You start singing, soft and tentative at first. But eventually the lyrics carry you away and you put your heart and soul into each word. You are barely aware of the judges as your voice soars out over the crowd. What surprises you more than anything is how completely natural it feels to be up there, commanding everyone’s attention. You could get used to this! As you build up to the big finale, you raise your left arm to the sky, close your eyes, and belt out, “It’s the cliiiiiiiiiiiiiimb!” You hold the note for what seems like an eternity.
When you finally finish, there is a second of stunned silence, followed by the loudest applause you’ve ever heard in your life. Everyone’s jaws are on the floor—including Mona’s. Ahh, success tastes so sweet!
On your way back to your seat, everybody you pass gives you a high five or a pat on the back. You might as well be on MTV, because you definitely feel like a rock star right now.
You still have to get past the judges, though. You may have just killed the audition, but Mona’s friends are on the panel. As Mr. Parker asks them to reveal their votes for soloist one by one, you get the biggest shock of all. Although there are a couple of holdouts who insist on voting for Mona, you win by a landslide. The soloist spot is yours!
“I just knew you would blow everybody away!” Jessie gushes. “Didn’t I tell you? Look out, Taylor Swift, there’s a new diva in town!”
Jessie gives you another bear hug as you try to maintain your balance in the middle of the crowd of kids surrounding you. This must be what Robert Pattinson feels like when he’s being swarmed by fans. You wouldn’t want to deal with that everywhere you went, but right now it feels pretty good. Mona and a few of her friends are still shooting you death glares, but you don’t even care.
Right behind Jessie, Charlie and Lena are waiting to congratulate you too. “That was quite impressive, young lady,” Lena says in her grown-up voice. “Thank goodness you decided to audition! We couldn’t have made up a better ending for the blog. Let me be the first to congratulate you on striking a blow for indefinables everywhere!”
Charlie nods his agreement as he straightens his tie. “Not bad at all,” he says. “We might have to make your rise to stardom a regular feature.”
Jasmine, standing just behind Lena, reaches between her and Charlie to shake your hand. “Great job,” Jasmine says. “I can’t wait to be in the choir with you.”
“Thanks, Jasmine!” you say sincerely. “You were great too. Carnegie Hall, here we come!”
“Uh, excuse me, but before you go running off to New York, how ’bout letting me take you out to celebrate?” It’s Joey Cruz, from the library, looking so much like a young Derek Jeter it’s scary.
You never really expected him to speak to you again after you met in the library. But just when you thought you’d completely blown your chances of ever being accepted by the popular crowd, here comes Joey, asking you out! It’s too good to be true. “Are you serious?” you utter, completely surprised.
“Sure! After that performance, and of course all your hard work in the library, it’s the least I can do. So what do you say?”
You’ve heard this a million times since the audition, but…CONGRATULATIONS! By staying positive and not letting Mona get to you, you totally ruled that stage. You managed to nab the solo spot and prove that you didn’t have to be Little Ms. Popular to do it. You just had to be brave enough to go for it. And speaking of going for it…a new guy seems to be showing some interest in you. You’re definitely tempted to take him up on his offer and enjoy your moment in the sun. But you promised Jimmy you would go to his art exhibit to be there for his moment in the sun, remember? So do you go support your longtime crush and good friend Jimmy, or do you opt to get to know someone new? Still torn? Maybe the quiz will help you decide.
QUIZ TIME!
Circle your answers and tally up the points at the end.
You scored straight As on your report card! As a reward, your parents offer to take you out to dinner anywhere you want, and you can order whatever you want too. What do you go with?
Your favorite restaurant, where you can order your favorite meal. Why get anything else when you know for sure that you’ll love what you always get?
Your favorite restaurant. But this time you’ll order a different dessert. (This is a special occasion, after all.)
You let your parents pick the restaurant. They know what you like so you’re sure they’ll pick something great. (At least you hope!)
You hop on the Internet, find a list of nearby restaurants, and pick one you’ve never even heard of. Eating somewhere you’ve never been before can be exciting!
You and your friends are heading to the beach. What do you wear?
The same trusty blue bathing suit and matching flip-flops you always wear. You don’t see the point of trying to keep up with trends that change every season.
Your usual blue one-piece suit, but this time you’ll pair it with the stylin’ black sunglasses you just picked up at the mall.
You try out a new crocheted tankini you found online, but hang on to your trusty flip-flops. Your friends think it is seriously time for new footwear, but they’re just so comfy!
You rock a whole new outfit: bright red tank set, espadrilles, and a big floppy sun hat. New year, new look!
What is your iPod MO?
You tend to listen to the same set of songs over and over again, very rarely adding anything new to your list. Who needs new tunes when the classics are so great?
You might skip around a little later, but starting with your top ten favorites is a must! (Britney never disappoints.)
You put your iPod on shuffle and listen to whatever pops up. You like not knowing what you’re going to hear next.
Truthfully, you barely even listen to the stuff you just downloaded a week ago. You’re way too busy seeking out the latest releases to add to your collection.
