Pieces // H.S

Chapter 20: Harry: Just like old times...

After all that mess on the red carpet with Jade, I needed a drink. Niall had the same idea. He poured out some of the opened champagne that sat on ice at the side of the table. Once his glass was full, he picked the glass up from my place at the table and filled it to the brim. When I took it from his hand, he decided to talk to me, face to face, for the first time in about three months.

“Jane practically begged me to forgive you. She’s a good girl, that one.”

“Niall, we’re not dating.” He shrugged as if it made no difference whatsoever.

“She said that Felicity just got the wrong idea from your meeting the other day. I don’t know what to believe about this mess anymore. All I know is, Felicity and I are getting married and you need deal with it. Count this as me forgiving you and we’ll say no more about it.”

I wondered if this meant we were friends again, like we had been for so many years, before the court case.

Jane came running out from backstage as the O2 began to fill with people. Other bands and their entourage who would be up against 221A.

“Hey, Harry! Niall!” She approached us looking hassled “How do you feel about making a comeback, in about ten minutes time. We need your help!”

With puzzled faces, Niall and I followed Jane backstage to find Matthew pacing up and down at the side of the stage.

“Ahh! Great, you’re here. Jade has been rushed to hospital, as you know, which means we don’t have a singer to go on stage with. Firstly, would you be happy to help us to fill our slot, seeing as none of the other bands will fill it for us?”

Niall looked across at me and shrugged. Matthew’s eyes widened in suspense and Jane looked up at me directly.

“Sure.” Was all I was allowed to say before Matthew quickly shouted down his mobile, before walking away saying that we‘ll do it.

Felicity ran to Niall and he hugged her tightly reassuring her that everything would be ok. Jane was much more practical than most of the people gathered at the side of the stage.

“What can we perform? Do you know any of the lyrics to our songs? Because we obviously don’t have the rights to any of your songs.”

Jane was right, what could we sing? Matthew held the solution. Once he had finished his phone call, he came rushing back with a piano score for a medley of our songs.

“Ok. I just signed the performance rights for this medley of songs. Do you think you can play this, girls?”

Jane took the score and went and sat at the piano on stage. Felicity, Niall and I followed her out onto the stage. The lights were dimmed to show that this wasn’t a performance. Silencer barriers were pushed on stage to hide our rehearsal noises. Felicity and Niall picked up the guitars that were placed at the side of the stage. All I could do was stand in the middle like a lemon. Once everyone was seated and tuned, Jane began her four bar introduction.

I was standing over her shoulder reading the lyrics and pretending that I could follow the music. She played the notes with ease and Niall and Felicity came in exactly on time. I on the other hand had no idea when to start. I think Jane realised this and she called out to Niall and Felicity to repeat the section of ‘One way or another’ that they had just played.

“Ok, ready to come in Harry?” Jane asked me, still playing the piano perfectly in time, “One… Two… Three… Four… One way or another…”

I had forgotten that she could sing. She was the one singing the backing vocals on lots of the tracks on the album.  Each time the song changed in the medley, Jane helped bring me in on time by singing the first line of each part. It went really well, considering this was the only rehearsal we have had together. Matthew gave us the thumbs up and told us to leave the stage.

The silence barriers were pushed off the stage and we gathered in a group around Matthew.

“Well done, that sounded great acoustic. I think we should leave it like that and not play the pre-recorded soundtrack.” Matthew praised when we had reached him.

“I can’t keep bringing you in like that in the actual thing, Harry. Can you not read music?” Jane asked, with a concerned expression.

“Well, no… No I can’t.” I replied, embarrassed. “I never really needed to. I just learn songs by ear.”

There was a short silence, while she took this in.

“Oh, right. Sorry, I didn’t know.” Jane looked down at her feet again. Matthew covered the situation by saying we should take a break.

I stood at the side of the stage and listened as James Corden, the presenter of the awards, introduced the show. Just as he finished saying ‘what great music artists we have lined up to perform tonight’ Matthew started hurrying Jane on stage. He mouthed the words ‘relax, kiddo’ to her. Felicity came on from the other set of wings. Niall and I would come on after when an announcement was made. An assistant producer ran on the stage with a piece of paper whispering “who's your leader?” Matthew pointed at Jane and the assistant pushed the paper into her hand.

“... My favourite band of the season 221A!” James introduced us as.

The world was now watching as the lights went up.

“Hi everyone!” Jane said, queuing a huge scream from the audience. “Sorry, just a quick announcement. As some of you may know Jade is very sick in hospital, right now. ” The audience gave a loud ‘awww’ in sympathy. “So here to help us out tonight is two fifths of this boy band. I’m not sure you would have heard of them. They’re called One Direction.” She was playing with the audience and they loved it. They screamed when they heard the name One Direction. Niall and I smiled at each other across the stage, just like old times. “Sing along if you know any of the words.” With that she sat down at the grand piano and the cheers died out. Matthew nearly pushed me on stage, but I stepped out, at the same time as Niall, just before he could. Jane, Felicity and Niall started playing and everything went to plan, until about three seconds until I was meant to come in. I panicked. I froze like a rabbit in the headlights. Jane flashed me a look just as the tune came to the part when I was meant to come in. I physically couldn’t bring myself to sing. It had been such a long time since I had done anything like this. Just slightly late, but sounding great, Jane started to sing into the microphone placed above the piano. They crowd cheered with excitement. The crowd just simply accepted that I wasn’t meant to come in at that point. Suddenly, I un-froze just in time for the chorus. After Jane’s unexpected solo, the crowd roared in approval. When I came in, many of the grown women who still remembered being ‘Directioners’ screamed the lyrics along with me. Some people wrote on iPads ‘WE LOVE YOU HARRY’. It encouraged me, and I gained confidence to carry on singing, even to move about a bit on the stage. Even Niall started to sing the parts he used to sing, despite focusing on the chords he had to play. The medley lasted for about four minutes and ended on the last song we recorded as a band. The ending of the medley was quite controversial especially as it wasn’t technically our song that ended it. ‘Hold on (Come home)’ made all the fans of both 221A and One Direction go crazy. It was amazing to hear so many people show so much appreciation for the song. The last note of the medley ended on an unexpected three part harmony. The buzz was amazing. Jane signed us off by saying a simple ‘thank you’.

The lights went down and the camera cut back to James, so we left the stage. Niall and Felicity bounced around off stage; they clearly felt the buzz too. I wanted to join them but I noticed Jane had turned to go somewhere. I was about to ask her where she was going when Matthew gripped my shoulder tightly pulling me away from her direction.

“Well done out there, you were good after that shaky start.” He patted my back repeatedly “You had me worried there!”

“What’s up with Jane? Wasn’t she pleased with how it went?” I asked Matthew, but I didn’t expect him to know the answer.

“I think you frightened her enough this evening. How about you just leave her and I’ll go talk to her. She may just need the loo or something. After all you’ll see her at the table in a few minutes.” He smiled and followed her trail down the steps to the auditorium.

I patted my pockets to find my mobile. It wasn’t there. I thought I must have left it back at my house when the wardrobe team made me change my clothes. I must have done.

**Coming soon: What happened to Harry's phone...?**