Glowing in the Dark

The Audition

“Emma, from the top!” I snapped out of my day dream of being a professional pianist one day and looked up.

“Yes Ms Mardhapps” I answered sweetly before playing the intro to Yellow by Coldplay on the rusty piano. I had finally found a job as a pianist for my school choir thinking I’d ally passion and income. However it didn’t quite turn out as predicted. Ms Mardhapps had a very high esteem of herself and her choir. The girls from the choir weren’t much better either. They were stuck-up ignorant arrogant and over-confident bitches but I figured I was better off listening to crappy singing than work in a McDonald’s. Being a musician I kind of knew what was off-key and what wasn’t, what was in tempo and what wasn’t but however I went about it, Ms Mardhapps would make me shut up believing she was right. But the girls were so out of tune it gave me shivers every single time although I’d been playing for them for over 6 months now. At first I felt bad and embarrassed for them, but they were so hateful to me I ended up finding it funny. I figured if they weren’t going to listen to me I might as well just play the piano and walk away with the money. So here I was listening to a bunch of grammar school girls belt the lyrics out to my favourite song ever and sound like dying whales. Awesome. They suddenly stopped screeching and I looked up from the music sheets seeking Ms Mardhapps gaze.

“Nice playing dear” She said. ‘As if you could judge’ I thought but put on my best smile. “How were we?” she asked.

“Perfect!” I smiled. I’d learnt on the first few days not to criticise her and I badly needed the money. It felt wrong but my friends comforted me. I was here to play not give an opinion and I might as well get some fun out of it. It was so hard keeping a straight face while looking at them sing. They all half-closed their eyes as if they were possessed by the music. They would sway to the music but still manage to lose the tempo. This was the challenging bit of my job. Listening to them and following their tempo. At first I kept it steady –like you were supposed to - trying to make them follow me, but they didn’t listen to the piano. I quickly caught on understanding that my job here, wasn’t to play but to accompany them. So basically they sang and I played around them bending the music to their singing. They were trying to cover Yellow the way Scala & Kolacny Brothers had. It’s a choir from Belgium who sing beautifully and they were ruining it, tearing it down, and ripping it to threads. The funny bit was they had no idea and were convinced to be the best. It was hilarious watching them brag about it although I was very embarrassed to be attached to that kind of people.

“Oh Emma” the teacher called as I was walking out after the rehearsal. “I forgot to tell you, you’re coming with us on the X Factor.” Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, these girls were going to audition for the X Factor. I know, I could feel the fit of laughter come up when she told me too.

“What?? No!” I replied without thinking.

“Oh yes you are” She commanded unlocking the door to her old car. “We need a pianist!”

“Can’t you just take a soundtrack?”

“Please! How is that professional?! We do proper music, live, no special effects!” she said proudly. “So rehearse and be ready, auditions are next week!” she called driving away.

My head snapped around to some uncontrollable laughter. Two of my friends were literally rolling on floor clutching their ribs.

“What?” I called smiling.

“You- your face was price- priceless” Evie panted. Evie was my best friend ever. I loved her and she loved me back just the same. Lucy was still chuckling to herself.

“Don’t laugh, this is so embarrassing guys!” I cried out. “I’m going to be on national telly, with- with THEM!” that sent Lucy into another fit of laughter and I could tell Evie was doing her best not to laugh.