Backstage

Chapter 4

I step over to the center of the room and start to set up my phone and the amplifier to let the music start. Just then, I hear Victoria talk again.
"Wait," she says.
I look up at her. "What is it?"
"First you'll dance without the music," she says.
My mind goes blank for a few seconds. I have to dance without the music?
"Is there a problem?" She asks.
"No, no," I say. "It was just kind of unexpected." I giggle.
"I imagine it was because your friend didn't mention anything about it," Victoria says when she sits down behind a table and pulls out a paper, the papers that judges usually have at auditions for practically anything. "What was his name?" She continues. "Luke? He claimed to be a friend of yours."
"He is," I say with a smile. "And he didn't say anything about that."
"Yeah," Victoria says, "well there were two of them at break time so we didn't have enough time for doing their routine twice. This shouldn't be a problem for you if you want to join the club. Dancing without music is a part of rehearsing every routine after all."
"It's okay," I say smiling at her. "I can do it."
"Alright," Victoria says. "Begin whenever you're ready."
I nod and count the "5,6,7,8" in my head at the same beat as the music, while I play the song in my head as well. I make all the moves I had planned before and I make them successfully in spite of being nervous of dancing in front of Victoria. The twins and Aiden don't worry me, and Henry most likely won't say anything bad about me given his behavior when I got in.
I remember to smile while I dance and look at each of the members from time to time. The twins smile at me, Henry has that smirk on his face, Aiden is also smiling, and Victoria has a serious expression on her face. All of them write things on their paper ever now and then, but the fact that the smiles on everyone else's faces haven't left is definitely a good sign for me.
I spin, I move my legs, my arms, my hips, and all the moves are in the right places, none of them falling behind or skipping ahead of the beat. After about two minutes of dancing I end my routine with a bow and then stand up straight. When I do, the twins clap for me and the boys look at each other and smirk. Victoria nods and looks me in the eye.
"Not bad," she says. "Now you'll do it with the music."
"Sure," I say and then lean down to play the song.
I start it and listen for the cue so that I can begin dancing my routine again. This time that I have the music, I feel that the routine is more alive. The music is not just inside my head, this time the people around me can hear what I'm dancing to. I move my whole body to the rhythm of the music, my moves match the sounds made by the violin and the subtle dubstep that's mixed with it.
After performing the routine, I bow again to signal that I'm done and the music fades until it's completely silent.
This time there's clapping by the twins and the two boys, and Victoria is actually smiling faintly at me.
"Alright," Victoria says. "That's enough for the dancing. Now, sing us your song."
I feel a bit nervous again, but force myself to get over it. Then I begin singing the lyrics to my childhood song with the melody that brings back so many memories of when I was little. When I finish singing, Aiden is the first one to clap. Then they all follow, including Victoria. I can't help but smile and blush a little at all their support, and to actually have Victoria clapping actually says a lot.
"Okay," Victoria says and stands up. "We'll tell you the result on Monday at the first break time, alright?"
"Of course," I smile at her. "Thank you so much!"
"Bye!" The twins say.
Aiden and Henry wave at me and Victoria is still smiling at me when I leave the backstage.
I head home thinking about all that I just went through. Really, it wasn't so bad. I didn't mess up the dance and the singing was pretty great, judging by their reactions.
Now I just have to wait until Monday to find out if I made it or not.

****Victoria****

The twins are obnoxiously talking about how amazed and excited they are about the results of the tryouts and Henry is just talking about the massive crush he just got in Erin, even if he does try to hide it.
Aiden is the only one trying to be serious about the three people who just tried out, not just about Erin.
"What do we do, boss?" He asks.
"Help me separate the papers according to the person," I say. "Then we'll get the score from the rubrics and see what everyone else had to say about them."
"Alright," Aiden says.
The only bad thing about having this sort of reunion at my house is that they don't take it seriously the whole time. At least, the twins and Henry settled down and are finally taking some interest in sealing the tryout.
"We'll help," Riley says.
We separate the papers and start with Erin because Henry wouldn't stop asking me to do that.
For what I can see, al off Erin's papers have pretty high scores on them. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I just feel like it's way too easy.
"Riley, what comment did you put on her?" Haley asks.
"It's supposed to be anonymous," Riley replies.
"Well, with this 'she's hot' comment," I hold up the paper that is obviously Henry's, "it's not all anonymous, is it?"
Henry chuckles and the twins roll their eyes. I notice that Aiden ignores that whole statement and finds his paper. "Whatever," he says. "I thought she was great."
"I did too," Haley grabs hers.
Riley does the same. "She synchronized her moves with the music pretty well."
"Her singing," Aiden says. "That was amazing!"
"Victoria," Henry asks me. "What do you think?"
"I think she did well," I say. "She looks like she likes it and she has a lot of spirit."
The twins start cheering.
"But some of her moves were stiff," I say.
They quiet down.
"What?" Riley and Haley say at the same time.
"You heard me," I say. "Not all of them, but I don't know about that."
"Come on!" The twins say.
"A girl like that could bring a lot of attention," Henry says.
"Guys, I don't know," I say again.
"Victoria," Aiden says. "She has talent and she really wants to join. And I've seen how she is in class. Something like this could really help her. So what if some of her movements are stiff? We can help her with that. The important thing here is that she has a lot of potential and we could use something like that."
I sigh. "Okay, on one hand, I know you all like her and want her in the club."
The twins giggle and Henry scratches the back of his head.
"On the other hand, Aiden," I continue, "you're right. She does have potential and we could help her."
Everyone seems to lighten up after that, but they wait for my final answer with suspense.
I smile at them. "Erin stays at the club."