Viva La Vida

One - The Audition

The sun was just breaking over the horizon when she was shaken awake, her mother's voice loud in her ear. She groaned and rolled over, opening her eyes.

"Olivia, it's six, we have to leave within the hour if you still want to audition." Shooting straight up in her bed, Olivia was wide awake now.

"Shit, yeah, yes. Of course I do. Give me twenty minutes and I'll be down." She swung her legs down and ran her fingers through her hair, cursing herself for not picking out what she wanted to wear the night before. Turning on her closet light, she decided on a dark olive jumper, her comfiest pair of jeans, and some white sneakers. She pulled her hair up into a loose bun, and put on a light layer of mascara.

She grabbed her bag, which she was smart enough to pack the night before, and ran down the stairs. "Do we have any muffins left?"

"Blueberry?"

"Obviously." Her mother tossed it to her over the island, and thankfully Olivia caught it. "Is dad ready to go?" She asked between bites.

"Right here flower." She smiled at him and threw her bag over her shoulder, shoving the last bits of muffin into her mouth. "Let's go make you famous!"

"Dad! We don't even know if I'll get on the show, much less get famous because of it." She said, hoping into the back seat. "I'm probably terrible compared to everyone else."

"Hey, don't say that. You're fantastic! And I'm not just saying that because I'm your mum." She smiled and looked out the window as they pulled out of their neighborhood. It was a short ride, since the auditions were in Manchester, where they lived. Not a half hour later they pulled into the car park.

Olivia took a good look at the building, taking a shaky breath. "I've got this." She muttered as they made their way over, getting in line so she could get signed up and receive her number. She fumbled with her necklace, a small star shaped pendant that was a gift from her best friend Lila. Luckily, they had gotten there rather early, and were only a few people back in line. "How many people do you think are auditioning total?" She asked her parents as they took another step forward. The front tables were significantly closer, and she got more and more nervous as she watched the hands on her watch tick.

"Several hundred I'm sure. Don't they usually go into bootcamp with around two hundred or so?" She nodded. "Then yeah, a lot of people."

"Oh god help me." She muttered as they stepped up to the table.

"Morning. Name, birthday, first song choice." The woman said rather monotonously. 

"Erm, Olivia Myers. My birthday is April 22nd, 1994. And I'm singing Vienna by Billy Joel." The woman raised an eyebrow.

"You sure about that? It's your last chance to pick another song." Olivia scrunched her nose up, shaking her head.

"I'm positive." The woman wrote her name down on the board and handed her a number on  sticker paper. She pointed to the doors on the left and they headed inside. She pulled the sticker off and stuck it to her shirt, tossing the recycling into the bin as they passed. They were directed down a few corridors before entering into a massive room full of people auditioning. And by full, she means really full. "Should we find a place to sit?" She asked, her parents both nodded, and they began to make their way down an isle. Eventually they found a space between two families. One was relatively quiet, but the other was talking up a storm. She spotted the one auditioning immediately, as everyone else in the family was sporting a shirt with "we think Harry has the X factor" printed on them. Cheesy, but cute. Not as cute as the boy, though, who was clearly uncomfortable with the attention they were bringing to him, but was smiling along.