Can't Stop the Shine (9 page)

The Lord must have been listening, because she got what she asked for. In walked her sister with Colby and Shauntae. Kalia tried to hide behind a column, but Shauntae spotted her immediately and ran over.

“Girl, I'm so excited for you!” she screamed. “If you win you're going to blow up!”

“What do you mean ‘if'?” asked Mari. “She
is
going to win. Okay?”

“Yeah. Good luck, Kalia. I hope you win,” said Colby.

“She doesn't need luck,” insisted Mari. “She's got talent, and that's all she needs.”

“What are y'all nuts doing here?” asked Kalia.

“We came to, uh, give you some support,” said Shauntae, looking at a well-built young man standing nearby.

“I see,” said Kalia, eyeing Shauntae.

“No, for real,” said Colby. “We came to be in your corner. We can be your cheering section.”

Kalia's cell phone beeped, and after she spent way too long trying to check her messages, Mari snatched it from her.

“You've got a text message, silly,” she told her sister, punching buttons on the phone. “It's from Dewayne. Wanna see?”

Kalia peered at the phone. “Aw, he's wishing me good luck. That's great.”

“See, Kalia. Just relax. We all know you got this,” said Mari.

“Well, thanks for coming, but I really gotta get my head together. Look at all these people here,” Kalia said, looking around.

“Don't think about them,” said Mari. “It looks like it's going to be a long wait, so we're going to keep you company.”

“Ooh, girl, do you think we're gonna see that fine Sean? I haven't talked to him since we hung out at Lenox. We had a good-ass time, too, and he bought me something to eat.”

“What? A slice of pizza?” asked Mari, joining many of the other contestants sitting on the floor.

“No. Well yes. California Pizza Kitchen. It was pizza, but it was more than a slice,” protested Shauntae.

“Umm, hmm,” said Mari, watching Kalia, who was off in a corner humming to herself.

They sat on the floor for at least half an hour before the first singer was called. A tall, shapely young woman, wearing the short and tight outfit of a video girl, stepped from behind a red suede door and called one name after another. In the next hour they saw all ranges of emotions. Singers tripped in nervous and came out with big smiles on their faces. Others strutted in with the confidence of experienced performers, only to be wiping tears away when they came out twenty minutes later. Some just sauntered away like auditioning was something they did every day. When Kalia's name was called, she just froze—like a deer caught in headlights. Mari, Shauntae and Colby had to walk her to the door, all the while whispering to her that she was the best singer in the place.

It was going to take more than her sister to convince her of that, Kalia thought as she followed the video girl down a long hall lined with encased silver plaques touting the gold and multiplatinum successes of Fire Records. When they arrived at their destination, the video girl opened an oversized blue suede door and motioned for her to go through.

As Kalia entered the massive room, the spotlights directed at her gave her pause. It took her a minute to get adjusted, then she saw a microphone in front of her and instinctively stepped forward.

“Hello, Kaaah-liii-aaaah,” a voice boomed from some direction she couldn't quite ascertain.

“Hi,” she squeaked out.

“Are you ready? Are you warmed up?”

Kalia was now able to make out three shapes of who she figured were a panel of judges in a glass-enclosed booth about a hundred feet away. When she saw the edge of the stage she was on, her hands started sweating. It would be just her luck to fall off.

“Miss Jefferson? Are you ready?” the voice asked again.

“Oh yes,” said Kalia, snapping back to reality.
Pay attention,
she said to herself.
This is it. Don't blow it.
“Yes,” she said again in a much stronger voice. “I'm definitely ready.”

“Okay, great,” said a woman's voice this time. “So, Kalia, have you got that fire?”

“Absolutely,” she said, grabbing the base of the mic to steel her nervousness. Her sweaty hands slipped up and down the stand.

“Tell us why you think you've got that fire,” said yet a third voice.

Unprepared for an interview, Kalia was happy she was quick on her feet and that one of the few TV shows she'd allowed herself to get addicted to in the past year was
American Idol.

“I know that I've got a gift that should be shared with the world,” she started, letting go of the mic. “I've been singing and playing the piano since I was five years old, and I've known since then that being a creator—a performer—is all that I've ever wanted to do. I'm a talented person, and I want to use my gifts to make people feel something—happiness, sadness, some kind of emotion. I know I can do it, and when I finish you'll know it, too.”

