Singing in Seattle by Tracey West

CHAPTER ONE:
    NEXT STOP, SEATTLE
    â€œThank you.” AJ smiled as the flight attendant handed her a bottle of water.
    â€œWould your sister like something to drink?” asked the flight attendant, whose name tag said KAREN.
    AJ glanced at Aly. She was curled up in her window seat, her eyes closed and the hood of her sweatshirt pulled up over her head, with a few stray blond curls poking out.
    â€œAly?” AJ reached over and tapped her sister. Aly muttered and turned in her seat.
    Her eyes popped open and she looked at AJ.
    â€œWhat?” Aly practically shouted.
    AJ reached over and yanked Aly’s hood off her head. Her iPod was in her ear.
    Aly grinned. “Oops, sorry,” she said. She took the earpiece out and sat up straight. She gave a big yawn and stretched her arms.
    â€œWould you like something to drink, miss?” Karen asked.
    â€œYes, please,” Aly answered. “Water would be great. My throat is so dry.”
    Karen handed her a bottle of water and a plastic cup. She smiled. “We can’t have that! It’s not every day I have two famous singers on my flight. You need to keep your voice in good shape. Aren’t you going to be performing at a concert in Seattle?”
    AJ nodded. “We are, but we’ve got other business in Seattle, too.”
    â€œWe’re going to be judges in a contest for young songwriters,” Aly added. “So we had to get to town early. That means we got to fly out and take a break from the tour bus.”
    Karen smiled. “Well, if you need anything at all, let me know,” she said. Then she moved down the plane’s narrow aisle with her drink cart.
    AJ leaned back against her seat. “I kind of miss the bus,” she said. “And all of our Hello Kitty stuff.”
    â€œI know what you mean,” Aly said. “The bus does feel like home. But you know how I start to get bus crazy!”
    AJ laughed. “You’re like a bird trapped in a cage. I’m sure the guys in the band are happy to have the bus to themselves for this trip.”
    â€œAnd I’m so totally stoked about judging this contest. We’ll get to hear all the young, hot talent that’s out there,” Aly said. “The winner even gets a college scholarship! It’s awesome that we get to give out a huge prize like that.”
    â€œWe’d better pick someone really good. We’re going to be performing one of the winner’s songs at our concert at KeyArena,” AJ reminded her.
    â€œWe’ll need extra rehearsal time with the band to learn the new song,” Aly said. “We’d better remind Jim to work the extra time into our schedule.”
    AJ laughed. “This is Jim we’re talking about, remember?” she said. Jim, their tour manager, was right out of college. Even though he was young, he was more organized than anyone they’d ever met.
    AJ suddenly got a nervous look on her face. “I am worried about one thing,” she said. “If we’re judges, we’ll have to tell people if we don’t like their songs. You know what it’s like when we write songs for our albums. They’re like little pieces of our souls, practically. I don’t want to break anyone’s heart.”
    â€œWe just have to be careful what we say,” Aly suggested. “Sometimes we get constructive criticism from our producer, or even each other. We’ll just focus on what works and try to give them some pointers for the rest.”
    AJ relaxed. “You’re right. It’s not like we have to be mean or anything!”
    â€œAnd the songwriters have already been narrowed down to twelve finalists. They must be pretty talented to have made it that far,” Aly added. “I heard that thousands of people entered.”
    AJ pulled her notebook out from where she had stashed it in the little pocket in the seat in front of her. She unclipped a pen from the binder.
    Aly