They hid behind the curtains. James took a deep breath. Then said "Lucky brings me luck. Seriously. Lucky is always with me." "He's not with you now, you left him on the table in the back room." Logan told him. James elbowed Logan. All four boys emerged from the curtains. The crowd was chatting wildly, and all their voices echoed around the room.
"Just stay calm" Kendall said. "Don't panic. Just act natural." James made sure he was on the stage first. He walked out to where his microphone was. Carlos was extremely twitchy. He was twisting his fingers together, and jumping around like he had to go to the bathroom.
"Will you stop jumping" Logan grumbled. "People will think you took a five hour energy, again." Then, someone in the crowd hollered, "Look! They're back on the stage!" There was a moment of complete silence. Then the crowd burst into talk. James cleared his throught, almost nonchalantly, so Kendall looked around at him. James jerked his head toward the microphones.
It took a moment for Kendall to interpret, but then, he cleared his throught, and mouthed to Katie, we need music. Some people in the crowd had seen. All confused, they craned their necks around, trying to see whom Kendall was mouthing to. There was a very tense silence between the four of them.
Katie came to the rescue. The music was blaring. People were muttering to each other, eyes narrowed. Kendall had no time to lose. He came in, singing, "When the chips are down, back against the wall…" James knew this was his chance to sing. Maybe Katie was right. Did he need Lucky anymore? James pinched himself on the arm. Of course he needed Lucky! Katie was medium right.
But now he had to sing. As James sang, he tried to just zone out, make a picture of Lucky appear in front of his eyes. It worked. He sang with even more energy, getting into the part, doing cool poses, and grinning. He was slowly coming back to himself during this concert. He grinned at each audience member in turn, making sure everyone got a flash of his smile. The audience was starting to sit down now.
As Logan sang, James bopped his head to the music. He didn't even need to think about what he was doing. Steam poured out from some device on the stage. Somehow James could picture Katie in the control room, making the steam, controlling the volume of the music, the lights… When it was James's turn to sing again, he knew he nailed it. And he noticed the audience, immersed in the song, swaying to the music, some of them dancing, all were definitely excited.
When they were on the second to last line of the music, James saw a purple blur flying at him, out of the corner of his eye. James was confused for only half a second, and caught Lucky, just as they had finished the song. He looked to the right, trying to make out the person who had thrown the bandanna. Katie. She was standing just outside the control room. She gave James the slightest nod. Then, the crowd went crazy. They were on their feet, clapping, whistling, jumping.
James, happy, took a huge bow. The crowd loved him! After about a half hour of bowing, the boys left the stage. James was totally confident. He had done the song! Almost all of it without Lucky! How could it be? Well, he probably did well, because he was thinking about Lucky as he sang. "Ohhh…that was agony, my back bowed too much!" Carlos complained.
Katie ran up to them. She exclaimed, "You guys were the bomb!" jumping up, and punching the air. She hi fived all of them, and them gave them all hugs. James hesitated only a moment before hugging Katie back.
The met Gustavo in the back of the auditorium. Gustavo looked at them for a full fifteen seconds. Then yelled over the crowd, "Impressive! Very impressive! But Kendall was a little flat. Logan, remember to tuck your arms in when you jump. We went over that. And Carlos, someday that helmet needs to go.
"Um…thanks," said Kendall.
"I can't believe Gustavo has any comments about our performance, this time," Kendall said scornfully. "Actually, that's probably the nicest thing Gustavo's ever said about you!" Mrs. Schmidt remarked.
As they all got into bed that night, James has to say "So was I good?" "You were remarkably superb with the choreography, and the acoustics," Logan said.
"Okay, repeat again, in English" James said. "You were the best one!" said Carlos, sounding a little envious. James smiled proudly. "Well, not to bother you guys, but it was kinda obvious I was the best," said James haughtily.
"You can tell James's happy again, if he's gloating again" Kendall sighed.
"See?" said Logan to James. "I told you could do it without Lucky!" James hit him over the head with a pillow.