Get it Right!

Chapter One: Best Friends?

The alarm rang early that morning, although there was no school that day. It was a Saturday morning and cold was deep inside my bones even under the blankets, where I was crouched. I really didn't want to get up at all.

As warning me to be fast, my dog, Leila, blossomed from the ajar door of my room softly whining.

"Yeah, I'm awake, I'm coming!" I said with my sleepy voice

Leila interpreted it as an invitation to enter the door, 'cause before I could even try to focus on my room, I found out her muzzle on my face, ready to cover me with saliva.

I caressed her laughing, while the dog just curled up in my arms, wagging her tail happy. Leila had arrived home less than a year before, in my brother's arms, David, who took her from the street and decided to bring her home. When he had shown himself at the doorstep with that trembling little dog in his arms, our mom was totally mad. She didn't want to have an animal in her home. Above all a black mongrel, probably a Chihuahua Toy, with two wide ears that made her seem a doggy Dumbo or worse, a Gremlin.

We called her Leila, 'cause mom didn't stop for a second to turn into her as "Ugly Alien", and me myself thought it was a great idea call her as the beautiful Star Wars princess. I love that saga so much!

After just a few days, the little rascal had become the home mascotte, everyone loved her, my father Andy, my mother Norah, my sister Mary and obviously me and my brother too.

Checking the alarm again, I realized that it was already half past seven, no more time to laze about. I put the dog on my bed and got up, noticing that Leila started sleeping with her head on my pillow, offended, cause I stopped giving her attention, exactly like a human being.

Shaking my head, I took my way to the bathroom to shower quickly.

House was so quiet that morning, since the moment no one had programs for the day, but me. Much better, I said to me, more time with my thoughts.

When you live in a family made up of five people, private moments are terribly rare and everyone needs to tell you how to live, above all if you're the least.

I waited patiently for hot water to give me charge to face the day, and I just let the water flood away my anxieties and worries

Yeah, that day was so damn important! My hometown was chosen as county proponent to host well-known talent show To Be a Star auditions, looking for new talents in US neighborhoods. That was the chance I was waiting for so long time to show the world my value, much more than anyone else actually believed. Above all, I wanted to prove something to my family. They couldn't understand my strong passion for music and showbiz world.

"There are too many singers in the world." My mother always repeated as a mantra "No one is waiting for you."

"It's a hard path, son, one in a million can do it and then... you have to think about your future, how could you manage to live with music? Your sister is attending Medicine School, your brother Vet School, as me. I don't want you to be something you don't like, but why don't you try something more concrete in your own life?" was my father classical state, every time he had the chance to tell it.

I can't consider myself stupid, as such I was conscious of how many sacrifices I'd to face and I knew there were concrete possibilities to fail but was it too hard trying to show me a little of trust? I couldn't stand anymore talking about my sibling's successes.

In that period I was a senior and as every other senior in the US I sent college applications to many universities in the country. Just to make my parents happy, I applied for important schools such as Harvard and Yale, considering his school results I could do it with no problems at all. They were an institution for "real faculties" as my dad liked defining them such as Medicine, Law, and Business. But I've sent applications even for Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Berkeley, campuses with good music and drama courses, the ones I really wished to attend.