Your teacher wants to know what project you’ll be entering in this year’s science fair. What’ll it be?
The erupting volcano. Yes, you’ve built one two years running, but you know exactly how to do it, and when the fake lava comes pouring out, it’s always a real crowd-pleaser.
You’ll do the photosynthesis experiment at least one kid does every year. Your teachers have seen that one a million times, but it’s a surefire A.
You saw an experiment on the Discovery Channel that you’re dying to try. You’ll just have to do an early run-through to make sure you can pull it off.
You have no idea! But you confidently tell your teacher that you’re going to build a robot. No, you don’t know how, but you’ll figure it out through trial and error. That’s what real scientists do. Plus, when it’s all over you’ll have a robot butler—awesome!
Your sister has the chicken pox and is stuck in the house for two weeks! And your parents say it’s your responsibility to keep her entertained. Tonight she wants to watch a DVD. What do you put on?
Twilight. Again. You’ve both seen it enough times to repeat the dialogue word for word along with the actors. But watching RPatz be all broody and dark never gets old.
First Twilight (naturally), and then season 1 of So You Think You Can Dance. That is one of your sister’s favorite shows, but you know she missed an episode or two.
You order up some new releases from Netflix. Anything your sis hasn’t seen already will do, as long as there’s popcorn!
Actually, you have a better idea. You pull out your parents’ camcorder and decide to make a home video instead. You and your sister can record all the crazy things you do to pass the time during her chicken pox outbreak, then watch it later and laugh your heads off.
Give yourself 1 point for every time you answered A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every
—If you scored between 5 and 12, go to Chapter 20.
—If you scored between 13 and 20, go to Chapter 21.
From Chapter 12: Try as you might, you just can’t stop thinking negatively. Like Murphy�
��s Law says, if something can go wrong it will. And you believe that if you expect the worst, then anything else comes as a pleasant surprise. But is that really the way you want to live? You don’t have to be a little ball of sunshine (especially if that’s not how you honestly feel), but focusing on the good things in your life could bring more good things your way.
From Chapter 17: Cool down, hothead! It doesn’t take you long at all to reach your boiling point. There are plenty of things during the day that are aggravating (the bus taking off without you, being teased by a bully at school, your parents punishing you for something your little brother did), but flying off the handle won’t get you anywhere. If you take a deep breath and count to ten, you’ll probably think of a healthier way to deal with all the things that get you riled up than throwing a fit.
Crazy as this is, you are going through with the audition. Jasmine went already, and she sounded awesome. And Jessie auditioned just for fun and seemed to enjoy it, but she wasn’t taking it too seriously. You, on the other hand, feel like you’re about to face a firing squad.
You just can’t help reliving Mona’s audition in your head—particularly the moment when she announced she would be singing your song. My name is Mona Winston, and I’ll be singing “You Belong with Me” by Taylor Swift. Un. Real. And then she didn’t even have the common decency to sound horrible. The nerve of that girl!
As you nervously step onto the stage, you try to focus on the fact that all your friends are here to support you. You have a bad feeling about this, but with Lena and Jessie behind you, maybe you’ll do all right. You take a deep breath and feel a moment of hope. But then you remember that you haven’t come up with a different song to sing. Would you look like the biggest lame-o in the world if you just ran screaming from the auditorium? Yeah, probably. No choice now but to go through with it. You could kill Mona! Your hands start shaking, but you can’t tell if it’s from nerves or pure rage.
“Name and song selection, please.” Mr. Parker looks at you expectantly.
This is going to be humiliating. You mumble your name, and then in the most miserable whisper possible you force yourself to say, “I’ll be singing ‘You Belong with Me’ too.” Ugh. You grab the mike and bring it too close to your mouth, causing a whine of feedback. You hear a couple of giggles in the crowd. You don’t blame them. If you were them you would laugh at you too.
At last you start to sing, but your heart just isn’t in it. Even though it’s the same tune Mona just sang, it sounds completely different—and not in a good way. You’re practically whispering the parts you’re supposed to belt out. And while Mona used the whole stage, flirting with boys in the audience as she sang the chorus, you are stiff as a board, refusing to move around the stage at all. You might as well be a mannequin. And forget about making eye contact with anyone. You are looking directly at your beat-up sneakers as if they are your only friends in the world.
When the torture finally ends, there is a smattering of confused applause, probably out of pity. Mr. Parker clears his throat and says, “Um, okay. That was an…interesting interpretation of the song. Thank you.”
Ouch. Everybody knows that when Mr. Parker says “interesting” it’s the kiss of death. You hold back your tears as you head to your seat next to Lena. You may be completely mortified, but you still have your pride (whatever scraps of it are left anyway).
“There—are you happy now?” you whisper angrily to Jessie.
“Yes,” she answers immediately, to your surprise. “I mean, okay, you weren’t exactly Taylor Swift up there, but at least you did it!”
“Yeah,” Lena agrees. “We’re still really proud of you.”
“Thanks,” you mumble.
