Gamer Superstar

Chapter 75 75 - Over the Rainbow

Despite George's suspicions, we continued to talk as if nothing had happened during the party.

Every now and then I felt Emily's eyes on me, but I shook my head because Emily was even younger than Liv.

From what I've heard from George, she looks about 14, which would make her a really good friend for Liv, but with the way she's acting towards me...

The only good thing about this situation is that I can get used to how I'll deal with it when I get really famous, because the most loyal audience artists can have are girls like Emily.

What I have to do is just keep a clear line between the attention an artist gives to a fan and anything beyond that. Not only would it be bad for my image if I was seen to be a little more intimate than I should be with a fan, but if that fan was young, it would be even worse, even if I didn't mean anything by it.

I often have to consider what others will see in addition to what I really think is going on.

If I'm just being polite to a girl and take a photo with her, but someone takes that photo out of context and tries to post it on the Internet, I always have to be careful.

Fortunately, while we were chatting at the men's table, Liv and Emily started to hit it off, which was good news for me.

Although Liv had a lot of "friends", they were the kind of girls who only treated you well when it was convenient; if Liv made real friends, it would be much better for her.

After a couple of hours I finally reached the end of the party and Ethan came running up to me and asked me to go with him to play the music.

I nodded and went with him to the car to get our instruments, and when we came back, everyone was staring at us.

From Isabella's excited expression as she chatted with the other curious children, it looked like she had told everyone that Ethan was going to play a song for them.

I nudged Ethan lightly on the arm and laughed. "Hey buddy, looks like you're getting the crowd's attention a lot easier than I did at my first gig."

Ethan just looked at me sheepishly as he continued walking to the center of where the "stage" would be.

As he opened the case of his ukulele, Ethan suddenly froze, his eyes alternating between the ukulele and the dozens of people looking at him.

I could see his eyes sweeping over all the children, lingering on Isabella for a few seconds, and then returning to the ukulele.

Isabella had an expectant look on her face as she nodded at him.

"Come on Buddy, I'm here with you, just do what we used to do at home." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder.

Feeling my hand on his shoulder, Ethan looked at me and nodded as he finished picking up his ukulele.

While he was checking the tuning of his ukulele for the sixth time tonight, I took my guitar and sat down on the floor next to him while I looked at the people around me with a smile and played a few notes to keep the place quiet like I always did at my gigs.

When Ethan finally finished, he looked at me: "Shall we play?"

"Like a good performer, you need to say a few words to your audience." I patiently explained, nodding so he could see people's expectations.

This made him more embarrassed, but he asked me. "What should I say?"

"Tell them why you're singing this song and thank them for their attention." I smiled.

Waving to me, Ethan walked to the front of the crowd and looked at all those expectant faces as he took a deep breath.

"Hi everyone, I'm Ethan Black, today I'm going to play a song that my brother Noah taught me, I've been rehearsing this song all week to play for Isabella today, I hope you like it, thanks for listening!" He said in a robotic voice, very nervous.

When the adults saw this, I could see the smiles on their faces, because Ethan looked very cute while acting like this.

Even George, Isabella's father, smiled a little at the way Ethan was acting.

'Come on Buddy, this is a good time to win over your future father-in-law...' I thought with a laugh.

"Shall we start Noah?" he asked me again.

"Yeah buddy, you can play the music and I'll join in." I replied as I stopped playing the background notes and let him start.

??????

Ooh-ooh-ooh

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

Ooh-ooh-ooh

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

??????

When he started playing and singing at this early stage, I noticed that people were surprised at how he played the ukulele, because even though he was concentrating on singing, his little fingers moved with great agility.

??????

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Way up high...

And the dreams you dream...

Once in a lullaby, oh...

??????

When his voice came out and actually sang the lyrics, the smiles of the adults got even bigger, while I saw the children looking at him with many different emotions.

Most of the children looked at him with surprise and admiration, while most of them didn't know how to play an instrument.

Among the children, some little girls had stars in their eyes when they looked at Ethan.

Some of the boys looked at Ethan with envy, probably wanting to be the center of attention like Ethan.

But the most striking expression was that of Isabella, who was staring at Ethan with a huge smile on her face.

??????

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Bluebirds fly...

And the dreams you dream...

Dreams really do come true-ooh-ooh...

Someday I'll wish upon a Star...

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me...

Where trouble melts like lemon drops...

High above the chimney tops, that's where...

You'll find me, oh...

??????

The lyrics weren't about difficult things that kids couldn't relate to, like betrayal or anything like that.

I chose Over The Rainbow because the lyrics were so simple and cute, and perfectly matched the purity of a 7-year-old's singing.

When Ethan finally finished singing, the people around were shocked for a few seconds, some adults like my parents were red-eyed with emotion, while the majority finally caught on and started clapping, causing the children to clap too and Isabella to run up to Ethan and hug him.

George froze at the sight but didn't say anything.

Liv looked at Ethan with a smile on her face very similar to mine as she watched the two children getting along well, while Emily, next to her, looked at her little sister with embarrassment for some reason.

When Ethan's performance was over, we went to the car to put our instruments away and then came back to enjoy the end of the party.

Today I was just the opening act for the night's performer, Ethan, and I was okay with that, because seeing him interact better with the other kids and having more fun with Isabella made it all worthwhile.

Although some of the children were jealous of Ethan, the children were only jealous because Ethan was acting cool while playing, and because he was acting cool, the children accepted him into their social circle more easily, and even Isabella felt more comfortable playing with everyone on her birthday.

"Did you teach your brother to play the ukulele, Noah?" One of Isabella's uncles asked me in surprise.

"Yeah, when he saw me playing the guitar he wanted to learn too, but since the ukulele is smaller and has fewer strings, I thought it would be better for him to start there because it's easier." I explained as I grabbed a mini hamburger to eat.

"That was really good, I think this will make your brother much more popular at school haha, if I could play an instrument like him at his age, I'd probably be the king of my school!" The man joked, making everyone laugh.

As we were leaving, the families of the other children arrived to pick them up.

Since I didn't have much to do, I just sat in the car while I used my cell phone to answer some comments about the songs for a few minutes while my family finished greeting the others.

When they arrived, I got in the car and drove back to my house.

What I didn't know was that someone other than Emily recognized me there.

When the family of little Tony, the little boy I'd seen Ethan fighting with the whole party, arrived to pick him up, a girl in the back seat of her family's car saw me leaning against the car and was shocked to recognize me.

Charlie only came to pick up Tony because her mom wanted company in the car, but she never imagined that she would also find BlackVelvet waiting to pick up a kid from the party!

And from what she saw, his whole family seemed to be at the party, so was he there?!

Realizing this, Charlie was determined to ask Tony all the details about this party.