From the Top - Chapter 44

Christmas Eve day, Kat and I stood just outside the security checkpoint at LAX, waiting for my friends and family to arrive. I was having a hard time not grinning every time I looked over at Kat. The last three days we’d spent together had been amazing.

While each day I’d been allowed access to the studio to practice and prepare for tomorrow’s competition, and Kat had to train at the UCLA swimming facilities to keep in shape, we made the most out of our evenings going all around the city and taking in the sights. It was really the first uninterrupted time we’d had together, just the two of us, as a couple. And it had been amazing.

I wrapped my arm around Kat’s shoulders and she curled against me.

“This week has been amazing,” I told her.

She smiled and kissed my cheek. “It really has been. One day, we’ll be out of school, and it’ll be just this: the two of us, living our lives together.”

“I can’t wait,” I said.

“There,” Kat said, pulling out of my arm and pointing at security.

She started to jump up and down excitedly, waving her arms like a crazy person while I finally spotted our group coming through security. Although we’d originally just planned on Mrs. Phillips, Hanna, Lyla, and Seth joining us, I saw they’d also brought Tabitha, Warren, and, surprisingly enough, Cole among them.

“Cole!” I called out, surprised. “What are you doing here, man?”

Cole flashed me an easy smile as he approached. “Well, your family invited me to come along and sit in the family section with them. Thought it sounded like fun and figured I could support you too.”

“That’s awesome, really great to see you,” I said, before turning toward Warren. “And you too, I can’t believe you came. It’s Christmas Eve, shouldn’t you be with family?”

“We did all our Christmas stuff a day early. They understand - this is a big event for everyone professionally tied to you. If you make it through, we all make it through.”

“Well, tell them I appreciate their sacrificing you for the holiday. I promise I’ll do my best not to let anyone down.”

“I don’t doubt it for a second.”

“We are so proud of you, Charlie,” Mrs. Phillips said, pulling me into a hug. “And so thankful you invited us to share this moment with you.”

I returned her embrace. Having them all here was just the cap of an amazing weekend. While I wanted to win this competition more than anything, if this was where it ended, I’d still have these last few days, and I wouldn’t have traded them for anything.

“I wouldn’t want to do this without my family here.”

We went through and got their stuff from baggage claim and then caught an airport shuttle to their hotel. They were staying at a different place than us since the studio had actually put me up at a really nice hotel, but they were staying about a mile away.

I waited until we got settled into the van and started on the way to their hotel before I shared the other news I had. I’d held back from talking to Lyla and Seth about it yet because I hadn’t been sure how likely it was.

“So guys,” I said, turning around to the pair of them. “I have some big news. I talked to the producers yesterday and got permission for you two to be my backing band for the finale performance instead of the studio musicians they usually provide.”

Lyla’s face lit up. “Are you serious? We get to play on live TV with you?”

“Yep. It took a lot of convincing since the rules aren’t entirely clear about performers other than the contestants, but I managed to convince them it was no different than the performers they hired, and actually gave me more of a challenge, since I’d only get one practice with you two before the show. They finally agreed.”

“This is huge,” Seth said.

It was. While my success in the contest was always about finding a way for the whole band to make it, so far, I’d been the only one to see any benefit. I’d been on national TV, on the news, and getting recognized in restaurants while they were working for barely livable wages, just trying to make it through. While part of the reason I wanted them with me is because I just felt comfortable with them and we’d played this song so many times, I knew we had it down, I also wanted to give them their shot on TV as well.

“You guys have worked your butts off and you deserve this shot. I really didn’t want anyone else up there with me than you two.”

The rest of the trip to the hotel we talked through what tomorrow night was going to be like. Chef, Warren, and Mrs. Phillips just kind of gave each other looks, I guess having fun at the expense of the rest of our enthusiasm, although Tabitha, who was only a few years younger than Warren, was right there with us, chatting and excited. Lyla had really been a good influence on her, over the last year, getting her to loosen up, but ever since Thanksgiving, she’d been different. She’d been less standoffish, and more willing to be in the mix with us, actually having a good time.

The other thing I really noticed on the trip to the hotel is that Hanna and her mom seemed to be talking again. It was a good sign, but knowing both of them, I wasn’t sure how permanent of a change it was.

Once we were back in the hotel and the adults were getting checked into their rooms, I took Hanna by the arm and pulled her aside, away from the rest of the group.

“I just wanted to check in with you. I saw you and your mom seem to be getting along a bit better, or at least talking again. How are things going between you two?”

“Better,” she said with a smile. While it was still a lot less confident than it used to be, it was good to see her smile again, even in anxious discomfort. “I think my mom finally realized that she can’t control everything, and backed off. She knows I’m in love with Horace, and she’s accepted it. Now that we’re not fighting every time we see each other, we’re getting along again.”

