Celebrity Cruise [COMPLETED]

Chapter 15 - "Luck? That was talent."

Sky smiled at the table of girls she passed and kept walking, glancing down at the clipboard in her hand. There was a girl up on the stage singing "Sunshine Smile" and Sky could count four more girls down the list who had requested to sing that song. Knox's music was catchy but it turned simply nauseating after the fourth time someone got up to sing it.

Sky looked towards the back of the lounge and could see Anders, Nico and Johnny huddled together. She casually walked their way and sat in the empty chair. "What's the latest scores?" she asked. She had approximately the length of a bridge and final chorus before she had to be up front to announce the next singer.

"Liz has the highest ratings after her last performance of Hurricane," Anders said. He slid his score sheet over to her.

"That one got the crowd all misty eyed," Nico joked. He wiped fake tears from his eyes.

"We base their score on what we give them out of ten, plus how the crowd reacts," Johnny said. "And, if they sing a song that hasn't already been sung, they get a bonus point."

"Emma is a crowd favorite after that great performance of "Indian Summer"," Anders said. Sky found the boys detailed scoring system comical.

"Is Bianca up any time soon? We're trying to decide who wins for most off key," Johnny said. He stole the clipboard out of Sky's hand.

"What's your score for this one?" Anders asked. He pointed to the girl on stage.

"I'll give her seven and a half out of ten," Sky said. "She gave the song some flare, but she didn't quite hit that high note." Anders noted her score on the paper.

"Okay, I gotta go." She slid out of her chair and headed back towards the stage.

The night continued in that fashion. Sky made loops between the stage to announce the next singer and back to the boys to add her score.

"It's going to be Liz," she said confidently. Most of the girls had performed and now people were in line to sing a second song.

"You going to put money on that?" Johnny asked mischievously.

"I'll put twenty down for Liz winning," she said.

"Oh come on. Make it at least forty," Johnny taunted.

"I'm not made out of money."

"You must not be that confident she will win then," he countered.

"Fine. Fifty that Liz wins. Loser has to serve the winner dinner," Sky said.

Johnny studied her a moment before holding out his hand. "Deal," he said.

****************

"And this is our last call as we finish up karaoke tonight. Anyone else wanna sing," Sky asked the crowd of girls. Over the course of the last two and a two hours she had heard more Knox Hamilton songs then she had ever heard in her life. She was just about ready to puke the lyrics to the two most popular songs that got sung over and over again.

"I'll give it one more go," Liz said. She stood from a table off to the side. Sky shot the boys in the back a quick grin before bringing Liz up on stage.

"Which song do you want to sing?" she asked Liz.

Sky had recognized Liz immediately when she got up to sing her first song. She had been the girl sitting next to Knox on the way to the Runes, making him laugh. She looked sweet with a heart shaped face and crystal clear eyes.

"Umm...how about 'Two Steps Forward,'" Liz said.

Sky hadn't heard of that song before. She watched as the karaoke DJ had to scroll to the bottom of the song list. It must have been a song from one of Knox's older albums. She smiled to herself as she left the stage, knowing that would be another point for Team Liz.