Chapter Thirteen
(Friday morning at school)
It was finally performance day and Paulina was nothing but excited to get on that stage in front of everyone. Her inner happiness must've shined through and affected her physical appearance as well because ever since she stepped foot into school, she had been receiving compliments nonstop.
Apparently, word had gotten out that she was performing in the talent show, so everyone who complimented her also wished her luck. She truly couldn't wait; she already had her outfit and her hairstyle all planned out for that night.
She was going to wear a silver sparkly sequin dress with her favorite silver earrings to match. Her hair was going to be curled and her makeup was going to be cute. She hadn't yet asked Sam what she was planning on wearing, as she strangely didn't see the girl around school yet.
Well, she wasn't present during their first period class, as she was hanging out with the school's drama teacher, so that's probably why she didn't see Sam. She figured she'd just catch her tonight in the dressing room of the auditorium right before their performance started.
She ended up running into Sam at lunch. She was at the salad bar, choosing a salad to eat. Paulina was heading to the vending machine to get a drink while that was happening. In doing so, she and Sam crossed paths. When they made eye contact, she waved politely, but to her great surprise, the Goth glared at her before looking away.
That was weird.
Sure, they weren't best friends, but Paulina didn't think she did anything to deserve a glare from her. They were cool just the day before, so for Sam to be upset at her for whatever reason was a little ridiculous considering the fact that they were on good terms when they last saw each other.
She merely brushed it off, assuming that Sam was either glaring at someone behind her or that she was pissed at Danny and Tucker and didn't feel like being friendly with anyone. That second thought quickly dissipated when she saw the girl sit down with them, smiling and looking a little more jovial.
Still, she didn't think too much about it and got her drink, retreating back to the center lunch table where most of her friends were sitting. Dash and Kwan were hand wrestling while Star watched from the side with boredom. Ava was missing from the table, which was unusual because Paulina saw her in the girls locker room earlier.
"Are you ready for tonight?" Star asked with an excited smile. Paulina glanced over at her, returning the smile but not a response. "You're going to rock out the place and I can't wait to see that!"
Paulina wasn't sure if Star was excited to see her perform or to see her carry out the scheme, but either way, she kept smiling appreciatively. Dash and Kwan finally stopped hand wrestling, most likely because Dash lost.
"You kinda already spoiled your performance for us, but I still know you're going to do great," Kwan remarked. "If you get stage fright, just imagine that everyone's naked."
"That doesn't help, Kwan. Like, at all," Star informed him, and he frowned. "Besides, she doesn't get stage fright. She's performed numerous times. She practically owns the stage at this point."
Paulina smirked; that was true.
The rest of the day went by smoothly, with her passing her Math test and getting assigned with Star for a class project. She saw all of her friends and kept receiving more compliments as well as good wishes.
When the school day wrapped up, she made her way down the corridor and was about to exit the building when she spotted Sam. She was standing near a row of lockers with Danny, who was going through his locker. She noticeably looked like she was in a much better mood than earlier.
"Hey. So, are you ready for tonight?" Paulina asked once she approached the couple. Sam's expression immediately darkened and she looked away, glaring. Now Paulina was certain that she was the one being glared at earlier. "Uh. Did I miss something?"
Danny's attention shifted from his locker and onto Sam, staring at her curiously. She sighed and held up a finger at him. "Can you... can you give us a minute?" she asked. Hesitantly, he nodded, but the curious look didn't fade from his face.
He shut his locker and awkwardly slipped past them after informing Sam that he'd meet her outside. She smiled, but once he left, it disappeared and she started glaring again. "So, is there anything you want to tell me?" she asked Paulina, who shook her head. "Really? Nothing pertaining to a plot, a scheme out of revenge, maybe?"
That's when Paulina felt her heart drop to her stomach. Ava was the only person who ran through her head at that moment. She's the only one who could've told Sam that because Star didn't care about the situation as much as she did.
She felt angry and betrayed, but she figured it would be best to just stay silent because she knew her panicked expression gave her away. "So it's true, then?" Sam asked, scoffing in disbelief.
With a deep sigh, Paulina rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. It is true, but I—"
"Wow," Sam drawled, laughing dryly. "Okay. I guess it was stupid of me to think that you'd actually want to be my friend. You really put yourself through all of this just so you could kiss Danny in front of the whole school to get back at me? So all that crap you said about wanting to be a better person and wanting to squash our drama was a lie?"
