Reaching into her coat pocket, Sara pulled out her phone and used her fingerprint to swiftly gain access. Perusing an e-book app, Sara chose a free book that caught her eye and began to read it to pass the time.

Sara wasn’t a heavy reader and preferred reading lighter stories, mainly in the fantasy genre, and there was always plenty of those, allowing Sara to easily pick a book with little worry. If she didn't like this one, she would just stop and find another easily.

In addition to her reading, Sara also plugged in a pair of earphones and listened to a playlist of her favourite music, mostly a combination of idol music and other popular music.

Sara liked to listen to many types of music, but this type of music was her go-to music to listen to most of the time. Especially music by idols as it always brought a feeling of nostalgia to Sara as she had been a big fan when she was younger. Before gymnastics, it had been the life of an idol that had attracted her young eyes.

'If things had played out differently in the past and I had never gotten so much into gymnastics, maybe it would have been me auditioning today instead.'

Sara mused.

Like this, soon enough, a whole hour had already passed before she got a sudden urge to make a visit to the lady’s room.

Awkwardly, however, she couldn’t find any directions on the nearby walls that pointed towards any sort of bathroom. So, being the naturally introverted person she is, Sara naturally tried to just hold back the needs of her body for now.

But that quickly became a non-option. So, Sara eventually worked up the courage to ask a passer-by employee the directions to the closest bathroom half a dozen minutes later.

Thankfully, the directions were easy enough and Sara held herself from sprinting into the bathroom immediately after locating it; instead,  managing to reach the toilet, seemingly just in time of her impending release.

When finished, Sara chose to spend an extra few minutes to stretch out her limbs which had come to ache from sitting in the same position for so long and took advantage of her relative privacy to let out a long, unseemly yawn. It had been a long school day; being one of the last days before the upcoming exams, there was a lot the teachers were trying to cram down their throats last minute.

In her ears meanwhile, a new song began to play on her playlist, and a smile lit up Sara’s features as she recognized the song instantly.

It was one of her favourites and she couldn’t help herself humming along to it. Already knowing the bathroom was empty, Sara grew a little brave and even began to sing a little, though she was conscious enough to not sing too loudly. 

It would be so unbearably embarrassing if someone outside the stall were to hear her singing away like some lunatic after all. But then, who could hold back too much when singing one of their favourite songs?

Finally, however, when the nerves became too much, Sara eventually lowered her voice to but a mumble as she finally started to head out of the bathroom stall.

Pulling open the stall door, Sara was just about to walk right out before quickly stopping dead in her tracks, her mouth opening to form an exaggerated ‘o’ shape as she stared in horror at the sight before her.

There before her was a woman. Not quite middle-aged, she was dressed in a formal suit and was wearing a pair of glasses that gave her an intellectual air. Her long black hair was perfectly straight, and her eyes were an intimidating shade of grey.

And she would have likely looked rather intimidating if her rose coloured lips weren’t stretched into the biggest, gummy smile as her grey eyes roamed the curious creature before her with deep interest.

[Ah-eh, ah…]

Sara stuttered, hardly able to function due to the embarrassment of the entire situation. The woman had definitely heard her singing!

Sara’s cheeks tinted a dark shade of red at the thought.

Only, Sara couldn’t understand why the woman was now just standing there right before her and gazing at her like an interesting item on display at the front of a store. Was she so determined to make her presence known, to make the situation for Sara as embarrassing as humanly possible that she had come to confront her about it?

[You have quite the unique voice, very interesting.]

The woman finally remarked after a while, her grey eyes wandering up and down Sara’s body in an evaluating manner before turning a stern eye towards Sara’s dark blue ones, her gaze causing a shiver of unease to pass through Sara.

[But what are you doing wasting your time here? Come on, or you’ll be late for the audition!]

Before Sara could even grasp what was happening, one of her arms was commandeered by the intellectual looking woman and she was being dragged out of the bathroom without another word!

[W-wait what? I-I haven’t even washed my hands ye-]

Sara cried out tragically as she tried in vain to free herself from the tight grip of her captor. But just like before with Briana, this woman was much stronger than her and thus she was dragged helplessly along the corridor as she wondered what it was about her that made people want to drag her around everywhere all the time?

Distracted by all this, it took several dozen seconds before the woman’s last words were finally processed in her muddled thoughts.

[Wait! Did you mention something about an audition?!]

[Of course, if we don’t hurry, you’re going to be late. I don’t know what you were thinking, going to the bathroom so last minute.]

The woman shook her head in a seemingly perplexed manner before looking back at Sara and asking further in confusion:

[And where is your ID card? You should place it on your front somewhere!]

[Eh, I don’t have-No I mean, I’m no-]

Sadly, Sara wasn’t given the luxury of finishing her explanation before she was being rushed into a room by the woman; the grey-eyed woman also seems to pay little attention to her protests as well, despite she being the one asking her a question in the first place…

Sara cursed internally at the situation and held back indignant tears as she helplessly followed along.

[Oh well, it won’t matter. I’ll vouch for you.]

The woman carelessly laughed the matter off, giving Sara a kind smile as if to ease her nerves. It would almost seem comforting if being auditioned was something Sara wanted to do in the first place; which she obviously did not!!

What was happening?! Was she really being forced into an audition against her will?!!