When the other girls arrive, I barely even notice. My head is swarming with all the new information. I don't know what to think. I usually don't listen to gossip, especially when I don't really know a person, but I can't help it.
"Hello? Earth to Ally!" I'm snapped out of my thoughts by Delaney waving her hand in front of my face. I look over to see Pandora and Evie standing, ready to head to the stage.
"Oh sorry!" I hop up and hurry after them to the stage. When we get there, I notice that we're wearing new costumes, something that I hadn't noticed while I was deep in thought. "What's with the new costumes?"
"New show." Evie says impatiently.
"But I just learned the other one! We've only performed it once!" I exclaim, overwhelmed by the thought of learning a whole new routine.
"You only performed it once. We've been performing it for a month. New show every month, remember?" Delaney says, sounding exhausted.
I sigh and follow the girls to the front of the stage, where Pandora picks up a stack of papers and passes them out to us. When I look at them, I see that they're song lyrics.
"New songs too?" I ask.
Evie scoffs. "Of course. We need to keep current."
Looking closer at the lyrics, I see that they're lyrics to songs that I've heard on the radio.
"Wait, these are existing songs."
Delaney sighs. "Well, yeah. Austin fired the songwriter this morning. He said 'There's something better out there', whatever that means. So now we have to cover these stupid songs. It's going to hurt the show."
After a mental war, I finally blurt out, "I write songs."
All three girls stare at me like I have three heads.
"What?!" They say in unison.
Suddenly self conscience, I mutter, "I write songs. Maybe you guys could use some. If you want."
Delaney gapes at me. "Oh. My. Gosh. This is perfect! Do you have anything you can show us?!"
At first I'm taken aback by her enthusiasm, but I recover and nod, then hurry backstage and dig my songbook out of my bag. I bring it to the girls and show them a few of my finished songs that aren't too personal. Pandora claps and jumps up and down.
"You've saved us!" She cries, throwing her arms around my shoulders.
I laugh and take back my songbook.
"Ok so now we've got the music taken care of, now's the hard part: the tricks."
A&A
They weren't kidding when they said the illusions were hard. After four and a half hours of twisting and turning in impossible ways, my body screams but I have the routine down.
When we get in the car I nearly collapse from exhaustion. The other girls look perfectly fine, tapping away at their phones. I don't know when I drifted off, but the next thing I know, the car is pulling up in front of Caesar's Palace. When we enter the elevator, I lean against the wall so I don't fall over. I somehow manage to get up to my bedroom, and collapse onto my bed without even changing or closing my door.
When I wake up, my room is dark. Looking over at the clock, I see that it's only one in the morning. Voices from downstairs drift through my open door. I get up and creep out of my room and stop at the end of the hall, where I can see over the edge of the balcony.
Evie, Delaney, and Pandora are sitting on the couches, TV off and harsh voices.
"I don't think we need to worry about her," Delaney says, clearly annoyed.
I perk up. Are they talking about me?
"She's not stupid, but I think she'll get in way over her head and there'll be nothing we can do to help her." Evie snaps back.
"We shouldn't worry about that right now," Pandora cuts in. "We should be more concerned with the fact that Austin's missing again."
Now I'm really listening.
Delaney rolls her eyes. "Why should we worry about that. He does it all the time. He'll be back. He always comes back."
"But he never disappears the day before a show! He usually leaves when we have an off week. What do we do if he doesn't show up tomorrow night?" Pandora asks frantically.
"He'll show up!" Delaney cries. "He wouldn't miss a show. Trust me."
Evie crosses her arms. "Oh because you know him so well, is that why?"
Delaney clenches her jaw. "Don't even go there."
Evie gives her a challenging look. "You don't really know him at all, do you? That's why he dumped you?"
I gasp. Austin dumped Delaney? When?
Delaney says something that I can't hear and then gets up from the couch and starts walking to the stairs. I turn around and run back to my room, diving back into my bed in time to hear Delaney's door slam shut.
I can't fall back asleep. All the information from today swims around my head, making no sense at all.
A&A
My alarm clock jolts me awake from a dreamless sleep. I groan and roll out of bed. If Jim wasn't such a nice guy, I would not be waking up this early, especially after the brutal rehearsal last night.
I quickly put on jeans and a flowery tank top, grab my stuff, and head downstairs. Luckily, downstairs is vacant, so I don't have to dodge any questions on the way out of the door. When I get downstairs, Richard is waiting for me with the car door open.
"Good morning!" I say as he helps me into the car.
"Good morning," he replies with the usual tip of the hat. He goes around the car and gets inside. "I heard you were quite the hit at the Buzz yesterday."
I raise my eyebrows as I meet his eyes in the rear view mirror. "Oh really? Now who told you that?"
He smiles at me. "I have my connections."
"Oh do you now?"
He chuckles and shakes his head. "I'll have you know that I drive a lot of people, and people talk."
Now I'm interested. I slide across to the seat closer to the window. "Who do you drive?"
He glances at me, suspicious. "Oh, just a few random rich people, no one really special. I drive your boss sometimes."
My boss? "You mean Austin Moon?"
"Mhmm. He's quite the gentleman, that fellow."
