Emilia didn't know what she had been thinking, letting her cousin sign them up together for the talent show. Athena hadn’t really seemed ready to sing on her own, and it had felt nice to be asked, but now that she was here she was regretting the decision immensely. To make matters worse, they were the
final act. Emilia had watched the previous acts with a mounting feeling of dismay and panic, as almost every single one of them seemed way better than what she could do. The girl knew she was a good piano player, but she had never performed in front of an audience this big before. What if she got nervous and messed up? Not only would she look foolish, but she would disappoint Athena too. By the time their names were called, Emilia was pale and breathing quickly, her heart racing. Sapphire had talked to her, given her a little pep talk, but by now it was hard to focus on anything positive. Anxiously, she smoothed down her
white dress. Would it look okay from the audience? She had picked it because she liked it, but she had no idea if it would look nice on the stage too.
There was a moment when their names were called where Emilia was sure she wouldn’t do it. It felt like her legs simply wouldn’t move, no matter how hard she tried. But she glanced at Athena and knew her cousin was counting on her. And Evelyn was one of the judges, which meant she was expecting Athena and Emilia to perform. Every single other performance in the talent show had gone well, and if Emilia didn’t show she would ruin the very last one. Taking a deep breath, she focused on what Evelyn would do in her position. Surely, she would walk out onto the stage confidently and flash everyone a big smile. Maybe if she pretended for a moment she was her cousin, she could do the same. Emilia followed Athena onto the stage and immediately sat down at the piano, focusing her attention on the familiar instrument. She didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but the idea of having eyes focused on her made her nervous enough to mostly hide behind her hair as she started to
play. Hopefully, no one would say anything about it. Once her fingers touched the keys, a sense of calm came over her. She was still nervous about being on stage, but this she knew how to do. The two of them had practiced together many times, and Emilia had little problem playing the beginning part, even though Athena wasn’t singing yet and it really was just her making music. But then Athena joined the music with her voice, and Emilia relaxed even more. It worked, them making music together. As children they already practiced their music with each other, and though Athena was more versatile, they had always clicked. Emilia lost herself a bit in the music she was playing, though she never quite forgot the audience. She tried her best to focus on the sound of Ethan’s voice and the movements of her own fingers, though she dared a glance at the audience once. It was a mistake, as her fingers faltered briefly only a moment later. Emilia flushed, but she didn’t think the mistake was too noticeable to people that hadn’t heard her play the song dozens of times. When she song ended, Emilia stared at her fingers on the keys for a moment before turning her head and looking at the audience and judges. Her expression had calmed a lot compared to the moment she had walked on stage, but she still looked very nervous. Her gaze darted to Athena, wondering if she thought it had gone well.