Trollhunters: The Tale From Phoenix

Chapter Fourteen

"Hah! I win again!" I dropped my pencil on the table.

"You're too good at this!" Krel crossed his arms.

"Since you're so bad at the game of tic tac's and toes, little brother, why don't I give it a try, hm?" Aja pulled up a stool next to him.

"She's not the only one, this cheeky one here is pretty good too!" Douxie pointed to Olivia who was playing rounds with him.

Olivia laughed and tapped her feet in excitement. I turned my attention back to the crowd, most of the people were sitting down now and just enjoying their time.

I still felt out of place, but a lot less now that I've been distracted by my friends... And then I noticed two people approaching us.

"Well, look who it is. I didn't think the lone girl would come to a sick party like this." Mary giggled.

"What made you decide to come, Phoenix?" Darci peeked around from behind her friend.

I stayed silent.
"Darci, Mary! Your song was uh... Interesting!" Aja smiled at them.

"Hi Aj, I knew you'd be here, this atmosphere is totally your style!" Mary glanced at me. "I didn't think Karl was into this either." She lowered her voice.

"It's Krel." Krel corrected her and crossed his arms.

"Maybe you two should leave and go find something else you're interested in. It's not like you'll be doing any karaoke."

I could see the daggers she was shooting at me in her mind, or maybe they were mine. She did seem relatively snarky toward me tonight.
Instead of responding I just crossed my arms and changed my focus on something else.

"Don't talk to my cousin like that!"

"Girls, calm down, this is supposed to be a calm and fun night." Douxie held out his hands.

"Sorry, D. I guess it's hard to understand someone who comes to karaoke night and doesn't get up to do karaoke."

"Mary?" A shocked expression fell across Darci's face.

"That was a little mean, Mary." Said Aja.

Before I could even register what I was doing, I stood up and brushed past Mary as I made my way to the stage.

"What is she doing?" Krel stood up.

"I bet she doesn't even sound good, come on Darci, Claire is waiting for us." Mary started heading out.

I wrote down a song on the list for the person in charge of the music and stepped onto the makeshift stage. It was then I realized what I was doing and it was probably too late to back down.

'why am I doing this? I have insane anxiety and I put myself on stage?' I thought to myself. I became stiff and everyone was staring at me.

'you know what, this is your moment to prove her wrong. Wait, I never cared before, why do I care now?' I tried to control my breathing and gripped my stitch's harness.

I could hear everyone whispering, they weren't being very quiet about it.

'I bet I look incredibly stupid right now.'

A soft piano melody started and I noticed the man give me a thumbs up out of the corner of my eye. I focused on the back of the room and saw Krel, Douxie, and Olivia all give me thumbs ups too.

I took a deep breath and stared down at the clock on the wall above them.

"Windows down on my favorite street." I started, I panicked, and tried to steady myself.