AN: Hey everyone! I'd just like to make something clear.
I've had to work quite hard with this because for the song in this chapter, I've had to think of lyrics to replace the lyrics of the actual song I played in my head. The song that Gracie sings in this chapter is an 80's pop song called "The Best" and obviously I can't really plant the actual lyrics onto this site because…well…there are some restrictions that need to be respected and there would not really be much point in crediting me, would there? Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter! :)
Chapter 24 - Karaoke Night
As the sun disappeared and drifted away out of the sky, so did the adrenaline and stress in my heart from fighting my way through a storm of water, paint, and strong wind. Within a few seconds after Cyclone ending, I kept on replaying every event in my head during every second that went by, feeling a sense of embarrassment and awkwardness due to the fact of never imagining myself working through a somewhat dangerous trial, however, at this point in time, I looked back on my performance during Cyclone feeling proud of myself now that I'd had a moment to let all of the wild events process in my head.
At last, I felt like I could actually relax because there was no anxiety or stress being blown around us anymore since according to Mark, we had succeeded at our last ever trial and as far as I was concerned, we didn't have to make an effort until we had to leave and go home. Speaking of making an effort, Gracie had completely recovered from when she got knocked out during Cyclone, which was a prompt relief to my heart. However, the red patch on her forehead had now turned into a bruise, but at least she still looked as gorgeous as she always was.
The sky began to grow that same blueberry colour I had caught sight of when I awakened from that nightmare about the jungle I'd had back at home and due to looking up at this beautiful colour against the deep green trees, I wished Gracie had been with me during that horrid, angsty moment; I could've held onto her for the rest of that night, a sense of joy and safety welling up in my burdened heart that she was there and no harm would come to me. But no. Of course, I'd had nobody to hold but myself, just as always, but still, I so hoped that I would someday get the chance to take Gracie's delicate body in my arms, hold her close to me, and let her be mine for all eternity.
However, part of me thought about the fact that that probably wouldn't happen. Why? Because I was too used to girls in my social world treating me with disrespect and giving me the attitude that they had high standards about which kind of guys to look out for. I certainly wasn't one of them. Just by admiring Gracie's beauty and her personality, I just knew that she had high standards and she probably didn't like me back, so what was the point in even trying to make her interested in me? But the confusing thing was…if she had high standards, then why did she keep on blushing occasionally when I spoke to her and why did she get all giddy?
On the other hand though, I hoped to the stars that Gracie accepted my proposal because if she didn't accept it and said no, then I would be absolutely devastated. I didn't want to go home sad and depressed like I was when I lost my mum, I didn't want to gain back my weight and lose my self esteem again, then no girl would want to even look in my direction. Oh, this was such a hard decision to make! Should I sacrifice my anxieties about this whole ordeal and just wing it? Or should I keep myself to myself to prevent getting embarrassed if Gracie rejected me? Maybe I just had to go with the first option. It was a difficult decision to make, but I had to go with just winging it. After all, like I had discovered before, it was better late than never at all.
Talking of which, my gut kept on telling me, Go on, do it now! Do it before an awkward moment occurs! But my head was telling me, Nooo, no, you can't do it now! It'll just be too difficult to talk and walk at the same time, and what if any of the others hear you? That'll be downright cringey and embarrassing! I had heard that apparently, there was a saying called, 'putting your head before your heart'. I had no idea what it theoretically meant, but I guessed that it meant putting the thoughts in your head over what you truly feel in your heart. I knew that there were negative thoughts lurking around in my mind that were preventing me from putting in place what my heart was telling me, and it was at this moment when I knew that that was evil. It was evil that my fears and anxieties were preventing me from feeling happy about being with the girl I was in love with.
So, taking a deep breath and brushing away all my stress, I walked over to where Gracie was and cleared my throat. "Hey, Gracie. Can…Can I ask you something?" I asked shakily. Yes. I was really doing this.
"Yeah, of course you can." Gracie replied with a hopeful smile, almost as if she was expecting me to ask her the question that was hovering half in, half out of my mouth.
