?Pretty’s On The Inside?
[The World thinks She’s ugly but He sees her Beauty?]
By; Authoress Kamara
Episode 31
?Paris Myers?
Akira rolled her eyes. “And you weren’t listening to her speak as usual. I don’t even know why you are here on the judges table with us”.
“You never raised your head at the other contestants”. Scarlett spoke up. “Why are you staring at her now?”.
“Nothing. Just nothing”. Jayden shook his head relaxing on his seat. “Okay, Paris. I need to listen to you sing to see if its as good as what he said”.
As good as who said?
“As good as who said?”. Reynolds voiced out my thoughts.
“Nothing. Lets hear her sing”.
“But you were__”.
“Men!!”. Scarlett interrupted them. “Please, lets hear the girl sing. You can bicker later”.
Akira glanced at me. “You can go on to sing, sweetheart. And please be loud with your vocals, so we can hear, okay ?”.
“Sure. Thank you”.
I was handed the microphone by the stage hand and I breathed in and out thinking of Rio said.
You can do this, Paris.
You’ve always wanted this. Don’t screw it up.
“You can start anytime now”. Jayden Roy said bringing me out of my thoughts.
I nod and began singing.
?I don’t look like her, She’s in the magazines, so much prettier than me.
?You don’t know it hurts, staring at my iPhone screen, watching others live their dreams.
?But mama, she said to me, one day, my love, you’ll see ….
?That Pretty’s On The Inside, see it in your own eyes, look a little closer in the mirror tonight.
?Pretty’s On The Inside but I can’t tell my own mind.
?Maybe if I look a little harder then I’ll find that Pretty’s On The Inside … Pretty’s On The Inside … Pretty’s On the Inside …
?I don’t like myself. But maybe its all in my head and I’m not the words I’ve said.
?These images, they sell, maybe none of it is real and I could love the way I look.
As I sang with all enthusiasm, my eyes were closed and I could see nothing except for me singing.
My voice echoed throughout the whole stage and then I suddenly realized how my voice was much more beautiful listening to it.
I finally ended the song and dropped the microphone back on the stand breathing out a sigh of relief as I faced the judges.
The four of them looked at me with a blank expression on their faces and for a moment, I doubted my performance.
As if on cue, they began applauding me with their claps while Jayden Roy simply smiled facing his phone again.
“Wow!”. Reynolds spoke up. “Will you marry me?”.
I step back surprised. “Huh?”.
“I’m just kidding”. He laughed and then his face turned serious. “But on a serious note, I would love to wake up every morning and hear your angelic voice”.
I smile shyly. “Thank you”.
“You are really good”. He continued. “And for the fact that you sang without using an instrument too amazes me. Like, you got all the tones correctly without any backup, you just got a YES from me, young lady”.
“Thank you”. I whispered feeling happy already.
Akira cleared her throat. “Okay, darling. I think you tried, I love your voice, I love the emotional intensity you put in it but … “.
Oh Jeez! There’s a but.
“But next time you sing, try to open your eyes and look at us, look at your audience that you are singing to”. Akira said. “I know its probably your first but you should know that”.
“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind”. I said in the most polite way.
She nodded smiling. “I’d love it if you do that, sweetheart. You have a YES from me”.
Yes!!!
“Now”. Scarlett began. “You amaze me but I wouldn’t say you are the first contestant to blow my mind because number five did that already”.
“Yeah”. Reynolds supported. “The girl with the blue eyes and blonde girl. Her voice is my favorite too, Tiffany Kings. Thats her name”.
I paused hearing them call her name.
Wait. It can’t be …
“So back to what I was saying”. Scarlett continued. “I love the originality of your music and the lyrics too. And Thank you for singing a different song that wasn’t either written by Xavier Marion, Jayden Roy, Violet Summers, Andrea …. “.
“Yeah”. Akira chuckled. “I was getting sick of those voices singing them. I only wish that Xavier was one of the judges today, it would have been funny to see his grumpy expression when those girls were singing his songs with their terrible voices”.
