3

“Hi, Jenny,” I waved at Jennifer at lunch. “How are you?”

She just looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. She had a right to. I don’t think I’ve spoken two words to her in my entire life.

I am such a dork. Next time I’ll have better tactics.

Don’t ask me what I had to play in orchestra that day because whatever it was, it wasn’t my satisfying Beck violin and definitely not a full size professional type of any kind.

I think I blushed the whole time.

I plucked my lousy strings as Ms. Talula stood up on the podium.

“I have an announcement to make,” she declared, as the class grew quiet. “At the eighth-grade graduation, there will be a performance at the Collegedale Commons, which is an hour away. Anyway, I’m straying from the point. Only two eighth grade violinists and an eighth grade cellist can play in it!” The seventh and sixth graders groaned. “I am sorry that I have not told you about this earlier, it has been short notice. Auditions begin tomorrow.”

And poof! There we go! Thrown into the fire like a lamb to the slaughter. 

The sort of good thing was that there was like no way I could make it. Like, no way!

But when my mom heard about all of this, she made me do auditions.

So the next day, I grabbed my violin and walked right into the music room where Ms. Talula and a music stand sat. My heart was thumping so hard that I was sure that the whole world could hear it.

“Good morning, Aspen Noel,” Ms. Talula’s plump voice greeted me.

“Morning, Ms. Talula,” I said, unpacking my violin.

“Alright, honey” she continued. “We shall begin.”

She motioned towards the stand that held a paper that announced “Trio Sonata in G Minor RV 73, Op. 1, No. 1 by Antonio Vivaldi.”

I stared blankly at the page as eight years of practice and violin lessons got erased from my memory.

“You may begin,” Ms. Talula raised her eyebrows expectantly.

I nodded briskly and started at the first note. 

And before I knew it, I was playing the second violin part… 

And it all turned out to be a whole lot of fun! For the first time I started wishing I could actually make it!

That is until I noticed that Lilian was next.

I blushed, ducking under her “smartie” nose. I felt that I could smell her pride.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew she would make it. She had been playing the violin since she was three, and a most expert player. I think that she was at this moment like in the seventh or eighth Suzuki book.

Trying to avoid her, I scampered into the cleaning storage room. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when a crack of light shone through the door. I gasped and moved further in, but not before the door opened completely. I screamed.

“What are you doing here,” a female voice demanded.

I looked up and almost laughed with relief. “Hi, Saige! What are you doing here?”

“Oh, we ran out of paper towels in the science room and we need to clean up so Mr. Rogers sent me here. Now, tell me, what are you doing here,” she inquired.

“Uh,” I stammered. “Frankly, I, uh, went to get paper towels for the, uh, the science room too!”

Saige gave me a look. “That’s not the truth, is it? What really happened?”

I blushed again. “Uh, no… Well, I, uh, saw  Lilian? And, uh, I ended up here?”

“Wow, Lilian Wesley just got super powers and teleported you into the cleaning storage room, did she?”

I sighed.

Saige laughed and gave me a look that meant, I totally get it!

And I gave her a look that said, Thanks, girl!

The next morning I pulled myself out of bed and dragged myself to school.

“One week and one day for my birthday,” Ginny announced.

I groggily nodded. “Today we’re getting the results for the audition!”

“Huh,” Ginny nodded. “I wonder who will get in?”

We didn’t have to wonder for long. Pasted right on the music room door, a yellow flyer announced:

Winners for Audition are as listed below:

Lilian Wesley

Aspen Noel

Saige Porter

Wait, this wasn’t supposed to be like  this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wasn’t supposed to make it in.

Trinity slapped my back. “You made it! I think that Saige made it because there are no eighth grade cellists, right?”

All my friends congratulated me, but it all buzzed around me.

I didn’t want to be in with the snobby Lilian Wesley and the dorky Saige.