Crescendo

Chapter One

My fingers are shaking as I sit in my backyard under the cherry blossom tree, my border collie, Penny, sitting beside me. Her tongue is hanging out of her mouth, and she's panting hard after our walk. I'd checked the mail right before we left, but it must've ran while I was gone. And now the letter is sitting in my lap, and I know my future is waiting inside the envelope. My parents are out of town for the weekend, taking a small spring vacation before school starts again. So I'm completely alone at my house. No matter what the letter inside the envelope says, I won't be able to share the news with my parents until tomorrow.

Penny nuzzles me with her nose, and I know she wants pets. But it feels like she's pushing me, trying to coax me into opening the envelope. But all I can do is stare at my name. Lauren Page, sitting above my address in Times New Roman font, and it's like it's calling me. I take a breath and decide, finally, to just do it. To tear it open. Rip it off like a band-aid, as my best friends Claire and Sam always say. So I slide my shaking finger under the fold and rip open the top. Then I pull the letter out of the envelope, unfold it, and scan the words on the page.

My heart is racing so fast, and the first word I see is the only one that matters: Accepted. Tears burn my eyes, and I hold the letter to my chest like a talisman and lift up my head to the sky. Penny whines beside me. I wonder if she can feel my relief. It's been months since my audition, and the lack of contact was beginning to make me nervous. But there's no need to be nervous anymore. It's done. I did it. I got into Juilliard. My dream school. The only school I cared about. The one I wanted to get into more than any other. And I did it. I got in. ACCEPTED.

And no one is home. I consider calling Suzie, my music teacher, to tell her, but I know my mom will be upset if she's not the first person to know. So I decide to sit on my news until my parents get back. And then I will tell everyone at once. I scratch Penny, who's still whining, behind her ear and get to my feet. She jumps up and follows me into the quiet house. The only sound I hear is the refrigerator running, and I find the silence unsettling. I'm so used to having a house full of people. My brothers, even though they've all been moved out for a while, usually stop in several times a week. But they must have plans too. I hate being alone. Especially with such fantastic news that just can't wait to be shared.

Claire and Sam are also out of town. Claire is visiting her grandma in Detroit, and Sam is doing some tour thing at UCLA, the school she got into just a week ago. So I have nothing to do. Penny runs to her water dish as soon she she can, and I head upstairs to my bedroom to practice my speech for my senior project. But try as I might, I just can't focus on it. The silence is too loud. It's distracting. So I pull out the letter from my pocket and read the words again, this time soaking them in. It feels too good to be true. And as I read the letter for the second time, I feel like someone has placed a cool hand on the back of my neck.

I rub my neck, and the coolness goes away. Must've been a draft. I run back down to the living room and sit on the baby blue couch, setting the letter on the round oak coffee table and turning on the TV. I don't usually watch TV, but the silence is deafening now, and I need something to drown it out. I put on an old rerun of my favorite show, Medium, sit back, and relax for a bit. About halfway into the episode, I start thinking about the letter again. And again, I feel that strange coolness on the back of my neck. I try to rub it away again, but this time it doesn't go away. Two episodes later and it's still there. I check the time, and it's getting close to dinner.

My mom left me money for pizza on the counter, so I order a small combination pizza with a bottle of diet pop and a mini chocolate lava cake. The cake is to celebrate my acceptance, since no one else is around to celebrate with me. The pizza arrives and I eat most of it in one sitting. I'm hoping that eating will help with the coolness, but it doesn't. If anything, it makes it worse. After a couple more episodes of Medium, I head on upstairs to get ready for bed. It's only nine o'clock. Way too early for me to go to sleep. But I'm getting the feeling I might be coming down with something. So sleep might be just what I need.