“Hmm…I’ll find something.” Skyler kept looking. “’Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?’ That would be awesome.” He leaned against Crow. “Come on, Daddy. Sing that for me.” It was rare for him to pull out the daddy card with Crow, at least in a more public setting, but apparently it worked.
“Okay, okay. We can do that one. We can camp it up. Warner?”
“I guess that could be fun.”
“Yay!” Cody jumped out of his seat. “I’ll put you in for it.”
“Wait a minute, Cody. What are you singing?” I gave him my best daddy-glare.
“Um, ‘Raise Your Glass’ from Pink. That’s a fun party song. Skyler, will you sing with me?”
“No. But I bet Joey will.” He nodded at Joey who walked up with Vince.
“Joey will what?” Joey asked with his own glare.
Cody grabbed Joey and hugged him. “Sing with me.”
“Oh. Okay. Let’s do it.”
“Yay!” Cody cheered briefly before pointing at Skyler. “But Skyler still has to sing.”
“I’ll do a Bon Jovi song. Hmm… they have ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’ That works.” He sang a Bon Jovi song on our last trip, too, and it sounded amazing. I could see why he would stick to that.
We wrote our choices on the cards provided and Cody and Joey skipped up to turn them in. Before any of us were called on, some of the others sang, including Danny and Lee, performing a duet version of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” They were pretty good, and ended with Danny leaping into Lee’s arms, then he carried his little bridal style to a lounge near ours. Cody bounced over and gave them high-fives.
The three pups, Jax, Royce, and Todd, got up next, singing “Wannabe” from the Spice Girls. They were funnier than actually good. Each of them took one of the parts in the song, and I was pretty sure Jax was singing Posh Spice’s part, Royce was doing Scary Spice, and I think Todd was picking up Baby and Sporty. The only problem was that they weren’t always sure who was who, kept singing over each other, and stepping on each other as they acted out the song with crazy moves. They ended up in a dog-pile in front of the stage, laughing their asses off. We laughed with them until they called up Crow and me.
I wasn’t so sure about the song choice, but I stuck with my original strategy. We both acted as silly as possible, singing in falsetto. We had everyone laughing and singing with us by the end of the song. I was a lot more excited to hear Cody and Joey sing.
After high-fives and hugs, they were next.
“I’m nervous,” Cody giggled into the mic.
“Let’s do this.” Joey posed with a hip cocked to the side and a hand in the air.
Cody stepped up when the music started and pointed to the audience as he sang. “Right. Right. Turn off the lights. We gonna lose our minds tonight. What’s the dealio?” Then he strutted to the side, while Joey stepped up.
They exchanged verses and sang the chorus together like they’d rehearsed. At first, I was surprised, then I thought about it. They’d done this before, only not in public. They had dance parties a lot, acting out songs in the living room. I chuckled and swatted Vince’s shoulder. “Seen this one before?”
He turned to the stage, watching our littles strut and dance around. “Uh, now that you mention it…”
I winked at him. “They’re little stars.”
Vince nodded. “That they are.”
They jumped up and down toward the end of the song, when the chorus was repeated a lot, they encouraged everyone to join in, and we all did. Then they took bows while everyone clapped and cheered in a standing ovation. Cody was going to have a big head now. But afterward, he ran and jumped into my arms, wrapping his legs around my waist. “How was that, Daddy?”
I smacked a bunch of kisses all over his face. “Perfect, baby. You were perfect.”
We had a few more drinks, enjoying how much fun the karaoke was. Skyler did his Bon Jovi, and a few others sang. Some performed more than once, but soon enough, Jax grabbedthe mic. “Thank you. Let’s give a big thanks to Leslie and Dean for keeping this going tonight.” He gestured to his staff members, who had been facilitating, and everyone applauded. “Thanks to all of you for being on the cruise with us. Give yourselves a round of applause.” Of course, more yelling and raucous cat calls ensued. “Pride is one of my favorite times of the year, full of fun, celebration, found family and friends, and of course Drew’s events.” He held his hand out to where Drew sat right inside the bar area with Justin and Ward. “Thanks, Drew.” Of course, all of us were much louder then, since Drew employed more than half of the people here.
Drew held up his drink and gave a nod. “Thank you.”
“But not everyone has the same opportunities that most of us here do. There are, in fact, plenty of people who don’t. Plenty of young people are just starting out, struggling so terribly that they might not even have a place to live. That’s why we’re having a drag queen breakfast tomorrow.” Some clapping started, but Jax shut them down, patting the air. “There is a price tag on the meal. There will also be other fundraising activities, including tip jars and an auction. Plus, we have a drag queen to uh…harass…no, I mean, encourage. Right. She’ll encourage you to donate more.” He got a lot of chuckles out of that, and I was pretty sure there would be gentle and not-so-gentle cajoling going on. “The proceeds will all go to the Trevor Project to help LGBTQ+ Youth in Crisis.” That’s when the real cheering started and continued so long that Jax had to whistle into the mic to settle people down so he could finish. “Thank you so much for your enthusiasm. I expect to see you all at breakfast, but for now… karaoke is over. Please feel free to hang around, drink, dance, or whatever. Happy Pride, y’all.”
More hooting and clapping started again, and many people patted Jax’s back, gave him high-fives, or stopped him for a word as he made his way back to Drew’s table and the safety of Ward.
We chatted with some of the others for a bit, then made our way back to our room. I’d set up a surprise for Cody earlier in the day, so when we opened the door, candles were set up throughout the room, and a bottle of champagne was chilling in an ice bucket.
