Disclaimer: All right, this story is not real. NOT REAL! Not to be read by anyone under the age of 18/21 yadda yadda yadda! I'd love to hear some feedback as per usual. Please feel free to leave me a comment in the COMMENT Box at the end of the page. You see those big empty stars too? Maybe bump those up to five full ones? We wouldn't want them to be empty now would we? All alone like that? You're not a monster are you?
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Carrie Underwood leant back in the plush leather seats of the rented limo and peeked out of the tinted windows to look at the large centre that was hosting 'The X-Factor' on Fox. She smiled at the sight of how many people had turned up for the show. It was long past the audition period and tonight, Carrie was here as a special guest performer. She did have the liberty of performing a duet with anyone who wanted to approach her but as she tucked some blonde strands of hair behind her ear, she was currently just waiting to play a few of her songs as a medley in the last part of the show.
As the car pulled around to the side to a hidden area where Carrie would be smuggled into the arena, her phone beeped to life with a text message. The signature tone meant it came from her husband and current Nashville Predators centre right player, Mike Fisher. Smiling already, she fished her phone out of her handbag and read the text message.
'Hey beautiful, how's the ride?'
Licking her peach coloured lips, she thought on an answer before jabbing at the screen of her phone.
'Boring so far. Just turned up at the arena. Looking forward to seeing Simon again! xxx'
The little text bubble under her message changed from 'sent' to 'read' and then Mike started to tap up a response.
'Looking forward to seeing Simon Cowell? I thought you were crazy when you married me, now I know it's true! :P'
That made the Oklahoma native laugh out loud, she was about to tap out a response when the limo pulled to a stop. Removing what she had typed and changing it, Carrie sent the text away with a smile.
'lol! I'm at the show now, call you tonight?'
'Sounds good, love you hun.'
'Love you too baby xxx.' Carrie then locked the screen and dumped the phone into her handbag as the door was opened for her. Lifting herself out of the limo, Carrie smiled at her driver and thanked him, subtly slipping him a ten dollar tip. Waiting by the double doors was Simon Cowell and Nicola, a woman Carrie recognised instantly as his personal assistant. Gone was the typical tight black sweatshirt and jeans the general public was used to seeing Simon in, now he was dressed in a suit while missing the tie with the top couple of buttons undone revealing a pretty impressive bush of chest hair.
"There's my favourite star!" Simon said, oozing his typical charisma as he stepped forward to greet her.
"Simon!" Carrie smiled enthusiastically as she moved forward quickly and embraced him in a passionate hug. She could smell his expensive, intoxicating aftershave and if she was in any other sort of mood she may have even found it arousing but having just texted her husband that thought never even entered her mind.
"All ready for tonight?" Simon asked, releasing her from the hug as Nicola opened the door to the inside of the venue and held it open for the two of them. They both thanked the petite woman as they made idle chit chat making their way inside towards the main stage portion of the arena. Her pretty eyes flicked over the stage and it all looked tremendously familiar from her last couple of tours. The sound of metal hitting metal as the stage was assembled, the steady 'One, two. One, two.' of a roadie tapping against the microphone and then the lights flashing on and off to ensure that the live show would look professional and also be ready to launch for the televised show tonight.
What was new in Carrie's eyes at least, was the handful of nervous collection of people loitering near the front of the stage. The smile remained on her face as she observed the four groups of contestants: teens, young adults, groups and the over twenty fives. Carrie smiled fondly on that last group, if she had been performing tonight then she would be over there with them. She didn't mean to persecute, but her eyes seemed to focus on that group, there was a small dumpy African American woman with the most impossibly long hair and a flowing red dress chatting to a handsome enough tall blonde man with deep, piercing green eyes that were temporarily hidden by a set of stylish eye glasses.
"Those the contestants?" She asked, her right hand coming up and gesturing to the collection of people who were chatting near the judges table, the over twenty fives Carrie had taken an interest in. Simon followed her hand and nodded his head.
"Yes, the groups." He pointed them out. "Teens." His hand glided over them. "Young adults and then the over twenty fives." He turned to face her and studied her, him putting on his best poker face as he studied the beautiful young woman. "You rooting for any of them?"
"Me? Oh no, I'm just interested in who's performing tonight." Her eyes caught Simon's stare and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not! I just want to see who'll work well with me tonight."
"Well, I know the over twenty fives are a little light on numbers. Maybe one of them would be interested in getting to know you?" A slight smirk appeared on the side of the older British man. "Well, I've got things to do. Nicola will be around if you need anything. Break a leg beautiful." He said with a smile, planting a soft kiss of the side of Carrie's cheek which she happily reciprocated and returned.
