Althena Book 2

69. Concert

Mike wakes me up in the morning by rubbing my back. Tingles flow from his fingertips into me. "I love you."

"I love you, babygirl. Do you want to go to school or spend the day with Cyrus?"

"School. I have my concert tonight. I can't do the concert if I don't go to school."

"We'll be there to watch. You excited?"

"Yes. I have a solo."

"You never told us that before."

"I didn't want to make anyone think they had to come. It's just a school concert."

"It's not just a school concert. It's your concert. Of course, we'll be there."

I wiggle over and lay on his chest. "I love you."

He rubs my back lightly. "I love you too, babygirl."

Breakfast is interesting. Cyrus isn't at the table. I eat with the 3 of them and get ready to leave.

"Where is he?" Half of me thinks he probably went back to Eldervale.

"Upstairs. He hasn't come down yet."

I guess that's better than Eldervale. I go upstairs, and his door is still shut. I stare at it for a minute. I think about knocking. I don't know how to do this.

I turn to walk away, then I change my mind and walk in.

He's working on his laptop at his desk. He keeps his back to me.

I run and hug him. I kiss the back of his head. "I just wanted to hug you."

He pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around me. "I'll hug you forever. Will you do something with me today?"

"If I miss school I can't sing in my concert. But you're more important than my concert. Do you want to go to that suite?" I twirl the button on his shirt.

"No. I want to watch you sing, babygirl. I know you've worked hard for your concert. We can spend some time together this weekend. Or maybe take a day next week."

I relax against him. "I love you."

"I love you too." He rubs my hair and kisses my head.

I give him a little kiss. "My mate."

His eyes fill with tears. "My soulmate. It's hard to believe I have you."

"Are you happy?"

"Happier than I've ever been."

"WOMAN. LET'S GO."

"UGH." I collapse on him.

He chuckles and helps me up. "I'll walk you down."

I get to class and Akmae turns around. "What happened to you last night?"

"Went to visit my granny. Then it was too late to come back."

"Hopefully, they hire some more bar staff by opening day."

"I think you got a promotion on your first day."

He laughs. "I'll stick with the coffee shop."

"Until they need you at the bar anyway. You're going to end up being one of those people that can work anywhere."

"Yea, probably."

For my afternoon class, Mrs. Crew and I actually get caught up with all the work I've missed. I didn't think I would ever get unburied. After school, I do normal cheer practice.

Then Lila and I get ready in the locker room for our concert. We do our hair and makeup. Then we each put on a dress.

"I am ready to be out of this building."

"Yea, this has been a long day."

"What happens in choir after this?"

"We start working on the last concert of the year. We sing at the graduation. The band will be there to play too. It's only 2 songs. No solos. But our grade for the last quarter depends on it."

"That won't be too bad."

"No. But we have to stand through the whole ceremony. That part sucks."

"Maybe we can get some chairs."

"We can only hope."

We get to the auditorium and put our choir robes on backstage. All the other girls are here now too. I can hear the audience talking. They're quite loud. But honestly, so are we. We spend 5 minutes fixing each other's robes.

"Girls, take your places. I need to take attendance."

We take our spots on the risers and the teacher checks her paper a bunch. Then she leaves. I hear her after a minute.

"Thank you all for coming to the Green Valley High Spring Concert. Without further ado, I present to you The Green Valley High Choir."

The curtain pulls open, and the place is packed. And this is a big auditorium.

Lila leans towards me and whispers, "Remember its family members. Even my grandparents are here."

"My granny too." I can't stop smiling. Knowing I have people here for me too makes me so happy.

The teacher introduces the songs one at a time.

The first 8 songs, we sing as a choir and one of the seniors will do a little solo in it. There are 8 seniors, so it works. The 9th song, the seniors sing together at the front of the stage. The rest of us stand on the risers.

Then the seniors walk off the stage.

The teacher talks to the crowd again. "I want to thank you all for coming again. I love seeing so many people support our choir. The last song of the spring concert has become a tradition for us. This is our seniors' final concert and this song represents them handing off the reigns to the junior class. Come on back, seniors, you're not done yet."

The crowd laughs. Then they come back dressed in fancy dresses instead of choir robes. The boys in the crowd start whistling and cheering.

They stand across the front of the stage and Seasons of Love starts to play. They sing the first part together. The choir fills in the vocals.

