The Talent Show

The weekend was drawing to an end. At least mine was. The youth rally I was attending lasted from Friday night until Sunday morning, but due to my dad's work schedule, we had to leave Saturday night. But even though there were only 2 hours left in that weekend for me, there was still one more event I could attend: the talent show.

     I had always wanted to compete in a talent show and was planing on competing in this one (especially after I heard that this one had cash prizes). So I headed over to the campus' gymnasium to audition. I was planing on playing the famous "Linus and Lucy" song from A Charlie Brown Christmas on piano.

 I had my music books in hand and just found relief from the biting January air when I saw it. The gymnasium, it was utterly gigantic. The room was larger than my house and the entire floor was lined with chairs. There must have been room for at least three hundred people. I turned to one of the judges conducting the auditions and asked, "Are you expecting all those chairs to be full tonight?"

     "Are you kidding?" He replied, "We usually have so many people at this thing that people have to stand in the lobby."

     With that, my eyes widened and my mouth became dry. There was a snowball's chance in Hell that I would preform in front of, what could end up to be, over 300 people. $25 wasn't worth it. "I'm out." I said as I walked off the stage. I felt a little weird about running away from this chance to be in a talent show, but it wasn't the only thing I would be running away from that night.

     As I walked out into the lobby I caught a glimpse of Kayla speaking with an older, grey haired man who she had introduced to me as her church's pastor. I didn't think anything of it and went on. That is, I didn't thing anything of it then, but five minutes later Kayla comes running up to me. "Nash!" She said, "My pastor hasn't talked to you, has he?"

     "No." I replied."

     "Good! If you see him, don't believe a word he says!" She said and ran away again. I was a little more than confused, but I didn't press the subject any further.

     It finally came time for the talent show and my dad and I were lucky enough to find seats. What the judge said about there being a lot of people was right. The place was packed. In the stirring commotion of people, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see Kayla's pastor. "You're Nash, right?" He asked.

     "Um, yeah. . ." I reply.

     "Come with me real quick." He then led me to where Kayla was sitting. He points at her with a mischievous grin on his face and says, "This girl has a huge crush on you!" Kayla hid her face in her arms and I could feel my face turning red. The whole room fell silent (mainly because the talent show was starting, but I didn't know that) and it felt like everyone was staring at me. Without a word, I turned and quickly walked back to my seat. As embarrassing as that was, a small part of me was elated to hear that Kayla liked me. It was great to know that my crush was not entirely one sided.

     After the talent show, it was time for me to leave. I went over to say goodbye to Kayla and she said, "Sorry if my pastor embarrassed you or anything."

     "Oh, it was no big deal. It was actually kind of funny." I lied.

     "You know, he was just kidding, right?" She said, "What he said wasn't true."

     "Oh, yeah. I knew that. Ha ha!" I said as a little part of my soul died.

     "Promise you'll be here in May for the next youth rally, will you?"

     "I promise," I said, "I swear it by the Popcorn Kernel of Truth." But the Popcorn Kernel of Truth, as it seems, only works once. It has seemingly the opposite effect after the first use because, due to appendicitis, I never made it to the May youth rally and she never made it the next January. I wouldn't see her again for over a year. And when I did see her, I regretted very much walking away that night. . .