Chapter 1:
       Finding Me

Indigo's P.O.V

             I can hear the crowd calling my name... Indigo! Indigo! Indigo! I stood up on stage, finally realizing who I was destined to be. When I began to sing, every emotion that was kept inside of me came pouring out. The feelings that came rushing out of me, the adrenaline coursing through my veins, the tighteness of my heart, the excited churning of my stomach- the spotlight was truly the one place I was meant to bask in.

"Indigo! Indigo! INDIGO!!"
             I shook my head, rapidly blinking my eyes to pull myself out of my daydream. As soon as my mind and reality adjusted itself, I found myself in the hallway of my high school. Standing before me was my best friend, Haley, who was waving her hands frantically in front of me and while saying, "Earth to Indigo!" Haley was a loyal friend that I met in freshman year. Unlike me, she is so adorable and it's hard to hate her.  Her light brown eyes narrowed, though they shined through her thin black-framed glasses and she flipped her long, light brown hair over her shoulder so that it fell down her back to her waist, which was to emphasize her hands on hips are-you-on-this-planet look. 
"Huh? Oh, mianhae," I apologized sheepishly. Okay, so Haley and I are huge Kpop fans and we watch a lot of Korean dramas, which was why we sometimes speak Korean to each other despite not having one drop of Korean blood in either of us. My top bias band is SHINee, and I am completley in love with Choi Minho. Haley likes SHINee as well, but she's more into the boy band Teen Top and is head over heels for L.joe. Overall, we picked up a lot of Korean words just by watching and spazzing, even though we're /sadly/ not Korean.
"Gwenchana. I'm going back to role playing this week so you must must must join now!" Haley replied with an excited glint in her eyes. Ah, role playing~ It's pretending to be someone you're not, in Haley's case, a Kpop celebrity. I really enjoy role playing and based on what Haley told me, it seemed like a lot of fun, and I looked forward to checking her roleplay out. 
"Thanks." I replied with a small smile.
"No problem, but now I have to go to class."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye bye~" With a wave, Haley headed to her class and I turned towards the library with a sigh. I really missed Haley. Now that I'm a sophomore and we have different classes, I barley see her. I missed those freshman days, sleeping in classes, passing notes, pretending to do work. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm a 90 student, but it's just that some days I like to laze off and relax. Come on, all nerds do- don't even try to deny it. However, learning is still very important and I have to keep my grades up. If not, my parents will beat the crap out of me. Yep, I got strict parents, but it's good sometimes. At least I know I'll have a future someday. I  stepped inside the library, where I usually spent my free hours escaping into the world of my fantasies and write stories that came straight out of my dreams. My mind sizzed with imagination, which would explain my constant urge to write. Don't you remember when you were small and watching Barney, and how it always said to use your imagination? I guess I watched too much of that show.

           I was always a shy person. Well, not so shy, but somewhat shy. Whenever someone asks me a question, I respond, and it isn't 'mission impossible' for me to make friends. It's just that I'm kind of a wallflower, always staying quiet- most people barely even notice me. However, once I get to know you, I won't be shy around you. I guess I'm just afraid people won't accept me as me. If I have something on my mind, I'd keep my mouth shut and when people piss me off, I just hold it in without biting back. Not just with strangers, but with friends and family as well. 
"Excuse me." Someone called, lightly tapping my shoulder and pulling me out of my train of thought.
"Huh?" I asked with slightly widened eyes, a bit startled.
"The period is over," The librarian, I soon realized, informed.
"Oh, thanks." I replied to the librarian. I quickly gathered my things and headed out the door. As soon as the bell rang, I began sprinting to class. Can you believe the library is on the last floor of the building and I have class on the first floor? I entered the classroom as soon as the late bell rang and the teacher, with her arms crossed over her chest and stare that could seriously be used to kill, said tauntingly, "Late."
"Sorry," I mumbled sheepishly.
"Take a seat," Was all she said in return before turning to the board to begin her lesson. I bowed my head a bit before scurrying over to my usual seat by the the window. Taking a deep breath, I settled in my seat and my eyes couldn't resist the urge to stare outside. I always loved looking outside and dozing off during class, thus making the window seat my favorite. However, that's only if I get the chance to. My teacher has a for torturing students by giving miles and miles worth of notes, and to add the cherry on top, she onlys gives a nano second to allow the students to copy all of them.
           After the rest of my school day prologued, I skipped outside the gates and headed towards the blue, rusty mailbox by the corner of the sidewalk. That's the trademark meeting place for my friends and I. As soon as I spotted Haley, I dropped my head to signal how downhill my day went from our five second encounter.
"Bad day?" She asked knowingly as I caught up to her and we began to walk.
"Yep," I answered with a heavy sigh.
"Asher?" She guessed, raising an eyebrow. The name momentarily brought a tornado of emotions within me, but I quickly pushed it away.
"No, I barely see him anymore." I answered, surprised at myself for keeping my tone so even.
"Then what?" She asked curiously, slightly tilting her head to the side.
"I was daydreaming in the library and I was late to class, Unnie."
"Chincha? Ha!" She bursted out laughing and poked my shoulder teasingly. 
"Shut up~" I whined childishly with a pout. "So how was class?"
After wiping a fake tear away, she calmed down and answered with a dramatic sigh, "The same as always." 
"How's Aaron?" I asked, a knowing grin helplessly forming on the corner of my lips.
A light tint of pink highlighted her cheeks and she cleared , "Shut up, I don't like him anymore! My heart belongs to L.joe~" 
"What happened to Taemin?" I asked chuckling in reference to her previous bias, Lee Taemin.
"He's still there, but I like L.joe more now."
"Poor Taemin." We both laughed light heartily and continued to converse the rest of our walk home.  

