Back to The Beginning

I swear, if my phone rang one more time, I was going to get the service cut off. I didn’t care who was calling - producers, Simon, Drystan, Liam, Adley - they needed to stop. I was in choreography, which was not the ideal place for a girl with two left feet. Angry, I stomped over and answered the phone.

“Hello?” I asked, taking a drink of water.

“Hey Kayla,” Drystan’s voice came.

I almost growled. “I thought I told you I was at a rehearsal, Drystan,” I said, shifting my weight in anger.

“You did, I just wanted to call and say hi and I love you,” he answered.

“Yeah, well, I love you too, like a lot, but it’s a really bad time. I’ll call you when I’m free, okay? Bye babe,” I said, not even giving him a chance to reply before hanging up and going back to the dance floor and picking back up on the dance.

“So it’s sway-five-six, look up and reach on seven-eight, pull back in and look back forward on one-two-three-four,” the choreographer said, demonstrating, and then we ran the counts several times, and I messed it up a good bit.

“Sorry,” I apologized, “but Liam got all the dance talent. I’ve got two left feet that like to trip over air.” Everyone laughed.

“Don’t worry, honey, you’re doing great. This is the second day you’ve been working on this and we’re already on the last few bars of the song,” she told me, and I nodded.

“Wonderful,” I replied. “Let’s go again? I want to make sure I have this down.”

She smiled. “We’ve finished the song, we might as well just run the whole thing,” she said, and I nodded.

“Let’s do that then.”

She nodded and let us all find our starting spots before starting the backtrack. As I sang, my body somehow managed to remember the choreography and my mind managed to remember the lyrics, and I managed to make it through the song without falling.

“Not bad, but it needs some major cleaning up before the show,” she told me.

I nodded, panting. “I agree. The verses were rough.”

“Very,” she nodded. “You’re also due to the van in five minutes to go to your glamour shoot, so I’m calling it a day. Get some rest.”

I nodded, grabbing my water bottle and throwing on my jacket before heading out to the van and climbing in. The ride to the arena was short, and as soon as I got there I was rushed inside by security, and then the glamour team went to work on me.

The first thing they did was dye my hair brown. I’d never dyed my hair before, so it felt like it took forever. Well, I guess it did take a while, but it felt like several lifetimes. After they dyed my hair, they styled it, deciding that the length was fine.

As soon as my hair and makeup were done, they sent me off to the place where they were doing headshots, and I just kind of did whatever they told me to. After the backdrop, they sent me over to this set with lights set up like a tunnel and then they told me to “have fun.” That didn’t work out very well because I was so awkward, so I once again ended up doing what they told me to do.

The overall process of the shoot took hours and was so draining. I was absolutely exhausted by the time I was allowed to leave and go back to the contestant’s house. As soon as I walked in and smelled dinner, I smiled.

“You guys better have saved me some!” I yelled, and James, who was sitting on the couch, shook his head.

“You’re about two hours too late, Kayla,” he laughed. “Make yourself something or starve.”

I laughed. “Does Taylor or Adley have my plate?”

“Taylor has it,” he answered, smiling. “We knew that you would kill us if we didn’t save you a piece of the homemade three cheese or the triple meat.”

“And right you would be,” I confirmed, running up to Taylor’s room and knocking on the door. “Hey Tay I want my food!”

He opened his door and pulled me inside and down on his bed. “I appreciate the new hair. Brown suits you,” he said, smiling and handing me a plate.

“Why thank you, good sire,” I said, biting into the three cheese pizza. “Hmmmm...mozzarella, cheddar, colby jack?”

“Right on the money,” he replied, shaking his head. “Damn you like cheese.”

“It’s a me thing. You get used to it after a while.”

“I see. How do you feel about watching a movie tonight?”

“I can’t, I have to call Drystan back. I told him I would when I had the free time,” I answered, sighing.

“After that?” he asked.

“After that is sleep,” I replied. “I’m exhausted as hell and want to marry my bed right now.”

He laughed. “You go do that, girl. See you bright and early tomorrow.” He kissed my forehead and I got up and carried my plate to my room and sat down on the bed, FaceTiming Drystan, who answered on the first ring.

“Hello my love,” he greeted me, smiling.

“Hey there hottie,” I replied giggling.

“Is it just me or is your hair brown now?”

“It’s not just you, they dyed it today,” I informed him, wolfing down my pizza.

“Whoever did it, it looks great,” he replied, smiling. “So how was rehearsal?’

“Long. Long, long, long, long, long, and long. I cannot dance, like, at all, and they have me doing a fully choreographed routine that I can barely remember. Kill me now,” I deadpanned.

“Uh, have you ever seen yourself dance? You may feel awkward, but you look amazing,” he responded laughing.

“Thanks for trying, but you don’t have to try to make me feel better. The amount of times I fell due to lost balance while attempting to do something today was more than enough to leave bruises,” I said, sighing.

He rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, “If you weren’t pretty and famous I swear...,” before perking up. “Baby, I’m sure you’re going to be great.”

I felt my throat starting to close up. “What? If I wasn’t pretty and famous you swear what?” I stammered, my world starting to spin.

“I didn’t say anything like that,” he backtracked, looking frantic.

“Don’t lie to me, Drystan Rodgers,” I ordered, my heart breaking.

“I...I...um…,” he stammered, trying to escape as I broke down crying.

“Never call me again, you asshole. We’re through,” I sobbed, hanging up on him and collapsing onto my bed.

Notes