CHAPTER 16: Class B Competes

When we got back to the hotel, I decided to visit Hannie and Nancy in their room. I told them about meeting Manette and his cousin at the Lincoln Memorial, their Jamaican accents, and the fact that they were from Oakland.

"Cool," Nancy said.

"Yeah," Hannie agreed. "I haven't seen you this excited about meeting someone new since the day we met Jason at the library back home."

"I know," I agreed, then I changed the subject. "Well, I think it's time to call it a night. Remember, the Class B groups are performing tomorrow." (By the way, Class B is the middle school groups, and Class A is the high school groups. We're in Class C, the elementary school groups.)

"Right," Nancy said. "Well, good night."

"'Night," I said. Then I went out the door to go back to my room.

When I got there, Andrew was already in bed, Seth was in the shower, and Mom was checking her e-mail. "Oh, Karen, you've got something from Sam," she told me.

All right! I hadn't heard from him since Easter. He's been going to NYU on a basketball scholarship, and working on his journalism degree.

Here's what I read:

Hey, Karen! How are you? I've been doing all right, just school and work. BTW, Charlie and I saw your performance on TV yesterday, and it was FANTASTIC! I especially liked what Andrew did. Imagine our own little bro doing something like that! LOL! Well, I could sit here and type till the cows come home, but I'm working a double shift at Zide's tomorrow. Say hi to everybody for us, and we'll see you when you get home.

Sam

It was great to hear from Sam. I couldn't wait to tell him how it went, and about Jason.

The next morning, we got to sleep in a little, but we still had to be up in time to see the Class B groups perform. On the way to the bus, I saw Steve pushing Jason in the wheelchair toward the SUV. He was looking better every day, and we were all hoping he'd be out of the wheelchair in time for the awards dinner. I think he was, too.

When we arrived at the school, we got our programs and took our seats in the auditorium. My friends and I looked through ours to see who was in the competition that day. Of all the Class B groups, the only one that really made an impression on me was a group from Germany called the Sound System. Now they were a long way from home!

Well, they were the first group to perform that day, and what a group they were! Their show's theme was science fiction/fantasy, and their costumes definitely looked the part. The boys had on dark gray tux pants, black long-sleeved shirts with no collars, black socks, and jazz shoes. The girls had on gray tank tops, black hip-hugger pants, black stockings, and black character shoes. They also wore bright red vests with two big S's on the sides.

I don't remember much about their program, except for this one song called "Mr. Roboto", which is by this group Jason likes called Styx. Not only was their singing fantastic, but their choreography was so precise and lightning fast, it was almost as if they really were robots.

"These guys are amazing," I whispered to my friends. Of course, they didn't hear me. They were both staring at the group in amazement.

The last group to perform that day was called the Dream Team, and they were from Cleveland. There were twenty-four of them, twelve boys and twelve girls, and their show's theme was Broadway. The boys had on black pants, black vests with white and silver sequins, white short-sleeved dress shirts, black socks, and jazz shoes. The girls had on knee-length dresses with the same color sequins on the top half, nude pantyhose, and tan character shoes.

Their show opened with "Pinball Wizard" from this rock opera called Tommy, which was written by this group called the Who. The boy who sang lead on the verses looked like he was about twelve years old. Next, a girl who looked like she was around Bebe's age, sang "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar (my second-favorite musical of all time, with the first being Annie, of course); two girls sang a duet of "In His Eyes" from Jekyll & Hyde; the girls sang "It's The Hard-Knock Life" from Annie, and the boys sang "With A Little Bit of Luck" from My Fair Lady; there was even a boy who looked about eleven who sang the title song from Singin' In The Rain; as well as a duet between two thirteen-year-olds—a boy and a girl, which was "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. It reminded me of when Daddy and Elizabeth had taken our big-house family to New York last Thanksgiving. Emily wasn't old enough to go, so she stayed with Nannie.

Their show's finale was "One" from A Chorus Line. In that number, half of them did a hat-and-cane dance. Their curtain call was really awesome. After they leaned over, they crouched down, and starting from the left, jumped into the air like jack-in-the-boxes.

"Whoa," my friends and I said together. We'd never seen anything like that before.

I don't remember much about the other groups from that day. All I know is that each one was amazing in its own right.