The story of masked

Prologue

The three guys sitting on a dark red couch and staring at the camera didn't smile like usually. And the title of this youtube-video contributed to the unhappy atmosphere, it was "a sad announcement". 

When you looked at the three guys sitting o in front of white curtains and staring at the camera, you could tell that they really weren't happy. The one on the left end of the couch wearing a bright orange mask fidgeted nonstop. And even though this alone was nothing new, the fidgeting was this time not accompanied by a constant smile and occasional laughter. The marine blue masked guy on the right was looking at the floor, only shooting occasional glances at the camera. He wasn't smiling but frowning at the camera. And the guy with the red mask sitting in the middle – well, he was an excellent actor already back then, but small signs like the drumming with his fingers on his knees gave him away too. Especially he wanted to be anywhere but in front of that camera at this specific moment.

The muscular guy in the middle, whose mask covered the upper half of his face, began to talk. „Hi guys! For those of you who don't know us, I'm A, this", he pointed at the guy with a bright orange mask to his right, „this is C and the guy over", he moved the hand to his other side, where the buff guy with a marine blue mask sat, „he's L. And for those who do know us, you may notice, that one of is missing, M with the violet mask. " A stopped, and only people like me, who know him inside out, could see how hard he had to concentrate to stay composed.

C, whose orange mask covered basically all of his face apart from eyes, mouth and chin, continued: "And this is actually the reason for this extraordinary, out-of-schedule -video, no music-cover this week, we're sorry. This video is to officially announce that M left the band. He's going to New York, because he got the extraordinary opportunity to continue his musical studies on the other side of the ocean."

L then took over, continued the talk with his deep, calm voice. "We wish him all the best, and even though we're very sad about him leaving, we're very happy for him, and hope he gets all the success he has always been dreaming of."

A spoke up again: "We will continue making covers. So if you have any wishes for covers we should do, leave your suggestions down in the comments, or contact us over twitter with the hashtag #maskedsongs. The next video will, like always, come out the first Sunday of the month, which is – in three weeks?"

The others nodded.

"Thanks for all the love and support you're showing us, you're what keeps us going, we love you", L added.

"See you, and stay great", C said, while the three remaining members of masked waved into the camera, then the video ended.

I smiled. This video had been uploaded a little over two years ago, and even now every single video, and even life appearances, ended with these exact words.

This video, it's the beginning of my story, of how I turned from the bullied nerd without friends to – well, you'll see. My life was pretty much the opposite of a good life, during weekends living with my uncle ignoring me, and me wishing that the people at my boarding school would ignore me during weekdays.

But this is not just my story, it's the story of how masked became what they are now. Back then, when this video was published, I had barely heard of masked. But this was to change soon.