34 Julie

Julie, the arrogant girl looked at him, smiled and left. Both of them were confident on their capabilities to win so it was useless to talk about it, she thought she would show him where her arrogance came from by winning and he was thinking the same.

After her another person came in the room, she had a label on her chest so everybody knew she worked for the production team and she said

« As it is everybody's first time here you are probably unaware of the rules so I'll explain it for you, contrary to the other rounds you won't be seeing your opponents's performance on the TV as it will be turner off now, any question ? »

« Why ? »

Said a guy sitting alone in a corner of the room, he was a dancer just like that Moussa guy that arrived last.

« Dont think too deeply about it, as it's the final round the judges want to see you at your peak level and we realized that by using this method the contestants are usually more focused, that's all. »

Sam didn't care anymore and just put his earphones back on and focused, this small annoying intervention was thrown aside while he was getting his mindset ready for the show. During that small conversation the first contestant was led the the stage, he was a relatively young man: around 30 years old. He performed a beautiful and mysterious magic trick using playing cards and roses petals while applauses could be heard in the waiting room making the other contestants pressured, they started to realize what this new rule was made for.

Today was the reunion of the 10 most talented of the show, each one of them could be a celebrity but didn't have had the opportunity yet. Each one of them understood that if they didn't try their hardest they would never be the champion.

After the magician was done on stage he was guided back to the waiting room, he was apparently happy of his performance and of the reaction he had got from the audience so he came back wearing a shining smile on his face, it could also be a trick to pressure his opponents more, by showing them he was confident in his performance. Since they couldn't judge by themselves they weakest minds would believe that he actually performed really well, everybody was trying to guess if it was bluff or not while Sam was still focusing on his song and didn't even look at the magician.

Meanwhile the second contestant was sent on stage, then the third, the fourth...

Finally the fifth was Julie, she threw a glance at Sam before going, she knew that he wasn't interested in the rest of the contestants as he didn't look up from his phone even once during the wait but she thought that he would be interested in her at least as she was his main opponent.

She just pouted and left with the camera following her, she arrived on the stage and was greeted by one of the judges

"Julie, good evening !"

"Good evening judges."

As she had been made in a bad mood by Sam she didn't smile much and answered lightly, she wanted to perform fast and have the result faster to show him who was the best out of the finalists batch.

"You look really focused tonight haha, we won't talk too long to let you perform but before that tell us, who do you think will win the show ?"

"Of course me, there is no doubt about that."

Once again she showed her high mastery of arrogance, the judges had seen quite a few people like her so they didn't react much but one amongst them looked at her mockingly, he was the one that had became one of Sam's fans, he didn't believe that she could win at all, instead he was impatient to see how Sam would surprise them tonight.

"Hahah being confident is nice, then tell me: what will you sing for us tonight ?"

"Once again I'll sing an original, the name is: Black Roses. It's about me and the life I've lived until now."

Hearing that the judge didn't answer and just nodded at her to tell her to start, she also nodded to the MC and started her song. The instrumental was very slow with the main instruments being the violin and the piano, the song talked about a rose that was left aside by the rest of the roses and had to grow aside in solitude, of course the black rose wasan analogy of herself.

The crowd kept quite and listened, the lyrics had a strong impact on them. They understood that she had probably been bullied by other girls in school, they also understood why her attitude was so bad.

After awhile she was done singing, first a female judge stood up and clapped, following her the rest of the judges also stood up and finally everybody in the crowd stood up. She was having a standing ovation, everybody was standing while clapping, yelling or whistling.

In the waiting room the rest of the contestants also heard the deafening noise, most of them threw all hope away, no one of the contestants that went before her had had such strong cheering.

/

/

/

Back in the stage room, one of the female judges said

"I love the way you tell your stories, I almost wasted my make up by crying because of you ! Hahah"

Her eyes had reddened a bit and she spoke with a shaking voice, some insensitive people thought she was overreacting but then she kept speaking

"I know very well how you feel, during my high school years I also went through that. You have to create a protective shell around you and that make you even more lonely, if you can't take it and need someone to talk to you can call me."

That's when everybody understood, who could understand her more than someone that had been through the same thing ?

"Thank you very much."

This time she wasn't as expressionless as before, she even let out a bit of a smile, a smile that looked honest for once.

After a bit more of talk she was sent back to the waiting room, this round was similar to the previous one as no one will have the results until the judges had talked and decided who was the final winner, before that though they had to see all the performances.

After awhile the sixth contestant was sent on stage, the seventh, then the eighth and finally it was Sam's turn. The turns were in order of who arrived first in the waiting room, as Sam was second to last he was also second to last to go on stage.

As usual he was guided on stage while being followed by the cameras, he was dressed with the silver suit made by Rena. Tonight he was more handsome than ever before, how did he know it ?

He had checked his stats while waiting for his turn:

Name : Sam Petit

Age : 19 years

Job : Singer

Status : None

Title : None

Stats :

Strength : 8 (+10)

Agility : 6

Speed : 10

Intelligence : 10

Leadership : 4 (+1)

Charisma : 8 (+15)

Luck : 18 (+5)

Skills :

Level one boxing book.

Level three singing book.

Level one guitar book.

Level one Muay Thai skill book.

Level two Rap skill book.

Level two catwalk skill book.

Inventory : OPEN.

Shop : OPEN.

During the semi finals his charisma stat was at 7, now he actually reached 8 and guessed that the look thought by Rena had a role in the gain of that point.

Now wasn't the time to think about that, he walked to the center of the stage and greeted the judges with a smile, he was getting closer and closer to the end of his trip to Paris and was getting impatient to go back.

"Good evening judges."

"Sam, a pleasure to see you again !"