Jayden Roy chuckled. “He would give each and everyone of them a ‘No’. But except her, of course”.
I arched my eyebrows at his statement.
Why would he say except me?
“So Paris Myers, congratulations. You got a YES from me”. Scarlett said smiling at me.
Reynolds faced Jayden. “So Kid. You are gonna talk or what?”.
“Its obviously a YES from me”. Jayden said making me squeal out in joy.
Scarlett laughed. “Looks like you got four yes, Miss Myers. You have a sure chance of getting to the next level but you can wait at the auditorium to hear our final verdict”.
“Thank you”. I whispered feeling grateful that they had liked me without any sort of discrimination.
“But a quick question”. Jayden spoke up stopping me. “I need to clarify something, this song ‘Pretty’s On The Inside’, I need to know. Is it about me ?”.
“Thats a personal question”. Reynolds said and turned to me. “You can go ahead”.
I nodded and left the stage hurriedly going to the auditorium with excitement in my veins.
I stepped back in and eyes followed me as I went to my seat next to Logan.
She faced me. “Paris! You took time! How was it? The judges , are they nice or nah?”.
“They are nice”. I said recounting my time with them.
“Are you sure?”. She tilted her head. “They are nice?”.
“Yeah! They interacted with me as well”.
“Maybe thats because they liked you. They made that girl cry”. She said pointing at my back.
I look back and saw a red-head crying into her palms while two other girls comforted her.
“Scarlett stopped her from finishing her song, saying her voice was trash”. Logan said. “And Jayden Roy, he didn’t pay any attention to her at all”.
“Wow”.
“Yeah! Wow”. Logan sighed. “Oh Jeez! All this is making me feel nervous! I just hope I get picked!”.
*
*
*
?Xavier Marion?
“So tell me about your hot boyfriend”.
I groan. “Will you stop talking about that, Diamond”.
“Fine. Tell me why you dated him instead”.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in school or something?”.
She shrugged. “I can say the same for you as well. Are you not supposed to be in school?”.
“Dad made me come to the industry today and I had a meeting in the morning with some of the board managers about the competition holding today. And besides, I am a musician, school isn’t compulsory for me, I don’t need to attend classes all time”.
“Ooh”. She scoffed. “Then I’m a song writer too, I don’t need to attend classes all time”.
“Okay, fine. Song writer, go write songs, leave me alone”.
“Thats the thing”. She puffed out breath sitting in front of me. “I can’t seem to think of anything. Nothing is coming”.
“I’m not your manager, go complain that to Theresa”.
“Come on, Xavier, help me please. I have to write a song for Graham to present at the upcoming grammy awards”.
I sighed. “Whats your inspiration?”.
“I literally write about anything. But I want to write like you. I mean, all your songs are about heartbreak and relationships, they are always a hit in the billboard charts so I was thinking maybe I should just write like you”.
I furrowed my eyebrows. “Write like me?”.
“Yeah. Do you that all your hit songs that get to number one are those ones that are always about love, heartbreak, sadness, relationships, girls, and all those stuffs”.
Well she’s not wrong.
I write most of my lyrics about my present state.
Anyone can know my present mood just by listening to any of my songs.
I prefer to write about how she had broken my heart, how she had crushed me, how she had made me live a life of distress.
Writing about it has always helped me overcome the depression lurking inside of me.
But of course, no one knows the true meaning behind all of my song lyrics.
And I prefer to keep it that way.
“Xavier!”. Diamond yelled a little snapping her fingers in front of me.
I sighed jerking a little. “What?”.
“I was asking a question. How do you get your inspirations? How do you write those love songs?”.
“Its really not for you to know”. I muttered standing up.
“But Xavier, I just__”.
She was interrupted by a ‘ding’ sound from my phone. I dipped my hand in my pocket removing the phone as I glanced at it.
A message from J.R.
?She has a great voice. She’s in?
.
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