Page 104 of The Spotlight Effect

“I am excited,” I say, I know my tone contradicts what I just said.

“That tone says otherwise,” Astrid says and I can feel the roll in her eyes.

“I’m excited. Just. I don’t know.” I sigh. Mom insisted we have breakfast and then go out. So we all are sitting at the island, and Mom has plates of pancakes and bacon in front of us, along with fruit.

“Okay then, eat up girls, and then we will go looking,” Mom says. Today, Faith’s mom has work so she’s going shopping with us.

Thankfully, I’m able to eat in peace and no one asks me any questions and of course I eat with orange juice because it’s the best.

After breakfast, we all pile into the car and go around. Mom has picked three dress shops for the day and then we’re supposed to be going out for pizza, and I haven’t found anything I like at the first two stores.

Everyone keeps saying there’s still one more store and keeps my hopes up but I’m losing hope. I don’t think I'm going to find a dress today. We walk up to the shop, and Mom holds the door for everyone. Walking in, I spot a purple I like. It looks like the most perfect dress. It’s purple, floor length and it has leaf and vine embroidery all over it and a corset that probably leads into a corset back with spaghetti straps that are the same vines as on the dress.

It’s perfect.

As I continueto get ready, I check my phone and see Emerson has texted me and I look to see what it’s about.

Emerson

Golden star would love to talk to you about releasing an EP when you can get back to me.

Me

I’m Free Tomorrow

I didn’t needto process what she said. I know only one song blew up, and it’s a revenge song about how a rockstar broke my heart after only knowing for a little over two weeks, but it’s getting me an EP, so I am definitely not mad about it. I don’t say anything about it because I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up about anything, so I just continue to get ready and mentally try to prepare for tomorrow.

I twirl around in my purple dress one more time in front of the mirror. It’s just perfect and I can’t believe how beautiful it is. It actually looks good on me. “You look gorgeous,” I hear Aaliyah’s voice say. I turn to see her leaning against my doorframe in her sparkly pink dress. She picked a dress that also has a train on the back. Aaliyah’s hair is up in a ponytail style with curls, and two front parts are braided and pulled back.

“Thank you.” I smile slightly.

“By the way, I wanna show you something,” Aaliyah tells me, and I grab my small purse and follow her out of my room. We make our way down the hall and Lia opens the front door. There’s no way she wants to get in the limo this early. I also don’t know why she pushed so hard for a stupid limo. But at least I can sit in the corner on the way

Walking up farther in the line, we give our tickets to the people at the event table and continue around the hall to the gym, lining the hallway are balloon towers, big light-up stars, and a big banner that sayscities at night.The theme this yearare different popular cities but them at night, which changed because it was different earlier. Beside the door is a door-length Eiffel Tower on one side, and on the side is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The doors to the gym have silver screamers covering the door and we can see strobe lights inside. Lia pulls back the silver and we walk inside, coming into contact with tons of teens dancing, shifting blue lights, and I can see the dance floor that lights up along with all the food booths and the countries. The France booth is full of desserts. This booth doesn’t actually have food items, but they do have chocolate croissants. As I continue to walk around the dance my phone vibrates, and I look at my phone to see Charlie texted me.

Charlie

SURPRISE

I look up confused,noticing the room is silent. “Alexia Kirby, can you come to the front please?” his voice says into the microphone. Grayson, he's here. What the hell. Everyone starts to stop and turn to me, making a path for me as I see them come out on stage. I see Kenan, Emerson, and Grayson all set up on stage. What the actual hell?

His singing fills the gym as I slowly walk closer to the front. He meets me halfway on the floor and even though he’s here singing the song he wrote for me to my face I don’t know what to do. I don’t know about forgiving him. “This is cute,” Faith says, coming up next to me.

“Is it?” I say as Grayson comes over to me.

“I’m really sorry about what happened. I’d like to make it up to you, if you can forgive me,” Grayson says.

“You know, you’re standing here apologizing and I don’t even know what to say or call this,” I reply.

“You can call me yours,” Grayson says.

“Not the time for flattery.” I roll my eyes.

“Just go on one date with me and try and forgive me?” he asks. The crowd of people around is slightly making me nervous, but is he actually serious? Is he just going to break my heart again? I look around seeing everyone waiting on me to answer and Charlie recording.

What is this? Some kind of movie? “Sure, I’ll go on a date with you.” Everyone around us cheers and he picks me up and twirls me around.

“You still have a lot of making up to do,” I say as he puts me down. “Starting with going to my all-star ring ceremony.”

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