“Well, all righty then, Kalia,” said the woman. “What are you going to sing for us today?”

“I'm going to do ‘A Woman's Worth' by Alicia Keys.”

She jumped when all of the sudden she heard the first few chords of the song coming from a piano not thirty feet from her. She hadn't even noticed the person sitting at the piano.

“Start when you're ready, Kalia,” said the third person's voice. “Dennis will come right in.”

Kalia closed her eyes, flexed her hands and thought three words—
Help me, Lord.
She then gave it up. Zoned out. Became one with her talent. When she opened her mouth, it was like she was singing in one of the practice studios at Williams. She didn't open her eyes until she got to the chorus, but by that time she was into it. She was handling every note like she'd been born to sing that song and that song only. Rocking and rolling with it, she had to place her hands on her hips then stretch them toward the sky to get all of the notes. She enjoyed this performance, and she nailed it. Instead of bellowing out an
American Idol
ending, she tapered off to a delicate, beautiful finish. She stepped back from the mic, spent.

“Thank you, Kalia,” boomed the first voice. “Good luck.”

 

Meanwhile, back in the lobby, just as Kalia had disappeared behind the red suede door with the video girl, Asha walked into Fire Records' lobby. She was stunning in a nearly sheer multilayered fire-engine red top and hip-huggers. The cropped jeans showed off some bloodred eel-skinned stiletto boots. Asha's hair was purposely tousled, and a huge red flower was affixed to the right side. Red lips, red dangly earrings, a million silver bracelets and black face-masking sunshades all gave Asha a star appearance. As she made her entrance, people moved aside like she was Moses parting the Red Sea.

“Look at her,” Mari said, huffing.

“Who's that? I dig those boots,” said Shauntae.

“This girl from my school.”

“She's in high school?” asked Colby.

“Umm, hmm, and she can sing, too,” said Mari.

“Well, she certainly looks like she can do something,” said Shauntae.

“She ain't no competition for my sister,” said Mari.

“Says who?” interrupted a male voice.

Mari, Colby and Shauntae looked up to see Sean standing above them. Shauntae jumped up.

“Heeeey, Sean. I was hoping I'd see you,” she said.

“Well, here I be. What's up, ladies?” said Sean, then turned to Mari. “I guess you're here to support your sister?”

“Yep. She's in there right now, probably blowing the house down,” said Mari.

“Well, I hope so 'cause there sure is some competition up in here,” he said.

“So I guess it's too busy to get that tour today, huh, Sean?” said Shauntae.

“Well, yeah, it is kinda tight today, and I already promised someone a private tour today,” he said, turning to Colby, holding out his hand to her. “We can go right now, if you want to.”

“When did y'all talk?” demanded Shauntae.

“When we went to the movies last weekend,” he said, pulling a smiling Colby up by both hands. “How are you, Miss Gresham?”

“Lovely, Mr. Turner,” said Colby, holding Sean's hand.

“She can't even date yet,” said Shauntae. “Her grandparents won't let her go anywhere.”

“Why do you care?” said Colby. “We went out, and that's that.”

“Humph. Whatever,” said Shauntae, sitting back down.

“Did you know about them, Mari?” asked Shauntae.

“Uh…well, yes.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“'Cause Colby asked me not to. Besides, I wasn't paying either of you too much attention last week. I was studying ridiculously hard for my midterms—which I did fabulous on, might I add.”

“You are such a nerd. And Colby, that backstabbing trick…I can't believe she stole my man,” said Shauntae, getting loud.

“You're trippin', Shauntae. Stop hatin'. Sean wasn't your man, and anyway, if I'm a nerd and Colby's a trick, why do you hang out with us?”

“Just shut up, Mari,” said Shauntae, rising to her feet. “Shut your ass up,” she screamed and raced to the exit door.

 

It was 11:45 a.m., and all of Williams High was scheming about how to be near a radio in fifteen minutes. Today Hot 103.5 was set to announce the top twenty contestants who made the cut. Kalia was sitting in her Spanish 3 class hoping she could get out early. She had a plan. She was going to her car and get the news by herself, that way if she wasn't chosen, she could just drive off into oblivion. The 11:50 bell rang, and she flew down the hall and up the stairs to her car. She'd just punched Hot 103.5 when Dewayne popped into the passenger side.

