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Andrés couldn't believe it. He really didn't know what to think, except that he needed to tell Pablo immediately. Malena had falsified her own exam result, even though everyone thought it was him. His career at the studio had been on the line, and she had known that! He was furious at her. He had loved her and wanted to do everything for her, but she had kept quiet when he was blamed for something she did, only to better herself. It was so unfair. Andrés always did everything for girls to be with them, but they were always just using him to help themselves. At least he still had his friends, they never doubted him or made him feel worthless.
As he entered the studio, Andrés heard music coming from the auditorium. He'd completely forgotten that there was a presentation for the Spanish Embassy. Violetta and Ludmila had a duet, and there was another song in pairs that León was doing. Andrés figured his friend would pair up with Violetta, and there would probably be one or two more pairs, like Maxi and Naty. Andrés figured watching the performance before going to Pablo might cheer him up, and approached the doorway of the auditorium. He looked at the stage and was horrified at what he saw. Apparently the song in pairs wasn't with just a few pairs, it was with everyone. Everyone, except him. Even Gary and Clement were there, despite neither of them being students. Yet, somehow, he hadn't been asked. None of his friends had considered asking him for what was essentially a group song, or had even mentioned it to him. Perhaps Andrés couldn't count on his friends after all, because he clearly wasn't a friend to any of them on stage. If he had been their friend, they wouldn't have excluded him from their group song. Andrés suddenly felt more alone and hurt than ever before, and the longer he watched that stupid song, the more he felt tears form in his eyes. He couldn't bear it anymore, and ran away, unseen by everyone except Angie.
When Andrés sat down on a bench outside the studio, all his emotions released at once as he burst out into loud sobs. It was just so unfair! Why was he always the unlucky one? People always used him or blackmailed him or lied to him or only came to him for their own problems. No one ever really loved him or even liked him, except his family. Even his friends excluded him when he needed them the most. Why did this always happen to him?!
"Andrés? What's wrong?" someone asked. Andrés looked up to see Angie worriedly looking at him.
"N-Nothing..." he lied.
"Then why did you run away from the presentation?" The last word made Andrés' blood boil, as the scene of all his friends happily dancing without him played before him again.
"I thought the song with pairs would be with just a few people, but I guess it's a group song for everyone except me, since nobody asked me to be part of it," he sniffed.
"It was a group song, so it's odd that no one ever included you in it. There must be a misunderstanding of some kind. I doubt they would exclude you on purpose."
"Sure," Andrés angrily replied, "I thought Malena was a nice girl, but when I was blamed for changing her exam result, she never said she changed it herself! Everyone just wants to hurt me." Tears started flowing down his cheeks again. He was so conflicted between anger and sadness...
"I will talk to Pablo about all this. We'll do something about this, I promise," Angie said, heading back into the studio. Andrés decided to just go home and never get out of his bed again.
"Do you know why Pablo wanted to see us so urgently?" Francesca asked Violetta as the two walked towards the auditorium.
Violetta shook her head, "no, I'm clueless too. Perhaps it's about the festival in Sevilla?"
"I hope he hasn't come to tell us the Spanish embassy hated the performance," Francesca sighed, sitting down on the stage, "not after we worked so hard for it..."
"That's not possible!" Camila chimed in, "we had so much fun with Llámame and Violetta and Ludmila did a wonderful job too."
"Thank you for coming, everyone," Pablo spoke as he walked into the auditorium, quickly followed by Angie.
"Shouldn't we wait for Andrés?" Maxi asked, "he's not here yet."
"He's not coming, which is what this meeting is about," Angie explained.
"If this is about those exam results, he had no part in that," Diego quickly said.
Pablo let out a deep sigh, "that's already been resolved, and we found the culprit. No, this is about the performance earlier, and Andrés' role in it, or rather, lack thereof."
"We were under the impression that Andrés had voluntarily chosen to remain out of Llámame so there would be an even amount of students, but, as it turned out from when I saw him outside in tears, he thought it was a small group song, instead of a group song for all the last year students and Clement and Gary like we had stated, as no one had included him," Angie explained.
