Fastest update ever! LOL Half of this came to me last night and half came to me today so I figured, hey, I have to write it down!

I hope you enjoy :D

Natalie did go back to the YMCA, which was open for about another half hour. She practiced as much as she could. She had to admit she was sounding a lot better. But after, she just drove around. It was eleven when she got home again. She used the door in the kitchen, hoping to avoid anyone. Unfortunately, her dad was sitting on the counter, eating some Oreo's for a midnight snack.

"Hey, sweetie," he said. "Isn't this a little late for a school night?"

"I was just practicing," she told him. "Remember, I have a big audition in two days?"

"How could I forget? But just to let you know, Henry's sleeping on the couch."

"Good," she said, getting angry again.

"He said you guys got into a fight, but he didn't want to get into any details." Dan looked his daughter up and down. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Dad," she snapped, heading for the stairs. "We both need to be alone right now. We're under a lot of stress and apparently, handle it very differently." She hurried up the stairs to her room. She was expecting it to smell like pot, but it was the exact way she had left it. She got ready for bed, and even though she was stressing about Yale and mad at Henry, she fell asleep.

"Nat?" someone whispered. "Natalie? Nat! Nat!"

"What?" she croaked, waking up completely and rubbing her eyes. There Henry stood in her doorway. She looked at the clock: 3:19. "Henry, what the hell?"

"Sorry for waking you," he said, "but listen, Nat. Please let me sleep in here. I can't even get more than ten minutes at a time on that couch. I know you're upset, but I need at least 4 decent hours of sleep."

"Well, you'll just have to continuing getting them in ten minute intervals. Goodnight." She settled back into bed and turned away from him. But he just walked around to the other side of the bed.

"Natalie, please. For your information, all I did when you left was talk to my mom on the phone. I got more information on what was going on between my parents. I feel a little better now, knowing that my mom was genuinely unhurt by it all, but I swear to you and to God that I did not go off and get high or anything. I did homework, then I crashed on the couch. I was just really upset when I said those stupid things. You know I would never do that to myself or to you. Why would I want to hurt you? Is that the Henry you know?"

His apology was sincere, and Natalie hated it when they fought. She had to forgive and forget. "Alright, fine," she said, scooting over and letting him into bed. "But only because I love and believe you. And I'm still upset about the joint comment."

"Hey, you're the one who actually started using again, not me," he pointed out. She glared at him. "Too much. I know. Sorry. I love you."

"You better," she whispered, cuddling closer and falling asleep.

It was Friday. Time was up. She was standing backstage in the theater, up next for her big Yale audition. The moment she'd been preparing for since birth. Afterschool on Thursday, she and Henry hopped on a plane to fly all the way across the country to Connecticut. They stayed in a hotel, and Natalie refused to abide by the "no guests playing the grand paino in the lobby" rule and was up until 2 a.m. practing.

It was 12:30. Her audition slot was 12:35. She just hoped all that hard work would be worth it. She hoped she didn't throw away her only chance. Her dream. Henry stood beside her, helping in anyway he could: massaging her neck, kissing her cheek, giving her a hug. He would be there the whole time. That helped to settle her stomach. But only just a little.

As the boy who played the flute finished up his song and started up some small-talk with the music program administrator and head of department, Henry gave her one last kiss.

"You'll be fantastic," he told her. "You always are."

"I hope you're right," she said, letting out a huge breath. Breathe, she told herself, don't forget to fucking breathe!

"You're up," the woman who was directing them on and off said. With one last glance at Henry, she headed onstage.

You could barely see the teachers in the audience, but Natalie knew they were there. She stood behind the piano, ready to take her seat and ready to put her life on the line.

"Natalie Goodman," she announced. She sat and was about to start-

"Yes," one lady said from the audience. "You called about an audition switch." The tone in her voice made Natalie feel even worse than she already did.

"Um, yes. Yes, I did."

"The reason?"

"I didn't really have a good one," she said quietly.

"I see," the woman said, and Natalie detected a hint of something like disgust in her voice. This made Natalie really angry. "You may begin."