Part of me just wanted to drop it and leave it at that. The Professor Cross issue would settle itself eventually, probably in a spectacular fashion. Unfortunately, that would also leave Hanna devastated. I couldn’t stop that from happening, but I could at least try one last time to keep her from being blindsided by it.

“Good, I’m glad to hear that,” I said, and then paused, almost chickening out. “You know it’s not the last of it, though, right? This is a truce at best. I don’t think she’s accepted your relationship with him, only decided she’d rather keep some level of relationship with you over burning all the bridges trying to protect you.”

Hanna gave me a look like she wanted to argue, but then sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “You’re probably right. But I can’t do anything about that. I’m not changing my mind and if she doesn’t change hers, that’s on her. For now, I’m just going to enjoy the peace while it lasts.”

The adults were all stepping away from the front desk, which meant it was time to head up to their rooms and plan out what we wanted to do for the night. I could see Mrs. Phillips giving me a look, which probably meant she knew what I was doing.

I gave her a small head shake to wave her off and said, “Okay. I just wanted to check. Let’s go upstairs and drop everything off, so we can all have a fun day out.”

“Sure,” she said, turning and rejoining everyone else.

I hung back a little bit, kicking myself. I really did want to try and help Hanna through this, but every time I got involved, my relationship with her seemed to get a little worse. I’d take that if it meant protecting her, but I wasn’t succeeding in that either.

This was going to end badly, and more than anything I wanted to make sure she still had some bridges to run to when it did, instead of letting her burn all of them behind her.

***

After a nice night on the town with my friends and family, and a wonderful Christmas morning, we were back on the studio lot. It seemed impossible that the finals were here, and tonight everything was going to be done, but the time had finally come. The other contestants looked to be just as nervous, excited, and overwhelmed as I was. At least this time I wasn’t alone. Lyla and Seth were standing with me, although they’d gotten more than a few odd looks from the other contestants, who no doubt were wondering who these two new people were.

And then the house lights went on, and the intro music started playing again, for the last time. For me, at least.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the finals of ‘The Stage’!” Dexter exclaimed as he walked out onto the stage, the spotlights picking him up. “We have seven incredibly talented contestants who have fought their way to this point, and tonight, we’ll find out who will be crowned the winner of this season. Are you all excited?”

The crowd went nuts. You had to hand it to the guy; he really did know how to work an audience.

“Good. Before we start, let’s meet our contestants. First up, we have Marissa, the country singer who’s been captivating audiences with her soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics.” Marissa walked out from backstage as her name was called and waved to the crowd.

They hadn’t covered it with me, but I already knew my name was going to be called last. They loved doing that. So I stood there, waiting as Clay Harris, the hip-hop singer and rapper, Arthur Hanson, who did mostly prog rock, Ada Rodriguez, who had real diva energy, Willa Baker, an amazing singer-songwriter with one of the purest voices I’d ever heard, and Neil Cooper, who was closest to me in style, doing mostly alt rock.

“Finally, Charlie Nelson,” he said. “Who has played so many genres this season it’s really impossible to say what his style is.”

I slapped Seth on the shoulder and walked out, giving a wave to the crowd and taking my place next to Neil. I tried to come off as confident and sure of myself as I could, even though my stomach was doing flips on the inside.

“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for our finalists!” Dexter said, gesturing to us as the crowd erupted in cheers. “They’re going to head backstage now and get ready for the first performance while I introduce you to your judges for the last time this season. Give a big round of applause to country superstar Dakota Rayne, industry legend and head of ARC Records, Hal Steiner, and rising producer extraordinaire Lexi Durant.”

We walked off stage as the judges started to get called, and the crowd gave each what seemed like a heartfelt applause, but I couldn’t see what happened. We were, naturally, up last, which meant it would be at least an hour and a half before we went on, so I took Lyla and Seth and found a good place where we could sit and watch the competition from the wings. We’d circled around just in time to see Dexter close out the intro and get the show started.

“Alright, folks, the time has come!” Dexter was saying as we found our spot. “Let the finals... begin!”

Marissa was up first, and she knocked it out of the park. She’d put together a medley of country songs from the last sixty years, blending one into another as she moved forward from real classic country all the way to the almost pop version of country that was currently popular. It seemed like a risk, not doing a single song where she could have a cohesive performance, but her vocals were really strong and it really showed her range. It might have been gimmicky, but the in-studio audience was what mattered tonight, since they’d be the ones voting on it, and they were on their feet before she was even halfway through her song. I had to give it to her; as just an exercise in songwriting and transitioning instrumental changes, it was very impressive. Again, the audience agreed since the applause she received when she finished was deafening. Marissa took a bow and blew a kiss to the audience before stepping forward to the judges.

