The Story of Us

Variety

As we got back to the hotel, we were sent straight to dinner. No rooms, no showers, no nothing. I'm glad we had some quality food in DC because the hotel food was almost unbearable. I believe dinner was supposed to be "Mexican Night" but there's no way what we were eating were tacos. Anyway, the advisors had mentioned a variety show after dinner yet only two people had signed up. Everyone was talking about it like it was a joke. Over a table full of  barely touched plates, my friends and I talked about possibly ditching the show all together and ordering pizza to one of our rooms. After dinner we were sent to another JAM with our groups. We had a lot of JAMs so I became close to most of the group I was in, Trish and I were the closest of course. We all talked about our little adventure in DC we had and how we were expecting the talent show to be lame. From the meeting, we met in the assembly room with the rest of the groups to find a stage set up. Upon the stage was a podium and mic. Just 30 seconds after walking in, Trish nudges me and says she sees Steven and he was walking toward us. "Yikes", I was thinking to myself. He approached us as if he'd been waiting for us to walk in, and follows us to our seats. Steven to me left, Trish to my right, and an hour of this "variety show" ahead of us. One of the young male advisors gets behind the podium and attempts to quiet us with bad jokes. "Why did the hipster burn his tongue? Because he drank his coffee before it was cool." We all fake laughed and began talking again. Steven turned to me and asks me if I was gonna perform. I tell him there's no way in hell and that he should perform himself. The first act gets up on stage. Music begins to play and everyone recognizes the song. At Last by Etta James. But no one expected the girl singing to be so fantastic. She started singing and I was instantly impressed. Steven leans over and asks "Do you think she does funerals and weddings?" I shoot back "I want her to sing at my wedding." After a small pause he says "Well what if I want her to sing at my wedding on the same day?" And I told him "I'll pay her more". What I wasn't expecting was him replying with "What if it's the same wedding?" I didn't say anything, not even knowing what I would say. The girl singing finished the song with an outstanding ending and we all got up to give her a standing ovation. As we sit back down, I ask Steven why he's sitting here when his group was on the other side of the room. "Honestly I don't know, I mean, I hate you. I guess this was the only open seat." He said this with a smile and turned back to the front as the next performer got on the stage. It was a girl from my group, Natalie, who had sang for us the day before in JAM. She was singing a song I didn't know, by Mayday Parade, and it was slow and slightly depressing. The lights dimmed and people put up their phones with their flashlights on, swaying to the music. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Steven staring at me in that cute, almost but not really creepy kind of way. I turn to him and he turns back to the front. Natalie was a pretty decent singer and when she finishes, or group gets up and cheers louder than we should have. Steven also gets up beside me and shouts, not even knowing who Natalie was. I laugh thinking it's hilarious that he's trying to impress me when we realize the song wasn't over. We all sit down and Natalie continues to sing, slightly embarrassed from our group. She finally finishes and we stand up and cheer once more. Next up was Steven's roommate Alan who we were convinced was gay. He had a broken foot so he was in a wheelchair. The music started and out of nowhere he began to sing. He was pretty good and was singing Mad World which Steven couldn't figure it the name to. He said Alan sang in the shower, so that he'd heard his unexpected talent prior to the show. Alan finished his song, a couple more acts went, and the last performance began. They started dancing to that God awful rap song everyone seemed to like. People began crowding the stage and dancing along when suddenly, the advisors sent us all back to our rooms. I tell Steven that I brought pop-tarts and if he saw me at breakfast tomorrow I'd give him one. We go our separate ways (well different floors of the hotel) and later found out a girl had a seizure and was sent to the hospital. So what a day we all had.