The WRA Draft

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Breakfast

(Olivia's POV; Day of Finals)

"Get up!" Taylor yelled at me. I felt a pillow hit my face. I moaned. "We leave in an hour!"

"Huh?" I moaned again.

"FINALS IS TODAY!" she reminded.

I bolted up. "Shit!"

"Don't say that! We have little ears in the room!"

"You're six months younger than me; get over it." I grabbed my clothes and ran to the bathroom.

"What're you doing?" Taylor cried through the door.

"Taking the quickest shower of my life! I didn't shower last night!" I yelled back as I undressed.

"Hurry!"

•••

I was out of the shower in approximately twenty minutes, according to Taylor. I sat in a chair in front of the television, scrolling through Twitter. A lot of people were responding well to my New York thread. "How did my thread become this popular this fast?" I said to Taylor, who stood behind me as she braided my hair into a French braid. "Finals hasn't even happened yet!"

"Yeah, but the Challenge gave us a lot of publicity," Taylor said. "Stop moving."

I glanced up at the television. There was a photo of me on the screen. "Whoa look!"

Taylor stopping braiding. "Holy shit."

I scrambled to find the remote. "Turn it up!"

I found the remote and turned it up so I could hear the lady's voice.

"—has just arrived here to New York City. Director and composers of the Challenged class of 2028 Olivia Mora, Taylor May, and  Toby Allen have arrived to New York City with their winter percussion ensemble. They've practiced hard these past few days with the ensemble of twenty-three to perform their show today at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Two days ago, it was revealed that the group would film their performance on a live stream. You can also view the show on PBS. The group performs at 12:48. Back to you, Gary."

The topic changed, leaving Taylor and I speechless.

"Finish my braid," I ordered. "Finish it before I freak out and ruin it."

Taylor quickly braided my hair in stunned silence. As soon as she snapped the hair tie, I jumped from my seat and squealed.

"We were just on the news!" Taylor proclaimed.

"Oh my god, that was us!" I jumped up and down. Suddenly, my phone rang. I answered, "Hello?"

"We were just on the news!" Toby yelled.

"We saw!"

"How did this happen?"

"Did they seriously just promote our show?"

"Crap!" Taylor called out.

"What?"

She showed me her phone. "We're late!" She ripped my phone out of my hand. "Bye, Toby, see you down there!"

"But—"

Taylor hung up. "Grab your stuff! We can watch the news at breakfast." I grabbed my backpack. We were almost out the door when Taylor stopped me. "Don't you have to pack it?"

"I got so excited last night that I packed it yesterday."

She rolled her eyes and we left.

We met up with Toby in the elevators. Upon arriving to the breakfast in the lobby, Eliza ran to me and engulfed me in a hug.

"I'm so stinking proud of you," she whispered.

"Not as much as I am of you," I said hugging her back. I heard the click of a camera. I glanced up. Kasey was smirking at us.

"Nonsense." Eliza pulled away but kept her hands on my shoulders. Even though she was three years older than me, I was probably two inches taller than her. "No one can be as proud as me."

I smiled. "Whatever you say."

"Hey, Tommy, can you go get me another waffle?" Joel asked. I looked at him. Tommy was by the toaster across the room and the Joel was almost three feet from the waffle maker.

Eliza's smile fell.

"How are things between you two?" I asked.

Eliza was quiet. "We broke up last night."

I gasped. "What?" Immediately, I wrapped my arms around her again.

Eliza didn't cry, she didn't scream; she only nodded. "We sat in the lobby and decided to go our separate ways."

"Is that a we or an I?"

"What kind of question is that?" She demanded. I raised an eyebrow. She was quiet. "....I."

I bit my lip. "I'm sorry, Lizzy."

Eliza looked down at her shoes. "You haven't called me that since Grandpa died eight years ago."

"I should call you it more often," I decided. "It suits you." Eliza smiled but didn't say anything. "Come on. Let's eat."

I walked to the breakfast buffet and examined my choices. It was decided: I had too many choices.

"Might I suggest the potatoes and waffles?" suggested a familiar voice behind. Glancing back, I discovered it was Gabe. He shrugged his shoulders. "You looked lost."

"I think I'll give it shot then, since it's so highly recommended." I placed a waffle and some potato cubes on my plate.

"Congrats on being in the news," he said filling his cup with orange juice. "It was cool seeing you and the others on the there."

I smiled. "Thanks Gabe."

Gabe and I together walked to a table where Tommy, Denver, and a few others were already seated.

As soon as I took a seat next to Denver, he engulfed me into a hug. I fell into the hug with a smile and warm feeling developing in my chest.

He parted the hug but held onto my shoulders. "I'm so proud freaking proud of you! You three are going so far!"

I laughed. "Thank you, Denver."

Toby took a seat next to Denver, who proceeded to fist bump him. Taylor took a seat across from us. Denver reached over and high-fived her.

It made me smile to see Denver so excited. The last time I saw him like this, it was right after they had announced that we had won State Finals. We were told to remain at attention, but the moment we were dismissed, he tackled me in a hug.

"Hey, you three," Mike greeted coming behind me. He placed his hands on my shoulders. "Saw you on the news this morning. I'm proud be your instructor, you know."

"We're proud to have you," Toby replied.

I smiled up at him. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

"What he said," Taylor said.

He patted my shoulders. "Well, eat up. We leave pretty soon."

Mike went back to his table to finish his food, leaving the rest of us to discuss and eat.