Talented Me! 36

"See? You did great," Sandra said as she nudged Avina with her elbow.

Avina smiled and returned the nudge. "No, we did great."

The host finally snapped out of his daze and approached us. "Wow! Just wow!"

With one hand holding a mic, he struggled to clap, but he managed a few. His eyes sparkled looking at the both of us looking forward to what we have to say.

"I just have one question. Why did Wilona choose to hum and Sandra sing?"

Sandra lowered her head to speak into the microphone. "Of course, it's because I wanted to steal the spotlight."

The host did not expect that answer, but looking at her mischievous smile, laughed. "You're already stealing everyone's spotlight with your brilliance!"

Sandra moved her hands to her mouth as she covered her laugh. "Okay, okay. Because of your kind words, I'll speak honestly. It's because Wilona was too shy to sing, so I told her it was fine for her to hum."

His eyes went round and he nodded expressing his understanding. "Ohh, I see, I see. So, Sandra saved the day again."

He moved closer to us allowing the cameras to perfectly center the 3 of us. "But, I must say, that was a wonderful performance you placed there. The singing, humming, keyboard, and triangle! I never knew the Queen of Modeling had another talent!"

"Haha, you flatter me."

"But, sad to say, that is the last performance of the day," he shook his head and sighed. He moved away from the two allowing them to step down and have the cameras focus on him. "Well, unless you want me to sing."

And with no warning, he started to sing. But as a gag, it had no skills nor beauty and was for pure laughter. The audience laughed before giving him applause.

"Thank you, thank you," he said as he bowed one after another at the audience. "The voting starts now! Everyone open your phones and go to the website to vote for your favorite team!"

The screen changed again with 3 different columns. Slowly, they began to change height. One second, one column took the lead, but soon in next second, another column rose far ahead of it. It happened many times before the votes started to slow down.

The slow votes changed only a miniscule fraction of the height, but this was the deciding factor of it all. Soon, 2 towers were at the same height - neck in neck. Time was ticking and the last 5 seconds beeped. Finally, a last vote was cast, and the tie was broken.

"And our winner is Will and Angel!"

The roof lit up and colorful confetti poured down. The audience stood up from their seats and cheered giving a loud applause to the both of them. Will and Angel stood up from their seats and headed up to the stage; Angel was particularly excited. Guiding them to the middle, the host gestured to the cameras to focus on them while gesturing another hand for the rest of the contestants to also go up.

Sandra held Wilona's hands and led her to the stage. Wilona followed her as a duckling would follow their mother. Each step dirtied the colors under her shoes making them muddy and dull.

'I guess we didn't win,' Avina sighed. She knew that they did really well -it wasn't as if it was unacceptable- but she wished that they had won.

'It was by 1!' 5025 attempted its best to comfort.

'Yes! 1! We were so close to winning!' That was why it was so frustrating! Internally, Avina was scratching her head furiously in frustration. Externally, she was stopping on the stupid, colorful, confetti under her little shoes. Argh!

5025 did not know what else to say. All its training never prepared itself to comfort a frustrated host…

'Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't fansystem at Will earlier,' Avina switched the topic.

'I kept myself from cheering to cheer on you, Host!' 5025 said. During the whole performance, it was cheering Avina, but muted itself to avoid distracting her. No one but it knew of its massive support!

Avina smiled at 5025's words. A soft feeling enveloped her heart and she no longer felt the confetti was so stupid anymore. The loss didn't feel so bad, but she still felt it was disappointing.

Sandra pulled Wilona all the way to the stage. Losing was always tough, but keeping your expression on T.V was even tougher. If she ever wanted to join the industry, then she can't let her first appearance fail.

"Well, I think our time for today is almost over. Congratulations again to Will and Angel! As well as all our other wonderful singers! Bye bye!" A lovely wave and a cheeky grin, and the show was over.

They had stood on the stage for the last second of the show before it ended. All the congratulations were already said in the few minutes it took them to walk up. With that, the shooting was officially over.

The audience were escorted off the set leaving the place quiet. Cleaners grabbed their brooms scrapping the confetti off the floor as others cleared the stage and props. Contestants were told to move to the side while people got busy.

