Chapter 1 - Life's Waiting to Begin

"Welcome to the Canadian College of Performing Arts," said a man who looked to be in his late forties. "There's nothing I love more than being in a room full of teenagers with big dreams, ambition, and talent. If you're missing any of those, then you'd better leave," he said with a very serious tone.

When no one moved, he continued.

"This college likes to do a lot of work shops throughout the year, but the summer ones are my favorite. I know that summer means a lot to teenagers, and the fact that you give it up to be here, I respect that." A couple people clapped, but he pretended not to notice.

"The fact that you are here means that you are serious about your talent and are willing to improve. Right?" He looked at us expectantly. Pretty much everyone in the room nodded out of fear.

"That gives me and the rest of the staff here the right to criticize you and tear you apart. You are high schoolers and we are professionals. We know better than you; we are better than you. If you think you're better, you won't last here. We are harsh and you had better be able to take it." The room was silent.

"On a lighter note, we want you to enjoy yourselves and we're sure you will. Breakfast is served at 7 AM, and you are expected on the field at the stroke of eight the latest. We start out every morning with a workout." A few people groaned but he ignored it.

"You will be stretching and you will be running, so you'd better hope that you brought good enough shoes. We have a fitness expert who comes in, and don't worry; he will work you extremely hard." I saw a couple of people glance around nervously.

"You will have a few breaks throughout the day. Everything should be on your schedules. We have three majors here: dance, theatre, and instrumental. Some of you may have classes of other majors on your schedules. That's fine and expected."

"The only time we will be together is in the morning for warm ups and every evening you will meet in this lecture room for a video. They are mandatory."

"Every Friday, you will be judged on something different within your major based on what you are learning that week. At the end of camp, those who reach the score we set will win an award. We are not telling you what the score or what the award is. You'll just have to work your hardest and hope you reach it."

"Every Saturday, we will see a performance. This weekend is a musical, next a ballet, and last an orchestra. You will wear your nice clothes on these days. These are professionals and you should learn a thing or two from watching them."

We don't get to see anything from my major until the day before we leave. Of course.

"Sundays are meant as a day to yourself. You can either spend it here or you can check out. But be warned, your parents will be informed of the time you check out to the time you check back in, so you'd better tell them ahead of time."

I looked around at met eyes with a girl a few rows behind me. She must have not liked the way I was looking at her because she gave me one of the dirtiest looks I've ever seen in my life. It was rather frightening.

"That's all I have to say. You have lunch until two o'clock when you are expected to be in your classes. You are free to go." Everyone throughout the room began to gather their things, except for me. I had a feeling he wasn't done.

"My name is Troy. Come to me if you need anything. I'm here to help."

I took the elevator up to my room, trying to stall as much time as possible. I was dreading going to lunch because I had no one to sit with. At least, that's what I thought at the time.

Wherever I go, I always bring my purse with me. And let me tell you, I don't wear any normal purses. I wear huge purses, like obnoxiously big. All my friends hate them, but I love them. I usually only wear black purses, but at one point I had a metallic silver one. The girls surprisingly loved it, but the guys hated it. It actually got quite a few death threats. That kind of sucked. But then someone ripped it in band class, so that was the end of that.

But since no one was wearing any form of a bag at the meeting, I decided to leave my purse behind. As I was locking the door of my dorm room, I heard someone walk up behind me. There was a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see who it was.

I didn't know who she was, but I was pretty sure that she was at the meeting I was just at. She had straight brown hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a cami and plaid shorts. I also noticed her wearing a really sweet necklace with multiple pendants. I couldn't see all of them, one of had a treble clef and another looked like the symbol for pi. She seemed like someone I could get along with, so I smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Hey, um, do you have any idea where the cafeteria is?" she asked shyly.

After thinking a minute, I laughed. It took her asking me for me to realize that I had no idea where the cafeteria was either.

"I actually have no idea." Her face fell and so did mine a little. "But do you want to maybe try and to find it together?" She smiled and I did too.

"Yeah, that would be good." We stepped into the elevator together. It was too quiet for my liking so I decided to break the silence.

"I don't think I introduced myself." I stuck out my hand. "Jude Harrison." She laughed and I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing.

"I'm sorry. I didn't even think of introducing and- Just never mind. I'm Angie. Angie Wells." We shook hands and she surprised me by saying "Wow. That's a really sweet ring."

