I watched her forefinger creep towards her teeth as my feet tapped a tattoo on the floor. “What are you looking at?” Haley asked “I can see you are nervous. I am too” I said “So what do you suppose we do?” she asked “We do nothing, we will sit here and relax and wait for our turn” “Oh my God, I can’t watch. Is she going to die in there?” “Don’t be such a scaredy cat. Open your eyes. Nothing is going to happen to you or that girl” I explained “Sing a song or walk a little if it helps” I told her She looked at me and I understood that she was way too nervous for anything. But I knew just the thing to calm her down. “Hey, look into my eyes and tell me what do you see?” I said “Huh, what a stupid question, I can see your eyes” Haley said “Just look” “Ok, here we go” she said “Now, don’t think about anything, keep your mind empty and keep looking” I said After 5 minutes, I told her to look away “How do you feel now?” I asked “Much better, thank you; How did you do it?” she asked me “Didn’t do anything, just distracted your mind long enough for you to relax” I explained. “Interesting” she said smilingly It was our turn to go next. “Ok Haley, here we go; Are you ready?” I asked her “Yes, let’s do it” she said We went up on the stage and it was complete magic the way both of us swayed to the music, every rhythm and beat on our toes. We got a standing ovation for our performance. “Did you see the audience, they were mesmerized” said an ecstatic Haley “Yes! We did it buddy” I said The results were to be declared till the evening. We were waiting eagerly for them. This was the most important day of our lives. It would decide if we could live our dream of studying in a dance school and becoming a dancer one day. Haley and I have been friends since childhood. We live across from each other and our parents are also close friends. It was our dream to make something of ourselves and better our lives. We are happy with our lives here but there is always that thing of earning big and living comfortably. Both of us have always loved to dance and we took special dancing lessons to better our technique (which was very crucial for us if we wanted to make it good dancers). Our parents worked two jobs to get the fees for these lessons. Plus the daily necessities ate up all the income. They only said one thing to us – “If you really want to do this you better gear yourself up. You are in for the ride of your life. Enjoy every moment of it and never think you are incapable of doing anything. Good Luck my dear”. So here we were waiting to see if our lives will change or not. Everything depended on this audition, we worked sweat and blood and now the decision was in the judges hands. It was nerve wrecking to wait for the results. All the other participants were also well prepared, it would be a tough call I’m sure. “John, when will they announce the results?” asked Haley “Don’t know, even I’m very eager to know” I said Attention everyone: we are pleased to announce that this year we have got the most brilliant dancers we have ever seen, congratulations everyone for a splendid performance. There is a tie between 5 of the participants, so in this special case we are holding another round of auditions for the final five. This will be held a week from today. The list of the qualified participants will be put up on the notice board. Once again, congratulations to everyone for a remarkable performance. Good night. We went up to the notice board and there it was in big bold letters ‘John & Haley’. We had made it to the final 5. We hugged each other tightly and celebrated the whole night long. The next day we geared up for the final round of audition. There could be two solo performances or one dual performance. We decided to do a dual performance as before. We started practicing day and night. One day during practice I fell down and hurt my ankle. We immediately went to the doctor and he said I had sprained it and I have to rest for a few days. “John, what will we do now?” I asked “Don’t worry, we will come up with something. We always do” he said “You should practice for a solo act, don’t know if I will be able to perform also” I told him “No, we will do it together, now come on, we’ll start with something light” he said reassuringly We started practicing and before we knew it was the day of the audition. It was our turn to perform, and both of us were nervous. “Come on Haley; let’s give it all we have” I said “Yes, we have to do it” she said enthusiastically We went up to the stage and gave it our best shot. “Did we do it? Are we in?” Haley asked “Let’s see buddy. I really don’t know” I said We waited and waited, finally at 5 o’ clock in the evening they announced the results. “Yayy! We have done it John” Haley said happily “No Haley, only you are in, I’m not” I said “What, how can they do that? There must be some mistake” Haley said “No, no mistake, I checked. You go on, I will try again next year and join you” I said “Both of us will try again next year, I’m not going without you” “Haley, this is a very big opportunity for you, you can’t let this just go away. We have worked all our lives for this” I told her “But how can I do this without you” she said “Yes you can, I will be right behind you. I will work harder and join you next year. Now go” I said “Ok if you say so, but I don’t like this one bit” she said “I know, and best of luck” I said controlling my tears After that Haley went to the dance school and I started working part time and rehearsing side by side for my audition next year. I agree I was taken aback by the results but I’m not about to give it up so easily.
- tomandjerry05