Free Crystal by Katie Price Page B

voice. At the end of the song, she knew that the three of them had given their strongest performance yet. She felt exhilarated. It was one of those times when they all clicked together and it felt and sounded so right. Surely the judges would have heard that? But of course Sadie wasn’t going to make it easy for them.
    ‘Yes, girls, that was really good, and I can’t fault you on anything. But do you know what? It was just
too perfect
for me. Where was the edge? It confirms what I’ve always thought of you. It’s all been too easy for you and you come across as too slick, too polished. I look at you and I see three beautiful girls who have never had to struggle for anything in their lives and I just don’t know if that’s what this competition is about.’
    Crystal could feel the anger building up inside her. How dare this multimillionaire tell
them
they hadn’t had to struggle? What the fuck did she know? She was sick of theway they were being treated in the competition, just because of something that may or may not have happened between Belle and Dallas. It just wasn’t fair. She was supposed to wait until every judge had delivered their verdict before she had her say, but she couldn’t stop herself from grabbing the microphone from a stunned Tess.
    ‘We might not have worked on building sites, Sadie, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t struggled. You don’t know
anything
about us. Tahlia’s dad died when she was three and her mum had to hold down two jobs to support her.’ Crystal’s voice was shaking with emotion but she didn’t care. ‘Belle’s gran died two months ago but she decided to carry on with the competition because her gran would have wanted it. We’ve been trying to make it for the last five years and this competition is our last hope. Don’t you dare sit there and waste our chances just because you don’t like us.’
    She looked defiantly at Sadie who was looking slightly less comfortable than usual. Then Tahlia grabbed the mic from Crystal. ‘And Crystal’s mum left her to bring up her brother on her own when she was only sixteen. We haven’t had it easy, we’ve struggled every inch of the way to get this far.’
    The audience erupted. They were up on their feet cheering, whistling and clapping; they loved a confrontation. Sadie tried to speak but couldn’t make herself heard over the noise. Tess had taken the mic back from Tahlia and was also trying to make herself heard. Finally, after what seemed like ages, but was probably only a few minutes, the audience calmed down enough for Tess to ask Sadie for her response.
    ‘Well,’ she began awkwardly. ‘I have to admit that I had the wrong impression about the girls. I take back what I said earlier; they obviously
do
deserve to be here. And their performance tonight was outstanding.’
    Crystal felt her spirits lift;
this could make all the difference.
She looked over at Dallas and he winked at her. Charlie was next. ‘Girls, what can I say? You were brilliant.’ And when everyone had said their piece, Dallas spoke. ‘I’m glad the girls got to have their say. They’ve been professional andhardworking from the start. They could have played for the sympathy vote, but they never have because they and I believe you should stand and fall by the performance you deliver. And tonight, girls, you did yourselves, and me, proud. You were awesome. You deserve to win.’
    Crystal and the girls couldn’t stop smiling as they went back to the dressing room. ‘Oh my God!’ Belle squealed. ‘Thank God you did that, Crystal, otherwise that would have been it.’
    The three of them couldn’t believe what had happened and it took several minutes for them to calm down. Crystal tried to bring them back to reality. ‘Come on, we’ve got to focus on performing our next song.’ But it was hard. They all felt wired, longing to get back on stage. Luckily their next song, ‘When Will I See You Again?’, demanded a full-on performance, no