Last time: They each glanced each other, then straightened up and faced the judges. There were three of them, an old lady, a young woman, and a middle-aged man. The young woman smiled at them and nodded.
“Ready whenever you are.”
The group exchanged nervous glances with each other, and Odd took a deep breath, nodding slowly, signaling he was ready to go. He made a bit of a bobbing motion with his head before taking a sharp breath, signaling his pickup. They started their intro; Yumi closed her eyes and listened for her cue to begin. She heard it, and began to sing. She was even more surprised when she didn’t feel her voice crack as she started. Happy with herself, she kept her eyes closed and let her feelings escape through her mouth.
Aelita glanced up during her short rest. She noticed that everyone else had their eyes closed. Not only that, she managed to sneak a peek at the judges. They were smiling! Glad that they were satisfied with their performance, she looked back down and came in when she was supposed to.
After the song had finished, the three judges applauded as Odd and Yumi flashed them a grin. “Thank you all very much,” the man said, smiling back at them. “We enjoyed your performance, and we hope you make it through the ranks.” They all nodded at him and made their way out of the auditorium.
While everyone else was satisfied with the feedback, Ulrich was frowning. “Doesn’t it usually mean when a judge says that, that they didn’t really like it? Kind of like a ‘try again next year’ sort of thing?”
“Come on, quit being such a pessimist,” Odd scolded. “If you say stuff like that, then it’ll come true.”
“Well yeah, and if you’re too positive, you’ll end up jinxing us,” Ulrich retorted.
“Guys, stop,” Aelita interrupted calmly. “When I didn’t have anything to play, I took a peek at them. They were smiling, so I don’t think that means we’re stopping at this round.”
“Well that’s good; I don’t want all this hard work to go to waste!” Yumi exclaimed as she pushed open the door to the waiting room. Jeremie was still there, and as they entered he glanced up and shut his laptop. Stuffing it back into his bag he smiled at them.
“So, guys, how’d it go?” he asked as they approached. Aelita was the first to reach him and she gave him a huge smile.
“It was great!” she said in her soft voice. “I think the judges liked it, and we might be going to the next round!”
“Yeah, considering I messed up so many times,” Ulrich muttered. “We’re definitely getting somewhere.”
“Come on, I couldn’t tell you made even one mistake,” Yumi reassured, glancing back at him. “What’s with you today? You seem pissed.” No response. She shrugged. “Okay, then…”
“Shall we go, then?” Odd suggested, heading for the door. “I’m not sure I want to miss dinner…”
~~~
It was about a week later, a lazy Sunday afternoon. Ulrich lay on his bed, reading a book, and Odd sat on his own, playing with Kiwi. Their peaceful silence was interrupted when there was a sudden knock on the door. Odd grabbed Kiwi and jumped up, then placed him in the dresser drawer. As he was doing so, Ulrich got up and answered the door. Outside stood Jim, once again, with hands at his hips, foot tapping impatiently, and something in his hands. “Uh, hi Jim,” Ulrich greeted slowly.
“Hello, Ulrich,” he replied. He stuck out the envelope that was in his hands. “Give this to Odd, and also tell him that I hope that it’s his parents.” With that, he nodded and marched off. Shrugging, Ulrich closed the door lightly and held out the long, white envelope to his roommate. “Here.”
Odd took it and collapsed on his bed. Eagerly, he tore it open. There were four sheets of paper, each of which he scanned quickly. “Hey, it’s a letter from the organization and the judges!” Ulrich’s ears perked and he jumped to the other side of the room. He leaned over Odd’s shoulder and glanced at each of the judges’ sheets, and they finally got to the letter. They both read it over, and Odd gasped. Ulrich’s jaw hung open. The looked at each other and simultaneously said, “No way…”
The two headed down for dinner earlier than usual that night. When they arrived in the cafeteria, they found Jeremie and Aelita already there, talking in quiet voices to each other. Odd and Ulrich retrieved their own food and sat at their table.
“Hey Einstein,” Ulrich said calmly. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” he replied quite hotly, taking a stab at his chicken and stuffing it in his mouth.
