I

“Does our future as artists matter so little to you that you say she is the best?” Rose asked Tom, pointing a trembling finger at me.

“It’s because I care that I did this!” Tom snapped back, taking an aggressive step toward her. “They were going to kick you out of the division if you didn’t have a candidate by today! But what about you, Rose? Do you really care about EOS’s future?” His voice began to rise. “Your popularity is on the floor thanks to you and your bad temper! There are no more candidates! You threw them all away!”

Rose turned her head arrogantly.

“The President would never expel us, not in a thousand years... for not wanting to devalue her elite group with just anyone,” she replied, lowering her tone. “Don’t blame me for your ineptitude, Tom. I don’t have time to teach them how to play or to plant talent in someone who doesn’t have it.”

The redhead cut her off from where she was: 

“Learn to shut up, Rosie,” she laughed. “Don’t you see that karma is hitting you from all sides? He’s right; everyone left here crying, resentful toward you, calling you a bitch, a tyrant, toxic, and so many other things.”

“W-what do they call me?” Rose faltered, caught off guard. 

“They also call you a controlling harpy; when you go over the line, you’re indefensible, Rose,” Alice added.

Insults flew back and forth, while Ruby rummaged through her bag with disdain.

“These are not my damn cookies,” she grumbled. “Why the hell are they huge and full of chips? I hate chips. I was very specific...”

She involuntarily crushed the packaging, pulverizing the cookies inside the bag with a force equivalent to what I assumed was her frustration; because yes... she had been too detailed in her list… more than normal.

— “Hey, Mia! You really don’t sing or play not a little tiny bit?” she asked smiling, still strangling the bag of cookies.

— “Not a little tiny bit,” I replied.

“♪ C... the girl with a cat, D... a deer, a female deer ♪,” she suddenly crooned, dropping that poor package into her shopping bag with distaste. “Didn’t they teach you this one in kindergarten when you were a baby?” 

“No...”

“♪ E... the pencil for writing, F... the chair where I go ♪,” she continued with a playful cadence. Her fingers flew over the screen sending a message violently; when she finished, she held the phone with the tips of her fingers, as if it were a dirty diaper, and then, simply let it fall next to the cookies, pushing the bag away slowly with her index finger. She narrowed her eyes and smiled at me. “No?”

“No...” I repeated, feeling my ignorance flourish.

“Do you at least like music?” Alice asked. “Any singer?... anything?”

“Yes! At least that!.”

“Good, we’re making progress,” she said smiling.

“♪ That leads us back to C! ♫,” Ruby finished the verse, approaching Tom.

“Ruby… Damn it... Shut up for a minute,” Rose asked, fed up.

“What are you going to do if I don’t?” she replied mockingly, running her fingers through her hair.

“According to what I see...” Luna intervened, reading the contract on the tablet. “Our challenge consists of Mia learning to play an instrument from us and not from an academy... through consistency... and... teamwork?”

“With the power of friendship!” Ruby applauded, laughing.

“There’s also a reality show,” Luna continued. “It seems they will film us on several occasions.”

“My God...” Alice put a hand to her mouth, terrified. “We’re lost. What are we going to do? Rose...”

There was so much trust between the two that Alice didn’t hesitate to cling to her arm, wrinkling her outfit in an attempt to stop the fear that the contract caused her. Rose, in response and even in the middle of her hysteria, gave her hand soft pats to calm her.

“What kind of cheesy nonsense is this, Tom?” Rose asked, without taking her eyes off him. “Was her dream being an artist a week ago?”

“If you don’t sign, they’re going to lose because of you, Rose,” Tom warned. “Sereia will win automatically.”

“It’s not all bad news!” Yvonne exclaimed to break the tension.

“Am I bad news?” I wondered, with bitterness in my throat.

“Since they’ve increased the difficulty of the challenge, the board approved that you compete in the final with a piece composed by you, and not one assigned by CDC.”

The news left them stone-faced, plunged into a silence loaded with doubts. Although my participation meant certain defeat for EOS, I noticed that a fiber moved inside all of them; it must have been something very significant for them to have fallen silent at the same time with that almost submissive attitude.

“As long as Mia composes eight bars. And no silences! No pauses, no repetitions...” Tom completed firmly. “Eight straight bars, complete and with harmonic sense. Ruby,” he said immediately, passing her the tablet.

“We are not signing anything yet,” Rose ordered. “We’ve seen her, take her away. Today we will discuss it and...”

“Oh, oops... I already signed,” Ruby blurted out, returning the tablet to Tom.

