The world was in need of a new girl group and Hollywood Records was looking to sign 5 new girls who would become a band once the show, Girl Band, was over. The producers of ABC were taking a chance making a spin off of the show Boy Band and they wer...
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It took a week for ABC to get back to Ray letting her know if she had made the show. Ray was a bundle of nerves for every single second of those 5 days. That one week felt like a life time to Ray.
Of course Ray's family knew about her audition and what it meant if she got on the show but she made it appoint not to tell any of her friends just in case she happened to not make it onto the show.
"Hello, is this Ray O'Connor?" A male voice said on the end of the line.
"It is, may I ask who is calling?" Ray responded hoping that it would be someone from Girl Band finally getting back to her with the results of her Skype audition.
"This is Sean, I'm one of Holly Jacobs assistants" he paused then said, "She was hoping to be able to contact you herself but she's been very busy this past week. I am calling to confirm that you are going to be part of this season of Girl Band!" But Ray had stopped listening when he said the word confirm and she was instead jumping around the room mouthing to her mom and brother who were watching from the edge of the room that she had made it into the show, with the biggest smile on her face.
The show wouldn't air until June 22, which meant she would be flying out to LA with her mom 2 days before that on the 20th. Until then Ray was finishing up her senior year of high school. She had already been accepted into Penn State for nursing with scholarship but depending on how the show paned out, she may not be going there after all.
The last few weeks of school she spent finishing up her classes, taking finals and spending as much time with her friends as possible. Although it may have made her a bad friend Ray had yet to tell her three closest friends that she would be spending, hopefully, most of her summer in California on a T.V show. The truth was that Rays friends knew she could sing, they knew she had talent, but they didn't know how much it meant to her or that she wrote her own music and how seriously she took poetry. They would make it into a joke. As much as Ray loved her friends she was ready to move on with her life, ready to leave Salem.
Graduation was surreal but as it passed all it truly meant to her was that she was closer to packing her bags and going to live her dreams.
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Ray's mom, Jackie, and her flight was at 6:30 am on Sunday morning of June the 20th. Ray had a hard time sitting still normally let alone on a 7 and a half hour flight to LA where her dreams would be coming true. As Ray was sitting on the plane reading she could not concentrate on the words down on the pages. Rays mind was somewhere else thinking about how she left things with her friends back home. She had been right, waiting until the last minute to tell them she was leaving was a very bad idea.
"You're leaving for the whole summer for a T.V show and you didn't think to tell us until the day before you leave!" Rays friend Sarah yelled
"I just wanted to spend my last days before I left with all of you guys totally unbothered, is that really so wrong?" Ray said back
Walking around the table to stand right in front of Ray, one of her other friends, Jane, replied "You wanted to be unbothered? Well what about us, huh, we are pretty bothered right now Ray!"
"I honestly didn't think it would be that big of a deal, I mean yes I may be gone for most of the summer but shouldn't you guys be happy for me this is my shot, come on Katelyn back me up here." Ray pleaded looking at the girl she was closest with.
"Honestly Ray I'm pretty upset that you didn't feel like it was important to tell us, we thought we were your best friends but instead you never even told us that you were thinking about pursuing music. Look I get this is a big deal for you but like, see it from our perspective. We would have liked to know that this is what you had been planning all along."
"Exactly the last we had heard you were going to Penn State, what happened to college Ray?" Jane cut Katelyn off to say.
"I didn't go looking for this opportunity, it came to me. One of the producers chose me herself, they think I have what it takes to be in this band and I was hoping you all would be behind me when or if that was to happen, but if you guys won't support me then fine I guess thats just how little out friendship means to you." Ray said standing up and making her way out of Katelyns house.
"Ray wait," Sarah called after her as Ray was walking out the door.
"What?" Ray turned and said "Want to get the last word in, go ahead I can take it."
"If you fail, don't come crying to us, okay?" She said with a sickly sweet smile that quickly turned into a sneer.
"I don't plan on failing so don't worry about it." Ray replied, straightened her back, kept her chin high and slammed the door on her way out. She would show them.
Shaking her head and feeling dazed Ray went back to her book. Only a few more hours until she would be in LA.
