Three hours later, Ororo followed Remy and Rogue to one of the jeeps.
“So where are we going?” Ororo asked, nodding her thanks to Remy who opened her door for her as she got in the back.
“I’m not sure, sugah. I’m in the dark just like ya are. The swamp rat won’t tell me,” Rogue replied as they watched Remy walk to the driver side and hop in.
“Remy,” Ororo began.
“No questions, ‘chere. Just enjoy the ride,” he replied, smiling charmingly at her through the rear view mirror.
“Ya neither, belle,” Remy said quickly, cutting Rogue off before she could even speak.
Though not liking being kept in the dark, both women trusted the Cajun casanova and decided to drop it after exchanging a look.
Twenty minutes later, Remy pulled up in front of a box building with the name Club Mic illuminated on the marquee complete with the picture of a microphone bursting through the ‘c’.
“The Karaoke restaurant?” Rogue asked, looking at Remy as he smiled mischievously as he exited the car and opened Ororo’s door.
Karaoke? she thought, as she walked toward the front of the car.
“Remy,” she began as he ushered both women toward the door.
“Come ‘cheres. Yo table awaits!” he said, holding the door for them as they entered.
“Do you,” Ororo began and Rogue shook her head.
“I have no idea, sugah,” she replied as Remy lead them pass the hostess stand and found members of the Alpha and Omega Team seated at a long table, with the Alpha team on one end and Omega on the other. Surprisingly, Anna was there as well, looking at her sister with a wide smile. She wasn’t ready to join the team but she seemed to be close to making a choice.
The only person missing was Logan.
“He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” Ororo asked and got nods and laughter in response.
She turned and looked up into the smiling face of her beau.
“What are you guys up too?” she asked, as he wrapped her in a hug and kissed her lips.
“We’ll explain in a bit. Don’t want to spoil the surprise,” he replied, guiding her to her seat, next to Remy.
Once the team settled down, Logan and Scott stood beside each other.
“We’re here tonight to do a couple of things,” Logan began after getting the nod from Scott, “One, we celebratin’ the girls getting picked for the Talent Show. Ladies, take a bow.”
Amid the applause and whistles, Jubilee, Kitty, Allison and Anna stood beaming at their teammates and bowed.
“Secondly,” Scott began once they got quiet again, “We’re here to do a team building exercise.”
He smiled when he heard the groans.
“Come on, guys hear me out,” he said as they looked at him in silence, “The rules are simple. We will have two groups. Each group will select a captain and from there, the captain, with input from the team, will choose three songs. Once the songs are selected, the groups will decide who will go up and perform them for the restaurant audience. Everyone has to take the stage at least once in the competition. The group getting the loudest applause will win that round. The group with the most wins will win the Team Building exercise. The prize will be revealed later.
“The purpose of the exercise is to use your people effectively and build a strategy to complete the “mission”. The captain will have to figure out what’s the best solution to achieve the goal of the mission because there are times when one person can get the job done instead of a group.”
Scott immediately got groans and angry mumblings. “I’m not saying you have to sing. All I’m saying is that you have to get on stage,” he defended, pacifying the grumblers, “And have fun. We wanted to do something that was a training and celebration at the same time.”
Logan waited until the excited murmurings subsided before he told them the last piece of the puzzle. “Okay, so we need to count off to get the groups.”
“What? We’re not doing Alpha vs Omega?” Jubilee asked, her hopes of winning being dashed. She just knew Alpha would win because of her, Ali, and Kitty.
“Not tonight. I’ll start. One,” Logan said, pointing to the people as they said the next number.
When the team finished the count off, group one included, Jean, Logan, Allison, Remy, Jibril, Jubilee, and Rogue. Group two included Bobby, Ororo, Kurt, Peter, Anna, Scott, Emma, and Kitty. Kitty decided to join Group two since the first group already had two singers.
The groups selected Allison and Kitty as their respective captains and then set about selecting their songs and the members of the team who would sing them.
“So guys, any idea of what songs we should sing?” Kitty asked, looking into the playlist booklet.
“Nothing too girlie for me,” Bobby replied, “Maybe the guys can do a Journey song and the girls can do something like Single Ladies.”
“Not a bad idea. What do you guys think?” Kitty asked the others.
“I’m not sure about this assignment. I mean some of us aren’t very comfortable in front of crowds,” Kurt responded, playing with his image inducer.
“Ya, me either,” Peter replied.
“That’s understandable but even the backup singers have a role to play while on stage,” Ororo replied. “If I may?” she asked Kitty and she nodded. “I think we should look at it like a coach for an Olympic relay track team. You put your best people on first and last, knowing that if something happens in between, you will start and finish strong, leading to a possible victory.”
Her teammates were nodding, agreeing with her logic.
“So if we do, say Ro, Emma, Anna and I sung Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, Scott, Bobby, Peter and Kurt sing Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, then we can finish with Anna singing a solo,” Kitty recommended.
