CHAPTER 9 (FINISHED EDITING)

He took my hand a led him across the hallway. What was he doing? I wasn't allowed in his room. If I was caught I would be eliminated without a doubt. I started to resist but he squeezed my hand to relax.

He unlocked a door with an old fashioned brass key, which hung on a chain around his neck, and I was surprised to see just a pair of steps. He pulled me in and shut the door behind him. I followed him silently up the stairs with the only sound in the air was of me sniffing. He came to another door which he opened and I gasped when I looked around.

It was a square room but with a triangular ceiling like an attic room. One of the walls was covered head to toe in posters from old bands new bands, there were photos of everything with Xavier in nearly all of them. There were many signed CD's from artists I loved and I was especially jealous when I saw there was one on the wall signed by the one and only Michael Jackson.

All the other walls were an off white and one had a desk against it with a Macbook on it along with numerous cords and devices. Nearby there was guitar amps and leads. Music paper was scattered along the floor with lead pencil markings erased and re-written on. An old black grand piano was pushed into one covered and again that had sheet music piled all over it. There were sets of headphones lying around and beanbags messily placed on a large oriental carpet. I saw many leather bound journals with pages falling out.

"This place is incredible," I whispered, scared to disturb the vibe of it.

Xavier grinned, "This place is my oasis."

I walked around careful not to touch anything. I walked towards the piano and looked down on the chipped ivory keys which were well used.

"Who used this piano?"

Xavier smiled gently and stood next to me, "It was my mothers." He said simply.

I remember ages ago, before Xavier was known, news reports on Mr. Matthews's wife and how she had died. Her death was never clear though, some said a car accident, some said drug overdose while others went to the extreme of saying she committed suicide.

I didn't want to pry into Xavier's personal life though so I just asked, "What was her name?"

He smiled again, "Merielle."

I guess this was one thing Xavier and I had in common. We had both experienced a great loss, his mother and both of my parents, and we came to music to deal with ourselves. I looked at the photos on his wall and I saw a young boy who was a Xavier and a beautiful blonde haired woman with pale skin and classic beauty. She was smiling at the toddler with love and adoration clearly in her eyes.

"She was very beautiful," I say softly. He smiles at me then pushes me down to sit in his desk chair.

"Stop distracting me," he mutters then starts pacing up and down before walking to his piano and grabbed a bunch of sheet music. He handed me the music and saw it was Bonnie Raitt's song I Can't Make You Love Me.

He drags me to the piano and sits me down and he sits next to me.

"You have to sing this for me okay?"

I shake my head, "I can't perform in front of people, Xavier."

"You've sung in front of me before."

"Yeah, but I didn't know you were watching."

He shrugs, "Same thing. I know you can do it, Belle."

I raise an eyebrow, "Belle?"

Xavier grins, "Everyone calls you Annie so I'm going to call you Belle, from Annabelle."

I roll my eyes at him.

He plays the intro and when it's my turn to sing the same thing which happened at rehearsals happened; my throat closed up and the words blurred.

I dropped my hands defeated and a tear trickled down my cheek, "I can't do this, Xavier."

He faced me and thought hard before saying, "Go somewhere in your mind where you're comfortable and happy. It can be anywhere, the beach, a forest or even pretend you're in your shower and sing from there. I used to do that when I first started performing, and it worked."

I nodded and closed my eyes. I pictured my mum and me singing in the kitchen. She was wearing her bed socks with my dad's apron while I was in a tutu with my messy five year old curls all over the place.

Mum was singing into a wooden spoon moving her hips and I was singing into my hairbrush to Stevie Wonder.

I smiled at the memory and heard Xavier play the keys in the background. I knew when it was my turn to come in and sang gently at first before I became more confident and used my full diaphragm, "Turn down the lights, turn down the bed, turn down these voices, inside my head."

"Lay down with me, tell me no lies, just hold me close, don't patronise, don't patronise me."

I let my voice completely voice when we reached the chorus, "Cause I can't make you love me if you don't, You can't make your heart feel something it won't, here in the dark in these final hours, I will lay down my heart, and I feel the power but you won't. No, you won't."

I breathed a deep breath, still in the kitchen with my mum, "Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't."

We moved into the second verse and the words flowed naturally from my lips as if I was fluent in another language. When we reached the second chorus Xavier harmonized perfectly with me and soon after the bridge and chorus Xavier played the ending notes on the piano and trailed out until we were left in a room of silence.

He then looked at me and grinned, "That was incredible Belle, you're going to nail it tomorrow night."

I blushed looking down and I felt Xavier move and get his laptop. He pressed something and I heard what we just sang.

"You recorded it?!" I asked.

"Shh, just listen."

And when I did I honestly couldn't believe it was me. The female voice was matured and reached incredible pitches. When Xavier's voice sang with it, it sounded complete.

I grinned and hugged Xavier, "Thank you so much!"

He chuckles but hugs me back before we both let go.

"We better go back downstairs," He says and I nod following him down. He carefully opens the door making sure no ones standing around and we both come out. He turns to me and digs something out of his pocket.

