I was not surprised at the news that Carmel High's Vocal Adrenaline had another new director. Keeping one was as hard as keeping the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. This year would be my first Vocal Adrenaline since I'm a freshman. I don't really know why I'm trying out. The only thing I'm going to accomplish is making an even bigger fool of myself. For the past few years I've tried out for Vocal Revolution, the big middle school show choir, and all I gained from the nerves of performing in front of people was enemies.

There's not really a single person in town that likes me. The cheerleaders, show choir kids, athletes, anime club members, and even the nose pickers think I'm a joke. I mean maybe I'm not flexible, nor a good singer, nor dancer and joining that Kuroshitsuju club assuming Sebastian Michaelis was a vampire wasn't a smart idea, but the nose pickers? Come on. Not that I'd hang out with them; I do have standards.

It sucks, though. Not even my dad cares about me. The only reason I followed him when he moved away from my mother and little sister was because Akron, Ohio seemed like a place of opportunity. I'm not so sure I would've followed if I knew how my life would turn out here.

The other freshmen and sophomores snort and whisper when I walk in to tryouts with my short, strawberry blonde hair pulled into a high-pony, attempting to display confidence. The older teens ask what's so funny. I fiddle with my glasses.

I only see one girl who chooses to ignore everyone. She has hair that looks like it went through an attempted bleaching but turned orange. It doesn't look awful and overall she looks pretty and sweet, apart from the annoyed frown. I walk over to stand in line with her. She speaks up first. "Honestly, what did you do that was so bad?"

"I'm not completely sure," I admit, "but it might be because I'm a well known failure."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not good at anything. I can't get into anything."

"We'll see. My name's Opal." I instantly think of Judy Moody's aunt.

"Janillee," I offer back as someone starts to teach us the dance for tryouts. I secretly hope it's not too hard. I try to ignore myself. I'm being a scared wimp. Opal smirks a bit.

"Can I call you Janie?"

"No."

The dance wasn't easy, but I got the hang of it. I think I probably would've been disappointed with the drama if it had been easy, anyway. Girls were falling everywhere. I laughed silently the hardest when Courtney Jones, a popular show girl, fell on her face. Her mousy face scrunched up in embarrassment. She glanced at me then looked quickly away, her thin, shot, light brown hair flipping. The guys had less problems, but I guess that's because they have experience with being the bases for moves. They have to be sharp and painfully forceful.

After an hour or two of practice, a man walks in. "Hello everyone, I'm Mr. Schuester. I am your new director and hopefully I will be staying here for many more years to come. Let's start with the dance part of tryouts and after I will call you each up to sing whatever song you have chosen." I'm confused on why he's letting each of us sing a song. He probably doesn't realize how many of us there are and how long that will take. As we're separated into groups I can't tear my eyes away from Mr. Schuester's butt chin. They're just so amusing. I wonder if he lives in his mother's basement like Mr. Cooly, my seventh grade math teacher.

I'm assigned group six out of eleven. Each groups hold twenty dancers. I think

Mr. Schuester's realizing how popular show choir is at our school. Opal's in eight, unfortunately, so I'm stuck with Courtney, her best friends Tara, Yuni, Emma, and Lauren, some unknown girl speaking to them, and a vaguely familiar girl who chirpily gossips among them. Jazz, an overly confident douche, is also in my group along with Chase. I liked Chase in sixth grade and it caused super embarrassing events for which I'm still teased for three years later. The worst was Braydon Tine. I assume he's trying out to get with Emma. Annoying.

I watch Mr. Schuester take notes of dancers with our choreographer, Michelle, who counts out the beats. They discuss what they wrote before moving on. It eventually becomes my time to show off my skills. I feel like I'm going to throw up my key lime pie yogurt as I get into place. I try to be really sharp and exact, counting along to Michelle. One, two, three, four, - five, six, seven, eight. When it's all done and over, I feel like I did well. I still know it wasn't and will never be enough.

By the time they're ready for people to start singing, it's 12pm. Does this school really allow us to miss this much class for musical activities? There's a fair handful of people that go before me, but I'm still an 'A', so I get called quickly. All eyes focus in bemusement as the name "Axel" is called. Taking a deep breath, I begin to sing the song Firework. It's a bit generic, but I think it works. I make sure to put a lot of confidence into it and many people seem to be impressed and surprised. I hide my blush. They can't know I didn't expect myself to do so good just like they didn't.

