Purpose.

I walked into the club room and was met with a sudden round of applause. Mila, Grace, Sarah, Noelle and Alice were all there, sitting around the table.

“Sorry,” I told them with a sheepish smile. “I didn’t win.”

“Yeah, it sucks,” Grace said. “But yours was one of the highest quality performances.”

“At least this way people won’t accuse Alice and me of rigging the votes,” Noelle said, giggling.

Alice shrugged. “Would’ve been worth it.”

Sarah came up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me softly on the lips. I held her by the waist and deepened the kiss a bit more. Then, with our foreheads pressed together, she asked, “How are you doing, though?”

“Yeah. When you said you wanted to be alone for a while we got worried,” Mila said.

“It’s… given me a lot to think about,” I told them. “I needed some time to process it.”

“Want to share?” Sarah asked me.

Maybe putting it all into words would help me figure it out. “If you don’t mind hearing me ramble for a bit.”

“Please, by all means,” Alice said. “I want to hear what you have to say.”

“Yep. It’s always you who has to listen to us, so let us enjoy this rare occasion,” Grace said.

I sat down at the table with them and Sarah went back to her own seat. I thought of where to begin and it took me a while before I decided.

“I think the act went as well as it could have,” I said. “I looked down at my guitar too much, that’s true. I’ll need to work on that for the next time I do something like this. I also felt too stiff, but beyond that… I didn’t make mistakes, I played perfectly and didn’t run away from it. I did everything I wanted to do, but even so… I’m not satisfied.”

“You wanted to win?” Noelle asked me.

I shook my head with a chuckle. “I voted for the Michael Jackson act, actually.”

Mila sighed. “I mean, he was pretty good. The audience loved him.”

I nodded. “His act helped me realize what’s been bothering me. See, I played my heart out. I played one of my favorite songs and played it well, but when I raised my head to see the audience… I saw how little interest there was.”

“But that’s just because they don’t know where the song is from,” Noelle argued. “When you started playing it, I felt chills!”

I smiled. “I understand that, of course. A song nobody knows is less likely to bring excitement to a crowd like this. But I can’t blame the audience and say ‘they just don’t get it’, right? The responsibility for it lies with me, the one who picked the song to play for them.”

“You think you should've played something else?” Sarah asked me.

“Maybe. I’m not sure. On one hand, this is what I wanted to play. I don’t know if I would’ve put the same amount of effort if it was a song that was more popular but I was less interested in. But on the other hand…” I let out a heavy sigh. “Remember that day I played the bass in the classroom?” Mila, Grace and Sarah nodded. Alice and Noelle weren’t there that day, sadly. “That was… I didn’t play anything complex or technically difficult, and yet people got excited and sang along. That felt more satisfying than perfectly playing a difficult song in front of 500 people. The video of me playing Free Bird also did really well, which makes me happy despite the embarrassment.

“I… I still don’t understand how it works. Performance, music, skill, technique, target audience… I always just played for myself, so I only cared about getting better so the songs sounded as they should. Now though… I think I’d like to play to make people excited.”

I couldn’t get those smiles and cheers out of my head from when I played the bass in the classroom and a fun, excited atmosphere suddenly formed. “It’s not that I want recognition or fame. I want to… make people smile, cheer, maybe even cry. The Michael Jackson imitator did that better than me today, and I think that’s why he won.”

Yeah. Talking about it really did help. I may not have won the talent show, but I believe realizing this was way more important and a way better prize than a $100 gift card to a clothing store.

Grace got up from her seat to stand behind me. She hugged me, pressing her breasts on the back of my neck and kissing the top of my head.

“W-What?” I asked her.

Grace giggled. “Nothing. I just fell for you even harder, that’s all. I didn’t think it was possible.”

“Make people smile…” Noelle muttered. “Yeah. I get that.”

“There’s one thing that you’re not taking into account, Oliver,” Alice said. She was tapping on her phone, then set it on the table and slid it across it towards me. I checked it and saw… the voting results.

“So you DO have access to these,” I said.

“Just to see them. My account has a few admin privileges.”

I was happy not knowing the results, but having them in front of me… I couldn’t resist.

There were a total of 388 votes, meaning only a bit over half the student body actually voted. Guess that happens a lot. First place had 84 votes, second place had 74, third place had 55, and in fourth place… Oliver Brooks and Isabelle Brooks with 41 votes.

“It’s a lot like you to focus more on the negatives than the positives,” Sarah said. I bet Alice had already shown them these results. “You didn’t look towards our class at all, right? We were all cheering for you.”

“And it’s silly to believe no one at all knew the song you were playing,” Noelle added. “I saw people banging their heads and playing air guitar with you across my own seat. The few people that did know what you were playing got really excited.”

“Not to mention more people knew you from that Free Bird clip,” Grace said. “I was hoping it would boost your votes more, but I guess internet interest is that feeble.”

“You wanted to make people excited,” Alice said. “Maybe it wasn’t many, but you did, and those who understood it really liked it. You just decided to keep your eyes somewhere else.”

I sighed with a small smile. I guess sometimes you need other people to get a better picture of things. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so stubborn and refuse to look at those who did cheer for me.

“Thank you, everyone.”

“Hey, and out of curiosity,” Sarah began. “How many votes did the music club get?”

“Oh right, you didn’t see it!” Mila said, grinning devilishly. “They sucked.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, it didn’t look like they practiced much,” Alice said, nodding. “They should be by the bottom of the list.”

She was right. The music club was in 19th place out of 20 with 7 votes. I could be satisfied with that, at least, and it meant Isabelle and I did end up accomplishing our objective in a way.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Tomorrow was looking to be far, far better, though.

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