Why Tho?

Chapter 1

3 weeks to Audition

"Seriously," Nelly said. Vani looked at her with annoyance. "Yeah, I'm serious," she said, "you aren't even trying." Nelly looked down at her shoes. She mumbled, "I know." Vani sighed and said, "come on. From the top. Oh, and try this time." Nelly nodded. Vani started the music and they sang the song again.

As they finished singing, the bell rang. Nelly hurriedly gathered her stuff. "Bro, why are you hurrying? It's only the sixth grade bell," asked Vani. Nelly looked at her and said, "I am usually the fourth person on the bus, and I would like to keep it that way."

Nelly burst through the chorus room door and out into hallway filled with sixth graders. Vani turned to face her. "I'm gonna go back to the eighth grade hallway. See you tomorrow," she said and turned to swim upstream against the sixth graders. Nelly nodded at her and went the opposite way, towards the buses. 'My throat hurts,' Nelly thought, 'that song is way too low for me. I can't sing that for the audition, but I can't tell Vani that either. She'd get really mad.' Shrugging off the thought, Nelly walked through the doors of Lakeview Middle school to the bus lot.

--_--

That night

"So...,"Nelly's mother said, "did you talk to her?" Nelly shook her head. Her mom sighed and her dad, who had been sitting there, shook his head. "You have to tell her. You said it yourself," he said. Nelly, who had been playing with her dinner, looked up. "I know I said that," she said, "but, Vani has her heart set in this song. Is it really my place to tell her that we can't do this song?" "But, you are her partner," Nelly's mother pointed out. 'True,' Nelly thought as she continued to eat her dinner.

--_--

The Next Day

It was the last period of the school day and Nelly was exhausted.

'Ugh, I want to go home,' she thought.

Nelly's next class was far away from where her last class was, so she began to walk a little faster. As Nelly turned the corner, the person in front of her suddenly stopped walking. Startled, she jumped and nearly tripped.

The "person" was a boy who was talking to his friend. 'Get out of my way,' Nelly thought privately. Outloud, she said, rather politely, "excuse me." The boy turned around, while his friend promptly ignored her. Nelly suddenly remembered the boy's name, which was Neal. Neal looked Nelly right in the eye and, for a split second, it had looked like he was about to smile. But, he blinked and shook his head. Neal, then, walked away.

Flustered, Nelly stood still for a moment. Why had he looked at her that way? Nelly tugged at her hair in frustration and continued the "journey" to her next class.