Damned to the Center Stage

(Part 2)

After leaving the school, Nikole and Jesse drove out to the nearest Café and got coffee. Well actually, only Nikole got a coffee. Jesse was convinced that too much caffeine would break down here tolerance of staying active with only minimal sleep and then when she slept in, something would go wrong that she should have been doing and then it would ruin her college application and then…

Nikole wasn’t really listening. She kept zoning out, first wondering who that Brett guy was and then wondering if she left the water on at home and then back to Brett.

“Nikole,” Jesse said, “are you even listening? I told you coffee is bad for you. It wears down on your memory and attention span and pretty soon your mind is like eighty years old and…”

“Hey Jess”

“Huh, what is it?”

“Do you have someone on your committee named Brett? About six foot, blonde hair, grey eyes.”

“Oh, you mean Brett Williams! No he’s not on the committee but he is pretty well known around the school. I’m surprised you don’t know who he is.” Nikole arched an eyebrow and looked pointedly at her friend. “Actually, it’s not that surprising,” Jesse sighed, and then went back to the topic of how bad coffee was for you.

On the way home, Jesse had a revelation. “Why do you want to know about him anyway?”

“No reason, just curios I guess,” Nikole said offhandedly.

“Oh no, this is the first time you have showed interest in a guy and I plan to pester you as much as possible until I know everything now tell.”

Nikole sighed. “I bumped into him while you were doing the committee director thing.”

The squeal that came from the driver’s seat made Nikole jump out of her skin a bit.

“So what did he say? What did you say?”

“He asked me about my music and I tried to give one worded answers,” Nikole said all huffy. She didn’t know what it was about him but he set her on edge.

“Why did he ask you about your music,” Jesse questioned.

“I was playing one of the guitars from the music department,” Nikole answered.

“Oh, you found those? I’m going to need you to tell me where you did because I need the stuff for the bands by this Friday and the person who delivered them said he just set them down and…”

Nikole sighed inwardly. She was glad that Jesse had been de-railed when she had been. She didn’t like the fact that Brett had heard her playing, even if it was only for a little. She never showed anyone her music. Only Jesse knew her full potential; her parents just heard some exercises and they were happy to continue paying for lessons. She relaxed back into the passenger seat of the car and fell into sort of a half awake/ half asleep daze.