“Guys, how are we gonna find one dancer out of all these girls?” Kevin sighed and slumped down in a chair.

He was nervous and had been pacing the floor for the past hour and a half, watching the hundreds of girls audition. AJ’s dancer for the “Black and Blue” tour had quit just recently because she found out that she was pregnant. This caused massive chaos because the tour was scheduled to start in just a few short weeks. Whatever dancer they chose would have to pick up the steps incredibly fast.

Howie and Brian were asleep in chairs across the room, completely missing the whole audition process.

Nick and AJ were seated near the front of the room, bouncing off the walls. They’d both had way too much Coke at lunch. Kevin made a silent vow never to let either of them near a soda again.

Kevin was the only one paying remotely any attention. He figured AJ would at least be paying attention, after all, he was going to have to be dancing with this girl for the whole tour. He thought AJ would at least look at the girls, not just bounce around.

All the guys were in a room behind a one-way mirror, a mirror in which they guys could see the girls audition and have a say in the decision, but the girls couldn’t see them, just a mirror image of themselves.

Fatima had the girls narrowed down to a total of 9. They would be in groups of 3 for the final audition. She taught them the dance to “Everybody” and told them to practice it for a while.

“AJ, sit down and watch,” Kevin instructed, putting his hands on AJ’s shoulders and forcing him down into a chair. “This is going to be your dancer, so you have to like her.”

“Fine, fine” AJ said and sat down to watch.

He focused on the girls rehearsing. He saw one girl in particular that caught his attention. She was standing in the middle of 4 other girls, talking up a storm. She looked completely unfazed by the audition process. She was even taking time to help other girls who were having trouble with the steps.

She had on a pair of tight black dance pants, tennis shoes, and a tight yellow tank top that ended a few inches above her belly-button. Her dark blonde hair was held back by a white bandana. She didn’t look like she was conceited or trying to impress anyone, like some of the other girls.

He was amazed by this girl, and he didn’t even know her name.

“I have to find out who she is,” he said.

“What?” Kevin asked.

AJ hadn’t even realized he’d spoken those words aloud. “Umm…nothing” He said.

AJ resumed his focus on the blonde girl.

Fatima called for the first group to come to the front of the room to audition. The blonde girl, he didn’t know what else to call her, after all, he didn’t know her name, was in the middle of the group. Her gaze was locked on the mirror. AJ’s eyes were locked on hers. He felt, even though he knew she couldn’t see him, she was looking in his eyes.

The music started and the 3 girls started the routine. AJ’s gaze was riveted on the blonde girl as she danced. She was really good, he decided. Her face seemed to light up when she danced.

“AJ!…Yo! AJ!” Nick said as he waved his hand in front of AJ’s face. “Dude, what are you staring at?”

“Umm…this girl…she’s really good.” AJ said, pointing to her.

Nick’s eyes followed AJ’s finger and he looked at the blonde girl. “She is,” Nick said when the music stopped.

“I know,” AJ said.

Kevin joined them. He had been watching the blonde girl the whole time and thought she was really good. “We should go talk to Fatima. Tell her we’ve made a decision.”

“But Kevin, we haven’t even seen the other girls” Nick said.

Of course, AJ didn’t object. He had already decided that he wanted the blonde girl to be his new dancer.

“I really don’t think we need to. We’ve seen the other girls. I know I’ve made up my mind.” Kevin said.

“Me too.” AJ said, raising his hand.

“Ok, fine.” Nick said reluctantly.

The 3 guys went out the back door to the “mirror room” and walked down a short hallway to the door of the audition room. They didn’t have any disguises on, so they didn’t want to go in the room for fear that they’d be recognized. Instead, the opened the door a little ways, and hoped Fatima would see them.

She did and told the girls to practice some more and she’d be back in a flash.

“What’s up?” she asked once she was outside the room.

“Well, we know who we want to be AJ’s dancer,” Kevin said.

“Who?” Fatima asked.

“That blonde girl, in the first group,” AJ said.

“Yeah, I kinda had my mind set on her, too. But of course, I’ll have to audition the next two groups of girls to be fair.” She said.

“Of course,” Kevin said.

Fatima went back in the audition room and Kevin, Nick and AJ went back to the “mirror room” the back way. When they got there, Brian and Howie were just waking up.