Paving My Way To Stardom

The day of the audition, Ara prepared herself and gets a bit nervous for she's not really a big fan of the limelight. She's been letting out consecutive deep breaths, shrugging off negative thoughts away and walks back and forth in the living room. Diego looks at her come and go.

"Ara just sit down will you?"

"Diego I can't help it, I'm getting nervous. The more I wait the more I'm freaking out."

"You'll be fine." Their interrupted by Li and Tyler coming down the stairs with some stuff in their hands. Tyler caresses her cheek and gives her a warm and loving kiss on her forehead.

"Diego's right, you'll be fine. We're all here to support you." Tyler swipes away her hair to the side and puts on the necklace he bought. Ara didnte know that he installed a tracking device on it. Li handed her a pair of earings which will be their source of communication.

"Ara, these earings are made especially for this mission. This will be our way to communicate with each other. Make sure not to keep it cool, also this smartwatch will be our eyes. It has 360 vision so that we can keep an eye on you and the people around you. All will be linked to Slacovich's desktop in his secret room back at his office. It will also transmit on my laptop here at home." Li explained.

"Is everyone set to leave?" Slacovich and Sofie walks down the stairs. Sofie handed Ara the forms she needs to fill-up."

"Ara, use your real surname. I've heard that one of the judges for this occasion was an old friend. I managed to get through him and discussed about my prepositions on your audition. You don't have to worry, he doesn't work there but just a guest judge. He's a famous fashion designer in UK." Sofie puts a lipstick on Ara's lips.

"How did you manage to get in touch with him?" Slacovich raises his eyebrow. He doesn't know that Sofie already made a move.

"Well Mr. President.." she fixed his tie. "I've done some research of my own, every year they invite famous celebrities, models or fashion designer as guest judge for their auditions. So I figured why not ask someone for that position which also meets the entertainment company's qualification. He just released his new line, so being a judge will also help him introduce his new designs. It's a win-win situation."

"Did you tell him who you are?"

"Of course, and one more thing. Ahmmm" Sofie looks hesitant.

"What is it?"

"In order for me to go to the facility that time, I faked my death ith General Prius' help. But I never thought my parents were that smart and figured it out. They had my fake body tested, the DNA went negative of course. So they asked my friend about my whereabouts, he doesn't know what happened to me either."

"That's not a bad thing. We can expand our business in the UK." Slacovich fixed her hair and smiles.

"That's not an issue at all Sofie, I've even contacted my friend since the day we recovered our senses. I can't do all this stuff without outside help." Li joined their conversation.

"I really thought that we aren't allowed to keep in touch with our previous life's loved ones." Diego scratches his nape.

"It's not like that, we're just cautious. Now that we made a name for ourselves we can contact them. As for me, I need to pay a visit with an old friend. Sadly his name's listed on the target list." Slacovich's expression dimmed.

"We can tackle this over again after completing our mission for today. It will all connect to each other if we collect much more infos. For now, let's go to where we're needed." Ara smiles nervously.

They all left the mansion, Ara was given an apartment key and some money for her to spend. She needs to hide identity as a Demonfire and will start living alone in an apartment near the House of Flame Entertainment. Tyler drop her at the bus stop and bid his goodbye. Ara doesn't know anything about his plan yet. He pulls over a few meters away from Ara's position and leave when he saw Ara getting inside the bus. He won't be able to see Ara frequently but he'll make sure to pay a visit whenever it's safe for both of them.

Ara's now standing in front of the building owned by their enemy. From now on, she'll be dealing with everything on her own. She doesn't want to disappoint everyone. She enters the vicinity and asked the front desk where will the audition takes place. Hearing from the receptionist, the audition has already started. She rushed to the audition room as she heard a last call for everyone who wants to audition. If she can just use her vampire speed it would be so easy to get to places. The crew's about to close the door but she grab it and stopped it on time.

"Wa---it." Catching her breath she handed her form to the crew and looks around the entire room. "Good thing I made it."

"Good job Ara, passing the audition will be your next mission. No worries no one can hear me except you." Li's voice filled her head.

