Twisted Strings [MONSTER EDITING - Read at your own risk]

For the Team

16. For the Team 

On the evening of the first round, my nerves were on fire. I was in a mixed state of mind. While my palms were sweating, my heart raced, and my fingers tingled to wrap around the mic stand. I was eager to sing and perform on the stage – for the very first time. I was anxious too, thinking about scenarios where everything would go wrong.

Dad and Elliot were amongst the audience as were the rest of the families of the contestants. Rhodes parents weren't here because they had work till late and he had told them it was okay to skip out. I had seen Stella's Mom in the crowd earlier, she was strikingly similar to Stella and carried an air of intimidation. Lars parents were also there, waving jubilantly at us when we met.

''That's your Mom, isn't she?'' I had asked Lana earlier, pointing to a lady who held a banner with Lana's face printed on the side. The lady was tall, wearing a tank top to show off tattoos swirling all the way up her arms, and her face had ten different piercings. Lana had just grunted in response obviously embarrassed because of the banner. Her Mom had been a lot different than her image. She had hugged us all tightly before sending us off to the back stage.

''I can hear your heart beat.'' Lars muttered in my ear when we were waiting, he placed his face close to mine. I swatted him away with a defiant huff.

''That's the worst pickup line. Like ever.'' From the other side of the room, Melissa and the group were sat, and they kept looking at us. Melissa and Brooke were eyeing our outfits and makeup, which was elaborately done by Lana. Indigo was nervously glancing at Lars and Oliver was fixed on pointedly staring at the clock. The other guy, Yuto, looked humane at least, he was muttering prayers under his breath and kept looking at the door that would lead them to the stage.

''No, literally, I can feel your nervousness. Remember what I said before? Relaaaax Violet. If you are too scared, you will ruin the performance.'' Lars reminded me, patting my shoulder.

''No one is ruining anything.'' Stella overheard the conversation and added. ''No one can ruin anything.'' She said firmly.

''We prepared to hard, lets believe in ourselves.'' Rhodes said to us and gave me a reassuring smile. His encouragement suddenly uplifted me, and I returned the gesture. Yes, we had worked so hard on this performance, we wouldn't fail. Or like Stella said, we couldn't fail.

The team that were supposed to perform first were from an all-girls private school called Stanberg and they walked off to the stage, oozing confidence. All five girls had an intimidating air about them and Lars had told me that they were probably the most experienced and talented bunch here.

''Their fashion sucks though.'' Lana commented after Lars repeated the same thing again. She eyed their backs in distaste, her eyes holding disapproval. They had come in their school uniforms, white shirts, matching red ties and plaid skirts. Their hair (all blonde) were tied up in ponytails with a red ribbon. They were clones.

Mr. Flynn had paired all five girls together, so they must have had an awesome team already. Perhaps they were the only one who were a real team way before the contest started.

''Fashion is perspective Miss Thrift Store.'' Lars told her, he apparently was digging the school uniform look.

Lana clicked her tongue and glared at him, ''That's not fashion,'' she emphasized, ''its church wear.''

''We shouldn't make fun of others, have you heard of karma.'' Stella piped in and that shut them both up.

I sat nervously twisting in my plastic chair, my eyes glued to the door. We had a screen in the waiting room to see everyone's performances and since we were last ones going, we would have to watch all of them.