"I don't think I have to explain why this is not only poor behavior towards a fellow musician, but also towards a classmate and friend. No one in the studio should feel like they're being excluded or forgotten."
"That is why we have decided that, regardless of the decision of the embassy, we will not allow any more practice of Llámame until a revised version is created that also includes Andrés," Angie concluded.
"But then we'll have an uneven amount, how would we still keep the pairs with that?" Naty nervously asked.
"If I tell you all to make a song with a guitar, that doesn't mean the whole instrumental has to be a guitar and that there can be no parts without. It's the same here, we gave you pairs as the theme of the song with an uneven amount of students in mind, so now you will have to be creative and find a solution." The two teachers left the auditorium, leaving behind a bewildered group of students.
"Poor Andrés... He must feel horribly sad about being excluded..." Francesca sighed.
"We got so caught up with getting the perfect pairs that no one remembered to ask him," Camila added, "I feel terrible now."
Diego stood up, "well, there's no use lamenting about it now, we should start working on a new choreography." Everyone else also stood up and gathered around the piano to start brainstorming, except León, who grabbed his stuff and went for the exit.
"Where are you going?" Maxi inquired.
"I have to go to Andrés to set this right. I owe him that much."
"Do you want us to come along?" Violetta asked, "we all owe him an apology." León shook his head in response and departed from the auditorium.
"Does anyone know how we're going to change the choreography?" Naty questioned.
"It'll take too much time to create a new one, so we'll have to change the current one to accommodate Andrés somehow," Broduey explained, "but it'll be difficult without changing up or removing at least some of the pairs..."
"Well, we have to think of something, otherwise Andrés might never forgive us, and we won't be able to perform in Sevilla," Violetta concluded.
Andrés felt miserable like never before in his life. As soon as he'd come home, he had laid on his bed and cried his eyes out, and he hadn't moved since. He had no energy to go to the studio for band practice, or anything else, really. He didn't even have the motivation to make music on his own. It kept reminding him of how his friends had dumped him like a bag of thrash, when he had always been there for them for nearly three years. He threw his pillow at the wall in frustration, and heard the doorbell immediately after. He hadn't done that, had he? No, pillows couldn't cause a doorbell to go off... Andrés went downstairs to open the door and saw León standing on the other side.
"Andrés... I want to talk about what happened."
"I don't want to talk to you," Andrés bitterly replied.
"Please, I feel terrible about it," León pleaded.
"No, you don't. You never think about me, you only think about Violetta and the band, but never about me. You're not my friend." Andrés closed the door before León could respond. The boy who he'd thought of as his closest friend now only made him feel anger and resentment. He was the most popular boy in school, everyone wanted to be his friend, and he had plenty of girls standing in line for him if he gave up on Violetta, while Andrés was a nobody to everyone at school.
The next morning, the students gathered in the auditorium again to discuss how to change the choreography, but also how to ask Andrés for forgiveness, after hearing about León's failed attempt the previous day.
"Well, I'm not an expert at navigating Andrés' feelings," Ludmila spoke, "but I do have an idea for the choreography. Are you all familiar with our solar system?"
"If this is going to turn into a space metaphor about supernovas and comets, I'm going home," Camila complained.
Violetta blocked Camila from leaving with her arm, "at least give her a chance to explain."
"Thank you," Ludmila said, "in our solar system, we have many different objects: planets, moons, dwarf planets, asteroids... They have two things in common: they're almost never on their own, and they all revolve around one thing: the sun."
"What does this have to do with the choreography?" Naty asked.
"We change it to be just like the solar system. We have the six pairs revolve around the one person that isn't in a pair, they would be the center of the whole song."
"I agree with that, it won't take much effort to change the choreography we already have with that idea," Broduey agreed.
"If we're going to have one person at the center of the song, we should probably change the line distribution to give them vocal focus too," Francesca suggested.
"We'll also need a fitting hat to make them stand out," Maxi added.
