‘How could this be possible?’- screeched Cyrus Devin, the school head cheerleader, lead talent and ruler of the halls of Seacoast High. She was also the unofficial queen as her father was a king of some unknown island apparently as his lineage had traced back to the first inhabitants. The place was gigantic, about the size of Texas. It was also really beautiful and had many beaches which were one of the reasons why Mr. Devin had named the school Seacoast. The other reason was that the school was right off the coast of five different beaches. But that’s not the point here. ‘How could she possibly be as good as this?’- screeched Cyrus right into the ears of her admirers. And those who just wanted to get a taste of her wealth and popularity. ‘Wow.’- said someone in the group absent-mindedly. Cyrus pointed at her and spat angrily- ‘You. Is it Jenna, or Jean or Jenny? Get out of here.’ ‘It’s Jamie.’- said the girl as she walked away. She was obviously just there to look. She didn’t seem to care what the mean girl said. ‘You know Cy, you have to chill out’- said Adriana, Cyrus’ exact lookalike. But that was all. Apart from mirror-image stunning looks, they were as different as a cat and mouse. Unlike Cyrus, Adriana kept quiet and was loved by everyone. She was pretty and smart but not as popular as her evil twin. They had the same tastes in dressing though which ended up as a bad thing as Cyrus manipulated her sister into taking her punishments for her. Soon though, the management realized this and was able to tell the difference as Adriana was quiet and polite whereas Cyrus was the exact opposite. ‘Chill out?’- screeched Cyrus in a very uncouth manner. ‘What is this? An episode of Who’s The Best Dramatist? Seriously Cy. Everybody loves the chick. I do too. She’s awesome. She’s got talent and if you’re gonna be such a wet rag, nobody’ll hang around you all day’-said Adriana shutting her sister up. Cyrus took her laptop and switched it off. She was determined to make that girl’s life miserable. ‘I know that look Cy. Leave the chick alone. You can’t be the only talent in this school forever.’- said Adriana gathering her books and leaving the table, walking back into the school. ‘Oh, but you said you know me Adri. You can’t possibly think I’ll just ‘leave’ her alone to steal my spotlight? She’s not a princess, is she?’- mumbled Cyrus grabbing her Gucci bag and walking into the school with an evil smile plastered on her face.







‘Why on earth did I do this?’-said Viv, talking to no one in particular. ‘Come on Viv, you’re acting like this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you.’- said Chase. ‘That song was always my favorite’- he continued. ‘Chase, I’ve been hearing that sentence since the beginning of the day. Please, never ever, repeat it, ever again’- she begged, almost half-heartedly, surprisingly. Chase chuckled to himself just as he finished the last of his Coke. He belched in a very Chase-like way and patted his stomach which was-amazingly- very muscular and never seemed to gain any fat. In fact, the whole of Chase was muscular. Girls swooned at the sight of him but Chase wasn’t a girlfriend man. Or so he told Viv. Seeing Viv’s annoyed face, he stopped fooling around and said, ‘Calm down Viv. Everybody loved it. I always told you they would’ ‘Okay fine. I’ll ‘chill out’ and calm down. I guess you may be right.’- she replied letting all her shock fall away. ‘Aren’t I always right?’-replied Chase jokingly and she gave him a friendly punch.
‘Vivienne Renault. I challenge you to a sing-off’- said a loud, piercing voice through the speakers. ‘Who’s that?’- asked Chase, sitting up at the sound of his friend’s name. ‘I’ll give you a clue. Blonde hair, Arctic blue eyes and her codename’s The Queen of Mean.’- said Viv standing up to look. She sat back down with a frustrated sigh and said to Chase-‘So much for always being right’ He ignored her comment and said-‘You have to go you know. You can’t let her rub it in your face that you were too chicken.’ ‘Yes. I know’- said Viv annoyed. ‘What is it? You have the best voice in all of Seacoast history.’- said Chase reassuringly. Viv smiled at him weakly as she stood up. The whole cafeteria had started shouting her name as she walked forward. It was one thing to sing to a camera in the privacy of her bedroom but it was another to get up in front of 864 teenagers and sing. She walked over to the machine and was given a beat. Then she sighed as she walked onto the miniature stage and was handed a microphone. ‘What had she done?’-she asked herself.







‘A sing-off is very common at Seacoast High. They were requested by the students who have an hour’s break for lunch and usually have nothing to do during that hour after lunch is over. So we have instruments and microphones on a mini stage facing the whole cafeteria. We also have a state of the art karaoke machine with several beats to select from. The machine was quite expensive but never too expensive for Mr. Devin.’- said Tillie Dane, the school principal. A supervisor was there on a surprise inspection and so far, it had gone well. What Mrs. Dane didn’t know, was that Mr. Fisher was also the husband of a teacher at the school looking for talent. A talent scout. He hadn’t found any good talent in the past 3 years- the last one was a girl who could bend her joints quite easily but she overworked her spine and had to end her career- and was in danger of losing his job. His wife told him that he could find real talent at the sing-offs and so he used his job as a part-time school supervisor as a disguise and here he was, standing a few feet away from the stage which held possible future talent. And then he heard the voice.