The rain stopped as soon as we went back on air after the commercial-break. Everybody was nervous. And why wouldn't they? Most performances hadn't been perfect and, just like every time, nobody was safe: they could call one's name to dismiss him as well as to reward him. And so, the jury called a list of names, including –something I half-expected but still surprised me nonetheless- the four of my group: Alice… Emily… Claudia… and me, Lola, followed by three others from different teams.

Alice didn't cry when they dismissed her. She had longed for home anyway. Though Emily was ten years older than me, I saw her tremble next to me and wanted to take her hand and hold it tight as to reassure her. She screamed like a banshee when the jury said they would give her another chance, so we all kissed her and took her in our arms, her face red with tears of joy, gratitude and relief.

I could see the hesitation in the twins' eyes when my turn came. However, I was serene whatever the decision.

I couldn't tell if it had been decided by the production -in order to make a nice tearful scenario- or if he did it by himself when Bill spoke for the four of them:

"Lola… As you know, I'm officially in love with you."

I smiled at him. He then took a deep breath and broke eye-contact with me. Come on, Bill. Say it. Shoot.

"Unfortunately, you cannot stay."

Claudia took me in her strong arms. Kisses rained on my cheeks and forehead as I kept on staring at him, still smiling. He faintly smiled back at me, obviously sadder than I was. The others were sad too, but I'm sure they mainly felt sorry for Bill who lost his favorite mascot.

When tonight's session ended and we all went back to the hotel, Bojan met me at the entrance of the building and held me so tight in his arms I thought he would break my ribs.

"It's okay, Bojan." I said and rubbed his back. "I had to go. If I hadn't, they would have given me a second chance like they did to Emily."

"This is so fucking unfair!"

"No it isn't. It had to be so."

He held me tight again, hiding his face in my neck. Above our heads, I could hear the sobs of other candidates who had been eliminated like me, interspersed with comforting words from their friends.

"I'm gonna miss you." Bojan said when we parted. I was glad he wasn't crying because I thought he wasn't the kind of guy who would cry easily in front of people.

"I'll miss you too. I wish you good luck for the rest. You deserve to go further. "

"Thanks, I wish you good luck too…for anything you'll do afterwards."

We both smiled and hugged again. We then exchanged numbers, mails and anything we could to keep in touch before we hugged on last time and I went to my room to pack my stuff. Only then, sitting in the dark of my hotel-room in my most expansive dress, I put my head in my hands and let the tears flood in full strength like I was waking up from a beautiful dream.

After a whole day of bus, boat, plane, train and so on, I was very tired when my mother and sister came to pick me up and welcomed me with hugs and kisses.

"How do you feel honey?" Mum said as she was driving us home.

"…Pretty sleepy, actually."

"Well, uncle Peter, aunt Joline and Luce are coming over to celebrate your return tonight. So you can get some rest this afternoon before the big party."

I lightly smiled at her and kept on watching the streets I knew scroll in front of me behind the window while my mind was finding back its marks. My name was Lola Klein, I was 18, I had been studying at the conservatoire for 2 years, I had failed at DSDS, one of the judges got a crush on me and I got one on him too even though I knew I would never see him again, and I was also a cleaning lady in a factory.

The party was nice and made me all warm and fuzzy inside. My family had always been my first fans and I was happy to know they had been watching me the whole time.

"We know you worked really hard, chérie." Joline told me in French and kissed me on the cheek. "And the fact you went so far on the show is already a big, big feat. We are very proud of you."

"Yeah, and I wish I would get this Dieter-jerk in front of me so I would give him a piece of my mind. Calling my niece a mouse, in front of the whole country!"

"Actually, just 5 million viewers, honey. We made a little research." She explained to me.

"Gee, what a difference, indeed. Thanks Joline." Peter replied and rolled his eyes.

"And you even have some fans!" Luce said and took my computer.

"What? No way!"

"I know! Look!" She excitedly said and opened the DSDS-webpage.

There she typed my name in the toolbar and opened a few pages with my sessions. A few comments were left by the viewers. I was amazed at how many of them did like my performances or just the way I had appeared to them. Some comments made me frown too. The twins sure have possessive fans... and an interesting vocabulary as such.

There was even a debate on the last show about whether Bill talked about me or my voice when he said he was in love with me. And people were voting.

"What do you think?" Luce said.

"Oh god, dear BFF, don't tell me you voted too!"

"I didn't, you imbecile! I mean, what do you think of that?"

"Honestly? I don't care about what these girls think; it's not my fault if Bill did what he did!"

"You're right. That's stupid."

We went quiet for a while and kept on reading for a while.

"So… did you plan something else, now that you're back?"

"I don't know. I guess I'll have to talk about it with mum later. So far, I just thought about going back to the factory and the conservatoire as soon as possible. We'll see what happens next."

She nodded and before we went back in the living-room to join the others, she asked:

"You know… Now that all of this is over… are you okay?"

There was no doubt she was mentioning my quasi-romance with the singer of Tokio Hotel. I shrugged:

"I'm fine. It's a waste it ended like this, but I guess I have to move on now."

"Does that mean we can watch tomorrow's episode of DSDS together?"

"Yeah, sure. Plus Bojan's still in the competition, so I have to support him!"

"You made friends with that guy? He sounds nice!"

"He is! He's in the coolest guy in the world, after Bill."

"I knew you would say that." Luce said, smiling.