𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑵 𝑰𝑻 𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑫 | 𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑛

•Chapter 6•

'We do have some bad news for you.' Louis says seriously all of a sudden.

A silence follows, but Simon breaks it quite quickly. 'From the 211 acts standing here, only twenty-four will go through to the judges' houses.'

'Only twenty-four?!' I shriek. 

'That's insane. That little?' Harry says panicking.

'Oh my god.' Cher mumbles in herself.

'Go to your categories, then we'll start.' says Simon simple to close off.

'Good luck boys.' I say with a smile to them and walk with Cher to the other girls.

***

For the first round we need to sing If I were a boy. In groups of ten, all the girls need to stand in line and sing a small part of the song. Everyone needs to sing the exact same part. Our coach for today said that the judges want to see what you do with the lyrics.

When it's my turn, I swallow softly and bring the microphone to my mouth. 'If I were a boooooy. I think I could understaaaa-haaand. How it feels to love a girl. I swear I'd be a better maaaa-haaa-haaan.'

I look at Simon and Louis, who both examine my performance. Once everyone is finished, we're send out of the room.

'You were fantastic, Cher.' I say smiling.

'Thanks. You too.' she says and giggles.

Very soon after our performance, the whole girl category is split into two groups. Our group is asks as last to come to the stage.

'I don't get these two groups, do you?' Cher asks puzzled. 

I shrug. 'I don't know. It must have a reason, right?'

'I guess.' she says with a hint of doubt in her voice, while we join the other on the stage.

And here we are, waiting anxiously for the results. Maybe this is where my journey ends, and I need to go home..

'As you might have noticed, we split the category into two groups. It's very simple, one group gets to stay, the other needs to leave.' Simon looks at Louis, who is smiling to us.

'And you are the group that gets to stay!' he yells excitedly into the microphone. All the girls, including me and Cher, start to scream of happiness.

Everyone has to join us on the stage again, and the boys decide to stand next to me. I smile to them and Simon starts his explanation. 'Next part is dancing. We do not care how well you dance, we want to see you entertain us.'

'Dancing?' Liam asks surprised.

'I can entertain, no problem, but dancing.... That's a whole other thing.' Louis says laughing.

'Same.' Harry chuckles.

***

During rehearsals, my bladder decides to let me down. I leave the room in search for a toilet, but find a boy instead. He has dark hair and a tinted skin, but most importantly he looks really upset. I slowly walk towards him and sit next to him. 'Hey, why are you sitting here?'

He looks up in shock, but relaxes when he sees my face. 'I'm not doing it. I look like a fool, I can't dance.'

'Have you seen any of those other people out there? Almost no one can dance.' I giggle. 'You can't give up on your dream that easily.'

Even with his sadness, I managed to get him to chuckle. 'Maybe you're right.'

'Duh, of course I'm right-' I wanted to say his name, but I realised we never introduced ourselves.

'Zayn.' he says and laughs.

'Samantha.' I smile back. 'If you'll excuse me now, I need to go to bathroom.'

'Believe me, I won't stop you.' he says chuckling.

I laugh and walk to the toilets. When I return, he's no longer there.

***

During the dancing part, I saw Zayn dancing his heart out at the front row. It made me so happy to see that even though he was scared, he did it.

We've received the instruction to perform a self-picked song, and have little time to rehears. I don't feel like I need to rehears the song that I picked out, since I have sung this song a million times.

'Which song have you chosen to sing?' Cher asks curiously to me. 

'Raise your glass.' I answer and look at her. 'You?'

'So you're going to liven up this place?' I hear someone say behind me. I turn around and see Niall, Harry, Liam and Louis. 

Niall is so adorable. They all are, no one can change my mind about that.

'Always.' I say with a smile.

In the corner of my eye, I see someone walk towards me. Zayn. 'Hey Samantha.'

I turn to him and my smiles becomes even brighter. 'Hey, the dancing went really well.'

'I would have never done it without your little speech, so thank you.' he says back in a sweet voice.

'Ahw, no problem.' I realise that I have not introduced Zayn to other yet, so I turn myself back to them. 'Oh, everyone, this is Zayn. Zayn, these are Cher, Niall, Harry, Liam, and Louis.'

'Nice to meet you.' is the mutual response.

'Everyone, please join me here!' some guy of the production yells and we all walk towards him. 'On this piece of paper, you will see the order of the performances. First contestant has to start in five minutes, good luck.' And with that he walks away.

'Nice, we're all in the first half.' Niall says with a grin on his face.

I look at him, but it becomes a stare quite quickly, so I turn back to the list. 'Cher has to start.'

***

Everyone has performed, and we're waiting for the results. The guys were incredible, like wow! Their voices were so beautiful and pure, I almost melted. Like five angels singing. 

The boys, groups and people over 25 have now received the results and it's our turn. 

Cher and I walk tensely to the stage, and wait for the result.

'Alright, the girls through to the next round are: Katie Waissel, Raquel Thomas, Keri Arrindell, Treyc Cohen, Annastacia Baker, Gamu Nhengu, Cher Lloyd and Samantha. Congratulations girls.' Louis Walsch says enthusiastically into the microphone.

All the girls that are through run off the stage squealing and screaming of happiness and excitement. 

Cher and I walk around, trying to find the guys. Once we see them, we spot not so happy faces. Oh no.. 

We slowly walk towards them. 'Hey.. What's up?' I ask carefully.

Niall turns around and I see his red, puffy eyes and wet cheeks. 'None of us made it to next round.