When it comes time to reveal the judges’ decisions, no one is very surprised. Although Jasmine gave her a run for her money, Mona gets the solo. Annoyingly, she runs back up onstage and starts making an acceptance speech. “I just want to thank everyone who encouraged me and supported my dream. Thanks to Eli, on piano; my friends, for believing in me…”
You have to tune out the rest before you turn into the Incredible Hulk and start smashing up the stage. “Can we get out of here now?” you beg your friends.
“Definitely,” Jessie says. “I know just the place!” She shares another one of those knowing looks with Lena, who simply nods, hooks her arm around yours, and says, “Let’s go.”
That was, perhaps, not your best moment. Okay, there’s no “perhaps” about it. You tanked, and the whole school was there to see it. (Except Jimmy, thank goodness. You really would have been horrified if he’d witnessed your epic audition fail.) And Mona, who is worse than any comic-book villain, now has even more reason to gloat. Thanks to your inability to conquer your anger and nerves, the solo spot is hers. Thank goodness your friends are there to pick you up off the floor. Even though your audition didn’t go as well as you’d hoped (even Mark’s was better!), Jessie and Lena are still proud of you for trying. Your BFFs swear they know the perfect thing to pull you out of your funk. Let’s hope so, because your only other alternative is locking yourself in your room and never ever coming out.
QUIZ TIME!
Sorry, no quiz this time. You’re much too stressed for that. Just trust Lena and Jessie to take you somewhere that will cheer you up. Head over to Chapter 20 and put this whole ugly mess behind you.
From Chapter 18: You’re a creature of habit and you don’t like switching up your routine too much. Some people might find that a little ho-hum, but you don’t see what’s wrong with sticking to what you know. Everything in your life—from your music to your friends to your clothes—is tried and true, and you prefer to keep it that way. It’s great that you’ve found some things that you love (like your trusty flip-flops), but weren’t all those things new to you at some point too? Why not branch out a little and try at least one new thing a month? Take a different path home from school, eat a flavor of ice cream you’ve never tried before, make a new friend. You may not like everything you try, but you might stumble across a few new things that could become old favorites.
From Chapters 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, and 24: Prepare to be wowed!
As you walk into the community center, you are amazed by how it has transformed. They have cleared out all the wooden benches and plastic folding chairs, and in their place are art pieces from people in the community. On one podium in the middle of the room is a sculpture of a horse. Beneath is a small plaque that reads:
Horse
Artist: Ida Bukowski
82 years young
Hey! You’re pretty sure that’s Mark’s grandmother. All the pieces are labeled that way, with the title of the work, the name of the artist, and their age, if they choose to provide it. There’s some cheese and crackers to munch on, which is great because all of today’s drama has left you starving. You just hope they have enough cheese back there to feed an army, because this place is packed!
You turn one corner, Jessie and Lena right behind you, and finally spot what you came to see. The entire back wall is devoted to your favorite artist: Jimmy Morehouse. And the artist himself has spotted you too. When he does, he stops shifting nervously from one foot to the other, a huge smile spreads across his face, and his big green eyes light up. He has managed to get most of the paint out of his hair, which is now brushed back in careful waves, and instead of the ratty button-down shirt, he is wearing a corduroy blazer. It is the sharpest you’ve ever seen him look. This show must be serious business!
When Lena notices that you’ve made eye contact with Jimmy, she yanks Jessie’s arm back and says, “Hey, Jessie, isn’t this a fascinating sculpture? I think it’s made out of recycled soda cans!”
“Wow!” Jessie exclaims, catching on quickly. “Let us examine it further!” Your friends are too funny. And obvious!
But you’re kind of glad they left you alone. You wouldn’t want them to see that all the hairs on your arms are standing up.
“You came!” Jimmy says when you get closer.<
br />
“Of course! I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”
Jimmy bashfully drops his head and ruffles the back of his hair. “Aw, thanks. I, um, I’m glad you’re here. I was really nervous before you showed up. But what did you do? Bring the whole school with you?”
You glance around and see a lot of the same people who were at the choir audition, milling around and munching on cubes of cheese. “Who, them? Not my doing. They must have heard about the up-and-coming artist in town and wanted to see for themselves. You can blame me for those two knuckleheads, though.” You point out Jessie and Lena mimicking the movements of the performance artist in the other room, who you think is pretending to walk against the wind.
Jimmy laughs again, and you can feel the tension drain out of him. “Did I mention that I’m glad you’re here?”
“You did.” You smile at him, showing all your teeth. “So, how about giving me a guided tour of your work?”
“I’d be delighted,” Jimmy answers in a formal tone, holding out his arm to show you the way.
And as he walks you through his paintings, he impresses you more and more. You knew that Jimmy was talented, but you had no idea how talented! Some of the paintings are portraits of his family and his house. Some are landscapes. He even sketched a few superheroes that look even better than they do in the comic books.
“Wow, Jimmy. These are insanely good! Promise me you’ll still talk to me when you’re a big famous artist and your work is hanging in museums all over the world.”
Your Life, but Cooler Page 14