Just Not Sure - Chapter 1 - The Arrival

Erica sat on her living room in front of her front door, Waiting for the mail to arrive. She waiting to see if PPAS (Perfessional Performing Arts School) wanted her to audition. This is one thing she wanted more than anything. Finally the mail slid threw the slit. And as if it were planned the letter fell at her feet. "OMG, should i open it? what if its a no?" Erica comtemplated for about 10 minutes. Then called her best friends Lindsay and Trista. They came over to Erica’s house. "Well, open it!" Lindz shouted. She too was really excited as well as trista . "I cant! you do it!" Erica shoved the letter into lindsay. Lindsay rolled her brown eyes. "uh! fine!" Lindsay ripped opened the envelope and read the letter out loud:

"Dear Erica,

We have read your application to PPAS and have made a decision, You may audition to be in our school, attached are some information about it. Your auditon is to be held this saturday at 2:00pm since you live about 5 hours away from our school we will have a city bus pick you up at 6:30am, Bring anyone you wish.

Sincerley,
Sharon Berry
Administrator"

"WOOOOOOOO!!! GIRL UR IN!!" Trista shouted jumping up and down. "woah,woah calm down! its just an audition!" Erica tried to relax Trista. " you guys need to come with me, my mom is on a business trip and you know my dad is...well..dead." Erica’s dad died when she was about 12. She had been living with her mom in New Hartford, NY. Lindz and Trista lived just down the Street. They had been best friends since as long as they remembered. "DAMN! of course we’ll go!" Lindz and Trista said in Unison.

Saturday Morning, 6:20am-Audition Day

"Today Erica!! the bus is coming any minute!" Trista shouted. Trista and Lindsay were growing impatient. Erica had been taking forever to pick out an outfit for the audition. She decided on a low cut black dress that had diamonds on the spaghetti string straps. "Ok! im coming!!" Erica shouted back. The bus came promptly at 6:30am, the girls slept threw the ride, they were extremly tired because they didnt get a lot of sleep the night before, lindsay and trista had to hear erica go on and on about how nervous she was and erica was too nervous to sleep. "PPAS! ANYONE GETTING OFF GET OFF NOW!" The bus driver yelled. Erica awoke annoyed. "What?" she asked. Then she watched as the school grew smaller and smaller. "OMG!! LINDZ! TRISTA! QUICK!! GET UP!! WE MISSED OUR STOP! WAIT! SIR!! WE NEED TO GET OFF!" Erica was freaking out. The bus came to a quick stop and erica,lindsay and trisa thrusted back. They walked off the bus, first trista then lindsay then erica. BAM Erica tripped and fell face first into a puddle of mud. The bus drove off and splattered even more mud. Despite the fact that they felt bad they couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Erica pushed herself up. She was still kneeling in the mud and her head was down. "Hey! that looked like it hurt, are you ok?" That voice, it sounded familiar to Erica. She looked up. ‘OMG, its chris..chris from DS!!’ She thought. Erica, Lindsay and Trista were big fans of Dream Street, Erica liked Chris, preferably because they both lost their dad. "Um...I’m...uh...yea..I.." Erica couldnt say it! She couldnt speak. "Yea she’s ok" Lindsay replied for her. "Oh ok, I’m Chris Trousdale" Chris said, holding out a hand for Erica to grab. Shyly she took it. "Yea, i-we know. We love Dream Street" Erica said as she stood up. "Haha really? cool! SO i see your heading for PPAS, i go to that school, infact, i’m going there now to supervise the auditions, are you auditioning?" Chris asked. "Um..yea, i am" Erica replied. "Cool, hope to see you there, maybe after we coul-" Chris was cut off. "Hey chris!! Come on! we’re helping you and you not even there!" one out of the 2 boys said. "OMG, It’s Frankie!!" Trista was VERY excited. And yea, it was Frankie and Matt, they were helping out with supervising. "Ok! im coming! By the way guys, this is Erica, um..and her friends....uh..who are you guys?" "I’m Lindsay and the one freaking out over there is Trista." Lindsay said. Frankie laughed at the site of trista freaking out. "Nice to meet you girls." Frankie said. Chris and Matt nodded their heads. "Oh! by the way, Erica’s auditioning for PPAS, we’ll probably see her there." Chris stated. "Cool, see you guys later!" Matt shouted as they walked away. The girls just stood there, the fact that mud was overtaking erica didnt matter to her. "WOW, i cant believe he goes to that school, wow, omg, i might actually go to school with him!!" Erica was really excited, but she had to pull herself together, get cleaned up and go to audition. The girls walked into the school. The school was very big and there were a lot of stair cases. They had no clue where to go. "Um...lets ask someone." Was the only idea Erica could think of. The lady at the office said to report to the auditorium. When they got there the room was empty except 3 judges, the principal and a few parents. She checked in and was instructed to go sit and wait for her turn, Lindsay had to wait in a seperate room and Trista had to go watch behind glass. Erica was all alone now. She felt a tap on her shoulder. "Hey, long time no talk." Chris joked. "Haha yea." Erica’s heart was beating really fast. "Hey how about w-" Again, Chris was cut off. "Erica Esper" One of the judges called. "Um..looks like i’m up!" Erica said, trying to sound un nervous. "Good luck." Chris said as he winked at her. She got up on stage and her song began.

