"Hey, you'll do great!" said Katy with a grin. "Just listen to your voice! I know that's the voice of the grand prize!" I weakly smiled. "Are you guys sure? I mean, what if my voice cracks? What if the whole audience laughs? AH!" Everyone jumped. "What? What's wrong?" asked everyone.
"The audience!" My face was filled with horror. "I forgot about the audience! I forgot there will be an audience! I forgot Jeff's in the audience! Now I'm really dead!" Catherine turned and slapped me hard across my cheek, and you'd better believe it hurt. Everyone gasped. Including me. I held my cheek and cried, "What was that for?" Catherine shrugged. "I'm not sure, I just thought it was the right thing to do. You were panicking, Nicole. You have to slap someone to keep them from panicking, got it?" We all nodded. "It's time to go in, Nikki," whispered Alexis looking at her watch.
"Oh no. No, it's not. NO! I'm not going in there! What if I forget the words, what if I....," I watched Catherine carefully, just waiting for her arm to come up to meet my cheek. I met her eyes. We all burst out laughing. "Okay. I'm ready," I said as I checked myself in the bathroom mirror. I turned and flashed a smile at my friends. They all grinned back. "How do I look? Am I a 'ten' or what?" Katy gave a thumbs up sign, Catherine slapped me on the back playfully, and Alexis just smiled widely at me. I took in a deep breath and walked with my friends into the theater. I gasped. It was packed full with squirmy, noisy people! Katy glanced at me. "You doing okay?" I shook my head. "Don't sweat it, Nicole, I know you'll do great. Remember, we'll be sitting in the front row." Catherine and Katy told me good luck and went on ahead. Alexis stayed behind. She took hold of my hand and looked into my eyes.
"Listen, I know you're gonna do great. But just in case you get nervous, always remember that these people came to see you, you didn't come to sing for them. They don't care how you did, they won't care if you sing the wrong word, they just want to hear your voice. And I'll always be here and I always love to hear you sing." She held my hand for a couple more seconds and walked off. I smiled to myself and went backstage to warm up.
I drank half a cup of water and gurgled the rest down my throat. About 20 people were there to compete, and boy, I was scared. I heard some of their voices, and I just felt sick to my stomach. I pulled out the rules (again for what, the 60th time?) from my pocket and scanned through it just in case I missed something the first 50 times.
"So!" Startled, I turned around just in time to see Corissa flashing her yellow-pink teeth at me. "I see you didn't chicken out." "Wow, Corissa. You sure are fast." I rolled my eyes and turned back around. "I heard you warming up, you have a pretty good voice." I turned back around. My eyebrows were up. "Really? Thanks...," I began. She held her hand up in my face and put on that nasty smile. "But not good enough to beat me. You've wasted over two months working for this, because this is just going to blow you away. And after today, I'll just make your life living hell for you." She pushed her hair back with her free hand like those, snobby cheerleaders. "Oh, just get a life, Corissa," I turned and walked away. I was getting mad. 'After today,' I thought. 'I'll make your life miserable.'