Federico stood up, "I hope we're all in agreement that Andrés should be our 'sun' for Llámame? We owe him that much." Nobody disagreed.
"I think it's fitting, considering how he's always so optimistic. He's like a sun for all of us," Violetta happily remarked.
"Let's not waste any time, then," Diego said. They all got started on their revamped version of Llámame. Maxi and Naty looked around for a fitting hat; Broduey, Camila, Federico, and Ludmila got to work on the choreography; Clement and Gary took out the lyrics to look for any lines that would need to be changed, while León, Violetta, Diego, and Francesca continued thinking about how to apologize to Andrés and get him to join them all again.
"Andrés, you have to get out of bed..." Laura pleaded, "what happened at the studio was awful, but you should at least get dressed and have some breakfast."
"It doesn't matter, Laura, nobody there cares about me."
"But I care about you, and I don't want you to get sick."
Andrés relented and got out of his bed, "if I promise to come downstairs, will you let me get dressed on my own?"
"Of course," a smile appeared on his sister's face, "I'll make you something delicious, and then we can watch movies together, like we used to when we were little."
"Don't set the kitchen on fire!" Andrés called after Laura as she left his room and closed the door. He then reluctantly got dressed and noticed his phone on his nightstand. He hadn't checked it since the presentation, and it had been on silent for all that time. Andrés opened the phone to see a ton of missed calls. 2 from Violetta, 1 each from Francesca and Camila, 2 from Diego, 3 from Maxi, 1 from Federico, 2 from Broduey, 1 from Naty, and 14 (!!!) from León. It was more in the span of one day than he'd received in all the months before that, and that wasn't even counting the numerous text messages. Part of Andrés wondered if perhaps everyone did care about him, but another part of him figured that this had only been after the teachers had likely reprimanded his classmates, so perhaps they were only sorry because they'd been caught. Andrés didn't want to think about the subject any longer, so he put his phone away and went downstairs, where he was greeted by the aroma of fresh pancakes being made. How his sister had managed that, he had no idea.
"Andy!" his sister warmly greeted him, "I made pancakes for us!"
"Thank you," he replied, taking the plate from Laura's hands, "but how did you manage that so well?"
"Mom taught me yesterday, when you had your presentat-" she quickly stopped herself and covered her mouth, no doubt not wanting to remind him of yesterday'd tragic events. It didn't really matter, as it was all that was on his mind.
Andrés let out a sigh, "I'm proud of you for learning it so quickly."
"Thank you!" Laura responded proudly, "now, let's put on a movie and have a fun brother-sister day to cheer you up!" The two siblings took the pancakes to the living room, where Andrés grabbed a blanket for them to sit under while his sister tried to look for a fitting movie to watch. Laura had more of a preference for horror movies, but Andrés was too scared of them and preferred action movies, which Laura didn't like. Their usual compromise was romantic comedy, which helped a lot when they usually had their brother-sister days, which was after either one had been dumped or rejected by someone they liked. It wouldn't help a lot now, Andrés hadn't given Malena a second thought since the presentation. They settled on a regular comedy this time, and Andrés enjoyed the delicious pancakes whilst also not trying to choke of laughter at the funny moments. He and Laura didn't always get along perfectly, but at least they could always count on each other when they were feeling down.
Watching a comedy with pancakes really managed to cheer Andrés up again, and he didn't feel so alone and hurt anymore. He was still not ready to return to the studio, though. It would no doubt bring all the bad memories back to the surface and make him feel unseen and abandoned. Still, in fleeing abruptly yesterday, he hadn't been able to take his things from his locker, which meant that things like his wallet were still at the studio. He wanted to get some ice cream, so he needed his wallet, which meant he had no choice but to return to the studio. Andrés didn't know what he would do if he were to face his classmates. He was supposed to practice with the band later in the afternoon, but that would obviously not happen with him. Perhaps everyone at the studio had already forgotten him, and no one would recognize him. There was no going around it, though, Andrés had to return there to empty his locker. Laura offered to go with him, but he figured it best to do this alone.
