The Voice (Camren)

3. The Choice

"I pick...Lauren" Camila whispered. Luckily she had a mic in front of her, because if not, no one in the audience would had been able to hear her choice.

Camila, who had thought nobody would turn around, had had a hard time choosing her mentor. She was by nature an indecisive person and to make a decision that would mark quite substantially her music career (if she ever got one) in less than a minute, pretty much brought her nervous system to the brink of collapse. She had tried to decide rationally, but her head had somehow shut down completely, leaving Camila alone with her messy, stupid heart. And, when she listened to it, it seemed as her heart pounded to the beat of a very special and rhytmic name. "Lau-ren, Lau-ren, Lau-ren" it said. And without thinking about it twice, Camila whispered her name into the mic.

As of the coaches, the reactions to Camila's choice were sorted. Shawn was pretty disappointed but wouldn't let it show, displaying a perfect-teeth smile on his face. Austin didn't seem to care much about it whereas Dinah wasn't too impressed with Camila's choice. As if she had known all along who would she pick. Lastly, Lauren's top three emotiond were surprise, relief and confusion, the three of them making her insides twist and turn, but she kept it cool on the outside.

"You're gonna regret not having chosen me, girl" Austin inconveniently said.

"I... I... do-" Camila stuttered.

"I think the one who's gonna regret it the most is you, Mahone" Dinah fired back, diverting the attention from trembling Camila.

"Well, I wish you all the best" Shawn softly spoke.

"Yeah. Me too. And let me tell you something else: I predict you're gonna be one of our finalists" Dinah said, winking at Camila.

"Or the winner. Welcome to my team, Camila" Lauren's husky voice took over the set.

The lights went dim and the coaches' chairs started to turn around, indicating the beginning of the following contestant's turn. Camila then walked out of stage and headed towards the family room, where her mother was impatiently waiting. She tried to suppress every emotion she had been feeling for the past five minutes, in order to cope with her mother's. She hadn't even opened the room's door and she could already hear her mom squeak in excitement behind it. Camila breathed in and entered the room.

"MIJA! Te lo dije. I knew you'd made it" Sinu screamed.

"Calma, mamá, cálmateee. It's all good now" Camila spoke as she hugged her mother warmingly.

"Estoy tan orgullosa de ti, Karla" Sinu stated proudly. "You'd should have chosen Shawn though" she said frowning a bit.

Oh great! That was exactly what Camila needed right now. Not even 10 minutes had passed, and her choice was already being put into question. As if she wasn't filled up with doubts herself.

"Why do you say that?" Camila asked curiously

"Bueno, mijita, Shawn is such a sweet guy and a great singer. And he's pretty hot too" Sinu replied.

"Mom!"

"What? It's high time you got a boyfriend, Karla" Sinu added.

"MOM!"

"And that Austin boy se ve bien caliente too" Sinu said jokingly

"MOM! Stop it! First of all, I don't like either of them. And secondly, I can't date a coach, that's way out of line!" Camila let out a bit frustrated. It wasn't the first time her mother addressed the "boyfriend" topic or, more precisely, the lack of one, and she wasn't going to put up with it anymore. At least, not in front of the whole damn country!

"People are watching, this is being recorded, mom" Camila muttered.

"I know, mija, I know. I was just sayin-"

"Ok mother. We'll talk about this later" Camila said, interrupting Sinu.

Suddenly, and to Camila's relief, a staff member entered the room. It was the same girl that had shown Camila the way backstage minutes before. Marie was her name, right?

"Hi again. Camila, could you please come with me? I believe your coach wants to talk to you" she requested politely.

"Sure"

"And what about me? Do I wait here?" Sinu asked.

"You'll be escorted to another room where you can comfortably wait for your daughter, madam. Now, Camila, if you follow me..."

The younger girls left the room and dove into the deep and poorly lighted backstage corridors as they had done before. Only this time, Camila was even more nervous. Was that even possible? She wasn't counting on meeting her coach the very same day of her audition. That had caught Camila totally by surprise and her nervous system was suffering the consequences. Maybe that's why she didn't notice that damn cable attached to the floor, and tripped, falling noisily.

"Hey, hey. Are you OK?" Marie asked as she helped Camila get back up.

"Yeah. Happens to me 90% of the time. Don't worry" Camila spoke reassuringly.

"Better now than in front of Miss Jauregui, uh?"

"I guess". Much better, actually, Camila thought. Tripping wouldn't really help her to give a good impression of her to the young coach.

They arrived at a medium-sized room where two other people were already in. Camila recognized them, they were contestants. She then noticed that there was a small plaque at the door, which read "Team Lauren".

"You have to stay here till the program is finished. Other contestants may come in too. Now I have to go, make yourself at home" Marie said widely smiling while closing the door.

"Hi. I'm Sawyer" a boy around Camila's age introduced himself. He had long, blonde hair and understanding blue eyes.

"And I'm Ariana" the girl said. She looked like she was 12 but was at the same time oveewhelmingly beautiful.

"Camila Cabello" Camila let out nervously.

The three of them sat there in a not at all uncomfortable silence. An hour passed by, and nothing happened. No one entered or left the room. They just patiently waited for their coach to show up. A couple of minutes later, the door slowly opened to reveal Lauren's impressive silhouette.

"So...Team Lauren, uh?" she said.