A Musical Mayhem

25 - Bree (Part 1)

I could not believe this. I was actually in Paris. For the first time in forever - literally. And I was just about to step into the massive Arabesque Arts Academy. A dozen thoughts were running through my head all at once, and I couldn't keep track of all of them. Was the building as big in the inside as it looked on the outside? Were the people there going to be friendly? Wait, but why did I even care about what the other people were going to think about me? Were Arielle, Flynn, or Claude here yet?

I took a deep breath and pushed open the heavy glass doors, my heavy luggage still in hand.

"Welcome!" A young lady with wavy blonde hair in a messy bun greeted us at the front desk. "I hope you're looking forward to the summer camp program. My name is Ms. Rudos. Could I have your name, please?"

"Breanne Campbell," I said, forcing myself to say my real name. Breanne sounded way too long and fancy of a name, in my opinion, so I never really used it except when I really had to. An example was now.

Ms. Rudos checked my name off the unbelievably long list she was holding. "There you are. Seaside Heights High School, Los Angeles, USA, 8th Grade, 13 years old, blonde hair and brown eyes, pianist, Distinguished Audition Performer. Great. You're all set, Breanne."

"Thank you," I nodded, smiling. Just as I was about to leave, Ms. Rudos stopped me.

"Oh, right, Breanne?" she said abruptly. I skidded to a stop on my Converse heels and turned, surprised. Was there something wrong? "I almost forgot to inform you that you've been chosen to be the student ambassador for the program this summer."

My eyes widened. "What? I mean, sorry, pardon? But why me?"

"I'm actually not so sure. I don't think it was for a particular reason, but you must have given a good impression to the adjudicators," she answered, winking.

"Oh," I said, dumbfounded. I hadn't expected this. "Okay, so, what am I supposed to do while being the student ambassador?"

"You'll basically have a few jobs, like keeping track of all the students and making sure they're all following the rules, and that no funny business is secretly going around. In other words, you'll be a secret spy, a supervisor, an assistant, and a leader, all at the same time," Ms. Rudos explained.

I blinked. A super-secret spy sounded kind of fun, no kidding. But . . . a supervisor? Assistant? How would I even make time for those jobs when I was busy rehearsing my own pieces and stuff for the whole summer, just like everybody else? And why me? Maybe the adjudicators had unknown powers and somehow found out that my social skills weren't the best, and they purposely hatched a plan to make me the talkative, social student ambassador. Ugh. Now I was making weird stuff up in my head. Yet again, in my zombie-apocalypse-infested mind.

"Um, okay. That sounds . . . interesting," I managed.

"Great!" Ms. Rudos beamed. Honestly, I didn't know what was so happy about this right now. "So, your first job is to welcome every student who arrives here today and guide them to their individual rehearsal rooms, which they will be staying in for the whole summer camp. Since you're early, I have plenty of time to show you to your own room, where you can put your luggage and get settled before starting your task."

Ms. Rudos led me to a small room at the end of a hall first, where I would be waiting until people arrived, and I could start checking their names off and leading them to their individual rooms. While I was walking through the building, I could see rows and rows of new green lockers lining some of the hallways, and a few chandeliers here and there.