"Well, actually I did have a pretty good one," Natalie said, standing up and walking to the edge of the stage. Out of the spotlight, she could see the judging panel's faces clearly. The woman dressed in all black with the short white hair and diamond earrings was the one giving her a hard time. "Let me go back about eight or nine months ago..." She let out a sigh. Was she really going to Yale professors about her messed up life? Yes. She had to. It was her life, wasn't it? For how long was she supposed to hide every little piece of her past? They would never understand why she might not be at her best if she didn't come clean.

"Actually," she said, "let's go back way before that. When...When...Before I was born, I had a brother. And he...died when he was eight months old. My mom has been diagnosed bipolar depressive for sixteen years." She stopped herself. "I guess it's seventeen now. More recently, it became...extremely hard to deal with. I wasted weeks of practice with my boyfriend before he was actually my boyfriend. It felt nice not to be perfect all the time. All last year, I was focused on being perfect, but all that changed for me. As my mom got worse, so did I. Piano wasn't a priority. Let's just say I didn't want to come home and play my piano after a night of Robotripping." The judges looked appalled. "I completely bombed one winter recital and didn't bother signing up for the spring. When she went in for ECT, I'm sure you know what that is, she lost nineteen years of memory. She actually forgot all about my brother and things were getting better. Until she remembered, then she and my dad had this huge fight and I had a dance to go to and then I ended up taking her to the doctors." She took a breath. "We...We talked...sorted some stuff out. She stopped all her treatments, walked out on her doctor." It sounded like some movie. It hurt so much to relive it all.

But she continued. "Then my mother decided to just up and leave. My parents are seperated now. We hear from her every once in a while. You see, my life was never easy. Mom always...complicated things. As a kid, I liked the piano because even though Mozart was crazy, his music wasn't. You could sit and play every piece of music that man ever wrote, and you wouldn't even know he was out of his mind. The notes stayed on the page, they never changed. They never freaked out at the store or embarrassed you at a swim meet or ran over your cat." Someone in the house cleared their throat. "Anyway, my whole life revolved around my mother. But for one hour of every day, I could sit back and play and get lost in bars and measures and time signatures. Even though my mother was...is...crazy and let me down my whole life, the piano never did that."

She wasn't done yet. Just speaking all of it out loud fueled the fire. There was so much she needed to say. So much of her had changed. She was finally seeing that Yale didn't matter. Piano barely mattered. Life itself was much more important. Was she honestly going to resent her mother for the rest of her life? Did she think acting like it ruined her life would make it more true? The past was the past. This was now. This was her future. And suddenly, she didn't like the looks of it.

"Is that all?" a man asked.

"No," she said quickly. She had to keep talking. She was having a breakthrough. "Actually, the piano made you think it never did that. It was always there, ready to be played, when really it was the one playing you. It called out to you, filling your head with the way the song is supposed to sound. But when you're sitting there in front of hundreds of people and it matters the most, like it did that winter, the piano lets you down. One little slip, and it's over. One little slip and that perfect dream you had of a free ride to Yale is shattered. One little slip...and you're fucked." An audible gasp from the house.

"I thought there were only two things that mattered. School and piano. Do good and both and your dreams come true. But now I understand that this was never my dream. I never dreamed of being judged just because I asked to postpone my audition. I didn't dream of standing on this stage under these lights and having to explain my whole entire history just so you all can understand that I really am an amazing pianist but might not be at my best today. I never dreamed-"

"You're five minutes is up," the white haired lady cut in. "Did you come here to play or to make up for the therapy session you're missing?"

Natalie's jaw dropped. How dare she? she thought. Fuck Yale. They don't deserve me.

She walked to the piano and sat down. She took a breath before diving into Mozart's Alla Turca, the Turkish march. And she played it perfectly. All of the notes were hit at the perfect time. She hadn't even played it that good in practice. She was so in the moment, the whole song was a blur, but she knew she had executed a flawless performance. The professors were speechless, looking at her with such joy, such admiration.

"Natalie," the woman said, "we would be honored to have-"

"I withdraw my application," Natalie said before running offstage.

I hope you liked that! Seriously, if you're not familiar with the Turkish March (which you will be once you hear it) you need to listen to it on youtube because I was looking for the perfect piece for her to play and this came up and as I was listening, it just fit. I'm sure you'll agree that you can just hear Natalie getting lost in it.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

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