“Damn! If I'd just locked my door,” she said.

“See what happens when you don't listen to me?” he said.

“How did you know I was going to be here?”

“Uh…how long have I known you?”

Kalia rolled her eyes and turned up the radio.

“Are you nervous?”

“What do you think, fool?” she asked, punching Dewayne in the arm.

“Don't abuse the Chosen One,” he said. “I may have to throw some of my superpowers on you.”

“Like what? You're going to…shh shh shh, it's coming on,” she said, gripping the sides of her seat.

They heard the familiar Who's Got That Fire? song that had been playing for weeks every time Hot 103.5 was going to make an announcement about the contest. Usually Kalia would sing along, but today she had cotton mouth.

Kalia threw her head back and hands up. She could care less about this JD, but she didn't speak a word in case he said her name. When Dewayne opened his mouth to speak, she pinched his arm so hard that his lips snapped shut.

As JD shouted out everyone from his barber to his grandmama, Kalia rocked her head back and forth against her seat in agony. Dewayne chuckled at his impatient friend.

Kalia thought she would die. Why didn't they just read the names and stop torturing her? If she ever met JD or that silly Cool Mike, she was going to clock them both. Dewayne looked at the frustration on Kalia's face and held her hand tight.

 

“So you've got the list, man? The list of the top 20?”

“I got it right here, dog.”

“Okay…drum roll please…”

In her haze, Kalia thought she heard a phone ringing. After a few jingles, she realized it was her cell phone.
I really need to use my phone more,
she thought, fumbling around in her bag for it.

“Hello,” she said, still dazed.

“CONGRATULATIONS,” screamed Mari from the other end. “We're gonna be rich.”

“Thanks, Mari.” Kalia couldn't help but grin.

“So how do you feel? What was it like to hear your name on the radio? Aren't you excited?”

“It was just unbelievable,” said Kalia, leaning back in her car seat. “I just don't know how to feel. I'm really happy.”

“Me, too. Where were you when you heard? Let me tell you where I was,” bubbled Mari. “No, this is your moment. You tell me. Where were you? Where are you now?”

“I'm still in the car. That's where I heard it. Me and Dewayne,” said Kalia, looking at Dewayne, who was doing a celebratory dance next to her.

“Dewayne is there? Hit that fool in the head for me. Anyway, I'm so excited for you. This is so tight. So, what's next? What do we do now?”

“Well, right now I've got to go to class.”

“What? You're going to class? You need to be celebrating.”

“One of the requirements for participating in the contest is to maintain a B average, so that's why I'm going to class.”

“Don't worry, Mari,” yelled Dewayne. “I'll make sure she does some kind of celebrating.”

Kalia looked at Dewayne quizzically.

“Look, Kalia, I gotta jet,” said Mari. “I really do have to go to class. I took a bathroom break from chemistry class and ran to the computer room to hear it on the Internet, so I really gotta get back. I'll catch up with you at home. Lata.”

 

Mari walked into the house one evening after a late cross-country practice and found Kalia slumped over on the piano. She just stared at her sister for a while in total admiration. For the last few weeks, Kalia had been in near hibernation, practicing so diligently for the upcoming Fire competition in December that she disappeared off the scene. Mari could hardly catch her between school and vocal practice—she was hemmed up in both. She walked over and looked a little closer at Kalia. She saw that her sister was tired. She looked exhausted. There were bags under her eyes and her trademark flip had flopped.

Mari couldn't believe it. Had she not witnessed Kalia furiously burning the candle at both ends, she would have taken the opportunity to wake her sister and clown her mercilessly about her appearance. Instead she gently woke Kalia who seemed too drugged with sleepiness to even care who Mari was. After helping her up to bed, Mari sat in a chair in Kalia's room and watched her sleep for a bit, then all of the sudden, she got it. Kalia needed a break. Yeah, she needed sleep first, but after that, she needed to kick it.

The timing was perfect, too, Mari thought as she hopped in the shower. It was homecoming. Kalia had never really been into sports, so all of the hoopla surrounding the event usually didn't affect her, but this year, Mari knew she could get her sister hype about the festivities because Fire Records was producing a big halftime show during Clark Atlanta University's game. Plus, the fact that Williams's homecoming was the same weekend as Clark Atlanta's should intensify her interest in all things homecoming related.

