Lynne

Chapter 10

  The stage was outdoors this time. The seats were colosseum-styled; and the stage itself was built into the side of a mountain. The cutout was shaped in a perfect half circle, as if someone had taken a giant melon baller and scooped the rock straight out of the once-flat wall. The different color layers of rock stacked on top of each other all the way to the top of the mountain. The floor of the stage was shaped like a semicircle, with the curved end toward the back and the straight edge right in front of the audience. The back of the stage was higher than the front, and a set of stairs connected the two walkways.. On either side of the staircase were platforms for the band members to play.
I wandered the stage, craning my head to admire the imperfections in the multi-colored rock above me. The blinding stage lights were built into the ceiling. Lights that would be presenting me. Tonight. And tomorrow.
I gulped. "Okay, now I'm getting scared."
People swarmed all over the stage, pulling chords and instruments with them. They were all dressed in black except for the occasional Vocal who passed through. Len was the only one who was constantly there, kneeling a few feet above me on one of the platforms. I had been following him around like a lost puppy since we arrived. "You'll be fine," he assured me impatiently. He was fiddling with a guitar amp.
I looked out into the seats. The rows seemed endless. "How many people can even fit in here?"
Len took an exasperated sigh, leaning away from the amp. "I don't know, Rin."
I turned away from him. The amp was pissing him off enough, he didn't need me adding to the problem. From the corner of my eye, a flash of blue appeared. It was Miku. She held a closed box.
"About ten thousand," she answered as she neared me. Her voice echoed slightly under the rock.
My heart dropped. 9,992 more people than I was used to singing in front of. "Oh god," I whispered before I could stop myself.
Miku rolled her eyes, though the bounce in her steps and the light in her expression assured me she was not nearly as annoyed as Len. "You'll do great."
You'll be fine. You'll do great. They'll love you. That what they all say, Miku.
She passed me, walking up the stairs in the center. When she reached the top, she turned to the left, exiting the stage through a doorway invisible to the audience.
While the higher elevated portion of the stage had an exit on either side, the lower section where I now stood only had one. It stood on the audience's right, hidden behind a thin wall of rock.
I paced across the stage as the minutes ticked past. Eventually, the sun had completely set, and the stage lights were turned on. They were brighter than anything I had ever seen, and every time I looked into them I was blinded for a good five minutes.
I sat on the edge of the stage with my legs dangling over the edge. I couldn't wrap my head around the ten thousand plus people who would be judging me instantaneously tomorrow night. I sat in a haze for hours without even knowing it.
People swarmed all over the stage until everything was neat and tidy. Then I looked away for only a second, and it seemed that everyone in black disappeared. I looked around in confusion- for a moment I was the only one on stage- when the Vocals all came through the right entrance at the top of the stairs.
It felt like a stab to my stomach when I saw them walking together in their cloud, so much like the night I met them. Their laughs had turned into cackles and their smiles had turned into wolfish grins. I watched them, my breath picking up, and I realized that they probably didn't even noticed their transformation. They were werewolves, and tonight was the full moon. As they made their way down the stairs, they turned into completely different people. People that I had (thankfully) forgot existed.
But they were back, and before I knew it, their cloud was upon me. I stood from my seat on the stage, just to make sure I wouldn't drown under it.
They better not expect me to act like that, I thought as they stopped next to me.
Luka put an arm on my shoulder. "You ready for the night of your life?" Her fucking grin. I hadn't seen it in ages.
I stood limply under her arm as they all turned to look at me. Len's eyes especially bothered me- they looked like they had when he sat next to me at the café seemingly so long ago. Cloudy, flirty. Like he was drunk or something.
Where had my friends gone?
I nodded, not wanting to speak. Thankfully, our manager appeared at the top of the stage, clapping his hands together.
"Alright, guys!" Erik yelled, his echo much louder than I had heard so far tonight. "We're gonna do a WOF Show."
Wof? Like... Like a waffle?
"Oh fuck yeah," I hear Miku whisper under her breath. The rest of them seemed excited by the news as well.
Erik grinned at the confused look that overcame me. "It stands for Wheel of Fortune. Like the show?" He turned his back to us, motioning for us to follow. "Guys, explain it to her."
Len nudged me. "So they project a wheel onto the rock behind us," he began as we followed Erik up the stairs. "And the wheel has every song we're performing during the show. It picks a random one, and whoever wrote it sings it, and then they pick another one, and it keeps going until we're all out of songs."
Miku cut in. "See that ledge over there?" She pointed to an indent in the rock on the lowest level of the stage. It looked like a single row of a bleacher you would see in a high school gym. I would guess it was about nine feet off the ground. "There's little indents in the wall, and we all climb up there and hang out on stage the whole concert."
I narrowed my eyes. I don't see any indents.
Miku shrugged, reading my mind. "They're hard to see from here. But it's not hard to climb up it. Just do NOT jump off of it when you're getting down. It hurts." She flashed the other Vocals an amused look. "A lot."
