Page 64 of The Best Christmas Choir Ever

The room erupted at once, voices overlapping, the celebration carrying on to an ear-piercing level. Julian shoved his way through the crowd.

Doris grabbed Charlie and squeezed.

“We made it?” Charlie said, sounding a little stunned.

“Did you really have any doubts?” Doris asked as she kissed her cheek.

“No. I mean…” Charlie laughed, then spotted him, and to Julian’s surprise, dove right into his arms in front of everyone. “You were right about the audition video. It worked!” She pulled back, beaming at him with a smile bright enough to see from the very back of the balcony.

“But we did this,” Julian clarified.

Charlie stepped away, and he reluctantly let her go as Frank reached for his hand, giving it a firm shake. Jim clapped him on the shoulder, and Maggie squeezed his arm excitedly.

Suddenly there was a sea of people between him and Charlie.

“Okay, okay,” Charlie called, bringing some order to the room. She scanned the printed email. “The competition starts at 2:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve day. So that gives us almost eight days to polish up our performance. What we pulled off at the community center was great. I see no reason why we couldn’t top that with some focus and hard work.”

“Top it?” Maggie said. “Maybe we could actually win this thing!”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Julian agreed.

“Why not?” Doris said. “We have the right codirectors behind us.” She wrapped an arm around Julian, latching onto Charlie with the other, and pulled them close.

“And the talent,” Maggie said, fluffing her hair.

“Don’t forget the moves,” Jim added, doing a little box step.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Charlie said. “Let’s focus on the music and having a good time—”

“If we want to win, we have to figure out who our competition is,” Harriet interrupted.

The residents murmured in agreement.

Charlie caught Julian’s eye. He shrugged. If the residents wanted to win, who was he to dissuade them?

“The list is up,” Frank announced, staring down at Charlie’s laptop. He wheeled into the middle of the group.

“These are the other choirs?” Doris asked, looking over his shoulder. “The Elm Springs Middles? I bet that’s the middle school that’s entered with a name like that.”

“Oh well, that’s us finished,” Maggie said. “Game over. Who’s more deserving of the win than a bunch of children?”

“When they’ve had two hip replacements, we’ll talk about deserving,” Harriet cut in.

“I think there’s actually something else we need to worry about before we dissect the competition,” Charlie said. “What song are we singing?”

“Something Christmasy,” Doris said. “Obviously. I see no reason not to stay on theme.”

“We could do one of those cool mash-ups,” Jim suggested.

Charlie tapped her lips, nodding. “Take the best parts of songs we’ve already been working on.”

“Song choice could shake up everything,” Harriet said. “We want a crowd-pleaser. Something we can dance to. A tune that’ll get the crowd on their feet.”

“So maybe this is a little too on the nose, but I’m gonna throw it out there,” Julian said. “How about ‘Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer’?”

There was another one of those silent pauses. Julian glanced around, waiting for a reaction.

A booming laugh broke the silence. It was Frank, hunched over in his wheelchair, laughing so hard he was almost wheezing.