Mari couldn't wait to put her plan into action. She barely got her clothes on before she was on the phone with Dewayne, plotting to get her sister to not only the game, but the parties, too.

“It'll be cool,” said Mari. “We'll just tell her that we heard through the grapevine that the other Fire contestants were going to be hanging out at the games this weekend, and she'll definitely want to go.”

“That's the only way you're going to get her to go,” agreed Dewayne. “I can barely get her to call me back or speak to me in school, she's so busy. You know she gave up one of the leads in chorale because of Fire?”

“Yeah, she told me,” said Mari. “She also said that she's thinking about not trying out for the spring musical this year either because auditions are in the fall. Kalia has been in her school's musical since ninth grade. She's all about Fire.”

“I know what you mean. She's always running from class to the practice studios, sipping on hot water with lemon and honey. She's so theatrical.”

“What she is is serious,” said Mari. “I came home tonight to find her asleep at the piano. Head down and everything.”

“For real? Yeah, I guess it's time to take some action.”

“She's not going to listen to me either. She thinks all I wanna do is party anyway.”

“Well that's true, ain't it?”

“Shut up.”

“You must not want me to help you talking to me like that,” Dewayne threatened.

Silence.

“All right, all right,” Mari said. “Look, I just need some backup, okay?”

“I got you, hot lips.”

“Don't push it.”

Mari didn't need much help at all. As soon as Kalia found out about Fire's involvement in Clark Atlanta's homecoming, she was primed and ready. She even decided she'd go to Williams High's homecoming to get herself prepared for Clark Atlanta's. Mari was so amped that her sister was finally showing an interest in Williams High activities besides school and vocal practice that she stayed up under Kalia. They spent the week before the homecomings combing the malls looking for something to wear to both games and Williams's party.

On homecoming Friday, Kalia, Mari, Shauntae and Colby all piled into the Camry and headed to the Williams game. When they arrived, Kalia met up with Dewayne, and they split off from Mari and her crew. The plan was to meet up later at the homecoming party in the gym.

It was an unusually warm early November in Atlanta, nearly eighty degrees, so Kalia was right on time in her cut-up Billie Holiday T-shirt (sliced by Mari), low-rider stretch bronze jeans and chocolate-brown stacked boots. After Mari teased up her normally conservative flip, threw some bronze sparkle on her face and shoulders and slid bronze gloss across her lips, Kalia's transition was complete. She was a little nervous about her new look until she got out of the car at the stadium and was treated like a hottie by several of her male classmates.

“Dang, girl,” said Dewayne. “You've got these dogs around here dragging their tongues on the ground. What's up with the getup?”

“Just trying a little something new,” she said, fluffing her hair. “Whadya think?”

“Well, it's sure a different you,” said Dewayne, looking her up and down. “I've never seen you in anything tight before. I didn't even know you had all that.”

“All what?”

“All that back there.”

“You keep your eyes away from my back there,” said Kalia, putting her hands on her behind.

“Girl, you can't wear second-skin glowing pants and think that a man ain't gonna look,” said Dewayne, looking around at the men ogling his friend. “I'm gonna have to be your bodyguard tonight.”

“Come on, fool. Let's go.”

The next day for the Clark Atlanta game, Kalia had on another funky outfit. This time Mari had her in some psychedelic low-waisted jeans and a fuchsia baby T that read Play in metallic silver on the front and At Your Own Risk on the back. The boots were black and stacked. The makeup was shimmering and sexy.

“I guess the Chosen One is gonna have to escort you again tonight,” said Dewayne when Kalia answered the door, looking like she'd stepped off the cover of
Vibe
magazine.

“You dig?” she asked, spinning around.

“I do,” he said with a wink and a smile.

“All right, so let's be out,” she said, bopping down the front steps and throwing over her shoulder, “Ladies, the car's leaving in thirty seconds with or without y'all in it.”

Everybody was squeezed in the car, and they were just about to back out of the driveway when Elaine came running out the front door, yelling for them to wait.

“Damn. We almost got away clean,” said Shauntae.

Kalia tried to avert her shimmering face as her mother closed in on the car.

