Episode 60: Scene Two
The tears began flowing so quickly that Amber had no time to hide them. She quickly pushed her way through the crowd to get as far away from the stage as she could. Everything that she'd been working for during the past year was gone. Her hard work had amounted to nothing.
"Amber, wait!"
The voice nearly caused Amber to halt, but she didn't allow herself to think or talk. She just wanted to get away from it all. Her pride had taken its final bruise. Never again would she set herself up for such disaster.
Francesca easily overtook the slower girl. She placed herself in Amber's path, forcing her to stop. "We need to talk."
"I'm not going to talk to you! Get the h*ll away from me!" Amber shrieked, shoving Francesca into the stand and continuing her flight.
Just as she thought she was finally getting away, Francesca overtook her again. "You can't run away from me. It's time for you to face facts, Amber: you lost. That's it. It's done. It's over. Deal with it."
Amber's hand flew out and struck the side of Francesca's face so powerfully that it let out a sharp crack. "Stay away from me, Francesca. I'm not in the mood to hear anything you have to say."
Francesca almost let Amber walk away, but then she ran up and grabbed her arm. She spun Amber around and faced her with an air about her that no one had ever seen before. "You are going to listen to me, Amber. Both of us lost the title. Sure, it's not the best feeling in the world, but I'm sure that both of us will get over it. It's just a stupid popularity contest."
"I've already been through this with you," Amber growled through clenched teeth, then jerked her arm out of Francesca's grip. "I told you that it's not just a contest. What makes it better is that my mother was coming down here for a victory celebration. I guess she won't see too much celebrating from my end of the spectrum."
"Just talk to her about it. Get her to understand that it's not as important as she makes it out to be."
"My mother doesn't listen to me. She has her standards and she expects them to be reached, or else. I don't have near enough patience to even start to get through to her. But that's no matter anymore. I just don't friggin' care!" Amber began power walking away from Francesca.
Francesca jogged along side of her. "Yes you do, Amber. You care and you know it. If you don't face it and realize that, then you'll never be able to move on with your life."
Amber stopped. She faced Francesca with a hand on her hip. "And just how do you presume I will be able to do that?"
"Get another hobby!"
Amber let out a groan and continued walking. Francesca caught up with her again and continued to push the issue. "Take up piano! Maybe even art! Wait, I've heard that you have an excellent voice!"
"Why are you concerned about what I'm going to do? Last time I checked you hated me."
"I do," Francesca admitted, "but I don't want Karen to have to go through what I had to. You have some serious issues that you need to resolve, so just take a break from this whole Miss Midway thing to deal with them."
"You don't understand. You just don't understand!" Amber shouted, no longer able to control her emotions. She took off running before Francesca had a chance to get any more words out of her mouth.
Francesca let out an exasperated sigh as she watched Amber disappear behind a hill in front of the dorms. She then straightened herself up. "I'm not going to let you keep on hurting people like you do. It's time for you to be stopped."