Hello everyone! Thank you so much 11k on this story! As my thanks, here's an extra long chapter for you! Hope you enjoy it and do vote and comment. I love hearing from you all!
BAILEY'S POV:
NIGHT OF THE PRE-TALENT SHOW PARTY.
I was pacing around my room as I waited for Matt to drive by. He was supposed to pick up Jonah and Amber and then swing by to pick up Nate and myself. Due to nerves, I had gotten into my outfit really early. It was barely half past six, and Matt was supposed to come at seven. Nevertheless I freaked out. So much could go wrong!
I could get there late. I could forget the lyrics on stage. I might freeze and not utter a word and look like a fool. The crowd might absolutely hate me! I could have a wardrobe malfunction. I might perform only to find that the mic isn't working and nobody heard me. Lynn knocked on my door. I jumped at the sound. "Chill out sister. You'll work up a sweat if you continue pacing. You'll ruin your make up." She adviced as she lay down on my bed. I fought the urge to touch my face. Lynn had spent almost an hour on my make up and I didn't want to ruin it.
"Maybe I should just quit. I mean, no one's going to miss me if I don't perform." I said and sat down beside her. "Your friends will. And Nate will. Maybe Matt will too. You can't deny that there are people counting on you to be there, Lee. And I know for a fact that you guys are going to smash it." She said. "You really think that, don't you?" I smiled drily. Lynn sat up.
"Let's assume you skipped your performance. Are you sure you don't want to be there to support the others? You said Max will be performing in a small skit and Ellie is debuting her poetry...they need you there as much as you need them." Lynn said. My phone began to ring; Amber was calling.
"You're right. I'm going to go there and be there for my friends. And perform without worrying about anything. I'll call you once I'm off the stage, 'kay?" I said as I grabbed my coat. "Sure. Good luck!" Lynn hugged me and I ran downstairs as fast as I could in heels. "Nate let's go!" I called out. He came down with his guitar and mom came out of her room. "Good luck you guys. Call me once you're done. And don't forget to have fun! That's the most important thing." She said. "We know, mom." Nate hugged her and I did the same before going out.
Matt was in the drivers seat. I took Nate's guitar from him and we both got into the back seat with Amber. Jonah gave me a high five from the passenger side. "We're going to rock this!" He announced and we all whooped in response. The drive barely took twenty minutes. The party was being held in the local town hall that the students contributed towards and rented every year for this event. Though the pre-talent show party was not an official school event, teachers had begun to attend it over the years. Now it was like school tradition (though the school still refused to pay for the hall).
Nate got off at the entrance so that he could go set up for the performance. The rest of us got off after Matt had parked in the parking lot. As we got out of the car Matt asked, "You nervous?" I snorted. "I almost didn't come today." I replied. Matt frowned. "How are you going to handle pressure tomorrow? You know that you'll be on stage alone, right?" He asked as we caught up with Amber and Jonah. "Yeah. This will be practice." I said.
Inside, the hall had been converted to suit our needs. There were two small stages added apart from the main stage. There was a photo booth (that was just a fancy background and members of the photography club standing to click), refreshments table (courtesy of the teachers), game booths (from the video game club and gym staff) and near the entrance was a counter distributing leaflets, which obviously was from the Literature club. I headed over to the table- there were leaflets to promote the various clubs (obviously), schedules for the night (my performance was near the top *gulp*) and flyers for local stores that had helped sponsor the venue.
I grabbed a schedule for the night and went to look for Matt. I found him with Nate behind the main stage. "Guys, our performance is fourth. Is the sound system stuff good?" I asked Nate. "I can't set up right now Lee. But yes, I've made sure everything's ready. It won't take long once we're on stage. You guys should go mingle or whatever. We'll meet here for warm up once the third performance starts. Okay?" Nate clapped my shoulder and walked towards a group of people who were his classmates when he was in high school.
"Okay", Matt began, "I have some stuff to do. See you here for the performance?" He asked. "Sure." I replied and watched him leave. I began to walk around looking for my friends when I ran into Mr.Mitchell.
"Hello Bailey. I heard you will be performing with Matthew tonight. Is it true?" He asked. "Yeah. We're starting to get along now." I shrugged. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Max enter, holding hands with Kevin. He was literally glowing with happiness as he spoke to Amber and Jonah. "That's good. You said you'd sort out your issues outside of school and you kept your word. I'm very proud of you Bailey. Good luck with your performance." Mr.Mitchell said kindly and shook my hand. "Thank you sir." I grinned and rushed to meet Max and the others.
"Hey! Look who it is? The Beast and Gaston!" I exclaimed and gave Max a big hug. "Haha. That'll never get old, will it?" Kevin said and I gave him a quick hug too. "I actually like it! It's an awesome twist on the original." Max said. Amber gasped.
"You should totally change the ending. You know, instead of Belle entering at the end of the fight scene, she should interrupt and tell the Beast that she was only here to introduce his true love to him and he need not fight it. The play can end with the Beast and Gaston riding into the sunset." She said with a dreamy look on her face. "Okay! Amber's obviously had something weird to eat." Jonah said and pulled her to his side, where she simply lay her head against his chest. Well, stomach. Jonah was tall and she... wasn't; to put it nicely.
