Adlewood Academy

Even though Harry had assured Ava that he’d be able to work her through her stage fright, she still wasn’t sure if she believed him. She’d tried just about every solution in the book and none of them had worked for her, so she had no reason to think that Harry would be any different.

Despite her doubts, Ava walked onto the Adlewood’s empty main stage, where Harry was already standing. The area was completely empty outside of her and Harry, including the audience, but Ava still felt herself getting nervous.

She tried to ignore the fact that she was walking on stage and looked only at Harry, who was smiling brightly at her. He helped to ease her nerves, but only a little bit.

When she reached Harry, all he did was smile at her, while he took her hand in his. There were no hellos or anything, and that made Ava even more nervous.

“Close your eyes,” Harry said, catching Ava off guard. As if having his hands on hers wasn’t bad enough, she was now going to have to worry about what could be going on around her while her eyes were shut.

“Why?”

“Just trust me,” Harry said, smiling at her. “Close your eyes.”

With a deep breath, Ava forced her eyes shut, and she thought that might have been one of the most terrifying things she’d ever done, but of course, to Ava everything was the most terrifying.

When her eyes were closed, she gripped onto Harry’s hands more tightly, and he began rubbing his thumbs over her hands in his attempt to comfort her.

“Now I want you to sing,” Harry said, his voice soft and low.

It didn’t take any time at all for Ava to respond, popping her eyes open. “What?”

Harry chuckled. “Keep your eyes closed.”

Ava glared at him, still as nervous as ever, but shut her eyes again.

“Now sing,” Harry said again, his fingers still soothingly rubbing over her hand.

She shook her head quickly, her voice cracking when she spoke. “I can’t.”

“You can,” Harry insisted. “Just forget about everything. Pretend you’re back in the shower, singing all along. Just sing.”

With her eyes pressed as tightly as she could get them, Ava tried to envision the bathroom totally empty with the hot water running. She imagined herself in a bathing suit – because being naked was just too much – and tried to focus on that image.

After several seconds, she opened her mouth to sing, but no words would come out. It was the same as it always was, and she just couldn’t force herself to sing.

“Ava, listen to me,” Harry said, pulling her hands closer to his body. “It’s just you. You’re all alone and no one can hear you. You can sing.”

Ava took another deep breath, pressing her eyes shut so tightly that she was getting wrinkles. She tried to tune everything out, like she always tried to do, but it wasn’t working. She was beginning to get frustrated with herself, and all she wanted to do was walk away and get as far away from the stage as possible.

“Keep your eyes closed,” Harry said as he dropped Ava’s hands. He walked away from a moment, his footsteps getting further and further away. She wanted to look up to see what he was doing, but decided to listen to his advice and keep them shut, as nerve wrecking as it was.

When he returned, he took one of her hands again, his thumb immediately rubbing her palm again. He was fiddling with something at his side, but Ava didn’t have time to peek before he spoke again.

“Just sing,” he whispered, and this time when he did, the faint sound of rushing water filled the area. She looked down just in time to see Harry playing the sound on his phone before he told her to shut her eyes again. “Just focus on the sound.”

Ava kept her eyes shut, listening only to the sound of the water. She tried again to imagine herself all alone where no one could hear her. It was just her and the sound of that rushing water.

With a deep breath, Ava opened her mouth and began singing the first song that popped into her head. She didn’t care if Harry was going to laugh at her for singing songs from Wicked because she was singing. She was actually singing in front of another human being and in the middle of Adlewood’s famous stage.

She opened her eyes when she sang the final note and was met with Harry’s smiling face, and all Ava could do was smile back.