During the competition
The judges were already calculating the scores and counting the votes.
“Mia, Mia” Mia heard a voice in her head. She looked around and couldn’t find the source of the voice. It was clearly Lakshmi’s voice.
“Mia get me out of this closet please I can’t be stuck in here any longer. I might suffocate” the voice kept on paying in her head before it stopped suddenly.
“Closet? What closet could she be talking about?” Mia was thinking.
“And it’s time for us to call the final results” the judges announced before there was a complete power outage.
Mia was getting really uneasy, she had to leave the hall immediately.
As she walked down the hallway and around the school premises, she heard someone banging on the door of the janitor’s closet. She was frightened.
“Who is in there?” She knocked on the door.
“Mia, Mia is that you? Please get me out of here” Lakshmi kept on hitting the door with the palm of her hands from inside.
“Lakshmi, you are in there?” Mia tried to open the door but someone had locked the door and taken the key away. She had to break the lock of the door.
“Lakshmi, please move back. I don’t want you to get hurt” Mia instructed Lakshmi as she was trying to break down the door. She succeeded and was able to get Lakshmi out.
“Lakshmi, why were you in the closet?” Mia was asking her but Lakshmi was in a haste.
” Forget about that Mia, I have to get ready now” Lakshmi left Mia and just then the lights turned back on.
Lakshmi quickly put on her costume, her hair was already made and her makeup didn’t take much time.
“And the winner is..” one of the judges was announcing when Lakshmi came out on stage.
“You cannot announce a winner yet we haven’t even performed” Lakshmi was breathing quite heavily, trying to catch her breath.
Murmurs could be heard in the background.
“I’m sorry dear but we can’t, the competition is over” one of the female judges said to Lakshmi.
“What team is she?” A male judge spoke.
“Where did you even come from and didn’t you hear when we announced your team.?” Another female judge said, shaking her head in disagreement.
“Please leave the stage so we can announce the winner” the first judge to speak out told Lakshmi who was disappointed and was about to leave. Bella was finding it very difficult to hold back your happiness.
“You cannot do that because according to the rules and regulations of this competition, every participant present must perform before a winner is declared unless the competition is declared void” Mia who was also on stage brought out the form that they filled to enter the competition. She came down from the stage and showed the judges what the clause stated.
“And in addition, any late participant would be given 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes as a punishment” Mia stated as well.
Lakshmi, Grace and Juliet were silently praying within them that the judges were wrong and Mia was right.
The judges whispered amongst themselves before the female judge who sat in the middle finally spoke into the small microphone in front of her.
“You have just 10 minutes to perform” she leaned back on her chair and Lakshmi smiled at Mia. The stage lights immediately went dim and Lakshmi was in the spotlight, she started to perform and it was then after that Grace and Juliet joined her on stage to dance as according to the dance rehearsals initially.
The dance told a story and showed a lot of talent, the judges were amazed, even the crowd thought it was the best dance performance so far.
“I think they are going to win,” one girl in the crowd, standing next to an angry Bella, said.
Bella wasn’t going to accept defeat so easily, she went backstage while the girls were still dancing, Mia had been monitoring her. Bella cut her beaded necklace and threw it on stage, from behind the curtains without anyone’s notice, causing the three girls to fall on the floor.
Everyone gasped, their dance was going well and it was ruined and Bella was satisfied. She went to stand with her friends who were smiling inwardly at Lakshmi’s downfall.
Mia felt their pain, she didn’t want them to be embarrassed so she just wore lakshmi’s skirt from her other costume and covered herself with a veil then she went on stage with a broom to sweep off the beads, before helping all three girls on their feet.
She managed to convince the audience that it was all part of the performance, with a veil covering her face, Mia joined the girls to dance.
She knew all the dance steps and no one could even tell that she wasn’t even meant to perform on stage. The girls took a bow after their performance and then they got a standing ovation from the audience.
Bella was so upset that she walked away from her friends. The judges were also amazed and also gave them a standing ovation. Bella’s face finally lit up when one of the judges looked at their form and asked everyone to stop.
“You cheated,” he shouted to the audience. Everyone including the other judges were confused.
“Why?, How?” The female judge asked.
“In their form it is clearly stated as 3 participants where did the fourth person come from” the judge was explaining to the audience. The whole competition was complicated. Mia who filled the form came down from the stage to take the form from him.
“Not really sir, it says three or four” Mia pointed out the “/4” that the man’s finger was covering.
He noticed his mistake and clarified it at once, the performance was over and it was time to give scores.
All the three judges scored their performance 10/10 making a total of 30 marks from the judges, they just needed an extra 20 from the audience’s vote to complete 50 marks.
The way the female judge shook her head once the vote calculations were brought to her scared the three girls except for Mia who seemed to be in a world of her own.
“And there is a change in the results as you may have all guessed. So for today’s dance competition, in third place we have the stallion group, please a round of applause for them. They had a total of 40 marks.