Common Misconceptions

Chapter Four

"Good day at school, sis?" He asked, sliding into the passenger seat. I huffed. Obviously he could tell I was pissed, did he seriously need to push it?

"Dylan was just being an idiot." I pulled my seat belt over my body and buckled in. Glancing at the clock, I started the car, realizing I had ten minutes to get to Arabella's school to pick her up from Extended Day.

Adam turned on the radio and carelessly flipped through the channels until Still Into You was blasting from the speakers. I sighed. It had been a long day and it was only Wednesday.

~*~*~

"I can't believe, of all the nights this week, it had to rain now!" My friend Eliza complained. Dance had just finished, and we were walking to the parking lot adjacent to the studio, when all of a sudden, the skies had decided to open up and completely drench our leotards and spandex.

Eliza, Reina and I had quickly ducked into a café next to our dance studio to wait out the storm. Luckily, there weren't many customers, so we had the place virtually to ourselves. As we sat down at the counter, I grabbed a sweatshirt out of my dance bag and pulled it on over my head.

A young barista came over and asked us for our orders. He was cute brunette boy, maybe a junior or senior, whose apron was about three sized too big for him. The girls and I ordered a cranberry scone to split, our favorite, in addition to my pumpkin spice latte, Reina's mocha cappuccino and Eliza's cinnamon hot chocolate. Reina sighed beside me as our orders were prepared.

"At least now we get coffee and pastries!" She chirped. Reina was definitely the optimist among us. When the cute barista brought us our drinks, I curled my fingers around the steaming mug, warmth instantly seeping into my cold, wet fingers. The smell of pumpkin spice was heavenly, so I blew on it to hasten the cooling process.

"Would any of you like to sign up to perform here Friday nights? The owner is starting a live music program to encourage young artists to show the talent." The barista asked us, bringing over a sign up sheet. I glanced up. Along with dancing, singing was a huge passion of mine. I'd had never performed, but had always dreamed about singing to people in a café such as this one.

Pulling the sign up sheet forward, I noticed there were only two acts signed up. A boy, Andrew Eason and a girl duet, Lindsey Anderson and Rachel Shaw.

"You should sign up Mae!" Reina encouraged. I blushed deeply.

"Yeah Mae, you've always said you wanted your voice to be heard!" Eliza agreed.

"What the hell." I shrugged, "What've I got to lose?" Reina and Eliza laughed. I scribbled my name on the line below the others. I figured I'd try it out and see how it goes.

The girls and I sat laughing with the barista and drinking mug after mug of the café specialties. I had learned his name was Taylor and he was a junior at Charlottesville School of the Arts. He had an arts scholarship in musical theatre and was currently playing Tony in the school production of West Side Story.

Our chat was finally broken up when Taylor's boss emerged from the office to tell us it was closing time. Eliza, Reina and I reluctantly downed our lukewarm mugs and gathered our belongings. We echanged hugs and numbers with Taylor and stood before the door, ready to brave the storm. We ran, screaming to my car a mere fifty yards away.

"Yuck!" Eliza complained as we quickly ducked inside the car. "Rain is so much better when you're inside watching it!" I laughed and fasten my seat belt.

"Come on, I love rain!" I protested. I really did love rain. Curled up on couch with a blanket and Netflix, rain beating on the roof, sounded like a perfect day.