"Here you go," he says and hands me a key. I take it but stare at him confused, "You can go in any time you want, and this was just a spare key made in case I lost this one."

I smile and softly say thank you and I know my cheeks were red.

The sound of footsteps and barking fill take up the silence and I turn around to see Rose panting in a black leotard and dance shorts and Coco, panting as well, trailing behind her. Not noticing who I was standing with she tackles me into a hug and says, "Thank goodness you're alright. Hugo wouldn't let me come after you although I was the last one to practise," She pulls away but holds my shoulders, "Are you okay? Are you alright? Do you need anything? Look, I even brought Coco."

I smile at her thankfully, "its okay, I'm alright now. I kneel down and Coco jumps into my arms and licks my face.

"Ew," I giggle.

Finally Rose sees Xavier but instead of saying something I thought she would have she says, "Thanks for going after her."

He smiles, "Not a problem."

She raises an eyebrow and looks between the two of us. I blush, knowing what she's thinking, and Xavier chuckles.

"Come on Annie," she finally says, "its dinner time."

I follow Rose towards the stairs and then hear Xavier call out, "See you later Belle." I turn around and wave at him. Once we're down one level Rose gives me an amused expression and says, "You Missy have a lot of explaining to do."

I managed to get out of 'explaining' to Rose by her distraction for food. Dinner was great as it was Mexican night. We had tacos and wedges and it was all really good. That was another thing I would miss from being here.

The amazing food.

I woke up on Saturday morning with butterflies in my stomach. The whole talent show was live and I knew it would be showing some footage from the dress rehearsals.

At breakfast I only ate fruit, staying away from all dairy products. I drank organic pineapple juice and drank bottles of water which resulted in me having to go to the toilet often. After noon, six hours before the show, I told Jo what I was going to sing, and she listened to it to gain 'inspiration' on what I would wear.

After thirty seconds of listening to the song she hurried out yelling, "I'll be back!" Sounding strangely familiar to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While waiting I did vocal warm ups which I normally did before recording videos. I drank a teaspoon of olive oil to 'moisturise' my throat.

An hour later Jo hurries in carrying multiple shopping bags. She looks at me, "Okay, make up first."

She made my make up mostly natural but had to layer it up so it wouldn't be washed up with the lights. The incredible thing with make up artists was that they literally had to "cake'" a face in make up, due to lights, without it looking fake and Jo did an incredible job at that.

She wanted the focus to be on my eyes so she made the mascara and eyeliner heavier than the rest to make my blue eyes "pop." My lips were coated in a purple-nude lipstick but the rest of my face was done naturally with no extra blush or eyeshadow. My make up took about an hour when she got started on my hair.

This time instead of curling or straightening it, she brushed it out and then crimped it neatly. She pinned my side fringes back before placing a flower crown on my head made of pastel flowers.

She then pushed my behind a curtain and stripped me off my clothes. She handed me a blue cotton dress which I pulled on and then she took my bra off!

I looked in the mirror and fell in love with dress. It was the same blue as my eyes but with many lighter shades and white as it was tie-dyed. It was tight around my chest but then at my waist it flowed out to reach a couple inches above my knees. It was sleeveless with thick straps which went down my back at the sides as the middle was completely backless until above my underwear line. (Jo had given me nude seamless undies to put on.)

When I walked out she grinned when she saw me then handed me my shoes which were nude pumps with straps around the ankles. When I slipped them off I grinned at my appearance in the mirror.

She handed me a white silk robe which covered my dress and arms. I tied the belt thing around my waist and took the pumps on for later as my inability to wear high heels prevented to walk quickly.

With them in my hand I went to find Jono. Soon I saw him setting up the cameras and the stage was being set up for the first act, which reminded myself that I had to check the order.

He saw me and grinned, "Hey Annie, you look beautiful already."

I smiled at him then asked, "Jono, can I talk to you?"

He nods and leads me to the side.

"Did you hear about yesterday?"

He nods and says, "Yeah I was there when I heard what Hugo said. Don't listen to him Annie."

I smile softly, "I think I've got it sorted but since I ran out I wasn't able to talk about what I wanted for the stage design."

Jono grins, "Tell me what you want and we can give Hugo and all the other girls a big surprise."

I know he mentioned the other girls because he knew that I had heard them laughing at me as I was scolded at and when I ran out. I even had heard Lindsay making fun of me at dinner last night but really, I was the one singing with their idol later on that afternoon.

"Thank you so much, Jono!" and I tell him my idea.

I imagined the stage out in my head and envisioned the smoke machines blowing lots of smoke to make it foggy. In the background on the screens would be a slideshow f nature photos which I had on my USB which I collected from Tumblr. The photos also included some of hippies dancing on a hill and others were just peaceful shots. The last photo though was my favourite. It was taken by Josh a month before my parents were taken away from me. We were lying down on an oval surrounded with dandelions. We were all smiling, the four of us; Mum, dad, Sophia, and I.

This song was for them. It was for Sophia and for me as well.