“What...? What did you do!” Rose collapsed.

“I got nervous... I’m sorry,” Ruby replied, shrugging.

“You did it on purpose... Why?”

“Now, now...” Ruby put an arm around her and planted a kiss on her cheek. “It’s over now.”

None of us knew why she did it, but one signature was enough to begin. There was no turning back. I was in.

II

The heated voices of Rose and Tom, the faces of Alice and Yvonne, Luna’s presence together with Ruby’s recklessness overstimulated all my senses, making me implode. My mind screamed for them to shut up; I didn’t need to be, once again, the burden on someone’s roof. I wondered what I was doing there until the words lost their meaning.

A subtle pull on my wrist led me to the center of the stairs. 

“Don’t be rude to the guest,” Ruby asked Rose, pulling me without permission.

“Come on, come on,” Tom pushed Rose from behind, “I need a photo for the director.” “Don’t touch me, you cretin,” Rose shook him off with force.

“Where did your finishing school manners go?” Ruby asked, finishing by slamming Rose against me with a shove.

When she bumped into my shoulder, Rose dug her nails through my clothes until they tore my skin. She was bristling like a cat about to fall into the water; she distilled disgust in her gaze, in her voice, in her touch. Everything about her conveyed her repulsion.

“I didn’t go to any finishing school, I went to the same courses as you...” she replied through clenched teeth.

“But didn’t you do the lady’s specialty?”

“That was me,” Alice said, raising her hand.

“Don’t we get a discount if we enroll her as an emergency?” Ruby asked Alice mockingly. “If I insist and they see her, yes they will let us,” Alice replied, considering it seriously. “But they could annul her title if they see her in that state and it would be a new problem.”

I felt a very different caress on my opposite shoulder. It was a soft squeeze, but I shuddered so much that the air left me again. Luna had stood by my side for the photo; her presence was like a silent block of ice. She let go of me as soon as the rest began to approach, and I didn’t dare look at her even once in the middle of that disaster.

My face was burning; it was impossible to hide. I heard the muffled sound of Rose arguing with everyone, but I didn’t understand what she was saying; I went deaf before the weight of my own feelings.

“Look at her, you have the poor thing red with fear,” Ruby said, positioning Rose for the photo. Ruby put her arm around her neck to bring her closer and spoke very low, with a tenderness that at the same time was suffocating: 

“We can never say no to a photo... can we, Rosie?”

Rose remained quiet, fuming, but finally silent. Ruby’s words had acted as a sedative for her pride. Rose blinked hard and her face adopted an elegant, firm, and calm expression, directed toward Tom.

“Take it, Tom!” Ruby exclaimed.

The flash exploded, capturing the first uncomfortable moment among the five. And to top it off, I closed my eyes.

“Look, I’m not going to beg you,” Tom said urgently when his phone began to vibrate. “If you have complaints, go negotiate with the director yourselves; I’m tired of defending you.” He hesitated for a second before sliding his finger across the screen to accept the call.

“Hello... Yes. No, I haven’t been able to leave here yet,” he replied tensely, walking toward the exit. “Ruby, I’m leaving this mishap to you. Make sure she reaches her room alive, at least.” “Sure,” she answered with an indecipherable smile.

“Choose her instrument and send me the initiation plan by voice note,” Tom added, more worried about the call than about me.

“He fled,” Ruby said, watching Tom’s back move away from the door.

Yvonne approached Ruby and carefully tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“We know Tom’s interests; try not to let them demotivate you.”

“Mmhmm...” Ruby replied. “I’ll take care of her, leave her to me. Call me when you arrive.”

“Of course, honey.”

I didn’t even notice the exact moment in which Tom disappeared with Yvonne. Questions crushed my head, one after another, out of control: Why would their own manager want to harm them? What the hell am I doing here? Why did he lie to them about me? I was afraid to turn around. I didn’t want to be there. Emily was right. My mother was also right about me. Nobody wants me in this house; I’m a parasite that is going to ruin their lives. Panic began to close my throat. I have to call Tom. I have to call him and…

“Shall I help you with that?”

That sweet voice sounded again right behind me. With my heart hammering my ribs, I risked turning around. Everyone had left but Ruby. She was waiting for me, holding my luggage with all the naturalness in the world.

“What a day you had, poor little thing. You must have no energy left to carry your luggage up to the attic by yourself, right? Let me carry it for you.”

“The... attic?” I repeated, because I was very sure I had misheard. “I’m going to live in an attic?”

“They didn’t tell you?” And there I met her hateful laugh. “Welcome to String Woods, Mia.”