Chapter 42
An hour had passed since Eddy and Lee had successfully completed their performance. The large, analog clock mounted to the auditorium wall currently read fifteen minutes to seven thirty, and the talent show had progressed to it's final act: a dramatic, condensed reading of Dickens "A Chistmas Carol", performed by a few juniors from the drama club.
After their stellar performance, Eddy and Lee had relocated to the rear of the auditorium to watch the remainder of the show, and by some stroke of luck, they were able to locate two adjacent empty seats. While the two adolescents were quite happy with their performance, they had not had much in terms of conversation since they had taken their seats, mostly due to remaining quiet out of respect for the remaining performers. Lee was currently leaning her head on Eddy's shoulder, as Eddy sat up straight in his chair. While Lee's demeanor seemed quite relaxed and casual, Eddy appeared as if his mind continued to be plagued by deeps thought. His eyes were focused on the stage, yet he was by no means paying attention to the performance.
The period between Lee and Eddy's performance and present was rather uneventful for the remainder of their friends. Double Dee and Marie had traveled out to the snack bar for some refreshments, and rejoined Ed and May in the side aisle to watch the remainder of the show. While all of the teenagers were excited by the holiday spirit captured within the remaining acts, there was no doubt that the real anticipation and excitement lied in the announcement of the talent show winner.
In no time, the actor playing Tiny Tim delivered the ever famous final line of the story, "And God bless us every one!", at which point the lights slowly dimmed to a blackout, and the audience began to applaud. After a few moments, the spot lights re-activated, with one trained toward the stage, while the other illuminated the wooden lectern placed on the front right side of the stage.
Within seconds of the spotlights illuminating, the student body president emerged from behind the curtain, once again taking her place behind the lectern. She placed a white letter envelop on top of the lectern, adjusted the microphone, and began to speak.
Well ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this years Peach Creek High annual holiday talent show. Let's give all of our performers another round of applause!
The audience applauded for a few moments, after which the president continued to speak.
As you all know, and have probably been anticipating, we still have one manner of business to attend to. Throughout the night, the audience has had the opportunity to cast their votes for their favorite act via secret ballot. All of the votes have been counted and, as always, we will now invite the top two performers back to the stage to allow the audience to decide the winner via applause.
The president picked up the envelope and began to open it.
Without further ado, it is my pleasure to welcome the following two acts back to the stage.
There was a pause as the president opened the envelope and unfolded the paper contained within. She then glanced up with a smile, and made her announcement.
The Peach Creek High School Cheer Squad and The Nutcracker Grand pas Deux!
At that point, the audience let out a small burst of applause. In terms of audience response at the conclusion of their performances, there was no doubt that Lee and Lindsay's acts were the most adored. At the sound of their acts name, Eddy and Lee turned toward each other with a smile, after which Lee leaned in and initiated a rather long kiss on the lips. Elsewhere, Double Dee, Marie, Ed, and May clapped exuberantly, with Marie and May screaming loudly as they jumped up and down in excitement. Tabby, of course, let out a long, drawn out scream that was easily heard over the crowd, surprising her husband.
In the interest of space, I respectfully request that each act please send one representative to come up to the stage for the audience vote and to ultimately accept the trophy. Come on up!
"Well, I guess that's my cue," said Lee is she rose up out of her seat, "It's time to go shove the talent show trophy into Bimbo Blondie's big mouth. Wish me luck."
"Don't worry babe," said Eddy, "You got this, remember you had me on your team, and nothin' can go wrong if you got a little Eddy magic on your side!"
"Man I must have gave one hell of a good speech," said Lee, "Cause you're definitely back to your old confident self."
Lee began walking towards the aisle.
"You're just lucky I lo...think you're cute," said Lee, appearing to briefly stumble over her words, as she delivered Eddy a wink, turned around and began walking up the aisle towards the stage.
Eddy watched with a smile as his girlfriend began making her way up the aisle. Lee had always had a distinct walk pattern; her feet flared out to the sides slightly, and she never quite seemed to place the soles of her feet on the ground, preferring to use the balls of her feet as the contact surface. This was due to years of secret ballet training; her legs, knees and feet were physically conditioned for the required, sometimes complicated positions. While her unusual gait was typical masked by the fact that she wore high heeled boots on a daily basis, Eddy had noticed it prior to them becoming a couple, in gym class, ballet practice and any other instance in which did not don the boots. As he watched Lee walk towards the stage, her tutu bouncing from side to side due to her natural hip sway, he noted how Lee's signature gait was another reminder of how special she was, not only physically, but personality wise. This thought, combined with a specific statement Lee made prior to their performance, seemed to serve as a thought provoking moment for Eddy. Accordingly, a proverbial light bulb suddenly sparked to life above his head.