"Sorry to break this up, but the director needs us to gather. We'll see you after the skit?" Kevin proposed and we wished them luck before they left. "When's Ellie reading?" Amber asked. I looked at the schedule. "She's near the end. All the poetry and creative events are on stage B after 8." I said referring to one of the smaller, artificial stages that the student committee had set up.
"Where are the others? I thought everyone from your group was coming." Jonah asked. "Ash and Terry are outside with the football team, they'll come in soon. Logan and Gemma will be here in time for Lee's performance." Amber referred to her phone. "Well I better look for Matt. We don't have long before we need to start warming up." I said as I heard applause coming from the main stage. The first performance had just ended. "He'll most probably be in a tree." Jonah adviced as I set off to look for Matt. I smiled tiredly. How typical.
I went outside to look for him. I spotted some other members of the basketball team, but they hadn't seen Matt. Taking Jonah's advice, I walked towards the ring of trees that had been raised along the perimeters of the compound. They were extremely tall and it was tough to see anything in them in the fading sunlight. "Matt?" I called out. I felt someone watching me and turned around, but like all horror movies, there was nothing.
"Relax Lee, at least you're not in a real forest. One sign of danger and you run out of this place." I muttered to myself. I braced myself for calling out again. "Matt, our performance is coming up. I need you to come down now." I said loudly. There was a loud sigh from above me and I moved away. A few branches shifted right at the top and a dark figure climbed down. Matt jumped the last few feet to the ground. "How long?" He asked as he patted himself to check for leaves. "The third performance should be starting now." I said and absent-mindedly got a leaf out of his hair.
"Thanks." He said and set his hair in place with his fingers. I walked ahead and we made to the backstage in time. We warmed up, had some water and waited for the previous performance to end. As Nate checked the tuning of his guitar, the nerves began to set in again. I reminded myself to breath, but it felt like my lungs were emptying themselves. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. It didn't do much, but it was all I could do. That was till Matt took my hand in his. I looked at him questioningly. "I'm nervous too." He said. That made me smile. I took comfort in that small gesture of his.
Finally, the audience burst into applause and the performers came off stage. The host, Angela Dawson from the student committee came on stage to announce our names. "Oh god. This is it. No turning back. We can do this." I whispered and Matt squeezed my hand. "We can do this." He whispered back. "Please welcome, Bailey Stanford and Matt Anderson!" Angela announced and my legs gave way. Matt caught me before I fell all the way. "C'mon Bailey. You can do this. Be strong." He looked me in the eye and said sternly. I nodded mutely and followed him onto the stage.
The lights shining down on us were extremely bright, and blinded me for a moment. I took the mic that Matt put in my hand. I couldn't see much of the audience beyond the first line. But what warmed my heart was that all my friends were right in the front. They all looked at me with encouragement and excitement. They had always been there for me, pushing me and supporting me. I would do this for them. I vaguely registered Matt asking me if I was ready. I nodded. "Let's do this." I said.
The sound of Nate's guitar filled my ears and the hall, and I closed my eyes. I imagined that I was in my room, alone and that I was singing to myself like I usually did. I held up the mic and began to sing, "I thought that I'd been hurt before..." The performance was almost surreal. We sang as if there was no one else in the room. It was just Matt, myself and the guitar. I swayed to the beat and the song came to me like second nature. I could hear the mic carry my voice through the room, loud and clear. As we sang the last lines of the song I realised that the audience had been singing along the whole time.
Nate played the last chord and the audience burst into applause. The lights came on and I could see everyone clearly. Ash and Gemma looked like they had been doing a couple dance to the song. Everyone was clapping and whooping and I felt like I was on cloud nine. I grinned, my fear gone and accepted a hug from Nate, who had rested his guitar against the bench he was sitting on. We went off-stage and I hugged Matt. "You did great. I was a little afraid that you'd faint or run away, but you did it!" He said. "We did it." I echoed. I pulled back a little to smile at him, but he leaned closer and closer till...
"Lee! You guys were amazing!" Gemma shrieked and ran to hug me. I stepped away from Matt to hug Gemma instead. "Thanks, you guys!" I said as everyone came up to us. Matt and I were engulfed with hugs and compliments. "You guys need to chill. This wasn't even the real performance!" I said when they refused to stop. "Why? Were you lip syncing?" Logan asked. I rolled my eyes and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"No. The real performance is tomorrow. Me. Alone on stage." I said and everyone sobered a little. "That's no problem." Matt exclaimed. "We're all gonna be there. Front row. Just like today." He said seriously and everyone made sounds of agreement. I gave him a small smile. Terry rolled his eyes. "You know what Lee? Let's cross that bridge when we get to it, yeah? Today we celebrate these amazing performances- your song, Max's play and Ellie's poems." He put an arm around Ellie who grinned. "We'll save the rest for that night. A real party. With booze." He said and everyone groaned. Everyone except Matt and Logan, who whooped in excitement.
Then night went on to be wonderful. The small skit that Max was part of got a standing ovation from every student in the audience. Ellie was actually called on stage for an encore recitation. We all had had dinner together and shifted the party to the garden outside when the hall had to be shut down. One thing was for sure though, I was no longer scared for my performance the next day.