Fearless (19 page)

“We should probably get down there,” said Erin, taking one last look at herself in the mirror.

I was just relieved that everyone had given up trying to convince me to be in the talent show.

This afternoon Molly had practically forced me to go to the stables with her, since Wayward had said we could come down and practice a few jumps—if we wanted to. Amber and Molly did do several jumps, but I watched them from the fence. I'd made a point of wearing shorts and flip-flops down there so there'd be no way anyone could get me to saddle up. I really appreciated the fact that Wayward didn't mention my meltdown at all.

Then afterward, we'd come back to the cabin, and I'd watched as everyone practiced the act one last time. Molly had agreed to sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” but she sounded horrible. Like Kermit the Frog after he'd been run over by a semi truck. I figured she was intentionally doing a bad job to try to make me change my mind, but it hadn't worked.

We all walked down the hill together. The sun had already set, but we could still see everyone in camp heading toward the dining hall in the dusky light.

When we got down there, Madison and the other CATs were organizing everyone. We ran into Amber, who was busy helping her cabin get their act together. All the people doing acts were supposed to go around back to the kitchen doors and line up, and I was about to go inside to find a seat.

I smiled at them all. “Break a leg, everyone. I'll try to get some good pictures.” I left them and went around to the front of the dining hall, where everyone was filing in to find seats.

Inside, all the tables had been moved to the back of the dining hall and stacked up, and now rows of chairs were facing the raised platform where all the acts would perform.

“Jordan! Over here!” Reb yelled, and I saw her, Kelly,
and Jennifer sitting in one of the back rows. Whatever fight they'd had earlier in the week was apparently over now, so I sat down in the empty seat beside Kelly. It felt good to be here in the audience, safe in a chair. I thought about what a major anxiety attack I'd be having right now if I'd decided to perform tonight. I'd made the right decision.

Reb leaned forward to talk to me. “I hear Cabin One's act is all your idea. So I'm assuming it's great.”

I shrugged. “I hope so.”

“Sorry we didn't help you. At all,” said Jennifer.

The four of us talked until the show was ready to start. Then a couple of the CATs came in, dimmed the lights over the audience, and turned on the lights over the platform. As soon as it got dark in the room, I felt a slight twinge of sadness. Maybe I should've taken a chance.

But no. It would be fine to just watch.

Lori Espinoza and Lydia Duncan were the CATs who acted as the announcers between acts. Madison had come inside now, and she was standing by the edge of the platform with the rest of the CATs, helping to keep things organized.

I could barely pay attention to the first act when it came on. Were my friends nervous? Was Molly really going to sing the song the way she'd done it this
afternoon? It might be funny, but I imagined all the people in the first five rows sitting there with their hands over their ears.

When Whitney came on and played her violin, I noticed how good she was at performing. She seemed very aware of her posture and her facial expression. She played a classical song I recognized from a car commercial, but I didn't know the name of it.

After she was finished, she walked to the front of the stage and took a bow. We all applauded really loud, because she had been good. Some people were just natural performers. But I obviously wasn't one of them.

“Let's bring on the real talent,” Reb commented. I was starting to get antsy. I had no idea when our cabin would come on because the acts weren't going in any kind of order. I just knew I was going to be nervous for them, even sitting here in the audience.

A little Junior girl had just finished playing “Yesterday” on the piano when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Brittany in her monkey costume, bending down to talk to me.

“Jordan! There's an emergency!” she whispered. Everyone was applauding, and the next act was about to go on.

“What's wrong?”

“You have to come quick! We need you!” Then she turned and rushed off before disappearing through the dining hall doors. I asked Kelly to hold my camera. Then I scooted between the seat rows to get to the door.

Brittany was waiting for me on the porch by herself.

“We have to hurry!” she said, then raced down the steps and headed down the path leading to the Senior cabins.

“What's up? Where are we going?” I asked.

“It's Molly! She needs you.” And that was all Brittany would say. I followed her down Senior Line until we got to their Solitary.

“In here. Molly's sick.”

Melissa and Erin were both standing outside a bathroom stall.

“Oh, good! You found her!” Erin exclaimed as soon as she saw me. She looked really worried, but Melissa had a silly smile on her face.

“What's going on?” I asked. I had a feeling they were all up to something.

“Molly's sick!” said Brittany, coming up behind me. All four of us were crammed in the aisle between the two rows of stalls.

Right on cue, I heard Molly let out a long, loud moan. “Oooooh!”

Brittany knocked on the door. “Are you okay? Should we get you to the infirmary?” Brittany's voice was suddenly loud and ultra dramatic.

“No! No! Trust me, I can't leave this bathroom stall for another hour at least.” More moans and groans.

Erin turned to me with a frown. “I think she has what you had!”

That was it. I couldn't believe they thought I would actually fall for this. “You guys are the worst actors I've ever seen,” I told them all. I banged on the stall door. “Molly, come on out. I know what you're up to,” I yelled.

“She can't come out! She's really, really sick!” Brittany told me. “You'll have to”—and then she cracked a smile—“you'll have to go on in her place.” Erin, oh so serious, nodded in agreement. Melissa covered her smile with one hand.

“Oooooh!” Molly groaned. “Jordan, you have to be my undertaker!”

I shook my head over how ridiculous this all was. “I think you mean understudy.”

Brittany and Erin finally burst out laughing. Molly's hand suddenly appeared from under the bathroom stall, and in it, she was clutching the Jane costume.

“Please, Jordan! The show must go on!”

