Goodness Gracious Jessica

Chapter 2: Contestant Number 24

The Second day, Jess reaches the Hall much earlier. Maybe because it's getting harder to control her excitement for the fest.

Only 5-6 persons are there. So Jess sits at one of the 5 stairs of the Hall, which is the closest to a really huge window. To pass time, she puts on her headphones

They're gonna clean up your looks

 With all the lies in the books

 To make a citizen out of you

 Because they sleep with a gun

 And keep an eye on you, son

 So they can watch all the things you do

 Because the drugs never work

They're gonna give you a smirk

 Cause they got methods of keeping you clean

They're gonna rip up your heads,

Your aspirations to shreds

Another cog in the murder machine

 They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me

They could care less as long as someone'll bleed

 So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose

Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me

As she sings along, her voice gets a little louder. But she doesn't know it because of the headphones with higher volume put in her ears. She is singing and singing and suddenly realizes that everyone is staring her.

"what?"

She wonders.

But the very next minute, she is like "why?"

she stares them back

and realizes that she was singing very loudly

"Oh, OK, I was very loud, silly me" whispers to herself as she puts off her headphones out of guilt, and looks up again to see whether they are still staring her or not.

They are not.

Only one of them is. The one with the shy smile.

"It's him. Joe's friend. What was his name? urm, Louis, yeah Louis. It's Louis. But why is he still staring, I'm not singing anymore." Jess thinks for a while.

Louis smiles at her and then turns to the other side to talk to the same blonde lady who gave that philosophy speech previous day, standing with him without noticing that Jess has smiled back at him, though reluctantly.

"That was really awkward!"

Suddenly the lady who was talking with Louis gets on stage and voices on the mic, "Good morning, everyone. I am Jennifer Adler, your instructor and co-organizer of "The Rave" and you will only call me Jennifer, no ma'am, no miss, because I want to feel young while staying between you youngsters."

Everyone smiles.

" 'The Rave' is organized for all sorts of dance forms and all sorts of people. Me and my colleagues were discussing about how to make participating in this fest easier and then we came up with the idea of taking classes on the basis of whether you people would like to team up like a group, a couple or simply solo. The ones who wish to practice and perform solo, please register themselves on the table on my right and the ones who will be going for a group or couple kindly register themselves on my left."