"Ok and now it's time to announce the final competition!" Chief McGuire gathered the crowd in the precinct. "The final will be a sing and dance off!"
"Ha! I'm totally gonna be the winner! Ja?" Klavier cheered.
"But my friend, you may have a good voice but you also have two left feet when it comes to dancing!" Lana snorted back.
"What did I miss?" Apollo burst through the door.
"The last round is gonna be a sing and dance off!" Carlos whispered in Spanish.
"Ah, ok thanks Carlos. Where's Sofia?"
"She went to fetch someone Apollo. She'll be ten minutes tops." Chief McGuire caught a glimpse of Ema, chewing her nails as if she was scared.
"Alright. Sorry for being late." He mumbled shyly and rubbed his neck.
"I'm sooo going to beat you Herr Forehead!"
"It's not over." Don't be so cocky Gavin.
"Hey! I found the person I was looking for!" Sofia ran through excitedly followed by a long blonde haired American girl.
"Oh my gosh! Apollo!" The girl ran straight to him.
"Hey! Chardonnay what are you doing here?" She was the daughter of the ranch vet and training to be a vet herself.
"What kind of greeting is that!?" She glared. "I'm here to give this to your boss." She produced a tape from her bag.
"To those of you who think Klavier is a sure fire to win the competition I'm going to show you how this is an even fight." McGuire turned to Sofia. "Introduce your friend."
"Si, this is Chardonnay Williams, a good friend of mine and my brothers." Chardonnay blew a kiss to Carlos who felt faint. "You see… in our spare time me, Carlos, Apollo and Chardonnay are in a dance group. Actually Chardonnay is the leader."
"And our little brunette bombshell there is one awesome dancer."
The tape showed Apollo and the rest of the group from a competition two months before hand – while Carlos and Sofia were still missing. They were performing a dance routine that involved a lot of teamwork but Apollo held a solo. They'd won the competition and with Apollo's moves it was no surprise why.
"Now, Klavier you must compose a new song to sing and then you can dance an existing dance with a dance group of your choice." McGuire turned to Apollo. "Apollo you will develop a new dance to music of your chance and you must sing an existing song of your choice."
"Awesome." Apollo chuckled.
"Ja!
Let's rock Herr Forehead!"
"You have a week boys."
-x-x-
"Apollo!" The group cheered as he stepped into the studio. In total there were twenty dancers in his group, amongst which were several professionals, some young teenagers and even a middle aged man.
"It's been a while huh guys?" Actually it had only been a month.
"I'll say!" Chardonnay stepped out dressed in the black jacket with the three red stripes going vertically across her chest, this was the uniform. "I got you some professional vocal training too! Have you met my sister?"
"No…"
"A pleasure to meet you finally Mr Justice." She was older than Carlos, the woman was a smartly dressed blonde taller than her sister and her eyes glimmered with a passion for what she did. "My name's Amelia."
"Um…hi." He shook her hand.
"I'd like you to visit my studio in an hour or two…"
"Of course."
"I hear you're a good piano and guitar player, I might have an ideal song for you." She winked. "Now excuse me, I have another appointment." Then with that she brushed past him.
Apollo had work to do; he was so close to the final he could almost taste it. He sure as hell wasn't going to give up on Ema now.
-x-x-
Klavier was sat at the desk in his office, busily scratching away notes with his pencil. He wanted; he would almost go as far to say he needed that date with his Fraulien. He'd make it so she'd be crying every time he wasn't there – she was going to be that in love. Well, he hoped that anyway.
Outside, Ema heaved to carry the heavy mountain of files and papers in her arms. Stupid fop… She tried to open the door to his office, his secretary rushed to help her.
"Thanks Sue."
"No problem honey." The twenty five year old girl – actually named Suzanne knew all the ins and outs of the office gossip for the whole precinct. So much so that if she didn't know it, it wasn't worth knowing.
"So you got any news for me?"
"Word is
that it's an equal number of bets for both boys but the odds are a
little lower for Apollo."
"You mean they think he's less
likely to win?"
"Uh-huh. I think its gonna be a tough one to win. Think about it, Klavier has a spectacular voice – everyone knows it and until a yesterday nobody knew Apollo could even dance."
-x-x-
Apollo joined the polite Amelia at the piano.
"So what's this perfect song?" Apollo asked.
"You're not allowed to see it yet until we see the range of your voice." Apollo sighed but knew that the woman was right.
The song he would end up performing was 'Horseshoes and Handgrenades.' by Greenday, to dance to – well it was going to be one hell of a mix tape.
Klavier would end up singing his new song 'Envy is the new joy' and he was going to be dancing to 'Boom Boom Pow' by the black eyed peas with a different dance troupe.
