1 Celebs Academy

My life has seen a lot of drama for the past year. I recently started going to Celebs Academy. It's a school specifically for the extremely talented and you must have some talent to attend the school. If people know that you attend Celebs Academy, you would be envied.

Today, I have managed to passed through the interview stage and I am finally a student of Celebs Academy. About to make my first entrance into the school halls. Everything looks surreal. No wonder it is known to be a school for the rich people. The place looks fancy, so elegant. I feel so happy to be called a student of such a well-known school.

My biggest dream is to oneday become a world famous singer and actress like Olivia Rodrigo. I have watched High School Musical: The Series and I really love her acting. Her song Drivers License has been on repeat since its release. I want to one day tour the world, be able to meet fans and just perform for people and be able to inspire someone out there and give someone a bit of hope to keep fighting for their dreams.

Hey, new girl am Rebecca, some girl I don't know run towards me. Hi Rebecca, I responded. She looked so bubbly and excited about something. 'Here, Iet me show you around', She volunteered. She is a real talkative. I mean, she can ask questions and not wait for me to answer. She was just talking about boys I don't know about and people I am unaware of . I couldn't even get chance to talk since she basically kept cutting-in when I try to say something.

After she showed me around, we went to the music room because I wanted to see what kind of equipments they have. They have so many instruments; guitars, harps, piano and organs, drum sets, trumpets, clarinets, saxophone and so many more. There were a lot of microphones and speakers, amplifiers and basically things you need to make music it looked so cool, it also looked like a recording studio . This is much more than I imagined. The room was so big. It was only Rebecca and I in the room at the moment. 'Maria, which course are you training on',Rebecca asked. 'How do you know my name, I have not mentioned my name yet', I asked . I saw it on the notebook you are holding. I looked down and realized that I had written my name big and boldly on the cover of the notebook in my hand which was showing quite clearly . Oh, I am doing acting and music course, what about you?, I asked, feeling a little bit embarrassed about what had just happened. I am doing fashion, I make my own clothes. I smiled, 'So you made the floral dress you are wearing? She nodded. I may need a costume designer one day when I need some outfits to perform at concerts or attend award shows like Grammys, MTV awards, Emmy award, Oscars and the many other huge events.

' Do you also do hair and makeup',I asked. 'No, but I am willing to learn it', she answered. Well you sing, don't you?', She asked. A little bit, I responded. I know she is going to ask me to sing and I am really not sure if I want to do that.

I went out of the room to the hallway to see a group of people gathered, listening to something. Out of curiosity, I went to listen to it too and Rebecca followed me. A girl with a straight brunette coloured hair, her face was loaded with makeup, her lips were coloured with bubblegum pink lipstick. She wore a pink top which was sparkling because of the glitters on it,your typical girly high school mean girl look. She wore a black pleated skirt with black high boots.

'Come watch my amazing performance this Tuesday in our school' auditorium. You don't want to miss this amazing opportunity to listen to the most beautiful voice ever', She said while handing out flyers. Of course, she had to overdo the pink on the flyers as well, classic.

She come towards me and I don't know why I feel like she is going to be extremely mean. 'Hey, I haven't seen you in this school before', She said. 'I am a new student here' , I responded. Well, come and watch my performance on Tuesday at the school's auditorium, I doubt you know where it is, she said trying to hand me the flyer. Okay, I responded and I took the flyer. 'As I saw she was gone, I crampled it and threw it in on the floor.'If you are thinking she is the Sharpay of this school then yes you thought right', Rebecca spilled exactly what I was thinking. I am not surprised, her vibe alone was kinda like a diva and I don't tolerate mean girls or bullies.

Then the bell rang and Rebecca and I split up to our various classes. I have voice acting class right now. I have watched a lot of voice-over videos on Instagram reels and some social media sites. I have watched so many animated movies with SpongeBob Square Pants being my favourite I always read articles about how people can use their voice to express emotions that they aren't really feeling. I am really fascinated by such creations. Today I am going to be introduced to this skill and probably get the chance to try.

As I got to the class, I saw a lot of people in the room. One of the people was the mean girl that we met in the hallway. I can't believe she is taking acting classes as well. Could my life get any worse?

As I approached an empty seat she sat down before I could even pull the chair. I wasn't in the mood to argue so I went for another empty seat. Soon, the teacher entered the class, she brought a megaphone to the class.

'Good morning class,'the teacher greeted.' Everyone responded. 'Today, we are going to learn how to express emotions using your voice. That is what a voice actor or actress must be able to do. With voice acting you have less tools than that of the on-screen acting where you can show action and movement but in voice acting you must send all that action, anger, sadness and more into your voice. The tone on which you say your lines is also important since how loud or low your voice can help in expressing different emotions',She explained.

I carefully listened to the teacher with rapt attention. I took notes of very important points. I also listened to other students who asked questions, gave suggestions and answered some questions. People were made to demonstrate read some script expressing such emotions.

After class, I went to my locker to put some books in there. This school is basically a maze and if you don't have your map, you may probably get lost. It is just so big and it's really hard to get around.