I turned away from all of them and leaned against the wall. “I can't believe this!” But then I started laughing too. Melissa, Erin, and Brittany were all smiling at me, waiting. Molly's hand was waving the Jane costume around like a flag.

“Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!” Molly chanted from inside the stall.

Now the other three joined in. “Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!”

My back was against the wall, and Brittany and Erin had me surrounded. “Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!” they kept chanting. Even Melissa, as quiet as she was, stood behind them and chanted along.

“I don't want to do it!” I wailed, feeling like a group of zombies had trapped me.

Brittany ran and grabbed the Jane costume from Molly's hand. “Put it on. Then follow us.” She pushed the costume into my hands.

I stood there, frozen, holding the costume. The bright lights of Solitary made everything look really clear and sharp. I couldn't believe they'd gone to all this trouble.

“Did y'all plan this all along? Or did you just come up with it?” I asked.

“Just put the costume on,” said Erin. “Or we'll miss the whole rest of the show.”

I held the costume up and looked at it. The first lines of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” were now running through my head. Brittany, Erin, and Melissa were all waiting.

My heart was already starting to pound. “Okay. I'll do it.”

By the time I'd changed into my costume in one of the bathroom stalls, Molly had come out of hers. Not only had she made a miraculous recovery, but she was also wearing the Tarzan costume.

As we all walked down Senior Line toward the dining hall, I was beginning to get shaky inside. “I can't believe I let you all talk me into this,” I said.

“Don't think. Just do,” said Molly.

“Good advice, Yoda,” said Erin, and it was nice to have something to laugh about.

When we got to the back doors of the kitchen, there were only a few more people waiting to go on. That's when the cold sweat hit me.

I grabbed Molly's arm, and she looked at me. “I . . .
think I'm going to throw up.” I had to swallow a couple of times because the feeling was so strong. I felt icy cold, and my hands were clammy.

“Wow. You're seriously pale.” Then she looked at Erin. “Go tell Lydia that if we don't go next, our lead singer is either going to puke or faint. Or possibly both.”

Then Molly dragged me away from the crowd toward some bushes at the edge of the pathway where it was nice and dark. “Go ahead and puke. You always feel better afterward. Nobody's watching.”

I leaned over and stood there for a few seconds. I took a couple of deep breaths, and then the feeling passed.

I stood up and looked at Molly. “Never mind. I think I'm okay.”

She looked at me with wide eyes. “You sure?”

I nodded. “You're such a good friend.”

“Hey, come on!” Brittany yelled, from where she stood by the kitchen doors. “They're ready for us.”

“Remember: Don't think, just do,” Molly told me. She handed me the deodorant bottle to use as a microphone.

“Look. My hands are shaking,” I said, holding the bottle in front of my face and watching it vibrate.

“It's not noticeable. You don't have to hold the microphone if you don't want to,” she told me.

“No, it's good to have something to do with my hands.”

“Come on, you guys! Hurry!” Brittany yelled again. And then Lydia was guiding us through the kitchen to the doors that led out to the dining hall. My knees felt like they were about to give way, but I followed Molly through the doors. The lion and the monkeys were behind me.

The lights onstage were really bright after being outside in the dark. I couldn't look at the audience. I thought about riding. Don't look at the jump. Look straight ahead. So I focused my eyes on a dim spot at the back of the dining hall. All I could see was a bunch of dark heads.

Molly, Melissa, and Brittany had started singing the “Oweema-way, oweema-way” part at the beginning, and Erin was curled up in a ball on stage, pretending to sleep.

I held the deodorant bottle in front of me, and my hands were still shaking. In fact, my whole body was shaking. Could anyone see? Did I look as nervous as I felt?

I almost came in too early, but I caught myself. And
then I started to sing. The first few words came out sounding slightly squeaky, but then they got stronger. I could hear people laughing at the monkeys pestering the lion, and Molly pounding on her chest like Tarzan.

But I didn't dare look at them. I had my eyes half-closed, and I pretended that it was just me and Molly, way up in the woods off one of the hiking trails. And so I sang like nobody could hear me.

And then it was over. And everyone was applauding. Really applauding! And yelling!

“Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!” someone kept shouting over and over. I was pretty sure I could hear Reb whistling above the noise everyone was making.

We all ran back through the kitchen doors, all the way through the kitchen, and went straight outside. I sank down on the stone steps because I couldn't stop shaking.

“You did it! You did it!” Molly yelled. “It was good! It was really, really good! Just like you'd rehearsed it! Even better!”

“It was! Everybody loved it!” said Brittany.

“We're so glad you did it with us. That's the way it should've been,” Erin added.

Melissa stood beside her, smiling. “Thanks for letting me be in it,” she said.

I propped my elbows on my knees and put my head down. “I'm just so glad it's over!”

Behind us, the screen door banged open. “Where's Jordan?”

And then Maddy grabbed me from behind and lifted me to my feet. She had me by the shoulders, and she was staring at me, her mouth open, her eyes the size of two dinner plates.

“You were amazing! You were awesome! You were unbelievable!” She grabbed me and squeezed me. “I had no idea! Why didn't you tell me you were going to be in the talent show? My eyes almost popped out when you walked out there!”

Brittany had a big grin on her face. “We had to trick her into doing it! She tried to back out of it, but we wouldn't let her!”

Madison was staring at me. “You
belted
that song out! I've always thought you had a good voice. Oh my God!”

Everyone was still standing around me, laughing and talking. “I think she should go onstage more often, right?” said Molly, poking me in the ribs. For a second I was afraid she was going to mention the audition, but she didn't.