MEANWHILE......

"UGH! today would be nice!!" Lindsay didn’t come to just sit in a room all day. "Hey its you again" Lindsay turned around, it was matt. "Oh yea, hi, i’m waiting for Erica." "Cool, mind if i wait with you?" Matt asked. "Um, i guess not." Lindsay really didn’t mind. She was just frustrated. "So, do you like being in a band?" She decided to ask. "Yea, it’s cool, we all get along." Matt answered. "Cool, that must be fun." Lindsay tried to sound really enthusiastic. She really loved Dream Street and all but she was really tired. Before she knew it she was asleep. She felt a tap on her shoulder and awoke on matt’s lap. "OMG! I’m Sorry!!" Lindsay was really embarassed, she harldy knew matt, plus, how long had she been asleep on matt!? "Haha, its ok, i don’t mind but Erica’s done." Matt really didnt seem to mind at all. "Um so..i better go see how it went." Lindsay got up from the tiny red chair and walked towards the door. "Wait! I’ll....help....you find your way there." Matt said as he smiled at her. Lindsay was actually falling for matt, she didnt kno him personally, matter of fact, she barley knew him at all. But it didnt feel that way. Matt and Lindsay walked out the door.

Meanwhile, Trista was smiling so hard that her cheeks were beginning to hurt, Erica did an amazing job, atleast she thought that anyway. "WOO!! U GO GIRL!!" Trista screamed threw the glass. Erica couldnt hear her. it was obvious because Erica didnt look up, she just sat back down to wait to see if she would get a call back(AKA, see if they wanted to see her again). "HAha, looks like u think she did well." Frankie said as he walked towards Trista. ‘OMG, its him again....ok ur going to talk...ur going to talk..not stutter.....’ She thought. "heh yea, she DID do a good job." Trista said as she got up from the bench she was sitting on infront of the window. " So how long have you guys been friends?" Frankie asked. He seemed to like Trista so far, and he figured since Erica might be going to this school he would see a lot of Trista so he wanted to get to know her. "Wow, like 6 or 7 years, a long time." Trista replied. "Yea, same with me and Chris, I’ve known him forever." Frankie told her. "Cool, so do you think we could go see her in the room now?" Trista asked, looking back into the window. "Yea, we could see." Frankie wasnt really sure. "Hey are you guys goin to see Erica!?" Lindsay yelled from down the hall, matt was right behind her. "Hey guys! Yeah, Frankie isnt sure if we can get in but we’re gonna try." Trista started walking towards them, frankie walked next to her. They all walked to the audition room. "Hey, we were wondering if we could get in." Frankie explained to one of the supervisors. "No, I’m sorry, you’l have to wait till the audition process is over with, which is in about 5 mintues." The supervisor wasnt very friendly. "ugh...fine, we’ll have to wait then," Frankie said. 5 minutes seemed like 5 hours, finally they saw Erica come out. She had no expression on her face, she just looked at Trista and Lindsay and took a deep breath. "I GOT IN!! IM IN PPAS!!"Erica shouted. "OMG!! R U SERIOUS!!!????" Lindsay and Trista were beyond excited. "uh oh..." Lindsay calmed down. "That means..we’re not gonna see you for a long time,we live 5 hours away!!" Trista stopped jumping. "Nope! They said you could come every weekend!!, Plus, my mom said it would be ok! as long as they let her come down when she wants too, they called her on her trip!" Erica assured them. "oh ok...." Lindsay exclaimed. "THEN LETS CELEBRATE!! Do you guy want to come with us?" Ask lindsay as she turned to Matt and Frankie. "Um...we’d love to but we can’t, we have rehearsal..." Matt said sadly. "Wait!! Why dont u guys come with us?! I’m sure Claudia wont mind." Frankie suggested. "Go where?" Chris asked as he walked out of the auditioning room. "Hey, is it ok if Erica, Trista and Lindsay come to rehearsal with us?" Frankie asked Chris. "And why wouldnt it?" Chris said as he winked at the girls. Erica was too excited, this was too good to be true. They decided to go get pizza before rehearsal because it was 5:30 and rehearsal was at 6:00. After rehearsal the girls had to take a train back to New Hartford. Erica had to go back to get her stuff. The Principal said that she could stay at one of their dorms, she could bring anything she wanted except a stereo but headphones were allowed. Erica packed some clothes, a picture or her lindz and trista and pictures of her mom and family. In a black bag she put her makeup and jewlery. She brought her Mariah Carey cd’s, Dream Street’s CD, a Britney Spear CD and a Nelly one. The next day she had to go back, Monday was her first day.

