-Brian’s point of view-
“I’m so tired,” I rubbed my eyes as the can of sweet tea fell out of the soda machine in the lobby. “Now I know why AJ and Nick skipped out.”
“Yeah,” Howie laughed. “But at least they won’t just give a say in who opens for us. And I say we pick whoever Nick and AJ wouldn’t approve of just to get them back for leaving us with a lot of work.”
I grabbed my drink and headed back into the room. Kevin was talking with Edith.
“So, what do you think of the auditions that the company chose?”
Kevin and I exchanged a look. We were having call-backs. We’d have to compromise some.
“I saw some possibility,” Kevin chose his words carefully.
Edith smiled. “That’s good to hear. All right, here is the full list of people. We have a video of everyone if you need to see anyone over.”
“No, not today. We will, no doubt tomorrow to get it down to one person or group. But I think we should choose whoever stood out today,” he looked to us to see what we thought.
“Sounds good to me,” Howie grinned.
“So, who do we want for call back’s Friday?” Edith sat down, along with three other top Jive people.
The three of us exchanged looks.
“Umm... well, we’d like to look over your opinions on our own, if you don’t mind,” Howie tried to act as mediator, reading Kevin’s mind.
They exchanged looks this time. After a moment, with her lips pressed thin, Edith said, “very well. Kevin, call me tomorrow and we’ll discuss who you believe is the best.”
Finally, we were left alone.
“How many people are we trying to narrow it down to?” I asked, yawning again and grabbing a chair.
“I don’t know... anyone you thought that did really good?”
“There was that latino girl singing and dancing,” Howie grinned.
“We’re concentrating on music, D, not your preferences,” I laughed.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m looking for someone who’s multi-talented. I don’t want a Britney Spears type. Even she considers herself an entertainer rather than a singer, for the most part,” Kevin said. “I want sheer talent. Something fresh.”
“Well, let’s start narrowing it down. We’ve been here for nine hours... I wanna get dinner after this,” I mentioned. Kevin shot me a look that read business is more important than all else.
We spent the next hour remembering everyone and picking out people. We went in order of the performances.
“How about August McFadden?” Howie looked through his notes.
“She was shy,” Kevin commented. “I’m not sure how she’d do with the large audiences...”
“What did you think of her piano skills?” I asked, knowing that was his area of expertise.
“Oh, she was talented, there’s no doubt. Talent that even piano lessons can’t teach. You can only learn so much. The rest, you just either have or you don’t,” Kevin said. “She was probably the best piano player we saw. It’s just that she lacked the confidence to really show it off. But that song was difficult to play, I’ll give her that. And she didn’t have much notice either. She was the last person I found and offered an audition to.”
“The range was good, too,” I added.
“So, yes or no?” Howie said, also either to go find food.
“I don’t know...” Kevin said.
“Well, you said she was the best piano player. We could give her another shot. We don’t have anything to lose,” I suggested.
“Yeah, you’re right. Put her sheet with the others, Howie.”
“Okay... next, we’ve got that three female singing group... what’d you think of them?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
-August’s point of view-
“What are we doing today?” I asked Carmen. We were sitting in her breakfast nook. Sunlight lit the room as she drank coffee and I poured syrup on an Eggo.
“Hmm...the mall?”
“I don’t know, could be dangerous. What if I accidentally get between you and a sale? Not sure I could live through it,” I laughed.
The phone rang. Carmen got up to get it.
“Hello?” Carmen said. “Uh, yeah, hold on a second,” she covered the mouthpiece. “It’s someone from Jive!” she whispered excitedly.
I took a sharp breath. “Hello?”
“Hello, Miss McFadden? I’m calling you about the audition you attended yesterday. There are going to be call backs on Friday afternoon. Can you be there around two o’clock?”
“Uh... yes, sure,” I said.
“Just play the same piece you did before, just to see consistency and due to the lack of time, perhaps, to prepare something else.”
“Ok... uh, ok, thank you,” I hung up.
“So?” Carmen demanded. “That’s gotta be good news...”
“They want me to come back on Friday...” I couldn’t believe it.
She jumped out of her chair. “That’s great! I can’t believe this! If you could beat those odds, Friday will be a piece of cake...”
“Well, I never thought I’d actually have a chance...”
“What? You’re not thinking about not going are you?”
I didn’t answer her. Although, even though there was less competition now, those fewer candidates were the top ones of everybody who came.
“When did you become so indecisive?”
I pushed my Eggo aside, no longer hungry. “Well, touring would be a lot of work. A lot of time. Is that what I want to do?”
“Tour around the country for free? Heck, get paid for it. Perform? Play piano as your job? Why would you not want to do that?”
“I don’t know...”
“Again, what else would you be doing?”
I shrugged. Carmen would be able to get a job at her father’s law firm and put her arguing skills to good use with people who paid her (She argued with me for free)
Me? What would I be doing?
“So I do one tour... then what? It wouldn’t set me up for life, anyway.”
Carmen shrugged. “You can’t access that until the time comes. Your life would be too different then to.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Again, I found myself in the lobby. This time, I had no trouble getting in. I filled out the papers again.
“I’m gonna go find the bathroom,” Carmen said.
I took a seat. There were different groups or solo people scattered around. Kevin, Howie, Brian, and this time Nick were sitting up front.
Nick was fidgeting around in his seat, not seeming to be able to hold still. Howie was crouched over the paper work. Kevin was deep in thought. Brian was, too, but while Kevin looked to be thinking of business, Brian was more-so daydreaming.
As if he realized I was looking at him, he turned around and looked at me. He smiled, his friendly, easy smile. I smiled back and then looked away.
I couldn’t believe I’d met them yesterday. I had been unprepared that they would be involved in the decision making process. I couldn’t believe that I had managed to act as calm as I did. Maybe I was too busy concentrating on my impending performance.
Today, I wasn’t as nervous. I had already performed “Only Hope” once, so I was fairly confident that I could do it again. And if I did awful? Well, that just meant I didn’t get the gig. Nothing earth shattering. If if was meant to be, then it would happen.
Again, I was one of the last people to go on. I decided to just calm down and play. If they liked it, so what? I was playing for me, because I enjoyed it.
The time seemed to go faster. I glanced at the audience and saw some people smiling, others not looking at the stage, and the judges thinking critically of how I was doing.
Kevin and Brian smiled at me. Kevin was looking from me to the piano. I couldn’t tell what Brian was thinking.
Afterwards, it took me awhile to find Carmen. She had taken her t-shirt off to reveal her tank top and was out of breath.
“Where were you?” I inquired.
“Well, remember when they didn’t think you were supposed to be here last time? And how we to convinced them, but would’ve failed if that guy...”
“...Brian...”
“... hadn’t come in?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I convinced them that they’d made a mistake about not having me down for dance auditions.”
“But they didn’t make a mistake.”
“Really? You don’t say...“
“You tried out to be one of the dancers? Is this still for the Backstreet Boys tour?”
“Umm... yeah, yeah I think so.”
“Oh my goodness... only you,” I rolled my eyes. “How’d you do?”
“Eh... they showed us some moves they are doing for part of a song and saw how quickly everyone caught on. I did okay, although I haven’t taken dance classes since high school. I'm a little out of shape it turns out, too.”
I laughed. “Let’s go get some lunch. You look like you’re hungry.”
Chapter Three
Chapter Five
Dreaming of Destiny
Frick's Fairytales