As well as the slideshow and smoke machines I had found backstage a tray many glass jars and bottles of all different shapes and sizes. Between the time of getting dressed and morning I had put some candles in some and left the others. Some of the glass bottle had been painted previously, some in white, some in purple and others in pale blue and would look really cool. I showed Jono the jars and he said that he would be able to hang them on the special framework which would make them seem to float around the stage.

With it sorted I went backstage and saw many girls smirking at me.

I checked the list and grinned when I saw that I was performing last.

Even better.

Rose found me and gave me a hug. She was wearing her dance outfit; a black leotard, black dance shorts and her white Converse high tops. She was holding an extremely poofy white tutu, which seemed split in half, and after she gave me a hug I saw how it stuck together with Velcro pieces.

"Good luck Annie," I wished her the same as we nervously waited. She was the act before me.

Soon the live countdown began and Elliot with his sly smile made his way on stage and welcomed the show.

"Welcome everyone to The Search for Cinderella. Where these fifteen girls battle it out to win the heart of Xavier Matthews!"

The spotlight found Xavier sitting on the judge panel and he gave a small wave before it went back to Elliot, "Tonight is going to be a fun night watching these girls show off their talents for the whole of America, and the world, to see live!" A round of applause from the audience filled the air as Elliot finished the introductions

A guest star performer came and performed, much to the surprise of everyone, and we were all a bit star struck as we all watched the one and only Katy Perry perform. From backstage!

We weren't able to meet her though during the ad break as she was immediately rushed out to her next interview or something like that. A behind the scenes footage reel was broadcasted of the rehearsals from yesterday and much to my embarrassment there was the one of me stuffing up and getting yelled at. I think Elliot put that in their on purpose as he stood there smirking as he watched it. The voice over even said, "What mistakes will happen tonight?" As if it was teasing me.

Finally the first act was called on and it was Lindsay. And her talent was rapping?

The other girls didn't seem that surprised as me since they had watched it during rehearsals but they mainly just looked amused.

Maybe that's why I thought Lindsay was dressed funny when I saw her backstage as she was wearing white Nike high tops with those baggy denim pants with elastic at the bottom around the ankle and a tight black shirt which showed a little bit of her flat stomach. To top it off she had a black snap back cap on her perfectly straightened blonde hair decorated with pink and purple diamantes.

She had a backing track playing in the background which was a mix of all sorts of raps. A slideshow on the screens in the background showed photos of street art and graffiti. Surprisingly she was actually really good. She started with the rap from Baby by Justin Bieber and then the raps kept getting harder and harder with a part from Look at Me Now by Chris Brown but the ultimatum was Rap God by Eminem which she rapped without any backing tracks.

When she finished she received a massive amount of applauding from the audience. The judges; MR. FREAKING MATTHEWS (which I shall remind you is the owner of the massive record company, Gold Records and is my dream label to be signed to), Paris Hilton (I honestly don't know why), some famous dancer which Rose got excited about and Xavier Matthews himself, just nodded and wrote stuff down without saying anything.

Unlike other talent shows the judges wouldn't say anything except for 'Well done' or 'that was a great performance' which they said to Lindsay who beamed and walked off-stage with a smug smile.

There were many unique acts such as kazoo playing (which was actually pretty good) and bowling?

This girl from Florida managed to get a strike every turn. As each act progressed the more nervous I got but Xavier's advice ran through my head. I felt sick while Rose got up to my act but I went and watched her anyway from the backstage screens. I was the last girl now in this room as once they performed went to the other side of the stage.

I undid my robe and sat back as I watched Rose start her dance. She stood there in first position as a classical song came on. She moved gracefully and perfectly to the music. It was great as she did a series of little pirouettes and leaps to the music but as the piano music reached its high she jumped up and did the splits in the air, tore her tutu off as the bass and beat of a hip hop song came on, and landed back down on her two feet. She then ran through a very complicated hip hop dance routine and made the audience stare, amazed by her talent. She finished by doing a backflip in mid air and then spinning before falling into the splits.

The dancer actually stood up and the audience gave her a standing ovation. The dancer took the mic and beamed at Rose, "That was amazing!"

Rose smiled and I could tell she was bursting with excitement as sweat trickled down her face and her chest moved quickly as she tried to catch her breath.

The ads came on and I slipped my shoes on as Jo rushed in quickly doing my make up. I grabbed my guitar and was ushered to the stage by Hugo himself.

I looked at the audience and gulped trying to put myself together before we went live again.

My guitar was plugged in and mic was working. Jono was going to wait for me to start singing before he started the smoke machine and slideshow and let the bottles float. Soon enough Elliot introduced me by name and what I was going to do. The lights in the arena dimmed and it was all silent as they waited for me to sing.

My throat had tightened again.

I had forgotten my words.

I looked around and found Xavier's piercing gaze.

He nods at me and I closed my eyes.

A/N: Yup, it's a cliff-hanger, and I'm sorry but hey, it was a longer chapter. Please vote, comment and let me know what you think. Are you guys excited for the next one??

Question of the update: What song do you think she'll sing?