Much better.
Today was the talent show.
Let's start this tale of woe....
THE TALENT SHOW
I paced the stage back and forth, the presence of the other contestants not even registering in my brain. I glanced over at the judges table, where Hunter was sitting. He waved at me and I wiggled my fingers back at him, then continued to nervously pace. About 90% of the people performing were singing. And one of the four judges were Hunter. Last year, I embarrassed myself when the judges said rude and nasty things about me. But then they came up to me later, telling me that they gave bad comments to the good ones and good comments to the bad ones. It was all staged. But it had still hurt.
So why, for god's sake, was I going to do it again?
I don't know.
I really don't know what made me do it.
But before I knew it, I was sitting with the other contestants in the seats of the auditorium, my stomach getting progressively sicker. After several very talented acts, it was my turn to go up. I knew it was going to be bad when I heard a bunch of jocks from the balcony yell out Hunter's name. Shit. They knew. Then again, it wasn't exactly the biggest secret. Then, they tried to play my music from the halfway point. Dumbass tech crew.
So I sang. I sang as best as I could. Gradually I became aware that people in the audience where talking while I was singing, but they faded into white noise as I struggled to keep up with the accompaniment. Finally, I finished. There was a small smattering of polite applause. I got off the stage quickly, and took my seat. I didn't even hear the "nice judge"'s comment. All I heard was Aleeshya, a rich, beautiful, blonde girl in school parliament who was Maureen in RENT.
"You slaughtered every youtube cover ever."
The audience "ooooooooh"'d their approval.
I didn't hear Dakota's comment.
The microphone was passed to Hunter. I bit my lip, unable to look at him.
"You really made that song your own..." He said, and my heart leapt.
"....too bad."
Bang, shot down.
I couldn't help it. The tears began to fall.
Fuck them.
Fuck them all.
(Hey look a poem)
Maddy, a popular, attractive girl from my cast (she had done an acoustic cover of "Someone like You"-Adele) sat next to me.
"Vixen!" She squealed, hugging me. "What are those tears for? You did great!"
Fuck you and your sympathy, Maddy, I thought as I angrily wiped the stubborn tears away. "I'm fine." I lied. Eventually she left. I rushed to the bathroom as soon as I could and stayed there.
I got into 4th period (musical theatre) with my eyes back at normal colour. Darcy saw me and approached. "You did so good, Vixen!" She exclaimed, or some other praise like that. "Did you hear what Hunter said?" I whispered bleakly. She nodded.
"Vixen, did you see him during the song?" She asked. I shook my head.
"I was listening to him, but I was watching him. They passed along the slip of paper with his line to him. He read it, and he kept shaking his head, and the other judges kept nodding it. He didn't want to read it. And he looked so nervous after."
This stopped me. I sniffled, and looked into Darcy's soft, amber eyes. "Really?"
"Really." She nodded. I sighed and buried my face into her neck, smelling her hair. "You smell nice." I remarked.
When the bell rang, I decided to go grab my stuff. I headed up towards my locker, and opened it quickly, stuffing my physics notes into my backpack. I kept looking at the staircase, wondering if I'd see Hunter. Sure enough, I saw him come through the door. Our eyes met for a fraction of a second, and I forced myself to look away. I was embarrassed. I was pissed.
But still he approached.
"Hey, you did great." He said, rubbing my shoulder.
"Hmph." I replied indignantly, not looking at him.
"What's wrong?" He asked, his voice tinged with concern. I finally looked out from my locker.
"I just love making myself look like an idiot in front of the entire school, you know that?" I said bitterly, throwing the textbook into my bag.
"Hey, hey, what do you mean?" He started, but I shook my head. "You did great. Better than I thought you would, actually."
Well thanks, asshole. I thought to myself as I zippered up my bag and he went off to his locker. A couple of girls started talking to him as I pretended to root through my stuff. Fuck. Fuck. Who the hell did he think he was, anyway? Fuck.
I zippered up my bag, put on my jacket, and walked down the hall. I passed by Hunter, and as he looked at me, I gave him a smile, but it felt like a grimace.
"See you." I tried to say as flatly as possible, but instead, my voice sounded small, meek, sad.
"Hey, hey, wait." He said, and he grabbed my wrist. I hesitated, and that was just enough time for him to lean in and say, "Can you wait for me?" I swallowed and nodded. Dammit. He had -has- me on a fucking string. He closed his locker and finished talking to the girls about some kind of lab, and they smiled at me. I looked at the ground.
He walked me back to the auditorium.
"Thanks for being merciful with your comments." I noted, a slight sting of sarcasm in my voice. He looked slightly upset. "Yeah... we were given cards to read off of." He said. So it was true. I nodded and looked at the ground. "Do you have Rent?" He asked.
"Yeah. I came up to get my stuff. What about you?"
"I gotta work on a Law project that's due tomorrow."
"Oh. Well, have fun..." I began to leave, but he grabbed my wrist again.
"Hey, hey..." He whispered softly, and he pulled me into a warm embrace, planting a kiss on my cheek. "You did fine, okay?" He said to me.
"Really?"
"Really."
I smiled weakly and kissed his cheek. We kissed each other full on, and then he held onto my hand. "I'll see you around." I said softly. His hand was still touching mine as he walked away.
"See you." He said, and then he left.
I guess I felt a little better after that....
But I'm still never doing the show again.
-V.
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