My mouth drops when the name Gracelyn Bales is called and the strangely familiar girl from earlier walks up. Gracelyn Bales? Wow, how she has changed over the summer. Her thick, short, pink hair is long, uniform, and a reddish-auburn. Her untanable, pale skin is looking a bit more orange. Only a bit, but still. Her glasses are gone. The biggest change is that she's wearing makeup. Gracelyn Bales was always that girl who thought there was no point to makeup because the only use for it would to cover up her acne everyone has it so it doesn't even matter. She said it's a part of puberty and it'd go away soon enough. She didn't even shave her legs, saying that since she's so blonde she didn't have to yet and why start early? Her leg hair was probably gone too, but like she said, you couldn't really tell.

Another thing that sort of surprises me is who she was talking with. Sure, she was able to talk to anyone she felt like speaking to last year without feeling uncomfortable, but some of her best friends are here and she seems to be staying away. I'm worried that Mrs. Completely Confident and Comfortable with Herself has started caring. Has started worrying about popularity.

She sings Silent Night. That's a pretty boring choice, but it sounded good. An okay choice. A safe choice. Kind of like mine. After her, Opal goes up, her last name being Barson. She sings some song that I don't know, but she's great. I wonder why I don't know her from Vocal Revolution. I tell her this and she thanks me before explaining, "I just moved here from Florida. A lot different here. It was a small hippie town. Father and mother finally realized they needed real jobs." I nod with a smile, but send her a few weirded out glances.

Emma Davis goes up and sings Let it Go. It wasn't awful… but it was bad. It was difficult to watch, so I didn't. I watched Braydon. He looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. I was curious why she had made it into Vocal Revolution last year. I guess she was still better than me. Tara Deil goes after her and also does Let it Go, singing it much better. "Yuni Evlyn,"

Mr. Schuester called. The chirpy blonde took the floor and sang some cheerful Japanese song. Our choreographer, who is input had ended after the dancing, looked confused. Honestly, I thought Yuni was cute. She was just so… kawaii. She reminded me of a little girl. "Nice job. Chase Ewan." I bite my lip.

I'm definitely impressed. I knew he was an okay singer, but he just went out there and rocked it. My cheeks warm up and I curse myself. I almost cry when Lauren tries out. It is the most painful thing I have ever gone through in my life. Everyone cringes and we all wonder why no one has told her she has no talent. We all wonder why she was allowed in tryouts.

I'm upset when Jazz Jubel goes. He really is bloody brilliant. I was wishing he'd embarrass himself. A girl that I had never met was then called. She strutted to place and then introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Fressa Jennings, justed moved from Nevada. I will be singing 21 Guns." She was amazing. With dark, highlighted hair, chocolate eyes, huge, white smile, and perfect, tanned skin, I expected her to sing something really superficial. She's an amazing singer and I'm immediately jealous of her.

It's right after Fressa that Mr. Schuester finally says to sing only one verse much to Courtney's distain. She's the sixtieth person to sing Let it Go and she gets stopped after an almost too strong sang beginning. She stomps away moodily.

I cannot stop smiling as Braydon goes. He isn't perfect, but he's unexpectedly good. Who knew Mr. Football and other Manly Things could grab that out of his throat. I catch Courtney glaring at him and Emma clapping rapidly. "You see that? That's Braydon Tine. Him and I are going to get into Vocal Adrenaline together. He'll end up my boyfriend. We'll probably be the power couple, don't you think Laur? Yun? Court? Tar? Gray? Fres? No?"

"It's Courtney. And Em, just shut up," Courtney snaps. Emma looks offended and hurt before whispering to Lauren.

Before I go home, as try outs have lasted from the start of school to five o'clock, I find Opal and we talk outside. "I hope you make it in Janie," Opal says.

"It's Janillee," I snap, imitating Courtney before laughing. "But thanks. I'm sure you'll make it."

"I can hope, Janie." I start my sixteen minute walk to the apartment, trying my best to not to get hit by cars. When I reach the apartment, I'm surprised to see my dad there. He usually gets home right before eight. He asks me if I want to go out to eat to celebrate tryouts and I know this is a pity dinner to make me feel better if I blew the tryout. I also know that this is going to be awkward. We're not close.

