Solo Star (6 page)

“Did you manage to eat any breakfast?” asked Zil, who was usually totally unflappable.

“No,” admitted Chloe. “I couldn't.”

“Me neither,” Zil confessed. “But I brought a banana with me in case I get hungry on the bus.”

“I didn't think it was a very long ride,” said Chloe.

“It isn't,” he said. “I don't know why I bothered really. It's just nerves, I guess. I've been trying to make sure I don't forget anything and a banana seemed like a good idea, but I'm sure they'll feed us!” He laughed. “I think I'm even more nervous now than I was when I came for my audition to get into this school.”

“Oh. I hope I'm never
that
nervous again,” said Chloe, and she immediately began to feel a little better.

Judge Jim and Mr. Player pulled up in the bus.

“We'll be with you every step of the way,” Mr. Player told the students as they loaded their instruments. “So if you have any worries or problems, we'll be there to help.”

“Where's Danny?” asked Judge Jim.

“I don't know,” said Lenny. “He was in the Rock Department when I was collecting my guitar. I thought he was on his way.”

Judge Jim looked at his watch. “I wouldn't have thought Danny would be the one to hold us up,” he said. Zil and Lenny exchanged glances, and Chloe felt her stomach beginning to knot. Surely things weren't going to go wrong before they'd even left for the studio!

But then one of the older girls said, “Isn't that him?”

To everyone's relief, Danny was jogging along the path clutching his backpack. “Sorry,” he puffed when he reached them. “I just realized that I had my most worn-out drumsticks with me instead of my best ones and I had to go back for them. You're sure I don't need to take my drum set, aren't you?” he added to Judge Jim.

“Don't worry,” the teacher replied. “The studio set is really good and it'll be ready for you. All you need are your sticks.”

Chloe gave her friend a sympathetic smile. Even Danny, one of the calmest people she knew, must be feeling the tension.

The television studios were in the next town, which was only a short drive away. When the Rising Stars students arrived, they lugged their instruments into the reception area. They didn't have long to wait. A friendly-looking girl came through the swinging doors and approached them.

“Hi, I'm Julie,” she said, shaking Judge Jim's hand and then Mr. Player's. “I'm the researcher for the program and will be looking after you today. If there's anything you need, just ask me and I'll do my best to help.” She smiled at them all, and Chloe felt encouraged. It wasn't as scary here as she'd feared it might be.

Julie led the students down a hallway and into a large room with a table and chairs at one end. Several amps were already plugged in, and there was a simple drum set, too. “This is your rehearsal room,” she told them. “You should all have time for at least one run-through here before you go down to do your sound checks in the studio. Sam will be here in a while to film some informal shots of you all. They will be edited into the final program between your acts to add interest for the viewers,” she explained. “Drinks and cookies are there, and we'll be bringing in some light snacks for lunch. Oh, and later I'll be asking for some interesting snippets of information about each of you for the voice-over.”

Chloe wondered what sort of information Julie would want. She couldn't think of anything interesting she'd done before today. Then she told herself not to worry. There were more important things to think about, like concentrating on making her performance the best she could. To do that, she would need to keep her energy levels up, so she went with the boys to investigate the cookies. She and Zil ate one each and Chloe began to feel a little more relaxed. The producer came to see them and, with the teachers' help, worked out the order in which they would perform.

“I'm glad we're not on first,” Chloe whispered to Danny when Judge Jim announced the running order. “Third is just about perfect.”

Sam the cameraman showed up as well.

“I need to get some general shots of everyone chatting and rehearsing, and then some individual ones, too,” he explained. “The audience today won't see any of the film, but afterward the recorded performances will be edited together with the shots I take and a voice-over will be scripted for the program.”

“When will the program air?” asked Danny.

“It's usually shown as a Christmas special,” said Sam.

“That's a long time away,” said Chloe in disappointment. She'd been hoping to watch it with her family and friends over the summer break.

“That's TV for you.” Sam smiled. “The school will get a copy of the program well before it goes out, so I think you'll get to see it very soon. But you should be pleased! Winter programs get a lot more viewers than summer ones. Haven't you noticed that they show a lot of repeats over the summer?”

