Chapter four

I got in, I knew I would. The first day was Tuesday morning for me. Before then I had my first day of a new high school. I knew it was something I was dreading it showed in my nightmare before. After the horrid images were plastered into my mind I couldn’t sleep. I was up before the sun. Quietly I hopped in the shower hoping to not wake up Bridger. By the time I had finished with that the sun was rising over the mountains.

I decided to cook myself breakfast. I went to the kitchen. My mother was sitting at the table with coffee in her hand. She was reading the paper and sipping at the dark liquid. Her eyes lifted from the grey paper and she smiled, “good morning sweetie.” Dark circle hung low under her eyes. She looked as if she hadn’t slept in days.

“Morning,” I mumbled. I searched through the fridge loudly as I tried to find something to eat. Finally I decided on just cereal.

“You should eat more than that,” My mother said between drinks of her coffee. “Tryouts are today after school.” The cereal clogged up my throat.

I coughed trying to unclog my throat, “Today?” My mother nodded and I panicked. My stomach flipped inside, I wasn’t prepared at all. I spun around and gripped the sink. My hand flicked on the cool water and I stuck my head under it. The freezing water washed over the back of my head and down my back. The heat that had risen in my face was slowly being melted away. Water dripped from my lips and I rested my forehead on the bottom of the sink. Deep breaths filled my lungs as I tried to regain control of myself. Football was really the last thing I wanted to be thinking about.

A large hand slapped my back, “Fall in?” My dad’s deep voice sounded behind me. My head whipped out from under the sink spraying water all over the floor.

“Russel!” my mom screeched loudly and stood up from her seat. “What is wrong with you?”

My dad laughed loudly with his deep roaring laugh, “Oh Emma, leave the poor boy alone. He’s just excited about his big day.” His hand again patted my back and smiled down at me brightly. “Now would you please go wake your brother up, he needs to eat something.” My head nodded slightly and I quickly ran off to my room.

It wasn’t long before we were off to school. My dad drove piper and I went with Bridger. “Why don’t you just tell dad you don’t want to play?”

“Are you kidding, can you imagine what he’d do?” My hand was gripping the car door tightly. The high school had already been in session for a week. The coaches under my dad had been running conditioning practices. They had all prepared for this. I was about to walk into my humiliation head first.

Bridger pulled into the parking lot. My family was never short on money and my father loved to show it. For Bridger’s 16^th birthday he bought him a Mercedes. If it was meant to turn heads, it worked. Everyone in the parking lot turned as we drove by. I sunk my body further into my seat. Bridger may like the attention he gets from people around him, but I hate it. Bridger laughed harder the lower I got into my seat. “I’m sure everything will be fine Russ.”

“That’s what you think.” He opened the door and got out. A couple girls gasped when they saw the good looks that crossed my brother’s face. For the first time in my life I had the same effect. My whole life I was living in the shadow of Bridger. Girls were always over him and not me. Today I got a completely opposite reaction. A group of girls waved to me as I got out. I thought perhaps I had something spilled across the front of my blue shirt. I looked down to see nothing but the clean fabric covering my body. Dark jeans and brown flip flops finished off my ensemble. It was nothing special something I wore all the time. Bridger threw me my bag from the back and we walked toward the large three story brick building.

People watched us, the new kids, as we walked to the front door. When we stepped in groups of people stood around talking and chatting before class. A football was being tossed around through the hall. People screamed and cheered, some girls were crying, some were fighting. Most every eye though was on us. Some gave us dirty looks. Some were quizzical. I decided to occupy my thoughts with the banners on the walls. Different bright colors were hung on the wall, each of them advertising a club that was having auditions. A golden square sign took all my attention. The golden paper hung to the wall with two glitter gold stars. Curly streamers hung from each corner. Inside big letters spelled out, “Do you want to sing and dance your heart out? Do you have a dream to be a star? STAR club auditions Monday morning in the auditorium.”

Monday morning that was today. My feet froze to the ground, Bridger stopped with me. He followed my gaze to the sign, “Go ahead.” He shoved me with his shoulder, “I’ll get your schedule. If I see dad I’ll cover for you.” He looked forward and pointed to a large door at the end of a hall, “I think those are the doors to the auditorium.” As much as I tried I couldn’t take the first step. Bridger grabbed my shoulders and gave me a shove, “It will be fine, don’t worry.”

