Liam sang through the first chorus with confidence, but his voice began to waver when he reached the second. He stopped singing and just stood there with his mouth open.
Molly stopped playing, looking over at Liam and trying to figure out how she could help him. He'd been so excited to have the solo a few weeks ago. She noticed that his fingers were shaking as he held onto the music sheet.
Before Molly could say anything to Liam, Nicholas patted her on the shoulder.
“I have an idea,” Nicholas whispered to Molly as he stood up from the piano bench. He crossed the rehearsal room floor and crouched down in front of Liam so their heads were at the same height. Nicholas lowered the sheet music from in front of Liam's face.
“Hey there, Liam,” he said gently.
“Hi, Mr. Kerstman.” Liam shuffled his feet a little, not meeting his eyes.
“You nervous?” Nicholas asked. His tone was light and friendly.
“Yeah.” Liam nodded and let out a big sigh. “Sorry.”
“You don’t need to say sorry,” Nicholas told him. He got a little closer and smiled up at Liam. “I used to have stage fright, too.”
“Really? You had stage fright?” Liam sounded surprised. “But you’re so tall.”
Nicholas grinned. “Even tall people get scared sometimes.”
“If you say so,” Liam replied, but he didn't sound like he believed him at all.
“You want to know a secret?” Nicholas kept his voice low, like he was sharing a secret. “For getting over stage fright?”
“Yeah,” Liam said, a light coming back into his eyes.
“Never look anyone in the audience in the eye. You should always look past them. For example, look at Ms. Molly—” Nicholas turned to look back at Molly, who offered him an eager wave. “If you look at the wall behind her, she’ll still think you’re looking right at her. Go on. Try it out.”
Liam stared over at Molly.
Or rather, at the wall behind her.
Nicholas subtly motioned for Molly to begin playing Liam’s song again. Molly kept her focus on Liam this time as she played the familiar notes.
“Go for it, Liam,” Nicholas whispered from his spot on the floor.
Liam’s eyes were still stuck on the wall, glued to the same spot behind Molly.
And the words came out in his sweet voice. All of them. He didn't even need the sheet music in his hands. He knew the words already, but for the first time since he'd agreed to have the solo, he sang out.
A huge bright smile spread across Liam’s face as he realized what he was doing. He sang the rest of his song, while seemingly keeping eye contact the entire time.
“I did it! I did it!” shouted Liam as Molly played the last notes of the song.
“You did it! You did it!” Molly couldn’t hide the pride in her voice as she ran from the piano bench over toward Liam. She pulled him into a happy hug.
Molly looked over at Nicholas where he still sat crouched on the floor. “Nicholas, where’d you learn how to do that? That wall thing?”
“Eh. It’s just something I learned back in business school,” Nicholas said with a shrug, rising gracefully to his feet. “The key to solving stage fright is pretending you’ve solved it. Pretending to make eye contact. A shy kid’s workaround to succeeding in New York.”
“Thanks, Mr. Kerstman!” Liam smiled up at Nicholas. “I’m gonna go call my mom!”
And he ran out of the room with a huge smile on his face.
“Don’t forget to tell her that the choir goes on at seven, but you need to be there by six!” Molly shouted after Liam as he ran off. She turned back to Nicholas, folding her arms against her chest. “Huh.”
“Huh?” Nicholas repeated her expression with a shrug.