Chapter Two: Hoping

I lay awake in bed that night, thinking about the flyer. I remembered it word for word, for once it was in my mind, I couldn't get it out.

The Los Angeles Center for the Performing Arts…

A place for people like me. People who aren't afraid to show their talents, people who have that dream to make it big, who work hard at what makes them special and unique.

You bet I wanted to go there.

The next morning, I showed the flyer to my mom. When I came down to breakfast, it was in my hand.

"Hey, mom," I said. "Good morning."

"Hey, Ky," she replied. "You seem to be in a good mood today."

"I am, and it's all because of this." I slapped the flyer on the kitchen table. "I found this when I was out shopping with Lisa yesterday."

My mom read it over, and I stood with my fingers crossed, hoping she'd say yes. After a while, she spoke.

"You really want to go here, to LACPA? What about the high school you were going to next year?"

"Mom…" I took a deep breath. "I hated it at my school, and I didn't have any friends, well, except for Lisa. Everyone treated me like a loser, I was the girl nobody wanted to hang out with, and pretty much they all hated my guts. But LACPA would be a great opportunity for me to get out there and try new things, make new friends, and fit in for once with a bunch of people who like the same things I do. This could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me."

My mom was quiet for a few minutes. Then she said,

"All right, then. I'll let you audition."

I gave her a big hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! You don't know how much this means to me!"

Mom smiled. "I know, honey. I know."

The beginning of my summer was pretty okay. We belonged to a local community pool, and spent most of our days going there. We went to the movies a lot and saw a bunch of films. Sometimes Lisa would call me and tell me all about her days at summer camp. They did all sorts of stuff, like hike and swim and explore the outdoors, they'd roast marshmallows for s'mores over a bright campfire, they'd sing songs, and her favorite part was arts and crafts, where they got to make their own t-shirts and pillow cases. I told her I was happy that she was having a great time, and said that my summer was going well, too, despite going to the same old boring pool every other day surrounded by little three-year-olds covered in sunscreen and water wings.

I was tuning my guitar one night when she called. My cell phone rang, and I walked over to my bed to get it. I pressed the 'talk' button, and before I got the chance to ask who it was, Lisa's voice squealed, "Kylie! Hey! How are you? Gosh, it's been so long since I've gotten to talk to you!"

"It's been two days," I informed her. "I'm good. How have you been at camp?"

"Ohmygosh, it's SO fun!" she replied. "Today we got to play Capture the Flag, boys vs. girls, and I was the girls' captain, and my super-hot crush Brian was the boys' captain, and well, I was, like, going to get the flag and everything, and I ran into some of the boys, and, oh my gosh, I swear, they were totally checking me out! Really!"

"Is that so?" I said. I sat down on my bed, picked up my guitar, and started tuning it again.

"Yeah!" Lisa exclaimed. "And, they were all like, 'What are you doing here'? And I was like, 'Well, trying to get the flag' and they were like, 'You're not gonna get it', and I was like, 'Yes, I am'-"

I tuned her out. I focused on tuning the middle right chord. I thought of a really good sound I could turn it to, but I could never get it just right. I was just about at the right notch when…

"Kylie! Kylie! Ugh, are you even listening, Kylie?" Lisa demanded.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, Lisa, I was just trying to tune my guitar right." I finally managed to get the chord right where I wanted it. Then, I thought of my big news. I just couldn't contain it any more. I burst out, "Guess where I'm going to school this year!"

"Where?" Lisa asked.

"The Los Angeles Center for the Performing Arts!" I exclaimed.

"Whoa, Kylie, that's big," she replied. "That's like a school for people who are, like, stuck up and stuff. They're know-it-alls, and they think they actually have a chance to make it big. You think you have what it takes to like, get in there?"

"I can do what I can do," I said. "It's tough, I know, and there's probably going to be a lot of competition, but I'll just try my best, and, hopefully, I'll get in."

"So you wanna be a Miss Priss now."

"No. Lisa, that's not what I meant. I just said-"

"So you now wanna be the popular girl, the one who has, like, everything, and makes others feel like dirt, like, Kylie, what's gotten into you?"

I had no idea what was making Lisa so upset. "I'm just going to the school of my dreams, that's all. Is it really that bad?"

"Oh, so now it's 'the school of your dreams', is that it?" Lisa asked in a rude tone. "You just saw the flyer, like, the last day of school. That can't be, like, your dream school, now, right?"

"Lisa, I don't know what you're getting so worked up over," I tried to explain to her. "I'm just going to audition to a really good school, is it that big a deal?"

"Whatever. I don't wanna talk to someone who's gonna turn into a Little Miss Princess anyway. I won't bother calling you again. You'll probably be spending too much time with your new popular friends anyway. See ya, Kylie."

"Lisa, wait-" I tried to say, but she hung up.

I pressed the 'off' button on my phone, sighed, and continued tuning my guitar. I guessed I wasn't going to be hearing from Lisa for a long, long time.

The days leading up to the audition were a little stressful for me. I'd picked out the song I was going to sing, 'Already Gone' by Kelly Clarkson, one of my favorite singers. Still, as I practiced in front of the mirror (call me embarrassing, I know), I couldn't help but get that weird butterfly feeling inside of me, like even though I wasn't in front of any judges yet, I felt like I had to do my best, or it would be all for nothing. That's what they expected at LACPA, anyway.

On July 14th, we left a little late because my mom had to run some errands. Evan, my mom and I got in the car first to drop off Evan at his friend's birthday party, and then me at Riffley Auditorium.

But guess what? Once we hit the highway, we hit traffic. So we had to sit there in our Honda Civic and wait for half an hour. Once that cleared up, we were on our way to Evan's destination. Well, once we arrived there, my chatterbox mom got talking with the other moms, and we left another half hour later. It was now 4:00. I had one more hour before auditions were over.

After we left the party house, we drove to the city to Riffley's. But, lucky us, we hit traffic again. There had been a big car accident a few miles up ahead, and we were behind what seemed like endless cars. We had to sit there for almost 45 minutes, passing time listening to the radio and munching on the Chex Mix my mom always keeps in the glove compartment.

Anyway, we still had about twelve minutes of driving before we finally parked outside of the auditorium. I had about less than two minutes before auditions were over. I got out of the car, received a "good luck" from mom, and raced inside the building.

Little did I know that my life was about to be changed forever.