Secrets // Zach Herron

Knockout Rounds // C17

Word of the day: Stress
Definition: A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.

Penelope's POV:

Knockout rounds... I just had to get through this round before I would make it to the live playoffs. I had to admit, I was once again nervous because the person I could be going against could be amazing.

Nevertheless, I walked through the backstage of The Voice before I walked on stage to meet Gwen and my opponent. Rounding the corner, I saw Gwen laughing with my opponent and when I got closer, my heart sank. It was Tatianna sitting with Gwen, she was my opponent.

"Hey Penelope!" Gwen chimed.

I smiled and greeted Gwen before I sat down next to Tatianna. She gave me a death glare before she went back to complimenting Gwen.

"So ladies, what are your song choices?" Gwen asked.

"I will be singing Bang Bang by Ariana Grande, Jessie J, and Nicki Minaj" Tatianna proudly stated.

"Nice choice!" Gwen applauded. "And you, Penelope?"

"I'm going to sing Little Toy Guns by Carrie Underwood" I remarked.

Gwen smiled and commented on how she liked my song choice, but Tatianna chuckled to herself.

"Is there something you'd like to share Tatianna?" I asked.

"No, not really... but if you insist", she paused and took a huge sigh, "it's just that Carrie Underwood has such strong vocals, are you sure you can reach that level of sophistication? I mean come on, you really don't think that you can sing one of her songs... it's such a risky song too."

"Tatianna, I don't think your words are very appropriate" Gwen stated.

"I'm joking! I'm just joking! Gosh, you two really need to learn how to take a joke."

Gwen cleared her throat, "very well then, Tatianna, why don't you start and Penelope, you can have a seat in the audience."

I walked off of stage and went to take a seat in the audience, part of me still felt attacked. Was my song choice too out there? What if I've set myself up for disaster? No, Penelope, she's just trying to get in your head.

Tatianna went on to sing her song and I have to admit, she has vocals and she knows how to perform, but she sang with anger. She was angry and that made her rich tone have an underlying hint of aggression. I couldn't help but wonder that if I could sense it, does that mean Gwen can too? Will this be her downfall?

Gwen spent about an hour with Tatianna before it was my turn. I switched places with Tatianna and prepared for a full run of my song. Performing the full run was quite interesting and Gwen had some interesting faces while I sang too.

"I love your voice and I think this is a great song choice, you know you're really testing your limits with this... however, you seem to be scared when you sing this song. You're just really shying away from those impact notes and it leaves me just on the fence between this being an amazing cover or it being an average cover. With that in mind, let's work on this" Gwen said.

We worked on this song for another hour before our session was over. Overall, I think I made some pretty big improvements and Gwen thinks so too. However, she keeps bringing up the fact that the passion and soul that I sang with before was missing in this song. Maybe it was because of what Tatianna said, but I need to get my game on.