[Looking beyond Director Wallace’s eccentrics for a second, what she said isn’t wrong. Flexibility is certainly a good trait for any dancer to have.]

One of the three male judges said, the man letting out a dry laugh as he, nevertheless, nodded in agreement to Director Wallace’s words, agreeing with her sentiments.

[However, it is still just one factor to dance, and is hardly a good indicator of having talent in dancing.]

Another added, clearly more sceptical than the other judge.

[That’s fair too.]

Director Wallace didn’t disagree at all, though the smile didn’t disappear from her face.

[Alright, we really need to be getting on with the audition now.]

Mrs. James cut in, tapping her fingers on the table to gather everyone’s attention before continuing:

[Miss Weiss, it’s time to get to the singing portion of this audition.]

Sara nodded, signalling for her while sighing uneasily inside. There was no delaying this any longer, and opting out was no longer an option, Sara couldn't allow herself to do that now.

[So that we have a clean recording of your voice, there will be no music playing in the background. You can sing a song of your choice, but preferably make it one that is somewhat well known. Having knowledge of how the song is usually sung can help in our evaluation.]

Mrs. James explained patiently before saying with a amiable, professional smile: 

[You can begin whenever you’re ready, Miss Weiss.]

[Oh, okay. W…]

Sara stumbled as she immediately found herself tongue-tied, her cheeks burning red as she struggled to even think of a song to sing, let alone begin singing it.

Seeing Sara stumbling before her, Director Wallace couldn’t stand to watch any longer and finally moved to help, advising in a soft-spoken manner:

[Don’t overthink things. Take a deep breath and begin at your own pace. If you’re having trouble sorting your thoughts on what to sing, you could always sing that song you were singing in the bathroom. That was Revenge Driven’s song Clockwork, right?]

[Hmm. I-it's one of my favourites...]

[Hn, it's a favourite of mine as well. Then it's perfect then. You remember the lyrics, yeah?]

Sara hummed in affirmation,  her nerves finally started to ease thanks to the director's help. At this moment, even a little bit of direction was enough to placate Sara's nerves, freeing her mind of worry. Thereafter, it didn’t take long for Sara to heed the grey-eyed woman’s advice without hesitation, choosing to perform the song Clockwork by Revenge Driven.

This was a song from her childhood. After listening to the song so much, even a person with a terrible ability to memorize would learn the lyrics of a song after that length of time. And with the song being such a favourite of hers, of course Sara had confidence in her ability to sing the song... By herself at least.

'No, you've got to think positively Sara. Positive thoughts!'

Sara chastised herself, shaking her head furiously as if to wake herself up.

'Alright, first things first...'

Before beginning, Sara first began to let out a series of deep breaths to regulate her breathing and to ease her emotions, taking the Director’s words to heart; only after doing this for several seconds did Sara thankfully see their effects, her mind seemingly coming to a long-awaited calm.

Choosing to strike while the iron is hot, Sara just... Began singing. Sara was not willing to waste this moment; she knew if she waited too long her nerves would become too much and it would all be over, and so... She just sang.

This was something Sara had learned from her time as a gymnast, especially whenever she was apart of a performance. Without the experience she cultivated to this day, Sara had suffered several failures. Times where she had forgotten what to do. Times when she had made a mistake and couldn't recover. And a time where she hadn't even been able to begin...

It was through these experiences that had worked away at Sara's naturally introverted personality and fear of the stage, and that allowed her to act in this moment as well.

Shaky at first, Sara’s voice soon sounded throughout the audition room, her singing voice entering the ears of everyone clearly.

Mrs James and the other judges quickly understood what Director Wallace heard in this girl’s voice, their eyes palpitating a little in surprise as Sara's voice reverberated in their ears.

Despite having such a young, cute appearance, the voice that reached their ears was nothing alike to what one would have expected!

When one first heard Sara speak, one would probably-if even unconsciously-be a little taken aback by her low voice. It wasn’t to an outlandish degree, but it was noticeable, nonetheless.

Sara’s voice hadn’t always been like this actually but had been another consequence of the accident that ended her gymnastics career. Not only had her arm suffered damage then, but also her throat, and by extension her vocal cords.