I looked down at it and smiled. My star ring; my pride and joy. Not many people have seen a star ring, let alone owned one. My ex boyfriend, who I absolutely hate, may have bought it for me, but that's beside the point.

"Thanks. It's kind of my signature. I'm incomplete without it."

"Well I don't blame you, it's really cool. I'm kind of the same with my necklace." She held it up and I just had to ask.

"So what do all of the pendants stand for?" She laughed.

"Well at first, I just had this one, which says cutie pie." QTπ. Clever. "I was born on March fourteenth, so I just love the number pi." She made a face. "You probably think I'm super weird now."

"Not at all. That's actually the first pendant I noticed," I said with a smile. This girl was sweet. "What about the rest?"

"Well I wanted to have a pendant for the six most important things in my life. So I have a symbol for peace, love, music, faith, dance, and pi: a peace sign, heart, treble clef, cross, ballet shoe, and pi symbol." I was in awe.

"That is possibly the coolest thing I have ever heard in my life." She blushed and the elevator door opened.

"You ready?" She asked me with a reassuring smile.

"Nope. And I'm completely terrified," I said honestly.

"Me too. At least we can go through this horrifying ordeal together?" I genuinely smiled the first time of the day.

"Yeah. Sounds like a plan."

Angie seemed pretty cool, and I was glad that we ran into each other. We followed signs in the hall, and eventually found the cafeteria. And you know what was on the menu?

Cheeseburgers. Hell yeah.

I'm not gonna lie, I sort of have a problem.

I love junk food.

Don't get me wrong, I eat salad and fruits and stuff too, but I kind of have an obsession with junk food. One time, my brother Kyle decided that he wanted to go vegan for a week. It wouldn't have been so bad, but he just had to do it in November. We ended up eating tofurkey for Thanksgiving. He also decided that pie was too unhealthy, so our parents didn't but any. I didn't talk to him for months after that.

But back to the present time, after Angie and I set out trays on an empty table, she told me that she wanted some salad. I thought that it would be a good idea if I got some too.

When we got back, there was a girl and guy sitting there. It was the same girl that I met eyes with at the meeting. I thought she hated me at first glance, but she smiled at me when I sat down. The guy – well, I don't know who he was or why he was sitting there, but I wasn't complaining. He was super cute.

"You don't mind us sitting here, do you?" asked the cute boy, a bit scared. It was adorable.

"No, I don't mind at all," said Angie. Thank god for her. I was too busy staring at him to answer.

"Yeah I don't mind either." He looked relieved and I smiled. "I'm Jude."

"Mason," he said with a smile. God he was beautiful. He was wearing a cowboy hat, which was kind of weird, but I don't exactly have the right to judge anyone else. "And this is Portia." The girl who I thought hated me, smiled at me. I was surprised at first, but glad. I didn't need anyone hating me within the first hour of being here.

"Nice to meet you," she said to Angie and me.

"You too," Angie said. Looking past her, she yelled, "Hey Kwest! Over here!"

A darker boy who was crazily gorgeous gave her a smile and then came over to us. Five minutes into lunch and I've already met two amazingly adorable guys. I could get used to this.

"Ang, hey." He gave a wave to all of us. "Hey, I'm Kwest."

"Hey Kwest," I said, smiling back. "Sit with us. I'm sure this place won't mind if we pull up another chair." He smiled at me before nonchalantly stealing a chair from the table next to us.

Once everyone was introduced, it was as if we knew each other for years. You'd never guess that we met each other less than an hour ago.

It was great. I just got there, and I already had four new friends. My mom was right. I had nothing to worry about. This was going to be the greatest time of my life.

A/N: I really hope this doesn't suck… this is my first full long story I am writing by myself so I'm kind of freaked out to see what people think. It took me forever to write this and this chapter doesn't tell much, but I have a really great story line planned out so I hope people like it.

The Canadian College of Performing Arts is actually a real college. I don't know anything about it other than what I saw on the website, but it seems like a really cool place. It's really in British Colombia, but for the story's sake it is somewhere in Ontario three hours or so from Jude's house.

And yes, Kyle from SME is Jude's brother in this story. He's only mentioned once here, but it'll become much more important in the next chapter and throughout the story.

Please read and review!