SUnday Morning 7:30am.

The GoodBye

"Oh u cant go erica!!" Trista pleaded. " I know! what are we supposed to do with out you?!!" Lindsay added. Even though they could visit her every weekend with her mom it wouldnt be the same. "Guys! it wont be so bad, i’ll call you every day and i’ll see you on weekends!! Now i gotta go! the bus is here! I love you girls!!" and with that Erica got on the bus and waved good bye to Trista and Lindsay. Monday, First Day Of School Signals "Room 38, room 38, room 38" Erica said as she walked threw the halls of PPAS, the school was bigger than she thought. She was wearing black pants that had a silver chain stringed across the hips and a white 3/4 length shirt. Finally she came to room 38, she remembered that classes were mixed so even thought chris was in 11 and she was in 9 she could still be in his classes, she hoped that would happen. She walkined into the class room just as the bell rang. She tried to see if Chris was in the room, He WAS!! She was so excited, she handed the teacher a slip. "Settle down class, we have a new student, Her name is Erica Esper, Erica, why dont u tell ys alittle about urself. "Um..ok..hey I’m Erica, i came from New Hartford, NY, about 5 hours away from here." Erica really didnt know what to say or not. "Thats good Erica, My Name is Mrs. Laribee. Why dont you go sit right next to Christopher, Chris, raise your hand so she knows who you are." Chris raised his hand and winked at Erica. ‘OMG im next to him!! ahh!! i could die!’ she thought. She walked over and sat down. "You probably already knew where i was." He joked. "haha yea." Erica replied. While the teacher taught some students were talking to Erica. The wrong type of students. "So..do you have a crush on Chris?" A girl named Heather asked. She was considered the most popular girl in school. She had shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes, she was really skinny and about 5’5. "Cause he’s mine." She added. "No, i barely know him, plus i thought he was single." Erica replied, she tried to be nice. "Oh, so you think i’m lying? Who do u think u are? Wait till lunch." "Heather, please pay attention." The teacher protested. Heather shot Erica a pissed off look. Lunch was 6th period, you could either stay there or go out to eat. Erica really didnt know anybody so she diecided to just go out and walk around. On her way out she was chris and Heather kissing. ‘OMG, maybe it is true.....are they really going out?’ She thought, tears started build up. Chris turned head from kissing and saw Erica walking away. He stopped Kissing Heather. "Hang on, i’ll be right back." he told her. "Hey! Erica! Wait up!" He shouted, running after her. "I thought u said you were single?" Erica semi-shouted. "I am, i just like her, we were just kissing." Chris tried to explain. "Just kissing?" Erica exclaimed. "Why does it bother you so much?" Chris asked, confused. Erica stopped walking. Why did it bother her? She did like chris alot but just always wanted to be friends, not use him for money or anything. She lost her dad too and always thought about how cool it would be to have a friend like Chris, she barely knew him....so why was that bothering her? "I...I dont know, just..let me go to lunch," and she walked out the building, leaving Chris standing there. Maybe going to this school wouldnt be as wonderful as she thought.