Dear Ocean Sky

Chapter 10.2 | Kata

Alex was definitely a better singer than she was a dancer. In fact, Alex was a phenomenal singer.

Kata was sat, awestruck as Alex belted "When There Was Me and You," up on the stage of the cafeteria. She could tell Alex was nervous, but that didn't stop her from performing beautifully.

What really surprised Kata was how loud Alex was. In class, Alex was the quietest person in the room at any given time, so much so that Kata forgot she existed half the time. While that may sound rude, it was the truth. When Kata and Alex were coming with blocking, Alex was a lot louder than in class, but still pretty quiet. Up on that stage, however, you would never know that she was even the slightest bit shy.

Alex caught Kata's eye and had to stifle a giggle which made Kata chuckle. This then made Alex lose focus, causing her to stumble, but she caught herself before falling and went right into the next step like nothing ever happened. Kata wanted to start clapping as loud as she could for Alex just because of that, but she knew she should wait until the end of the song, so she settled for a thumbs-up, earning a smile from Alex.

When Alex sang the last note, Kata was the first one clapping. She was impressed with her singing. She was impressed with her acting. She was impressed with how quickly Alex had mastered the blocking. Kata was just impressed in general.

As Alex dismounted from the stage Kata ran up to her. "You were so good!" she praised. "You're definitely better at singing than at jazz squares." Kata playfully shoved Alex making her laugh.

"That concludes rehearsal everyone! Notes will be sent out in tonight's email, get good sleep, we have a long week of rehearsals ahead of us."

As the students started to disperse, Kata made her way over to her backpack. She packed up and hoisted the bag onto her back which was painfully heavy, even with Kata's muscular build. Every day Kata was forced to bring extra textbooks to and from school that never offered any help. "Now you have all you have the tools you need to succeed. You can't blame failure on anybody but yourself." Kata's mother had remarked on one occasion. However, Kata's mother wasn't necessarily talking about the books. Kata felt like her mother was just talking about her life in general.

Kata shook herself out of her thoughts and tried to find one of her friends to walk out with. Though her mother didn't ever give her a chance to get close to people, she thought having connections and acquaintances were important in life. She believed that this would help with social skills which are helpful in many jobs, which she was right about, and Kata understood that. She just didn't like being given lectures on the matter, and she had learned early on that to avoid any it was best to walk out of school talking to someone.

Kata saw three girls, Zoe, Aadya, and Rose, already walking out the door, laughing together. She tried to swallow her jealousy because she knew it was irrational. However, the feeling still lingered, like a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, so she looked away. There was nothing to be jealous of, Kata knew that.

Most of the people had already left the cafeteria, Kata noted as she glanced around. Her eyes landed on one person, talking to Mr. Benj.

Kata walked over to her peer and her teacher just as Mr. Benj said. "You did a really good job up there, Alex. Did it help at all?"

Kata stopped in her tracks and waited patiently off to the side, not wanting to interrupt a conversation.

"It did. Thank you, Mr. Benj." Alex replied. "And I really enjoyed working with Kata." Kata couldn't help but smile at that.

"You are very welcome, but I didn't really do anything. That was all you, girl. You and your amazing performance."

Alex beamed at the compliment, and Mr. Benj smiled at her then told Alex goodbye when he saw Kata standing off to the side.