The Broken Condoms

They

Vic Point of view

My mom Sat in the driver seat of our old, beaten up, rusted Volvo. I stared out the window while my mom silently drove. As we stopped at a light, the car suddenly turned off. Neither of us were alarmed though because it did that all the time. My mom gently turned the key in the ignition a couple times before it roared back to life.

Most of the things in my life didn't work quite correctly. We didn't have a lot of money, so everything we had was a gift and most likely old. We didn't have cable or internet and I worked two jobs to help pay our bills and to pay my phone bill. I owned an iPhone four in a world of iPhone sevens but I wasn't embarrassed of it, for the most part. Sometimes I could feel it creep up my neck and onto to my ears as I texted my mom in a crowded place, but over all, I was proud. I saved up for months to get that phone, I've had it for two years, and I pay for it all by myself. More than a lot of people my age can say.

Which, by the way, is fine. Our parents should pay our phone bill. It not our responsibility to pay it, it our responsibility to get an education and help out out parents around the house. But, my life works a little differently.

My Hispanic father works from 5 AM till sundown doing yard work, as typical as that sounds, while my Irish mother works 8Am to 9 PM cleaning houses on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Every other day of the week, she bags groceries at our local Wally World, other wise known as Walmart. To be even clearer, Actual Garbage Can Store.

I work from 4:15 pm to 8pm at our nearest library on weekdays and on weekends I work from 7Am to 10Pm at our local record store named simply The Record Store. In the summer, I work the library half a day and the record store for the other half, because neither of them need me all day but I need both of them. This summer, things are different though. In August, I saw this ad on the San Diego High school News program advertising a music camp sponsored by an expensive performing arts college in LA.

My journey with music started when I was young. My father would play me guitar and my mother would sing me to sleep because I was cursed by horrible insomnia . And eventually, when I was about 7, I asked him to teach me to play. I started writing songs and singing. I'd been in a couple bands, but they were all flops. Still, music is my passion. I know thats horrible over said and really cliche, but it's the gods-honest truth.

The point was that you would get paired up with four other people and have a month to create a kick ass song, and then perform it with kick ass energy. If your is the best, you all get a trophy and a full scholarship to the school. And as someone who can't afford any college at all, I needed this.

It costed 500$ to enter, and I spent the whole school year saving. I put anywhere from 2 to five dollars away a day and now am left with a total of $532. So after I had the money, I entered my ass in that competition speedy fast. So here we are, with my mom honking loudly in the crowded LA traffic as we try to get to the campsite.

Apparently the camp is like a real camp. I got the schedule and map sent to me in the mail two weeks ago and they literally have actual cabins. Like, it's camp. There's even a schedule and "team activities including sports and hikes".

And really, I only have one thing in mind as my mom yells out he window at the slow drivers, I'm going to win, and nothing's going to stop me. No one will stand in my way or stop me from getting that scholarship.

Kellin's point of view

"Good luck with your music malarkey." My mom said as I shut the door to our two story, five bedroom, four bathroom, unnecessary house. I rolled my eyes as I dumped myself into my Ford Focus, tossing my suitcase into the backseat. I started up the engine and started on the long drive From Sacremento to LA.

My reason for this journey, if you wanna call it that, would be that I've had a fire in my soul for music since I was very young. Mostly singing and writing, but my churches choir leader taught me to play piano when I was younger, so I guess that something. I was in my churches choir from grades 1 - 7 until my parents decided religion was stupid and told me I wasn't allowed. Even though I was never super into service, I loved singing in the choir. So I joined the school choir, which landed me the spot of Your Local Geek. It wasn't as good as the church choir though, the church choir was much more serious, while my school choir was kinda seen as a big joke. So I didn't come back in 8th grade.

My first year of highschool, I gave it another try though, and it was kinda cool, it was less of a joke, we actually had competitions and concerts, and the kids there all enjoyed singing like me, so I stayed. I entered, and won, plenty of competitions in my state, even going so far in one of them that I was flown to New York to compete with 3 other finalists. I didn't win that one though, but being in the top 4 was super good.

I currently possess 10 trophies related to choir, some from competitions, come from my choir teacher. And I own at least 13 medals. I'll be starting my senior year as the President of our choir, after this summers over. You would think that would be impressive to my parents, you would think they might take me a bit more seriously after all of that, but no. My parents think the entertainment industry is full of lazy people who couldn't do anything else well so they took the easy route. They think the idea of becoming a musician is ridiculous. Their belief system basically inquires that if you're not like them, you're not shit.

And I'm not like them.

They both run big businesses in building with 10+ floors and I only see them about three times a week. They're very cold and... They treat me like I'm another business partner. So they made me a deal, they will only support me going to college for music if I get a scholarship.

So I started searching for scholarship opportunities and come across an ad for this summer camp for a big, expensive college in LA. Of course, I could afford it without the scholarship, but my parents see that as a waste of money. So I entered my self after begging on my knees for the $500. They agreed that they'd pay the entry fee but that's it. That would be all they'd spend on my "silly hobby."

And that was true, I always had to work for money to pay any of my choir fees. My director often helped me out and let me slide without paying a lot of the time because I had explained to him about the situation. But I'd still try to pay, because as such an active member of the choir, I think important for me to support it, because it's not like the rest of the school supports us.

So here I am, angry in the traffic, anxious, and praying to who-evers listening to let me win this scholarship.