“Well, you seem kinda upset,” Odd pointed out. “’Nothing’ can’t be up.”
“No, exactly. That’s what is up, nothing,” Jeremie exhaled deeply. “Have you guys even noticed?”
“Uh, noticed what?” Ulrich raised an eyebrow.
Jeremie let out a frustrated sigh. “See? It’s been practically a month since XANA escaped from the supercomputer, and we haven’t heard or seen a thing from him yet! Don’t you think this is a bit strange?”
The other two frowned simultaneously. “That really is weird,” Ulrich said quietly. “You’d think within the first week he was pummeling us with his new ways of attacking.”
“Or maybe he’s decided to get rid of the rest of the world while we relax over break,” Odd suggested. “Because by now he should know that we can’t be everywhere at once.”
“That’s exactly what we’re afraid of,” Aelita nodded, worry was evident in her voce. “If that’s true, and we end up going to Japan, and it’s not there anymore, how do we explain to the pilot that XANA’s gotten rid of it?”
“Oh, we just tell him that a super psychopathic artificial intelligence that’s bent on world domination escaped from the most powerful computer in the world and decided to get rid of some countries,” Odd waved his hand. “It’s not that hard.” Jeremie just rolled his eyes.
“Speaking of Japan,” Ulrich said. “We got a letter from the organization and our judges’ sheets from last week.”
The worry in Aelita’s eyes immediately disappeared and she smiled. “Well, what did they say?”
“Sorry to keep you hanging,” Odd began. “But I’m calling a meeting tomorrow to let everyone know.”
~~~
The small band met the next day in the late morning. Odd had them all sitting on chairs in front of him while he sat at the edge of the stage, papers in hand. Jeremie and Sissi (who arrived back from her vacation) sat behind the other members of the band.
“Well, how did you guys do last time?” Sissi asked, leaning forward.
“I thought we did okay,” Nicholas responded, nodding his head.
“The judges seemed to like it,” Aelita added. “But Odd’s going to tell us now if we’re moving on or not.”
As if that was his cue, Odd cleared his throat and clapped to get their attention. “All right, children, listen up! I have here,” he waved the papers. “The scores from the judges and our final say! Who shall we hear from first: the old lady, the man, or the woman?”
“Why don’t we just start from the lowest score to the highest?” Ulrich suggested.
Odd nodded in agreement. “Good idea.” He put down all but one paper and glanced it over. “This is from… the man,” he began. “Here’s what it says: Technique was very good and, um… I can’t read that… Oh! Technique was very good and higher level than normal people your age. Your guitarist and drummer especially.” The blonde paused to let himself bask in his own glory. “Okay, next… Musicality was nice, although I could use a little more distinguishing between piano and forte, if you even had that. Try using a little more phrasing to make it more interesting.
“Your lyrics sounded beautiful, although I don’t know what you were saying. It was very nice to hear someone sing in a language other than our own. It was very refreshing.
“Although your lyrics were nice, your style was a little mainstream. Try adding something different, like a piano glis. somewhere in there, those aren’t heard very often.” Furrowing his brow, Odd faced Ulrich. “Ulrich, what’s a glis?”
“Glisando,” Ulrich said. “I thought you would know that.”
“Oh, I do. I’ve just never seen it abbreviated before.” He shrugged and found his place again. “Your communication in the beginning was very good, and you all started at the same tempo and at the same time. However, as your piece went on, you lost some of your communication, and your pianist fell behind a bit. Practice this some more.
“Uh oh, here we go,” Odd took a deep breath. “Suggestions for improvement: I would like to see more musical lines and phrasing, which in turn would make this song more interesting. Also, try to add or take away some things to make it less mainstream. Have your pianist practice his runs a little more, they were a bit messy.
“Other: Overall, I think you did well compared to others your age. Good luck!” Odd looked up and scanned his small audience.
“Well,” Yumi began. “Don’t we have a score, or something?”
“Oh!” Odd looked back down at the paper. “Ninety two.”
“Ninety two? Out of…” Ulrich asked.