"Uh…" My eyes darted around the clearing before I finally plucked up the courage to speak…completely different words I had planned to say. "How are you feeling after that trial? You had quite a fall back there, didn't you?"
Gracie looked back at me, and I deciphered a subtle hint of disappointment in her eyes, but she smiled anyway and replied with, "Heh, yeah…I did. I bruised my head quite a bit, but you'll be pleased to know that I don't have a headache or anything. I'm perfectly fine, thanks for asking."
"Oh!" I chuckled meekly. "Well, that's a relief!" Then there were a few seconds of awkward silence where I was yelling at myself inside my head. You dumb bastard! I thought, What's wrong with you? Just whack that cat off your tongue, damnit!
I carried on walking beside Gracie, rubbing my forearm as I did so until my eyes caught onto a clearing that looked like the kind of party being held on a tropical beach with lights and everything, but before I could get a proper look at it, my views were hidden momentarily.
"Hey, guys!" Jack exclaimed, getting in front of us all so that he was obscuring our views. "Look at this…" and with that, he walked out of our way, revealing a beautiful string of golden lights shining around the frame of what looked like shelves and a bar at a pub. There were four stools in front of the bar with a table for four sitting near it for us to sit. Also, I took great notice of the fact that there was a black wire drooped across the floor. One end was attached to a microphone, whilst the other end was plugged into…a karaoke machine?
"Wow…" I muttered, staring around me at the evening sky and the warm lights making this feel like a very romantic place to be. Upon thinking about this, I couldn't help but grin and push my eyes towards Gracie, who was looking around this place in as much awe and delight as me. Oh…those golden lights reflecting in her eyes…she looked absolutely radiant. I just had to capture her speaking to me whilst she was as stunning as this. I nervously walked up to her and said, "Well, this sure looks like a treat, right?"
Gracie rapidly turned her head towards me upon hearing my voice, causing her hair to swing round in a way which caused me to grin. She smiled as well. "Yeah, I wonder what songs we're going to sing this evening."
What songs… that instantly got my mind whirring around with excitement, but soon, it began to spiral. I knew lots of good songs and love songs, and I was also aware that I could sing quite well, but…I didn't know. It seemed like the I'm A Koopa staff had organised this whole thing in order for us to have a whole night of fun before our last voting off meeting, and that this was the perfect opportunity to express my love to Gracie through song, but…it was just absolutely terrifying to think about. I didn't know if my voice would crack and it would come out all high and shaky or whether I would suffer from stage fright. Whatever worst case scenarios were destined to happen, I didn't think any of them would be even more worse than each other.
Oh dear…what was I to do with myself sometimes? Just then, Jack clicked his fingers, walked behind the bar and leant on it lazily, as if to look like a bartender.
"So, peeps, what'll it be tonight?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, which made me smile at how accurate he was.
I walked closer to the bar and put my hand to my chin. "Uh…I'll have a cold Rio please. With ice." I replied, attempting to play along with him, and within about thirty seconds, he had whipped up a pint of Rio with ice cubes in it and oh…it felt so good to let it slide down my throat…
I sat down at the table for four and watched as the rest of my campmates switched on the microphone and the karaoke machine, and that was when a thought popped into my head. I hadn't been peer pressured into doing anything during this experience in Camp; only the public were meant to do that, but anyway, none of my campmates had peer pressured me into performing anything I didn't want to do, but I feared that now was going to be the time where they would release their inner banter and make me feel bad for not taking part in this properly. Well, if they did do that, then I would just have to say to them, "I've busted my backside through four trials during these three weeks because I had no choice! Please don't do the same to me with this."
Heck, I even hoped that Gracie wouldn't do that sort of thing to me. I got that she was nice and kind enough, but in every case, there's a limit on how much you can get to know a person, and I had no clue if Gracie even had a…banterish side to her. I really, really hoped not because it would probably burst my bubble, thinking that she was that beautiful, lovely girl who was nothing but nice to everyone. Anyway, I thought that it wasn't best to pinpoint every little possible thing that could lower my expectations; all that mattered was whether I had a great time admiring voices I had never heard before. Speaking of which, I did feel ecstatic to hear my other campmates sing, but secretly, all that mattered at this point was Gracie's voice. She had a beautiful figure and gorgeous face, so surely she was bound to have a nice voice, but it didn't even matter if she couldn't sing because I still found her utterly stunning.
