Zoe brought out Callie's cage. They didn't consider it a cage, though. It was a cat carrier, but it had been completely made over. Now it was like Callie's portable room. Callie had spent forever decorating it. The walls were covered in sparkly pink wallpaper. Then she had pulled in a chipmunk-sized chair, beanbag, and bed just in case they were going overnight somewhere. Zoe had even put in a divider and Callie had installed a door and a small bathroom in the other half of the carrier. Two books were always on their sides leaning against the side of the carrier so that Callie had something to read.
Callie took no notice to the fact that Zoe always shut and locked the cage. She was grateful to it, in fact, because it kept some of her things from sliding out.
Callie, for this trip, had installed some portable speakers and some lights for her performance. She was finishing up her bacon when Zoe flew into the kitchen again like a whirlwind, screaming, "WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"
Callie nearly had a heart attack when she looked at the digital clock on the microwave and saw that they only had five minutes until they were supposed to be on the highway.
"We can make it," Zoe panted. "Come on, quick!"
Callie nearly dove into her carrier, and Zoe quickly closed the front and locked it with the key around her neck. Callie settled back on her beanbag chair and peered anxiously out through the bars as Zoe picked up her carrier and her bag and hurried out to the car. Zoe put her bag and the carrier on the passenger seat and shoved the key into the ignition.
Callie paced for a moment. Finally, she couldn't stand it. She went over to the bars and peered through them. "So…these men are going to seal a deal with me if I can prove to them that I'm good enough?"
"Yes," Zoe told her with a smile. "These are the same people that secured those other chipmunks with the record contract."
Callie was silent for another moment. Then, flipping her red hair over her shoulder, she said quietly, "The other chipmunks…Alvin and the chipmunks, right? And the…the chipettes or whoever?"
"I think so," Zoe said dismissively.
"They haven't been seen for a long, long time, have they?"
"Not for almost two months," Zoe nodded. "They disappeared off of their cruise ship, and no one has found them."
"I wonder if they're all right," Callie wondered quietly.
Zoe smiled down at her as she stopped at a red light. "That's my girl, always caring about others. But I'm sure they're fine. They must have just gotten lost." She shrugged. "I bet they'll be forgotten after you, though." She winked as she pressed down on the gas pedal. "None of those girls remind me of you, to be honest. Brittany is self-centered, Jeanette is really shy and skittish, and Eleanor isn't very talented at all."
Zoe tried not to say Jeanette too fast. She held back a smile. Jeanette was gone. Callie was here now.
"You were much more talented than all of them," Zoe continued. "You're kind and caring, like Brittany, but more adventurous and outgoing than Jeanette was. And you weren't soft and untalented like Eleanor was, either."
Callie fell into silence.
"Not to mention," Zoe added, a twinkle in her eye, "that none of them can do acrobatics like you."
Callie smiled weakly at her adoptive mother and drew back farther into her cage. She flicked on the light—really the top of a flashlight that Zoe had installed that looked like a chandelier—and settled back in her beanbag chair, trying to relax. In her mind, she went over every step of the combination in her mind again and again. She HAD to impress them.
She sighed and turned on her TV, but it did nothing to soothe her nerves. She turned it off after a while and grabbed one of her books. She lost herself in the world of Jane Eyre.
Then she heard Zoe's call almost two hours later.
"Five minutes 'till we're there, Callie. You'd better get dressed and ready, honey."
Callie closed the book and took a deep breath. She headed into the small bathroom to get ready. She looked into the mirror—some glass pried out of the old hand mirror in Zoe's bathroom—and began to get ready. She changed out of her aquamarine skirt and shirt and grabbed the outfit they had prepared. She pulled on the sparkly turquoise gymnastics leotard and aquamarine skirt over it. Then she swept her long auburn hair into a low ponytail, and it hung down her back. She took a deep breath and then pulled on her sparkly turquoise ballet flats. They looked like normal fashionable shoes, but they were actually working just like ballet shoes. They were flexible and stretchy so that she could do her gymnastics.
"Are you ready?" she could hear Zoe whispering at the front of the cage, and she hurried out of the bathroom to the front of the carrier.
"Yes," she nodded. She held up the remote control that was the controls to the music and the lights. She weighed it in her palm for a moment and then tossed it through the bars to Zoe.
Zoe slipped it into her pocket with a reassuring wink. "You're gonna do fine, baby."
Callie smiled weakly as Zoe got into the elevator of the fancy building. Any other day, she would have been peering around at everything, the lush carpets, the ornately decorated walls, but today all she could do was perch on her chair and stare nervously at nothing.
Today was big. Today she would perform in front of the businessmen and ladies that could give her a contract deal that would make her an international superstar—just as big, if not bigger, than the chipmunks.
She had been preparing for so long for this, and it was finally time! Time for her to show off exactly what she could do. She had been practicing her gymnastics and her singing for an entire month now, and now she was ready.
Zoe entered the room, holding the cat carrier tighter than usual, perhaps in anticipation. Or nervousness. Callie couldn't tell.
There were several men and women surrounding a very long wooden table. Callie smiled as she saw it. Good. Plenty of room to move.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you ever so much for coming here and seeing us today," Zoe exclaimed charmingly.
"Us?" A lady raised her eyebrow.
