The Urban Princesses: Ariel

Chapter 2

I was frantically paddling through the water. I was panicked. I stopped for a moment. The signs by the beach told you what to do in case you were caught in a riptide. I have read them at least eight thousand times. I remained calm and slowly reached the surface.

My face broke through the water and I caught my breath. I located the beach and swam parallel to it. I felt the current loosen it's grip on me. Soon, I was out of the riptide and swimming back to shore. The thoughts of the violent current were still swimming in my head.

I could finally see shore clearly now. A lifeguard I knew as August, was paddling out to me on a red surfboard, his blond wavy hair matted down on his forehead.

"Dude! You were way out there!" August exclaimed. He reached down and pulled me up onto his board.
"I lost track of time. A riptide pulled me under." I mumbled.
"If your dad finds out.."
"He won't right? Who's gonna tell him?" I said.

And with that, we started paddling. We would be at the beach in two minutes at the rate we were going.
"So how did you see me out there anyway? I was out pretty far." I asked.
"Dude, it's a good thing you have red hair." He laughed.

Abigail was waiting for me when I got back to shore.
"Ariel! You are going to miss the chorus
semifinals!" She scolded, her brown hair distressed and in a messy ponytail. She must have been really looking for me.
"Sorry, got a little carried away." I said back while I stood up.
August snorted,"Literally."

Abigail looked at me with huge eyes.
"You went out too far didn't you!!" When dad finds out, you'll be dead! I will be dead!! I was in charge of you!!"
"Neither of us will be dead if dad never knows." I raised my eyebrows at her.
She scoffed and stomped off.

"Thanks again, August."
"No prob. It's my job. Catch you later."
And with that he ran back up to the life guard tower.
***
"Let's start on a C everyone!" Seemal exclaimed. I started singing the major scale. All of our voices sounded amazing together. It reminded me of the ocean. The smooth way the rocks get pushed up on sand. It all works. The birds cooing as the soft waves roll against the sand. Perfect. Seemal played the piano as we went up an octave.

Seemal is also the chorus director. Singing is his second favorite thing next to being a complete control freak. Directing gives him a chance to do that too.

We finished our warm ups and Seemal gave us an announcement
"The judges from San Francisco are here along with talent agents from New York so we have to sing out hearts out. Hopefully we can make it to finals!"
Everybody cheered. We have only made it to finals once, three years ago and we didn't win, not by a long shot.

Everybody dispersed and finished their hair and makeup. I walked over to my sister, Aly.

Me and Aly are really close. We have a lot in common. We are both the biggest surfers in the family(other than my dad). She is my Fallon when Fallon has mathletes. I would've invited Aly to Eric Jacobsen if Fallon wasn't so obsessed with him.

"Hey bikini top." She liked to call me that because I don't wear a wetsuit when I surf. I feel like wetsuits confine me to what I can really do. So whenever I surf I wear a bikini.

"Are you nervous?" I asked her as she put on blush. "Seemal is saying it's a big deal." I added.
"Seemal thinks not having a coupon for toothpaste is a big deal." She turned around and clipped my hair back with a bobby pin and smiled. "Don't worry, you'll do great. Good luck with your solo."

Everyone walked out on stage and we took our places. I was going over the lyrics in my head. My palms were sweating. I quickly wiped them off on my skirt. The lights came up. I smiled. We started singing a Capella to "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. I noticed a man and a woman, both in gray dress pants and a black blazer. Their faces emotionless. The woman had her black hair pulled into a tight bun on the side of her head. The man was wearing rectangle glasses and frequently writing on a clipboard. They must be the talent agents.

Will, a boy in chorus, started singing his solo while the rest of continued the a Capella.My solo is on after Will's and then we sing a duet together.

Will has had a crush on me since third grade. Like everybody else, he is mesmerized by my hair color. Will is also a big surfer and sometimes we go to the beach together. He has asked me out countless times and I rejected him every time except for the fourth time he asked me I said yes to one date just so he would back off. Now, he asks me out every year on the day we went to McDonalds together and I called it a date. He must be psyched we have a duet together.

It's my cue. Will goes back to his spot and I walk to center stage. The words flowed out of me. My voice sounded great. I made sure to put a lot of emotion into it like Seemal said. I noticed the judges smiling and nodding their heads to the beat. I hope they are smiling because of me.

My solo ends and me and Will sing our duet to eachother. I can see the passion in his eyes. This is his life. Singing. You can tell he loves what he does.

Everyone comes in on the refrain. It reminded me of a wave forming. Slow and soft at first, then rising up and smashing down with ultimate power.

It went back to Will and I's duet. Seemal changed the song a bit as he always does so the end was slow and soft. I looked into Will's eyes again and we were singing the final verse when he grabbed my hand.

This was not in the choreography. He pulled me closer to him. I was confused but kept going with it to make it look normal. He pulled me close to his chest and we sang the last words. I put down my microphone when the song ended and immediately when I did, he kissed me. The crowd erupted in applause. What was he thinking?! He knows I don't like him! He finally released me and smiled. He saw the anger and confusion on my face and his smile disappeared.

I put a smile back on and bowed. Then we went off stage, the audience still applauding.

I went backstage and was immediately embraced by Fallon.

"OMG you did great!!!" She screeched.

I hugged her back. Emotions were swimming through my head. Anger,confusion, excitement, happiness.

"So are you and Will....a thing?" She asked.

"No!" I pulled away from her. "I don't know why he did that but excuse me while I go slap him."

I stomped over to him and screamed "What was that?! You can't just go around kissing people because it looks good on stage!"

"The judges were getting bored. I had to do something-"

"Why couldn't you just have done a backflip on stage! That would've caught their attention!"

I was so mad. It was going great. The judges were happy. He just wanted an excuse to kiss me.

I stomped off to go find Seemal.