~Call Me Ambitious~

This is my hallway, the hallway to hell. The devil himself is sitting in the room to where it leads. What's terrible to me is that I could walking straight into a trap. I need his permission to leave here, to go to my heaven.

The hallway is silent, almost eerily so. As I walk down it, my feet feel heavy. I would do anything but talk to him and just leave on my home. But if I did just that, I fear that I won't be able to ever leave here. My 'dad' wouldn't let me step a foot outside of here.

Because of this fear of mine, I have to walk straight into that door. I take a deep breath, and go in. When I enter the door, all I can hear is the endless clicking of the keys as he types on the old, beat up computer that looks as if it is ancient.

"Dad?" I ask.

There's no response.

I walk up to his desk. "Dad?"

I can see that his eyes have bags under them, like he hasn't slept for days. Dad's hair is messy, unkempt. I doubt he's left his computer once all week.

He sighs. "What do you need, darlin'? I'm busy."

Yeah, you're busy like always. What did I expect? Wouldn't it be strange if I expected you to at least care enough about your own daughter that you'd at least unstick your eyes from the computer once in awhile? I guess that's just too much to ask from him.

"Can I go out with my friends tonight?" I ask, not making eye contact with my father.

He sighs, doing the same that I am- not making eye contact. It feels as if I can't even breath from this awkward tension.  It's almost as if I'm talking to a stranger. "Haven't you been doin' that all week? Why don't you do somethin' productive tonight rather than wasting time with those friends of yours?"

The last question wasn't that; it was an order. By productive, he means doing my homework just so I can earn money. Money is all the he seems to care about. I can't understand the importance of giving up my life to only focus on superficial things such as this.

"I've already completed my homework. I have nothing else left to do."

He rolls his eyes, impatient with me. "Fine, go waste your time. I don't care what you do."

That's a lie, clearly. He's just doing this to make me go away so he can drown out his emotions in his work.

I leave without a goodbye.

~~

This is my freedom. It's here now, finally.

Have you ever seen anything so breath taking that it seems like it's from a dream? The stage in front of me is just so gorgeous. A shiver is sent down my spine as I look at it behind the backstage curtains. Honestly, I can't believe that I'm going to be singing up there - and in front of a huge audience, too!

I can just imagine the crowd cheering my name. Their hands would be waving back and forth as I sing the song I wrote last week. They would be standing up, too, as I belt out the high notes of my song. I'd be feeling like I was on top of the world, or, in other words, perfect. With a happy sigh, I enter the kitchen part of the cafe.

I look around while trying to find the main room. I wrap my arms around myself as a chill runs up my spine. Endless chatter lines the halls. Each door I see seems to be the same as the last. My feet are walking the exact halls as before. One single thought echoes my head. I furrow my brow and rub my temples - am I lost?

Panic settles in. I cringe; if I were late on the day of competition, I don't even know what would happen. I can't bear to imagine what it would be like. With that thought in mind, I see a door with a sign plastered on it that says, 'room one'. Could that be it?

I quickly enter the room and sneeze. All eyes are on me - eyes that belong to people much older than me. I sigh and mentally groan. Why do I always get myself in crappy situations?

"Excuse me," I start, "Do any of you know where the main room is?"

A plump older lady stands up. "Hello, sweetie! The main room is on floor two. My daughter can take you there, if you'd like."

"Thank you so much for your help!" I say. I give her a genuine smile and start heading out the door. Her daughter follows close behind.

"Gosh, I'm so rude. I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Mrs. Lee, and you are?"

I cringe; her words seem so polite but her tone is so detached and sarcastic. "My name is Skyler Davidson. Thank you again for your help!"

"No problem." As I leave the room, the last thing I see is her scowl.

I look towards her daughter and smile. "Hello-"

"Let's just get this over with. There's no time for small talk." She rolls her eyes.

I stifle another cringe. Look who's the clone of her mother. "Sorry about that. So, are you a competitor?"

"Yep, I am." she simply responds.

"That's cool! I am, too. I've always wanted to win a singing competition!"
My fake smile is slowly going away and my lack of patience for this girl is increasing. Before she could say anything back, she discreetly places her hand over her head.

"Ha!" she almost yells. "Girlie, do you really think a first time competitor like you would actually win? Aren't you ambitious. Honestly, you have to be realistic about this. You know that first years never win, right?"

She shakes her head and mumbles to herself. "I can't believe this mush- headed dreamer, thinking she actually has a chance to win,"

Laughter is all I hear. It gives me a throbbing headache and makes me feel lightheaded. Worst of all, it starts to kill my confidence. That special feeling of mine is simply gone now. It's almost like it was never there in the first place. It just disappeared.

"Here it is." After taking a quick break from cracking up, she points to the door in front of us.

"Thank-"

Before I could say anything, she's gone, just like my confidence is.

The stage- it gives me this haunting feeling. What is it, you ask? It's something like getting back what I was stolen of. Just looking at the stage and imagining myself performing makes my insecurities go away. Do you want to know what it also reminds me of? It's my mom.

