Christmas had arrived, though perhaps a bit too fast for Evie. She'd spent nearly every free second she had preparing for her performance, but she didn't feel like she was anywhere close to ready. It was her first proper performance and it had to be perfect. Ready or not her performance was in only a few hours.
Her nerves were a mess and she just wanted to spend the rest of the day preparing, but she'd promised her family she'd take a break to hang out with them—but only after her parents tried reassuring her that she would do great and didn't need extra practice. She did sneak in a bit of practice by playing piano and singing carols for everybody in the morning.
Julianne was also over for Christmas since her family didn't really celebrate it and, of course, Evie was very excited to have her best friend there. Julianne was good at calming her down when she was nervous, perhaps even more so than her parents. That morning, however, was a bit different. Sure, Julianne calmed her nerves about the concert but only by giving her something else to be nervous about.
While Evie put away sheet music after her mini performance her family had gone off to gather in the living room again but Julianne had waited around so she and Evie could chat a bit. Evie hadn't noticed until she turned around to head to the living room herself that Julianne was standing right under the mistletoe that her parents—who after nearly 20 years together still couldn't keep their hands off each other—had hung at the base of the stairs. Evie didn't think much of it until Julianne stopped her as she walked past and pointed up.
She was blushing and didn't say anything. Evie didn't really know what she thought about the whole thing, she'd just never thought about anybody like that before, music was her relationship and she had no time to focus on dating or anything. She was 16, most people her age were dating, but she'd never even thought about it and she wasn't even sure if she liked girls or boys. In the end she turned Julianne down, it clearly meant a lot to her but it just meant nothing to Evie. She hated the look of rejection on Julianne's face and hoped it wouldn't damage their friendship.
Still, Julianne tagged along to watch Evie's performance with the rest of her family. The rest of the day before the performance had seemed slightly awkward, but it seemed maybe they'd be able to move past it.
Evie's performance did get off to a rocky start, her nerves got the better of her as the suddenly returned to the performance and the crowd watching. It was a decent turnout, even if half the people there were her family and Julianne. Lots of people to impress.
Her family and Julianne cheered even as she stumbled over her words and focusing on them helped her calm back down and get back on track. Soon enough she found her groove and rocked the stage.
Everybody in attendance seemed to have had a great time and Evie was really excited by the end. She already couldn't wait for her next performance.
Full of ambition Evie went to audition for an even bigger gig at the Karaoke bar, so she went to see the proprietor the next day. She auditioned there before she'd even gotten her gig at the coffeehouse, the proprietor had turned her down, but assured her that if she kept practicing he'd be happy to let her perform someday. Hopefully that day would finally be in her reach, she was pretty confident in the audition and the fact that she had a successful performance under her belt.
Still she was nervous as she watched him trying to decide. After what felt like an eternity he smiled "I did tell you if you improved I'd be happy to have you. You've improved quite a bit, faster than I expected, but perhaps that just a sign of the incredible talent you possess. I'd be happy to have you perform. How's next Wednesday at 9pm?"
She almost blushed at the fact that he thought she could possess such a great talent. "Wow, thank-you. That sounds great."
They finished sorting out the details before Evie left. It would be a 3 hour performance and would run past 11 which was curfew for all teens in town. Apparently it wasn't safe for them to be out late with all the supernatural creatures roaming around. As if Evie didn't live with a witch for a mother and werewolf for a brother, of course they'd never hurt her but neither would anybody else in town—even if they were tempted Evie's parents were spies and would kill anyone who tried to hurt her. She could stay out past curfew if one of her parents was with her, but it was difficult for them to make plans like that because of their jobs. Still she held on to the belief that it would work out just fine.