-Brian’s point of view-
This day had been shorter, but it was still pushing seven o’clock and I was ready to go home and enjoy the weekend.
“Glad you could join us today, Nick,” I kidded the youngest member of the group.
“Hey, what are you yelling at me for? At least I came to one, AJ is probably at home managing his facial hair.”
“All right,” Howie said. Again, we’d kicked out everyone but us. I was glad that we were at the point in our careers where we had that ability. That hadn’t always been the case.
Of course, we used to be the ones auditioning to open for other people.
“I really liked that guitar playing girl... she was a little like Jewel but more... I don’t know. But she was good.”
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “I saw her perform at a Karaoke night. I was the one who told her about auditions. But her songs all seem a little redundant. Like they would blend together.”
“How about that piano player? The guy that went to Juliard?” Howie read off the next form.
“He was definitely talented at the piano. Probably better than me at mechanics, but...” Kevin started.
“He didn’t have a flare for music. He’s not someone who would get the audience pepped up before the show,” I finished. Kevin nodded.
“Only a few left... umm... how about the singer, dancer that the record company recommended? She doesn’t play an instrument, but she does some of her own lyrics. And she had a really good range,” Howie offered.
“She was hot,” Nick said.
“If that’s your insight then maybe it was good that you didn’t come last time,” I retorted, just picking on him some while taking a piece of gum out of my pocket.
“No, I mean that she has the image that the music company wants, too.”
“Yeah, and although people say that image doesn’t matter, sadly it does,” Kevin agreed. “She’s definitely a possibility... what was her name? Sandra?”
“Sandra Dwaine,” Howie read of.
“Keep her paper out,” Kevin instructed. We also left the next paper out.
“August McFadden,” Howie said.
“Which one was she?” Nick asked.
“Piano player. One of the last performances,” I reminded him.
“Oh, yeah. She was okay.”
“She did much better today than she did last time. She seemed to be able to concentrate better,” Kevin said.
“Again, though, she seems shy,” Howie said.
“Probably safer to go with Sandra. As long as she keeps her image clean, I think she’d be a good opening act. As we said, she had the range. She could belt it out. And she was a good dancer, that will get the crowd up and dancing with anticipation.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Nick said.
“I think we should go with August,” I said.
“But...” Kevin started.
“How come?” Howie was at least willing to hear me out.
“I’ve just got a feeling,” I shrugged. “I just think that if we chose her, we wouldn’t regret it.”
I knew that I didn’t have any concrete support for my statement, but I said that anyway.
“She was good, we’re not denying that. But she was our third choice. It just makes more sense,” Kevin stated.
I was out voted. At least I said what I wanted to say.
-August’s point of view-
Carmen and I spent the weekend around the phone. Finally, I said I couldn’t take the anticipation anymore.
“I’m gonna watch TV,” I informed Carmen.
I wondered if they’d call even if I didn’t get it. I hoped so. I didn’t want to keep wondering if they just couldn’t get through, or if maybe, just maybe...
I stopped when I heard the phone ring. Carmen answered it but she started talking. It wasn’t for me.
I went back to trying to read. No use. Carmen ran up.
“Who was it?” I asked quickly.
“Our good old friend, Edith,” she rolled her eyes. “Apparently, they didn’t make a mistake. They ran my name through with the other people... I guess the Backstreet Boys and those other judges... turns out, I really wasn’t supposed to be at the audition,” Carmen noted, dryly.
“Aw... that sucks.”
“Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t have made it anyway. I asked, cuz if it was just that I lacked the audition maybe I could still weasle my way in. She said that I lacked the training necessary or something...”
“I’m sorry, Carm. At least you got to try-out thought, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
We went out in the afternoon. When we got back, I said, “check the messages, will you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“You have two new messages,” the machine said.
“Hi, August? It’s mom. I wanted to see how you did on the audition... call me as soon as you find out, ok? Love you. Bye.”
The machine read the date and time.
Message number two, “August? This is Edith from Jive. Thank you for trying-out, but I’m sorry to inform you that we chose someone else for the tour. Again, thank you for coming. Good luck in the future.”
“Good luck in the future?” Carmen mocked her. “That woman just bothers me. I’m sorry... well, you won’t have to worry about touring and stuff!” she offered.
I nodded. “Oh well, it’s no big deal,” I headed up the spiral stairs. Had I actually expected to get it? But I was surprised at how disappointed I was. Maybe I should’ve tried harder on my stage presence and I could’ve come in stronger on the second verse....
Different regrets went through my mind. Maybe it would’ve been better if I just hadn’t run into Kevin in the first place.
-Brian’s point of view-
“All right, watch me, guys,” Fatima said, showing us the dance moves for ‘Everybody.’ She gracefully went through the moves. “Try it again. You guys need to be more n’sync...”
“What? Hey, no need to insult us!” AJ laughed. Fatima realized her reference.
“You know what I mean... just for that, get up here, Bone. Let’s see if you were paying attention to me!”
AJ smoothly went through the steps.
“Ok, good. Think you can all do that together now?”
The five of stood back up, sweaty and tired from a long day of rehearsal. We did decently. Nick was a little slow, I was a little too fast.
“Well, at least we balance out, huh Frick?” Nick commented.
“Hey, guys,” Sandra bounced over, cheerily. She eyed Nick.
“Sorry, Sandra, I gotta keep their attention on dancing,” Fatima said.
“Oh, I know. I just wanted to know if I could watch,” she smiled innocently.
“Ok,” Fatima said, absently. “I’m gonna put on the song... try to do it from the top,” she instructed.
Our CD started playing. It was weird listening to ourselves. “We’ve been through days of thunder...” my voice echoed through the speakers as we kept tempo. For the first run down of the complete song, I thought we did well.
Fatima, of course, had comments. But that was to be expected.
“Good job, Brian,” Sandra smiled.
“Thanks,” I said, being my friendly self.
“Have you finished rehearsing today?” Kevin asked, skeptically.
“I think so... I performed my songs well enough. I don’t think I need to run it into the ground everyday,” she reasoned.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Fatima joined in. “Guys, take a break. Sandra, your turn on the stage.”
“Okay,” Sandra stood up slowly. “Are you going to watch, Brian?”
“I’ll probably see some of it,” I answered.
“Time is wasting,” Fatima tried to stay on task.
I grabbed a seat next to Nick in the audience. “Man, have I mentioned that she’s hot?”
“Several times...” I said. Her song started playing. It was one the company had penned and she had been working on this week. They were already talking about CDs.
“Good dancer... she could probably teach us a thing or two,” Nick said, laughing at our less than spectacular performances today.
“I don’t know... I just have a feeling that we should have gone with that other girl... umm... August, I think.”
“She didn’t have the stage presence that Sandra does.”
“But Sandra also seems to lack the motivation of lot’s of practice. I know it gets tiring, but we’ve only been at it a week. We have a long, long road ahead of us.”
“Yeah, you are right about that. She came in a few minutes late this morning. Fatima was pretty pissed off about that. That’s why she’s been so short with her... and she’s been flirting with you some, too.”
“Yeah,” I had picked up on some of that. “I would’ve thought she’d be more of an AJ type of girl. Or maybe you.”
“Too bad,” Nick snapped his finger in a disappointed gesture.
We watched as Sandra finished the song with some amazing vocals. Fatima started analyzing some of her dancing. We saw Sandra’s arms start flaring and could barely hear Fatima’s voice rising over the rest of the noise in the busy arena.
“One thing’s for sure... this is going to be interesting,” Nick said. “Don’t worry, it’ll work out. Things always do.”
Chapter Four
Chapter Six
Dreaming of Destiny
Frick's Fairytales