“She’s been so upset about you, getting a new co-captain, the team. I just want to make sure she’s okay.” He looked at Lidia hesitantly. “I’m sorry if this all started because of … you know.”
Lidia’s face flushed. “We don’t have to talk about that.”
“Maybe we should,” Griffin said hurriedly. “I had no idea you liked me that way. If I did, I wouldn’t have kissed Sydney that morning.” He sighed. “We’d been spending so much time together with the play and we got along so well, I thought she liked me.” He ran a hand through his blond hair. “And then that morning at the coffee shop, I just thought, This is it. It’s now or never. Kiss her. So I did and she completely freaked out.”
Syd had been telling the truth, Lidia realized.
“After that, things were different between us.” Griffin actually looked crushed. “I didn’t realize why she was so upset, but then I found out about you and how I’d screwed things up between you guys. I am so sorry about that. I think Syd really misses you.”
“I miss her too.” He really likes her. And she likes him, but they’re not together because of me. Lidia waited for that same familiar hurt feeling to wash over her. The one that made her want to dance her anger out and run for the chocolate. But now chocolate just made her think of Jack.
She smiled to herself. Jack. The one who made her laugh when they met up at Kyle’s Candy Shoppe almost every day now. If she liked Jack, did it even matter anymore if Sydney liked Griffin, and if he liked her?
“It’s really okay,” Lidia said to Griffin. She hoped he knew what she meant. It felt weird to go into detail. “I’m fine with you two being together. I know Syd really likes you.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Griffin sounded tentative.
Was she really okay? Lidia looked at her longtime crush again. Sitting this close to him at the bus stop would have been a moment she would have killed for a few months ago. There was no denying how good-looking Griffin was, but today her cheeks didn’t flush. She waited a second for the usual flurries to hit her stomach or her tongue to get tied up, but neither happened. She was over Griffin Mancini. Wait, had she really just thought that? YES! She let out a tiny cheer.