Backstage

Chapter 2

My mom greets me with a single "hi" when I get home. Lately she's been doing a lot of things around the house, so she practically just moves from one place to another without stopping.
"Hey mom," I say. "Need some help?"
"Yeah, help me put the dishes back in their cupboards," she replies.
I put down my backpack near a couch and say hi to my lazy bulldog, Chester, who is lying down at the couch doing nothing as usual. Then I go into the kitchen and find mountains of dishes all put on the table, and all the cupboard doors are open and empty.
I sigh. How on earth can my mom do so much stuff?
I get started with the dishes being careful not to drop anything. Then I hear steps coming into the kitchen when I'm almost done.
"Thanks, honey," she says. "Do you have a lot of homework?"
"No," I say. "Just a few algebra problems and a 300 word essay on skydiving."
"Skydiving?" She asks. "What the heck? What subject is that for?"
"Language arts."
"I see," she says. "Well then get to your homework first, then if you want you can help me some more, alright? You want a snack?"
"Maybe just a fruit," I grab an apple and go to the living room again. "Thanks, mom."
"Wait," she says. "How was school today?"
"Normal," I reply. "Although today were the club presentations."
"Really?" She says with a smirk coming on her face. "And did you find anything interesting?"
I smile slightly. "I thought of joining a dance club."
"Oh!" She says happily. "I'm so glad to hear that! We'll talk this over dinner, alright?"
"Sure," I sit down and get my notebooks.
"Alright," she says. "Do your homework. I'll finish the kitchen and then head upstairs."
"Ok, mom," I say.
She leaves me to do what I have to do. Chester comes to lie down at my legs and then he sighs.
"Chester," I say. "I have homework!"
He sighs again and gets down from my legs as if he had understood completely. Then he just falls asleep right beside me.
"Alright," I say to myself. "Time to start."
I usually start with the shortest assignment first, so I just decide to begin with algebra. It's just a few first degree equations and I never had any problems in solving them. I take about twenty minutes to solve all of them and finally I move on to the essay. This one requires some more time, but I manage to get though it.
I finish my assignments and put my stuff away, and then move on to what I've wanted to do all day. What songs will I prepare for the audition?
I take out my laptop and start browsing for songs to dance to, starting by my favorite artists. While I listen to them, I try to picture what moves I could match with them. I end up picking Lindsey Stirling's "Shadows". I love how it's all violin and a hint of dubstep that makes it have a perfect beat.
Next, for the song I have to sing, I have a lot more options. That makes it both easier and harder to choose. Before I know it, it's dinner time already, my dad is already home, and my mom finished putting a lot of things in their places. She calls my name a couple of times for me to go to the kitchen with them, where we always have dinner.
Today my mom made spaghetti and salad, possibly the best dish ever made by human hands. The three of us sit at the table and Chester sits down next to my dad to see if he can catch anything that falls on the floor.
"Erin," my mom says. "Wanna tell your dad what you told me?"
"Sure," I say. "Dad, I want to join my school's dance club."
My dad's eyes widen a bit. He knows better than anyone that I never had much interest in interacting with other people. "Is that so? Where did that come from?"
"Today were the club presentations," I say. "Their performance was incredible! Their routine was completely synchronized and they look like they're really good friends with each other and that caught my attention."
"Sounds interesting," my dad says. "I'm kind of shocked, but I guess you know what you're doing. And how are you going to join?"
"There's going to be an audition one week from now," I say. "I'm going to sign up for the audition on Monday and I'm going to plan my routine during this weekend and until Friday."
"Okay," he says.
"I'm just glad you're opening up," my mom says.
I smile at them and take a bit of salad into my mouth.
"Meanwhile," my mom says, "I'm almost done upstairs!"
"Woman, you work too much," my dad says. "Put Erin to help you."
"She does help me," my mom replies. "It's you who I'm going to put to help me this weekend, Mister."
"Darn it," my dad says.
We laugh and continue having small conversations like that during the whole dinner. When we're done, I help my mom with the dishes and put some food on Chester's plate (which he hates). He barks a couple of times to see if I can give him any food, but he does it in vain. Finally, Chester falls asleep.
I then remember that I still need to pick a song to sing. I go back to my laptop and open it. My mind goes blank for a while and I can't think of any songs that will do the trick. I really need to find something that will impress Victoria, and I imagine that to do that, it's going to have to be a really good song. Something that fits my voice's range of notes.
Then I remember an old song from my childhood. I don't remember who sings it, but it isn't anyone popular. I listened to it when I was very young, I'm surprised I still remember it. It went kind of like:
"Go to the mountain, you'll see the distance will do you good,
Just make sure you don't venture too far,
Otherwise you'll be alone and I know no one ever wants that,
And when you come back, someone will wait for you,
And you'll be able to return to the mountain holding their hand."
I think that was the chorus. It doesn't rhyme and the melody is slow and relaxing, but I love it anyway. Not to mention, it's everything I need for the audition.

The next day, I wake up and go to the gym with my mom. I spent about three hours last night planning my choreography until I finally reached something that convinced me. What I plan to do today is watch myself do it to see if it really is acceptable.
I go to a room surrounded by mirrors, and make sure that I'm the only one there. No one is watching me. I stare at my reflection: a pale girl of the average size, with light brown hair and bright green eyes, with a thin body and an innocent facial expression. Completely a spitting image of my mom.
I take out the paper where I wrote down the moves from my pocket. I look at it one last time to make sure I memorized the order. Then I set it down in front of the mirror and take a few steps back as I wait for the song to give me the cue of when to start.
I told myself that I wouldn't stop for anything the first time doing the choreography, that way I'll be able to see where I go wrong.
I dance for one minute and a half (which is all I planned, I hope that's enough) and feel pathetic. A lot of the moves I planned ended up not being completely synchronized with the song, all because of a time I almost tripped during a turn and didn't manage to recover the beat. At this rate, I won't be able to make it through the audition.
Now the only remedy I have is to just keep on doing the routine one time after another to make sure that I don't have any risks for the audition.