I'm about to go on stage and all that's going through my head is that I will prove to Mom that I'm a great singer. Even though I don't put my dad on a pedestal anymore, I've never lost my admiration for her. I know that I'll become just like her and live out my dream. I've been preparing this song I'm going to sing for ages now so I've perfected it as much as I can. This euphoria of joy strikes which causes me to smile. I'm shaking, but not from fear.

My hand is fiddling with the guitar strap as I'm finally called to go on stage. I begin to chew my bottom lip and I start to swallow unnecessarily. My hands begin to feel very clammy and my breathing begins to quicken. As I inch towards the stage, I realize that this is my big moment and I will try my best to make it the best performance I've ever done. Guilt begins to freeze me in my spot, but I shake my head to try and get it to go away.

"Are you okay?" a girl asks me. Her face is plastered with concern.

I give her a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I just have a nasty headache and I feel a bit lightheaded. It's nothing major, though."

"Okay..." she says. Just by her facial expression alone I can tell that she's unconvinced by my answer.

Before she can say anything else, I hear someone test the microphone. "Up next ladies and gentlemen, "the announcer calls, "is the amazingly talented Skyler Davidson!"

The crowd begin to cheer as I'm ushered onto the stage. I look around to see the audience members staring into my eyes, watching my every movement. They never take their eyes off of me, which causes me to start breathing quickly. I then battle the nervous reck I am inside and let my confident side out. With that, I take a deep breath, start strumming the guitar strings, and sing my heart out.

I feel perfect when I'm singing. Home is where the heart is and my heart belongs to singing. Every inch of my body is calmed and I see the crowd beginning to wave their hands back and forth. Even though this is only a cover of a song, I chose the song very carefully. It illustrates someone missing someone with all their heart and going so far just to make them happy.

As I sing the last note, the crowd is absolutely silent. I begin to twirl my hair, a wave of uncertainty racing through me. No one dares makes a single movement and after a long silence, I get a standing ovation. The cheering and whistles are so loud that I feel like my ears are going to fall off.

A huge smile is etched in my face as I'm walking from the stage. They loved it, Mom; they loved it! I feel so happy that I could start squealing and giggling uncontrollably. I keep my cool, though, as hard as that is. I compensate with skipping merrily around the back stage, darting my eyes to make sure no one's paying attention to me.

The contestant after me walks up past me while twirling pieces of her hair. Her shoulders are slouched and there is a hole in the back of her shirt for some, odd reason. As she is about to sing, she freezes up, causing the audience to shout encouraging messages. She smiles at that, and begins to sing her slow song. The lyrics are filled with meaning and a chill runs down my spine. Her voice is so soft and gentle, which reminds me too much of my mother's.

I lick my lips, desperately wishing to switch places with her. I live for the stage and it lives for me. I sigh realizing that I already did my performance so it's her turn now. She looks back at me with a nervous glint in her eyes and I give her an encouraging smile. She then finished singing and the crowd cheers wildly. I begin to tense up at that, but I then pace around a little bit at that.

Although, after a long list of performances, I take a deep breath as I realize that it's time to announce the winner. I wrap my hands around myself, giving me a hug for comfort.

"May all the contestants please come on stage," the announcer says, with his loud, bold voice. I notice that he's wearing overly extravagant clothes that look like they came straight out of a hard core fantasy movie or something characters from the Hunger Games would wear. His hair is dyed ombré red, orange, and yellow, just like a sunset.

I look down at what I'm wearing and compare it to his clothing. I realize that I have a much more mellow style than his. Mine is the exact opposite.

At last, everyone gathers around the stage with hopeful glimpses in their eyes. We are all shaking as the announcer begins his speech. I'm fiddling with my hair and twirling it around my fingers. I suddenly realize that I've been holding my breath, so I try to relax, remembering that whatever happens it's for the best. I turn around to the contestant next to me, the one I gave an encouraging smile to, and give her a hug wishing her the best of luck.

"Thank you all so much for coming tonight. It was an honor hosting this show, but all good things have to come to an end. All the contestants did great, but we can only have one winner. "

Boos echo throughout the cafe, and some people shout encouraging messages to their favorite singers. I smile at their encouraging messages and wave to all of the crowd.

"And the winner is," He pulls out the card from the envelope, "Skyler Davidson!"

Cheering commenced as suddenly everything began to go dark for me and my eyes began to flutter. My lightheadedness increases by a lot. I can't keep my eyes open and my breathing exceeds an incredible rate. I keep trembling, trembling, trembling. Every time I shake, my vision blurs further. I furrow my brow while wondering what is going on, as everything goes completely dark and I collapse.

Notes:
Last updated: 6/14/16
Question of the chapter: What do you think will happen to Skyler?
Dedication:
I hope you all have a great day! Please remember to leave a comment, vote, or add this book to your library if you enjoyed!