On Sunday, we went to church and rested our voices. We knew we had a big day ahead of us. Before the show on Monday, we practiced some more and tried to stay calm. When we got on stage, we sang our hearts out. By “Dynamite,” the judges were standing and cheering. When it came to the judge’s decisions, we were the first group called to be safe. We were all so happy. I was ready to rock it right to the finale. After all, next week was rock week.
I was a little worried about rock n’ roll week because I don’t listen to rock. So, I had absolutely no idea what we were going to sing. Thankfully, Austin was familiar with one rock song, “Dream On” by Aerosmith. We decided to do that one, after we searched it on YouTube. The problem was Scott doesn’t have the voice for the pitch Stephen Tyler sang at.
“Dream on yeah” Scott screeched.
We all laughed. We knew it was a problem, but it was hilarious watching Scott try to sing like that. We took a deep breath.
“So what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. None of us have a voice like that. Unless….”
Everybody looked at me.
“What?!?! No. I can’t sing like that! Not to mention the people, center stage, solos!!! Absolutely not!!”
“C’mon Lauren! At least give it a try! I mean, you can’t embarrass yourself in front of us.”
There was a long silence.
I sighed. “Fine, give me the lyrics.”
I figured one try couldn’t hurt. So, I cleared my throat.
“Sing with me, sing for the years. Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears. Sing with me just for the day. Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away-ay-ay! Dream on, dream on, dream on, dream on. DREAM ON DREAM ON DREAM ON. Yeah yeah yeahhh.”
The guys had gotten used to my musical surprises. They just clapped and smiled. Then Scott spoke up.
“Lauren, we know you’ve got stage fright but we survived! 2 teams get eliminated. We weren’t even in the bottom 4. You can’t let fear get in the way. After all, you’ve got a gift. How many other people can comfortably sing at that pitch?”
“LAUREN LAUREN LAUREN!!!” Kyle started to chant. Soon all of them were in on t. I rolled my eyes.
“Fine I’ll do it. Sheesh talk about peer pressure. But if I pass out, ya’ll have to take me off stage and fake me conscious.”
They all laughed but we wouldn’t be laughing for long. We practiced all week, and I was fine. But each day, having to sing lead became more real. By Friday, I was close to losing my mind. On Saturday, I was a nervous wreck. On Sunday, well…
“So what are we going to do about choreography?”Kyle asked.
“I don’t know. We should probably do something small, you know, to put emphasis on Lauren’s lead…”
I didn’t hear the rest. Everything went fuzzy. Then, it hit me like a rock and everything went black.
The next thing I saw was a white ceiling. In the background I heard someone talking.
“She will be fine. Just try to keep her away from stress.”
It was obviously a doctor.
“What about the Sing Off?” I heard Scott ask.
“I'm afraid she’ll have to back out. I'm sorry.”
“Okay.” Scott sounded hurt. “Can you get us when she wakes up?”
“Of course.”
Scott walked out of the room. I took a deep breath and sat up.
“Good morning Miss Johnson. How do you feel?”
“Fine thanks. Will I really have to back out of the Sing Off?”
“I’m afraid so”
“What happened?”
“The stress got to you. You fainted, which isn’t serious, but you were out for 26 hours. Your friends brought you here as soon as it happened.”
I took a deep breath.
“You should be thankful for friends like that. They stayed here all day. Haven’t left once.”
“What?”
The doctor smiled.
“The nurse brought some clean clothes for you. They’re sitting on the night stand.”
The doctor left the room and I changed out of the hospital gown. Then, the nurse popped her head through the door.
“Miss Johnson, you have visitors.”
She let the guys in and left.
“Hey. How are you feeling?”
“Fine”
“We heard about the Sing Off.”
“Yeah…” Kyle agreed.
We sat in silence for a minute. Then I got emotional, but I wasn’t sad. I was mad.
“Guys, are we really going to let one incident ruin everything?!?! I mean, seriously, I got over stage fright and my mom! I'm not going down without a fight!”
“We can’t just put your health at risk like that.”
“Fine. The doctor said I needed rest, right? Well, I’ll sing tomorrow then the next week, ya’ll can do it yourselves. Sound good?”
“I don’t know, are you sure you’ll be alright?”
“Positive”
“Okay. I guess it’s worth a shot.”
I stood up. “Shall we get out of here, then?”
They stood up and we went to the hotel. The car ride was silent. You could feel the tenseness in the air. Everyone was worried. What if I fainted again? We all took deep breaths and tried not to think about it. After all, it would be perfectly fine once I’d rested.
I woke up Monday morning glad that I wasn’t in the hospital. I took a deep breath and sat up. I was going to sing lead. I was also NOT going to faint again. Surprisingly, the day went by well, as if nothing had happened. I got on stage and, as Ben Folds put it, “did wonderfully with brilliant lead vocals.” I was stoked to hear that Ben had enjoyed it. I slept really well that night. But, in the morning, I learned that everyone else hadn’t. The guys were nervous about doing a song without me.
“We only have 5 members. When we’re missing one, we’re not CraZ LuV anymore. We’re just Quadritz again.” Scott said.
“But it is different because I’ll be out in the crowd cheering ya’ll on. It’ll go fine.”
Scott sighed. He was the only one of them who actually admitted they were worried. All of the others “didn’t want to put stress on me.” Well, at least they were sensitive. I practically slept all week. I had to admit, a break felt nice. Meanwhile, the guys were working like crazy to keep us on the show. That made me feel bad, but I tried not to think about it.
YOU ARE READING
CraZ LuV
Teen FictionThis is a story. About a Dork. A dork named Lauren. who just happens to be able to sing. But she doesn't think so. Until she meets this acapella group, Quadritz. What happens when one of them falls in love with her? Will her stage fright catch up to...