“Ladies, ladies, ladies—and gentleman,” she said, peering into the car, “where are we off to today? I thought homecoming was last night.”

“It was, Ma,” said Kalia, “but Clark Atlanta's is today.”

“Ooh…so you guys are going to a college game? And that's it, right? No college parties for anybody because none of you are in college.”

“Yes, ma'am,” said everyone in the car.

“Oh, Ma, there's another like post-homecoming party that this guy from Williams High is having tonight. Can we go to that?” asked Kalia.

“Whose party is it?” said Elaine, looking closely at Kalia, who was fumbling in her purse for anything that would keep her from looking directly at her mother. “And where is it?”

“It's just this guy's party we heard about, but I can call you later and tell you where it is,” said Mari.

“Do that,” advised Elaine. “Kalia, what is that on you face? And what have you done to your hair?”

“I'm just trying out some new styles for the Fire contest,” said Kalia, fingering her spiral-curled style.

“Okay, young lady. Just remember that. You're a young lady, not a grown woman.”

“Oh my God.” Shauntae moaned.

“Did you say something, Miss Washington?” asked Elaine, staring into the back of the car.

“No, ma'am,” eked out Shauntae. “I just had something caught in my throat.”

“Umm, hmm,” said Elaine, moving away from the car and walking toward the house. “You kids have a good time. Be safe.”

Backing out of the driveway, Kalia was too excited. She'd had to beat the guys off her at the Williams party, and now she was going to try her new look out on some college men. Much to everybody's surprise, she cranked up the crunk on Hot 103.5 and rolled out.

 

Mari, Shauntae and Colby were nowhere to be found.

“I don't know where they are, but I know they better show up soon,” said Kalia. “We told them we'd meet them at Applebee's. That's where they said they were walking to.”

“I told you we should have stayed with them,” said Dewayne.

“Your self-righteousness is not doing me any good right now.”

“Touchy-touchy. Look, let's just find them, okay?”

“That's what I'm trying to do, Dewayne,” said Kalia, slamming her hand against the car door.

Neither said anything for a few minutes.

“Okay, let's think about it,” said Kalia. “Where could they be? It's almost nine o'clock.”

“Maybe they went somewhere with those dudes they were talking to.”

“They better not have. They don't know those guys.”

“Well, they did seem to be trying to get all of the information about that party they were talking about.”

“What party?” said Kalia, looking intently at Dewayne.

“Oh, that's right, Miss Hottie, you wouldn't know. You were so caught up in that Phat Farm dude.”

“Okay, he was fine, so what? You jealous?”

“Naw, that's not it,” said Dewayne, looking out the passenger window to hide his hurt. “I'm just saying, he was like a junior in college, probably twenty-one, right?”

“I don't know, I guess. Look, what are you getting at, Dewayne? What does this have to do with finding Mari?”

“Nothing. Maybe they went to that party. They sure weren't going to a Williams's party tonight. They had that look in their eyes.”

“Well, where is this party? Did you hear where it was?”

“Somewhere near the campus. I heard one of those dudes say it was off MLK. Some place called Atlanta Live or something like that. It can't be too far from the stadium 'cause I heard Shauntae tell Mari that she'd been before and that they could walk right over there.”

“Okay, well let's find it.”

An hour later after asking a bunch of college students about the club and standing in line for another half an hour, Dewayne and Kalia walked into Atlanta Live, which was literally underground. They paid ten dollars apiece and had blue bands affixed to their wrists, proving they were underage.

“I don't know how we're going to find them in here,” said Kalia, looking back over her shoulder at Dewayne, who was squeezing between two beefy guys with huge beers in their hands.

“What?” said Dewayne, surveying the crowd of scantily clad women and hip-hop dressed guys. He was having a hard time hearing Kalia over the thumping baseline of T.I.'s latest hit.

Kalia stopped to wait for Dewayne, but the crowd kept pushing her and she found herself in the middle of the dance floor, which she noticed was bare concrete. She looked desperately for Dewayne, and everyone around was throwing their hands up to the beat. Suddenly she thought she saw the back of Colby's head. Making her way through the crowd toward the deejay booth in the front, she realized it was Colby. She'd almost made it to her when the deejay went old-school and so did the crowd.