𝐓𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐘 ➪ 𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐎

4. MEETING

They had finished their interview a little over an hour ago and now Tabora was getting ready for their first stage rehearsal.

They all had black smokey eye makeup that went all the way under their eyes too with eyeliner drawn around their eyes.

Leta was the first one done and as Alexei was dressing, Clemente was getting his makeup done and Theo was getting his hair done, she was strumming her strings, making sure they were all in tune.

Her guitar was a dark green colour with a couple stickers from all over the world and had an iconic line of her's written on it in sage green ink.

The line was 'the world belongs to women, baby', something she had said quite often. It was something people recognized her by. She had in the biographies on every social media account she had.

When finally everyone was ready, they started going to the stage where the organizers had explained to them how things would look and then let them on the stage.

Everything looked amazing, the band went to stand where they planned to and soon the directors told them to start. Alexei hit his drumsticks together and Leta started playing her guitar, Theo later joining in with his bass and, finally, Clemente with his vocals.

There was a very difficult guitar solo which Leta had that she had practiced and practiced for ages to get it perfect because of how fast and tricky it is but it sounds very good and pulls up the hopes to get into the top five.

The rehearsal went smoothly as the band had practiced a lot back home in France. In France, people were particularly interested in the contest after the winning of France in the Junior Eurovision song contest back in 2020 by Valentina. People had faith for Tabora to at least be in the top ten.

They soon performed their rehearsal and when they finished a big applause came from the producers of Eurovision and the fellow contestants who were watching.

Alexei stood up from his seat and high-fived Leta who walked towards him. Soon, staff came to take his drum set as it was obvious he couldn't carry it.

Alexei and Leta went towards Theo and Clemente and also high-fived them as the four left the stage.

"That was better I could ever imagine." said Leta.

"Exactly! We did really good." exclaimed Theo over the loud music of Cyprus which was rehearsing next.

"That was really good!" said someone behind them in English with an Italian accent.

Leta froze. She was going to meet Måneskin. The band she had been obsessed with since she had watched them in X-Factor Italia.

The three others turned around and Leta did the same, her guitar still strapped on her shoulder but turned to her back.

She saw four extremely good-looking figures; Damiano, Thomas, Ethan and Victoria. Leta always had this thing for Ethan, it wasn't just a celebrity crush but it was more. She couldn't explain but now that she was closer to him and could see him in real life, she felt that thing stronger than ever. Victoria smiled at Leta.

"Hey girlfriend!" she said with an Italian accent.

"Hey girlfriend!" said Leta with a mixed accent.

The two girls hugged as the other looked in confusion between them.

"What? We're dating." said Leta.

"Exactly." said Victoria, smirking.

The six others' faces turned into shock after hearing this and Leta along with Victoria laughed.

"We're only joking!" said Leta.

"We met over Instagram." said Victoria in an Italian accent.

"Moving on, you look stunning and your music is amazing." said Damiano.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Clemente, he always appreciated compliments.

"Please, all your songs are literal gold. Especially 'Coraline' I could literally listen to it all day, not that I don't do that already." said Leta, making everyone laugh.

"You listen to our songs?" asked Thomas.

"Oh big time she does." said Theo in English.

"One time I caught her screaming out her lungs to 'Coraline'." said Alexei, laughing.

"Stop exposing me like that," joked Leta. "But yeah, I am a really big fan, I've always liked this kind of music and a year after we formed this band, I saw you guys on X-Factor Italia and instantly fell in love since then."

𖠌𖠌𖠌

"You know how earlier you said you saw us on X-Factor Italia? How come? Do they stream it on French television?" asked Damiano as later in the evening Leta came to hang out with Måneskin as the three other bandmates were out eating but Leta wasn't hungry.

"Oh no! I'm half-Italian, actually. My father is Italian, we have Italian television so I watch that most of the time. There's literally nothing on French television except cartoons and boring shows." said Leta, smiling at Måneskin's shocked faces.

"Wait, you're half-Italian!" exclaimed Thomas.

"Yes." said Leta, smiling.

"Oh! That's so cool!" exclaimed Damiano, clapping his hands together.

"So you can speak Italian?" asked Victoria in Italian.

"Of course I can." answered Leta in a perfect Italian accent.

"Oh so that was your accent! I was wondering what it was, I could hear French mixed with something else." said Ethan, speaking directly to Leta for the first time.

Leta turned and smiled at Ethan, he instantly blushed. "Yes, it's a French-Italian accent. Most of my family live in Italy."

"How come your representing France?" asked Thomas.

"Well Clemente, Theo and Alexei are all fully French and they're my bandmates so . . . well, you get it. I was born in Paris and I've lived in France for half my life as well so it makes sense in a way." said Leta.

"I have one question, how did your band form?" asked Victoria.

"Oh, well, it's quite boring actually. But, when we were fourteen we were really bored one day during the Summer and then I realized that we had all the facilities to form a band. My dad's garage, which was always empty, could be used as a rehearsal space, Alexei played the drums, I played the electric guitar, Clemente had an amazing voice and Theo played the bass guitar. So, I told them we could try it out, they agreed and we started playing. We had no idea where that would take us though . . ." said Leta, drifting off as she looked around.

She still couldn't believe she was here.