On stage, Debbie continued to sing as well as she could, but she was struggling because of the severe pain in her stomach. Suddenly, the audience noticed that the singing dramatically improved as another person's voice overshadowed Debbie's.
"If I can get through, I know I can find
Trying to get away from the blue sky
Fly to the blue sky
Fly toward the blue sky."
The voice was loud, melodious and full of passion.
Melissa had danced over to her, singing, and Debbie glanced at her gratefully. She was enduring a great deal of pain and was happy to step back and let her take over.
Debbie was sure that she was only trying to help her.
Melissa had a good singing voice, but it sounded even better in contrast to Debbie's, which had become so weak. The audience and the judges' eyes lit up with relief, while Lee softly said "Oh" with a trace of admiration in his eyes.
When they had finished the song, the five girls gave a bow on stage. Finally, the five long minutes were over.
The moment the music stopped, Debbie's legs gave way, and she fell onto the ground. This caused another commotion in the audience. Rita quickly helped her up, but Melissa, who was standing beside her, only smiled coldly.
Watching Debbie's weak appearance from backstage, Janice covered her mouth and started crying. If she had known earlier how sick she was, she would never have let her perform, even if that meant forfeiting the competition. She could only hope that she would be okay.
The judges were very concerned about Debbie and told her to go backstage and rest. One of them said to Janice, "Is your singer ill? Hurry up and take her backstage to lie down. As for your score, I'm sorry, but thank you for taking part."
The other three judges agreed. "Indeed, go back and rest. Your health is more important than the competition," one said.
Rita was very disappointed. If Debbie had been well, she was sure they would have done well in the contest. However, now was not the time to worry about the results. She only wanted to make sure that Debbie received treatment as quickly as possible.
The five girls bowed and were about to step down from the stage when Janice rushed up to support Debbie.
Then Lee spoke up so loudly that everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at him. "Hold on a minute—"
Lee was very angry; he didn't care how sick Debbie was. He felt that singing "Blue Bird" so badly was an insult. What made him even angrier was that, with so many children around, he couldn't even curse loudly. He muttered to himself, "How dare this group ruin 'Blue Bird' for me."
"So, how do you think you did? I'm guessing you already know," Lee said as his gaze shifted between Debbie and the others and finally landed on Melissa. He pointed at her and said, "This girl sang quite well. At least her voice was quite pleasing to the ear. Because of her, I'll let you pass to the next round."
Because Lee was a sponsor, his words meant everything.
"I—" Melissa gasped in surprise. She immediately grinned and thanked Lee. "Thank you so much, Mr. Dempsey. I promise that I will continue to work hard."
"That's enough. You're getting in the way now. Get down from the stage." Lee waved his hand and the girls walked off the stage.
Janice stopped Debbie. She said, "Debbie, wait a minute," and quickly ddialled911, telling them that an ambulance was needed urgently to take someone to the hospital. Janice held the weakened Debbie in her arms and comforted her softly. "Don't be afraid, the ambulance will be here soon," she said.
Rita also stood beside her, holding her hand and looking at her with concern.
"Rita, I'm in so much pain—" Debbie told her friend. Her clothes were soaked with blood now, her eyes were closed tightly, and her hands were clenched. She thought she might pass out.
Katie was angry with Debbie and huffed at her. "You have a nerve complaining about being in pain. Because of you, we were almost eliminated."
Olivia agreed. "That's right," she said. "You said that you didn't have a stomachache yesterday, and you said the same last night. Then, at such a crucial moment, you decide that you do have a stomachache after all. I think you did it on purpose." She crossed her arms and looked at Debbie coldly.
Hearing her friends criticizing Debbie, Melissa giggled to herself.
At that moment, Rita, who usually managed to stay calm, felt that she had to stick up for Debbie. She asked Katie, "You think she wanted this to happen?"
Katie replied, "Did we say something wrong? If it wasn't for Melissa saving us in the end, we would have been eliminated. She almost ruined it for all of us. Can you blame us for being mad with her?"
Janice interrupted the argument with a frown. She said, "All right, Katie, Melissa, like I said before, you all have to stick together and look after each other. If one of you succeeds, you all do. Have you forgotten what I said?"
"Miss Campbell, please don't be angry. We're just a bit upset. It's not surprising, but I promise we'll all calm down now," Melissa said as she walked over and persuaded Katie and Olivia to sit down. She wanted Janice to see her smoothing things out down so that she would have a good impression of her.
Debbie spoke up with great difficulty. "Miss Campbell, it's my fault—I'm the one who did wrong, don't blame them, it's me. I was wrong." Hot tears once again flowed down her cheeks. She looked pitiful.
Janice hugged Debbie and tried to comfort her. She said, "No, it's not your fault. Don't say that, and don't worry about anything."
The talent show was still going on.
Duke, who was lying beside Angelina, stuck out his tongue and started panting. Angelina knew that this meant he was thirsty.
