"Of all days!" Nick cried, pacing back and forth across the room. Kintra watched him pace, a slightly amused smile on her face. It did look rather comical. Everyone else was sitting perfectly still, trying to figure out a way to correct the problem, and all Nick had been doing for the past few minutes was worrying about how this was going to make him look in front of Catie.

Kintra turned to Joe, grinning. "He acts like your guitar player could've picked when to come down with appendicitis." Joe smiled back.

For the first time, he signed back to her. "Come with me," he signed. Kintra stood, mystified, and followed Joe out of the room, glad to be rid of Nick and his exhausting worries.

Joe led her to a back room under the stage where they kept all the instruments. He turned to her almost sheepishly, and said, "Nick told me about how you played the piano. I don't know if this will work, but could you try the guitar?"

Kintra's eyes widened. He wanted her to play with them tonight? She started to protest that her gift couldn't stretch that far, and then stopped. Joe was looking at her so intently that she couldn't refuse to at least try, could she? "I'll try," she signed hesitantly, "but I'm not promising anything."

She took the guitar that Joe handed her and slipped the guitar strap over her shoulder. Her fingers stroked the strings, listening as each one made a different sound. She reached the lowest string and grimaced. Joe glanced at her face, curious, so she signed, "Out of tune." Her fingers fiddled with the peg as she tuned the string to her liking while Joe watched her, awed. She then played each string while sliding her fingers down each fret to hear the different sounds they made. Once she reached the end of her assessment, she turned to Joe. "What song?" she signed.

Joe shrugged. "Whichever one you want," he said.

Kintra started off with 'That's Just the Way We Roll', playing through the whole song with a few embellishments of her own, and then transitioned into 'Just Friends'. Joe watched as sadness crept into her eyes, overshadowing the joy that had been there previously. He knew that she was thinking about Nick, and his new crush. Once she'd finished playing as though she'd played for years, Kintra looked back at Joe. "You were right," she signed, almost in defeat. "I'm in love with him."

Joe put his arm around her shoulder, even though the guitar between them made it awkward, and said, "He'll come around. Right now, he's just blind." He smiled and tapped her forehead. "But for now, how about we go knock his precious socks off with your ability?" he asked.

"Do you really think I can play?" Kintra asked, nervous.

"Of course you can!" Joe responded. "You just played like you've been playing for years."

"It helps when you feel the music in your head," Kintra responded humbly.

Joe laughed. "I guess it does," he replied. "I guess it does."

The two friends walked back to the room where that family was, and Nick practically jumped on them when they entered. "Where've you been?" he asked. "We were supposed to go into Lockdown five minutes ago!"

Joe raised his hands, warding off Nick's comments. "Chill," he told his brother. "Kintra and I had a little experiment to do." He looked over at his parents, grinning. "If you guys don't mind, we have a substitute player." He inclined his head toward Kintra and Nick gasped.

"Her?" he asked. "How?"

Joe shrugged. "You told me about how she played the piano so easily, so I asked if she could try it with the guitar as well. She plays like she's been doing this for years."

Kevin stood, smiling down at Kintra. "Welcome to the band," he said.

Kintra's legs were shaking as she scrambled to take her place, Kevin guiding her under the cover of the darkness that the stadium had created. The screams of the audience were deafening and Kevin could only give her hand a comforting squeeze before he was forced to disappear once more. Kintra slipped the guitar strap over her head, settling it over her shoulder. She looked to her left and saw the Connect 3 bass player giving her an encouraging nod. Nervously, her hand tugged on her black scarf, pulling it a little tighter.

The drums began their roll, and Kintra's heart leapt once again. Her hands shook as she pulled out the pick Kevin had given her, curling it into her right index finger. The bass player gave her another nod, the signal to start counting the bars, and then the lights came on. At first, all the bright strobes were blinding, and Kintra kept her head down, concentrating on the guitar in her hands, even though the action was unnecessary. She heard the roar of the crowd and forced herself to look up. The stadium was packed! Kintra could barely see past the first couple of rows, but she could see all lights from the glow sticks and the cameras as they sparkled even from the top level of the stadium. She bit her lip, her fingers flying across the strings, and then the boys came on.

If Kintra had thought that the noise was deafening in the beginning, now it was ear-splitting! The boys took it in stride, though, and Kintra caught Nick's encouraging wink as he passed by her. She smiled, knowing that he was trying to apologize for the way he'd been acting, and knowing that he was there, close to her, made all of her fears float away. Her playing became louder, more embellished, and more confident-sounding. Song after song, she continued to rock the stage. Nick stepped onto her riser to play with her during one of their last songs, their guitars humming in synch with each other, and the crowd exploded.

Finally, and in Kintra's opinion, too soon, the concert wound down to its final song. Realizing that this would be her last chance to have this much fun on stage, Kintra let loose. Since, the boys had told her that she could do whatever she wanted by way of embellishments as long as she stuck to the melody of the song, Kintra kept the melody loosely in there, but played straight from her heart. The guitar whined in her hands, stressing her happiness and cheerfulness to a whole new level. The spotlight came to rest on her, both figuratively and literally, and Kintra found that she didn't mind. She happily played through the end of the song and finished right along with everyone else.

The crowd erupted once more for a ridiculously long time. Kintra briefly wondered if their hands ever started hurting. Her cheeks sure were, for she hadn't stopped smiling. The boys made their bows, and then, they turned their backs to the audience, motioning for Kintra to step down. Her legs shook, but she made it safely down to where the boys were standing, smiling at her.

"Let's give a huge round of applause for our friend, Kintra Philips!" Nick cried. The crowd answered with a large round of applause, and Kintra bowed. "Without her," Nick explained, putting his arm around her shoulders, "this show would not have been possible. Thank you so much, Kinny." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and Kintra smiled, desperately trying to hide the blush on her face and the fact that her heart had just melted into a pile of slush. She saw something on Nick's face that was hard to read, but brushed it off. Smiling, she hugged the other two boys and went back to her place on the riser.

The stage went black once more and the bass player guided Kintra down safely. She smiled her thanks and then disappeared backstage. Almost immediately, her smile faded. There, standing in the circle of Nick's arms, where Kintra herself so desperately wanted to be, stood Catie. Nick's back was turned to Kintra, so Kintra had an undisputable view of the haughty smirk Catie shot her way before she hugged Nick tighter.

Kintra was still waiting for her fists to unclench.