The tour

Chapter 2

Kristina hardly payed any attention to the traffic while driving home in her wreck of a car. It could die at any mile now, but it was all she had been able to afford. Her thoughts kept circling around the little piece of paper, which was now in her pocket. Was it for real? Had the old creepy guy in reality been Michael Jackson himself in a disguise? She knew that he sometimes disguised himself to be able to go out and have a bit of normalcy. Actually, Kristina knew just about everything there was to know about Michael Jackson. Even though she mostly listened to rock music, and her own style was very singer-songwriter-ish, she had always had a weak spot for his music. And his looks.

Thriller had become the biggest album of all time when she was 19, and his latest album, Bad, had just come out a short time ago. She knew all about the big plans for a huge tour around the world, and she had actually spent hours looking at the application form online to audition. Though she was almost done with her candidate, her heart still belonged to music, and she had ached to go to the audition. But she had been scared, and soon after the deadline for signing up had passed.

Now the opportunity had presented itself on its own. Was that a sign?

Still in her own mind, she locked herself in to the apartment in downtown LA in the Toy District. It wasn't a very nice neighborhood, and they had barely been able to afford just that, but she loved the little three-bedroom apartment that she shared with two friends from UCLA. All in all Kristina loved living in LA and being far away from Denmark. She had needed that. She walked into the kitchen, which was also the living room, where her roommate and study partner Joey was lying on the couch reading.

'Hey guuuurl! How did the music go?' he asked smiling.

Kristina laughed a little on the inside as she threw her keys and phone on the counter. Joey was black and gay, and so stereotypical, which he usually joked about himself. She absolutely loved him.

'Um...'

'What? Ain't nobody done nothin' to ya, right?' he said, sitting up.

Kristina didn't really know whether to tell him or not.

'Not exactly...' she tried.

'Well, what's up then? Don't leave a nigga out in the cold!' he said laughing, and so did Kristina.

'There was this old guy, who kept staring at me in a really creepy way. He had this whole entourage with him and they kept talking to each other and pointing towards me, and before he moved on he left this in my bucket,' she said, handing him the little piece of paper, which had been burning in her pocket.

Joey took it. While he read the little message his eyed became bigger and bigger until his jaws opened.

'Oh my God! You beein' serious?!'

'I don't know. That's why I'm a little freaked out. Was if it was actually him?'

'Babygurl, I know that autograph. Dat shit belong to Michael 'Fucking' Jackson! Oh my God, this is insane!' He did a little joy-dance on the floor and hugged Kristina. She felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought that Michael Jackson actually had seen her perform one of his songs.

'You gonna go, right?' Joey said, holding her out in his arms.

'I-I don't know. I mean, I'm here at college, right? I can't just go on tour for a year like that. And I probably won't get picked out anyway. Do you know how many good guitarists are out there?'

'Guurl, you crazy! I know how good you are! Why aren't you more excited about this? MJ is like the hottest man out there! Yo! Amy! Get yo ass out here!' Joey called out for the third roommate, Amy, a sweet brown-haired girl minoring in Social Studies.