I felt that there was some joke I was missing, but I was too busy absorbing all this new information to care.
Erik led us backstage. The halls were tunnels snaking through the mountain. "Everyone is gonna do a song to... Introduce themselves, if you will." He gave me a grin over his shoulder. "You and Len are gonna be the last two on. And you're gonna do your intro song together"
I nodded, still in my haze.
The halls all looked the same to me. We were led to a room with a huge sitting area, and a metal square in the floor across from it. Above it was an empty space that resembled an elevator shaft. Erik stopped in front of the panel, turning to us again. "Everyone is entering the stage through the side entrances except you two." He pointed to me and Len. "You guys are taking the elevator."
Len smirked. "Like badasses."
Erik and I ignored the comment. "Anyway," he began, cutting through the chorus of cheers that came from the others. "Miku's going right before you two. She's gonna open with Rolling Girl, introduce you guys a little bit, and then go sit on the ledge with the others."
I nodded as he spoke, absorbing the plans like a sponge. We'll be the last two up. Got it. I think.
"Tomorrow, you guys should be in this room by the time Miku gets on stage. And then she'll sing, you guys will come up, you'll sing, and then we'll start the Wheel," he continued. Did it have to be this complicated?
I fiddled with my hands. They were sweaty.
Erik paused for a moment. "You got it?" He asked, looking somewhat concerned.
"Wh-what?" My throat felt dry. I hadn't spoken in hours. "Yeah. Yeah I think I got it."
He smiled. "Alright. Then we're going to start rehearsal." He turned to Gumi. "You're opening the concert."
She jumped up. "Yes, oh fuck yeah." Her grin stretched from ear to ear.
Gumi disappeared into the tunnels, and the rest of us settled onto the couches in the sitting area. A T.V. hung on the wall with a large speaker on either side of it. The screen showed the stage, with a group of people who I didn't recognize finding their places behind the instruments.
"We have a band?" I asked, not thinking before I said it. My use of the word "we" sent a shiver down my spine. I was part of the pack now.
Len shrugged next to me. "They're different every time. Some people stick around, some get kicked off the team, some are only here at certain stages-" he looked up at the screen. "It all depends."
I nodded, resting my shaking hands in my lap. I was kind of annoyed how he spoke of these people like objects, but my nervous self couldn't worry about it. It felt strange looking around me, seeing all the Vocals in their signature outfits, and wearing one myself. I looked like I belonged, but I didn't feel like it.
Through the speakers, a voice called "One two three four!" And the band started playing simultaneously, startling me. The Vocals around me chatted and laughed, clearly not paying attention, but I watched with wide eyes as Gumi danced onto stage, her usual perkiness adding to the skip in her step and the grin on her face. She wore a small earpiece, with her mic sticking out of it at the side of her face.

"Ikimono-kakari no ki ni naru-"

She burst into the opening of My Crush Was A Monster Boy, dancing with the music and pointing into the crowd as if there were much more than empty seats in front of her. The spotlight shone down on her as she slowly made her way down the stairs, waving and smiling at the band members. They nodded back to her, returning her enthusiasm.
Despite myself, I grinned. She sounded great, they sounded great, and all of them sounded great together.
She reached the bottom of the stairs, and began running back and forth across the stage with the music. I was surprised by her energy. Gumi had always been known to crazy (in a good way), both onstage and off. I admired her for it. I guess it was her job to get the crowd excited, since she was opening the show and all, but I had a feeling she'd be doing the same thing even if she were going third or fourth.
Halfway through the song, Kaito looked up at the screen, and leaped off the couch. "Showtime," he grinned, before jogging out of the room.
Before I knew it, the music ended, and Gumi cheered along with the band members. She ran over to the ledge, and climbed up the wall using the footholds that were invisible to me from such a distance. She looked like a spider climbing up the side of the wall. There didn't seem to be enough room on the ledge for her to walk on it, so she reached the top, sat on it, and scooted to one end.
The stage was quiet for a moment, before the band once again started up, and Kaito danced out of another side entrance. He wore an earpiece, just like Gumi's, and burst into song. When he was finished, he copied Gumi, running over to the ledge, and climbing up. The two of them high-fived as Luka appeared next.
One by one, the Vocals disappeared out of the sitting room only to reappear on stage. Finally, the only three remaining were Miku, Len and I.
"How do they get down?" I asked, watching the Vocals on the ledge.
"There's footholds all over that wall," Miku explained, sitting on the couch across from Len and I. "We've been up there so many times, we know where they all are. But we'll let you sit next to the easier ones."
Her reassuring didn't help much. "What about our mics?" I asked Len.
"Oh, shit." Len stood up. "They're hanging right next to the side entrances. I'll go grab ours." He exited the room, leaving me with Miku.
She looked over me for a moment. "Nervous?" I was surprised at the change of tone in her voice. She was Miku: My Friend again.
I nodded, staring down at my hands. "I know it's only practice, but I'm still scared."
She brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I remember my first time on stage," she told me. "I was... ten, I think. I was singing the National Anthem at the SuperBowl."
