Story, An Untitled

Part XI of an unfinished story.

Copyright Julia Bydulia

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After school, Michelle was nervous. She got the feeling in her mouth she usually did when she got nervous. Like her tongue was itchy, like there were tidal waves of blood flowing through the veins of her head. She let all of it flow and tried to take deep breaths, concentrating on the tiles of the floor as she walked over them.

Her locker was on the opposite side of the school from the chorus room, so she had more than enough time to think.

There were people all around. A lot of them were in track shorts and tshirts, their sneakers squeaking on the floor as they all walked together and out of sync with one another. Michelle tried to walk as quietly as she could, just to set herself apart. She hugged the wall of the hallway and rushed toward the chorus room. There were some teachers walking, too. Only a couple of them caught Michelle's eye. She wanted to seem cool, instead of like a weird kid, walking alone in a Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie who might shoot up the school if she got the chance.

The cafeteria was quiet as she walked through it. There were some kids getting water bottles from the machines. They were all laughing together. They weren't wearing sweatpants or shorts or anything with a school logo on it, so Michelle betted they were there for either band practice or the rehearsal. One of them had beautiful blond hair that Michelle envied. She recognized the girl from her gym class and could have sworn her name was Elaine. Neither one of the others looked particularly familiar to Michelle, but, one of them was short with long brown hair.

Michelle walked past them and toward the chorus room. She was greeted by a group of kids waiting for the door to the room to be unlocked. There was Lee and Kayla both sitting along one side of the wall. A girl named April was sitting alone with just a tote bag nearly as big as her torso. Michelle recognized Tina and Summer, two girls who were obviously Hot Topiv junkies. Charlie and Gerrard were sitting together, much to Charlie's disdain, it seemed. Michelle saw Elena and jumped toward her, happy to see someone she could actually talk to.

"Door's locked?" Michelle said, rolling her eyes.

Elena nodded, kicking the bag that was sitting next to her on the floor and tucking her hair behind one ear.

Just then, a surprising face greeted them all by busting through the chorus room doors. "It's open!" The Face yelled as he kicked the door stop in place and ran back inside the room.

Michelle felt her heart kick into gear. She hadn't heard that Keith had come back to do the musical.

Keith had graduated two years ago, just after the year when he had performed as Mr. Bumble in Oliver! with Michelle. She knew of his existence, but, didn't really know him as well as other's might. When they had first met, she was in seventh grade and he was a senior. It was embarrassing, but, Michelle had to admit that he intimidated her. She ran into the room before anyone, intrigued by Keith's appearance at the rehearsal.

He was sitting in the back of the room, his feet resting on the back of the chair that she usually sat in. A streak of reddish-pink hair stuck out from the front of his hat as he reclined, staring at everyone as they filed in the room. Michelle wondered if he even remembered her.

Then, she wondered why her heart seemed to care so much if he did or didn't.