Parker had been working for weeks on her live show. She had 7 songs worked out and for all of them, she had dances choreographed. She had spent long hours after her day job and on weekends in dance and music rehearsals. Tomorrow was her first public performance at Mayfest and she was beginning to get nervous. They were going to have their last run through this afternoon at the studio. Parker was getting more and more excited and more and more nervous as time went on. Susan was there to capture every moment on video and Parker was grateful for that. Right now she felt like she was walking around in a dream; one where she couldn't see any details.

Pete walked into the large rehearsal room. "Is everyone ready?"

"Definitely!" all 5 of them answered.

This time they were going to time the run through. They had to keep the show to 30 to 45 minutes. "O.K., let's take it from the edge," Parker said. She started the first chords of the song, "My Way," and the rehearsal was in full swing.

When the last song finally ended, Pete looked at his stop watch. "Right at 30 minutes."

"That's perfect! Wtih talking to the crowd and stuff, it will end up being between 30 and 45 minutes," Parker concluded.

"Great job, guys! You are going to do wonderfully tomorrow," Pete assured the group.

Parker was beginning to feel panicky. "What if no one comes? What if a few people show up, but they don't like me so they get up and walk out? What if I mess up?" She was near tears.

Jordan went over and put his arms around her, "You're going to do fine. Everyone will love you, I promise."

She returned the hug. "Thanks, Jay, you're an awesome friend." "Well, guys, how do you feel about it?" Parker asked the rest of the group.

Her question was met with a variety of responses. "Great!"

"I think we'll do fine."

"People will like it."

"I don't want to make you more nervous, but there could be some industry people there," Pete warned her.

"What?!?! Do you know something I should know?"

"Well, no, not for sure, but sometimes they come to things like this. I just want you to prepare yourself."

"Thanks, but, uh...now I'm more nervous than ever."

"Well, go run off the nervouse energy. You're going to do great! I believe in you."

"Thanks," Parker said with a weak smile.

"Let's go over the schedule. I need you here by noon. We'll pack up everything and make it to the place by about 12:30 or 1:00. The performances are every two hours, so the person before you should be done by 1:30 or 1:45. Since we'll be there at about 1:00, that gives us about 2 hours to eat something, get set up and do a sound check."

"Sounds fine. How about everyone else?" Parker said, looking at the dancers.

"That's fine with us," they answered.

Parker put away her keyboard and stacked that along with her keyboard stand and headset mic together by a wall. Parker and Susan walked out of the studio to the car. "Do you want to get something to eat?" Susan asked.

"I'm almost too nervous to eat, but I know I need to. Let's do something quick, though."

"Sounds good to me."

The girls picked kup McDonald's and took it home. After dinner, Parker went over her dance steps and then they watched a movie. Twister is one of my favorites," Susan said stretching.

"Mind too," Parker agreed with her. She stretched. "I think I'm going to go to bed now."

"O.K., me too."

Parker looked at Suzie standing in the doorway or her room. "I'm getting so many flutters in my stomache, I think I'm raising a butterfly farm in there," Parker laughed. "I don't know that I'll be able to slee, but I need to try." Parker sat up straight. "Oh, my lands! What if there are record people thre? Or people who know record people? Oh, my lands, Suzie. I feel like I am about to lose my mind."

Susan giggled at the thought of Parker losing her mind. "I'd pay money to see that." Parker threw a pillow at her cousin and a pillow fight was in full swing. Pretty soon, both girls were thoroughly exhausted.

"I'm going to sleep," Parker said still tying to fight the giggles.

"Me too. We have a big day ahead of us," Susan reminded her, and she turned and walked back to her bedroom for some much needed to sleep.

The next morning, Parker awoke at about 10:00. She got out of bed, showered, did her makup, and made her bed. She went to her closet and picked out her outfit for the show. She would be wearing a white, black and gray camoflauge baby tee that barely came to the waist band of her black shorts. She wore black and white vinyl tennis shoe looking shoes. Her dancers would be wearing the same thing only thier shirts were green camoflauge.

When she was dressed, she finished her mak up, put on her lipstick and began to do her hair. She had decided to put her hair in a ponytail using a clip instead of a pony tail holder. Once that was done, she began straightening her room and the rest of the apartment.

At about 11:30, Susan came into her room and announced that she was ready to go. They were going to meet everyone at the studio at noon.

the ride to the studio was in complete silence. Parker was too nervous to talk. She was so nervous that she hadn't been able to even eat breakfast, but they would have lunch at the studio. She would try to eat then.

They pulled up to the studio and were greeted by the dancers, Jordan, and pete. "Are you ready?" Pete asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Parker told him.

"Well, let's get everything loaded and then I'll call in the lunch order. Jordan said that he'd pick it up on the way. I thought we would just do McDonald's. Sound good?"

"Great," everyone chorused.

They quickly loaded the keyboard, stand, mic and video equiment into Pete's fifteen passenger van, and headed out of the parking lot towards the festival site.

With each rotation of the tires that brought her closer to her dream, Parker grew more and more nervous. Her stomache was doing flip-flops and her palms were sweaty.

When they arrived at the site where Mayfest was held, they immediately drove to the stage. They got out of the van just in time to see Jordan drive in with the food. There was a table set out behind the stage and the entourage camped there to eat their lunch. Just as Parker and her group were sitting down for lunch, the person that was performing at 1:00 was just about to get started. Not surprisingly, the toping of music did not come up during their lunch. pparker assumed that everyone knew how nervous she was and they didn't want to make her more nervous. Parker did not say much during lunch and everyone else respected her privacy.

When lunch was finished and the trash thrown away, Parker and the dancers went over the dance steps for the songs she would be performing. By the time they were done with that, the other performer was done and they could begin unloading the equipment and setting up.

Pete pulled the van around to the back of the stage and Parker pulled out her keyboard stand. Pete left to go find the booking people and Jordan took her mic to begin getting that set up. parker walked to the stage with her stand, unfolded it, and set it up to the right side of the stage, then headed back to the van to get her keyboard.

She headed up the steps lugging the heavy keyboard. She set the keyboard down and bent over it with her back toward the audience. As she was unzipping the case, she heard a voice behind her. "Umm...excuse me. Do you know where we might find Parker Alizabeth?" the voice asked.

"I'm Parker Alizabeth," Parker said, turning around. When she did, she gasped. She saw something that she ever, in her wildest dreams, expected to see.