"Is this something like telepathy? You talk straight to my brains." Ara whispers while walking towards an empty seat.

"Something like that, but in your case you'll look like a crazy person talking to yourself if your not careful." Li's voice fades away. Before Ara could sit down, the crew member asked them to form three straight lines. The room was pretty big, it's like a dance studio that accommodates 120 people at the same time with extra spaces. The judges went inside and sits on their respective chairs. There are four judges, she looks for a way to give her watch some space to capture the faces of the judges.

"Everyone our judges for today starting from your left, Director Horton, Talent Manager Daniels, President Hellgazer and our guest judge a famous fashion designer in UK Mr. Orico. Now your first task will be making a short performance. Out of three groups of 40 people only one group will pass. We'll give you an hour to rehearse on your group's performance." Everyone murmurs and complains on how short the time is considering there are 40 people each group. Ara takes the initiative to start their planning of the kind of performance they will deliver. A few minutes of intense deliberation they all agreed on showcasing individual talents. Some are good at dancing while the others are singing, she joined the modeling part. She's skinny and not that tall but she knows she can handle it. The group performance is about to start, her group are second to perform. The first one was a total mess. They took the instructions literally and they all dance. Not even synchronize and others really can't dance at all.

Next it's her groups turn, an hour or practice wasn't really enough but they've come up with a good strategy. They kick off their performance with the first ten of them singing the first song, then they make way for the models catwalk as they continue to sing, after all the catwalks the next batch of singers enters and are followed by the dancers. They may not be totally in sync but their organized performance helps a lot. Next group performs and seems like they lost confidence after following Ara's group. Obviously her group passed the first task while the others were asked to leave immediately. From 120 they're cut off to only 40 people. The more shocking news for them was when the crew announced that there are only 15 people out of 40 who can participate in the real audition. All of them looked at each other.

"15 people will be pick basing on your individual performance. Then the real audition will begin. Step forward Stacy, Nathalie, Maria, Christine, Ana, Vivian, Ara---------" after hearing her name she sighed in relief. She can hear Li and Sofie's excitement. Both congratulated her for passing the second round. They're all give 30 minute break before the audition. She went to the restroom and make sure that everyone leaves before talking to Li and Sofie.

"Girls, what should I do next? I'm getting more nervous." She take deep breaths to calm herself.

"You can do this." Li assures her.

"But you need to be careful, I never thought Volton Hellgazer will be there as a judge." Sofie's tone changed.

"I will. I will just pretend not to know him I don't wanna blow up my cover." She then told the others she's going back to the audition room to observe. On her way back, she was too busy scrolling the photos she captured on her smatwatch the she bumped into someone by accident.

"Aweeee! My head!" She complains without even looking.

"You're the one who bumped into me, you should watch where you're going!" The guy stands still obviously waiting for her to apologize. She looks up this time and glares at him instead of saying sorry. He was annoyed but Ara's attitude. "Tch!" Ara hurried back and ignored the guy. His manager whispered to him and both head towards the audition room.

All participants are eagerly waiting for the next task that the judges will give them. President Hellgazer's chair was empty and the crew informed them that someone else will take his place as a judge for he had some urgent meeting that he needs to attend to. The new judge arrived and every girls in the room screamed in happiness. They're able to see the entertainment company's famous actor Timothy Bright. Ara left speechless not knowing why the girls would praise him like that. Timothy looks her way and she just rolls her eyes and ignored him. His annoyance turns into a sense of interest towards her.

"Ara, he's looking at you!" Stacy shakes her in excitement.

"Who's he?" She asked emotionless.

"Are you kidding me? He's Timothy Bright, the leading actor of the hit movie Escape the Night!" Stacy can't believe there's someone in their group that doesn't know him.

"Ahh!" She raises her tone pretending to feele excited. "I don't know him at all." The her tone drops down like she doesn't care at all. Timothy smirks thinking if Ara's doing it on purpose or she just don't know him at all. He will know the truth if she's pretending or not when the audition starts. If she doesn't know him then he'll make sure she'll remember him after the audition. As for Ara she knows she picked the wrong tree to bark on. The audition won't be as easy now that this man intends to make it tough for her.