Breaking

Dressing Room pt. 1

After a week or two, the school had chosen a new judge, Nicholas Pierce. A renowned rapper turned producer who had recently taken the entertainment world by storm. The whole school was now abuzz on this topic, all thoughts of Leo and his father completely wiped from there mind at this new event. Not that Leo was complaining.

 Practice day after practice day finally gave way to the day of the competition. Leo was awoken by Terra, whom once he was awake, went on to wake the other five boys, since they had decided to sleep over.

"Why don't you go shower first Leo?" She said over her shoulder as she struggled to wake her son.  "That way you get first choice for water temperature." Terra winked at Leo, who smiled as he went to take one.

As Leo stripped, still not fully awake, he drowsily took in the appearance of his body in the mirror. It would take time. Though most of his wounds had healed over, and all bruises that he had had already disappeared, many scars still remained. Those scars would probably take years to go away. Leo ruffled his hair as he returned his focus to  getting a shower.

Once finished, and now fully awake, Leo dressed into the plain black skinny jeans and white t-shirt that Terra had given him to wear.

"You'll change into your costume and get hair and makeup done when we get there. For now, we will just put you in this to make life easier."

Leo waited at the breakfast table while the others took their showers, each using different bathrooms in the mansion. He amusedly watched as Kevin ran down from the east wing. The blonde boy's hair reminding Leo a bit of a wet cat, as Kevin had not bothered drying it. "It's not like the people doing hair would have any easier of a time whether I dried it with a blow-dryer." Hadrian and Chase having just come from the west wing in time to hear Kevin's comment rolled their eyes. Nicholas was not long after, still ruffling his hair up a bit, having not fully dried his hair either. Nicholas' excuse being that otherwise his hair got fluffy. Ryder was last, as he casually sauntered over and sat down. His mother followed his,  grumbling as she joined the boys.

"Even with friends over it's like waking up a bear."

The maids placed a large breakfast on the table. Leo looked at the large spread before him in slight apprehension. "You better eat Leo," Nicholas reprimanded, "It's never quite certain when we'll have time to eat, because I doubt you'll want to eat lunch. Even I sometimes skip it for these kinds of things." Leo nodded and quietly began to eat more.

The silence and tension were so thick that it could be cut with a knife. Nerves were everywhere, but excitement was there too. Leo was practically shaking from it all, and in fact he was quivering in nervous anticipation. No one dared speak, not even Kevin; he just kept bouncing his leg up and down. Though the meal was delicious, they didn't realize it; they barely even understood what they were tasting, to them it was more like cardboard.

The six boys were eating so slowly that Terra had to scold them and get them to hurry up and finish before herding the boys to the car.

"You ready?" She asked Leo.

"I hope so,"

"You should have more confidence Leo. You will be wonderful! All of you will be." The boys did their best to smile- it looked a little weak. Terra did her best not to laugh at such a pathetic sight. Instead she tried to focus on the drive. She was soon saved from the hardship of not laughing, as the driver announced that they had arrived.

The boys filed out of the car, taking a deep breath, they looked up at the building where it would all be. Leo had the pre-competition jitters as he thought about going on stage in front of Mr. Pierce. He opened and clenched his fingers, trying to get the feeling back into them. Terra, noticing this, put her hand on Leo's shoulder as she guided the boys to a dark brown door that led to their dressing room.

"You will be staying here for a bit, until it is your turn. Now how about we get you into your costumes?" Terra rubbed her hands, the bright joyful smile of excitement making the others' own moods cheer up. "Ryder, you first!" Ryder went over to where his mother was, at her asking, he stripped. Then she handed him a pair of black skinny jeans, a few stylish rips just above his knee.

"All of you have these pants and black boots," she informed the group as she handed her son a pair of boots. "As well as a white button up shirt," Terra handed Ryder his. She then pulled out a thin, deep purple tie which she preceded to tie. She proceeded to help Ryder slip on a fitted and elegant tail coat. The body was black, with gold edges. On one label was a purple plaid pattern, with the same color solid purple on the underside of the tails. A gold epaulette with longer tassels hung off his right shoulder.

Ryder looked at himself in the mirror, quite satisfied with how he looked. However, his mother soon pushed him out of the way as she brought Kevin forward. He slipped on his jeans, boots, and shirt quickly yet carefully, his face clearly showing how much he wanted to see himself in an outfit.

A loose, thin pink string tie was then tied around his neck. Terra didn't give him a jacket first though; he was instead given a pink plaid vest.  After that was on and buttoned up the jacket was given. Kevin's jacket was black as well with gold edges, however, with a shawl lapel and rolled up sleeves. After adjusting his jacket a little, she went on to Hadrian.