“I think Ro and I should finish with Mariah Carey’s Hero,” Anna replied, getting a shocked look from her sister, “Don’t try to act like you can’t sing just as good as I can.”
“Ro can sing?” Bobby asked.
“Yeap. She doesn’t do it often but she can and I’m sure with us as the final act, we’ll win.”
“Okay,” Kitty replied, “Everyone okay with the plan?” She got nods in response.
After an hour and a half, the teams were tied with one win a piece. The guys in group two couldn’t seem to get it together and barely made it through their song. The girls brought home a win with their song selection, going up against Remy, Rogue, and Logan doing a Black Eye Peas number.
Group one finished with Allison and Jubilee singing a heartfelt version of Katy Perry’s Firework that brought the crowd to their feet. Smirking as they got back to the table, Ororo looked at Anna and nodded, knowing that their time had come.
When Ororo and Anna stood, they heard some shocked gasps and groans from Group One. “Ro, I’m scared,” Anna whispered as they stepped on stage.
“When it’s your turn, just look at me and sing to me until you get comfortable, okay?” Ro whispered back, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. Anna squeezed back and took a deep breath, giving her sister a shaky smile. Ororo returned her smile and turned to face the audience, her eyes landing on the team and taking in the shocked expressions on the guys’ faces.
“Hi. My sister and I would like to dedicate this song to all the heroes in the house,” Ororo said just as the opening bars of Hero filled the air.
Taking a deep breath, Ororo’s eyes landed on Logan’s and she smiled at him before singing the song in her strong Alto.
Hero
There's a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid
Of what you are
There's an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away
Gazing out over the crowd, she could see people moving in their seat, lip syncing along with her. She noticed that even a few of them were standing, hugging themselves with tears in their eyes, singing along. She gave them all she had, not just for the exercise but because she believed in the lyrics of the song. She thought that the song was perfect for their teammates who truly were heroes, whether they realized it or not.
[Chorus:]
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you
She finished strong and moved off the stage so Anna could see her as she took. Anna’s voice was strong as she sang the second verse.
It's a long road
When you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold
You can find love
If you search within yourself
And the emptiness you felt
Will disappear
[Chorus]
Ororo got so caught in the song that she didn’t notice that her teammates had joined her as they watched Anna. Ro could see Anna relax and give more of herself as she sang.
Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don't let anyone
Tear them away
Hold on
There will be tomorrow
In time
You'll find the way
The sound of applause and cheers nearly drowned out Anna’s voice as she hit the notes. Meeting them just as Mariah did in her rendition of the song. The first line of the third verse caused more people to get to their feet, swaying in unison as they all were overcome with the emotion that Anna gave. Ororo knew that the tears in her eyes were real, causing her own to tear up. She felt an arm wrapped around her waist and looked over briefly to see that Logan was also under the spell of Anna’s voice.
[Chorus]
The roar of the crowd was deafening as she sang the last note. People gave her a standing ovation and cheered as she took a bow, being the ham she was, and stepped down off the stage. People congratulated her as she passed their table, stopping her for hugs, pats on shoulders, and handshakes.
Anna was collectively embraced by many of her teammates as they surrounded her, all talking at once, the exercise temporarily forgotten.
“You did great, babe,” Jibril said, embracing her and kissing her gently. He could feel her trembling and gave her a look and she nodded her head, letting him know she was okay. He let her go so the others could congratulate her.
“You brought the house down!! You’re going to totally win the talent show,” Allison gushed, “I don’t think I want to be in it anymore after hearing that!”
“That was soo awesome!!” Jubilee exclaimed.
“So cool,” Bobby said, high fiving her.
“Great job, Anna!” Scott told her, patting her shoulder as Jean hugged her.
“Yeah, ‘chere. Ya make ole Remy proud!” he said, hugging her quickly.
“Didn’t know ya had a set of pipes on ya like that, sugah,” Rogue told her, giving her a big hug.
“Thanks guys,” Anna replied before looking at her sister. Anna could see the tears in her eyes as she opened her arms and Anna filled them.
“You did it!!” Ro told her, “I’m soo proud of you! They won’t know what hit ‘em at that Talent Show!”
“Thanks Ro,” Anna said, pulling away and looking over at Logan.
“Ya did great, kiddo,” he told her, giving her a brief hug before ushering her to the table where Emma sat along with Peter and Kurt. The guys gave her compliments while Emma gave her a bored look before looking at her watch.
As the team settled down again, Scott stood with a smile on his face.
“Everyone did a good job in the exercise but there can only be one winner,” he began.
“Oh, get it over with already,” Bobby replied, making a few people chuckle.
Ignoring Bobby’s outburst, Scott continued, “And the winning group is, Group Two!!” Group two cheered as they high-fived each other across the table.
“So what did we win?” Kitty asked.
“You’ll see when we get back to the mansion,” Logan said, joining Scott, “Alright gang, time to hit the road.”
Logan took care of the check and soon the team was split into three vehicles, with Scott driving the Suburban, Logan driving the Charger and Remy driving the Jeep, heading back to the mansion.
