Book 4- 1968 (Michael Jackson)

Chapter 13- Motown Talk

                Chapter 13- Motown Talk

                Date: Sunday, July 21, 1968

                Time: 7:41PM

                MICHAEL'S POV

“So, the last Chosen song’s gonna be ‘My Girl’, alright? Is that clear with everyone?” Joseph scanned the room, searching for any indication of approval.

“Um… okay, I suppose. Hey, why do we never play anything from Nat King Cole? I like Mona Lisa. Can we please play that?” Her eyes held a tiny glint of hope.

That hope had promptly evaporated after Joseph’s response. “No.”

“Why not?” she questioned, fake pouting. “I think he’s one of the greatest!”

“Your opinions don’t matter, Kayla. No one’s opinions matter, except for the public.”

“Why aren’t we the public?” she whined.

“Shut up!”

To balance out Kayla’s whining, Marlon nodded slightly. “Mm-hmm. That song’s my bag. We sang that for our album, remember? It still sounds fresh, ya know? Our album, no one else’s. I guess that’s just because we’re so new at all of this. But boy, isn’t it-“

“Marlon, shut your trap!” he scolded. One of his hands was balled into a massive fist.

I knew that Marlon wasn’t scared. In fact, I personally thought that the roles should be switched. Joseph should fear Marlon, because his best friend was me. If Joseph should ever pick on Marlon, I was there to witness it all. I was faster than the speed of light, and I can and will kick his butt if I need to!

I suddenly realized what I was thinking. Gosh… I rubbed the back of my head. I guess that’s why Kayla says I can be cocky sometimes.

“Anyways,” he continued, still holding a steady gaze with me, “it’ll be ‘My Girl’ and that’s it. Bobby and I talked over it last night, actually.” He looked as though he was going to add on to his explanation, but he clamped his mouth shut at the last second.

Tito caught him in the act. “Hmm?” He simply asked. He never looked up to Joseph; just kept on tuning his guitar, as if it really didn’t matter.

“Nothin’,” Joseph said quickly. “Although… Bobby said that he had a little something to say to you guys before we leave tonight… Something about music.” He rocked himself back and forth on his feet, as though he was forcing a nonchalant attitude.

“Whaddaya doing?” Kayla questioned. “You seem… tense. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but, you know, wired up.”

“Quiet down, Kayla. We have other things to stress on right now. How about we do some scales, actually? I think we’re gonna need the extra work.”

“But we just did scales three minutes ago!” I pointed out. “Isn’t that enough?”

“We’ve gotta give our all tonight… more than Apollo, more than Capitol, more than Mister Lucky’s or the Guys and Gals, more than all of them. This is an incredibly important performance. Do you guys understand?”

“Um, yeah… I guess,” Jackie said suspiciously. “One question, though: how come are you putting so much stress on something from Regal? I’m not sure if you remember, but we blew everyone out of the water last time, and we already won the competition. I’m just sayin’.” He crossed his arms accusingly.