Coco: The Music of Love

Fear makes me weak

Inhale...exhale....inhale... exhale

Katherine did this several times. Though these breathing techniques did next to nothing to calm her nerves. She was still sweating buckets from nerves and was beginning to shake quite a bit.

"So much for calming breathes" she muttered to herself as she waited for the next contestant to finish. Then it would be her turn.

Oh man. She was going to do so badly. Then everyone would laugh at her or worse, her family would be mad at her for screwing this chance up.

"You know, your gonna do fine" said a voice behind her. Katherine turned to face her best friend Miguel Rivera who was leaning against the nearby wall lazily, his trusty guitar strung across his back.

"I'm gonna do terrible, Miguel. I just know it"

"Have a little faith in yourself, Kat" he said with a smile, ruffling his already messy hair.

Katherine have a small smile before turning back to face the door which would open at any moment.

The door opened after a minute and Katherine froze when her name was called. She looked back to Miguel who nodded in encouragement, gesturing for her to go through the door.

"Go knock them dead, short stuff" he said with a small wink and cheeky grin, giving her a thumbs up.

"Shouldn't be hard with my voice" she muttered, feeling quite sick. She managed to take a few steps forward before shaking her head.

"I can't..."

"Katherine?" Miguel asked in confusion, reaching for her, worry plastered on his face.

"I can't do this"

Then she ran.

Katherine didn't stop running until she reached the edge of town.

How could she have been so stupid? She blew her one good chance to be recognised as a singer and musician and all because of a little stage fright. 

She sat down on a rock overlooking a beautiful meadow. This was where she and Miguel often came when one of them was having a bad day or just needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the town.

Katherine was a Sixteen year old girl living in the town of Santa Cecilia with her mother, father, older sister and her grandmother. the rest of their family lived in the town too and often visited. Since she had been a little girl, Katherine had dreamed of being on stage. She was an active girl. Very fast, despite her small height of 4ft 11 inches and had an amazing figure from constant sports and dance practice. Katherine was also interested in Boxing through her uncle Tulio who taught her some skills with boxing and self defence ("You can't be too careful these days" he had said when she asked about it). Despite all of her dreams, they seemed to be crumbling away now. 

Katherine kicked a stone, scuffing her already dirty sneakers.

Suddenly she heard heavy breathing behind her and turned to see Miguel running towards her.

He skidded to a halt and bent over, placing his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath like he had just run s full length marathon. Katherine had to give a small smirk of amusement.

"Don't go dying on me, Miguel. Who else am I gonna talk to if you do?"

"Maybe Xochi. She's a good listener" he said as he sat down.

"Xochi is a cat, Miguel. Plus she doesn't talk back"

"Good point. Now, what was that all about? Why did you run?"

Katherine averted her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck.

Katherine was the type of girl who was as fearless and determined as she was kind and loyal to her dreams. Unfortunately she wasn't always as fearless and confident as everyone believed. Not even Miguel knew of her crippling fear of the stage. Partially due to the fact that she would rather die than let none know that she had stage fright and partially because Miguel was the best audience she could ever hope to have. He was honest and open with her. Always helping her, and she him. Miguel had been her best friend since she had moved to Santa Cecilia when she was six, and he seven years old. Now she was sixteen and he was seventeen year old. It was hard to believe how far their friendship had come in ten years.

"I have stage fright...." She muttered the last bit.

"Huh?"

I have stage fright" she whispered.

"What?"

I. HAVE. STAGE. FRIGHT!" she yelled.

Miguel looked like she had grown a second head.

"You...have stage fright?" He asked in confusion.

Katherine rolled her dark brown eyes, flicking an annoying wisp of her dark locks out of her face. "I thought I just said that"

"Yeah, but...it's you. You aren't scared of anything"

"Well, I am now" she huffed and turned from him in embarrassment. He was silent for a while before he hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her head.

"It's okay. Everyone gets stage fright. I still do even though I perform regular in town and at school"

"But you seem a confident, even if you do have stage fright" Katherine said. "I'm hopeless" she moaned, hiding her face in her hands. "Fear makes me weak"

Miguel walked around her and lifted her face so she would look at him. He looked stern and serious, something, Katherine noticed, made him look even more handsome than he already was. If that was possible. Oh yeah, did she forget to mention that she had a massive crush on her best friend?

"Now you listen to me, Katherine Valentina Casales. You are not hopeless. You are not weak. Your only human and yiu can't be perfect" then he grinned "well, even though I think you are"

Katherine blushed and shoved him slightly. "Quit it, Rivera" she scolded slightly. "It's gonna take more than sweet words to convince me that I'm already lost cause when it comes to taking the stage"

Miguel grinned and leaned forward slightly, making Katherine blushed even more at how close they were.

"What would I have to do to convince you?" He said, glancing down at her lips for a second before meeting her eyes again. Yeah, another thing to note is that sometimes these two acted like best friends, and sometimes like they were dating. It was kinda crazy and neither really knew where they stood with their relationship.

Katherine smirked. She leaned up to him. Their lips were almost touching when she shoved him to the ground, laughing at his slightly dazed and shocked expression.

"Just give me some of that courage of yours, Rivera, and we should be fine"

He smirked as he got up.

"And what do I get in return?"

Katherine smiled "I'll have that get back to you on that one" suddenly she froze, looking back the way they came in horror.

"The show" she grabbed her best friends hand and began to drag him along. "Come one. You'll miss your chance to perform if we don't hurry!"

He made her stop. Hugging her close he whispered in her ear, breath tickling her neck slightly

"I don't care about some stupid show, Kath. Your more important to me than any show will ever be"

They stood there like that, embracing as the sun began to set over Santa Cecilia.