The judges were generally impressed and gave her high marks. Dakota praised Marissa’s authentic country sound and was pleased that she could showcase its rich history. Hal called her a “shining star” with huge crossover appeal. The only one who had anything negative to say was Lexi, who echoed some of my thoughts, about it being a risk, since the medley limited her from doing a full song that might build to a satisfying climax. Lexi wasn’t all negative and did give her praise for how she pulled it off, though.

For the night’s first performance, it set the bar very high.

Up next was Clay Harris with his hip-hop/rap number. I’ll admit, I’m not the best judge of rap, but he seemed alright. The audience was clearly into it, so, like Marissa, he was doing something right. The thing Clay had going for him was how active his performance was. He practically owned the stage with a ton of swagger that really worked. The crowd was into him as much as it was his performance.

Neil was up next, and his song was probably the closest to mine of everything else that was going to be played that night. He did some solid riffs, although I could tell they were a little simplified from how they’d been played in the original song. The thing that hurt him was how much he strained to hit the higher notes. He just didn’t have the range needed to really carry a sweeping song. The judges again echoed my thoughts, each congratulating him on his showmanship, but telling him he needed to do more voice work to perfect his range.

Although I think it was a little too slow for this audience, who was much more sedate than they had been for the previous performances, I think Willa might have been my favorite for the night. Her voice was downright magical, especially the way she handled pitch changes. When she was done, Dakota called it “hauntingly beautiful,” and I had to agree. I didn’t think she had a shot to win, not with her song choice, but when she eventually found her niche, she was going to make a killing on touring. She really was an amazing talent.

The rest of the performers before me, Ada with her R&B diva style number and Arthur with his neo-prog rock, were good, but not to the level of Marissa or Willa. Ada’s just felt too paint-by-numbers, and I think Arthur went just a little too experimental for the audience. Where Marissa had tried something and at least mostly succeeded, Arthur’s attempt was going to backfire on him.

“You two about ready?” I asked Seth and Lyla as Arthur started to wrap up his song.

“Yeah. I’m nervous. Isn’t that weird?” Seth asked. “We’ve played to audiences way bigger than this, but I feel like I want to... I don’t know, run around screaming or go throw up or something.”

“It’s not weird. This is such big stakes for us, and those other performances weren’t televised to millions.”

“That didn’t help,” Seth said, grimacing as I reminded him of the number of people about to watch him perform.

“It’s just pre-show jitters. Once you’re on stage, a lot of that will go away. Like you said, you’ve done this a lot of times before, to a lot bigger audiences.”

“I hope so,” Seth said.

“You’re just freaking yourself out,” Lyla said. “Go run around or something, try to get your mind off it.”

When Seth didn’t start moving, Lyla started pushing him, trying to knock him out of his chair, to the point where a stagehand started to come over and tell us to cool it. While he was right, and we did, Lyla’s bullying worked. Seth was smiling and more relaxed after that. He’d just gotten in his head and had started to spiral.

Right about then, Arthur finished up and Dexter was back on stage, calling my name.

“Let’s welcome our final performer of the night, Charlie Nelson!”

I walked out on stage while Lyla and Seth went and changed spots with the session musicians who’d backed everyone else. After all the people Arthur had on stage, it actually looked a little bare behind me. I checked to make sure they were set up and positioned myself in front of the mic and was ready to go when something unexpected happened.

Instead of the house lights going back down, Dakota asked, “Charlie, we wanted to ask you about your decision to perform with your own band tonight instead of our studio musicians.”

I was caught off guard that they were addressing me first, before I performed, since that was something they’d never done before. I didn’t know if that kind of extra attention helped or not, but more time on stage and more background on me personally seemed like something that could only be positive. Honestly, it almost felt like they were tipping the scales in my favor.

Not that I could just ignore them and start playing.

“Well, my band was already here for the holidays. They’re incredibly talented musicians in their own right, and, if I had the choice, there’s no one else I’d rather perform with.”

“We also noticed you have another former contestant, Cole Lawson, in your friends and family section,” Lexi added. “That’s quite unusual during a finale.”

The screen behind me switched to a camera pointed right at Cole, with Kat and Chef on either side of him.

“Cole and I became good friends through this competition. Even after he got eliminated, he was totally supportive of me making it this far. He wanted to come out and support me tonight, which shows the kind of guy he is.”

Dexter raised his eyebrows and said, “Well, how about that. Alright Charlie, we’ll turn the stage over to you now. Okay, show us what you’ve got.”

The lights went down and I looked back at Lyla, giving her a nod, cueing her to start. We’d changed the song up so that it started with a bass line instead of a guitar intro, which seemed to fit the mood of the song better. What had been a slow riff when I’d had it on guitar now came off melancholic when dropped into the range of a bass. Then I joined in, echoing what she was playing.