"Yes," Zoe beamed, setting Callie's carrier down on the table. She unlocked it and put the key back around her neck. "Ladies and gentlemen, we already know that there are astounding things in the world of music today. But never before have you seen anything like this. May I present to you…Callie!"
She swung the door open. Callie made sure to stay well back in the shadows. The men and women all craned their necks, straining their eyes to see inside.
Here we go.
Callie waited and waited, just like Zoe had said. Counting to twenty. Just as the ladies and gentlemen were beginning to relax and let their guard down, jump out and stun them. That's what Zoe had taught her.
Just as she spotted them beginning to slump, relax, and fidget ever so slightly, she crouched down and wiggled a little bit.
Now!
She did a running start and launched herself out of the cage, doing a double front flip and landing proudly on her little ballet flats, sticking it perfectly.
There were hushed murmurs and gasps from the ladies and gentlemen. She didn't stop there, though. Getting a running start, she did two handsprings, a midair twist, a cartwheel, and three somersaults before springing back to her feet and throwing her hands in the air, sticking her landing perfectly without a single wobble at the very edge of the table right in front of a very astonished-looking man with dark hair and a suit.
She winked at him.
His jaw dropped.
She did backward handsprings all the way back across the table before doing a backflip and sticking the landing in her opening pose just as Zoe hit the button.
Music began to play from the speakers in the carrier, and disco lights flashed around the room. Zoe hurried to turn the main lights off. Then a single spotlight shone on Callie.
And she began to sing, all the while doing dance moves with gymnastics moves woven in to add a little extra oomph to it.
"I threw a wish in the well,
Don't ask me, I'll never tell.
I looked to you as it fell,
And now you're in my way.
I trade my soul for a wish,
Pennies and dimes for a kiss,
I wasn't looking for this,
But now it's in my way.
Your stare was holding,
Ripped jeans, skin was showing,
Hot night, wind was blowing,
Where d'ya think you're going, baby!
Hey, I just met you,
And this is cra-zy,
But here's my number,
So call me maybe!
It's hard to look right,
At you ba-by,
But here's my number,
So call me maybe.
Hey, I just met you,
And this is cra-zy,
But here's my number,
So call me, maybe!
And all the other boys,
Try to cha-se me,
But here's my number!
So call me, maybe!
She continued on into the second verse, throwing in some cartwheels and handsprings when she felt it was getting too boring. She spun herself and threw herself all over the table just as she had practiced, popping and locking and hitting every dance move perfectly.
Now for the bridge.
She took a deep breath and began to sing, "Before you came into my life," and then threw herself into a back handspring. She crouched down on the landing, not missing a beat, and threw herself so high into the air that she soared right over the carrier, twisting and singing, until she landed on the other side without so much as a wobble. She did a cartwheel, a handspring, and two more flips on the second "So, so bad," and landed hard with both hands in the air on the edge of the table, staying frozen as the music played, only instrumental for a few beats. All the disco lights were shut off, only the one spotlight shining on Callie still staying where it was. She grinned, giving all the people time to gawk at her before she had to sing again.
"It's hard to look right,
At you ba-by,
But here's my number.
So call me, maybe!"
The other disco lights launched into play again and she began to dance as she sang the last chorus with all the heart she had. She spun and leapt and twirled all over the dance floor before going into her last run. She got a running start, still singing the last line of the song, and did two cartwheels before doing a forward handspring and launching herself into the air as the last instrumental notes played. She felt everyone's eyes on her, including Zoe's. Zoe knew what she was doing, and Callie could tell that her adoptive mom was panicking. They had tried this step, but Callie couldn't get the hang of it. She couldn't stick the landing. So they had agreed to take it out and end the song with something simpler.
But Callie couldn't help it. She was so energized with her wonderful routine, so confident in herself, that she couldn't help herself. But now she had to stick this landing, or it would all have been for nothing. She was taking a gamble.
Come on, focus, she urged herself as she soared through the air.
She leaned herself forward and did a quadruple flip, still soaring through the air as the last notes played, before straightening out, stretching both arms out wide, feeling as though she were flying…and then coming back down to earth, heading straight for…
She landed hard on her carrier as the last note of the music played, and…
Stick it…stick it…YES!
She didn't even wobble. She thrust her hands gracefully into the air as the last music faded away and the spotlight shone directly on her, perched on top of her carrier. I did it! She shrieked in her mind. I DID IT!
She knew better to look at Zoe. She stayed right where she was, holding both her arms in the air as there was complete and utter silence in the room. Then, once she had counted to twenty like she was supposed to, she dropped her arms and curtsied to her audience. She snuck a peek at Zoe, and Zoe's eyes were brimming with so much pride that Callie wanted to burst with happiness.
Zoe flicked a few buttons, and the spotlight and disco lights turned off, and the overhead lights in the room turned back on.
Callie turned slowly in a circle from her spot on her cat-carrier stage. Every single member of the audience looked completely blown away.
"Thank you," she said into the silence in her high, clear soprano, "for taking the time to watch me."
Then she received a nod from Zoe and walked to the edge of her cat carrier. She curtsied again, first to the audience behind her and then to the ladies in gentlemen in front of her, and then she crouched down and did a double front flip off of the top of her cat carrier and landed spotlessly on the table. She turned and walked into her cage, reaching back and shutting the door behind her.