What? I'm so confused. "Is he really?"
"Oh yes. I don't drive him very often; he usually drives himself places, but there's been a few times when his car wasn't working or being serviced or whatnot, so he made me drive him all the way to-" He stops abruptly and shakes his head.
I wait for him to continue, but he's silent. "Drive him where?"
"I'm not supposed to say. Driver-passenger confidentiality." He gives me a small smile in the rear view mirror that I can't help but return.
Things just keep getting more confusing.
A&A
If I thought the Buzz was busy yesterday, then the amount of people in there today could only be described as masses. People are packed into the seats and standing along the wall. I have to squeeze my way through the crowd to get to the counter.
Jim comes up to me immediately, looking very disheveled.
"Can you believe this?!" He exclaims, waving his arms around.
I laugh and look around. Everyone's facing the stage, waiting for me, except for one person in the back corner, who's sitting at the window counter, staring outside. What really catches my attention is the fact that they're dressed in jeans and a black hoodie with the hold pulled over their head. In the Vegas heat,I would never even think about wearing a jacket, unless my goal was to sweat to death or die of heat stroke.
Before I have enough time to assess the person, Jim pulls me to the stage. He grabs the mic and starts to introduce me.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Buzz's very special guest... ALLY DAWSON!"
I smile and wave as I step on the platform and people cheer. I sit down at the piano and pull out my songbook.
"Good morning everyone!" I smile at the crowd. A few people 'Woo' and clap. "I'm Ally Dawson, and I like to write songs, and I'm going to play a few for you!"
More people clap as I place my hands on the piano. I play a few chords and then I start singing.
When your soul finds the soul it was waiting for
When someone walks into your heart through an open door
When your hand finds the hand it was meant to hold
Don't let go
Someone comes into your world
Suddenly your world has changed forever
No, there's no one else's eyes
That could see into me
No one else's arms can lift
Lift me up so high
Your love lifts me out of time
And you know my heart by heart
"OH MY GOSH!"
I'm interrupted by a girl near the back of the shop screaming. I stop playing as every head turns towards the back. All of a sudden people in the back are gasping and standing up. The volume of the shop immediately shoots up. People near the front of the shop start crowding towards the back.
What the heck is going on?
Everyone seems to be pushing to the back corner of the shop. There's a lot of excited yells and flashes of cameras. I can't see anything, since I'm so ridiculously short and I'm wearing flat sandals, so I climb onto the piano bench in time to see the person in the black hoodie run out the front, along with most of the crowd.
Jim is at the back of the crowd, trying to calm people down. I hop off the bench and walk up to him.
"What the heck just happened?" I ask.
He looks like he's on the verge of tears. "I have no idea. I'm so sorry, Ally. You didn't even get to finish one song."
"It's fine, really." I reassure him. "I should probably head out."
Jim looks around at the now vacant shop.
"Alright," he nods. As I turn to gather my things, he catches my arm. "I wanted to ask you... I know you're really busy but... It would really help my business if..."
I have to stop myself from giggling at his nervousness. "What is it? Just ask!"
He smiles slightly. "I don't want to overwhelm you or anything, but I was wondering if you'd possibly be able to come in at night, too."
Oh. I bite my lip. That is not a very good idea, with shows nearly every night and rehearsals.
Sensing my hesitation, Jim adds, "It's just that considering the crowd you draw in in the morning, just imagine how many people you'd attract at night, when Vegas is in full gear!" My weariness must still show because he sighs. "I understand if you don't want to do it. It's just that while you're here business booms, and i want to send my kids to college and..."
"Ok, fine!" I blurt out, surprising both Jim and myself.
"Really?!" He exclaims, eyes wide.
"Yes," I say hesitantly. "But just know that I can only be here after eleven and probably can't stay for more than an hour."
"That's perfectly fine! We're open until one, so come in whenever is best for you."
Jim walks me to the door and waves excitedly to me as I get in the car.
"See you tonight!" Jim calls. I wave back and give him a thumbs up.
I sink into the seat as what I've just done finally sinks in. Why do I keep doing this to myself?
A&A
*I forgot to mention last chapter that I've changed to first person present because it's just a lot easier and more comfortable for me to write*
BIG NEWS! I GOT AN IPAD FOR CHRISTMAS! THIS MEANS THAT I CAN WRITE A TON MORE! Now it's a lot easier for me to write, and I don't have to be at home to write and what not, so this means quicker updates, probably, so yay. Exciting stuff.
OH AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ONE HUNDRED FREAKING REVIEWS! I'm so insanely happy. This is my first story to get to one hundred reviews, and it means so much to me. I love you guys so much.
I don't really know how long this chapter is, since I'm writing it on my iPad so I don't know the word count and how it looks and stuff. Also sorry if there's mistakes, bc autocorrect and this is my first time writing like this.
Anyways, I love you all so so much!
Sorry if you thought this chapter was boring, but trust me, it's veryyyyy important ;)
(Oh and I just wanted to ask: do you guys want like the normal amount of drama or like over the top drama?)
The song in this chapter is Heart by Heart by Demi Lovato
I own nothing
Reviews rock :)
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|April|