HAZEL FINE SINGS ALONG (WATTYS 2022 Winner!)

Chapter 6: Help!

The auditorium smelled like fear and ambition.

Hazel's eyes tracked over the other groups. Some of them had dressed in costume, including one ill-conceived group that seemed to have taken the proximity to Harry Potter World too far.

OMG. Did their wands light up? There weren't songs in Harry Potter, were there?

"Should we have done costumes?" Zoey said anxiously next to her.

"No. That's not how people make it through this round. You need to be a good group and give a solid individual performance, but gimmicks turn the judges off."

"How do you know so much?"

"I've watched more hours of this show than I can count. But don't worry, I'm happy to share my knowledge with you."

Until the individual rounds, that was. Then it was every woman for herself.

"Should we sit here?" Bella said, speaking to Benji. Bella had been like this all day, moving herself so she was always next to Benji, his body a magnet. She wasn't sure if it was nerves or strategy or if Bella was genuinely that into Benji so quickly. If it was strategy, Hazel had to give Bella props. Benji was clearly going places in the Sing Along, and proximity to success was never a bad thing.

On the other hand, Hazel couldn't quite figure out if Benji was into Bella. He didn't seem to mind her clinginess, and his smiles at her seemed genuine. Then again, it sometimes felt like he was flirting with Hazel, but that could also be how he was with everyone. It was too early to tell.

"Cool," Benji said with a trace of nervousness in his voice.

Hazel was sure he had nothing to worry about. It was obvious he was going to get into the next round, just like the youngest person in the competition, Cole, a fourteen-year-old kid from the US Virgin Islands who had an angelic voice and played the guitar like a wizard. Bella was a maybe. Zoey too, Hazel was sorry to say.

As for her? Well, she had fight left in her yet.

Keshawn Jackson walked onto the stage in one of his trademark three-piece suits. "Hello contestants! Are we excited?"

He held out his microphone to the crowd and everyone shouted and cheered.

"Fantastic." He turned to the large camera that was propped on a tripod in front of him. "Well, folks here we are. The moment you've all been waiting for. The group auditions!"

More cheers, this time encouraged by an assistant who stood off the side of the stage with a large sign that saidApplause.

Keshawn turned back to the contestants. "Now, as you know we shoot some things out of sequence. I'll be calling out your names in groups of four. Come up on stage and 'meet' your group when your name is called. For those of you in costume, I hope you brought a change of clothes? Now would be a good time to get back into your civies."

There were a couple of chuckles from the crowd, and several groups started scrambling to change right there in the auditorium.

The assistant wheeled a large plastic spinning ball onto the stage and Keshawn went through the pantomime of reaching in and calling out the groups that they already knew they belonged to.

When Hazel's group was called, there were lots of catcalls and whistles when Benji whipped out his phone and live-streamed the whole thing to TikTok. Keshawn shook his head in disapproval, but you could tell that he loved it. Once they were on stage, Bella photobombed his TikTok, and Benji wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to the screen.

When all the groups had been announced, the director called a fifteen-minute break to reset the stage, and everyone went back to their places.

Hazel sat down between Zoey and Bella to wait it out. Now that the cameras were off, Bella was rubbing her hands nervously on her legs.