America Sings

America Sings- Chapter 14

I feel like a million creepy crawlies were squirming in the dark pit of my stomach. My designer Miss Me jeans are stretched tight against my leg, the material bounces with my feet. My freshly painted nails tap the armrest dividing me and my mother.

“Calm down, Amber. There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Mom tells me annoyed.

I ignore her. We still weren’t on complete speaking terms. Mom honks the horn at a blue van that just cut in front of us.

“This traffic is insane,” Lia grumbles. I look out of the window to the long line of cars that takes up five lanes.

Jane, who was driving in front of us, honks her horn at the same blue van.

“We need to get there in thirty minutes!” I exclaim worriedly.

“Once this traffic moves we should be there in ten minutes,” Mom soothes.

I ignore her again. It was time for the Killer Round. We are heading to the America Sings building and there we will meet the judges. Then we are going to choose our groups of five and the song that we will perform. Wednesday is when we sing for the judges. The day that I might have to go home… Two days…

Mom inches forward. Lia groans in boredom. I can see James and Zane get into a slapping war up ahead of us. Jane doesn’t even try to break them apart. Why couldn’t my mom be as cool as Jane? Jane wasn’t even mad anymore at James for being late.

Ten minutes later the traffic finally breaks up.

“Twenty minutes…” I warn my mom.

“We still have time,” Mom says wearily.

“I want to get there early!” I complain.

“You will!” Mom snaps. I glare at her and she glares right back.

Lia glances in between us. I look ahead of us at Jane who pushes James away as he tries to mess up her hair. Zane is laying down laughing. Why can’t my mom just be different?

Eventually we get there; of course I kept complaining because we were only five minutes early and we didn’t even know our way inside. We park besides Jane and James get’s out with Zane, the two of them shoving each other playfully. I glare at James and he stops, but he keeps smiling.

I can’t believe how huge it was! I thought of Wells Fargo Arena, which was about 20 miles away from Indianola, which I had always thought was huge. But this, this was at least ten times bigger! We all file into the building, following the sign to an auditorium. There are people going all over the place.

“Parents on the left side, competitors on the right,” a lady says. She’s wearing a pink shirt that says “iHelp”. She hands us sheets and gestures to the double doors behind her.

“Thank you,” I tell her and walk away. I was glad to get away from Mom. I didn’t want her hovering over every move I make. I sit in the middle of the hundreds of chairs, Lia sits on my left and James on my right. I look around in amazement. There were people of all different shapes and sizes.

“We will be beginning shortly,” a short lady announces from a podium up on the stage at the front of the auditorium. After awhile the lady begins to talk again. “My name is Deborah Simpson. I am the CEO of America Sings. I will be explaining to you the rules and procedures of America Sings. Now, if you will please direct your attention to the sheet in your hand.”

For the next ten minutes all of us are educated how America Sings works and our parts in it. She explains how the rounds will work and pretty much everything else.