This Life

Truth

Jamielyn walked past people with her head down. All around her, she can hear whispers of her schoolmates. She knows what their on about of course, though she ignored them and followed her friends to the gymnasium. She looked around and saw Erin motioning for her to come backstage.

"Jamie! There you are!" Agatha grinned. "Sam was just about to tell us our places!"

"Wait." Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "Jamie didn't get a place did you guys know that?"

Agatha and the others froze.

'Jamie? Jamie didn't get a place?'

'Ok, how is that possible again?'

'What does she mean Jamie didn't get a place? Of course she did! Right?'

'B-but...unbelievable! Jamie must have a place!'

'Confirmed! Somebody switched the results!'

"C-can you please repeat that?" Dan said in a low tone. "I think I- well we- misheard you."

"I said that Jamie didn't get a place." Sam shrugged. "Anyways, Andrea! You won 4th runner-up. Erin, you got 3rd runner-up. Dan, 2nd runner-up. Kyle, 1st runner-up and....AGATHA FOR CHAMPION!"

Sam hugged Agatha quickly before running off. Agatha looked at Jamie and held her hand. "What happened?"

"I dunno." Jamie looked away and shrugged. "Maybe I wasn't good enough. Anyways, I better get a seat and the 5 of you should prepare. Bye."

They looked at girl.

"Something's definitely off." Agatha frowned.

"Yeah, I mean, Jamie's artwork must've been much more wonderful than ours...." Andrea trailed off.

"What is it?" Erin looked at her.

"....We never saw her artwork before..." Andrea replied.

Dan looked at her, knowing what she's going on about. "And we never saw her working on her own art, did we?"

"You don't mean..." Kyle looked at them.

"And we always bugged her to get our artwork fixed." Agatha said softly.

"So it's our fault..." Erin ran his hands through his hair.

"Guys, get ready." Sam whispered. "The principal's about to announce your names."

"Now, for the 4th runner-up of our very own 2nd Avant Garde....Ms. Andrea Benette!" The Principal announce and the crowd cheered for the journalist.

Andrea walked up the stage, without even a single smile. And the others were called in too, all of them, unhappy about their position right now. They might be winners, but they were the reason why their friend lost.

Maybe their wondering why I'm not in any place. Well....I wasn't able to submit my art ok? I was too busy creating theirs. Yeah sure, I have the decision to decline their wishes, but I just couldn't let them down. Their my friends, it's always them before me. It's the least I can do for them.

So I guess I spent all my time to finish theirs and didn't even bother mine. Though, I'm kinda bummed out since I wasn't able to pass mine, but it's worth it, just to see their smiling faces. As out principal called Andy, she didn't even show us a smile. So did Erin, Kyle and the others. What's wrong with them? Didn't they want to win?

'I hate this.' Agatha thought. She didn't even bothered to listen to the principal, as she was too busy thinking about Jamie. She looked at her Italian best friend, she saw her smiling, which just pained her even more. 'Isn't she sad about this? She, like- I dunno, sacrificed for us! Ugh!'

She stared intently at the microphone. Then to Jamie, then to the microphone again. It was going on like this before she mad up her mind. 'Yup I'm doing it.'

She went near the principal and took the microphone.