"Dukey, are you thirsty?" she said as she touched the dog's big head. Since she didn't want to miss the show, she needed to find someone else to take her dog out to get a drink. Because of Duke's earlier growling, the rest of the audience were keeping their distance. They believed that the dog was aggressive and wasn't going to get anywhere near it.
Angelina pointed at a young man and instructed, "You, come here."
"Me?" The man that Angelina was pointing to was Charlie Mason. He looked at his friends, but everyone else pretended to be watching the show. He secretly cursed his bad luck and walked toward Angelina with a frown.
"Duke, you're not allowed to bark," said Angelina to the dog. When Charlie walked over to them, she pointed at him, while looking at the dog, and said, "Duke, this young man is going to take you for a drink. Be good, and don't bite him."
Charlie was scared and embarrassed. He had become a dog babysitter.
He didn't dare to take hold of Duke's leash, but he also didn't dare to. Angelina was Lee Dempsey's girlfriend and was not someone he could afford to offend.
In the end, he decided to lead Duke out of the auditorium and to the artificial lake to let him drink water. Thankfully, after listening to Angelina's words, Duke didn't bite him. Perhaps he likes me? Charlie wondered.
Melissa, who was at the back of the auditorium with Katie, saw Charlie holding Duke and shouted at him, "Darling, why are you holding the dog?"
As Charlie led Duke over to Melissa, other spectators screamed when they saw the huge animal approach. In the end, he persuaded Melissa to walk over to him instead. When he saw her frightened expression, he scratched Duke's head with his hand and said, "This is Auntie Melissa. You're not allowed to bite her."
Charlie was enjoying looking after Duke, but Melissa was still too scared to get close. She looked warily at the dog and asked Charlie again what he was doing with it. He told her about Angelina telling him to take the dog for a drink.
"He wants water?" Hearing this, Melissa raised her eyebrows and looked at Charlie with a sinister smile. "You wait here—"
She walked to Debbie's side and picked up the bottle of water that was beside her. "Debbie, I need water for the dog. Can I use your bottle?"
Debbie glanced at Melissa weakly and nodded. The corner of Melissa's mouth raised into a smile. With the water bottle in her hand, she walked back to Charlie.
"Give it this." Melissa threw the water to Charlie. "This was given to Debbie to drink just now."
"Darling, this dog is Angelina's. Aren't you playing with fire?" Charlie had just seen how much pain Debbie was in and was suspicious. Melissa wanted Duke to feel the same pain, but if they did something to hurt him, they would have Lee to deal with. He didn't want that.
"Ha, it is indeed playing with fire. But it's not us who will get the blame because it isn't our bottle of water." Melissa's eyes looked sly. "Quick, give it the water."
Seeing Duke licking from the bottle, Melissa smiled. She took the bottle with what was left of the water and quietly placed it next to Debbie.
Looking at Debbie, who was leaning against Janice with her eyes closed, Melissa sneered. You sad loser, she thought. You have no idea that this is just the beginning of your troubles.
Charlie took Duke back to Angelina.
Twenty minutes later, while Angelina was whispering with Lee, Duke began to whimper. After another five minutes, Duke was lying on the ground, moaning and sticking out his tongue. No matter how much Angelina tried to comfort him, he didn't recover.
"Duke, what's wrong with you?" Angelina touched the dog's head with a pained expression and looked at Charlie angrily. "You, come over here. What did you give him to drink?"
"Nothing. Just water." Charlie looked very scared.
"Rubbish. He was fine before. Then you took him for a drink, and he came back like this. Tell me what happened," Angelina said aggressively. Lee was also glaring at Charlie. Everyone around them was staring. There was so much noise coming from the small group, that the director stopped the performance on stage and everyone looked over.
"I—I just gave him a drink of water from a bottle. The bottle belonged to one of the singers backstage. Honestly, that's all I gave him," Charlie said, trembling.
"Garbage. You say you only gave him water from a bottle belonging to someone backstage?" Lee stood up and pushed Charlie back a few steps. "Take me to get that bottle of water right now. If anything happens to my dog, I'll never forgive you."
"Of course," Charlie said with a frightened smile, then he walked in front of Lee with his head lowered. Lee and Angelina walked after him, followed by other members of the audience. A small cart was used to push Duke behind them.
When the performers backstage saw Lee arriving, they were all surprised and stood up one by one.
Janice and Rita supported Debbie, but just like the others, they didn't know what was happening.
"You gave your water to my girlfriend." Charlie pointed at Melissa. "Mr. Dempsey's dog drank your water, and now he's really sick."
"What?" Melissa screamed in fake surprise. She quickly said to Lee, "Mr. Dempsey, someone else gave me that bottle of water. It's not my fault."
"Really?" Lee's gaze turned colder. "Did you tell that person that you were going to give the water to my dog?"
"Yes, I said that the water was for a dog. And you're the only person here with a dog, so she must have known that I meant Duke," Melissa said.
"Who is this person?" Lee asked.
Melissa's gaze shifted to Debbie, and she pointed at her. "It's her fault. She gave me the water."