Chapter 4 – Stop! Look! What's That Sound?
Jerry is able to arrive at the studio about 15 minutes before the girls do. He suspects some treachery in the dressing room or the sound stage, so he brought two high speed tape recorders, planting one in Dressing Room 4B and the other on Sound Stage 2B. He also brought a high-speed video camera and stealthily deploys it behind the girls' positions in the Sound Stage. He then disappears – he doesn't want the girls to see him!
The girls arrive for their practice session, very sad. They meet in the dressing room.
"Well gals, ready to go!" says Clover with false bravado.
"Yeah, right into the dumpster!" remarks Sam.
"If we don't play better, that's where the studio audience is going to throw us, this Sunday!" exclaims Alex.
The gals trudge off to the practice stage, turn on the strobe, and start practicing. This one is another stinker. Jerry can see that the girls are experiencing a total lack of confidence, from his hiding place. As the session ends, the girls quietly walk to their dressing room.
"Gals, if that's the best we can do, I say we withdraw from the show!" says a subdued Sam.
"I agree!" says a sad Clover.
"Me too! We don't want to make a fool out of ourselves on National television!" adds Alex sadly.
"Let's give it one more chance, tomorrow. If it's more of the same, we tell Max we are dropping out of the show!" says Sam.
After the gals leave their dressing room, Jerry enters and reclaims his tape recorder. He does the same on the sound stage, and gets his camera too. He takes the equipment back to WOOHP for analysis.
At WOOHP, Jerry dons special glasses. He wants to protect himself from what he suspects is affecting his spies. He slows the tape recordings down to approximately one-fiftieth speed, and starts to smile. He also does the same to the strobe. He now knows what is wrong!
Quickly Jerry remasters the muzak tape and programs a replacement strobe light. He then goes back to the studio and switches out the current muzak tape and strobe light with his remasters. He'll go back tomorrow evening to his hiding place in Studio 2B and see if he has corrected the problem.
The next day the spies decide to practice once more.
Before they enter their dressing room they comment, "I don't know if it will do any good!" says Clover.
"Well, if we aren't any better, we'll just pull out of the show," says Sam.
"Yeah, we don't want to look like fools!" says Alex.
But their mood starts changing in their dressing room. "I don't care what happened in the past! I'm going to give it everything I have today, and let the chips fall where they may!" exclaims Alex with a verve she hasn't shown all week.
"Maybe your right, Alex. We have to forget the blunders and go out there and wow them!" says Clover with happy determination.
"Come on gals! Let's make this sound stage rock!!" says an equally determined and happy Sam.
And they do. Everything goes better than good. No notes are missed, they harmonize beautifully, and they even throw in some improvisation. Their confidence is back!! To make sure, they play through their numbers again. Perfect again! Even better than the first time today! Jerry smiles in his hiding place as the girls go to their dressing room.
"We ROCKED!" says Sam exuberantly.
"That was THE best!" says Alex happily.
"Totally! We're going to be a big hit Sunday!" says Clover joyfully.
And on Friday, things get better at school too. There is another test in Honor Biology, and the students will grade each other's papers. The exam is a total bear! But when the dust settles, Sam scores a perfect 100. It is the only A or B on the exam.
"Now that's more like it!" Sam says with relief, as she shows her exam to Clover and Alex.
"I'll say, Sammy! You're back to your old self!" says Alex.
But Mandy, hearing Sam is her old self, wants to put Alex in her place. "Well FORMER Aerobics Champ, want to take on the current Champ? Or are you afraid of how bad I'll beat you?"
Clover answers, "Plllleeeaaaaaseee Mandy! Alex can aerobic circles around you!"
"Well, what do YOU say, loser?" Mandy comments to Alex.
Alex sees red. "You're on Mandy! I'll take you on right now!"
Mandy is so confident in her victory, she doesn't even warm up. Alex goes through her warm-up routine and comes out ready! Ms. Grieves will referee the challenge, and three students will award points. But Alex is her old self too. She annihilates Mandy by outscoring her 10 to 1!
"It was a fix!! I should have won!!" screeches Mandy.
Ms. Grieve intervenes, "No it wasn't Mandy! According to competition scoring, the results are correct! I secretly kept a score myself to ensure that there wasn't any cheating, and to be quite honest, the student judges were more generous to your performance than I was! I had Alex beating you by 14 to 1!"
Alex receives the hearty congratulations of the class, as Mandy storms off.
On hearing of her victory, Sam says, "Great job, Alex! You're back to your old self too!"
"I'll say," says Clover. "I hear you beat the stuffing out of Mandy!"
"Thanks, girlfriends! Now let's go to the rehearsal for the play and cheer on Clover!" says a very happy Alex.
Sam and Alex sit in the audience as the rehearsal begins. Clover is magnificent! She remembers all of her lines, responds properly to all of her cues, and evokes tears from the play director in her death scene.
"Marvelous, Clover! Marvelous! That's the Juliet I want to see next week! You are back as the star! Mandy, you're the understudy again!"
"WHAAAAAAT? You're giving my part to this talentless wannabee?" Mandy screeches.
"Based on the performances today, that 'talentless wannabee', is going to be the star of our play! You, young lady, need to spend more time on properly responding to your cues, and putting more emotion in your lines!" responds Mr. Anderson. Mandy sulks away.
"Clover! You were FANTASTIC!" says Alex, as she hugs Clover's neck after the rehearsal.
"I'll say!" says Sam. "That's the best Juliet I have ever seen!" congratulates Sam as she also hugs Clover around the neck.
"Thanks, gals! You know, since we practiced our music yesterday so well, we all seem to be ourselves again! Ready to hit the practice stage again?"
"You bet!" says Alex.
"Let's ROCK!" says Sam.
And the girls go to the Teen Star studio to practice. It's like a switch was turned on in their head! This practice was even better then yesterday's and Saturday's is the best yet! They are brimming with confidence, as they look forward to the show tomorrow!