Just as Seth joined with a simple brushed rhythm and we started to pick up the tempo, I leaned into the microphone and started singing, “Mom’s stories, whispers at night...”

I kept my range low and somber. The first two verses were supposed to be sad, almost wistful, as we built toward the first chorus. When it hit, the energy shifted. Seth’s drums became more pronounced as the melody took on a grittier, bluesy tone.

“Shadows and chains, reminders of you...” I belted, pouring my heart into each word.

As the bridge approached, it softened once more. This was the contemplative turning point, where I tried to reconcile my parents’ legacy.

“The past can’t be changed, questions I’ll never understand...” I sang softly.

The cycle repeated and built even further through verse three and into the chorus, and crescendoed in verse four, which was all about letting go of the past; making peace with it.

Then Lyla and Seth fell away and it was just my guitar through half of the outro, which also fell off, leaving the last part of the song vocals only.

“The anger and the pain, fall away like ashes and sand. Ashes and sand. Ashes and sand. It’s all just ashes and sand.”

When I’d started writing it, I was in a very different place than I was now, but I could still feel all of those emotions as I played it. Could still feel how lost I’d been, trying to come to terms with what had happened.

Maybe because it ended on just vocals, and a lot softer than the rest of the song, but for a beat, the audience didn’t do anything. It was dead silent. And then they were on their feet, applauding wildly. I stepped back, feeling like my heart was going a mile a minute.

“Charlie, that was incredible,” Dakota said as soon as the audience died down. “The emotion and power you put into that was amazing. You should be very proud.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Hal said. “This is what music is at its best. It tells us something about the songwriter and performer. It lets us feel the emotions they feel. You have a unique gift, Charlie.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That song came from a difficult time, and I wrote it to try and help give me some kind of closure. I wanted other people to listen to it when they’re feeling conflicted, to help them through it as well. At least, that’s what I hoped it conveyed.”

“Oh, it did, Charlie,” Lexi said. “I know this is a performance competition, so we focus on stage presence and presentation, but as the only performer doing his own music, you’ve really shown us you have what it takes to make it in this industry, long-term. What you’ve accomplished at your young age is remarkable.”

“An amazing finale to what I think is our best season ever,” Dexter said, coming around from the judges’ table. “Audience, you can now cast your votes. While they do that, let’s get all of our performers out here.”

We’d covered this in the rehearsals and I stepped back into my mark as the rest of the contestants came back on stage. Everyone looked nervous and we all held hands with the person on either side of us. Other than Willa whispering something to Arthur, we were all dead silent for the five minutes the audience had to cast their vote. We just stood there, awkwardly, as the people in front of us decided our fate.

Finally, Dexter cocked his head, probably hearing a producer in his ear, and said, “Alright folks, the moment you’ve all been waiting for is here. The votes are in and it’s time to crown the winner of this season of The Stage!”

The crowd roared in response.

He turned to us and said, “First, I want to say congratulations to all of you. The talent we’ve seen this season has just blown me and the rest of the judges away. Each and every one of you should be extremely proud of what you’ve accomplished.”

He paused dramatically to let that set in.

“Now, without further ado, it’s time to announce our winners. In third place, making it all the way to the finale with her breathtaking voice and heartfelt lyrics... Willa Baker!”

Willa’s eyes widened in surprise as the crowd cheered. Dexter gave her a quick hug as she stepped forward. She looked somewhere between completely shocked and genuinely thrilled.

“In second place, just a powerhouse of a performer, showing all of us the real beauty and power of country music with her amazing vocals and magnetic stage presence... Marissa Adams!” Dexter continued.

Marissa pumped her fist, mouthing “Yes!” as she moved to stand by Willa.

I’d won. I tried to keep my face as passive as possible, to not look triumphant or like I expected it, but Willa and Marissa were my biggest challenges and had put on the best performances of the night.

“Alright, here we go. The winner of The Stage, who will receive a recording contract with Gold Label Records and a cash prize of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is...”

He paused dramatically, holding the silence for what felt like an eternity before finally shouting, “Charlie Nelson!”

Even though, in my head, I knew I’d won, I still froze in shock and disbelief hearing my name called. Knowing it was going to happen and having it happen officially were very different. The rest of the contestants crowded around me, offering congratulations and pats on the back. But it all seemed to be happening in slow motion. I couldn’t process that I had actually won.

Dexter made his way over and I numbly allowed him to raise my hand in the air in victory. Confetti rained down and the blinding stage lights flashed over the celebrating crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen, your winner of The Stage... Charlie Nelson!” Dexter proclaimed again.

As I looked out into the cheering audience, I saw my friends and family on their feet. I saw Kat, tears streaming down her face, clapping so hard I thought she might hurt herself, giving me a look of pure joy and love. I was overcome with emotion and had to choke back the tears.

I’d done it. I’d won.