Odd struck the last note on his guitar, and it rang throughout the auditorium. It wasn’t until the echo died out when the audience burst into cheer and applause. Yumi smiled and bowed. “Thank you,” she said softly into the microphone.

The applause died out and they stood, waiting for the judges’ signal. Finally, the one in the middle spoke into his microphone on the table. “Thank you very much, Yumi. Now, would you please play one other piece improvised?” She nodded and they nodded back

The Japanese girl glanced back at her friends. They all in turn glanced at Ulrich, who rolled his eyes and gave a shrug. Without a sign, he began to play a slow, melancholy melody. Aelita added some pads in the background and Nicholas added a beat. Odd switched his guitar to bass and played a bass line.

Yumi started to sing. She had absolutely nothing in mind, just let everything flow. It ended up being an apology letter to her parents for lying to them all the time. Good thing they weren’t here, otherwise they’d scold her and want to know what the truth was. They couldn’t let that happen.

She sung her last note and let her voice fade out. The others, one by one, dropped out. First Aelita, then Odd, then Nicholas, and Ulrich ended with a quiet chord. The audience burst out into immediate applause. Yumi grinned, proud with herself and the others. She gave them another bow, but this time longer and deeper. The judges smiled to them and excused them, and they filed off the stage.

“Hey, Ulrich, you weren’t too bad back there!” Odd grinned and smacked his friend in the back. “I didn’t catch you slipping up once!”

The brunette gave a slight grin. “Thanks, Odd.”

They made their way back into the waiting room and lounged around in their corner. “Too bad Jeremie couldn’t make it,” Aelita sighed. “He’ll probably never hear us perform now…”

“Come on, don’t think that,” Yumi reassured her. “I think we did really well. We might be going to Japan.”

“Well yeah, but we don’t know how well the other guys did, huh?” Nicolas pointed out. “For all we know, we were the worst ones out there.”

“I doubt it,” Odd countered. “Judging by the applause, I think we’re going on the next airplane to a foreign country.”

It wasn’t until about an hour later when all the groups were done and crowded into the small waiting room. The judges entered and squeezed their way into the room and everyone was immediately. An air of tension hung over the crowd as the judges’ spokesperson overlooked his clipboard.

“Thank you all for a wonderful performance,” he began. “You all did wonderfully, as expected from the preliminary round winners.” He nodded in approval. “Here on my clipboard I have the final results, and who the three lucky winners will be. The winners will be going to Japan for the final round!” There came a cheer from the contestants, but it died out quickly.

“In first place…” The entire crowd became tenser, and Odd crossed his fingers. He couldn’t lose, and he wouldn’t lose. When the judge named a band name that wasn’t them, the five let out a heavy sigh. Three girls on the other side of the room were screaming and hugging each other.

“Congratulations to them!” The judge smiled and looked back down at his clipboard. “In second place, we have…” Once again, it wasn’t a band any of them were familiar with. A young girl and an older boy were hugging each other.

“And last, but certainly not least,” the judge looked over his paper and cleared his throat. “In third place we have…” Odd threw his head in his hands. It wasn’t them. The crowd seemed to grow even tenser, each hoping that it was their own band that made the cut.

“Pop-Rock Progressives.”

Yumi let out the loudest scream she had ever screamed in her life. She turned around and pulled Ulrich into a tight hug, who in turn just stood shocked. Aelita was laughing along with Nicolas.

“And with that, I would like to thank all who participated,” the judge nodded and smiled to the rest of the crowd. “If you are moving on to the next round, please go to the reception desk in the lobby for ticket application forms. You may go home.” The judges all left and anyone who didn’t win was murmuring angrily among their group.

The five, on the other hand, were giddier than a young girl who just got her first kiss. They chatted excitedly among themselves as they headed towards the lobby.

“Oh my god, you guys will love Japan!” Yumi exclaimed. “We can do so much stuff! We’ll go shopping, and do karaoke, eat great food, and maybe if we can, we’ll visit some shrines or something! This will be great.” She grinned again. They approached the counter and stood behind the other two who were making the finals.

“Hey, Yumi. You’re going to have to teach me some Japanese so we can survive,” Odd said, pointing at her. “For example: We’re stuck in the middle of the city and poor Odd’s lost! Not only that, he has to use the bathroom! How do you say, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’”

Yumi laughed. “Toire wa doko,” she said.

“Toilet wa doke?” Odd raised his eyebrow. Yumi shook her head.

Ulrich laughed. “And you’d think that with your family you’d know every language in the world,”

“Oh, shut up you!” Odd crossed his arms and frowned. The two people in front of them left and it was their turn.

“Names?” the lady asked. They each said their own and she pulled out a paper. “All right, let’s see… You are all under eighteen. You need a chaperone.” She pulled out another paper and slid it across the counter. “The chaperone must be an adult you know well and trust.” They nodded in understanding. “Also, aside from you five and your chaperone, do you expect anyone else to be coming?”

