A Different Beat

Michael sat comfortably in his chair, watching as Luke’s third singer walked off of the stage. Her name was Cole and she didn’t fail to live up to all of Luke’s praise. She was incredible on stage; it was as if she was born to perform. Luke’s team was overall good but she was probably the biggest threat on Team Luke. Michael’s favorite on Ashton’s team was Margo – a small girl who did twenty one pilots’ Holding on to You even better than they did – and on Calum’s team it was Norie – a bubbly girl who did an Imagine Dragons song and absolutely killed it. The amount of talent made him kind of nervous.

His team was solid, he thought. Jarren sang Frank Ocean’s Thinking ‘Bout You and it even gave him chills. Desiree did an Ed Sheeran song and, shockingly, her voice worked very well with it. Kelli decided to go with Slow Down by Selena Gomez and, while it wasn’t Michael’s favorite artist, he thought she did a good job with it. Anna’s persistence of doing a Kesha song (and calling him ‘Mikey’ and ‘babe’) annoyed him and made her his least favorite but the other boys and audience seemed to like it.

Up next was Jasey, who was easily his most complicated member.

Michael knew it’d be work to transform her into a star but he wasn’t expecting this. He was able to convince her to get a song that wasn’t as soft as her audition but beyond that, she was completely brushing off all of his suggestions. She wanted to stick to her song choices, to her outfit choices and she took everything he told her and twisted it into an insult, somehow – and they’d only worked together a handful of times.

There was a commercial break and the boys were allowed bathroom breaks, so Michael quickly snuck backstage to try and find Jasey and found her talking with one of the guys from Ashton’s team, Damien. “Your performance was really good, by the way,” Jasey told him sincerely.

Damien laughed and went to reply before Michael cut in. “Excuse me, can I talk to you for a second?” he asked, tapping Jasey’s shoulder.

Jasey turned to look at him and her distaste was obvious. Michael chuckled to himself before stepping aside. “I’ll talk to you later,” she told Damien politely before following Michael.

“You know he’s like double your age, right?” Michael questioned. It amused him how easily she seemed to get on with a thirty year old and not him but it also annoyed him. He wasn’t sure why.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s fifteen years older, actually,” she corrected, not bothering to point out that while he was extremely easy on the eyes, she wasn't interested. “Are you even allowed back here?”

“I’m just making sure nothing’s changed since we last talked – that you’re doing the same song and doing it how we discussed. You kind of stubborn, in case you didn’t know,” he explained. “But you did listen to me about the contacts thing, I see.”

Jasey rolled her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat up. “Shut up,” she responded. She always thought she looked silly without glasses and didn’t even entertain the idea until one of the stylists managed to convince her to ditch the glasses.

“No, I mean it. You look good,” he insisted, finally checking her out. She had on a red and black plaid shirt that stopped mid-torso, only an inch or so of skin visible before her dark high-waisted shorts. She was also wearing a burgundy and black letterman jacket and black stockings; things he was sure she insisted, as she apparently hated showing her body for some reason. Her long hair was down and left natural and her makeup was minimum, something Michael silently agreed looks best.

“Why, because a stylist did me up? Since apparently I’m ugly any other time,” she retorted.

Michael groaned, rubbing his eyes. “I didn’t say you were ugly!” he defended. This is why she disliked him so much. During their first one-on-one practice, Michael expressed that he thought her look could use work because it’s important to becoming successful – how you look, how you dress, how you move – it’s all important and he thought she could use work in all of that. So he told her and she interpreted it as him calling her ugly. “Whatever, just – good luck out there. I’m sure you’ll do well.” He meant it sincerely but he couldn’t help the clipped tone it came out with. He just wanted to be in bed, doing something a little less stressful.

Jasey watched as Michael walked away. He’d tried apologizing and being nice since he said it, and she felt kind of guilty for being as rude as she was, but he was trying to turn her into something she isn’t and she doesn’t want that. That’s the total opposite of why she’s doing. She wouldn’t admit that his words actually hurt her feelings a bit.

“You should cut him some slack,” Damien voiced, pulling Jasey from her thoughts.

“Were you eavesdropping?” Jasey teased, trying to brush off her annoyance. Of course Damien would side with Michael.