My mouth dropped open. "Oh my god. No way."
She giggled. "I fucked it up, too."
"No way," I repeated.
She sat up, a small blush on her face. "Whose broad stripes and bright stars," she began. "O'er the ramparts we watched. I forgot the 'Through the perilous fight."
I stared at her with my mouth still open. "How can I not remember this?"
She shrugged. "I was ten. I didn't know the words. People thought it was cute, and kind of brushed it off." She looked down at the floor. "I didn't even know I sang it wrong until I made it big, and Erik told me. It's probably the most embarrassing thing I've ever done."
I stared and stared, the knot in my stomach loosening.
She looked back up at me, her bright smile reappearing. "But now I'm famous, nobody cares about it anymore, and everyone loves me."
Her words sounded narcissistic, but I knew she didn't mean it like that. "Wow," was all I could say.
She laughed. "So if you think you're going to fuck up, just know that it can't be that bad."
Len reentered, holding two tiny earpieces. "Can't be how bad?"
Miku brushed him off. "Don't worry about it, lover boy." Her Miku: My Friend tone was gone and replaced by her Miku: Superstar tone.
He smirked, sitting down next to me again and handing me a mic. I grabbed it, turning it over in my hand. The mic couldn't have been thicker than my pointer finger, and the earpiece itself looked like an earbud a little clip on it.
Len brushed his hair behind his ear. "You put it on like this." He opened the clip, attaching it to the tip of his ear. "It doesn't hurt, and it won't fall off. Just DON'T press the button right here-" he pointed to a tiny red button where the mic connected to the earpiece. "-It turns it on. You'll press it when we're on the elevator."
"Psh," Miku interrupted as I fit the contraption onto my ear. Len was right- it didn't hurt, but I could definitely feel the pressure of the clip on my ear. "Didn't grab me one?" She asked jokingly.
Len grinned. "You have legs. Use them."
"Rin has legs too and you got her one," she pointed out.
Len shrugged. "You're going that way."
Miku chuckled. "I think you're playing favorites." She looked up at the screen and jumped up. "That's my cue," she called as she straightened out her skirt. "Good luck."
She left, and Len and I sighed. The thumping in my chest increased as I heard Rolling Girl's piano intro. We were next.
"This is only a taste of how I'm gonna feel tomorrow," I thought aloud, wincing at the writhing of my stomach inside of me. I felt the sudden urge to throw up.
I probably would have if not for Len's carefree attitude. "Everyone here has already heard you sing," he pointed out.
I tried to take deep breaths. "Yeah, I know. But actually being on a stage..." I trailed off.
Len leaned back, watching the screen. Miku entered the stage through the entrance at the front of the stage, earning a cheer from the ledged Vocals. She winked dramatically at them, before her high-pitched singing filled the stage.
Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.
Len stood up, walking to the elevator. "Wanna come see it?"
"See what?" My voice cracked.
Len either didn't notice or pretended not to. "The elevator is gonna come down in a sec."
I stood up, pulling my shirt down to try and cover my stomach. It didn't work.
I walked up next to him. He held out an arm, stopping me from walking past him. "Go any further and it'll crush you."
I stopped dead in my tracks. "What?"
As promised, the metal floor above us began to descend through the elevator. I gulped. At least I'm not singing the National Anthem in front of the entire population of America.
Behind us, Miku's voice still sounded through the speakers.
"Don't step on the elevator 'till she's done," he informed me.
I nodded, and his arm fell back to his side. He took a deep breath, his shoulders rising and falling steadily. "You ready?"
I shook my head. "No, but I don't really have a choice."
He glanced over at me. "Hey, at least you have me," he said in his cocky tone.
I smiled slightly, though I was still uncomfortable with this side of him. "Yeah."
"We're a team, right?" He asked, his tone suddenly softer.
My heart skipped at the word "team." "Yeah," I repeated, not having the courage to look at him. "I guess so."
Miku launched into the second verse. I took a deep breath. "What was your first time on stage like?" I asked. Miku's story had made me feel a little better. Maybe Len's would too.
He chuckled. "My eighth grade talent show." He ran a hand through his hair, and gave me a grin. "I won."
I looked down at the floor. "What'd you do?"
"I sang the first song I ever wrote."
"What song is that?"
His confidence faltered for a moment. "It's this song called Error."
I cocked my head to the side. I felt my bow pulling at my hair. "I've actually never heard that song."
He put his hands into his pockets, not meeting my eyes. "That's because I haven't sang it since."
"Why not?"
He thought for a second, then shrugged. "I dunno. I'm not a big fan of it."
"I wanna hear it," I said, regretting it immediately after. I felt a slight blush rise to my cheeks.
He half smiled. "We'll see."
Through the speakers, Miku's music faded out. My feeling of dread returned. Len stepped onto the metal panel, and I followed him. Miku continued to talk on stage, pretending to introduce me to the crowd.
"I know how excited you've all been..." She began.
"Is she going to do that tomorrow too?" I asked Len quietly.