| Chapter 10 |
| "Hey everyone, it's Friday, February 13th. We have a great show for you today. Kenzie Hope is here!" Carson Daly said while the studio audience cheered so loud that Mackenzie could hear it from her dressing room down the hall. "Do you hear that?" the make-up artist asked. "They are all here for you so I need you to relax because you're about to be called any minute." Mackenzie nodded in response when a man wearing a headset told her she had a five-minute warning. "Ok, I guess I better get going." Kenzie said walking in the opposite direction. "Where are you going? You know it's this way." Jenna said putting her hands on Mackenzie's shoulder and turning her around. "I don't understand why you�re so nerv-" "Don't! Don't say that word." Kenzie said "Girl, you get weirder and weirder everyday." Jenna said shaking her head. A few minutes later Mackenzie was standing backstage ready for Carson to call her name. "Welcome back everyone. The fun is about to begin. If you�re just joining us you're lucky because you haven't missed much. My next guest's single has been climbing the charts for the last few weeks and she's loved every minute of it. So here she is performing today's number 7 request "Let Me Be". Kenzie Hope." Kenzie came out from the crowd and took her spot onstage ready to perform. The music began and Kenzie started to sing and dance with all her heart, hoping that everyone would like her. By the first chorus the audience started to sing along with the words and Kenzie couldn't stop smiling. She wished that she could perform forever but her song quickly came to an end. "Thank you!" she said after the last note was sung. "Great job, Kenzie." Carson said shaking her hand, "We will be right back with Kenzie and the rest of the countdown." The crowd started cheering as they went for another commercial. Kenzie was in awe of the whole place. She laughed as she looked outside the window and saw a guy holding a sign that said, "Kenzie, will you marry me?" in big red letters. "Can you believe that?" she said to herself not knowing that anyway was around. Carson laughed when he heard her say that. "Oh I can definitely believe that and there will be many more where that came from soon. Your performance was awesome. Anyway we are about to come back from the commercial." She walked to the center of the stage and smiled when Carson started to talk. �.... We are back with Kenzie Hope who just did an amazing performance and after your number 6 request we will be back with a little interview where some of the fans can ask the questions." the number 6 song began to play and Kenzie signed a few autographs and took pictures with the people in the audience. "We are back once again with Kenzie Hope." Carson said "Hey everyone! Thanks soooo much for voting for my video! I can't believe it's number 7 already!" she said smiling. "When did you first find out that your video was on MTV?" Carson asked looking at the card he was holding. "Well, I was watching TRL the day you all premiered it so that was the first time I saw it on TV but I had no idea that I was number 7 until you said it a few minutes ago." "I could tell by how you�re faced changed." Carson said laughing, "I heard you've been working on this album for a while now." "Yup. I got signed with Jive a little over a year ago and I've been working ever since. I've written about 90% of the songs that are on my album so it's been taking me a while to get the right sound and make everything perfect." After a few minutes of Carson asking questions they went to the number 5 and 4 videos of the day. "Ok, we've got a question from the audience." Carson said as the camera angled switched from Carson to a guy who looked about 5 years older than Kenzie. "Hey Kenzie I'm Mike from New Jersey and I was just wondering what do you look for in a guy?" Mackenzie was a little grossed when the guy started moving his eyebrows up and down when the camera was focusing on her. "Well, as all girls do, I look for some one I can trust and just be myself with. When I have to change the way I look or feel for a guy I know it's not worth it." A few question's later Kenzie was feeling completely comfortable with the whole situation. She was having so much fun interacting with everyone and being herself. "I heard that you are going to be recording a song with Nsync, is that true?" a girl asked "Yes, that's true." she said discreetly "I also heard that you wrote the song about your mother?" the girl asked quickly. "Ye...Yeah," she began, "Come on Kenzie, you can do this." she said to herself as she began to explain how her mom had died and how it affected her. "How is being around Nsync?" Carson asked trying to change the mood. "They are awesome. I actually met them after a radio concert here in New York." she explained in small detail about how Justin didn't know who she was, but she purposely forgot the fact that they didn't get along. "The guys are cool though. JC helped me turn the song into duet and fixed a few things that weren't right about it. Those guys are just oozing with talent, ya know." a guy laughed out loud in the audience, "Hey, I'd like to see you do all the things those guys do!" she said sticking up for them, "Everyone just thinks that they are this lip-syncing boy band, but they aren't. No one can go to one of their shows and then walk away say, 'That sucked'." "I heard that you were dating Justin Timberlake." a girl who was wearing an Nsync shirt asked. Mackenzie laughed out loud at the thought but realized that no one knew what she was laughing at, "No. I can honestly say Justin Timberlake and I are far from ever dating." A few minutes later Mackenzie thanked everyone for being there and left feeling on top of the world. Once she got back to her hotel room she sighed as she sat down on the couch. "That...was...awesome!" she said to Jenna. "You were awesome, but Martins called and sounded pretty angry and he said he wants to talk to you right away." Mackenzie's face turned from smiling to serious, "What did I do now?" she asked waving her hands in the air. She quickly picked up the phone and dialed his number. "Hello?" he asked "Hello, Mr. Martins, it's Kenzie." "Yes, I know who you are." he said rudely. "That performance was awful and I expect you to be practicing for the rest of the week until you get it perfect. Not only that but you were off key about five times. I thought you were ready for this but you proved me wrong. Tomorrow morning you have rehearsals 5:30 to10:30 and then if I decide you are good enough you can perform at that concert, but only if I see a dramatic change. End of story. Good bye." he said quickly before hanging up. "Uhh! I could just...just...uhh! I can't believe he said that! That...that...jerk! I'm going for a walk Jenna I'll be back later." she grabbed her coat and started to walk away. "Wait! You can't just leave! Mackenzie get back here!" Jenna yelled after her down the hall. |