Stuck on Replay

Chapter 8

Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Ba-boom.

It must be stage fright, because my heart is beating a thousand times more than usual. I can't explain my nervousness.

Maybe it's the fact that I've tricked my mind into thinking that this is all a dream and I'll wake up when I start to get onstage and sing.

Or maybe it's because my bandmates and I are anxiously waiting in the hall, about to go perform in front of about 300 hundred people.

I don't know anymore.

We're all anxious, scared we'll mess up more than ever.

James is sitting with his back against the wall. There's a frustrated expression on his face as he's trying to solve a rubik's cube that Michael mixed up for him earlier.

Michael's leaning against the wall opposite of James, tapping his drumsticks to the rhythm of one of our songs. The light's a bit shabby, and I can hardly see his face, but he's trying to breathe deeply as if he'll never breathe oxygen again. Sound effects are loudly included.

Harmony's pacing in between James and Michael, muttering inaudible words as she does so. Her lips are moving quickly. She's probably thinking about the 101 ways of how this gig could go wrong. Her hair is tied up, like it always is when she's thinking about something nervously.

Kate's only standing next to Michael with crossed arms, watching us.

And I'm sitting next to James. My knees are up to my chest. My eyes are closed. I'm quietly humming to one of our songs. I'm trying not to focus on what's going to happen in a few minutes.

"Okay, this is ridiculous!" My eyes flashed open, just to see Kate throwing her hands up in the air. "Really. This is officially ridiculous!"

"We're all really nervous Kate." I shook my head.

"Especially if doing a bad job on this means that Melody is quitting the band." Michael pointed out.

"All of you, stop it! Oh, give me that." She grabbed Michael's drumsticks out of his hands then proceeded to take the rubik's cube out of James' before telling Harmony to stop pacing.

"You all need a pep talk, and since Klein isn't here with his rather cheesy pep talks, I took it upon myself to give you one." Kate sighed, trying to calm herself down.

"Look. Look at this, look at us... Yeah, I get that we're all nervous knowing that if we mess up, Mel will quit the band." She started. "But please, please stop. I joined this to have fun! You guys are amazing, talented people I'm proud to call my friends. You guys are amazing at the thing you love: making music. And if that doesn't matter enough to you, I bet this will.

"Out there is a bunch of popular kids, but that doesn't really matter. They're here because they want to see you, to see us. It doesn't matter what our status is in the hierarchy. What matters is that they want to hear you and see you doing the thing you love most. You guys are going to rock the house tonight. Everyone, stand up. Hands in." Kate put her right hand in, and we followed suit.

"1, 2, 3..."

"STUCK ON REPLAY!" We shouted as our hands flew up in the air.

Showtime.

*************************************************************************************************************

Walking on stage and seeing the confused faces looking up to me was definitely nerve-wracking for me.

The mic let out an ear piercing shrill, and then the sound system manager fixed it.

Kate covered her mic, and whispered,"We're going to rock this. I know we will. Don't tense up too much." She gave us all a reassuring smile. "Remember my pep talk."

I turned back to the audience and took a deep breath.

"Hi. I'm Melody."

"James."

"Yo, what up, I'm Michael."

"Hey, I'm Kate."

"Hello, I'm Harmony."

"And together we are..." I said, and Michael drum rolled, and finished.

"STUCK ON REPLAY!" We all yelled, and launched into our first song.

At first, the crowd kind of stared up at us, and we were really tense. As the gig continued, we relaxed, and the crowd went from swaying to dancing by the time we reached our fifth song out of our 8 song set.

"Thanks for listening, we are Stuck On Replay!" I announced, and we bounced off the stage.

"That was amazing!" James high-fived me. "It sounded better than we had done in practice."

I blushed. "Thank you. I was surprised myself."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

"I mean... I'd never felt like that. Even though I felt like I was falling, it felt like I knew that I was going to land safely, you know?" I told them. "I had never sung that way before. It felt like a burst of confidence swept in from nowhere. It was a free fall, but I knew I was going to land."

"That was really cool. I like the new you." James smiled and patted my shoulder, and I think my heart fluttered or burst into thousands of illusionary butterflies. Michael whistled, then walked out to the hallway.

"Thanks again." I smiled shyly back at him.

"No problem." James held out his hand. "Come on, we should go."

I took hold of his hand, and we walked out to the hall. We let go of each other's hands before the others could see.

One of the guys from sound management came down the hall. "Hey, you guys have some fans. You can meet them if you would like."

I glanced at the others, and they all had wide eyes, the size of extra large dinner platters. "Um, sure." I replied, and we followed him down the hall and out the door to the crowd. There was a fence/rope separating us from them.

"HI!" A really preppy fan smiled. "I'm Charlotte. I loved your guys' music, it was amazing, and had a really original sound to it."

"Thanks!" I smiled back at her, then walked over to where Harmony was. Flirting with boys, as usual.

"I'm single." I heard her say, and she winked. The boys totally fell for it and nearly fell to the floor. I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, Harm." I replied, pulling her away, despite her protests and blabbering mouth.

Kate was talking to some really nice fans, and signed a few autographs. "Oh my gosh, when you get famous, like, I get to say I met you before you guys were cool." A girl squealed. I bet it took her every muscle in her body for Kate not to roll her eyes at the fan.

James was trying to talk normally to two girls who were desperately trying to flirt with him. Kate walked over to them. "Sorry girls." I heard her say. "He's taken whether you like it or not, and it's going to stay that way." The girls started yelling at Kate, and that's when the security kicked them out.

We were getting a taste of what being famous was.

But I wasn't too sure that I would like it, if we ever did become famous.