"Are you thinking about trying out?" asked a voice behind her.
Sarah turned to see Amy Rodriguez, a girl from her regular English class. Amy was friendly, but not part of the music crowd. She played guitar in her church youth group.
"Oh, I don't know," Sarah said quietly. "I'm not really good enough for something like that."
"How do you know if you don't try?" Amy smiled. "My dad always says you miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
Sarah thought about Amy's words for the rest of the day. That evening, she sat at her broken keyboard and played through her simple songs again. They sounded so basic compared to what she heard in advanced music class. But somewhere deep inside, a small voice whispered, "What if?"
The next morning, Sarah arrived at school extra early. She walked to the music department office where Mrs. Henderson was sorting through sheet music for the day's classes. Sarah stood in the doorway for a full minute, trying to find courage.
"Did you need something, Sarah?" Mrs. Henderson asked without looking up.
"I was wondering about the spring recital," Sarah said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Oh, yes. It's going to be wonderful this year. Jessica is preparing a Chopin piece and Marcus is working on a Bach invention. Very impressive students."
Sarah took a deep breath. "Could I audition, too?"
Mrs. Henderson finally looked up, her eyebrows raised in surprise. "You want to audition for the recital?"