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Choir Fest Part 2

Lilly was laughing with Natalie, one of the girls from Chisago, when the entire room jolted. Lilly was thrown from her feet onto the ground. Natalie stared at her. "Why did you just fall?"

"The room just jolted. It was like an earthquake. Did you not feel that?" Lilly asked as the girl on the other side of her gave her a hand up.

Natalie shook her head. "Are you sure you didn't just get dizzy? Sometimes if you sing the wrong way, you can pass out."

"Maybe," Lilly said, but she knew that wasn't true. Memories of the MACS tournament flooded her head. Since the seer had allowed Lilly to remember, she had been secretly using her water powers. She would be prepared the next time a shade decided to show up. She would have also talked to Stella about it, but she hadn't had a chance. The seer had wiped Emma's memories of the MACS tournament, but Lilly secretly wondered if Emma remembered anyway. She decided she'd ask Emma about it later. And maybe she had just been dizzy. She hoped so.

Emma jolted forward and banged her head against the bleachers.

Abbie stared at her. "Are you okay?"

Emma nodded.

"What happened?" Jojo asked.

"I was reaching for Nevaeh's name tag and hit my head," Emma laughed it off. But she knew that hadn't been the reason. The room had jolted. Emma bit her lip. Two coincidences in one day...

When they were dismissed for a snack, Emma found Lilly with a few of her friends.

"Hey," Emma greeted her.

"Oh, it's Emma!" Joy, one of Lilly's friends, acknowledged her. "Lilly has been so excited to see you for the past two days. She's been like, 'I get to see Emma!'."

Emma laughed. "Honestly, same here. I've been looking forward to this day this entire week, so I get to see Lilly."

Hannah was standing nearby, and she nodded her agreement. "Emma's been talking about seeing Lilly for days."

Emma laughed. "Of course, I'm excited! It's Lilly!"

After the group had sung for a couple hours, both in separate sections and as a group, they were dismissed for lunch. Emma picked up her plate of pizza and went to sit next to Lilly. After switching tables a few times, they sat beside each other. Joy, Sarah, and Melissa, some of Lilly's friends, sat across from them. Emma pushed her pizza toward Lilly. "You want it?"

"Sure," Lilly replied.

Melissa looked at the pizza. "Can I?"

"Go ahead," Lilly pushed the plate toward her, and Melissa took one of the pieces.

"I mean, if she's giving it away, then I'll take it," she laughed. She looked at Emma. "Are you sure you'll have enough to eat?"

"Yeah, I brought a protein bar just in case."

"Okay," Melissa responded and bit into the pizza.

Sunny sat at her table, slowly eating her pizza while playing Wordscapes on her phone. She was usually much hungrier but didn't feel like eating. People talked around her, but Sunny felt oddly disconnected from it all. There was a loud noise, and Sunny looked up. No one else seemed to have noticed it, but their voices had dulled even more. Sunny got up and began to walk toward where the noise had come from.

As Sunny walked towards the noise, she felt something pulling her towards it slowly. She was confused about what was going on, but she just continued to walk. She saw a dark shape in a corner and went to see what it was. As she stepped around the corner, she felt something grab onto her wrist, and she was pulled to the ground. Sunny screamed, and a hand clamped around her mouth. Sunny smelled something strangely familiar, and everything went black.

Emma and Lilly sat next to each other, talking about random things. Emma leaned her head on Lilly's shoulder, and she leaned her head on top of Emma's. "Have you ever read The Guinevere Deception?" Emma asked.

"No."

"It's not that bad if you want to read a female version of the Camelot stories," Emma mentioned. The two got up and headed back upstairs, throwing their trash away as they passed the trash cans.

"This is for you," Emma handed Lilly a friendship bracelet.

"Oh, I forgot about that!" Lilly said. "I still feel bad that I didn't bring you anything." Emma had told her about the bracelet the day before.

"It was a gift enough to make something for you," Emma said. Lilly put the bracelet in her locker, and the two girls linked arms and walked upstairs.

Since they had a bit of time before they had to go back to performing, Emma and Lilly sat in the back pew together and talked as people walked everywhere. Then everyone was directed back into the auditorium as they had a Zoom call with the composer of one of their songs, Dan Forrest. Emma listened as he talked about himself for a while, and then the director stood up.

"I hope that made you all more inspired to sing," he said.

"It made me more inspired to sleep," Nevaeh said as she stretched. Emma tried to smother her laugh.

"Everyone turns to the side and massage the shoulders of the person next to you." the director said.

"Wait, what?" Jojo asked. Everyone began to turn to the side and massage the shoulders of the person next to them. Emma tried not to laugh. This whole thing was ridiculous. Then they turned around, and Juliet sighed.

"I want Jojo back," she said.

"Jojo has magic hands," Abbie said. Emma let go of Nevaeh, and the other girl turned around.

"Now I feel more inspired to sing," she said.

Emma laughed and picked up her music and turned to face forward.

After singing for an hour and a half, they were all dismissed for a long break and snack while the other choirs warmed up. Emma immediately found Lilly, and they got snacks and sat in the back pews, watching some of the other choir's practice. Emma ate the goldfish and Chex mix they had given out and talked with Lilly.

"I wonder if we would still be friends if I was a guy," Emma said.

"Probably, but how would we have met?" Lilly asked.

Emma shrugged. "I'm sure we would have connected."

"You sound like someone who goes to the mall to shop for crystals," Lilly mocked, laughing at her.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Maybe I would have become friends with your brother."

"Yeah, but my brother makes sure no boys come near me," Lilly said. "I'll never have a boyfriend because of Landon."

"I won't have a boyfriend because boys don't care about me," Emma sighed.

Lilly patted her head. "It's okay."

Emma hugged her tightly. "I'd rather have you as a friend than any guy, anyway."

Emma looked around for Sunny but couldn't find the girl anywhere. Emma waited by Sunny's seat as everyone walked into the auditorium, but the girl didn't come. Emma frowned. This wasn't like Sunny; she was usually always on time. Emma headed out into the hallway to search for her.

Sunny screamed. She had opened her eyes to complete darkness. She wasn't tied up or hindered but couldn't see anything.

Emma heard a familiar scream and ran towards the sound. She ran through the hallways and immediately skidded to a stop. Sunny was standing at the end of the hallway, reaching forward with her hands, groping for air.

"Sunny?" Emma asked.

The girl immediately froze and looked up. "Emma? Emma, I can't see anything!"

Emma ran over to her and looked at her eyes. Emma gasped. Sunny's eyes were completely black.

"Sunny," Emma said. "What happened?"