not crazy—just excited
Apple Hair Chapter 2 - CORRIN🐈
New to the Apple Hair world? Start here for the introduction and table of contents. Apple Hair is a fictional, Asian American boy band from Hawaii, and this novel marks the beginning of their story.
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I’m not crazy. Just excited.
When our new dance instructor walks in, I can’t keep still. I shake, rubbing my palms against my thighs, like that will calm me down. I glance at everyone—Kaden, David, Van, and Seiya.
I’m never good at hiding my feelings. My mom calls me an open book, but really I hate keeping things to myself. Sharing things with my group mates should be a bit easy for me, but I have to admit it’s been hard. Being a trainee takes a lot of energy already. I don’t want to give them more to worry about. Is that weird?
“Are you guys ready?” she says. She wears a purplish pink tracksuit, looking vibrant against her deeper skin tone. “I’m Armani Bera.”
For a few seconds, the room quiets down. The boys probably don’t know what to say—and for a rare moment, me neither. I grin and try to think about what she’d want to hear. “Your hair looks great.”
She laughs, combing through some of her loose curls. “Thank you, it took me hours.” When it’s clear we don’t have much more to say, she continues on, “I’m Armani, so feel free to call me that. I can’t be more than ten years older than you guys?”
David gives a nervous laugh, and the rest of the boys just nod. I try to smile big. My teeth hurt a bit from doing so. My fingers feel like nothing can stop them from fidgeting.
Armani introduces herself as growing up in California, after her parents immigrated from Delhi. She talks about finding a passion for dance at an early age, competing in many televised dance competitions until she settled on teaching it for a living.
“I’m ready to make you guys into superstars,” she says, winking.
By the time I try to wink back, she already turned toward the full size mirror, twisting her body into our first stretching position. I follow along with the boys.
As she reaches down to touch her toes, the mirror twinkles. I can’t be imagining it. A black cat runs across the surface, perpendicular to the floor.
“What—” I say. But everyone turns toward me, looking at me weirdly. A sweat crawls down my neck.
Armani twirls her hands above her head, moving into the next stretching position. I continue, following along, but the cat still runs rampant in my brain. It’s like it’s in there, running around. Leaving paw prints all over. Even though the mirror looks glossy and empty, the cat’s black fur crosses my mind over and over.
“You okay?” David says, after we finish our first run-through of the new choreography.
“Yes!” I wipe off the sweat of my forehead trying to smile.
“You sure?” he says.
I nod my head adamantly, even as Van peers over from where he’s sitting down, chugging a bottle of water.
I don’t want them to feel like they need to check up on me. Sometimes I feel like I’m the youngest in the group, even though David and Kaden beat me by a few months.
I need to be strong. Not only do I want to debut, I want to start my own cat cafe that all my own fans can come to and enjoy. The scratches on my legs, which all turned to light scars, begin to itch. I’ve taken care of a lot of cats in my lifetime.
After the five hour practice, I completely forget about the mirage. I collapse onto the floor of one of the trainee common rooms, rolling over to a comfortable position on the rug.
“Chee! Great minds think alike,” Seiya says. He settles down next to me. In ten minutes, we’ll have to head over to our vocal class.
“Mhm,” I say, closing my eyes.
It feels like a second, but soon Seiya shakes me awake with a panicked look in his eyes. “Dude. We’re late!”
I groan, forcing myself up to a sitting position. I press my wrists against my eyes, trying to understand how ten minutes passed so quickly. Did that weird cat mess up my sense of time or something? “How long did we knock out for?”
“Thirty minutes,” Seiya says. “Shit. Sorry, I should’ve set an alarm or something.”
“No worries, me too.” I take a deep breath and stand, wobbly on my legs from the five hour dance practice.
Ten seconds later, we race to the elevator. Thankfully, no weird trainees this time. I begin to hum one of the melodies that got stuck in my head yesterday.
“You’re really something else,” Seiya says. “How can you sing at a time like this?”
“Well we are heading to singing class,” I say.
He scoffs. “You’re lucky I’m older. More mature and things. Or I would’ve bopped you on the head.”
“You would never,” I say.
Then, the door opens and I race with Seiya to the vocal practice room. I do not look forward to what I’m about to see.
Diane White, the notorious vocal instructor of AWE Entertainment, stares at us like she’s trying to split us apart into tiny pieces. It feels like she can do so if she really tries. I try for a smile and then stop. I don’t think Diane White likes smiles very much.
Even though Seiya’s older, I feel responsible for the whole nap turning into a mini siesta. “Mrs. White! So sorry for missing the first… twenty minutes.”
“Twenty two minutes,” she says. “You and Seiya, meet me at the end of the day. You know where to find me. I’ll make sure those twenty-two minutes come back to bite you.”
I shiver. Next to me, Seiya tries to show no reaction—probably because the other guys are looking. Then he surprises me. He gives Mrs. White a small bow. “Will do, Mrs. White.”
I follow along and almost stumble over myself. Then I take my spot between Kaden and David.
We work on our harmonies, trying our best to sound pleasing to the ear. My voice, scratchy at times, got me through the auditions. I remember the day as Mrs. White corrects us so many times it begins to feel like a time loop.
It was a sunny day in Mililani. I begged my mom to take me to the AWE Entertainment auditions, thinking it would change our lives. Maybe I was right. Maybe I am right.
I want to change my mom’s life. As a single mom and a nurse, she works so many hours that I want her to get those back in the future. I used to think that I’d change her life through coding or inventing something. When I went busking for the first time, I knew I wanted to take the risky route, no matter the cost.
“Are you even thinking of the lyrics?” Mrs. White says. Seconds pass before I realize she’s talking to me.
I straighten my spine. “Oh… did I sing the wrong words?”
“Wrong words?” Mrs. White leans back and gives a bitter laugh to the ceiling. “You might as well have been singing an entirely different song.”
“Sorry,” I say, trying to ignore the way my chest heaves.
Kaden opens his mouth. I know he wants to say something to defend me, but I shake my head, hoping he can hear my thoughts. Not now.
By the end of vocal practice, my throat doesn’t hurt. That has to mean something good, right?
“Did you guys see anything like… when Armani was teaching us?” I say.
The guys all say no, except Van, who stares ahead as we walk to the cafeteria. “No. But I did see something weird in the air when she first walked in?”
“Okay, I didn’t see that.”
“I think we’re just sleep deprived,” Kaden says, rubbing his chin with his pointer finger. “We’re seeing things because we need to be sleeping more than five hours a day.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I say.
At lunch, I grab all the crispy ends of the pizza, and I ignore the other trainees staring at me like I have a problem. I can’t help what kind of piece I like! I skip to the table with the rest of the guys, finally feeling like maybe, by the end of the day, we’ll have our name and our dream won’t feel so far away anymore.
I’m so, so ready for that.
A hush settles throughout the cafeteria. I turn towards the handsome guy walking through the doors. “Oh!” Then I quiet, using my whisper. “Who’s that?”