She studied me carefully for a second. “It won’t make a difference. You don’t have the power I have.”
“Well,” I sighed. “I guess you’ll never know.”
We glared at each other for a whole moment. I waited patiently. Finally, she cracked. “What’s the deal?”
Here’s where I found out how crazy she actually was. “Duet,” I snarled, holding her gaze. “The Boy Is Mine. I’ll do Brandy, you do Monica. If you win, I promise to never come into this bar ever again. But if I win…”
I took a breath, composing myself. You never got used to people’s scorn when they realized how insane you actually were.
I swallowed. “If I win, you take me and my friends through a portal to the mermaid realm.”
There was a long, long moment of silence, while Hyacinth and I stared at each other. I cringed a little bit. God, this was embarrassing.
Finally, her cherry-colored lip curled. “I wondered what those sexy Fae bastards in the corner were up to. You’redoing this for them, aren’t you? They want you to get them into my home realm, don’t they?”
I relaxed slightly. Hyacinth was playing along. “Maybe.”
She looked away, suddenly uncertain. “The portals to the mer realm are supposed to stay secret. Security reasons, y’know?”
“Oh, yes, I know,” I nodded, as if I understood. A bubble of slightly hysterical laughter escaped my lips.
Luckily, Hyacinth was still thinking. She chewed on her lip for a while. “It’s not like you’re actually going to beat me, anyway...”
“I might. You never know.”
Her eyes flashed. “I do.”
“You’ve got nothing to be afraid of, then.”
Her jaw hardened. “Fine. You’ve got a deal. Whoever is first to get to Superstar level on the Applause-o-meter wins.”
I grinned, and held out my hand, and shook hers firmly. “Deal.” I turned and walked towards the bar. “Banoy? Change of plans. Queue up number four-oh-nine-five and reset the Applause-o-meter to two-player mode.
“Yasss, girl!” Banoy did a little shimmy of delight and tapped on the monitor behind the bar. “It’s battle time!”
Gary’s song had finally come to an end. I climbed on stage, gave him a pat on his very sweaty back, and plucked the microphone out of his hands.
Hyacinth, thrusting out her chest, joined me on the stage, stomped to the center of the tiny space, and jabbed me in the ribs with an elbow at the same time. “Move over, bitch,” she hissed.
I grimaced and conceded a couple of inches, my stomach sinking. I should have thought this through more thoroughly. I knew I was a better singer than Hyacinth, butshe always seemed to get the highest scores on the Applause-o-meter. Damn mermaid magic.
Doubt nudged me. Maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was.
If I lost, I wouldn’t be able to come back again. I’d lose my creative outlet, my way to blow off steam. I needed this seedy underground dive bar. It was my dirty secret. Nobody I knew would ever come in here. And there was nothing else like this in a twenty-block radius.
Damn it. Well, it was too late now. I was going to do this like I did everything. Once-hundred-percent effort, play to win.
The song started; both of us began to sing the intro. Breathy voices, soft vibrato. Hyacinth swayed next to me, batting her eyelashes at Timothy and Jackie, our only audience.
Hyacinth sang the first line; I took the second, then, it was her turn again. She rolled her hips seductively as she sang. Timothy winked at her and let out a hoot.
The needle on her side of the Applause-o-meter crept up.
I sang again, putting a little more emotion into my performance. Jackie hollered appreciatively, but it wasn’t enough to move my needle past Hyacinth’s. She butted me aside with her hips and sang again; both Jackie and Timothy hooted. Her needle moved up again.
An idea hit me. Whoever got to Superstar first won. That meant whoever got the audience to make the most noise while they were singing would win our bet.
All I had to do was get Timothy and Jackie to scream.