"Hey, Ludwig!" Jack called over to me once he had served drinks to the others. "Since you were the first on Cyclone, would you like to sing a song first?"
Instantly, my muscles tensed up, my teeth clenched and my hands grew all clammy. It was like I was in the midst of a deathly silence, which was being interrupted by the deafening sound of my rapid heartbeat as my campmates stared back at me, looking a little concerned at my hesitant expression. "Uh…n-no!" I burst out after stammering a little. "I…I don't really want to sing tonight…I'm sorry…" I bit my lip and looked down at the floor shyly whilst my campmates stared back at me as if this was the first time they had seen me in this condition.
"Oh, all right." Jack said, walking towards me and putting a supportive hand on my shoulder. "That's okay. You don't have to if you don't want to, but you can always change your mind, and besides, it's going to be fun watching each other sing."
In return, I tried to smile and force out a chuckle, but I just couldn't.
"Oh!" Gracie exclaimed. "Could…could I sing first? It's a very good song!" She rushed over to the karaoke machine, found the song that she wanted to sing, briskly walked over to the microphone and adjusted it. "I hope you guys all enjoy this!" she said into the microphone as she giggled nervously, which made my system fill with joy and admiration.
My heart raced with anticipation as the introduction played until Gracie finally started singing. "Every night, every day, my heart tells me… That you are the one, the one for me…" After Gracie had sung those two lines, my eyes lit up, for it was a classic late 80's pop song I loved to listen to. I had heard it on the radio a few times and sung along to it mindlessly, only regarding it as an 'okay-ish' piece of music, but now that I was hearing the love of my life bringing out the lyrics in a completely different way, I was hooked. There was no trying to pull me off now.
"Woah…" I muttered subconsciously as Gracie carried on with warbling her way into my racing heart.
"You know how to heal my pain… So let me dance with you in the rain…" Gracie twirled around on the spot before belting out the chorus. "You're here in my heart, never ever to depart… I just want to love you… We'll shine like the brightest stars…"
Oh my gosh… This voice was driving me absolutely crazy. Sure, I might've not looked that way on the outside (I hoped), but on the inside, my mind felt like it was buzzing way out of control. Honestly, I could've laughed maniacally and picked Gracie up in her arms, I was driven so insane during this moment. I…just couldn't take it, but I could take it at the same time. However, my feelings immediately changed once the second chorus ended and Gracie began singing along to the emotional bridge.
"I know our friendship won't last very long, I know we'll never see each other again, but I want to express these three words in song, from the bottom of my heart, I love you!"
I placed a hand over my heart and trembled a little. When she warbled like that when singing those emotional words…it made me breathe heavily and it momentarily brought tears to my eyes, but I managed to blink them back, smile warmly and clap as Gracie finally belted out the last chorus of the song. By now, all of us were standing up, clapping along to the percussion and chanting the lyrics loudly as the lights around us phased into changes of millions of vibrant colours which danced and bounced off Gracie's body making her look even more gorgeous than she already was. At last, the song ended, and she was left standing there staring at us while we all cheered for her. I had to say that I was the loudest out of the three of us.
The hours passed like lightning. Songs were sung, drinks were served, and stories were told about our pasts, and gradually, I found myself starting to really really enjoy this, but…there was one thing that was bothering me still. Well, not bothering, but it was sharp enough to the extent that it kept popping into my head every thirty seconds. That memory was all to do with the song that Gracie sang, and more specifically, the lyrics. During the last couple of lines in the bridge, the lyrics were, "...but I want to express these three words in song, from the bottom of my heart, I love you!" and if I thought about it further, Gracie was looking at me and smiling the entire time she sang that bridge…
Oh my goodness.
The reason behind her strange and intriguing behaviour towards me… The reason why she decided to sing that song… The way she looked at me then… Could that possibly mean…?