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Chapter 16

Finally after an entire summer of preparation it arrived, the day of the final show was upon us and much to my surprise we were ready. All the phone calls had been made, the food had been ordered, the clean up was done, the props painted and the acts rehearsed and rehearsed until everyone knew their parts inside and out. We were as ready as we were ever going to be and this was it. My nerves had been rattling for the past week in anticipation of the coming show, so bad so that I'd actually made myself sick over it, I'd been feeling horrid but had just kept plugging away knowing there would be plenty of time for illness after the show was finished.

"One two three four, one two three four," Johnny repeated over and over to me as we glided around the dance hall rehearsing for the final time, "Baby come on," he urged, "I know you know this, what's the matter?"

"Argh!" I grumbled dropping my hands to my sides in frustration at my lack of coordination for this dance that we'd done a million times before, "I don't know, just nerves I guess."

"Don't worry," he smiled reassuringly, "you'll be fine, it's all going to be fine." He reached out rubbing both his hands up and down my arms, they were warm and comforting, making me feel a little better. I knew he was right, I did know it, I knew this routine inside and out I just needed to relax.

"Why don't we take a break?" Penny smiled wiping the sweat from her brow as she handed me a glass of water, "it's been a stressful couple of weeks, we're all burnt out and nervous about tonight."

"Mmm hmm," I mumbled tipping the glass back to let the cool water run down my throat, "yeah I know," I swallowed trying to catch my breath, we'd been practicing since nearly 6am and I was exhausted.

Ever since the 'incident' with Christian he'd pretty much cut himself from our group forcing Johnny, Penny and I to modify our routine making it a trio show instead. We'd originally planned to have Johnny and Penny dance together and Christian and I dance together then at certain points during our act we would switch partners to mix things up a bit. But since he hadn't been to a practice in weeks we'd been practicing just the three of us and having Johnny take on two partners! At first it had been a real challenge, something none of us had ever tried before, but now that we'd been rehearsing so much it had really come together. I just knew that if I could calm down and relax we would steal the show for sure!

"Ok," Johnny stood from where he'd been sitting on the floor across the room, "let's run through this one more time and call it a day, alright?"

Penny and I stood reluctantly, preparing to take our places for one final rehearsal that would hopefully go flawlessly giving us the reassurance that we were really ready for the evenings show.

About half way through the routine I noticed my parents silently slip in with Billy and Lisa and the four of them stood quietly off to the side of the room watching as we finished up. Finally as
Johnny spun me off into my last turn the four of them broke into applause as they smiled ear to ear. I know my mother had always loved watching Johnny and I dance together and I think Lisa secretly wished that she could dance that way. But it always amazed me whenever my father would look on me with that smile of approval, especially when he would do it when Johnny was on my arm. I knew how hard it must be for him, so I was very proud of daddy when I saw him put his own feelings aside just so he could be happy for me.

"Daddy!" I cried out when we'd finished and I saw them all standing there watching us, "did you just get back?" I ran over to my father squeezing my arms around his neck.

"That was amazing Baby, you looked so wonderful," he replied as he hugged me back.

"Sir," Johnny nodded over at my father as he approached wiping his face and neck with a white towel.

Daddy stretched out his hand for Johnnys' shaking it firmly, "looks like you've been busy."

"Yes is certainly does," mom smiled as she pulled Johnny into a hug squeezing him tightly.

Johnny looked over at me from my mothers' embrace and I could see on his face how happy it made him that she treated him like a son. I knew he longed for the day he and daddy would have a relationship like that, but I think for the moment he was just happy my father had accepted him as a part of my life and he knew the rest would come with time.

"Johnny have you been taking good care of our Baby?" Ma asked as she released him.

"Yes Maam'," Johnny replied in his most responsible tone, "we've been much too busy to get into any kind of trouble," he smiled down at me taking my hand is his as he replied.

Penny had only stood quietly by watching our family reunion until that moment, but finally she piped up smiling over at daddy, "we're so glad that you could make it back for the show."

"Yes Penny, we're awfully glad that we could come as well," Daddy glowed over at Penny who he'd obviously always liked despite all that had happened last summer, "how are you doing young lady?"

"I'm doing just great sir," Penny paused taking a deep breath and with a smile finished, "thanks to you."

"Great to hear, so what's this big surprise you had to tell us about Lisa? The whole family's here now, so?"

My father and mother stood there staring over at Lisa waiting for some kind of response. She'd obviously dragged them up to the studio so that she and Billy could give them their good news with the rest of us around. I thought that was pretty thoughtful of her, it was just another thing that convinced me she was changing, I really think she had grown in the past year and I think that Billy had a lot to do with it. He was a wonderful influence on her and ever since they'd started dating she'd been growing softer and more considerate with every passing day. I was actually quite surprised at how happy she'd been with such a small engagement ring, somehow I'd always thought she'd never be happy with anything but the biggest and the best. But I think her happiness with Billys' ring just proved how much she truly loved him, she didn't care what the ring looked like she only knew that she wanted to spend her life with him and nothing else mattered.

Finally after only a few moments silence and with Billys' arm wrapped around her shoulder Lisa finally shared her good news.

"We're engaged!" She practically shrieked as her left hand flew out in front of her showing off her tiny diamond to our parents.

"Oh honey that's wonderful!" Ma replied ecstatically reaching out for Lisas' hand to get a good look at the ring, "sweetie it's beautiful!" She pulled Lisa into a hug as the two of them immediately began to cry.

"Congratulations son," daddy smiled over at Billy who was now standing alone waiting for Lisa and my mother to part, the two exchanged handshakes but then much to Billys' surprise daddy pulled him into a strong embrace thumping his hands on Billys' back in congratulations.

Johnny, Penny and I just stood off to the side watching quietly not wanting to steal any of the attention away from Lisa and Billy during their moment.

"Baby isn't this wonderful news?" Ma turned to me and asked as she and Lisa finally separated.

"Yeah Ma it's great!" I smiled as she pulled me in hugging me tightly. Before I had a chance to pull away she squeezed me even tighter and whispered in my ear, "sweetie I thought you and Johnny would be the first to make this announcement, is everything alright?"

"Yes Ma," I almost laughed, "everything is fine, we're just not there yet." My mother was too funny, Lisa was almost 3 years older than me but somehow Ma always expected that I would be the one to get married first, I'm not sure where that logic came from but it seemed to make sense to her and I wasn't about to argue.

I finally managed to pull out of her embrace and stepped back to Johnny who welcomed me with open arms squeezing them around my waist from behind.

"Well we need to go and celebrate this news!" Ma smiled, "let's all go for lunch!"

"Uh," I began, not wanting to disappoint her but knowing full well that we had no time to sit around and chit chat the afternoon away, "Ma we'd love to but we'll have to do it tomorrow, the show's only hours away and we still have so many last minute things to get done."

"Billy man, you two go though, we can take care of all this," Johnny patted Billy on the back giving him a little shove toward the door.

"Are you guys sure?" Billy asked.

"Definitely!" Penny replied cheerfully, "you go, have a great afternoon, you deserve it!" With that she laid a light kiss on Billys' cheek wishing him all the best and headed out of the room.

Johnny and I were quick to follow after receiving final hugs from my mother and a, "see you all later," from daddy.