Lee eventually reached the front of the auditorium, and made her way around to stage left. The front of the stage extended slightly past the surrounding wall, and on each side were a set of stairs cleverly concealed by decorative paneling. Lee climbed the stairs, and casually made her way to center stage. While the girl made all attempts to follow her advice to Eddy and exude confidence, the idea of standing front of hundreds of people still made her quite nervous. Nevertheless, she glanced toward the audience, which was barely visible from her point of view due to the blinding rays of the powerful spotlights, and smiled as she walked towards center stage with ballet poise.
Lindsay, still wearing her Peach Creek High School cheer uniform, had made her way back up to the stage as well, utilizing the stairs opposite of Lee. She too smiled as she walked towards center stage, flaunting her hips as she delivered waves and winks to the audience.
The smiles adorning both girls faces quickly disappeared, being replaced with expressions of disgust as they took notice of each other. Both girls eventually reached center stage and turned towards the audience, awaiting the president to emcee the final vote. As the audience applause died down, Lindsay leaned slightly towards Lee to deliver a final insult.
"Well, isn't this interesting?" said Lindsay, "I guess I should congratulate you for actually having the pleasure of standing next to me on stage. But I'm afraid you are about to see how much of a waste of time and effort it was for you to even attempt to beat me at a popularity contest."
"You seem quite sure of yourself." said Lee, "Why don't ya keep your arrogance to yourself and let the audience decide if I wasted my time or not."
The girls turned towards each other, exchanging scowls for a brief instant, at which point they both turned back towards the audience with smiles. Lee had assumed ballet fourth position (her legs crossed with her feet pointed inward towards each other), while Lindsay stood with both of her feet together, her legs straight with both of her hands on her hips.
Out in the audience, Tabby and Rod were completely focused on the stage, waiting in anticipation to applaud as loud as they could for their eldest daughter. However, while Tabby was quite happy with her daughters performance, she was not smiling; rather she appeared quite disheartened at the moment. The red headed woman remained fixated on the stage, observing her eldest daughter and her former friend. Seeing the girls smiling as they stood next to each other reminded Tabby of the days when her daughter would come home excited with news that she and her friend had made $5.00 selling lemonade, and the days when the girls would willingly pose together for pictures displaying genuine smiles. However, Tabby had also taken notice of their nasty exchange, a reminder that the beautiful friendship that once made her daughter happy was gone; and that the severance of the said friendship was the catalyst for her daughters eventual loss of trust in people.
"What a damn shame." whispered Tabby to herself.
At the conclusion of her sentence, she turned towards the far side of the auditorium, her eyes honing in on Ms. Statorowski. The petite, pretty, yet nasty woman had re-entered the auditorium to witness the announcement of the winner, and of course to provide support for Lindsay. She stood laser focused on the stage; while Lindsay had inherited her looks from her father and shared little resemblance to Edyta, it was obvious that the scowl typically displayed by Lindsay was a learned behavior from her. Tabby glanced upon her nemesis with disgust for a few moments at which point the sound of the student body presidents voice drew her attention back toward the stage.
Alright everyone, our participants have made their way back up to the stage and it's time for the moment I'm sure you all have been waiting for. As always, I will announce the name of each act one at a time, and you the audience will choose the winner using your applause, cheers, or any other expression of excitement as you see fit. Is everyone ready?
The audience let out a slight applause as a signal to acknowledge, at which point the president detached the microphone from it's stand, and stepped out from behind the lectern, carrying it across the stage towards the girls. She ultimately stopped next to Lindsay, and pointed her free hand towards the blonde girl.
Alright, let's hear it for Lindsay Statorowski and the Peach Creek High School Cheer Squad.
At that point, the sound of a significant amount of applause filled the auditorium. The applause seemed to mostly emanate from the back right side of the auditorium, where the entire cheer squad had taken their seats. Each girl clapped as loud as the could, to the point that some were hurting their hands, as they let out long, drawn out, yelps of support. Ms. Statorowski, of course also applauded heavily, as she intermittently used her pinky fingers to deliver a loud whistle. The remaining support was provided by the basketball team, whom the cheer squad often supported at games.
However, the sound of the audience cheers were silenced by an unexpected, highly obnoxious sound. The noise easily overpowered the audiences applause, it's timbre reminiscent of a poorly played tuba with the volume that seemed to be equivalent to that of a freight train.
As most of the audience covered their ears out of disgust, they simultaneously turned towards the source of the noise. The obnoxious sound was produced by none other than Rolf, sounding his "horn of support" as he rose out of his seat. A few seconds passed, after which Rolf pulled the horn away from his lips, rested it against the seat in front of him, and began clapping as the rest of the auditorium stared in silence.
"Rolf offers his unfettered to support to you, my Beautiful Schmetlockin," yelled Rolf, "Your strange yet satisfying movements of the body intrigue Rolf, in addition to your as your eyes as blue as the as skies of Rolf's old country."
Even though Rolf's display of support was carried out with the best of intentions, his strange culture alienated the audience, who remained completely silent as Rolf took his seat and continued clapping. While all of his friends from the cul-de-sac were quite shocked at his support for Lindsay over Lee, they were not surprised as it was no secret that Rolf harbored an intense crush on the blonde haired cheerleader.
