As soon as Kayla finished the song, the whole stadium, which was packed full to the brim tonight, burst into thunderous applause. Smiling, Kayla gave them a little wave.

"Thank you," she said into the mic before turning around and heading off the field. She thanked two of the people in charge of organizing the games, including good old Mr. Lakeland, the person that had invited her to sing. Then she went to the bathroom to change out of the dress she was wearing and made her way into the J.H.S. stands.

She was immediately greeted by a hundred congratulatory remarks. Smiling, she murmured heartfelt thanks to all of them at once and started to make her way through the crowd towards her friends. It was kind of hard though, because every two inches someone would block her path and start up a conversation with her.

Fifteen minutes later, she was almost there. A stretch of fairly clear space was in between her and Sara and Linz and her other friends. She was just a few feet away from them when someone grabbed her hand, and she turned around to see who it was.

It was Scott.

Kayla's face immediately hardened, and she pulled her hand away. She folded her arms across her chest defiantly, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Hey, Kayla," he said softly, sounding sad.

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Hey there, Scott."

"You were great out there," he said, averting his eyes shyly.

"Thank you, Scott," Kayla said earnestly. Then she turned to go.

His words stopped her. "You look really beautiful tonight," he said tentatively.

She stiffened again and turned around. "Excuse me?"

"I mean it, Kayla. Especially in that dress. It reminded me of when we were still together," he said mournfully. "I really miss that."

She let out a hollow laugh. "You really miss that?" she echoed mockingly.

"Yeah. I know it sounds corny, but you were so much to me, Kayla. I miss having you there. Please, can you be there again?"

Kayla was getting ready to make some smart-ass remark that would shoot him down, but he interrupted her.

"You're about to say no," he realized. Pursing his lips, he reached up and touched her cheek softly. "Please think before you do that. I know that I tried to pressure you into doing something you didn't want to do, and I'm sorry. Before you turn your back on me, please remember how great it was before I turned into an idiot and consider whether or not that's worth losing."

For a second, Kayla was actually softened. His words actually seemed genuine. But then she saw something insincere cross his face, as if he was asking himself mentally, Is she buying this? Her eyes narrowed briefly. Then her face turned nonchalant and, shrugging, she removed his hand from her cheek.

"Ehhh...it wasn't that great," she decided before turning and walking away towards her friends.


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Lyrics from "The Star-Spangled Banner"