The Boys Are Back

Chapter 19 (Part1)

The school was a little busy today, with it being the talent show and all. A lot of students signed up for it. Everyone wants that grand prize of one grand. I just hope we'd be good enough to win.

Maddy has assured me multiple times that we will but that hasn't calmed my nerves down. The guys aren't even stressed at all. We were backstage of the school's auditorium. That was where the school held events like plays, musicals and other stuff performed by the drama club.

I peeked, the audience were already piling up. I took a deep breath. "Relax", Justin said bringing me out of my thoughts, "we'll do great". He gave a reassuring smile but it did little to help. "How do you know?" I asked.

"Because we're 4J", Jake cut in sounding cocky. I scoffed. "Yeah", Jordan chimed in too. "Besides the  entire athletic team have heard us sing and they conceded  that we sound great and that was just acoustics. A smile lit up my face as I remembered the memory.....

   ................... Flashback.............
It was a Wednesday right after practice. The cheerleaders and the football players had finished their practice. The basketball players started their practice late because their coach punished them.

We decided to go watch them. So the cheerleaders and the football players trooped into the basketball court. We watched them finish the game. I mostly watched Tony. What? Sue me but he looked great when he was playing. Ugh he looks good every time.

Once during the game he winked at me and I blushed. Maddy and Jordan who were sitting beside me apparently saw what happened and gave me matching smirks. I blushed even deeper.

Eventually, they finished practice and the twins and the rest of the players had gone to change. The twins came out of the changing room earlier, they went to the corner where they kept their instruments.

Yeah Jake and Justin brought their guitars for tuning in the school's music room. They wanted it to be perfect for the talent show. They had removed it from their lockers after school was over and brought it to the basketball court.

Jake brought his guitar out and was just strumming out tunes to see how it sounded. "Woah dude, you brought your guitar. Why don't you play something?" A guy I didn't know in the basketball team said.

"Nah man, I'm just testing it out", Jake declined but I could tell he wanted to show off. By now all the basketball players had come back to the court. "Nonsense. You guys should totally play something", another member of the team said.

"Yeah, and Josie and Jordan can sing", Tammy said. My eyes widened at that. "Yeah", Maddy said from beside me. I looked to Jordan but he just shrugged. "What should we sing?" He asked.

"I know the perfect thing", Justin said taking out his guitar. "But keep in mind there are no drums so it's just the acoustic version of the song". He started strumming his guitar to the familiar tune of rockaby bye Anne-Marie. Jake followed and soon the whole court was filled with the beautiful sound of the twins guitar. I looked at Jordan and he mouthed, "after you". I nodded.

"She works the night, by the water
She's gone astray so far way from my father's daughter...." I began.

Somewhere in my performance I had stood up from my seat in the bleachers and now here I was singing out on the court.
"So rockabye baby, rockabye, I wanna rock you
Rockabye baby don't you cry somebody's got you
Rockabye baby rockabye I wanna rock you
Rockabye baby don't you cry, yeah, rockabye".

I belted out the lyrics and there were cheers from the crowd.
"She found her love way too early
He left her there with more than tears and hard to carry...." Jordan sang from his seat. Slowly he stood up and made his way down the on the makeshift stage.

As he sang I was thinking about how wonderful his voice was. Like damn, he sounds like Chris Brown and Justin Bieber combined. Yeah, he's that good. He sang the chorus alone. We sang the bridge together.

"Now she's got a six year old
Trying to keep him warm
Trying to keep out the cold
When he looks in her eyes
He dunno he is safe when she says..."

We sang the pre-chorus alternating the two parts then we sang the chorus together.

By the time were done, everyone was cheering. We were gasping for air, Jordan and I then the twins came to stand beside us and we took a bow. "You guys were awesome", someone I didn't know his name said. Yeah, you'll totally win the talent show for sure", a football player named Dan said.

Maddy came down to us with the biggest grin on her face. "Check it out guys, I got it on video for you. That way you can post it on your channel", she said excitedly. The guys leaned in to see. I was just wondering how I didn't notice her videoing it. I shrugged inwardly then I went to check it out with a smile on my face.

********End of Flashback******

That memory was enough to boost my confidence a little and a smile graced my lips. My phone beeped. I saw a text from Dorian. I hadn't spoken to him in a while.
Dorian: Good luck Jo. I'll be watching from the crowd. Maybe we can hang out after you win?

I smiled. I had missed talking to Dorian. He was such a great friend but I didn't like him the way he liked me. I didn't know how to reply so I decided to stall.
Me: how do you know we'll win?

His reply came in instantly.
Dorian: I know you guys will win. You're awesome. So what do you say?
Me: sure. We'll go with the entire team to Andre's.

That was the only way I could say yes without it being a date. Andre's was a pizza shop that students went to a lot. His reply came in a few minutes later.
Dorian: awesome 🙂

Maddy came to meet us backstage. She was a co-host together with Mr Landon, the drama teacher. "You guys will do fine. No need to worry". "Who said we were worried?" Jordan said to her with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes at him. "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to my best friend". "Ouch babe. It hurts right here", he said as he placed his hand over his heart. Maddy and I both rolled our eyes. "We're about to start", she said. The twins excused themselves to go check on the instruments one last time.

"I have to go. Anyway good luck, not like you'll need it anyway". She hugged me. "Thanks", I replied, "and we will need it. We'll be taking all the luck we can get". "Whatever", she smiled and turned to leave. "Hey!" Jordan called, "don't I get a hug?"

She rolled her eyes but I could see the smile threatening to break out on her face. She placed her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. He wrapped his arms around her too and pulled her closer. "I need a good luck kiss too", I heard him whisper.

I was gonna protest but it was too late. They had locked lips. Great! I mentally face palmed. The twins, who had just come back, were making gagging noises. I agreed with them. I dragged Maddy back thereby pulling them apart.

"Okay guys break it up. You need to go" - I said pointing at Maddy - "and you need to focus" - I said pointing at Jordan. They both had swollen pink lips and goofy smiles. Maddy's face was tomato red. Jordan scratched the back of his head nervously. "I'll catch you later".

"Yeah", she answered breathlessly as she left. I rolled my eyes, for the millionth time today, at them. The show started.

"Good day everyone, welcome to the 10th annual talent show of our prestigious school..."

A/N: part two coming up immediately after this. For those of you that know rockabye, you know it's a song by clean bandit ft Anne Marie and Sean Paul. What you may not know is that there's an acoustic version of the song by only Anne Marie. Look it up to confirm.