Short Stories

Writing Challenge - Day 7

7. Write the story of your favourite song

Sorry this is a day late!

My Current favourite song is (F**k A)Silver Lining by Panic! At The Disco

Silver Lining: Use the term silver lining when you want to emphasise the hopeful side of a situation that might seem gloomy on the surface. The common expression "every cloud has a silver lining" means that even the worst events or situations have some positive aspect.

This was the biggest moment of my life. Just beyond those red curtains was a crowd waiting patiently, waiting to be blown away, no. Expected to be blown away by my performance. I had gained a reputation as a singer, in what way I was never always sure, but I only hoped it was good. After all, my singing career depended on this. I had landed the lead in the musical production being put on by our local community centre. It was an annual performance that invited the proud and prestigious, but also attracted the attention of the talented and the wealthy. If I failed now I would fail forever, all that time and effort spent on building something, something that would slip away like grains of sand through my fingers.

It wasn't an easy journey, my path to performer had been rough. Sure everyone had their backstories and I had mine. My family weren't rich, nor were we poor, but my parents were perfectionist in life. They wanted perfect kids in each department of life, my older sister a famous lawyer living in America, my older brother a famous artist, travelling the world as he created his works, galleries even named after him. Then there was me, I was expected to do something that was academic, a doctor or psychologist. Even my younger sister was apart of the perfect image, expected to join public services when she was older, my parents heavily indoctrinating her from a young age.

While my siblings were content with the lives they had been pushed into, the lives they now enjoyed, I was not. I wanted to be on Broadway, to be a singer. To perform and entertain. You can imagine the disappointment on my parents faces when I told them this. They put me down, hated and crushed my dreams. They refused to pay for music lessons and refused to take me to any concerts or musicals, because it would give me 'false hope' and a 'fake dream'.

So when i joined the music production at school and successfully managed to hide it from them I thought I saw a silver lining. Hope that my dreams weren't lost to my tyrannical parents. I began to work secretly part-time to pay for my own music lessons. It took me a whole year to save up for a guitar and the amount of times I was nearly caught made it hard to continue sometimes, luckily with support from my music teacher, my friends and by sheer determination, I managed to get somewhere. I managed to get my audition for the community musical and I got in. My silver lining shone brighter by the day, my dream was still alive and breathing, even if at home it was hell, endless nights of studying and revision to keep the strong facade that I would fill the academic shoes my parents had wanted me to fill. That they told me that I must fill.

At the end of the school year I had perfect grades and had mastered my secret talent. Life at home was better, my parents no longer treated me harshly, presumably because they thought I had given up on my real dream and chased their artificial one. I was allowed to sing at home, not practice professionally, but occasionally to the radio or to a CD. My little sister always loved to hear me sing, laughing and singing along every time I did so. My parents always discouraged the singing, but something told me Chelsea and I were going to be the problematic kids. I was going against their direct wishes and Chelsea would eventually do so, and they would advise it because she would get everything she wanted. After all the perfect family always had the reckless free spirit, adored for being outspoken and an individual.

But even with all this hope, this happiness, how far I had come... I wanted more. I wanted the gold medal not the silver. Because a silver lining wasn't good enough anymore, I wanted my dream now more than ever. I pushed persistently, practised at friends houses, sang at school and practised my lines. My parents nearly found out once, I had skipped class at school and had instead gone to work to ensure I had money for transport and food when we travelled to the latest theatre to do dress rehearsals. Luckily my music teacher, whose lesson I had missed, reassured the headteacher and my parents that I was there and that she must have made a mistake accidentally. I was grateful to her for her massive support for what I was doing, but she didn't worry about taking the fall too much, after all, her mother owned the school.

So with my money and my pride I made my way to dress rehearsals. The whole group of us performing were amazing in our own ways, we were all dreaming big and supported each other greatly. The female lead role, Cassie was my partner throughout most of rehearsals since I was the male lead. She knew about my life, my not so perfect parents and their painful ideologies on how to raise children. We grew closer as we told each other about our lives. Cassie told me about her fears, that her parents might disown her if they discovered who she really was deep down inside. We confided in each other and Cassie became my rock to lean on throughout the hardest periods, when I nearly gave up everything, to conform to my parents views and become a doctor.

But now I was here, performing the opening solo. Here to say F**k a silver lining as I climbed higher and higher, because in reality only gold was hot enough.