The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 19

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The Fire Triangle

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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When you're standing at the crossroads
Don't know which path to choose
Let me come along
'Cause even if you're wrong
I'll stand by you

The Pretenders

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Chapter 5—Meet on the Ledge
(Cont'd...Part 5)

"Erin Hopps...Erin Janelle Hopps."

The slim young lioness sounded bored as she read the name; bored, and weary—and with good reason.

"Last?"

Erin stared at the 'bingo cage,' refusing to believe her ears. This couldn't be right; there had to be at least a couple more names still left in there...

It was empty.

"I'm on...last?"

She looked around the room. Except for her and ten other kids, all of whom were already on their feet, nobody else was waiting to go on. B-But, why had they drawn eleven names instead of ten?

Because this was the final group to be picked to go onstage...and she was...

"Dead...last?"

If Erin had been a wolf she'd have been howling in anguish. There was just so much wrong with this.

In the first place, it felt as if she'd been waiting forever to hear her name called—and that assessment wasn't far off. Looking at her watch, the young, white-furred bunny saw that it was almost 4:00; the auditions should have been wrapped up more than an hour ago.

And what that meant was...the audience would have mostly dispersed by now, the stands would be almost empty. Such might not have been the case had the big announcement still been forthcoming. 'Here are names of the applicants accepted for admission in the coming semester.'

No such luck now. The news wouldn't be delivered for at least another week—and so why hang around? When Erin walked out on that stage, she'd be playing to the judges, her family, her friends, and that was it.

Oh, and speaking of the judges...at this point, they were bound to be feeling tired and restless. The big thought on their minds would be something on the order of, 'Come on; let's get this over with!' Most likely they'd spend her performance counting the seconds until it was over—no matter how well she did. They might even ring the bell early, just so they could get the heck out of here.

And that wasn't the worst of it, not by a long shot. First rule of any audition says, NEVER follow a better act onstage...and now there was no way Erin wasn't going on in the wake of a better performer. Out of all the kids who'd auditioned today, there wasn't ONE, at least, that had her beat? Get real, rabbit! All her work, all her preparations, everything she'd done to get ready for today... all of it felt like a pawpsicle dropped on a hot sidewalk; there's nothing you can do but stand there and watch it melt. Your treat is gone and you can't bring it back; sorry...