Then Lila takes my hand, and we go to the front of the seniors. We each take a mic. We go back and forth with the solos while everyone sings behind us. At the end, I hit a high note that is insanely high. We finish the song and the audience cheers so loudly.

"Juniors, Althena Sage and Lila Monroe."

Lila runs over and hugs me while everyone cheers. I wave to my boys. They're in the front row with Monte and Granny.

"The senior class." The seniors wave at everyone through cheers. "The Green Valley High School Choir." We step back and the curtains close. "That concludes the concert. Thank you for joining us."

I smile at one of the seniors. "I love that dress. It's so sparkly."

"Thank you. It's going to be my prom dress."

Lila unhooks the back of my robe. "Prom is fancy fancy."

"I see that. I should probably pick a dress soon."

"Yea, we can do that."

We leave the robes and fight our way to the locker room. The cafeteria and hallways surrounding the auditorium are packed. I grab my phone and text Conner. -Locker room.-

We get out, and my boys are standing there. Mary, Clayton, granny, and Monte are here too. I jump and point. "DID YOU SEE?"

Mike smiles. "We watched. You girls did amazing."

Granny gives me a hug. "Your mom loved the choir too. You're a lot better than she was though."

Mary nods. "You're going to need a stage at that casino. Put on shows for people. You 2 have a lot of talent."

Granny hugs me again. "Our little superstar."

Clayton looks up from his phone. "And you're already on the news."

"What?" Lila shakes her head.

"They had cameras in the auditorium."

I point at her. "YOU SAID..."

"THEY'RE ONLY HERE BECAUSE OF YOU. THEY FOLLOW YOU AROUND. DON'T BLAME ME."

"FINE. How did they even know I was in choir?"

Clayton rolls his eyes. "Your name is on the school website for the choir."

"I guess that explains that. Did you hire people for the bar?"

Drogon puts his arm around me and leads me down the hall. "Yes. We're opening at one tomorrow."

"How am I gonna see it?"

"You're leaving school after lunch. You're then coming back for the hockey match."

"Are you going to watch the match?"

Cyrus winks at me. "We're going to try. It depends on what's going on at the casino."

"Look how good we look." Lila runs over with Clayton's phone and shows me the news.

"We do look good."

"They're talking about how good we sound. Maybe we could be superstars. After next year, though. I don't have enough time to do that right now."

"Agree. We'll be superstars after we graduate."

"Yea, that'll give us something to do. I'm going with my parents. My grandparents are having dinner with us."

"Have fun."

She takes his phone back.

We get separated near the cafeteria. Drogon keeps his arm tight around me and shakes hands with a few people on our way out. Then he helps me into the helicopter. We wait for every one for a few minutes then head home.

Mary, Clayton, granny, and Monte join us for dinner. I'm about to lay my head on the table and go to sleep. I rest my head on Conner's shoulder. He's so warm.

"HEY!"

My eyes pop open and I smile at everyone. "Nice dinner."

They crack up laughing. Mike signals for the food. "Try to eat some of it, baby."

Granny smiles at me. "You are exhausted, child."

Mike nods. "Been a hell of a week with the casino opening."

"Are you ready for that?"

"As ready as we're going to be." Conner pushes my plate towards me. "We fixed the escalator and had the rest checked. Hired more people for the bar. That was all I saw that needed fixed."

Cyrus chuckles. "Hopefully, we won't need teenagers to work at the bar anymore. Did anyone get that dumbass out of the coffee shop?"

Mike shakes his head. "Plan on paying for coffee while she's there. Or we can move her to the bank."

Drogon switches plates with me. I don't want to cut meat and he cut his already. "She works second shift during the week. We won't be there for most of it. It's not going to matter. Eat, baby."

"The vending machines got stocked today. The fruit and popcorn came in as well. We're good to go." Conner shrugs his shoulders. "And the security ran like a dream Wednesday. Hopefully, they keep it up."

Cyrus nods. "Even the door was fast. I've never seen it work so well."

Granny smiles. "Monte knows what he's doing."

I look at Monte. He does seem a little sad. He starts talking then he gives me a double take. "Grab her."

Conner grabs me right before my head hits the table. Then he picks me up. "I'll be right back. She's done."

He carries me to his room and puts me on my feet. I stretch and feel the dress fall off me. "Hop in bed, babygirl."

He doesn't have to tell me twice. I snuggle into the blankets so fast.