"No, it wasn't. Well, at first it was," Paulina backpedaled. "You have to understand that I was just angry at you and was acting out because of that anger."
Sam said nothing for a few seconds and simply turned her gaze away. "When were you even going to tell me about this? It's Friday. The show is in a few hours and you never mentioned anything pertaining to a scheme. Your best friend told me about it first and she hates me the most."
It was now Paulina's turn to glare at her. "She's not my best friend, but how was I supposed to tell you about this?"
"I don't know, but it would've been nice to hear it from you first before Ava."
"Well, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, but that wasn't something I could've just confessed to you out of the blue. Plus, that was all Ava's plan."
"But you still went along with it, even though you knew it was wrong," Sam pointed out. "You looked me in my eyes, smiled in my face, and lied to me. You had me fooled. You made me think that you actually wanted to be my friend."
Paulina slowly shook her head. "We weren't even friends when I presented that to you. I had a change of heart towards the scheme and wasn't going to carry it out."
"Yeah, but how do I know that? It's so hard to believe you now." Sam raised her hand to her forehead and inhaled deeply. "You didn't have a change of heart. You just got caught red-handed and now you're trying to find a way out of it. Well, find a way to perform without me tonight because I quit."
She harshly brushed past Paulina after that and stormed out of the building. Paulina didn't know how to react and just stood there in shock for a few minutes before spinning on her heels. As she stomped down the hallway, she had only one person on her mind.
Ava.
She found the girl chilling outside of the cafeteria with some boy. Upon seeing her approaching in a fury, Ava straightened up and started to look a bit fearful. Paulina marched right up to her and glared into her eyes, knowing she looked intimidating enough.
"Why the hell would you rat me out like that?" she demanded angrily, pointing her finger in her face. "A-listers don't snitch on each other, especially not to the enemy. Well, to your enemy. You're definitely out of the club."
Ava looked hurt for a split second before snorting coldly. "Hey, don't huff, puff and blow my house down over this. You're the one acting like Manson's your friend or something. I just did you a favor because 'friends' don't keep secrets from each other. Right?"
Paulina felt her hand shake because she badly wanted to slap this girl. She thought about doing so for a few seconds, but then she decided against it. Slapping her wouldn't fix anything; it would just leave a nasty print on her cheek.
Instead, she did something she never thought she'd ever do, which was be the bigger person and walk away. Yep; she turned right over her shoulder and walked away from Ava, not glancing back at her once.
Not even when she begged for her to come back.
She didn't know what she was going to do about the performance because Sam told her that she quit. It was so last minute that she wasn't prepared. She wasn't even going to be allowed to perform now because Principal Ishiyama was going to just kick her off of the stage if she got on without Sam.
When she got home, she stressed about it until it was time to get ready for the show. She curled her hair the way she planned to and put on her outfit after pampering herself. She made sure her makeup was on point and that she looked amazing before leaving her house and going back to school.
She half-expected to see Sam backstage, but the Goth was nowhere in sight. This disappointed her to the point where she thought about leaving, but she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe Sam would show up.
Sam stretched and rolled over in bed, glancing over at her clock. It was quarter to six and the talent show started at seven. She knew Paulina was there at the school, waiting for her, but she didn't feel like going anymore.
Well, somewhat.
She closed her eyes sleepily and tried to fall asleep, but then she felt that familiar chill she always felt when Danny was near. Without cracking an eyelid open, she said, "I know why you're here, Danny boy, and quite frankly, I don't care to hear it."
There was a swift, bright flash of light and then she felt sudden pressure on her back. "Well, I'm still going to voice it," Danny retorted. She opened her eyes and glanced sideways at him, snorting when she noticed him sitting on her back. "You should be at school right now."
"No, I should be asleep right now, but there's a certain Halfa who's preventing that from happening," Sam countered. He moved off of her back and sat down beside her, staring at her with penetrating eyes. She sighed and sat upright. "Why should I perform with her after she pulled something like that?"
"Technically, she didn't pull anything yet, and she's not going to because I'm not getting on that stage," Danny told her. "Sam, your voice is incredible. This is your opportunity to show it off. It doesn't deserve to be a secret."
Sam frowned and scratched her head. "But, Paulina—"
"Is probably back at the school, wandering around and looking for you to apologize," Danny finished, smiling confidently. "Don't let her ruin your moment. This happened to you for a reason. This is a sign from the universe that you deserve to be up on that stage."
"Wow. You and all your astronomy talk," Sam grumbled, returning the smile playfully towards him. "If this backfires, I get to hold you accountable."
