Canon

Chapter 17 - Game of Life

Leonard was roaming around the auditorium looking and trying to contact Chauncey. She was absent for 3 days already but he does not know the reason why. Right now, he was walking around backstage. While walking and texting on his phone, he accidentally bumped someone. Good thing he did not fall, but the one he bumped fell. When he looked at the person, it was actually Diana. He lent her his hand for her to stand up. "Diana, you okay? Sorry about that."

"It's okay," Diana said as she used Leonard's hand as a support for her to stand up. As she stood up, she asked, "Why in a stress?"

"Chauncey hasn't returned for days, and we haven't practiced our song yet in duo," Leonard explained. Diana wanted to help him, so she offered, "I could replace Chauncey in the meantime."

"Thanks, but I need someone who could really sing," Leonard said blatantly. He does not know what Diana is really capable of. She told him, "So what you're saying is... I can't sing?"

"Sadly yes," Leonard answered. Diana was offended about it, so she said, "Give me a song to sing. Anything."

"Stand by Me," Leonard requested. So Diana cleared her throat, and then started singing:

"So darling, darling
Stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand by me
Stand by me"

[A/N: Stand by Me by Ben E. King on media :)]

After hearing her sing, Leonard was 'jawdropped' because he was very amazed with her voice. Diana told him, "But since you don't want me to accompany you, I could just leave-"

"No, don't leave, I need you to practice with me right here this instant," Leonard begged as he grabbed Diana's hand. She told him as she removed his hand, "Sure, but you don't really need to beg like that."

-----

Mr. Dawson called a 15-minute break for them. While on their break, Diana went to the lower box area and sat next to Jesse, who was currently texting someone. "Hey, Jesse! Kinda' bored?"

"Not really, just texting my bud, Christian," Jesse said, looking at Diana. She asked, "Who's he?"

"Former bandmate," he answered, and Diana was shocked about it. "You were in a band?!"

"Yup, before this happened," Jesse said as he looked on his right hand covered with black gloves. Diana asked, "Why did you stop? You know you could still play guitar, right?"

"Yeah, but I can't face my bandmates with this kind of hand," he said as he raised his right hand. Diana held his right hand and said, "You already told me the story about your hand, -although I actually forced you to- maybe you could tell others about it too. Who knows, maybe you'll be known someday!"

But Jesse still felt insecure not about his hand but about the auditions few days from now. Diana cheered him up, not knowing what he was thinking. "Hey, Jesse, the world won't end today, you know? Stop worrying about your hand, it's actually awesome!"