Lie Until You Laugh

22- Finales

“Later,” Mason agrees. “But right now- what are we going to do to get out of this room? If we don’t show up for our performance, they automatically win.”

“HELP!” Stella screams, banging on the door desperately. Mason helps Stella and they both start frantically banging on the door to catch somebody’s attention. I would join them, but there’s no room at the door, so I just sit there uselessly and think of something else that can help us get out of this room. I can pick a lock, but we don’t have bobby pins and there’s nothing in there that can pick a lock.

“Stell?” Somebody calls from the other side of the door. It sounds like Anthony, but I might be wrong.

“Open the door!” She hisses to the voice.

“Is it locked? I can’t open it,” He tells us.

“Go get Penn, he has keys,” I say loudly as we hear the announcer guy quietly from where he is on the stage.

“And now, let’s welcome Stella, Mason, and Sienna to the stage for their performance and then the judges will determine a winner!”

“Sure,” He says and then I hear him walk away.

“Wasn’t that Anthony? Do you actually think he’s going to help?” Mason wonders skeptically.

Stella shrugs. “I have no idea, but we don’t really have a choice right now. I think he’s trying to get me to forgive him or something, now that he doesn’t have Gianna. I’m not having any of it though, but I might as well use him just this one time to get us out of this closet.”

“Stella? Where are you guys?” The announcer wonders from the stage and I want to shout in frustration.

“He deserves being used after all the shit he’s put you through,” Mason says just as the door makes some kind of jiggling sound and then swings open and Penn is standing there with Anthony.

“You’re a life saver!” I chirp as Mason, Stella, and I run passed them and out the door towards the stage. We don’t hesitate before running onto the stage in front of everyone.

“We’re here,” Stella grins at the announcer, who is actually the dean, Mr. Chester, who I haven’t seen since I was in his office being threatened with expulsion.

“That was a close one,” He teases and I realize that Mr. Chester is actually pretty charismatic when he’s not angry. “Good luck, you guys.”

He leaves the stage and I take my place on the stage for the beginning of the dance as Stella and Mason do the same. As Stella motions to the audio guy to start the song, I’m planning on ways to hurt Gianna and Ada for locking us in a closet. I know that I’m usually against revenge, but that just really makes me mad. I mean, who even does that? I’ve heard of people getting locked in closets before, but only in TV shows and movies, not in real life!

The song starts and we start dancing so I force myself to calm down so that I don’t mess up the dance, which would absolutely suck.

And you asked me what I want this year
And I'll try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

'Cause I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
In designer love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

I say the words in my head so that I get the steps right. It’s Better Days by the Goo Goo Dolls and it’s kind of a slow song, but not too slow. We spin and move around the stage gracefully and when we’re done, I look out in the crowd for Penn. I don’t see Penn, but I do see Chase sitting there next to Mr. Chester. I smile at him and he waves back. I didn’t know that he was going to be here, but it’s pretty cool that he is because when I had recitals back home, my mom was never allowed to go watch them and my dad would never even think about going. I’d never had one of my guardians (Chase isn’t my guardian, but it’s still cool) watch my dancing. It felt nice. I felt proud.