Extraordinary

Chapter 72: Meet Your Mentor

I was very thankful that my audition wasn't up on the telly yet, for I wasn't ready to be embarrassed and hated upon from the millions of directioners who were waiting for this specific moment to send me complete and utter hate. That was the last thing I needed right now.

It's been a week since that audition and day by day since then, I felt more and more embarrassed by it. I was nothing but a stuttering, nervous mess who most likely only got through because of Louis. I know that's no way to look at it, but I couldn't help but believe it. It's probably good that a past contestant's girlfriend has decided to take the same challenge and create more popularity for the show. Either that, or I was actually decent enough for them to let me through. Either way, I made it, and I'm still having trouble believing it.

Louis took some time during this last week to show me some of the challenges I may be faced with, including letting me know the fact that I will have to perform with other girls in a group in front of the judges. Already being a fairly independent person, I wasn't happy to hear this.

"Our voices are different, why would they do that?" I snapped at him one day. Louis sighed.

"Just to see how you perform with others and with a song you haven't done before," He explained.

"But you didn't have to do that, did you?"

"It has changed Lola," Louis brought up, not answering my question.

"What else is there, besides the whole dancing and whatever," I asked. It was a tiring night that was growing longer by the second.

"It's different now. After you're judged in the first phase of bootcamp, you will then be judged with your group and assigned a mentor. After only you perform in front of your mentor, you may or may not move onto the judge's house,"

"All split up into stages?" I questioned.

"Yes," He answered.

And from that moment on, Louis prepared me the best he could with tips and strategies and more songs to practice on and some dances to learn. It was a tiring week, and everything was starting to weigh down on my shoulders. I ended up running twice a day-without Louis' knowledge-just to remember to keep in shape for the show, and cutting back on my meals. I felt healthier when I did that, and had to keep doing that for the remainder of the show, especially since I was to be grouped with a bunch of girls that will surely judge me with one swift look.

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"Alright everyone!" One of the producers called out, holding up a clipboard and standing on a chair in the middle of the backstage. All of the contestants circled around him and awaited his announcement.

"First of all, congratulations. You all have made it past the first grueling round of the X Factor and now have the opportunity to make your chances of winning greater with your fellow contestants," I could tell this guy has memorized this and was forced to tell us this information. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at other people around the room who were anticipating his response.

"Now is the time that you will be separated into groups based on your vocal ability and your own mentor that will be guiding through the next two stages of boot camp. I will now read outloud the groups and will only be doing so once, so pay attention. Your mentors, He then points over to about five people lined up on the wall with eager faces. He reads off their names from left to write then returns to glancing down at his list and starts reading the names.

I ended up getting assigned to the mentor, Michelle, a petite blonde woman with a kind face who greeted me when I walked up to her.

"Hi Lola, I'm Michelle your mentor, and glad to be working with you," She smiled. Her kindness was slightly sickening, but I returned the gesture anyways. More girls started coming over to us and Michelle repeatedly introducing herself and keeping her group together. All of them were about my age, wearing higher class outfits and shy faces except one girl who glared at me from just a few feet away. Great, someone who was obviously in love with a particular boy band hated my guts and I haven't even said a word yet.

"Alright girls," Michelle started after the groups spread out into their own places backstage. "If you didn't know this already, this is who you'll be performing with in order for the judges to see who will be moving onto the next round. This won't really matter during the first stage of Bootcamp, but we will be working together and individually for the next two weeks in preparation for not only the judge's house but the live shows. We'll first start by getting to know one another, and then we'll go over what we're going to do at rehearsals every day,"

And that's exactly what we did. In all, there were five of us. We were all around the same age, same state of life but with totally different personalities. I was surprised to not see Sarah here with us. I could barely remember the rest of my group mates names except for the girl who threw me the nasty glare earlier. Lydia, a brunette model-faced girl with too much makeup on for my taste, who was into fashion and running and all that girly shit. Fresh out of college, she was a soprano singer and has been for practically all of her life and finally took a step to making it a career.

I immediately despised her.

After the whole getting to know one another, we worked on some basic vocal exercises and even tried singing a song together with different harmonies. Then we worked individually with our mentor.

"I can see you're very independent," Michelle pointed out. I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Is that a bad thing?" I questioned.

"It's a good and bad thing. You don't really work well in a group but you have a distinct voice that could make you a successful soloist," She eyed me carefully for a moment, and I waited the antagonizing question/statement that many contestants have told me lately.

"You look really familiar," She drags out. I shrugged.

"I've been getting that a lot lately. To confirm your suspicions, I'm Louis Tomlinson's girlfriend," Her eyes slightly widen at that.

"Really? A past contestant's girlfriend on the show? That's remarkable!" She smiled.

"That won't make a difference here right?" I blurt out. "I'm not here for the sake of him. I'm here for the sake of wanting to do something with my life and use my talent for it,"

"Well I'm glad to hear your perseverance then. That has no effect on your standing here, yet it may have an effect on how others view you here,"

"I've noticed already," I mutter under my breath.

"You can't let that effect you though, you know that right?" She tells me. I nod.

"Yeah," I smile at her for the second time today. "I think I'll be able to do that,"

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A/N:  Here I am apologizing again.  I'm sorry I haven't been up to date with this story and aren't being true to the X Factor standards.  I really wanted to get back to this in order to keep my writing spirit strong and will hopefully doing better throughout the next few weeks. 

I'm really trying guys. Just hold on a bit longer. 

-CookieKrumm