Reality of a Dream: by Emii

I wrote this story for English, and since I haven't posted this week, I thought I'd show it to you.. hope you like it!:)

Reality of a Dream by Emii
Several months ago, a couple of my closest friends and I started a band. We wanted to do something where we could put all our gifts and talents together, and make something new. And now, out of nowhere, was the night of our first performance; Hidden Impact would show itself to the outside world.

I’m Laura Stevens, and I’m one of the guitarists in the band, as well as the lead singer. I have wavy black hair with pink highlights and blue eyes. Besides music, I love to paint. Our walls at home are decorated with canvases of which I’ve coloured and painted, and some people have described me as a walking canvas myself; I wear splashes of this colour and that, and love cute little accessories like the blue flower I wear on my volley’s.

“Laura,” a voice whispered to me, and I turned around. There they were; Amber, Zoe, Jacie and Bridget. I’d been sitting in a corner by myself, trying to calm down. They now stood in a line, opposite me.

“It’s time to get onto the stage...” That was Amber. You could tell she was a little hesitant about performing.

Amber Jones, our pianist, has long brown hair and brown eyes. Amber always seems to have the right thing to say to people, no matter how they’re feeling. It comes through in the lyrics she writes for our band. The majority of our music is written by her.

Zoe Jonas is our other guitar player. She has bright red hair, green eyes and always wears the coolest earrings – everything from miniature electric guitars to polar bears. Zoe loves making people laugh, and her carefree personality shines through as she jams on her guitar during solos.

And then there’s Jacie Connor and Bridget Miller, our bass player and drummer. Jacie has blonde curly hair, and Bridget has shoulder-length blonde hair, almost white, which she always wears in high pig-tails on top of her head. Bridget’s style is very chic; miniskirts with tights underneath, and she wears t-shirts that she makes herself. On her shirts she always puts words from her favourite songs on them, like, “I put my hands up, they’re playing my song, the butterflies fly away.” When Bri comes up with a new t-shirt, we always spend a couple of minutes racing each other to figure out what song they come from. That one was, of course, from ‘Party in the USA.’

Jacie is the one who makes sure people know who we are – at school, church, whatever – she’s constantly reminding people about the CD we recorded, our upcoming concerts – it’s pretty obvious she doesn’t trust our publicity team. I don’t blame her. If your friend’s little brother was spreading the word, you’d be a little worried, too, don’t you think?

But that’s enough about us.

So, there we were. Backstage, before the big gig. Nervous? Not me. But the adrenaline, that was another story. I couldn’t wait to get out there and show them what we had. I was jittery just thinking about it. This could be the start of something big.

“Oh, right. You’re kidding,” I said hurriedly, wondering how long it’d been since Amber had said we needed to get to the stage.

“ Wow, that went fast. Um, yeah. Let’s go,” I said, getting up and rushing towards the door the led to the stage. Once I realized no-one was following me, I paused and turned around, my fingers encircled around the doorknob. I was so close.

“You’re really excited about this, aren’t you, Laura?” commented Jacie with a smile. I nodded in surprise. “Of course! Aren’t you?”

They all nodded, and it was as if the invisible tension had been cut off with a pair of scissors. “This is going to be great! But we’d better get going,” added Zoe, with what seemed like renewed motivation. With that, I flung open the door, and started to race up the stairs to the stage.

Slow down, I felt something tell me.

I listened.

I didn’t want to forget this moment.

Ever.

Stepping over each stair, I finally reached the top. I strained to hear the cheers of the crowd, but there were none. I shouldn’t be expecting so much, I scolded myself. We’re still unknown.

The others behind me, I stepped up to the curtain.

“What are you doing?!” exclaimed Bridget, as I lifted my arm to peek through the curtain. “Shh,” came my reply.

I saw the others exchange glances, and shrug. I guess they assumed I was a bit strange for wanting to see our audience, but I’m not sure why. In all the movies, all the books – the stars always peek through the curtain before the show starts. So, really, I’m not sure what all the fuss was about.

I looked out at the sea of faces looking expectantly toward the hidden stage. Mothers were scrounging through handbags, searching for snacks for their kids. Friends were talking, and one particularly strange-looking family had brought the family dog along for the show, and it sat contentedly on the youngest child’s lap. I stifled a giggle.

“And now,” boomed the voice of the announcer, “I present to you, Hidden Impact!”

This was it. I turned to glance at my friends, and they nodded at me, giving me a confident smile. Bridget sat at her place, behind the drums. Tonight, her t-shirt read, “He’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar...” I didn’t mention to her that she didn’t actually play guitar, because Bri seemed proud of her new shirt. Amber was seated at the keyboard, Jacie held her silver bass-guitar in her hand, and Zoe and I were holding our electric guitar’s in the rocker stance; mine was purple, and hers pink.

That’s when the curtains began to part. The more they drew apart, the quicker my heart beat. I stood there, my pink highlighted hair, holding my guitar, microphone in front of me, and all I could think was, What on earth is the first line, and what song am I supposed to be playing?

It’s a good thing there was a strap attaching me to the guitar, because I’m sure I would have dropped it. I closed my eyes, and took three deep breaths. This resulted in a fit of coughing. You know how when you’re having communion at church, and as you’re drinking, you suddenly end up in a coughing fit, and can’t stop – even as they’re praying, and you just wish you could stop, but it’s impossible? Yeah, well, that’s exactly how it went.

I could feel the eyes of my friends on me from behind; and, what’s worse, I could see the eyes of the audience on me, as I stood there, coughing. I heard Zoe strike a chord, and Bridget started hitting the drums in the rhythm she’d practiced so many times. The sound of the piano came through loud and clear, and suddenly, my coughing subsided and I was playing the introduction of our opening song.

Shine in My heart
Everyone has a dream,
Something to accomplish
But you can’t do it
When you’re all alone


Anything is possible,
Dreams do come true
But it’s not all fun and love
You have to give it what you got
That’s just the reality
Of the dream

When we finished that night, remembering all the hard work we’d gone through -- the conflict, the fights. The writing and the practicing, learning to act as a team.

Through it all, we had a dream. And the reality of the dream was far better than I could have ever hoped for.