Part 449

Out in the arena, the introduction had been made and the band began to play. Behind the VIP seats where Nick and the others were sitting, girls began to talk.

"Sweet D’s Angel? Who the fuck is THAT?"

"I think she’s the wife of a Backstreet Boy."

"What’s she gonna do, fly in with wings and a halo?"

"Oh goody…another wanna-be riding on the coat tails of their more famous and talented better half."

Sarah was on stage now and there was a low rumbling of disinterest spreading through the arena. Each one of the three guys and the girlfriends looked at each other praying that things would get better.

"This is an ‘Nsync show…not a Backstreet show. She needs to get off the stage."

Nick started to turn around but Becca stopped him. In fact, she stopped all three of them. "Don’t guys. Sarah’s got to win them on her own and she CAN do it."

Onstage, Sarah was losing it. Tears stung her eyes and she wanted to walk off. It was her nightmare coming true except there weren’t any rotten vegetables being thrown…yet. She looked helplessly at Howie who was watching and he gave her the ‘thumbs up’. At least he had faith in her.

Over her earpiece, she heard Kevin. "Don’t give in, baby. You’re doing fine."

First song done and the music for the next song started, the crowd was still mumbling it’s disinterest but slowly, one by one, the audience was starting to take notice. The next song was upbeat and she was all over the stage working the crowd. This was it. Sarah realized that she was getting through and she pushed harder. By the end of the song, she had half of the arena on their feet with her rocking. She didn’t want to lose her momentum so she went to ‘Mook’ and quickly changed the order of the songs so that the next one was even faster. It was the right move and she had the entire arena rocking by the end of it.

The rest of the show was awesome and AJ, Nick, and Brian turned to smile smugly at the girls behind them. They missed it though because they were dancing in the aisles as Sarah went on with more upbeat songs.

Her set over, Sarah sailed off the stage and into Howie’s waiting arms spinning her as they kissed.

"I told you, Angel," laughed Howie. "You were perfect and you handled the crowd and the change like a pro."

"I had an excellent teacher! Thank you for having faith in me."

There were congratulatory hugs all around as first the band and dancers made their way off and then their friends joined them. Sarah was floating on Cloud 9 and Howie was glowing with pride. She had proven without a doubt that she was here to stay in the music scene and was a force to be reckoned with.

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