I was now looking for the next class. I finally found it and when I entered the class, people were busy chatting amongst themselves as I entered. As I closed the door behind me, everyone diverted their attention to me. People stared at me all the way till I went to my seat. I tried not to pay attention to their stares because I didn't want to feel uncomfortable on my first day.

'Hey, you must be new here,' a girl sitting to my right said. She had a really faint voice and it was hard to hear what she was saying. 'Yes I am new, today is my first day', I responded. I tried to be nicer this time because I felt bad for how I was so unfriendly to Rebecca. She was trying to be nice and I was behaving quite rude towards her but I am not going to be mean to people again.

'I am Gaby'she said. I smiled at her. The class had started soon after the teacher entered. Gaby is really nice, we talked and got along quite well.

Soon class was over and the bell had been rang for first break. I went to the music room. As I got to the door, I heard a deep voice coming from behind the door. The person was singing. I could also notice that the person was playing a guitar. He had a very magnificent voice. 'Who could he be?, I thought. I recognized the song he was singing, I have it on my phone . Oh, it's Lights On by Shawn Mendes. I sung along with the person.

'I wanna love you with the lights on, keep you up all night long, darling I wanna see every inch of you, I get lost in the way you move', I sung along and got lost in the beautiful melody of the guitar. I was pulled out of my trance once I heard the person say, 'Who is there?' I quickly tried to run away from behind the door but before I knew it, I felt a very strong arm grab me. I was completely scared of what was going to happen next. I could smell his strong cologne which filled my nostrils. I turned around and saw a really tall muscular boy standing behind me, looking at me like he wasn't disturbed about me eavesdropping. I quickly tried to apologize but I was interrupted with his deep voice. 'What are you sorry about?, you have a really beautiful voice,' I couldn't believe my ears. Am I hallucinating? Is this just an early April fools thing?

'You think I have a beautiful voice', I asked. I wasn't expecting to hear that at all. He stared into my eyes like he wanted to read my mind, like he wanted to know what my thoughts were at that exact moment. I bent my head low and stared at the ground and used my feet to draw shapes on the floor.

'You sound really good', he answered. 'You also listen to Shawn Mendes too, so that gives you extra points',he continued. We both laughed a bit and there was an awkward five seconds silence.

'I am David by the way', he said. 'I am Maria, nice meeting you', I responded . I raised my head to look at him because he was so much taller than me.

'Do you want to join me?, he asked. I accepted and we entered the music room. I felt alive at that moment, harmonizing with him. We sung Perfect by Ed Sheeran, Seniorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. I felt free, It felt so good to be able to bring out a part of me that I had been hiding from the world. A part of me that has been screaming to run free but had been bottled up in shyness, fright, discouragement and not giving this gift the opportunity to run free. I was able to follow the rhythm of his guitar and I felt whole. I felt so relieved at that point.

After our little sing along we talked a bit. 'What musicians are you currently listening to non-stop', he asked. 'I am listening to Ariana Grande, I mean her voice is so surreal, like can anybody sound that good, I am listening to her Sweetener album, recent Positions album and her Thank you, Next album has been saved unto my playlist on Spotify. I am also listening to Olivia Rodrigo's Sour album and her single Driver's License which has basically flooded the news and topped the billboard charts. It's basically amazing how such a young lady about my age could make it to such great heights. I always saw it to be scary to get to such heights at a young age, especially when hate and all that stuff get onto the road and tend to be discouraging',i said. I think I spilled more than I was supposed to.

'I can't promise you that the road to success is easy, I can't promise you that you will not face challenges and obstacles but what you do is to be determined, persevere and try to keep your head out of the water and you will get you there. People like Cardi B and Nicki Minaj are basically people who started with a rough past but pushed hard to reach their goals. Now they can brag of topping the charts of the rapping industry and are now one of the biggest personalities of the music industry. If they could get there, so can you',David said. These words really stuck with me the whole day. I thought about the many artists that I listened to growing up and I still listen to; Whitney Houston who was known as "The Voice" , Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Rihanna, Celine Dion, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Aaliyah and many others who have basically left a huge legacy on the music industry and can basically not be forgotten even after twenty years. My favorite actors and actresses; Dove Cameron, Sofía Carson, Vanessa Hudgens, Zendaya and the others that I have seen on-screen growing up. At that very moment I felt empowered. I felt like just being able to leave a legacy and just let someone who needs hope to also push through.

The day went by pretty fast and once again I was returning home. We have seen some major improvements in our lives. My dad's company was running into a lot of losses after a Youtuber decided to trash my dad's company. He lost a lot of investors and clients which almost collapsed the company. It was a really harsh time for us but you can basically tell that now we are now back to normal. Since I am now able to attend an expensive school but the one mistake that haunts my dreams is when I almost killed my twin sister.

When I got home, I saw a big picture of my twin sister Marie and I when we were children . I felt like my insides were going to burst. I felt like justjumping over a cliff. I felt my warm salty tears roll down my face. My parents have been upset with me ever since the incident. I don't know what to do to rectify the mistake.