Musical Cinderella

Chapter Two

(Y.N) helped Armin with one of the lights, positioning it correctly. They had finished recording early and had gone out for a small meal. They decided to go to the warehouse early and start setting up.

"We got food!" Sasha yelled into the warehouse as she and Connie walked in with two large trays of food each.

"See?" Connie said as he put them down on a table. "I am helpful!"

"Keep telling yourself that." Jean said as he stood and wiped his hands.

"Hey (Y.N)!" Petra came in with a large bag. (Y.N) waved back. "Come with me so we can get started on makeup." Petra lead (Y.N) to a chair set aside from the actual scene. Petra took out a pencil eyeliner and went to draw on a cat-eye.

"Wait a minute, Petra." Mikasa said. The two girls jumped at the voice.

"Where did you come from?" They exclaimed, acting as if they had seen a ghost.

"Let me try something, first." Mikasa ignored their surprise and took out something from her bag: a bright pink wig. It was long, reaching to under her bust, with side-swept bangs. "I was thinking we could something like this." (Y.N) looked at it, very skeptical.

"Don't you think that's a little too cotton candy and fairies?" Petra asked. "I mean, I think the mask is enough to hide her identity and we're trying to be edgy."

"Finish makeup first. Just make sure nothing clashes with this wig." Petra huffed and continued to do (Y.N)'s makeup.

"It was just going to be natural, anyways." Petra mumbled. She finished up with the eye makeup, making it as minimalist as possible. "Wow." Petra mumbled. "You have really pretty eyes. I would have done a heavy smokey eye, but you need to show these off." (Y.N) hummed.

"Where's Olou?" She asked. "Wasn't he supposed to come?" Petra shrugged.

"He was unexpectedly called at work." Mikasa came back once the makeup was done. She gave a small smile and nodded, showing she approved. She helped (Y.N) get a wig cap on and the actual wig itself. Mikasa adjusted it to look more naturally placed.

"Okay, now put on the mask." (Y.N) looked up at Mikasa, hesitating, but did so anyways. She pulled out her phone and looked into it's reflection.

"I... I did not expect this to work as much as it did!" (Y.N) was always surprised by what Mikasa could do. Mikasa was a lawyer and was often very busy, so everyone is happy when she can come to gatherings and outside projects, but she seemed to be talented in all other areas, as well. Mikasa smiled.

"Told you." She said with ever so slight smug tone lacing her words. Mikasa brushed out the wig, styling it to make it look more natural. Well, as natural as you can make a synthetic, bright pink wig. Jean and Eren walked over.

"We're just about ready to start!" They both yelled, hurrying to exit the words from their throats. "I was supposed to get her!"

"Horse face!" Eren insulted.

"Titan shit!" Jean spat out. Petra and (Y.N) looked at each other and laughed. Ah, these boys were always quite the sight. Jean and Eren came into high school from rivaling middle schools, so they were always lusting for the other's blood. You would think they would be over it by now, but hey; that is just Eren and Jean. Mikasa came over and knocked their heads into each other.

"You need to act professional, you two!" Armin scolded. "This is a set!" (Y.N) smiled. Armin was always so passionate when it came to things like this. In fact, he minored in film while in university. He was a creative, always dreaming, but he was also oh-so smart. He was a big reason of why (Y.N) graduated from high school.

"Oi, (Y.N)!" Sasha called. "Looking good!" The others looked towards her, approving of her new look. She did not even look like herself, anymore.

"Look at that hair!" Eren exclaimed. 

"Yeah!" Exclaimed Jean. "(Y.N) just got hotter!"

Thwack!

A menacing Mikasa stood behind him. 

"Apologize."

"I didn't even do anything wrong!"

The filming went well. At first, (Y.N) felt very awkward. She had never done anything like this before, so having to do this in front of the friends she's known for years was a bit difficult. To sum it up, she was very self-conscious, but said friends did everything they could to keep up her confidence and produce the best quality video. It took more than the initially thought two hours, but it was worth it in the end to see (Y.N) living out this secret dream of her's. She grew more comfortable in her own skin, enjoying the process rather than hoping to finish it as soon as possible.

Of course, Armin was in charge of editing. (Y.N) wanted to help, but Armin insisted he wanted to surprise her. She did not argue; she knew nothing about editing. 

A couple weeks passed. These couple weeks were full of anxiety as the entire group waited for the video to be complete. Marco, feeling bad that he was unable to help, offered to hold a sleepover at his and Jean's apartment the day of the launch. Petra had a date with Olou, so she was unable to come.

They all sat on the floor of Marco's bedroom, which was bigger than Jean's. There was an inflatable mattress and the couch extended out into a make-shift bed. They were all in their sleepwear. Over Armin's shoulder they looked as he set everything up to finally post.

"Is it time yet?" Eren asked for the fifth time in the past ten minutes. Armin, though annoyed, kept up a smile.

"Almost." Armin answered back. He stuck out his tongue as he concentrated. "When we press this button, the video will be launched." They held their breaths as Armin's cursor hovered over the button.

"(Y.N)." Mikasa called. (Y.N) turned to her right and saw Mikasa putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure you want to do this?" (Y.N) looked at her and sighed with a smile.

"We all worked so hard." She reasoned. "It would be a crime not to finish this off."

"Mikasa's right." Sasha said, a mouth full of potato chips. They could just barely understand her. "You are the face and voice of all of this. Do you want this to go down?" (Y.N) nodded eagerly. They all put their fingers on the touch-pad of Armin's laptop. They looked at one another, each person confident in this decision.

"One!" They exclaimed. "Two!" All were eager to put pressure down. "Three!" Simultaneously, they clicked the button and the video uploaded. They cheered, holding each other and disregarding the chance of noise complaints. Hopefully, Marco and Jean will not get in trouble. 

They looked at the screen, at the bottom of the playing video, to see the stats of the video.

Nothing.

No views. No likes.

(Y.N) visibly was disappointed. Even though they all worked so hard, (Y.N) was the most upset because she was, like Sasha said, the face and voice of this project. 

"Don't worry, everyone!" Armin nervously reassured. "We just posted it; we should wait until morning to see how this goes." (Y.N) dismissively sighed. 

"Armin's right, everyone." She agreed. "We should get some sleep and look again when we wake up." Even though the others were as demoralized as (Y.N) and Armin, they reluctantly agreed and went under the covers. Marco and Jean took Marco's bed, while the boys took the couch-mattress and the girls took the inflatable mattress.

(Y.N) stared at the ceiling, trying to lower her adrenaline and put herself to sleep. 

"Oi." She turned to her left at Mikasa, in a sleepy daze. Mikasa whispered, "you are going to get the recognition you deserve." (Y.N) smiled.

"We all will."