-x-x-
The night of the final came quickly and the men got prepared for the show. Apollo, took a look at the guitar staring him in the face. Once he went on stage and began to play, Klavier would never let him live it down, he'd be wanting Apollo to be in his band everyday. Klavier was up first.
Thanks to Klavier's song, the odds for Apollo to win had dropped once more. He'd heard the new song and with all due respect, it put Apollo's voice and Greenday's song to shame. Klavier then vanished to get changed, all the crowd knew it would take a while.
Apollo followed Sofia through to where McGuire was.
"Hey are we allowed to borrow Ema to sing one line as part of our dance act?"
"I don't see why not Miss Sofia." She replied coolly as if she didn't actually care.
"Cool thanks." She looked at the four judges sat at the desk McGuire was leaning on. Why there was four she had no idea, after all what happened if two voted for Apollo and two for Klavier. Well McGuire had clearly got a brain and was not as stupid as she appeared.
The actual audience area was split in half lengthways. On the right hand side were the people who had placed a bet on which man would win. On the right were other spectators which, should the need arise would vote for who they thought was best. Klavier reappeared and everyone was shocked to learn what Lana had said was right – Klavier did have two left feet when it came to dancing.
The first judge, a vocal coach (although not Amelia) was there to judge singing skills, the second, a dance instructor to judge a dancer's skill. Third was a young producer, who was supposed to assess showmanship although to be honest he had spent more time 'assessing' McGuire's ass whenever she moved. Fourth was a lecturer for one of the local colleges – appropriately one in sports, who would study the teamwork within the dance group.
"Ok Ema, you wait with us back stage, got it." Ema nodded excitedly and waited backstage as Apollo readied himself, tuned his guitar and joined Sofia (playing second guitar) and Che (playing drums). Klavier's mouth was agape, the boy had talent, unrefined and unrewarded talent though and that was something Klavier could use to his advantage, fame. Then two of the dance group came on stage and Apollo was covered by a red curtain. Thirty seconds later, as they pulled the curtain away, Apollo was changed into the uniform of the dance troupe.
Everyone was surprised he could do that. Still he began to dance and this time there was a loud thud as Klavier's head hit the desk. Suddenly, a small clip from the same song he had danced too came on towards the end. Ema came on stage and wowed everyone with her mimicry of Fergie's voice. Then the thing she dreaded and longed for at the same time happened. This was Apollo's solo and they had removed his shirt before he began to dance.
Then came the grand finale he had prepared. The song 'Straight to video' by Mindless Self Indulgence came on.
"I never noticed no noticed you're so amazing, so A-a-amazing"
Then it went into an instrumental solo and in a second the group were all changed. The girls as cheerleaders and the guys (except Apollo) as high school sports teams. Sofia and Chardonnay were spinning two glow in the dark, rather luminous hula hoops. Apollo in the centre had one with fire and hell was he having fun. As the lights went out the glow sticks the group wore illuminated the darkness. Every time the word 'Hey' was yelled the girls would cheer.
Then as the hoop dropped from Apollo's waist and the lights came back on he was wearing a red sequin suit with a top hat. He then sang the end of the song.
"All aboard, hit the road
All aboard, here we go.
All the problems make me wanna go
Like a bad girl straight to video
Little darling welcome to the show
You're a failure played in stereo
I never noticed no never noticed you so amazing so A-a-amazing
I never said it no never said it you're suffocating, you're suffocating
I never noticed, no never noticed your beauty's fading, it's f-f-fading!"
The lights went out once more and Apollo stood, welcoming the cheer and uproar that followed. All of a sudden 'Transform and roll out' was heard when the lights came back on once more, the rest of the troupe had formed a transformer behind him and Ema. He dropped his hat on her head before bowing.
-x-x-
The votes were even. For his dancing and teamwork Apollo had got two votes, Klavier had received two votes for showmanship and singing. That meant it was left to the crowd to vote.
"We have confirmed that winning by just a single vote is…" McGuire added the dramatic tension. "…Apollo Justice!..."
"Yes!" The whole of his dance group including himself cheered.
Ema waited outside for Apollo that evening. As she began to speak she was interrupted by Klavier.
"Herr Forehead, you put on a good show." He winked. "Tell me…is Sofia single?"
"Yeah as far as I know." Good luck wooing her – you're gonna need it. "So…uh…when I get the prize…will you come with me?"
"I…I guess I will Justice. You put on an amazing show tonight."
There was only one hurdle left – the date itself.
A.N. – If you've never heard the song 'Straight to Video' I suggest you listen to it. It's a great song! Only one more chapter!!