They glanced at each other. “Uhh, hold on,” Odd said. He turned to the rest of them. “There’s us five,” he held up one outstretched hand. “And our chaperone,” he held up his other hand and another finger. “Then we have Jeremie coming,” he held up another finger. “Anyone else?”

“If you’re bringing along Jeremie, then Sissi should come along too,” Nicolas insisted. Ulrich gave a heavy sigh and Odd rolled his eyes, but held up another finger anyway.

“So that totals to eight people,” he concluded. “Yumi, how safe is Japan? We might need another chaperone.”

Yumi shook her head. “Just one is enough. It’s probably the safest country in the world.”

“Alrighty then,” Odd nodded and turned back to the lady. “Eight people are coming on this trip, ma’am.”

The lady nodded. She wrote something down. “Please, have your chaperone sign this form,” she pointed at the one from earlier. “We will send your tickets in and hopefully, they will be in by Monday. Your flight is at 7AM on Wednesday morning. Please don’t be late for your flight! We can’t replace your tickets.” She smiled at them. “Good luck on the finals!” The five thanked her and headed outside the building to wait for their bus.

Jeremie sat at his computer, staring at the screen and tapping his chin. He put his hands forward, ready to type when he heard a loud slamming noise behind him. He let out a yelp and tried to keep himself from falling on his keyboard. He clutched his heart and swiveled around to find his friends standing there with large, idiotic grins on their faces. Yes, even Ulrich. “You guys almost gave me a heart attack,” Jeremie scolded, eyes wide open.

“Hey Einstein! Guess what!” Odd exclaimed, grinned.

“Uhh, they have a discount at the burger store?” Odd just rolled his eyes.

“No, silly!” Aelita walked up to him smiling. “We made the second round! We’re going to Japan!”

Jeremie’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?” He stood up and hugged her. “That’s so wonderful!” He broke away and they both grinned. “So wait, if you we’re traveling, I’ve been thinking…” He glanced at his computer then back at his friends. A sly smile appeared on his face. “Anyone want to come into town with me?”

~~~

It was late afternoon when they reached the store Jeremie had in mind: a high-tech computer store with all the latest technology and accessories. “Uh,” Ulrich tapped Jeremie on the shoulder. “You wanna tell us what you have in mind?”

The young blonde patted his bag. “I’ve had this little laptop for the longest time,” he explained. “And now that XANA’s free and we’ll be away without the supercomputer, I figured it was time for an upgrade.” The group made their way over to the computer section on the other side of the store, where sleek, silver, high-tech laptops stood on display. Jeremie’s eyes widened and ran over to the displays.

“Wow, Jeremie’s just like Odd when he sees a pretty girl,” Ulrich teased. Odd scoffed.

Jeremie came back several minutes later, carefully balancing a rather flat box with a picture of a sleek-looking laptop on it. Odd squinted at the box. “You sure you have enough money for that, Jeremie?” he asked, sincerely concerned.

He nodded. “Yeah,” he jerked his head in the direction of his backpack. “At the end of school I called my parents and notified them that I was going to get a new laptop, so they gave me some money. Luckily enough, I have enough for this one.” He grinned. “Come with me to the front.”

A loud ripping sound filled Jeremie’s dorm room as he opened his new toy excitedly. He slowly lifted it up, letting it catch the last rays of the sun that were filtering through his windows. He beamed at it, and stroked his hand over the top. “Oh wow, you guys have no idea how excited I am right now,” he stated the obvious, his voice trembling a little.

Aelita knelt down beside him, also grinning ear to ear. “Jeremie, it’s wonderful!” she agreed. She watched as he ceremonially made his way over to his desktop, and slowly hooked it up.

“I just gotta transfer all my old data onto here, and hopefully I’ll have more than enough room to make even better programs.”

“Yeah, like a XANA-detector or something,” Odd reminded him. “Remember? I refuse to leave the country until that’s done, and we’re leaving on Wednesday! So chop-chop, Einstein!”

Jeremie rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, I know. I’ve got something in mind, so don’t worry. I’ll probably stay up all night working on it, so I can get it done and we can test it out tomorrow.”

Ulrich stood. “Well, that’s good,” he stretched as he gave a slight yawn. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted.” He headed for the door, but paused when he was halfway out. “Oh, yeah, tomorrow, we have to ask if Jim can go with us.”

“Imagine,” Odd said to himself as he also headed to the door. “He’s been wanting us out of this place for days and now he has to go on a trip with us. Really, I pity him.” The door shut behind the two.

“Well, I’d better get to bed too,” Aelita said, standing. “I’ll see you tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got to show tomorrow.” She gave her room-lighting grin, and blushing, Jeremie grinned back. “Night.”

“Night,” Jeremie called after her as the door shut softly. He gave a sigh and turned back to his laptop. He stretched out his hands and wiggled his fingers. “Let’s get this party started…”