"Good job on that win," Sandra walked over to Will and patted his shoulders. Wilona followed closely to her side while smiling politely.

Will laughed while scratching his head. Voice low and enchanting, "You guys did pretty good as well. I didn't expect you to have such an amazing voice, Sandra."

'You fansysteming now, 5025?' Avina teased 5025. Even she wanted to fangirl, but teasing 5025 was even more fun.

5025 resisted the urge barely reigning hold of its own excitement. The temptation! How dastardly! 'I'm not! I won't! 5025 has self control!'

Avina laughed at the cute system, but soon, Sandra called her to join the conversation.

"Instead of my singing, I think Wilona has a talent for humming," Sandra chuckled and gave a tap on Wilona's shoulders. She will take care of her as she promised to Mrs. May, and the best way was to create connections. Will was the highest and closest one at the moment other than Graham.

Wilona blushed, "My humming? No, no, it's definitely not much."

"You got a point, Sandra. Wilona did hum pretty sweetly up there," Will agree with Sandra. "Don't be too modest now, Wilona. You gotta realize your talents to make it big here."

How could Will not know what Sandra was trying to do? Connections made up the industry, and everyone, even at the low ranks, knew how important it was. If Sandra was willing to go out of her way to pave the road for Wilona, then Will wouldn't mind giving a few friendly tips.

Wilona thanked Will for his words and the conversation switched several times. Every few minutes, Sandra would push Wilona into it and Will would leave a few advising words. Wilona would thank them again and added a few comments here and there. It was a light talk with nothing much to say, but it was a perfect start for Wilona to have a taste what a conversation should be like.

"Will's a good guy and if you ever need help, you can go to him. I know him like a good friend," Sandra told Wilona. Will and the other contestants had long left the set, but the two of them stayed a little more to continue talking.

"And Angel, I think she's a pretty good girl too," Sandra continued. "At least she's a good example of how to act in the field. Be active in your gains but know when to retreat."

Sandra's manager walked over to us and tapped the shoulder of Sandra. She looked at Avina before confirming it was okay to say it in front of her.

"You have a photo shoot in an hour. Just wanted to remind you that it's almost time to leave," she said. Her hands held a clipboard scribbled with ineligible writing.

Avina peeked at it before realizing she couldn't read a single word. She returned her straying eyes before the manager got a whiff of her snooping. It wasn't because of a bad reason, but an unexplainable one. Who believes another when they say they were just curious? Especially when the other person is someone as big as Sandra, the manager would naturally be suspicious.

"Okay, I got it," Sandra nodded. "Sorry, Wilona. I got to go. I hope you be safe walking or riding or however you're getting home."

Sandra hugged Wilona before walking away. Wilona went to the changing room and returned to her school girl self. Looking at the girl in the mirror, it was as if Cinderella returned to the girl bullied at the house. She looked ordinary except for that remarkable twinkle in her eyes.

Avina did not spot a shadow of Graham, but she knew he was busy gathering evidence in her steed. Making sure Adi was taken care of was important in making sure the mission went well. She was already lucky Adi didn't plant something or someone in the crew to sabotage her performance.

'Let's head home, 5025." Avina packed the last things into her bag and walked out the door. The big building stood behind her towering over her small body, but Avina knew that one day, that building wouldn't feel so big.

The green walking man was replaced with a red X as she stepped at the border of the pavement. Crowds of people walked behind her as well as across her pushing her into an insignificant position. No one paid attention to anyone focusing solely on the path they were taking.

Avina, bored, could only switch to look at different people admiring their outfits while live commenting on it. 'I like his accessories. Looks so goth.'

'But do you see his piercings!? That's edgy!' 5025 made Avina look at the guy just a few feet away from the accessories-guy.

'But look at her-' Avina motioned to the girl who stood next to the grandma, but her attention was captured by something else.

The crowd pushing and shoving behind her had grown bigger. The movements were rougher, and luckily, Avina could hold her ground against the currents. However, that was because she was trained to keep her balance and weight on her heels. Others were not so fortunate.

At a big shove, a young girl was pushed onto the street. The cars, speeding by, did not notice the almost instantaneous accident unaware of what was about to happen. Her heart stopped looking at the scene about to happen in front of her.

"Stop-!"