Thea didn’t even need to think to know who was the one who did this to her. She cried and yelled and rapped the door with all her strength. In the end, she collapsed onto the floor against the wall, feeling extremely lost.
Was this industry so horrible? She hadn’t even officially become a star yet, and people had already started to treat her like this.
Thea couldn’t even imagine what would happen to her when she officially became a celebrity.
Meanwhile, Thea’s team had started the practice in the studio without her. They tried to find Thea a couple of minutes ago, but Thea hadn’t even shown up in the canteen during lunch. None of them knew where she was when their phones had all been taken away.
There were only hours before the stage, and they needed to polish their performance before the official competition. They couldn’t afford to wait anymore.
Paris walked into the dancing studio during the practice, followed by a group of cameramen.
“Hi, Paris!”
“Hello, Paris.”
“It’s good to see you, Paris.” The girls greeted her.
Paris nodded and smiled, “How are you guys’ during rehearsal? Can I see the result a bit?”
Paris’s cat-like eyes scanned across the beautiful faces of the girls, “Where’s Thea? Is she late?”
Being late was a major issue during the practice. It meant the one who came late was rude and did not give value to other people’s schedules. If the judge thought that person didn’t have the right attitude or respect toward the show, that person could be kicked out of the show.
The girls exchanged a look and fell silent.
Thea was late, and she was a powerful competitor. Getting her eliminated meant they would all have a bigger chance to win.
But after spending a whole day together, they all grew to like Thea.
“Thea didn’t feel well after lunch,” one of the girls said, “She’s probably still feeling sick right now.”
Paris frowned. How could these girls be so stupid? She thought they would take the chance to get rid of Thea Todd.
“Yeah.” Another girl said, “Thea’s been feeling sick since last night. We asked her to lie down a bit. She’s probably feeling too much pressure from this performance.”
Paris finally found a good excuse, “Showbiz is a high-pressured job. If she couldn’t take it, then I don’t see…”
“I’m sorry!” Thea suddenly showed up at the door, “I’m sorry that I’m a bit late.”
On hearing Thea’s voice, Paris tightly clenched her fists. If Thea showed up right now, then she would suddenly be transformed from Miss Spoiled to Miss Tough. Audiences would love her because she still struggled for the sake of her dream even when she was sick.
However, there were too many cameras, and Paris couldn’t act like a bitch no matter how much she hated Thea. Some people online had started to criticize her because she had tried to give Thea a hard time so many times.
So Paris forced out a smile, “Honey, how are you feeling right now? Much better?”
Thea thought for a moment. The girls must have lied to Paris because she was late.
Did they tell Paris that she was sick? They must do it.
Thea thus nodded, “I feel much better. I think I’m ready for practice now.”
“Good,” Paris pretended to be all kind and caring. “Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”
Thea thought she was gonna throw up.
As unpleasant as Paris’s presence made her feel nauseated, Thea still tried very hard to finish the rehearsal.
The girls all taught her, helping her to perfect all the details.
They grabbed some snacks during the break. And then, Dylan suddenly came to visit them, bringing a lot of low-cal snacks for them. For some reason, Candace was also with him.
“Sorry, low-cal must be boring. But you’ve got to sacrifice for your dream sometimes, right?” Dylan charmingly smiled as he handed Thea a small bag of chips.
Thea felt tongue-tied as she looked into his piercing blue eyes.
Candace noticed that, and her face fell. After Dylan walked out of the studio, the girls started to giggle and talk about how beautiful Dylan looked in this closeup.
Candace pulled Thea into a corner, whispering as she ensured the cameras wouldn’t get them, “Not cool, sister.”
“Huh?” Thea still couldn’t recover from the haze Dylan had just brought her.
“I thought you had a crush on my brother. I look forward that you can be my brother’s girlfriend,” Candace didn’t seem happy, “You can’t daydream about Dylan. It’s pretty irresponsible.”
“Um… Who am I responsible for, exactly?” Thea’s eyebrow frowned, “Besides, you can’t tell a girl that she’s not allowed to daydream about Dylan. It’s basically against the constitution. Everyone has the right to daydream about Dylan as long as they have boobs or dig men. You can’t tell me that I can’t.”
“Girl…” Candace put a hand on Thea’s shoulder, “I respect your argument, but I definitely will tell Cody about this.”
What was she gonna do with the twins? They were giving her so much pressure. Thea rolled her eyes.
****
The last few hours passed extremely quickly.
All the teams were ready for the show. Thea was still trying to rehearse the choreography in her head when she did makeup in the waiting room. Apart from the judges, there were about 500 audience members in the hall who would vote for them later. They could be in serious danger if they couldn’t win their heart.
Online voting also took a larger percentage, just as before. Thea thus didn’t worry Paris would give her too much hard time.
Other teams finished their performances quite quickly.
Soon, it was Thea’s team’s turn when they got on the stage. All their fans started to scream.
A big smile appeared on Thea’s face as she heard her fans screaming her name.
She suddenly felt a huge surge of power in her chest and promised to give her best for this performance.
This was probably the best feeling in the whole world.