Odd glanced back at his paper. “A thousand.”
“A thousand?!” Ulrich exclaimed, almost jumping out of his seat.
“Woah, woah, I meant one hundred,” Odd gave a nervous giggle.
“Ninety two isn’t bad!” Sissi nodded. “How much did you guys practice?”
“…A lot,” The catboy put down the paper and picked up another one. “Okay, the next highest score is from… the old lady. She says: Your technique was wonderful! Your age group is usually the less technically advanced.
“The musicality could use a little more work. Phrasing, articulations, and dynamics are key to any good musical piece.
“I am very surprised to hear lyrics in Japanese! I can tell that this means you are shooting for the finals. They were pleasing to the ear and I enjoyed them.
“Your style, while seemingly mainstream, had some elements that were not entirely rock. This was a plus, and I liked your singer, who has a very nice voice (something we don’t hear often!).
“Communication throughout the piece was lacking. The pianist fell behind about a half a beat. It may either have been communication or lack of practice, but your beginning was beautiful.
“Suggestions for improvement: Try communicating more, especially if you move onto the next round, you will need those skills.
“Other: Wonderful job and hope you make it to the next round!” Odd took a deep breath and set aside the paper. “Ninety five,” he finished.
“They all hate me,” Ulrich muttered, slouching.
“No they don’t,” Jeremie reassured, patting him on the shoulder. “They’re just giving you guys ways to improve, that’s all.”
Ulrich snorted as Odd picked up the next paper. “Here we go!” he began. “Your technique was awesome! When I was your age, I couldn’t play runs like that on my guitar. I still can’t!
“I liked your musicality, but you could probably make it a little softer when the piano and the vocals have their duet (which was very lovely by the way!).
“I didn’t know what you were singing because it was in a foreign language, and that might be a setback in the future. But it was nice to hear something different!
“I like your style, refreshing and happy. Everything nowadays is very mad sounding.
“Communication is important! Work on this a bit. You were together until the last chorus repeat, I think you guys started to rush!
“Suggestions for improvement: Communication : ) Also, try kicking the tempo up a bit, or adding something to it. It sounded kind of empty.
“Other: Your keyboardist is really hot! ♥ I hope you guys make it far! Good luck the rest of the way.” Odd looked up. “Ninety seven.”
“All in the nineties?!” Yumi exclaimed. “We couldn’t have possibly been that good, I mean…”
“Well, are we moving on, or not?” Nicholas interrupted. Odd stared at him for a few seconds before realizing.
“Oh.” He reached over and picked up the final paper. “Okay guys, here’s what the letter says! It says, ‘Dear Odd Della Robbia et al.: Congratulations on making it through the first round! The judges have enjoyed your performance.
'You have finished this round with the scores 92, 95, and 97. This puts you in second place for this round with a total score of 284. This means you are above the cutoff point for 275, and you are moving on to the next round!
'This will take place at 2 PM, at the x Community Center in Paris on Friday, August 4th, 2006. Please come, this round will determine if you are going to the finals in Tokyo, Japan or not.
'The judges in this round will not only judge you on what was looked at before, but also how well you can improvise. This will be crucial as to whether or not you are moving on.
'The results of the next round will be reported at the site. Please do not leave until you have found out who the winners are.
'We can’t wait to see you next round! Good luck.'” Odd nodded. “Improv, huh?” he stacked the papers back together and lay them down. He jumped off the stage and landed swiftly on his feet.
“Crap! I can’t improv,” Ulrich whined, placing his forehead in his hands. “We’re not getting past this round!”
“Come on, Ulrich,” Yumi said softly. “I can’t improv, either. If you want, for the next week we can practice together until you can make up stuff on the spot, okay?” He nodded slowly in response.
“And let’s just hope our work doesn’t go to waste…”
Author's Chapter Notes:
Yes, this is the Fourth chapter!! It's kinda boring, and may sound a bit like gibberish if you're not familiar with some musical terms ^^; I'm terribly sorry, also...
Yep, same disclaimer, no need to repeat...
Enjoy!!