Stardom Comes with a Price

Chapter 5: Injury

Marron lay in her bed in a peaceful slumber, her hair in a loose ponytail. As the annoying ringing of her alarm clock sounded, she slammed her hand down on it, finally having peace and quiet. Unfortunately, that was only for a moment as her phone rang loudly.

"I can never get enough sleep anymore," she groaned and swung her hand over, picking up the phone. "This better be important," she muttered.

"Marron, guess what!?" Milo shouted.

"Milo? It's 5 am, don't you have anything better to do?"

"Shyster is singing a duet with you on your next concert!" he said excitedly.

"What!?" Marron shot up in bed, hitting her forehead on the bar above her bed. "Son of a." she rubbed her forehead and stood up, looking at her reflection in the mirror, trying to see if there was a bump on her head.

"Did you hear me, Marron, Shyster!" he shouted.

"Milo, that's great news. Is he going to be at rehearsal today?" she asked and slid her shirt off, walking into the bathroom to take a shower.

"Yeah, he is. Now Marron, this is huge and-"

"Milo, I'll talk to you at rehearsal, I'm busy right now, bye!" she threw her phone onto the bed and shut the door to the bathroom.

~*~

Marron answered her phone for the thousandth time and yelled into it.

"Mar-"

"Look, Milo, I'm almost there! Whatever it is it can wait!" she shouted and hung up.

Blitz looked at his phone in confusion, Marron had just left from Capsule Corp. She was in something called a gravity room, whatever that was. And now she wouldn't talk to him, thinking he was Milo.

Marron winced as she slid out of her car, she'd accidentally set the gravity too high and had injured her ankle. She didn't want to tell anyone, or let them know because she didn't want them to worry over her and post one the concert. Besides, it was just a pulled muscle, right?

"Marron, what took you so long!?" Blitz asked her once she'd arrived.

"Sorry, I took a while warming up, I was really sore," she said.

"From what?" Milo asked suspiciously.

"I was shopping for four hours yesterday," she said, "look, can we just start?"

"Excellent idea," a male voice said. Marron turned around and held out her hand as a greeting.

"Shyster, nice to meet you," she smiled.

"You too, miss international!" he joked.

"So what song are we singing together?"

"He said she said," he replied, "it's a new piece."

"Cool, can I hear it?" she asked and walked over to the stereo. Blitz popped the cd into the stereo and played it for them.

"Do you get which parts you'll be singing?" Shyster asked.

Marron nodded, "sounds like fun."

"Okay, you two ready, take it from the top!"

"Oh, baby!" Marron started.

"Crazy." Shyster joined, "she said she loved me forever."

"He said that we were together."

"She told me I was the only one," he slid over to Marron.

"She told me I'm not the only one," Marron, upon Shyster's arrival, kicked her leg up.

"She said that I could believe her."

"He said that he wasn't with her."

They both started messing around with several dance moves. When Blitz had suggested Marron perform she pirouette, she thought she would pass out from the pain. She managed to hide her ache from them as well as she could. Luckily, they had their eyes on Shyster at the time.

"Good job today, guys," Milo said as they left, "we'll pick it up tomorrow."

~*~

Late at night, darkness filled the dreary studio as a single silhouette was working on technique in front of the mirror. She tried to do a pirouette, but nearly tripped as her ankle couldn't support her weight.

"Dammit, Marron, you can do this," she spoke to herself. "What am I saying?" She slumped down to the floor in a heap and let her tears flow freely. "The concerts in a week and my ankles getting worse, now there's a new routine that I'm supposed to learn. I can't do this on a busted leg." she thought.

"Are you okay, Marron?" a voice asked. She gasped, not realizing anyone else was in the room.

"I'm fine, Goten," she mumbled. "Just a pulled muscle is all."

"You should see a doctor, that doesn't look like a pulled muscle to me."

"You right." she sniffed.

"It's starting to swell."