Chapter 3

"Are you ready to party?"

Several hundred voices answered Tami, though I didn't have a clue what they said.

"Just a couple things before we start. This concert is sponsored by the Junior Class Prom Committee. We're planning to raise more money for the prom this year than ever before."

Cheers. Mostly from the students, but some of the grown-ups joined in.

"You may know that last year, we had one of the best proms ever, and it didn't cost hardly anything. We figure if we can raise lots of money, and then pull off another cheap prom, then the organizing committee can have their final meeting in Jamaica."

A few boos. "And just who might be on the committee," Ricky Calloway yelled from the audience.

"Well, Tony Sims, and Robbie Tate." Tami turned to walk off the stage, then turned back to the audience. "And me."

"You better spend the money on the prom," someone yelled. "Jamaica would never survive."

"Sending Tony and Monster Girl is probably an act of war," someone else added.

It went downhill from there.

Traci was singing Stupid Cupid, a song that Mandy Moore did for a movie I couldn't remember off the top of my head, though I thought Connie Francis did it better back in the fifties. And Jordon McCoy on American Juniors beat them both. With Traci, all three of them had competition.

I was looking out the wings at the audience and mentally counting the cash. At three dollars a head for students and five for adults, the Back-to-School concert was racking it in for the Junior Class Prom Committee. I figured a thousand bucks easy, not counting concessions.

One of Robbie's better ideas.

Chad Davis started out. He'd turned the song's original eight-bar opening into a guitar solo that lasted about a minute-and-a-half. Not that he was the center of attention. On the partially darkened stage, I brought out a stool and set it in the center. Then Robbie walked out slowly and sat down. As Chad was finishing, a single light blue spot lit her face.

"Look at what's happening to me,
I can't believe it myself.
Suddenly I'm up on top of the world,
It should have been somebody else."

Additional spots lit Chad along with Sally and Toby Reyes, while Robbie's spot widened to take in her whole body.

"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me."

Robbie got off her stool, walked to the edge and sat down, her feet dangling. The spot followed her.

"It's like the light of a new day,
It hit me from out of the blue.
Breaking me out of the spell I was in,
Making all of my wishes come true."

I wondered if any of the kids out there knew this was the theme from a forgettable super-hero show from the seventies.

"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me.

This is too good to be true,
Look at me, falling for you."

Was it my imagination or did Robbie glace my way as she sang that?

Then Traci walked out by the stool and cut loose on her sax for almost a minute. Sometimes I couldn't believe just how good the brat could be.

"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me."

Robbie sat there as Chad and the Reyes brought the music to an end. The applause was deafening. Robbie grinned and waved at the audience, then the spots died and she disappeared into the darkness.