              Ah Asher, my old crush. I barely see him, and I guess if I was as exposed to him as I was in the past, I might even still like him. Then again, just yesterday I saw a glimpse of him and my heart started racing in my chest. I could barely breathe! What the hell? So yeah... Maybe my feelings aren't as faded as I hoped they would be. I've been secretly in love with him since the sixth grade- sad right? Well, it was more towards the end of the year. At first, you can say I hated his guts. Then eventually, I started thinking he was cute. One faithful day we played a board game together and joked around and had tons of fun. Thus, my crush on him was born.
"But seriously, what about Asher?" Haley asked curiously.
"I'm trying to forget him."
"Ha!" She said, mocking a laugh.
"What?"
"You and I both know it's physically and mentally impossible to forget~" She said, sticking her tongue out playfully. I returned the sticking tongue before we both realized our fork in the road was coming. After a friendly grin and wave, we went our separate ways.
                    The first thing I did as soon as I entered my home, I checked the mail. "Mom, dad, dad, dad, mom, oh me." I blinked in surprise and stared at the letter addressed to me. I didn't recognize the sender, which was odd. Oh well. With an easy shrug, I opened it up and read it:

Dear Indigo Torres,

            You have been invited to join J.M Entertainment! With your high standard grades and background on having talent, it will be an honor for you to join our company. You might even become the next kpop star! You will automatically be administered to the St. Rose Academy for talented students. There, we will provide education, lessons, shelter and food. Please take our offer, you won't regret it! This is a once in a life chance. If you do accept, please call just so we can send you your plane tickets. You have two weeks to think about it. Please choose wisely.

                                          From J.M Entertainment.

                 My jaw dropped and my voice seemed to have left me, for I couldn't form a single word. I dropped the letter on the floor like a traumatized child, and rationality came back to me- telling me that this must be a joke. It couldn't be possible, how did this even happen? I don't remember ever auditioning for a company,  especially this one since I never even heard of it. I shook my head to gather my thoughts, bent down to pick up the letter, placed the letter in my bag and headed upstairs to my apartment. I pulled out my keys and slipped it into my door's lock. As usual, my greeting was the same. Silence. Putting down my bag, I went straight towards my laptop and turned it on. I don't have rich parents, but they have to work day and night in order to meet debts and such. I'm lucky enough to have all my necessities covered, though. Curiously, I searched up this 'famous' J.M Entertainment and found nothing. The only thing that came up was  "Did you mean: JYP Entertainment?" along with several links concerning JYP. I went over to my bag and pulled out the letter, then quickly skimmed through it. Turning back to my laptop, I then typed in "St. Rose Academy". There, I got a link. 'Finally!' I thought. I eagerly clicked the link and soon, a school website popped up. The website looked really neat, with organized blogs and schedules for upcoming events. An article caught my eyes, and it seemed as though the enrollment into the school was a very difficult process. The more and more I read, the more my curiousity grew. 'Could this really be true?' I just shook it off as a joke, but the letter staring up at me, calling me, seemed so official and, well, real. Exasperated, I grabbed my phone, wondering whether to call Haley or not. Suddenly my phone rang, catching me off guard as I saw the hidden caller ID. Uncertainly, I answered it.   
"Hello?"
"Miss Torres, you have been scheduled to meet Mr. Yong tomorrow at seven A.M, please don't be late. We have already talked to your parents and school. The limo will arrive at seven in front of your house. Thank you and have a nice day." A female, monotone voice annouced.
           A beep was heard, and I quickly hung up. My eyes widened as I tried to process everything, my gaze trailing to the letter. This is no joke. This is real.

Haley's P.O.V 

                  Playing with the strap of my bag, I trudged my way home. I looked up to the sky and watched clouds lazily float by, without a care in the world. My gaze slowly travelled down to what was in front of me, only to meet eyes with Aaron. This caused me to stop in my tracks. My stomach made an uneasy turn and my throat unconsciously gulped- reminding me of the crush I used to have on him. Was I high on something, or just really sick in the head? Once upon a time, he was that cute new guy that talked to me because I was too shy to converse with anyone else. Then, as if by magic, he became really really popular and probably forgot all about my existence. I quickly shook my head to brush away any old memories that I told myself to bury away, and averted my gaze. He probably didn't even see me, anyways. Luckily, a familiar voice shouted, "Boo!" and shook me away from my thoughts. I looked up to meet the grinning face of Melinda, a good friend of mine since middle school. Her hair was naturally straight and a beautiful shade of light brown, something I always found myself envious of, and she was only an inch taller than me with fair skin that brought out her dark brown eyes. She bumped shoulders with me and announced proudly, "Finally! I changed my schedule!"
"Why?" I asked, lightly furrowing my eyesbrows together and tilting my head in interest. 
"Really, must you ask?" She said with a teasing roll of her eyes. 
I chuckled and replied, "Right right~ So you really got into medical science?"
"Yeah~ It took some convincing, but I'm very firm. All I had to do was drop art."