As Andrés approached the studio, he felt the memories of yesterday sting once more. All his classmates had abandoned him, forgotten him, thrown him away like trash. Still, he had to go on. He entered the studio, and didn't see any of his classmates around yet. He approached his locker, but heard music coming from the dance classroom. It was the song Andrés hated so badly again. They were probably practicing it for their performance in Madrid. Andrés didn't even look inside, and only focused on getting his locker open. The lock wasn't working, as his hands were shaking too badly to put the key in. He smashed his hand against the metal door in frustration, which not only hurt badly, but also drew the attention of everyone in the dance classroom. He heard Violetta exclaim his name. Andrés turned around as everyone poured out of the classroom to look at him. This wasn't what he had hoped would happen. It was the opposite. Andrés itched closer to the lockers behind him.
"Can I have a moment alone with Andrés?" León asked the others. They obliged, and entered back into the classroom, closing the door behind them.
"León, please, don't bother..." Andrés pleaded.
"No, I hurt you, and I want to make it right. If you hear me out, you'll never have to see me again if you want."
"Fine..." Andrés relented.
"I just want to say how sorry I am for being a terrible friend. I always threw my romantic problems against you, but ignored yours, and when you needed me the most, I forgot about you. I don't think I will ever forgive myself for that, because I knew I was your best friend, and yet I still failed at even being a good classmate. You deserve so much better than me, Andrés. Everyone in there feels the same. They all feel terrible about leaving you out because they'd forgotten you, when you are the most important member of our class. You always give people courage and hope and bring so much light into the group that wouldn't be there without you."
"León..."
"Pablo and Angie told us to change Llámame to include you, so we decided to have the song and the choreography revolve around you, to show how much we appreciate you," León shamefully lowered his head, "but we understand if you don't want to do it."
"I want to accept," Andrés admitted, "but look at the song and the group, you're all couples that are madly in love, and that's what brings you all together now. You'll all go on double dates or triple dates together and forget about me again. I'm an outsider to you guys now, I don't belong in this group. It's the same in the band, you can all sing about your love for your girlfriends, but I can't. I don't want to get hurt again..." He couldn't bring himself to just rejoin the group and act like nothing had happened. The wound was too deep and still fresh. He had never been made to feel so alone and hurt in his entire life, and he didn't want to stay with people that were bound to repeat the same mistake. Andrés considered leaving again, but was stopped when the door to the classroom opened again. Everyone had been listening along.
"Andrés, you are just as important as everyone else, we could never forget you," Violetta spoke.
"But you did. You got caught up in your romance and duos, and forgot about me. How can I be sure you won't do that again?"
"Because now that we know what it's like to be a group without you, we can see that, without you, we aren't complete," Federico explained.
"We can't force you to forgive us, but will you at least perform Llámame once with us before you say anything else?" Diego offered, "we changed the song so it's completely focused on you." That was not something Andrés had expected to hear. A song focused on him? Over everyone else? He was still angry and hurt, but everyone had clearly put in a lot of effort to make him forgive them. He would feel bad if he didn't at least give them a chance. Andrés nodded, and Clement showed him the paper with his lines highlighted. He had never gotten this many lines before in his entire career! Maxi gave him a hat, like he'd seen the others wear during their presentation. Camila started the music, and they started singing.
As the first few lines passed by, Andrés felt himself once again standing in the doorway of the auditorium, watching this song being performed by everyone except him. He now wondered if they had indeed forgotten him because they didn't care about him, or if it was like they said, that they genuinely had made a big mistake and felt really guilty. As Andrés heard himself sing his solo lines and everyone danced around him, he started to believe the latter. Maybe he still had a place at the studio after all. When the song ended, Andrés threw the hat in the air out of enthusiasm. Singing with everyone while being the center of the song felt so thrilling.
"Alright, I forgive you all, but only because we're stronger together," Andrés laughed. Everyone rushed over to him to embrace him in a big group hug. He still felt like he hadn't been treated fairly, but he believed everyone was going to try better from now on, and he found comfort in that.