Thankfully, Sara’s throat had healed even better than her arm, with only this change in her voice being the noticeable aftermath of the incident.

It was this reason that Sara’s voice was naturally at a lower octave than the usual girl her age. But if it were just that her singing voice was a little lower than usual, the judges reactions wouldn’t be as exaggerated as they were.

Instead. the reason the judges were so taken aback at this moment was that Sara's singing voice was even lower than they had expected from her voice, and it was clear to the judges immediately that the girl wasn’t forcing her voice to reach this range but that she was actually singing in this tone naturally.

Listening to her voice and then looking at the girl again, Mrs James couldn’t help but find the contrast a bewildering if not amazing sight, causing her to let out a sigh of awe.

A rather essential skill for any idol-or celeb for that matter-to have was the ability to grab the audience’s attention, and the surprising contrast between Sara’s little frame and cute features to her mature, low voice definitely fit this requirement.

But beyond those superficial elements, Sara’s voice was also just generally nice to listen to and despite being so naturally low and even holding a deep huskiness to it, still held a distinct feminine quality to it; only, instead of the bubbly voice of a teenager, Sara’s voice contained the deep texture of an older woman.

Pondering further, Mrs. James guessed that if she gathered Sara and a bunch of low ranged female singers and had them all sing at the same time; she would still be able to pick her voice out from everyone else’s.

Sara’s voice had this type of distinct unique quality to it, as well.

And in a few years and with the right training, one could see Sara’s singing voice taking in several possible directions; from a threatening and powerful sound, to sexy and smooth, among many other possibilities.

Potential, this was the word that flashed in Mrs James’ and the other's minds at this moment.

‘Hahaha! This is the voice my girl group needs!’

Director Wallace laughed victoriously in her head, a buzz of excitement brewing inside her as she continued to listen to the swaying voice entering her ears.

‘Her voice definitely needs touched up, there are times where you can hear the struggle in her voice for example, which is definitely a problem; but with enough vocal training, this girl definitely has some great potential!’

Mrs James and the other judges were also similarly impressed, and they finally too understood why Director Wallace was so smitten by this random girl.

While Sara’s voice may not be the greatest singing voice on its own—at least to a general audience who were used to female singers singing in a higher range—there were still plenty of people who preferred a voice like this that went against the norm and could still sound beautiful on its own.

There were also several possibilities with a voice like this when put into a group setting; for example, a beautiful contrast could be made when singing in harmony with another member or as another example, in creating catchy, unique hooks.

‘It is definitely true that we have not had a candidate so far that sounded like this, or at least to such a degree… But there is still the problem in her complete lack of training…’

Mrs James bit the inside of her mouth as she thought in a worried manner as all the while, the sound of Sara’s voice continued to reverberate around the room.

 ‘…Her lack of training could really be a problem… Considering that the company actually plans to debut the group rather soon. The only reason we’re even doing audition’s this late in the process in the first place is because Director Wallace felt there was something missing in the current roaster of the group...’

Meanwhile, having obviously heard this song before, Director Wallace narrowed her eyes in focus at this moment. Sara was reaching the songs final chorus.

‘This is the part where the song’s vocalist really goes off. Being a song sung entirely by a man, the song had rather matched well with Sara’s lower range up to this point; but as things reached higher heights in the final chorus, the original vocalist of the song would come to sing in a much higher and more powerful voice to finish the song in a strong, climatic fashion…’

Director Wallace stopped thinking when she got to this point; instead choosing to pay closer attention as Sara finally started to sing the final chorus…

And Director Wallace couldn’t hold back the grin from her face as Sara’s voice took a vast tonal shift. Her voice actually managing to reach those higher notes. While not perfect by any means—and rough like most of her singing—Director Wallace was perfectly satisfied with the result, nonetheless.

Then finally, the song came to its natural conclusion...

Sara, whose eyes had closed in her deep concentration let her lungs fill up with some much-needed oxygen before she opened her eyes shyly to the sight of several pairs of eyes looking straight at her, all with varying emotions lying beneath.

From what she could tell, most seemed to be in pleasant surprise, and that filled Sara up with relief. That feeling of relief surprised Sara for a long moment before she waved it off.

She was just glad to have not made a fool of herself…