A Journey Into the Land of Dreams

Singing Competition

I had prepped for a year. I was going to be performing my original piece, "Mary, Mary", which told the dark story of Mary and how her parents had died. She was brought overseas to live with her aunt and her three cousins. Her cousins did nothing but bully and torment her. When she grew up, she finally got tired of it and actually wound up murdering them and using them as fertilizer for her garden that she had always kept growing. The police finally dug up the garden and found their skeletons and arrested her where she would never see the outside world or her garden again.
I took a deep breath and boarded my flight. My hotel was already ready for me by the time I was supposed to land, so I planned to head straight there. As I flew, I reviewed my song over and over until I finally dozed off. A few hours later, my flight landed and I was able to get off.
I grabbed my luggage and joined up with the person picking me up. A personal driver. The show competition coordinators had arranged this for me since I knew one of the judges. They had also covered my week-long stay at the hotel of my choice. I felt spoiled.
After I got to my hotel, I checked in for my room and went straight up and placed my suitcase down and freshened up. I was going to explore New York today! I checked myself out in the mirror to make sure I looked ok. I sported a powder pink, flowy crop top and a flowy little black mini-skirt with a pair of cute little black flat shoes that went perfectly with the outfit. I did my long, ginger curly hair in a delicate messy bun, grabbed my purse, and headed out.
I spent the day exploring then grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night. I went back over my song so I would be ready for tomorrow's competition.
I woke up in the morning and went for an iced coffee. It was 7:30 am and the competition started at 11am. That meant I had just a little time to go over Mary, Mary again and get ready. I ate some breakfast and ran over Mary, Mary at least seven times and hopped in the shower. I was pretty sure I had those lyrics memorized by now as they took over my thoughts while I soaked myself in hot water from the shower head.
I got out of the shower and turned on my hair drier and gave myself a blowout, then proceeded to throw my hair back and do the best makeup I had ever done on myself. After that, I ran to my bag and picked out a sky blue dress crop top with sheer, flowy sleeves and a pair of white skinny slacks went nicely with the top and ran back to my bathroom and straightened my hair. I tied it back in a half up half down waterfall braid with a white bow. I slipped on my white dress shoes and headed out.
I got a taxi over to the competition venue and I felt my nerves begin to act up. I kept running the song in my head over and over again. It was 10:30 and so I headed over to check in. I got my number then headed to the waiting room. It was almost time.
I looked around at the other contestants and they all looked nervous. If not as nervous as me, more nervous then me. The girl beside me nervously flashed me a grin, which I returned. We struck up a small conversation to help with the nerves. "What are you doing today?" I asked.
"Singing. I'm doing Halo by Beyonce. You?"
"I'm actually singing too. Well I guess we're all singing. It is a singing competition. But I'm performing one of my original pieces named Mary, Mary."
"You're fucking brave. I could never."
"Well, I'm pretty confident in it. It's probably the piece I'm most proud of."
"Well that's good. Do you mind if I hear a little bit?"
"I don't know. You aren't gonna steal it are you?" I looked at her worried.
"No. Of course not!" She said earnestly.
"Okay" I said.
I sang just the chorus and she looked at me shocked. It was definitely spooky. We got to talking about our pieces. I gave her a general idea of what my piece was about but didn't get fully into it so it would be a surprise when she heard it.
Finally, my number was called. I gathered myself, and gave the man running backstage my name. He walked out and announced me, and the name of my song. I walked out and instantly the nerves struck again. A crowd of people filled every single chair in the audience. The judges all stared at me. The one I knew, gave me a nod and a smile of encouragement. One audience member caught my attention. Long light brown hair, beautiful brown eyes, and skin of porcelain. Thin, with a little bit of muscle, and a nice set of light pink lips. Fuck. I can't get distracted now! I thought. I took a breath.
I heard my track turn on. I waited and started to sing, but my words seemed to stumble over each other. My voice came out extremely weak. It turned into gibberish, then silence. I panicked and nearly broke down, then the judge I knew, came to my rescue! She cut the music. I was so scared I fumbled my audition, but no. She walked up the stage, and actually handed me my lyrics! What a fucking angel! She went to her seat and sat back down, nodding at me. "May I start again? Like start over?"
"Yes, you may." She spoke.
I held the lyrics in my hand, my courage returning. I heard my track start back over, and then it was time! My voice rang loud and clear! "Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With cockleshells and silverbells all lined in a row!" I then stepped offstage to include the surprise aspect of my performance.
A little boy, my cousin, stood directly in front of the stage! The spotlight shown on him and a microphone held right up to his mouth for him to sing the first verse of my song! My heart swelled with pride over him while I watched him sing until his verse concluded.
With that, I made a powerful entrance back onto stage, my voice again, strong, clear, spooky, and beautiful, coming back in with the chorus! The crowd absolutely roared at this entrance and the sound was deafening!  I finished out the chorus strong, and again, left the stage on the opposite side this time.
Now, the spotlight shown on my little sister with the mic up to her mouth, following my cousin's lead. She absolutely owned that second verse and again I felt nothing but pride for her as she sang!
Once again, I made another even more powerful entrance back to the stage, my voice sending chills down every single audience members' spine. They roared again! This felt amazing! Even the judges cheered!
I made it through the next couple of verses and the chorus again, and then my cousin, my sister, and a few other children from my family joined me to add one more surprise. We sung the chorus together in perfect unison, and the audience went wild! I echoed the last bit of the chorus and the song ended.
The room was absolutely silent for about a minute, then thunderous applause errupted like a volcano all across the massive room! It sounded like thunder, shaking me in my shoes! They went on for a good two minutes, then, a standing ovation! We all bowed until the crowd finally settled down.
Now the moment we had been waiting for. Judgement. A yes or a no, or even winning the entire competition! I felt my heart race, nearly thudding out of my damn chest. The room was deadly silent in anticipation. The suspense kept building, and building, until finally! They announced their decision! Not only was I going to go through to the next competition... I had won the entire competition! A cash prize of one-hundred million dollars was the award for the top contestant, and that was me!
Once again, the crowd errupted in whistles, cheers, and thunderous applause! The guy I had seen earlier that distracted me, started the standing ovation. Our eyes locked and I knew I just had to meet him after! We bowed again, and the applause continued until the guy from back stage came on. He asked me a few questions then with that, it was the end of the competition, and the end of the night!