[Unedited] Wisdom's Daughter

Chapter VII

Brianna's POV

After Lakyn and I stepped foot backstage, we were surrounded by everyone else who performed, except for Anna, of course. Everyone wanted to congratulate us. Anna was over leaning up against the wall, looking like she was annoyed at how things weren't going her way. Finally, she walked over. I braced myself for her stinging comments. Sure enough, they came.
"Honestly, people, can't you see that they were horrible? I mean, really, your singing sounded like caterwauling," Anna said, obviously disgusted. "And, Lakyn, your playing was awful. I don't get why everyone thought that you were so great." As if under a spell, everyone who had been congratulating us suddenly started agreeing with her. Lakyn snorted in disgust and looked like she wanted to punch Anna in the face.
"Calm down, and walk away," I murmured to her, doing the same as I led her away. I didn't understand what had made Anna so bitter, but I did know that both Lakyn and I did well, and according to my dad, it doesn't matter what others say if you know that you did your best. Believe me, I wanted nothing more than to punch Anna in the face as well, if my dad hadn't brought me up to be polite. As we walked away, Anna gave us a nasty sneer and suddenly, I felt a weird chill run down my back. Following that was a strange feeling that someone (or something) had their eyes on me, and something that felt not unlike a personification of evil. As I looked back, I saw Anna still 'talking' with the rest of the performers, not even looking in our direction. I shook off the strange feeling as Lakyn called to me. "Hey, you coming?"
"Yep," I replied. "Just thinking about something." She looked at me weirdly, and a brief thought crossed my mind. Had Lakyn felt it, too? I quickly dismissed it, though, due to the fact that I had an overactive imagination, and my ADHD liked to add to it. I hurried to follow Lakyn out into the cool night air.
"Ya know," Lakyn murmured to me, "I would've loved to tell Anna some choice places she could shove her ideas!" I rolled my eyes and replied, "Doesn't matter now."
We spotted Luke coming towards us.
"You were awesome," he exclaimed.
"Thanks," I said.
"You know," Lakyn said, "I'd love to stand here and talk, but it might be better if we returned to the dorm and talked. It's getting a little crowded here." Luke and I agreed, so we headed back. Luke said that he wanted to speak to Lakyn alone, so I headed inside. I heard them whispering to each other in the hall, and wondered what they were talking about. I caught my name. And Anna's. Which made me wonder what they were talking about. Now, I'm not one for eavesdropping, but honestly, I dare you to try NOT to listen when your two besties are whispering to each other, and tell you to leave. Try as I might to ignore it, I just couldn't. I caught more snippets of their conversation. From what I could gather, they were worried about Anna, and some sort of evil feeling. Wait. What? Evil feeling? I thought that was just me! I was gonna have a serious talk with Lakyn when she came in. Eventually, I heard them saying goodnight. I went and sat on my bunk, trying to act preoccupied with my iPad, listening to country music and reading. I was reading a page on Greek mythology. Don't judge me. I thought studying mythology was cool. I heard the door open and close. I looked up and saw Lakyn. I pulled my earbuds out and sat the iPad down.
"What were you talking about out there?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing," she replied nonchalantly with a shrug. "He did say to tell you good night."
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, but I don't believe you about the first part. Why were you guys talking about Anna?" Lakyn looked momentarily startled, in as an answer said, "Promise me that you won't go anywhere without Luke or me while you are on campus." I found that a strange request, and said so.
"Just promise me, okay?" she pleaded.
"Okay, I promise," I said. "But, going back to Anna, why were you really talking about her?"
Lakyn shrugged. "Just the fact that I really want to punch her in her, well, I'm not going to say it, but you know what I mean." I still wasn't convinced, but I let the fact go. I would work on Luke tomorrow.