With that, Simon moved away and disappeared to a selection of staff and various other people asking him a thousand questions at once. Carrie smiled and shook her head, she always wondered if she had never applied for American Idol maybe she would have been one of those people asking him those questions. The black haired man disappeared into the arena and the blonde haired singer superstar was left to her own devices. Smiling to herself, she spun on her flat shoes and looked at the selection of people. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that there was so many people with the groups section or the fact that she would have next to nothing in common with the younger selection of people but Carrie felt herself drawn to the over twenty fives.
Suddenly, all of the grace Carrie had possessed earlier had fallen away from her as if talking to Simon had made her the same awkward person she was when she was first auditioning for American Idol. As she approached the group of over twenty fives, the conversation they were having fell away to a stunned silence as they spotted Carrie walking over to them.
Smiling from ear to ear, Carrie waved and extended her hand for them to shake.
"Well hi! I'm Carrie!"
"Hi, I'm Janice." The small woman said, her lips parting into a wide smile to shake her hand. Carrie shook her hand eagerly and nodded her head, committing the woman's name to memory.
She then turned to face the only guy in the immediate area. It was now Carrie had a good chance to admire him. He was fairly well built, it looked like he had been hitting the gym a lot recently and had the look of a tennis player with strong forearms. His blonde hair was trimmed fairly short, just above the top of his spine and he had a darkened goatee that looked a lot like Robert Downey Junior's in the recent spat of Marvel movies.
"Hi, I'm Hugh."
"Hugh? Nice to meet you! How are we feeling today? Nervous?" She asked, a trademark smile still plastered on her face as she looked at the older group of contestants.
"Naw not really. It's just like singing in front of the judges at their houses. We'll be fine right Hugh?" Janice said confidently, playfully punching Hugh on his shoulder. The man didn't seem so sure but smiled, and nodded his head. Carrie crooked a perfectly styled eyebrow but nodded her head and said her goodbyes, moving on to meet the other contestants. However, as she met everyone who were all so eager to chat to her, her eyes kept flitting over to Hugh who would occasionally catch her eyes, blush adorably and then avert his gaze.
Carrie really liked him and as she was whisked away to make up and hair, the singer and star of the show had her iPhone in her hands and was instantly on Youtube looking for videos of him performing during the show to see his performing style. He had some gravel to his voice and Carrie liked that, if he had just enough of a growl it could drop an octave or two and send shivers up and down a woman's spine and with Carrie it was no different. If it wasn't for the ring on her right ring finger, the blonde singer may well have started writhing on the spot.
There was the usual small talk from the make-up people that Carrie wasn't exactly put off by but she had heard the usual pitter patter of conversation a million times before from all of the usual make up people in the business, she smiled and responded with the usual responses while studying her reflection in the mirror. Thankfully, Carrie was naturally smart as she was naturally beautiful and could respond to the chatting while her mind scrolled through an imaginary jukebox to see what would work with the gravel in Hugh's voice.
Her lips curled into a smile when she thought about 'Leather and Lace' from Fleetwood Mac. Deciding she would go and find one of the stage managers and ask if she could duet with Hugh, he was the only one who really grabbed her attention and she thought that the two of them could look pretty great on the stage.
"And Hugh is super cute isn't he?" One of the make up girls said as she applied a light shade of blush to Carrie's cheek. Her eyes met Carrie's and the singing superstar was forced into an answer.
"He is pretty cute!" Carrie said with a wide grin as she answered the girl. However, the second she said that it was as if she felt a burning on her ring finger where her wedding ring resided. Did she really find him that attractive? Her eyes moved down to the impressive jewel and instantly she felt ashamed. Being from Oklahoma, and despite being nowhere near the Bible belt of America, Carrie's parents had been incredibly religious and they were in church for every Sunday. Carrie had always been taught to be a God fearing child and while her church attendance had started to drop down, the ten commandments were hammered into her mind and she still lived to a very Christian principality. Naturally, that meant being adulterous never even approached her mind but with someone as attractive as Hugh it certainly did start to creep up into her mind...
No! She couldn't think like that and she certainly wouldn't as she was hours away from going live on the Fox network when her husband would be watching as well! She smiled and nodded her head as one last blast of hair spray landed on a strand of hair keeping it in a fashionable curl at the front of her face. Thanking the cosmetics team, Carrie climbed out of the chair and found herself walking in the middle of a near empty corridor. A small woman in a black staff uniform was walking up the hall with a clipboard in her hands checking it off as she walked. Her eyes flicked up and spotted Carrie and the poor girl damn near jumped out of her skin.
"Miss Underwood! Is everything okay with you?" She asked, obviously having been briefed as to look after the VIP. The blonde woman smiled and nodded her head, before looking around.
