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Black Swan always knew she could sing.
Or rather she was told she could.
She would rarely ever sing in front of others and occasionally sung in front of the mirror. It was the way her voice reflected off the walls, and the runs ran smoothly sounding in perfect harmony. That was until they halted abruptly to the subtle interruption of a call or a door opening. She knew she could do it, but her insecurities ate up at her and her fear of judgment grappled onto her, and she was never able to get loose of the chains.
And when her mom found out about her talent, she wouldn’t stop encouraging her to take that leap of faith. But she couldn’t do it.
Yet she still found herself backstage of the middle school talent show, about to go on in a matter of minutes to sing a solo.
She didn’t know how she got there, it was all a blur. Everything currently was a blur. Her vision fogged, and her breathing hitched, and she was about to book it before she blasted right into someone knocking everything they held onto the ground, scattered everywhere. And that didn’t help her current panic.
“Oh jeez.. are you okay?” was the sound of a voice. She looked around at the scattered remains of a deck of cards, a cape, a top hat, and a scampering rabbit. Yeesh.
“I asked you a question.”
Her head whipped around, to spot a lent out hoof that belonged to a familiar pig.
She had only really seen him a few times around the school. He was a quiet kid, and always carried a lollipop in his mouth. He only had a few friends, and on the few occasions that he was around at recess she always spotted him under the playground slide playing Pokémon with his friends.
The lollipop thing still held up. He even had one currently sitting in his mouth, switching back and forth constantly.
It took a bit to gather her rattled brain before she finally took his hand.
“Oh gosh, I’m really sorry about this.” She apologized immediately and got back onto the ground picking up the scattered cards as the latter chased after the rabbit, eventually succeeding. “Oh it’s no problem. I’ve got a while left before it’s my turn actually.” He said bringing the rabbit back into the hat.
He watches as her foot stomps nervously as she shuffles the cards he dropped and carefully sets them back into the pack.
She’d always done this weird foot dance when nervous. It had become a habit whenever she was at doctors appointments or during presentations. Though it worked as a semi calming tactic, it proved a great distraction to others. As her heel slammed into the ground it created noise forcing others to turn their attention towards her.
“Uh.. haha uh do you have a partner? For your little magic act? I dunno it always seemed like a duo kind of thing?” She pointed out to him bringing his attention back from her foot to her face. He cringed awkwardly as he shook his head. “No. All of my friends thought that a magic trick was too dorky. They ditched the show altogether because they thought it was too dorky. So much for support..” he rubbed his neck using his free hand, the other occupied with his top hat. “And what about you? You must be here for a reason too. And it doesn’t seem to be a magic act.” He smiled awkwardly.
The small curtain of time she got as a distraction finally fell to bring her back to the reality of why she was there in the first place. Her foot picked up the pace and she almost turned her singing act into a dancing act.
“Hhh uh I’m actually gonna sing. Moms idea that I do, do it.”
The look on his face lit up.
“You can sing?? That’s so cool! But why don’t you look too happy bout it?” He asked, observing how she tried to avoid looking at him at the mention of the topic.
“Mm i guess I got a little case of stage fright” she finally admits the obvious. Her foot dance slowed down to a slower pace.
“Stage fright huh? I used to have that a lot.” Huh. Really? She would’ve never thought.
“Wait.. really?”
“Yeah! My mom made ME sing at her little house party. She had a few dozen people over for work. I got the heebie jeebies to thinkin bout actually singing in front of all those people. But she told me that I’d never know that, that was what I was meant to do until I tried it. Just try not to think bout it and sing.”
Black Swan thought about it for a second. His advice finally calmed her down a bit.
“But.. why do a magic trick if you can sing?” Her curiosity bested her for a mere second. She saw a slight hesitation almost prompting her to tell him to forget about it and-
“Oh uh my magic trick was spposed’ to be a group thing. They backed out last second. I had everything planned so I couldn’t switch the act last second.”
His previous statement covered up a minor bit of the truth. Black Swan felt anger boiling inside her for the poor piglet and was almost about to hunt down his friends and kick em where it really hurt!
“You don’t deserve them. I’m sure you’ll do great without them. Heck, I’ll be cheering for you in the audience! Alongside whoever’s here with you.” She smiled, patting his shoulder, giving him the slightest bit of confidence he needed to succeed.
“Black Swan! You’re on now!” She heard a voice calling. She turned back to Piglet who gave her an encouraging smile, watching as she approached the stage, pushing the curtains back and facing the music.
And taking that leap of faith.