1 Balancing

"And you can't come to the party tonight… why?" Ally's best friend Mira's sickeningly sweet voice practically drips out as she sits lounging in a bland, blue classroom chair. Her eyes were glued to her phone as Mr. Norris drones on about the periodic table. She leisurely types away with one thumb and angles the phone just enough against the binding of her textbooks piled strategically on her desk so the teacher couldn't see what she's up to. She glances up from her "books" for just a moment to send a playful smile in the direction of Kyle Monson, a guy she spent half the summer drooling over when her and Ally volunteered at a local concert venue that his father owns. Kyle—being the beefy mega-flirt he is—usually found himself in a relationship with—or bed with—any girl who was unlucky enough to look in his direction. He winks at Mira in return which causes Ally to feel immediately sick to her stomach with a sudden anxiety. She leans forward in her own seat to look closer at her textbook, taking notes with her right hand as she turned pages with her left, trying desperately to ignore the two of them and their shameless, open flirting in Chem class. It was disturbing to witness.

"I don't want to go to Kyle's party, Mira. Besides, I'm busy." Ally responds in a whisper-shout, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, not wanting Mr. Norris to hear. Kyle's an insufferable jerk and I can't stand him. The girl thinks bitterly to herself, watching him try to get Mira's attention again by throwing a rolled-up ball of paper at her from behind, as she continues to attempt to write down everything that Mr. Norris was saying. It was becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate when she was surrounded by… well… her friends. Mira's friends who by extension… were kind-of-not-really her friends, too. The friends whose distractions continued to get her into trouble on a regular basis. It was one of the only things preventing her from really focusing on Virtuoso.

Ally was trying her best to get on the Honors list for this marking period. It was the last bit of ammo she needed for her application to Virtuoso—a summer music program in the city that was so prestigious that it was nearly impossible to get in. Ever since she found out about it from Mira's mother she'd been hustling to get admitted and working harder on her studies. Academics were an important key to getting into the program. She'd been trying to get better… improving herself all-around: musically and otherwise. Mira just didn't get Ally's desire to get into Virtuoso anymore. She couldn't understand. If it were up to her, Ally would go with her to a party every night just because she wanted any random person to hang with… and to hold her hair when she started throwing up from drinking one too many glasses of alcohol. "Isn't Amber around later, anyway? Why don't you just bring her?" Amber—Ally was convinced since last summer's streaking party—was Mira's back-up friend for all the things that she refused to do with Mira. A replacement for when she put her foot down and said no.

"Amber's busy and I'm down a wing-woman…!" The short-haired brunette complains back at her in a whisper-shout, giving her a look with widened eyes. "What could you possibly be busy with?" She asks, as though it's the strangest thing in the world that Ally could actually have plans. The girl holds back a frustrated scoff at Mira's question. It bothered her more than she'd ever admit to her out loud.

"Sorry, but I really am busy. I have to study for the Spanish exam tomorrow. Ms. Lopez apparently made it really hard this time. I have to get a good grade on it because it's worth twenty percent of our final grade and it's the class I need to be the most careful about if I want any chance to get into Virtuoso for the upcoming summer season." She already applied and failed to get into the program the year before because of her grades. While the admissions counselors told her she passed the criteria for performance, singing, and songwriting—they told her that her grades needed work if she were to ever get into the program.

At the mention of Virtuoso, Mira groaned and rolled her eyes. "I really don't get why you're trying to get into that stupid camp. You're not as good as me so obviously you're not going to make it in, either. I swear their admissions team must have something against my mother since she used to go there, but they wouldn't let me in."

Ally's friend really was a good singer, but she definitely was not modest… and Ally was pretty sure the reason Mira didn't get into Virtuoso was due to her personality. But… it always did make Ally's stomach queasy when her friend spoke to her like that. She had been putting her down with negative comments or disses a lot lately. They'd been friends since elementary school and were inseparable since they shared their first purple popsicle stick. Mira had been changing throughout the last couple of years—high school had the worst effect on her--and it has started to wear Ally down. When the girl said things about being better than her it made Ally feel like she should stop working on the things that Mira claimed she was better at. Music was her passion, though, so that was one thing she didn't want to stop. She hesitated to answer her friend at first which made Mira speak up again.

"Whatevs, Al. You don't need to go. With you and your moods you'll probably just screw up my chances with Kyle anyways... I think he's going to ask me out real soon. If you change your mind I'll be there, but make sure you steer clear if you see him with me."

The blonde bit her lip, holding back from ripping Mira a new one for being such a witch. The few times she's done that they'd gotten into huge fights and wouldn't speak for weeks until Ally gave in and apologized to Mira to try to salvage what friendship they had. She was getting tired of holding back—they were in their Junior year of High School, after all, time and pressure from their parents on where or if to go to college was bound to change things eventually. But she didn't want to lose her… they had too much history together. It was hard to imagine a life without Mira in it.

"I'll… make an appearance, I guess." Ally agrees, sensing Mira's irritation with her. If she didn't go for at least a little while, they'd definitely have a new problem.

The final bell rings as they end their conversation and Ally hurriedly puts her textbooks away into her backpack as Mira gets poor Tommy Hadrick to gather all of hers up. She'd been praying on the poor boy since the beginning of the school year. Just like she had been praying on everyone else.