Celebrity One-Shots

Hold On To Hope [Tulisa Contostavlos and Nicole Scherzinger] (Not Romance)

 "Why do you always act so depressed? I mean really, we all know you're lying about being beat."

 Holding back tears and tired of the unreasonably harsh words of other orphans, I ran out of the orphanage through the old broken fire escape and started off down the street. My hair fell in long, wavy brown locks behind me and my blue eyes squinted against the cold, biting wind that flew at me. A good distance away from the orphanage, I leaned against the wall and looked up to the dark gray masses above that threatened to unleash their downpour at any second. The faint sound of thunder emitted from clouds in the distance while my thoughts wandered. What had I done to deserve this? I'd never known my parents- I was raised by someone until I was three months old, and then I was put up for adoption. The first people to adopt me had been nice enough- but they had a drinking problem, and I was abused from the time I was four to the time I told someone when I was ten. Now, two years later, I was still living in the orphanage, and I was losing hope. To make it even better, I was bullied by the other kids; they thought I made up being abused for attention. They didn't understand the pain I went through- mentally and physically. Besides, why would someone lie about being beaten?!

 Fat drops of rain began to fall on the cement around me and I ducked into the nearest door to escape the weather. I found myself in a fancy building, with a grand staircase ahead of me leading to two double doors. Cameras were in the corners and rugs rested on the ground.

 "Hey, you're not supposed to be in here!" A man in a black security outfit shouted. I gasped- no way was I going back into the rain. I took off running, almost slipping on the polished floors, and then dashed up the staircase with the man just behind me. I sent mental thanks to whatever higher power had given me the right metabolism to stay in shape. I sprinted into the double doors to find myself in a large theater. Someone was singing on a stage and there were rows of chairs. I ran through them in different directions, the security guard falling behind while some of the judges stared at me- I recognized them from the X-Factor and gaped, but only for a moment. Eventually, I was far enough ahead of the officer that I jumped down and rolled beneath some of the chairs. He ran by and I remained hidden, crawling to a further back hiding spot while he roamed around in search of me.

 After a good twenty minutes, he left with a shrug, saying I had to come out some time. Once he was gone I pulled myself off of the dirty floor and into a nicely cushioned chair, sitting down and watching the auditions. Toward the end, though, disaster struck.

 A security guard- different from the one earlier- ran into the room.

 "Everybody follow me, there's a tornado coming!"

 A few gasps and a scream or two sounded from the stage and I jumped up, running toward the police officer and mixing in with the crowd- judges and people auditioning were all grouped up in the aisle and we followed him. I stared in awe at the judges and others here- Tulisa Contostavlos was only feet away, next to Nicole Scherzinger. Gary and Louis were here as well. As I followed them to the place of safety- the theater's basement- I recognized one of the people auditioning and gasped. I knew the girl from when I was ten, from the time when I'd been abused. We'd gone to school together.

 The memory flashed behind my eyes: out on the school playground, it had been Vanessa and I, and we were sitting on the monkey bars- she'd dared me to go up there, calling me a baby if I didn't. I told her I would if she did- and when we got up there, she pushed me off. I'd broken my arm, and I never spoke to her again. But now, here she was.

 The group of us reached the basement and I saw Nicole whisper something to Tulisa and Tulisa replied quietly, and the two looked over at me before quickly looking away. I raked my eyes over myself- there was nothing strange about me, was there? I know I'm not nearly as pretty as some girls, but, I'm not completely terrible looking. I'm not wearing anything strange, either- just jeans with a hole in one knee and a plain blue t-shirt that I got from the orphanage. I've got on my usual sneakers. Nothing unusual, right?