The rays of the Sun reflect along my skin as I shut the car door. My hands full, I walk up to one of the biggest houses I’ve ever been to. I rang the doorbell on the porch as I stood on the prickly welcome mat. I stood before the big, black double doors as I listened to the ringing of the doorbell. I shuffled around with my tablet, water bottle and the taro milk tea I grabbed on the way over, trying not to drop anything. Today I had talent show practice with my friends, and I was late. Today had not gone as expected.
For context, Frontier Stem Academy will have a talent show this March. Three of the people in my group go to school there, so I’m able to participate with them. We’re doing a song and dance number from the game Project Sekai called “It was a very lovely June.”
My friend, Ivy, opened the right door, and I walked in and removed my black and pink tennis shoes. Turns out I’m the second person to arrive out of four people. I climbed the daunting stairs at the entrance that transitioned midway from wood to carpet. In the media room at the top of the stairs, Linziqi sat on the couch. She’s the first one to arrive. We waited in the media room with its giant screen for our other two friends, Aster and Genesis. Eventually, they did arrive, and practice began.
We put on our practice video, and the blueish light of the projector reflected it across the screen. We began our work as we struggled to sing and move around at the same time. We swayed and danced about as we maneuvered around each other and the couch we couldn’t move. As we reached the end of our first run-through, we decided to walk to the nature trail nearby to practice.
We walked and talked about things like politics and fanfiction as we made our way down the road and towards the trail. To our dismay, we found ourselves walking in mud. We forgot it rained that night. It turned out to be the worst trek of our lives as we made our way into the forested area, our shoes covered in the orange mud. We made our way to our usual spot at the amphitheater. It’s a grassy and clearly unused space, but today, it happened to be covered in puddles and mud. It’s unusable for dance practice.
We walked down the boardwalk that we found to find another spot. We found a less muddy slope with some benches to set down our phones and water bottles we brought along. We had already been speckled with sweat by the time we found the spot and only ran through our dance twice as the slope made it rather difficult to practice.
We headed back to Ivy’s home as we realized this wasn’t at all working out. We talked more about fanfiction, or rather Ivy, Aster and Genesis did as we made our way past the dirty fountain and the several other big houses of this neighbourhood. By the time we made it back, we were tired and sweaty, as if we had practiced a whole bunch. We made our way to the kitchen and washed our hands to have a snack. Aster brought cupcakes with them and we needed a break. The Sun and the mud were not our friends today.
We sat in the dining room with its wicker decor and plush chairs. We talked as we ate our chocolate and vanilla cupcakes about things like K-pop and anime. After we finished, we decided to go outside to the driveway and just practice on the cement instead. Our shoes scraped against the cement as we practiced by the basketball hoop and the oddly tall fence. We ran it a couple of times, purposefully singing awfully for a couple of them.
Back inside, we headed up to the media room and relaxed for the remaining hour of practice. We played games and talked about all our weird hyperfixations. At the end of the day, although it was messy, we went with the flow, making practice something I look forward to every week.
