Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

XXVII. The Gift

Cynthia stands before her brother. Anxiety is fluid within her veins as she prepares for her speech, not knowing what she's say. "Javon, I have something to tell you. It'll probably come up today and I don't want you to be blindsided." She hasn't decided if she will bring up Derek in her testimony or not. In case she does, she thinks Javon should know prior to.

With the pews filling quickly, the two Evans children walk with a solid pace as they seek good seats for today's celebration. "What is it," he skeptically asks as they take their seat.

"Swear to me that you won't react until service is over... like, at all." Cynthia stares her brother in his eyes as she waits for him to gove her his word before she makes her haunting confession fo him. Nothing after this will ever be the same.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it?"

Cynthia sighs as she sits down beside him. "I can't go too much into detail but..."

Jennifer, Tawanda, Paulette, Sheri.

The line is tightly cramped into a back corner. Where is Laurianne? Minds race as eyes began to bounce around the church. The other three have only been here twice, Paulette has visited on a number of occasions. She stares at the stairs, waiting for Don and Dalvin to descend, as Reverend Don continues on his introduction sermon. The four girls are are entangled by the arms, Paulette breaks the chain the moment she sees a pair of black slacks walking down the stairs.

Don approaches them, "Where's Laurianne?"

"We have no freakin' idea. She's never been a no call, no show before," says Sheri. "What are we supposed to do, Don? Who's going to sing her part?" A few stray questions are thrown out by Jennifer and Tawanda as Paulette silently stares up at him, panic apparent on her face for the first time in a long, long time. "Seriously, what are we going to do?"

Casually, Don points at Paulette. "Let Letty sing her part. We're good."

Three jaws drop and Paulette's eyebrows reach her hairline as her eyes expand. "What," they ask in unison.

Paulette looks over her shoulder at the girls, she looks back at Don. Shaking her head, she grabs him by the arm without pulling too hard on his injured area. "Can I talk to you, D?" Her question is clearly rhetorical, seeing that she has already began to guide the two into a secluded area. The moment the girls are out of immediate ear-shot range, her voice raises a bit. "Don, you know that I usually run things until it comes to this music stuff. I trust you one thousand percent but... are you out of your mind?"

"You just said you trust me, right?"

Paulette nods. "Yeah. I do, bu—"

"Then trust me," interjects Don.

She told the complete and honest truth. Usually, Paulette is who makes the executive decisions in the teen's lives. However, when it came down to anything musical, she always double checked with Don. He made all of her mixtapes to dance to, whether it be for solo adventures or the cheer squad and dance teams at school. When a new arrangement was pitched to her by her own local youth choir director at her church, they knew to have an extra copy of their notes because she was not singing a thing until it was ran by Don. He never ceases to amaze her with his slightly underrated musical talents, leading her to be willing to put her full trust into him.

"Letty, it's in your range. You got it."

Paulette shakes her nerves off. It isn't the idea of performing that has got her riled up. She'll perform for the president, if he asks her to. It's the idea of being slightly unprepared that causes her to panic. She's never sang lead. Dancing is one thing, singing is a completely different ball park. Things are not going as planned and for the first time in a long time, she has no back up plan... so, Don has made her the back up plan.