A/N I don't own Osmosis Jones, or its characters; they are owned by Warner Bros. The rest, I DO own.

hellgirl-fan1: Thanks.

devilgirl123: They DO go good together :D

qwerty123: XD Thanks very much. After this chapter, I'm probably not gonna have any songs in this fic. But thank you anyway :)

Chapter 21

It had been several more days before the associates of Hector's Greatest Singer decided there were enough participants. Now they had to narrow the group into only twenty contestants. And that was a big, difficult job, since there were more than twenty participants already. Many, many more.

Annabelle was feeling the pressure. From the days that followed her audition that got her into HGS, up to the day of the group being narrowed to a small number, she was feeling very nervous. She was having trouble focusing on anything other than the narrowing of the group.

Her aunt had suggested dropping out to ease her nerves. Annabelle had answered by slamming the phone on the receiver. She flopped on the couch, groaning. Christa stood by the couch, cocking her head slightly, and whined softly. "I can't wait until tomorrow's over, Christa," Annabelle mumbled over her arm, which was over her face. "So I can finally have some peace of mind."

The purple dog licked Annabelle's cheek and sat down, laying her head on the couch near her owner's head. Annabelle smiled and ruffled her dog's head. She made a good decision of choosing Christa.

When tomorrow finally came, Annabelle was still quite nervous. As she sat with her friends and guardians, she tapped her gloved claws on her knee, and tapped her foot. "After this, you might wanna try tap-dancin'." Ozzy remarked, nodding at her tapping foot.

Annabelle scowled slightly, crossing her leg over the other. "I can't help it if I'm nervous." She said, letting her head lean back against the chair she was sitting in. The narrowing of the group was being held at the Bladed Shoulder.

"Try to calm down, baby," Thrax said, laying an arm across her shoulders. "They'll love ya!"

Her girl friends all nodded in agreement. Annabelle sighed softly, and smiled slightly. "You guys are right. They let me in, so I must be good."

Before anyone could say anything else, Annabelle's name was called. She stood up and said, "Wish me luck?"

Everyone said "good luck" and gave her more encouragement. Evelyn began trying to fix Annabelle's hair, running her fingers through it, and pushing it away from her face. Annabelle stepped back and batted her aunt's hands away. "Evelyn, stop it!" She whined.

She rolled her eyes, but backed away. Thrax stood up as Annabelle fixed her hair back to how it originally was. "How do I look?" Annabelle asked in a low voice.

"Beautiful." He whispered back, kissing her cheek again. She blushed bright red, but smiled. "We'll be watchin'." He said, nodding at the television on the wall showing the stage.

Nodding back, Annabelle walked out and onto the stage. "Afternoon, Miss Waters." One of the three judges greeted.

"Afternoon." She nodded.

"And what will you sing today?" Another asked.

"I'm gonna sing 'I'm Gonna Love You' by Jennifer Love Hewitt. It, uh, it was kinda influenced by someone."

"Oh, someone you like?" One judge asked, raising an eyebrow with a smile.

"I do, actually." Annabelle said, smiling wistfully. "I really do."

Ozzy pushed on Thrax's shoulder with a fist, grinning. Thrax just raised his eyebrow at the white blood cell before looking back at the screen. Hearing Annabelle say that made him feel strange; not a bad strange, but a good one. He had a feeling he knew who she was talking about, and evidently, the others—that being her friends and family present—knew too.

Gentle music began playing. Annabelle swayed to the music before singing,

(I'm Gonna Love You by Jennifer Love Hewitt)X

Thrax found himself smiling, not only at Annabelle's singing, but at the song as well. He knew he was in love with Annabelle, and now he knew she was too.

Next to him, Ozzy was sitting, leaning in against the chair, with Martha sitting next to him in another chair. He casually walked his fingers through the air, and wrapped his arm around her waist. She leaned on him, smiling.

Maria and Drix were sitting together as well, with Drix's arm across his girlfriend's shoulders.

XX

The judges clapped as Annabelle bowed her head. Ozzy, Drix, Thrax, Martha, Maria, Ursula, Peter, and Evelyn applauded as well.

When Annabelle came back, she was hugged by her girl friends, and her guardians. When she was released, she hugged both Ozzy and Drix. "That was nerve-wrecking, at first." She remarked, chuckling lightly.

"But you pulled through." Drix smiled, patting her shoulder.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Thrax asked, grinning.

"Nah," Annabelle laughed, hugging him.

"So, a certain someone inspire you to sing that song, eh?" He cocked an eyebrow while smirking mischievously, watching her blush.

"Yeah," She trailed awkwardly, hardly noticing that Thrax was still holding her, or that she had brought her hands onto his broad chest. "A very special certain someone at that."

"I'm guessin' you ain't gonna be sharin' easily?"

"Nope." She smiled broadly, making him laugh.

About half an hour later, all of the contestants had sung again. Then, they were divided into pairs, and one of each of said pairs was eliminated, dividing the group in half. That took another half hour. Finally, the group was divided into pairs again. This time, the group would be dropped into one group of twenty individuals.

