Tyler and the Valaholics: The Beginning

Chapter 18

Song of the chapter- 'Show You How To Love' by Pentatonix

'Gimme one chance and I promise that I'll show you the way,
I'll take you far from here and show you how the night turns to day.'

"Val, what's wrong?" Van's voice reaches me from behind me as she taps my shoulder.

"Nothing, where are they?" I speak, indicating their empty seats.

"Stacie took them to the restroom. Hey, by the way, I think you sang really well," she tells me.

"Aw, thank you, Van!" I exclaim as we take our seats.

Soon, the girls return and Stacie shoves a huge tub of popcorn in my hands and one in Vanessa's, indicating that we are to empty them fully. We watch the last couple of performers as we wolf down our food and we're done with the tubs by the time the announcement is made that the remaining contestants are to gather onstage.

I get up, wiping unpopped kernels off the front of my jeans and walk on to the stage where we're given further instructions and told that this time around (and everytime on forth), the results will be announced after all the performances. A list has been put up and we have to pick a song off it keeping in mind that one song can be picked by only one performer and perform it tomorrow.

I'm caught up in the streams of people rushing to get to the list so I go with the flow. Scanning the list, I find a song that would be a pretty good choice for me and go to snag it off the board when someone else takes it. My eyes land on another nearby it and I manage to take it before anyone else reaches it and walk out of the mess.

"Got a song?" Van asks me. I nod and show her the song, bringing her to get plenty excited. Of course she'll love it, it's Maroon 5, a band we're both overly fond of.

"You have to do this well, Valerie! If you spoil the song, I swear I'll strangle you myself and-"

"Woah, woah, don't kill her yet, they need her for the competition," Stacie says, cutting off Vanessa's rant.

"I wouldn't have to kill her if she sings this one well, you know?" Van quips.

Stacie and Van start quibbling over something as my attention drifts to a certain someone standing hunched by a nearby wall, staring wide-eyed at the piece of paper in his hand. Now that I come to think of it, maybe I shouldn't have yelled at him like that. I should apologize.

"Go for it," Stacie tells me when she notices me staring at him.

Nodding at her, I walk over to Josh while Stacie and Van continue arguing and Tracie and Violet discuss something about their favourite cartoon in a very serious manner. He seems to be very vested in the paper before him by the look of deep concentration on his face. I peek over his shoulder and see that he's gotten a Maroon 5 song too.

"You know, I think many would kill for that song. I know I would," I tell him, apparently startling him because he jumps and looks at me wide-eyed.

"Goodness, Valerie, you scared me!" he tells me, holding a hand up to his chest.

"I was pretty loud so I think you need to get your ears checked if you didn't hear my heavy footsteps and noisy breaths," I tell him, stomping my boots rather noisily and breathing heavily.

"Okay, stop, Valerie! I got your point, I was just distracted. I took this on impulse and now I don't know how I'm going to sing it," he says.

"Oh, please, Payphone isn't all that difficult to sing and-"

"Payphone isn't a tough song, I just want to do it differently but I don't know how to make my performance stand out, you know, Valerie," he states.

"Okay, first off, don't you feel Valerie is a mouthful?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what you want me to call you. I guess I could call you footstool," he jokes.

"That's more of a mouthful."

"Hmm, how about Dwarf, or, ooh, Elf?!"

"Shut your face, Jansen," I scowl.

"I quite like the ring of Elf or Elfie," he says, his eyes mischievously glinting.

"Valerie will do."

"How about Erie?" he tells me in an attempt to mollify me.

"I like that," I smile.

"See, I'm not a bad guy!" he says excitedly and lifts his palm for a high five. I roll my eyes and continue what I was going to say as his hand drops.

"Secondly, there are people who can help you with your performance if you're struggling so much."

His face lights up as he blurts out, "Oh, the judges are gonna help us?"

I smack my forehead. This guy must have been born to annoy me.

"Why don't you go ask them then?" I snap.

"Or you could help me?" he asks, a tinge of hope tinting his voice.

"That's what I was getting at, you troll spawn!" I reply, relieved that he finally got it.

"Lastly, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I definitely didn't mean to, I mean, I kind of got-"

He cuts me off, "Apology accepted. Also, I owe you an apology too for making assumptions so sorry 'bout that."

"Apology accepted. Now, shall we get started?" I tell him.

"Sure. Wait, which song did you get?" he enquires.

"'One More Night'."

"Hey, you took a Maroon 5 song too!" he exclaims.

"'Course. I'm a big fan," I reply calmly.

"Can we be any more similar?!" he yells, shaking my shoulder with excitement.

"I'd rather not. You'd be too weird if you were my height or had hair like mine," I quip, forcing a smile on his face.

"Aha! So you like my height, huh?" he squeals.

"I like you the way you are, mate. Now let's get on, shall we, or we'll never get anywhere," I respond, rolling my eyes at the excitement twirling around and around in his eyes.

"We shall, my liege," he says and beckons me to move ahead.

"I like that more than Erie, so you are to call me that from now on. Understand, peasant?"

"Never in your wildest dreams, your highness," he smiles at me before running to the door as I chase him.

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There's the next chapter! The next one is coming soon and, as usual, let me know what you think...

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