My bottom lip puffed out into a pout, "Aww, so we won't have art together anymore?"

She patted my head and said, "Don't worry, child. We still math and science and all those other classes together~" 

With a light laugh, I replied, "Ah~ Arasso." I let out a small gasp, covering my mouth sheepishly. Oops, I really need to stop slipping Korean terms into my conversations with non-kpopers. 

"What?" She asked, obviously confused.
"It means fine in Korean~"
She rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed, "Okay Haley, you know me better to know that I do not watch Korean drama nonsense."
I giggled and said, "I know you go anime all the way."
"Yup! Hey, can I come your house?"
"Oh, sure."
"Thanks."

With our conversation still bustling, we walked all the way to my house which was found in a quiet neighborhood with more daycares then domiciles. Skipping up the steps of my four-apartment building, I pulled out my keys and twirled them around my finger as we made our way to my door. After jiggling my key into the lock and defeating the stubborn knob, we were able to enter into my house.

"Anyone home?" Melinda asked, raising an eyebrow as I switched on the lights.

"Ha, like anyone ever is," I replied with a chuckle. We headed over to my living room and settled down. "Homework?" I suggested like the nerd I am.

"Sure thing, let's get it over with so we could read some manga." We laughed, then pulled out our books.

"Oh right, the mail! You can start, I'll be back," I told Melinda, who nodded as I skipped out of my apartment. Humming a soft tune, I went over to the mailboxes and scanned for mine. Finding it, I opened it and pulled out the envelopes and magazines inside. Of course, most of the stack was for my parents. However, what caught my eyes was my name printed on a fancy looking envelope. Hm... A college letter? Isn't it too early to get those? Confused, but still curious, I opened it:

Dear Haley Kazi,

            You have been invited to join J.M Entertainment! With your high standard grades and background on having talent, it will be an honor for you to join our company. You might even become the next kpop star! You will be administered to the St. Rose academy for talented students. There, we will provide education, lessons, shelter and food. Please take our offer. This is a once in a lifetime chance. If you do accept, please call us so we can send you your plane tickets immediatley. You have two weeks to think about it. Please choose wisely.

                                          From J.M Entertainment.

                  I read the letter as I made my way back to my apartment, but once I reached inside as well as the  end of the letter, I was frozen in place- head to toe in shock. Melinda came over and took the letter away from me to read it for herself. She let out a surprised laugh and said, "You? A celebrity?" I was still in shock. Me? A kpop star? Hah! I doubt I can even carry a tune, and I have two left feet! Although, there was this one time when Indigo, a friend of ours named Lily, and I attempted to audition for S.M Entertainment. Since we were all busy at the time, we soon gave up. Melinda lightly slapped me across the back of my head with the paper and sang, "Earth to Haley~!!"
"Sorry." I apologized, half of my mind still in a daze.
"Are you thinking of taking the offer? There's a stamp and everything, so it might be real..."
I took a deep breath and cleared my mind to allow realisitc thoughts to swim in. "Nah, it's probably a joke." I finally answered, taking the letter back and putting it in my book bag. Yup, probably a joke. With a final shake of my head, I headed straight to my room. Melinda came behind me, looking around like she hasn't seen my place at all. It was then I realized this was the first time she came in here since I re-painted my room. The girly, eye-sore pink was gone, only to be replaced with a calm, soothing dark violet. "Oh yeah, I remodelled," I told her, her confused expression easing up. She stepped in as I asked her, "So, what would you like to eat There are snacks everywhere."

She shook her head and replied, "No thanks, maybe later." She sat on my bed, then laid down on the soft comforter. I sat on the chair in front of my desk, propping up my leg and resting my chin on my knee. Looking to her side, Melinda's eyes narrowed at my large teddy bear. Her eyes trailed up to me as they shrunk into slits. "And you wonder why I call you childish."

I chuckled, then sang happily, "I am a child in a teenage body~"  

She sat up and poked my head, "Snap out of it." 

I pouted, rubbing the place she poked, "Don't wanna!" I stuck out my tongue and pulled the skin under my eye.

WHACK! I stumbled back on the chair as Melinda laughed her head off, holding up the pillow she just hit me with. "Ohhh~ You wanna play like that, huh?" Melinda whacked me again, causing another eruption of laughter. Quickly, I grabbed the nearest pillow and whacked her back. Thus, a pillow fight broke out.

We laughed as we attacked each other, having the time of our lives. Although we seemed distracted, my mind kept trailing back to the letter. Something told me to give it a shot, even if common sense pointed the other way. .... Should I?