Sweet Till The End

11 - Never judge a cake by its look

"Second place goes to... Alvarez Acapellas!" Present Mic announced.

No way. This means that they didn't win. We have a chance at victory. The Alvarez Acapellas gave a half-hearted cheer.

"And first place goes to..." Present Mic started.

My heart thumped loudly in my ears. Time slowed down. This was it. The winners of the Regionals Singing Competition.

"... The Fairy Tail Voices!"

The Fairy Tail Voices... that's us. I jumped up with the rest of my team as we cheered and hugged each other. It was a miracle. We won! We beat Alvarez! All the clapping and the cheering in the room hurt my ears but I was too happy to care. Everything just felt so amazing. You know when you think things might turn bad but they end up good, like really good, and you're just so overjoyed? That's what it felt like. We proved to everyone that we could sing and I felt so proud of us.

As a group, we walked on stage and Brendon accepted the trophy from Present Mic. He lifted it up over his head and the audience roared with more celebration. Then we all stood together for a few pictures. I stood next to Jellal, our arms around each other's shoulders as photographs were taken. Once that was done, I hugged my fiancé and crashed my lips on his. Being here with him made this moment even more amazing.

"I can't believe we won," Jellal said.

"Me too," I agreed.

"You were such a good singer."

I scoffed. "No way. I sucked but you were really good."

"You sucked?" Jellal asked, wiggling his eyebrows cheekily.

It took a second for me to process what he was suggesting but when I understood it, my face turned as red as my hair.

"No, I didn't – no – I... ugh," I groaned after I couldn't seem to produce a coherent sentence. "Stop doing that."

"I was just saying what you said," Jellal smirked.

I rolled my eyes, unable to stop the smile that appeared on my face.

As everyone started filing out of the auditorium, the people on stage exited through back stage. We were the first group to leave and many people complimented us on our victory as we left. I looked behind me and saw the Alvarez Acapellas following slowly, looking miserable. Amongst them, was an annoyed looking Ajeel who kept scowling at the floor. Though I didn't want to, I felt sorry for him. He was a great singer and he really seemed to love it. Coming second after always coming first must hurt a lot.

I stopped walking, Jellal doing the same.

"You okay?" he asked me curiously.

"Yeah. You go on ahead. I'll catch up soon," I told him, glancing at Ajeel.

Jellal seemed to understand what I was going to do. "Do you want me to come?"

"No, thank you. I got it."

He nodded and followed after our group. I stood to the side as people walked past and I waited for the dark-skinned boy. When Ajeel saw me waiting, his usual smirk was back on his face and his arrogant aura returned. He told his friends to go on without him and he came to stand next to me. Soon, everyone had left and it was only us two in the deserted corridor.

"So, congrats on the win," Ajeel said, no sincerity in his voice.

"Thanks," I replied. "Congrats on coming second."

"You know, if you want, you can still be my girlfriend."

I didn't miss the way he avoided my compliment and I definitely didn't miss the annoyance that flitted across his eyes for less than a second.