There's Nothing Holding me Back

A week after me and Taylor had sung our song together, I was in music class once again practicing playing other instruments but not playing any songs. It wasn't until Mr. Gram called me out of class that things started going the way I wanted.

"Congrats kid, you managed to convince him to come and sing with you. He'll be at the orphanage in a few hours, but he'll only be staying for a couple of days. You need to have everything be perfect, otherwise all of this would have been for nothing." Mr. Gram congratulated me and sent me home for the day to prepare for his arrival.

I made sure all the instruments were in tune, that Ms. Portman was ready to meet Mr. Jackman and that we had ample space to work in. Everything was ready and now I was just waiting for him to arrive.

A few hours later and a black car parked in front of the orphanage gate. the door swung open and out stepped the Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman. I rushed over to the gate and welcomed him inside, calling for Ms. Portman as well.

"So, you the kid?" I nodded my head and Jackman looked me up and down. I didn't know why he was doing that, but I felt incredibly violated. Not wanting to offend him though I just let everything be. "I saw that video of you performing with that girl, quite impressive. However, I want to make sure you're the real deal."

"Let me guess, you want me to play something for you right now?" I questioned and the man nodded his head. I slumped my shoulders but still walked up to the stage. I needed something that would impress him, but what song should I do.

While I was thinking Ms. Portman entered the room and saw Jackman standing on his own. She saw that he was looking at something and followed his gaze to see me on the stage with the instruments and my hand on my chin thinking.

"Is there a problem Mr. Jackman? Why is Shawn up there and not giving you a tour of the place like was planned?" She walked up and questioned Jackman who gave her a side glance before turning back to look at me.

"I need to see if he's the real deal. That was a video, could've been edited or faked. If he plays live, I'll be able to see if he really has skills." He answered her question, but didn't bother looking at her as he spoke. Ms. Portman didn't seem to mind that though, but she did get upset at something though.

"How dare you think we would fake one of our children's talents. Shawn has worked hard to play as well as he has and no one has the right to insult that by questioning his abilities." She crossed her arms and verbally attacked the movie star. I didn't want her to get into trouble though so I stepped in and stopped her from doing anything more.

"Don't worry, he just wants a performance. In fact, why don't we gather the rest of the kids so they can watch as well." I gave her a suggestion and she immediately left to go and gather the other kids. Ever since me and Taylor had performed the other kids have been asking us when we would perform again.

After a couple of minutes all the kids had arrived and gathered in the cafeteria. Taylor was also in the crowd at the front, I would be doing a solo song today. I nodded my head and split into my clones and had them each grab an instrument.

With everything ready I started playing a song that I listened to a bunch in my past life.

(For more immersion listen to 'There's Nothing Holding me Back' by Shawn Mendes)

The guitar started the song off before I took over and began singing.

♪I wanna follow where she goes

I think about her and she knows it

I wanna let her take control

'Cause every time that she gets close, yeah♪

♪She pulls me in enough to keep me guessing, mmm

And maybe I should stop and start confessing

Confessing, yeah♪

I split off a couple more clones that started a clap and the guitar playing clone began his beat.

♪Oh, I've been shaking

I love it when you go crazy

You take all my inhibitions

Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

♪You take me places that tear up my reputation

Manipulate my decisions

Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

The crowd got a bit loud, whistling and such as we reached a point without many lyrics in the song.

♪There's nothing holdin' me back

There's nothing holdin' me back♪

Reaching a vocal point of the song, the crowd once again quieted down.

♪She says that she's never afraid

Just picture everybody naked

She really doesn't like to wait

Not really into hesitation♪

As I was singing Taylor's eyes widened as she heard the lyrics. I didn't notice this as I was too busy looking out over the rest of the crowd.

♪Pulls me in enough to keep me guessing, whoa

And maybe I should stop and start confessing

Confessing, yeah♪

♪Oh, I've been shaking

I love it when you go crazy

You take all my inhibitions

Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

♪You take me places that tear up my reputation

Manipulate my decisions

Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

Once again the crowd started cheering and bouncing.

♪There's nothing holdin' me back♪

♪'Cause if we lost our minds

And we took it way too far

I know we'd be alright,

Know we would be alright♪

♪If you were by my side

And we stumbled in the dark

I know we'd be alright,

I know we would be alright♪

The crowd began clapping along to the beat, joining the clones who were already clapping to the beat.

♪'Cause if we lost our minds

And we took it way too far

I know we'd be alright,

I know we would be alright♪

♪If you were by my side

And we stumbled in the dark

I know we'd be alright,

We would be alright♪

♪Oh, I've been shaking

I love it when you go crazy

You take all my inhibitions

Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

♪You take me places that tear up my reputation

Manipulate my decisions

Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

♪There's nothing holdin' me back♪

♪I feel so free

When you're with me,

Baby♪

♪Baby, there's nothing holdin' me back♪

Applause rung out around the cafeteria, kids had begun whistling and cheering for me after hearing me sing. Ms. Portman was also clapping her hands as she saw me complete another song. Taylor was looking at me with stars in her eyes from the front row.

Hugh Jackman, the man that I had performed this song for in the first place, was also clapping his hands, a smile on his face as he looked at me. I bowed and walked off stage and straight towards the actor.

"Not bad kid, gotta say I'm impressed. I read the lyrics of the song you wrote and I gotta say that it was amazing. I even thought that it was written by a famous musician, but now I realize that all the artists we have now are crap compared to you." He patted me on the shoulder as he spoke and complimented me.

"Thank you, sir, so does that mean you'll sing with me in the song?" I had a hopeful expression; this was the reason he was here after all so surely, he would agree after coming all this way.

"You bet, now who is this Ms. Portman that I'm singing with as well. I saw that you start us off then I pick up with her and finish." He looked around for another adult in the room who would be Ms. Portman. After seeing that there were only kids and our caretaker, the one who yelled at him, it clicked. "Shit."

"Sorry about that, please look past her blunder and try to work with her as best you can." I had a smile on my face as I saw Jackman hold his head in his hands and sigh. Ms. Portman also sighed and looked at me with a small smile.

"Alright, let's get this started shall we." I tried to move us along and past that atrocious introduction. We moved to an empty room that had some microphones that Mr. Gram was lending us to help with recording and also the instruments that I would be using in the song.

"You play all of these instruments?" Jackman was looking at the instruments lining the wall in wonder. He hadn't heard of anyone this young who could play this many instruments.

"I can't play them all masterfully, but I can play them all for the song that we'll be recording. Just set up and I'll handle the rest." I moved him towards the microphone and headset that was hanging off the mic while I had clones split off and move towards all the different instruments.

Ms. Portman knew the drill, we had gone over her parts of the song multiple times with Mr. Gram replacing Jackman so she didn't have to worry about messing up her lines. I walked over to my microphone and cleared my throat.

"This is Shawn Mendes, here for A Million Dreams, Take 1." I signaled for my clones to start the recording and the music, setting our first session off. It took a couple of tries but eventually Jackman was able to get the right pitch and tone for the song.

We would be able to finish recording the song soon, there were just some problems with us messing up some of the words. We would be finished recording probably tomorrow.