We end up at Bill's Shakes and Burgers. I do a room check to make sure no one I know is here. Unfortunately, Fressa is here, but I just ignore her. "So… how did you do, Pumpkin?" my dad inquires after we sit down. I keep a hard gaze on the menu.

"I wasn't embarrassingly awful," I start, "but it wasn't enough. It'll never be enough, dad."

"That's an awful way to think," another voice chims in. I look up to see it's Fressa. She was passing our table to leave when she heard me. "Janillee, you weren't bad at all. You need to believe in yourself." Then she walks out, leaving me confused, mad, and upset. I used to. What does she know anyway?

"She's right, Janel," my dad says lightly. Our server walks over and I'm surprised to see it's Chase. I hide in my menu. "What happened to the girl who seated us?"

"She seats only," Chase responds with a smile before asking if we're ready to order. My dad says yes and orders first. I blurt that I want a ½ pound cheeseburger with a banana shake and cheesy fries through my menu. Chase is probably so weirded out. I realize my mistake when he asks for our menus. I remove it from my face and shamefully hand it over. He smirks.

"Hi, Janillee," he says, then struts away. I groan.

"Who was that?" my dad asks, confused.

"Chase. I go to school with him." My dad gives me an upset look.

"That's so cool. Why didn't you talk to him? You shouldn't be such a loner," he lectures. I ignore him and ignore Chase when he brings the food. I deeply hope he doesn't come by to check on us. I allow dad to go about his work for awhile and then he asks me, no, tells me that we're going to a legit ball next month, so we've got to get me a ball dress. I'm honestly a little excited. Every girl enjoys being treated like a princess.

I sprint to my room right when we get home and grab one of my dad's work laptops that I have seized. I look up ball gowns, envisioning me in them. I try to think what I want to accomplish with my dress, if anything. I finally decide on the perfect dress. I tell and show my dad it and he asks me if I'm sure. I tell him I am and it's ordered! I jump around my room, my night made.

I tweet whatever strangers are following me before getting things ready for tomorrow. It's not like I actually have homework since I didn't go to any classes. I browse the internet, make a few new accounts on random things, dance, watch shows, and make a fort. Sighing, I note I have too much time on my hands. I go to sleep after that, even though it's only nine.

I don't know what I expect when I go to school the next day, it's not like they can form the group over one night. It's like this Friday, too. I try to focus on my first days of classes and meeting my teachers, but I just can't. I'm mad that I'm forced to not know over the weekend. I have my homework done before I even get home, so I have nothing to do all weekend. Finally, Sunday night I search every directory and the internet and find Opal's number.

"Opal! It's Janillee," I say quickly when she picks up.

"How did you even-"

"Shh," I cut her off. "This is all torture. The pressure is killing me, Opal, killing me."

"I know, Janillee," she sighs. "You haven't talked to me since Wednesday. Why now?"

"Only because we don't have classes together."

"We have English 9 Honors and Biomedical together and you know it."

"I'm sorry, I'm just not a people person." She forgives me and we talk til eleven before we both agree to go to sleep.

I rush around the apartment as I get ready. It's been five days. The list must be up. I attempt to look impressive just in case I make it. Oh gosh. What if I make it?

I really didn't think this through. I stand at the bus stop thirty minutes early, fidgeting. The other kid I get on the bus with shows up ten minutes later, which still seems early, but you can't trust city buses all that much. He looks at me weird as I shake uncontrollably. "Are you cold?"

"No. Just nervous. Vocal Adrenaline," I respond and he nods, understanding completely. I turn to him, noticing I really have no idea who he is even though we've ridden the bus together since seventh grade. "What's your name?"

"Jackson."

"I'm Janillee."

"I know." We don't take anymore. We just get on the bus and ride it together. I wonder how he knows who I am, or at least what my name is.

I'm bursting when the bus stops. I race off and to my dismay, the school is already packed. Someone grabs my arm. "The list is up!" Opal yells through the crowd at me. She pulls me to the list, pushing others aside. My eyes snap to the second name on the list. Axel, Janillee.

Honestly, this chapter took me more effort than I'd like to admit, but thanks for readings and I'll try updating as soon as possible. xD