"If this backfires, Tucker will eat nothing but salad with you for a week," he promised. She laughed softly and swung her legs over the bed and planted her feet on the floor. He got up from the bed, falling serious once more. "Don't do it for her. Do it for yourself."
She looked down to the ground before lifting her head back up and nodding. "Okay," she agreed. Danny brushed his fingers against her cheek as he transformed back into his ghostly half. She nicely leaned away, as his hand was now too cold.
"I'll be waiting for you on the roof," he informed her. After she nodded again, he phased up through the ceiling and disappeared. She stood there for a full minute before sweeping her eyes in the direction of her closet, where her performance outfit stood out on a hanger.
"Well," she said to herself, "here goes nothing."
Paulina was tempted to bite her nails at that point. It was almost time for her and Sam's performance, but the Goth was nowhere to be found. Three acts had already performed, so she was certain that they were somewhere up next. As each minute passed by, her hope for Sam's arrival shrank more and more.
An adult walked up to her and told her that they were up next. The act that was on stage was wrapping up their performance, so that's when Paulina sighed sadly and prepared to leave. She didn't want to be present to witness everyone booing when she didn't show up on stage.
The guy on stage bowed and the audience applauded, but Sam was still nowhere to be found.
Until Paulina turned around.
There she was, wearing a beautiful lace corset: the top part of it was red and the bottom part was black. She wore new black combat boots and a black choker to accessorize. Her hair, which was usually in a ponytail, was now down and fell around her shoulders.
"Okay, I know I tease you all the time for being Goth, but you look amazing right now," Paulina remarked. She then smiled a little and twirled around. "Definitely not better than me, but..."
"Don't push it," Sam replied, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling too. "Sorry I'm late. I was getting my mic put on."
Paulina's smile fell after a few seconds of silence and she looked like she was going to say something else because she opened her mouth, but then the same adult from earlier rushed up to them.
"You're both on right now. The narrator is speaking to the audience to give you guys enough time to get on stage," he informed them before rushing away. They glanced at each other nervously before smiling and making their way onto the stage.
Sam didn't go out into the aisle the way she rehearsed, but instead, she sat on the stage and prepared for the curtains to open. Paulina chose to wait off stage, wanting to just slide onto it when it was her turn to sing.
Once the curtains opened, the crowd immediately began cheering and applauding. That must've gave Sam a confidence boost because when the music started, the first note she hit was the same falsetto one from her rehearsals, earning her more cheers and applause.
She closed her eyes and sang from her heart, moving a hand to her chest. As her verse drew to a close, she slowly rose up from the stage and held her hand out, belting out the most beautiful high note she could muster.
And then Paulina swooped in.
She stepped out onto the stage, grinning when she, too, heard the crowd erupt into cheers and claps. She was so confident in herself that she didn't even feel upset about Sam's voice outshining hers. She herself was always in the spotlight, so she was okay with this girl being in the spotlight for once.
After she finished the chorus, Sam chimed in and sang her second verse. She started walking down the steps leading to the aisle of the auditorium, so Paulina did the same, going down the opposite side. Since she wasn't singing yet, she twirled around and started prancing through the aisles.
When the chorus came up again, both girls met each other in the center of the auditorium and sang that part together. For once, it didn't feel like a competition to see who was the better singer. Instead of trying to upstage each other, they shared the spotlight together and had a great time doing so.
Paulina started dancing along to the music, but she was only doing small, simple movements. To her great surprise, Sam mimicked her actions. After laughing with each other because of that, they faced each other, preparing for the finale.
They sang the last line of their song together, holding the note and stretching it out beautifully before ending. The audience applauded them and started whistling immediately after they posed. They broke their position a few seconds later and waved at everyone, grinning almost triumphantly.
One person who specifically stood out in the front row was Principal Ishiyama, who was standing and clapping with a huge smile on her face. "Great job, ladies!" she exclaimed through the noise of the audience, flashing the pair a thumbs up.
They thanked her with a nod before glancing at each other with growing smiles. "Sorry about earlier," Paulina said into her ear. "I should've never agreed to that scheme. As you can see, I didn't go through with it. I wasn't going to. Anything I can do to make it up?"
Sam turned around and motioned for Paulina to follow her backstage, as the curtains were closing and the next act had to perform in a minute. "Well, you didn't do it, so I can't stay mad about it. However, if you want to make up for it, I wouldn't say no to a veggie burger at the Nasty Burger after the show ends."