Find your faith

Chapter 54: Get it together, Nicole

Nicole's POV
"What are we doing here?" I asked out of curiosity. We usually had CCA at the chapel or the music room, so it was weird we were joining drama today.

"You are going to sing and dance," Mrs Nur announced. "Well, I'm not going to say anything more. Good luck!" She then walked in to sit next to Crystal, and I knew they were going to be yapping for a long time. (Crystal wasn't featured in the opening scene)

The dance lesson was a total disaster. The dance coach used a microphone so she didn't strain her voice, and half the time she was close to yelling to the microphone. If insults weren't directed at me regarding timing, it was direction. If it wasn't footing, it was expression and how I had to look as bright as the "real thing." I tried to focus, but my mind was racing with thoughts like "Am I good enough?" or "Why can't I get this?" as she chanted "Get it together, Nicole." We only to manage to get the first verse of the song done that day, and I thought the musical was a gone case, until Crystal approached me at the end of practice.

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Crystal: coach's really hard on you, huh?

Nicole: yea, she is. She keeps getting me to "get it together."

Crystal: if you can develop a proper practice schedule, you can. I mean, I've seen you struggle to get by this semester, cramming everything on the day of the test, scrapping through all our tests. You're going to retain if you keep this up, we're both musical performers after all.

Nicole: so tell me how you do it!

Crystal: stone theory! Big stone is for super big things, which is the musical and our studies. Normal sized stones are things that are important, like socialising for us and reading. They shouldn't take predence over the big stones though. Pebbles are things that aren't important and just fill up our time, like scrolling through social media. Maybe you could think of it as dropping stones into a jar every day, and you want to fill it up. You need the strategy.*

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I think that's how Crystal is nowhere near getting retained, so I decided to try the method out. When I got home, I decided to freshen up and get to working on my moves again until my legs gave out on me. And after that, I decided to get my homework done, which surprisingly took half the time it usually would thanks to Crystal's pebble technique. I wanted to scroll on social media after that, but it was getting late and my parents didn't really like it when I stayed up late, so I had no choice but to turn in. Yes, I'm not Chloe or John, my CCA only ends at 6pm.

Crystal's POV

By the next practice, Nicole's moves were starting to gain momentum. They weren't floppy anymore, and she was a lot more in unison with the rest of the performers. Even the dance coach was surprised! She ended up chuckling too about her sudden change in attitude, admitting that she was happy she took the scolding to heart, hoping it wasn't a one off. Nicole is passionate, but her journey on discipline is just starting alongside Chloe's. She's got the passion though, so I'm sure she'll be able to achieve actual discipline. As for me, I decided to watch the dances carefully, because my hopes is that someday, I would also be able to be a dance mentor alongside someone else's.

*: the psychology theory Crystal talks about here is the pickle jar theory, for those curious