章 52: America’s Got Talent

　　I don’t wear the clip. It remains in my pocket.

　　“Why do you keep touching your pocket like that?” Maria screams. She’s so loud, thanks to her earbuds.

　　To avoid further yelling, I retract my hand from my pocket. She inserts one earbud into my ear and her melodic voice envelopes me. I press my fingers against it to prevent it from falling off.

　　“Sorry for taking you away from loverboy,” she offers at my glum look, “but this is important.” I respond with a wicked laughter that earns me the look. The look that says something is going on but I don’t want to find out. “What do you think?”

　　We halt at my locker and she releases the second earbud to me. I can barely hear her above the cover of the song blasting in my ears. I tap my foot to the floor in tune to the beat, her voice is insanely good.