Happiness [Book 2]

Chapter 16 - Primadonna

The next day, mom had to start work extra early due to some special teachers lunch. We had a Glee club meeting that morning, too, so I just made my way to the choir room, pulled out a chair, and continued reading my book for English class. 

Before I could even get through one chapter, I was interrupted by Angie walking through the door. "Hey," she said, quiet as ever. "You're here early." Her voice was hoarse. 

"Yeah, mom started early," I started, "why do you sound like that?"

"Oh," Angie quietly laughed, her hand coming to wrap around her throat. "I sleep scream."

I raised my eyebrows. "Sleep scream?"

"Yeah. Really bad dreams. And I scream." She looked down. "Rough night, I guess you could call it." I saw her stiffen a bit, before relaxing again.

"You know," I started, "people say if you tell someone you're bad dreams, you won't get bad luck."

"It was nothing. Really." Angie shrugged.

"Okay," I nodded unsurely at her and gave a weak smile.

"So..." Angie smiled, looking over at me. "I heard they're auditioning the ensemble for the musical today. Want to come and watch with me?"

"Fine with me." I smiled. 

She stared at me for a moment. I felt like it was the right time to delve into the deeper conversations. I shuffled my chair closer to her, creating a loud screech in the quiet room. "How are your parents?" I whispered, leaning into her, just in case someone where to walk in.

Angie sighed and sunk in her seat, "I don't know. I haven't really seen them. I think... I think they're planning on cutting me off forever."

"No, I'm sure they're just-" I started.

"Nope." Angie sat up again. "They fucking hate me. They want me gone, dead, whatever. And it's not just them adjusting to it all. It's them being... fucking bigots."

We sat in silence for few seconds. I put my hand on her hand. 

"I... just, crap. I don't know what I'm doing anymore." Her voice cracked. I wasn't sure if it was because she was about to cry, or because she had sleep screamed. "It hurts so much." 

"I'm sorry," was all I could think to say to her in that moment. In that moment, she did something so out of character for Angie - she leaned in and gave me a hug. A nice, tight and loving hug. I hugged her back. 

An annoying voice broke through our nice moment. "Aww, how cute." It was Kitty, with her usual nasty smirk.

"Kitty, you're early." I said, turning around to face her.

"Mmhmm. Early night last night. I needed my beauty sleep, for my next audition."

My eyes widened. I spun around in my chair to face her. "Next audition?!" 

"Yep, I got asked by Artie to audition again. I think that just means that they liked me!" I wanted to slap her stupid, stuck up smile off her face. "Did you get a second audition call?"

I didn't want to answer. I spun around, crossed my arms, and sunk into my chair. 

***

I went with Angie to the auditorium at lunch, to see if Kitty really was telling the truth about her so-called second audition. We snuck behind the stage and sat on our butts behind the thick red curtains. 

I watched as Kitty skipped onto the stage, up to the microphone. 

"So," Mercedes called out, "we want to hear you sing something that... wasn't the exact song Marley sang."