Up on stage, Lee herself was not upset in the slightest at losing Rolf's support; in fact, the red headed ballerina was holding back giggles as Lindsay's usually fair facial skin had transformed to a lush shade of red. While embarrassed beyond belief about being the focus of Rolf's shenanigans, she did her best to pretend it never happened, maintaining her smile as she stood with both her hands on her hips.
After a few awkward seconds, the student body president decided to continue with the ceremony. She circled around the two girls, eventually coming to a stop directly next to Lee. She pointed her index finger towards the eldest Kanker sister, and placed the microphone to her mouth.
Alright everyone, now let's hear it for the Nutcracker Grand pas de Deux.
The president was barely able to complete her sentence for within an instant, the auditorium erupted in thunderous applause, just as they had when Lee completed her dance earlier that night. In the corner of the auditorium, Marie and May placed their hands beside their mouth screaming their heads off as Double Dee and Ed clapped as hard as they could.
In the front of the auditorium, Tabby rose out of her seat, jumping up and down as she clapped loudly. As usual, her emotions and motherly pride got the best of her, as she alternated shaking Rod almost to the point of giving him whiplash, and screaming as loud as she could. Despite the obvious fact that the cheers for Lee were louder than those for Lindsay, she still seemed to be quite unsatisfied with the response due to her overexcitement over her daughters ballet performance
"Yeah!" yelled Tabby in a shrill voice that sounded similar to Marie's, "That's what I'm talking about, Annalee for the win. C'mon people what are ya's mimes? I heard louder cheers in a library, show the damn girl some support!"
Rod, while somewhat embarrassed and fearful of his wife's antics, was equally proud of his daughter; as Tabby continued to yell and cheer loudly, he continued to show his support by clapping.
Of course, Eddy offered his support from the back of the auditorium. The stout Ed boy rose out of his seat, clapping his hands as he used the big mouth he was blessed with to yell Lee's name.
Lee was in fact quite surprised, as even though she received a standing ovation at the conclusion of her dance, she believed the cheer squads popularity with the sports teams and upper class girls would have been her undoing. Under ordinary circumstances, the large amount of students that belonged to the football team would have been rooting for the cheer squad. However, Eddy's earlier performance had managed to earn their respect; this coupled with the fact that the majority of the team was acquainted with Eddy led them to root for Lee to win.
The student body president smiled, at which point another member of the student union entered from stage left. In their hands, the student carried two trophy's; one golden, and one silver. The golden trophy was around two feet tall, and consisted of a base in the form of a Doric column. On top of the column, was a small statue of Santa Claus, depicting the jolly old man as a juggler riding a unicycle. From the audience, one could make out the words written on the front of the trophy's base:
First Place
Peach Creek High School Holiday Talent Show
December XXXX (Year Obstructed by Glare from Spotlights)
The silver second place trophy was a smaller version of the first place trophy, with the exception of the word "first" being replaced with second. The second student handed the larger trophy to the student body president, who promptly turned towards the girls with a smile. Without saying a word, she handed the trophy to the undisputed champion, Lee, at which point there was another small surge in audience applause.
After presenting the winning trophy to Lee, and giving her the obligatory applause, the student body president retrieved the silver second place trophy, and made her way towards Lindsay's position. Lindsay, who had maintained a neutral facial expression as she watched the first place trophy be presented, was staring out into the audience, seemingly out of touch with what was happening on stage. Her eyes were in fact trained toward the position of Edyta, currently standing on the left side of the auditorium. The two women's eyes remained locked, Lindsay's carrying an air of concern and sadness, while Edyta's appeared quite emotionless.
The proverbial staring contest between the two women quickly came to an end, as the student body president had tapped the preoccupied Lindsay on the shoulder. Lindsay turned toward the girl, her face still continuing to carry an expression of distress, as the president simply giggled, handed her the second place trophy, and made her way back towards the lectern.
The student body president called for another round of applause from the audience for both acts, as Lindsay glanced at the trophy she was holding. After a few seconds, she turned towards the direction of Lee, who was currently smiling as she cradled the large golden trophy in her hands.
Lee took notice that Lindsay had turned her attention to her, at which point she raised the trophy as if to give the cheer captain a better view. At the same time, she quickly stuck her tongue out in a teasing manner, after which her face reverted back to a sly grin as she continued to stare at her former best friend.
Lindsay said absolutely nothing; she continued to stare in Lee's direction for a few more seconds, after which she glanced back out into the audience. Edyta, witnessing Lee's sarcastic display of hubris, seemed quite furious. Her eyes were completely filled with rage, staring in the direction of the stage as she clenched her fists by her sides.
A moment passed, after which Lindsay quickly turned back towards Lee. As Lee continued to stare in her direction with a grin, Lindsay's typical scowl returned. In an instant, the blonde diva suddenly regained her arrogant demeanor. The girl merely let out a rather exaggerated "humph", raised her nose into the air, and carried her trophy off the stage in the opposite direction.
