A Mellifluous Star

1

♛

Chapter 1

A 16 Year-Old's Capability

.o0o.

Amelia sat in her chair, palms sweaty and breath hitching. This was another one of her competitions. (Quite an active amateur-competitor as all can see). Another one, where she hopes not to lose again. For someone as talented as her, she has never experienced as many triumphs and wins, like anyone else. In fact, she has never even tasted a drop victory. Numerous of her loses are the results of a bunch of other cheaters's schemes, most of them are just the outcomes of her unfortunate-slash-unlucky self. All she ever thought was that you only needed to sing your heart out, but as she continues to join in new competitions, it was nothing about talent, but of fame, money, and recognition. Needless to say, she never stopped signing up for more, even though loads of it caused her buckets of tears and sleepless nights.

And so, she sat there, thrusting the borrowed guitar with both of her hands, waiting to be called out for her turn. She never really had the budget to buy her own instruments, and she only learned out to play the stringed form from a booklet she found somewhere at the park on the way home. Curiosity got to her, and she knew she wanted it.

And now, she's here, waiting and looking for opportunities.

"Amelia Celine Vela? Amelia? Where is Amelia?" A girl came running, a small earpiece visible from her left ear. Amelia took a deep breath.

You can do this. You will do this. For Nicholas.

"-Vela! Where is Amelia?!" the staff yelled, louder than before, so that it overlaps with the music from the front-stage. "H-here! I-I'm here!" Amelia stuttered, finally raising one of her hands. The staff sighed, her nametag shining with the lights. Stacey.

"There you are! Go ahead and stand right there. On cue, Roger will call you up, and when he does- you get your piece ready-" She paused, her eyes fixated towards Amelia's (borrowed) guitar. "You're playing?!" She exclaimed frustrated, Amelia confused. "Why didn't you line up with the others earlier?! You should've connected this to the sound system ten minutes in time!" Amelia was dumbfounded, the staff named Stacey (from what she read on her nametag) seemed to have been stressed out. "S-sorry, I wasn't really paying attention." She apologized, looking down. "Whatever! Come along and queue up over there-!" Stacey said, pulling the guitar from her, and pointing towards the side of the stage. "Hey! I only borrowed that!" Amelia tried to grab it from her. "No! Go there and I will connect this to the sound system- NOW!" She ordered. Amelia nodded feverishly, reluctant, and uncertain about leaving it to her, but she did as she was told, either way.

"Please welcome, Amelia Celine Vela!"

And before Amelia knew it, it was her turn. It was her time to shine, yet she felt like exploding. All the pressure was filling her up from her head to her toes. The butterflies in her tummy were going crazy, she went pale-- all of her colors were gone, all the clapping and cheering were suddenly, inaudible. Everything—ever so suddenly, was a blur. She felt like trembling, with each step she took towards the lone guitar that sat at the center of the stage. She stepped closer and closer, her feet bringing her to her-hopefully, first win. Breathing in a huge chunk of air, she clutched the microphone and picked up the guitar from the floor. This is it.

Her mouth opened, she wanted to say a few words—but quite humiliatingly, the microphone brought a horrible ringing sound towards everyone's ears. Groaning, people covered their ears, clearly annoyed. Amelia cringed, internally scolding her in her inner monologue. Slowly, she put the mic back, hoping for all of them- not to start booing her off the platform.