[hr][hr][center][h3][b][color=42A9FF]April Flynn[/color][/b][/h3][img]https://media.tenor.com/nt4r06puxAsAAAAd/sydney-sweeney.gif[/img][hr][b][color=42A9FF]Location:[/color][/b] the Gym - Training Room B w/ Ser Nemo and Usagi
[b][color=42A9FF]Skills:[/color][/b] Hydrokinesis
[url=https://imagesvc.meredithcorp.io/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.onecms.io%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F6%2F2019%2F07%2Flittle-mermaid-cartoon-21518-39-2000.jpg]~Auditions Fit~[/url][hr][hr][/center]	To say that April had had a roller coaster of a first day of school had been an understatement. 

	She was exhausted, physically if not emotionally, when she got up that morning. She'd always been somewhat of a night owl, cursing the 7:30 AM start times of the classes at the academy, but classes started that early in just about every high school in the country. The Margaret Carter Institute was no exception. Her nerves had woken her up at almost 6:30 that morning, preventing her from receiving anymore nourishing sleep. She only knew what time it was by quickly tapping at her laptop screen. Her phone had been totally destroyed in what had happened yesterday... and she hadn't told her parents yet that she needed a new one. 

	Her plan had been to wake up when Mads' alarm went off, but her anxiety had demanded something else. 

	She knew every beat in the routine she had choreographed in the pool that summer. Her annoying little sister - April never did find out if Zelda was alright or not, after everything had happened - had been convinced after much pleading and begging to help April with her costume. She could've bought one online, but she knew that her sister could make things that were higher quality. Zelda even knew what sites to look at for the wig, which April had painstakingly brushed out as soon as she finished her morning skincare routine. 

	Her skin was peeling from the sunburns Danni had given her yesterday. 

	April felt so incredibly unattractive. No wonder Leah and Sabine.... 

	She couldn't let those thoughts distract her. She had to focus. Did she remember the words to the song? Yes. The movements? Yes. Was second place the first to lose, the immortal words of the infamous Abby Lee Miller? Yes. Even though they weren't going to be ranked here. They were just going to be sorted onto teams for the Contest of Champions and if April did badly, then she'd be put on a team of people who [i]also[/i] did badly, meaning her chances of winning were ruined. She only had two shots left at the crown. 

	And April could not STAND to lose. 

	She had to WIN. 

	But her mind felt more like a tsunami by the time it was her turn in the audition room. April fixed her wig one last time, forcing a smile onto her face as she looked at her friends. Dori and Danni would both have their auditions not too long after hers. [color=42A9FF]"Time to go crush this, be right back besties!"[/color] 

	Then, with some difficulty, April entered the training room. 

	It was the same set up in general as last year. The two judges sat at a table, tons of paper and clipboards in front of them. Ser Nemo was an elderly man dressed in a sharp suit, looking at April with a curious and knowing twinkle in his eye. Usagi was actually standing on top of the table, finishing scribbling something in shorthand on the clipboard.

	"You can begin when you're ready, my dear," Ser Nemo said. 

	No one mentioned the elephant in the room - AKA the gigantic tank of water, larger than some aquarium exhibits, that was off to the side of the room. April wasn't shocked to see it there. She was relieved. She had requested a swimming pool's worth of water for this. And then the music began to play - a certain Karaoke soundtrack from an old Disney classic. 

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkusy4ylhiY[/youtube][/center]

	April reached her hand out, ready to call the water out of the tank and to her, just as it was time for her to sing. She was dressed like a mermaid, but April was doing this to Sebastian's part. And as she began to tug the water towards her, she lost her balance - tripping over the mermaid tail, April moved her arms in wide circles in a frantic attempt to regain her balance... only to fall face first onto the floor. 

	She didn't need to look at the judges to know that they were probably dying from secondhand embarrassment. 

	April was about ready to die herself. 

	But even though her heart was pounding, she took a breath and continued. She called towards the water and this time, it responded. The water poured out of the tank, rushing all around her as she held it together in an artificial bubble with the strength of her mind. She was floating in it now, just her head sticking out of the water, easily ten feet up from the ground. This was the easy part. It was one thing to make a giant water bubble and float in it. 

	It was another thing to do that while [i]singing[/i] and [i]dancing[/i]. 

	Her voice wasn't as steady as it could have been, but April [i]sang[/i]. She sang about how things were better under the ocean. She sang about the water and the fish and the music and the bubbles. Her movements weren't perfect, but she was hitting her choreography, plunging down into the water bubble at one point before remerging to begin the next chorus. And the boundaries of it held. She managed to keep it together through the sheer strength of will, knowing that she would never be able to face anyone in the world again if she lost control and [i]drowned[/i] Ser Nemo and Usagi. 

	And then, in perhaps the most graceful movement she had managed that day, April lowered herself gently to the ground through the water bubble, feeling like a cute little mermaid princess. And like it wasn't even hard, she sent the water over the heads of the judges and back into the tank, not losing a single drop. 

	Ser Nemo clapped politely. 

	Usagi stared. 

	"Thank you, Ms. Flynn," Ser Nemo said, clearing his throat after staring at his colleague for a moment. "You can go now. You should receive a copy of our critiques by tomorrow. Oh, but that does remind me," Ser Nemo said, fishing about in his pockets. He produced then an old Nokia flip phone. "A friend of yours mentioned to me that yours was broken. Please, take this one - it can survive the apocalypse." 

	[color=42A9FF]"...Thanks! Um, thanks, wow, yeah, that's - is that from the 1900s? It looks so... so cool,"[/color] April coughed, having been about to say [i]old[/i], but it occurred to her that Nemo was probably older than the phone. It took some effort for her to get up off of the ground in her costume, waddle her way on over and take the Nokia, her face burning bright red. Had Danni or Dori told Nemo? Did Nemo think she was neglected now and her parents couldn't get her a phone? Oh gods, what did he think of her now! And had they hated the routine? It wasn't perfect but April had worked really really really hard on it and.... 

	[color=42A9FF]"Well, um, good luck!"[/color] April said awkwardly, as if Nemo and Usagi were ALSO auditioning, before waddling out into the hallway, wishing again that the ground might open up and swallow her whole.