It was almost as if I had left my body. In Reno there was a show choir I never dreamed of being in it. It was too risky. But I was going to change here, right? I guess this is where I decided. There was a person on stage when I walked in. My hands shook at my sides as I took a seat in the back of the auditorium. The young blonde girl sang her heart out to the two judges sitting in the middle of the house. She sang something from the sound of music. I tried to block everything else out as I picked a song. When I finally remember a song my voice coach told me I sounded amazing on it was my turn. “Next!” The girl judge called.

She had light brown hair that ran straight past her shoulders. It curled in around her face giving it a nice frame. Her makeup was dark letting everyone see her light brown eyes under a smoky lid. She wore a black dress with leggings. She had to be about my age, with her trendy style. The tip of her pencil tapped impatiently at the notebook in front of her. When I walked up to the stage she rolled her eyes and looked at the other judge.

She was older maybe about thirty five or so. Her blond flipped out around her jaw. Her green eyes looked over at the younger girl and smiled. She whispered something that seemed to calm her down. She took a deep breath and leaned back, “What’s your name?”

I cleared my throat before I spoke, “Russel Shaw.” I answered loudly so that they could hear me.

The older judge’s eyes lit up, “Any relation to Coach Shaw?” her bright bubbly voice sang loudly.

My hand tangled together behind my back and my neck folded down, “That’s my father.” I said quietly to the floor. Was I really that ashamed to have him as my father?

The girl wasn’t going to have this, “Are you kidding?” She yelled at the other judge. “I don’t want any fathead jocks on the STARs.” She hissed with an annoyed tone in her voice.

My head sunk knowing that would be the reputation around school that I would have. “Hayden,” the judge hissed.

“It’s the truth. All the jocks are on the All Stars. I don’t want that to be STARs.” She was already writing notes on me.

“Hayden, that’s not what we do. The reason we’re different from them is because we don’t discriminate against anyone.”

Again I cleared my throat, “If it helps I hate football and my dad doesn’t even know I’m doing this. Actually he won’t ever know.”

Both of their eyes were set on me, “Really” Hayden asked with a demeaning tone still escaping her mouth.

My head nodded slightly and again the older woman’s eyes lit up, “Let’s see what you have.”

The piano player looked at me waiting for music or something, “Just give me a C please.” The nodded and hit the note. The sound echoed in my mind and I memorized every inch of that note. When I decided I was ready I started with the first line, “If ever I would leave you.”

The immediate recognition was obvious. They both leaned back and listened while I sang the whole song. I searched deep in my soul to find inspiration for the song. I think it began to work when I saw the harsh face on Hayden begin to recede. The older judge put her hand up and stopped me in the middle of the song. “That was beautiful Russel.”

“Ya, but can you dance.” A smirk covered Hayden’s face and she again leaned back her chair. Her thin arms crossed over her chest and she seemed pretty satisfied with herself.

“What she means Russel, is do you have any dance training?”

My confidence began to grow stronger when we started to talk about dance, “I’ve been in ballet since I was five. Then I went into ballroom at eleven. Right now I’m dancing for the Lake City Ballet Academy.”

Hayden’s jaw seemed to drop, “I can’t believe a jock boy dances.”

“But my dad doesn’t know, and he can’t know.” I seemed panicked when I spoke.

The judge smiled, “Come talk to me right after school and we’ll figure that out.” My head nodded and I started to walk off the stage.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs I stopped, “Does that mean I got in?”

“I can’t say anything yet, but I’m pretty sure we may have found our leading man.” A smile spread across her face. The smile spread deep into my soul.

I so badly wanted to jump up and down as I walked out of the auditorium but I kept my composure. I tipped my head and smiled, “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Mrs. Williams,” she said correcting me. I lifted my head up high and I walked out of the auditorium.

Author's Note

Still super lazy. :S.. Somewhere along the line I changed Mr. Williams into Mrs. Williams.. haha. so.. yeah.. don't get too confused. I'll be back to fix those later.

Reviews

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Ok, I'm random out of the blue I know. BUT! I really enjoyed this, is was very interesting and lovely to read. :D