At some point, Annabelle and Megan were paired up, and standing on the stage in front of the judges. Annabelle found it ironic that she and Megan were paired up, despite hating each other, and only one would be able to be on TV.

"Annabelle Waters, and Megan Crystal," A judge said. "You both showed promising talent, and were able to come to this. But only one of you will be able to be on Hector's Greatest Singer."

Both women nodded. "We've talked it over earlier," The same judge continued. "And we've come to a decision. The one who will be on Hector's Greatest Singer…is Megan Crystal."

Annabelle felt her heart drop to her feet. She had to clench her teeth to keep the tears from falling. It was even harder when Megan sent her a poisonous, smug smile. "It was extremely close," A second judge said sympathetically. "If we could, we'd keep you both."

You probably say that to everyone. Annabelle couldn't help but think bitterly.

"It's all right; you had to choose somebody out of the two of us." Megan said, still smiling.

Annabelle's girl friends and guardians, and the Frank Quadric were watching the elimination process on the television, and flinched when they saw Annabelle's shocked and hurt expression when she was eliminated. "I don't like Megan's expression," Drix frowned upon seeing Megan's self-satisfied smile.

"Neither do I," Ozzy frowned, crossing his arms.

Martha was quite angry. "They chose her over Annabelle? Her?! Annabelle's way better than that nasty bitch!" She yelled.

"Martha, quiet!" Ursula exclaimed. "You're making a scene!"

Martha stopped shouting, but crossed her arms, scowling. Ozzy patted her shoulder. "Annie looks really upset." Thrax clicked his tongue once.

"I don't blame her," Maria said. "If I got into a contest I always dreamt of being in, and wasn't able to get very far, I'd be disappointed too."

"I told her not to be disappointed when—"

"Evelyn, honey, you aren't really helping." Peter said, making his wife huff.

Annabelle sighed heavily, gripping the strap of her purse, slung over her shoulder, leaning back against the wall. She knew she should consider herself lucky that she got into HGS in the first place. But she still felt upset that she wasn't able to get farther. It also hurt that Megan was chosen over her, and that poisonous smile the white blood cell gave her only rubbed the salt in her wound further.

Sighing, she stood up straight and walked out to where her friends and family were. They were already standing there with sympathetic smiles. She smiled weakly, "Hi."

"They made a big mistake, Anna." Martha said, still crossing her arms.

"Martha was pretty mad," Ursula remarked. "But I agree with her."

"Is it because you guys don't like Megan?" Annabelle asked, feeling slightly depressed.

"No, it's because you're really a good singer." Maria answered, patting her shoulder. "They did say it was extremely close."

"Annabelle," Evelyn said gently. "You were good, but like I said, they're looking for the best—"

"Aunt Evelyn, I'm getting tired of you always belittling me, saying I'm not perfect, and that I'll never amount to anything!" Annabelle exclaimed. "I know I'm not perfect! I know I can't do everything! But I never cared! Not everyone's perfect! Not even you!"

Thrax stepped forward and gently pulled Annabelle into his chest. "You once said if I needed a shoulder to cry on, you'd be that shoulder." He explained in a whisper. "I'm returnin' the favor. You look like you need it."

Annabelle stayed silent and still for several seconds, trying to hold in her tears; tears that were from sadness at being ousted from HGS, anger at her aunt, and gratitude towards the virus. Finally, she wrapped her arms around him, buried her face in his chest, and began crying. Thrax held her close, rubbing her back, and allowed her to cry into his sweater and coat. Martha, Ursula, and Maria silently patted her shoulders. Almira sat at her feet, and leaned on her leg.

A/N OMG I HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR A MONTH! XD Just kidding.

Kind of a longish chapter. I know I'm probably not following the procedures of American Idol, but I DO remember that once contestants are chosen, they're whittled down until there's a smaller group than there was before. I'm just not sure if this is how it's done.

I think you guys can guess who inspired Annie to sing this song ;) This song is as she said: "I'm Gonna Love You" by Jennifer Love Hewitt. It's from "Hunchback of Notre Dame 2" Ironically, Ms. Hewitt is whom I'd have as Annabelle's voice actress, so by listening to the song, you know at least what her singing sounds like.

But it was for not :( Nasty ol' Megan goes on.

I don't think I have much more to say...oh yeah! I had a birthday eight days ago (that being on the sixth) I'm officially 18 years old...it's kinda scary 0_0 I got an Oogie Boogie sock cap from Nightmare Before Christmas (it was part of their 20th anniversary merchandice) the face glows in the dark. I also got some cowgirl boots. They need to be sprayed with waterproof stuff before I can wear them out.

It's snowing out...blech. I hate cold.

EDIT: If the chapters look different, more specifically the ones with songs, I got a threatening review on one of my stories, saying we weren't allowed to use song lyrics in fanfics. For safety reasons, I'm deleting the lyrics in all of my fanfics, and replacing them with the song titles, and/or indicating where a chorus or verse are.