“You two weren’t quiet,” he pointed out. “But he’s just doing what he thinks will help you get where you wanna go. Besides, he seemed to mean it when he complimented you and his wandering eyes supported that.”

Jasey rolled her eyes but couldn’t fight the small smile. “I’m here to sing and he’s here to win, Damien, that’s it,” she emphasized. He held up his hands in surrender and she laughed before a crew member found her, telling her it’s her turn.

She walked out onto the dark stage, careful not to trip over herself in her foreign heels. She gripped the microphone, waiting for the music to start. She was going to prove to Michael, and the world, that she wasn’t the loser he thought she was. She moved her leg with the music as she began.

”I’ve got a life out there somewhere, it’s waiting,
Lined with palm trees and only new faces,
If I could look past the present and get there,
Well baby, it’s worth a shot.

Just enough time to plan an escape route,
I put my map on the wall in my basement,
Not quite a victory to run from your problems,
But it’s the only plan that I got,
It’s the only plan that I got.

And if you try to find me now,
I’m in all the echoes that have faded out,
So, I’m moving on,
‘Cause I just want to feel for once that I belong,
That’s what’s going on,
That’s what’s going on.”

Michael watched in awe as Jasey moved around the stage almost flawlessly. He noticed her barely stumble in her heels a few times but nobody else seemed to notice, busy watching how well she was performing. He wondered where all this confidence came from and he could only assume nerves covered it up or it was fake and she was doing a really good job at feigning it.

”Crossed the state line and called out a warning,
Not too long now, I’ll breathe California,
Paid my dues and I tried to be loyal,
But now I’m done with all that.

Where I’m going is everyone’s story,
We want, you left, we’re left to start over,
It’s not a question of who are we really,
It’s who we wanna be.”

Jasey felt her veins pumping with adrenaline by this point. She didn’t care that she was internally crying with nerves minutes ago and she didn’t care that she’d almost tripped a few times – all she cared about what the reaction she was getting. Calum, Ashton and Luke – none of which she’d had too much time to get to know but all seemed nice – looked pleased and were nodding along and the crowd was clapping and dancing along but most of all, she enjoyed Michael’s reaction. His surprised face resembled the one from her audition night but this one was more positive. Like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing but he was satisfied by it.

As he listened to her go into the chorus again, Michael couldn’t help but smile proudly. He liked to think that all of this was because of him. Sure, it may only be her trying to prove him wrong or taunt him, but he didn’t care. This was a huge step from her audition and he was more than ready to take some of the credit for it.

“All that’s in between,
A brand new life and I this time,
But time has not been kind,
It’s not been kind to me,
It’s winding backwards.

Time has not been kind,
It’s crawling by…
So…
Slowly…” Jasey sang, mentally praising herself when she hit the last high note.

The reaction by the time she reached the last chorus was phenomenal and was now fueling Jasey’s performance. But as she kept moving around the stage, grinning and singing – even briefly moving her hips in a way Michael did not know she was capable of – he began thinking about everyone in the crowd watching her and all the people all over Australia watching this. All the boys and hungry eyes that could possibly be appreciating her in a way completely different from musical…

Michael found himself wishing she was standing still again, back in that weird outfit consisting of a polo and skirt. Or even better the loose sweatpants and big t-shirt she wore to practice a few days ago. He didn’t even realize she’d stopped singing until he heard Ashton speak. “That was amazing,” Ashton complimented. “It’s a good song anyway but you turned it into such a fun song.”

Jasey’s cheeks turned pink. “Thank you,” she told him, slightly out of breath.

“I agree,” Calum said. “It was such a contrast from the slow song you did in the blind auditions and you looked a lot more comfortable than you did then.”

“I don’t know what Michael’s done with you but you seem a lot more into the performance than you did last time and I think it’s great,” Luke added, reaching over to pat Michael’s shoulder. “Well done, mate.”

Jasey laughed, her eyes finally meeting Michael’s green ones. She stared at him with triumph and he could easily read what she was trying to mentally tell him. Ha. “You did even better than I was expecting, and I knew you’d do good. You made a good song choice and I agree-“ Michael grinned, watching as her cheeks barely darkened. “I’m doing a great job with you.”