2

He grabbed the mic warmly from the man I assumed was in charge and smiled briefly just as the instrumentalists warmed up.. I could clearly see his perfect set of dentition mainly because I was close to the stage and also because of the stage lighting that shone directly on him. That was the only perfect setting in the stage, the podium was tacky, giving the 'let them eat cake' vibes and the curtains were worst, it was obvious it was a last minute preparation. One part of the curtain was plain red and the other a floral design.

Once warmed up, Liam opened his mouth and words flew musically out of it, he sang John legend's 'ALL OF ME'

After the first verse and chorus, another voice sang the second verse...it was a girl, it was Emma and she joined him up stage.

The both of them sang together, their voices blending harmoniously well. When they stopped, everyone cheered excitedly.

Then the competition kicked off. I had my fill of laughter listening to all genres of music ranging from classical to blues.

Time sped on and I soon felt the pangs of hunger in my belly, so I decided to walk around to find something, I wasn't with a phone or wrist watch so I couldn't tell what time it was. I caught sight of Emma talking with my brother and I walked towards them.

"Hey brother of mine" I called when I was a few steps away from them, faking a smile.

"Paris, you are still here?"He asked with an enormous grin on his face.

"Charlotte or Paris??" Emma asked, she was obviously confused "you know him?"

I twitched my nose in disgust, Emma now calls me Paris.?? How annoying.

"Yeah, he's my brother..., and my name is Charlotte not Paris" I told Emma who threw me a confused glance.

I heard Noah chuckling, probably finding it amusing that someone else was pissing me off "I think my dad and I are the only people allowed to call her Paris, just call her Charlotte" Noah said, answering Emma's unasked question.

Emma nodded "Nice name...it actually suits you, because you are as beautiful as Paris"

I rolled my eyes. The only reason I hated the name Paris was because I was a total opposite of beauty. I was what an average person would call Chubby, with long jet black hair that I always braided and to top it all, I was dark skinned like mom. I hated being dark skinned, I wished I could just be a bit like Noah who was lighter skinned and skinny like dad. If a God actually existed, he was totally being partial during creation.

"Yeah...thanks" I shrugged. I caught sight of Liam walking towards us and my heart did a flip flop. This was a new feeling for me. I had never liked anyone other than myself, Emma, Noah, dad and probably Claire.

"Hey Emma, Dad says it's time to return to the hotel" Liam called out

Emma turned swiftly "I'll be with you shortly" she yelled back in response and then turned to us "well I gotta go...again"

I stopped her....I needed clarification "is he your brother?" I asked

"Yeah....kind of weird right?" She asked and bounced off to meet Liam.

  Really weird....I mean they look totally different, they were both light skinned but everything else was different. Liam had silver hair while Emma had black which was longer than mine. And their faces were a lot different. Liam was so dreamy while Emma was just pretty faced.

"What are you looking at?" Noah asked and hit my head. I realized I had been staring at Liam and Emma's disappearing figure.

  "Don't hit my head"

"Let's return to the hotel before dad freaks out.... It's almost 12am" Noah said and pulled my arms walking away. I hate when he does that so I wriggled myself free and walked in front of him.

Everywhere was still rowdy because the competition was still on, we couldn't find a go kart so we had to walk to the hotel and by the time we arrived, it was almost 1am. Dad was wide awake waiting with Claire at the hotel's lobby. He was visibly angry and showed it when he saw us. Claire's face broke into a smile of relief and she rushed to hug me, she was wise enough not to hug Noah.

"Where have you been my Neveah?? Your dad and I were worried sick" Claire said as she gripped me tighter.

She usually called me Neveah which was actually a trick name. It was heaven spelt backward. I really didn't like her calling me that, I already have 'Paris' to deal with and now 'Neveah'. But Claire was quite persuasive.

"They was a musical concert at the beach, I didn't know it was that late" I said looking apologetically at dad. Come to think of it, he was the one who ordered me out of my hotel room, so shouldn't he be happy I finally enjoyed one night of my summer vacation?

Noah stood upright with no emotions on his face. That was one thing about him. He never apologizes and yet always finds a way to wriggle out of any situation.

"Can you hear yourself?" Dad shouted "you didn't know it was that late.??? You are always with a phone but the one time you should actually be with your phone, you weren't with it"

  See what I mean.? Dad was blaming me for returning late and for not being with a phone while he didn't say a word to Noah. Not fair...

"I'm sor..."

"To your room now, I'll deal with you in the morning" Dad shouted.

  Not fair...I raced to my hotel room trying to fight back tears from my glistening eyes.

I slammed my door shut immediately I got in, jumped on my bed and kicked my shoes off, the tears came wetting my pillow. I wiped them off and fetched my headphone. Put it on and listened to some music before I finally slept off.

The sun was already up before I woke up, and the reflection of it rays on my window pane blinded me for a while. I got up and removed the headphone which I had slept with. Yawning and stretching lazily as I peered at the time on a small table clock in my room. It was 11:54am

   My phone rang on the bed and I grabbed it, I hadn't plugged it in since yesterday and it was currently on 5percent with probably a dozen missed calls from dad.  Maya appeared on the caller's I.d.

  "Hey Maya" I said after swiping accept.

"Hey bluey, how are you doing?" She asked lively in her musical voice.

Maya and Ava were also dark skinned but a bit lighter than mine which was kind of frustrating being the only black devil in their midst.

"I'm just here...and you? I asked in reply.

"I'm all popped up"

Maya uses that phrase whenever she had something exciting to say. I held my phone tightly to my ear so as not to miss any tiny detail of Maya's story.

"Well it seems luck is finally on my side...Joebel asked me out on a date" she chirped excitedly.

Joebel happens to be one of Maya's crush since grade 7 and he had never spoken to her even when she wrote a thousand valentines to him on Val's day.

Maya had to take a step back, because her dad had caught her writing love letters and had beaten her to a pulp. Maya wasn't really the common atheist. She attended church just because she had to, her dad being a pastor and all. But deep down, she didn't really believed in the existence of a god. Her reasons where different from mine though but I never bothered to ask.

"That's exciting...I'm going to need every single detail when I return okay?"

"Of course, I gotta go now, Dad's taking Ava and I to church" Maya said and hung up.

I heard a knock on the door and went to open it, surprisingly standing before me was my annoying brother Noah with a huge grin plastered on his face. I didn't even know he knew my room.

  "I'm going to see Emma, wanna tag along?"