By Olivia
My name is Lily, and tomorrow I will have a piano competition.
“There’s a competition tomorrow!” yelled my mom, “You must get ready! You don’t want to make a major mistake again like last year!”
“Fine! I’m coming to practice!” I yelled back. I love piano, but I don’t really like practicing piano for hours, and hours. But mom was right, practicing makes me prepare better. Maybe I shouldn’t have yelled at my mom.
I must have a rehearsal with my piano partner. Her name is Katie. She lives just across my neighborhood. She has blonde hair just like mine, she’s not that tall and not that short, just exactly like me! We look very alike, that many people call us twins! I have to practice my part before she comes over. We will play only one duet, it isn’t a big deal. Wait, that’s another competition. NOOOO, we have to play two duets! Katie was supposed to come at nine, but she came earlier.
“Ding-Dong”
That was the doorbell! I can’t wait to talk to her!
“I’ll get the door!” I shouted loud enough to let my mom hear. Mom always works, even on the weekends! So, I basically, have to take care of myself. I’m only eight years old, and I think it isn’t a big deal, cooking by myself. When I opened up the door, Katie’s mom said, I’ll pick you guys up in about four hours!”
“Four hours! We have to practice for four hours!?!?” I asked.
“No, no, no,” said Katie, “She meant that we can practice for about two hours, and play for about two hours,”
“Thank goodness! That scared me!”
When we finished practicing one of our duets, we had a ten-minute break, so I made us some smoothies to drink. Ten minutes went by so quickly! We had to practice our next duet. When we finished practicing our second duet, we went to my room to put on our dresses. I had a secret hideout in my room, so I dressed up in there, and Katie dressed up outside the secret hideout room. When we were done, we did our hair as a ponytail. We planned to wear long pink dresses, and we were surprised to find out that we got the same dresses! When we went back to the music room where we practiced the duets, we had a rehearsal as if it’s the real competition. We went from the other side of the hallway, and walked confidently toward the piano, and we bowed to the air, pretending there were audiences and judges watching. Then sat on the bench, got prepared, and started playing our first piece, followed by the second piece. We did that about ten times! It took more than two hours! When we were done, my mom came downstairs from the attic and said, “Did you guys practice well?”
Katie said, “Yeah, we practiced more than two hours!”
“Oh, nice!” said my mom, “You guys hungry?”
“Yeah, I’m starving,” I said.
“Me too,” said Katie.
When we finished eating lunch, we played, and relaxed. Katie’s mom actually came at eight o’clock! When we let Katie’s mom in, we asked her and my mom to listen to us play. We actually did pretty well!
We had a good night’s sleep the day before the competition. The competition started at nine o’clock. So I had to wake up pretty early. When I woke up I changed into my regular clothes and ate breakfast. I practiced for a while, then we got ready to leave. When we arrived at a place called, “Anderson Music University of Indiana”, my mom and I went inside. I saw Katie and her mom immediately. We first had to sign up at the main entrance. I went to the bathroom to change into my dress, because Katie already had her dress on. We both loved the idea to perform our duets wearing the dresses of the exact same design. We felt like our minds were in sync, so would be our performance. Then we went to our competition room. We found four empty seats, so we could sit together, we waited for our turn to come to compete, when the judge called our names, Katie had the original copies to hand to the judge. After she handed it to the judge, we went to the stage to bow to the audience with eye contact. When we started playing, my hand felt normal. Good thing we didn’t make any mistakes. When we were done, we bowed to the audiences again with eye contact and then went to sit back in our seats. We listened to everyone else play. When everyone was done playing their pieces, we went to the main entrance to wait for the awards to be given. We found Katie’s friend, Misty, in the lobby dressed up like us, but instead, she had a blue dress on. She also competed in this event. We first started a lovely chat, but for no reason we just burst out loud laughing. And for no reason we were causing chaos! Even when the judge came out, we were unable to stop laughing, but we weren’t that loud anymore. As the judge started talking, we finally calmed down, eager to know the competition result. After listening for a few names, we first heard Misty’s name, she got an alternative award in her category. We looked at each other and tried very hard to control ourselves not to burst into laughter again. Because we didn’t want to interrupt the award announcement. Then we heard “The winners for the duet category goes to Katie Murowsky, and Lily Micisle!”
The three of us were extremely happy! A couple days later, I and Katie had piano lessons. When we arrived, our piano teacher asked, “How did the competition go?”
We both said, “We got the winner award!”
“Oh nice!” said our piano teacher.
Then my mom added, “We met Katie’s friends, Misty, there while waiting for the awards to be announced. The three girls were crazy like dressed-up monkeys in the lobby. Things almost ran out of control if the judge came out one more minute late to make the announcement .”
“Oh, Misty, she is one of my students too,” said my piano teacher, “I think these three girls can’t sit together during competitions or recitals anymore. They are too young to control themselves and they must keep calm and concentrated before going onto the stage.”
From then on we three girls couldn’t sit together anymore, in any of the piano studio’s events. This decision always reminds me of that competition day, and makes me laugh.