A Different Way

chapter 7

Xailendra saw a long line leading to the auditorium.

Audition day.

She bit her lip nervously. She's already nervous about the auditioning ordeal, but the pressure heightens everytime she remembers that she will be performing in front of Jesy Nelson, a chance that she never thought she'd have.

It seemed like everyone in junior and senior high school is here, and that fact made her knees feel like jelly.

She pulled her phone out—yes, she still has it and the guy who took it from her received a 3-day suspension—and she plays around it for a bit, checked her Instagram and Twitter for updates and more. For her, standing in line right now, it felt like time wasn't running and it makes her even more tense and nervous.

Everything in this situation makes me nervous, damn.

She hears a faint voice coming from the school's big ass (what she calls it in her mind) auditorium, a girl singing and Xailendra swears she knows the song is familiar.

Moments later she realises what song it is. Secret Love Song.

Of course someone would sing that. I wonder how Jesy feels right now.

She couldn't believe she didn't think about someone singing SLS in the audition earlier because of course someone would, it's probably their biggest hit in the Philippines.

After what felt like hours, it was finally her turn to audition. In front of Jesy Nelson.

Oh, my gosh.

She doesn't know if she should feel relieved that she didn't have to wait anymore, or to be scared as hell because of her performance.

C'mon, Xailendra. Keep it together.

"Hi! How are you?" Jesy says, smiling at her.

"I'm— I'm feeling awesome, yeah." She said nervously. Jesy laughs a little at the girl's actions.

"No need to be so tense, darling. Shake those nerves out," She encourages the girl and shakes her hands around as an example for Xailendra. "Now, get to the stage, up there with the mic stand."

Xailendra did so, with her hands shaking, her hands wrapped around the mic. "Will this be working?"

"Nope, but act like it does. I'm gonna need to video tape you singing and acting your little skit, because there was a lot of issues on the past involving favoritism so, you get the whole point don't you?"

The green-eyed girl just nodded.

"How many songs have you prepared for me today?"

"Two."

"Perfect, let's start with the first one. Good luck."

The girl cleared her throat as she prepared herself for singing.

"One day after another,

How long it'd take, I wouldn't bother.

Lost my will to live,

Faster than I thought I'd ever did, oh,

Slowly, it's taking away my sanity

It feels ever so carefully

Oh, it's killing me softly, yeah

Mixed up emotions, anger and rage,

All happy memories lost in the haze

If I could see the past, just one last,

You know I would take just another gaze, oh yeah,

Just another gaze."

Xailendra stopped singing and looked at her teacher and saw her smiling ear to ear and clapped for her. "That was good! I'm craving for more though, you're amazing!"

"Thanks— uh, I haven't finished writing the song and—"

"You wrote that?" Jesy cuts her off. "Holy— that was so good."

The green-eyed girl felt relieved by what her teacher said. "Uh, thanks. Again." She said shyly.

"What's your next song?"

"Burn. From Hamilton."

Jesy gave her a knowing look and Xailendra just gave her a smile and nod.

Unlike the first song she performed, she sung the longer version because she got the signal that she might've found her voice entertaining but never really thought about what'll happen after this.

After her little performance—that gained a what seems like endless claps from Jesy—she performed her skit too, that gained her another round of applause from the woman.

She gave her a tiny 'bye' after Jesy told her she could go, and the first thing that was in her mind was, yes, that wasn't so bad wasn't it? At least I didn't fall on my face in front of her. But as she was thinking about it, she trips over her own feet but gains her balance immediately. It gained her an 'are you okay?' from Jesy that she returned with two thumbs up and a smile.

When she was out of Jesy's sight, she breathed a sigh of relief. Making sure that nobody sees her, she does her happy dance and jumps around for a little bit and walks to the school's courtyard after her little celebration, probably going to read a book.

☆。*。☆

hi :))

already done with planning 27 chaps and i realised that isn't even half of the book (kind of? maybe, idk what's supposed to be the half part of the book lol) but i guess this is gonna be a long journey

anyways, pls remember that ily always.

-xy <3 (oh and ps., xy isn't even my nickname/real name but it's like my stamp for my stories I guess)