Fun idea!

Calliope Brown had never been one of those kids in class waving her raised arm and wiggling in her seat, begging to be called on by the teacher. She always hated being the center of attention. She'd grown up doing everything in her power to avoid the spotlight. She never entered her to-die-for key lime pie in any pie contest even though her friends all said she should. She always shrivelled up in her seat hoping to go unnoticed (a seat in the back which she'd chosen for the same reason) when a magician, or psychic, or motivational speaker asked the audience for a volunteer. She preferred blending in to standing out.

Usually she was pretty good at it, but now, as she watched Miguel standing up on stage, whipping the crowd into a frenzy in the hope they'd donate more money to the cause, she feared that her lifetime of carefully maintained anonymity was about to be destroyed.

Like she wasn't having a bad enough day already. A guy who had to weigh in at over three hundred had stepped on her foot first thing, so she'd been lurching around like some creature from a cheap sci-fi movie all day. Then she'd gotten cotton candy stuck in her hair, and finally she'd seen her ex-fiancee Ed, milling around with his new blonde bimbo (okay she was actually a "bimbo" she was a neurobiologist) on his arm, both grinning like fools competing in a Happiest Couple Ever competition.
Calliope had barely had enough time to duck behind a port-o-john so they wouldn't see her.

And now Miguel was standing up there talking about how the kids needed the crowd's money and support. About how volunteering for the organization could change the life of a child.

"And now if you'd indulge us, we'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of one special lady."

Closing her eyes Calliope tried to curse him with a sudden case of laryingitis. It didn't work.

"She's a friend to the kids, an inspiration to the staff and other volunteers, and the brains behind today's Fair for Foster Kids. Come on up here, Calliope Brown."

The crowd broke into applause. Calliope broke into a cold sweat, convince she was about to die of embarrassment. She would have made a break for it, but her friend Lisa grabbed her arm and propelled her up toward the stage, cutting through the crowd like the bow of a ship crashing through icy waters.

Calliope made a mental note to scratch Miguel and Lisa off her list of so-called friends.

Heart pounding, legs rubbery, she slowly limped across the stage toward Miguel, taking care not to look out at the hundreds of pairs of eyes watching her every move.

Miguel smiled at her. She grimaced back, hating him. There was no way she was going to be able to take that mike from him and put together a coherent sentence of thanks.

Just as she reached him, convinced that death would be preferrable to public speaking, a wave of color came flooding toward her. Twenty or thirty of her kids, the foster kids she volunteered with every week, surrounded her. Each smiling face calling out her name, professing their thanks, announcing their love for her.

Suddenly she no longer wanted to die.

Posted by Jen, 16/02/2010 6:18am (2 years ago)