Sam busied himself checking his camera, and Danny and Chloe exchanged glances. Chloe couldn't help being excited. The program might not be seen for absolutely forever, but it would
eventually
be shown and they were here now, in a TV studio!
That
was what really mattered. Then she thought about their song. No . . . what
really
mattered was for them to perform at their best. Suddenly all her doubts came flooding back, and her stomach did an enormous flip. They had to make the song perfect. It seemed impossible, but they simply
had to.

At first, it was really difficult being filmed by Sam. He wanted lots of natural shots of the students, but with all the excitement in the air, it was very hard not to giggle when he pointed his camera in their direction. Danny dropped half a cookie into his drink by accident and everyone went into hysterics. They couldn't stop laughing for a while. But Sam was very patient, and eventually the students stopped being self-conscious and learned to ignore the camera.

When the first band got their instruments out and began to rehearse, everyone became much more businesslike. It might be a lot of fun being at a TV studio, but they had work to do and it would be a relief to get on with the job. Chloe and the rest of her band waited impatiently until it was their turn to do a run-through. Chloe was feeling really jittery now and there were still several hours to go until the audience would arrive. She was sure she'd feel better once she had a microphone in her hand, and she heaved a sigh of relief when it was their turn to rehearse.

But it wasn't that easy. Jeff made a bad mistake during their song, then Lenny faltered, and finally Zil made everything worse by swearing at them. Chloe and Danny plowed on as they had agreed they would if there was a problem, but there were an uncomfortable few seconds until the others picked up the song again. Everyone was thoroughly unsettled and Zil was mortified at having been recorded being rude to his fellow band members!

“I'm really sorry,” he said. “I think the pressure must be getting to me.”

“Don't worry,” said Sam, still wielding his camera. “I'm sure it'll be edited out!”

Chloe was concerned that their bad rehearsal would be included in the television program, but Judge Jim reassured her.

“Don't worry,” he said. “They'll be lookin' for the human angle, not trying to make you look bad. The finished program will be mostly for people who don't know much about the music business. It'll be interestin' for them to see you workin' on the song and then performin' it perfectly during the concert.”

“If we
do
manage to perform it perfectly,” muttered Jeff anxiously.

The tension was getting to them all. Sam and the television company were only interested in what made good television, but the students knew that
their
purpose was to impress the small studio audience of experts. The students wanted recognition from the people who mattered.

Nobody managed to eat much of the pizza that was brought in for lunch, and when it was time for the students to change into the clothes they'd brought for their performances, Chloe felt very sick.

“I never thought I'd earn a place, did you?” said Ayesha, the girl who was going to be singing with Rob Copeland.

“No,” Chloe replied. She struggled into the tight jeans Pop and Lolly had eventually decided she should wear and put on her sparkly green sleeveless top. “I hoped I might when I was higher up in the school, but never thought I would at the end of my first year.”

“Well, I'm sure they don't choose people unless they think they can pull it off,” Ayesha told her. “After all, this is a showcase for the school's talent. They wouldn't let us perform on television if they were afraid we'd let them down.”

“I guess,” agreed Chloe, but she wasn't sure of anything anymore. And her stomach was churning
so
badly.

Then Julie wanted to interview Chloe. The researcher needed some background material so that there'd be some interesting facts for the voice-over, which would accompany the shots taken of Chloe during rehearsal. Julie wanted to know how old Chloe was, how long she'd been at Rockley Park, and who her favorite singers were.

“Goodness! You're very young to be on the program,” Julie said when Chloe gave her age. “Most of the performers are quite a bit older, but we have two young ones this year, right? Isn't one of the drummers almost the same age as you?”

“Yes,” agreed Chloe. “And we both came from the same school and got scholarships to Rockley Park at the same time, too.”

Julie was very pleased to hear this. “That's just the sort of thing we like to know,” she said, writing it all down.

Next, everyone took turns visiting the makeup department. Even the boys had to have their faces powdered to stop them from shining under the strong studio lights. Then they each went to the wardrobe department.

Vicky, the wardrobe mistress, gave Chloe an encouraging smile. “That looks cute,” she told her, “but I think we can find something to finish off the look.” She had a few words with her assistant, who brought out a wonderful, military-style jacket. It wasn't the kind of thing Chloe would have worn normally, but it made her feel trendy. When she joined Danny and the rest of the band, she found that the military theme had been subtly extended to the boys, too. The wardrobe department had been very clever in giving the band an identity without making it obvious. Danny was wearing a military-looking hat.

“Wow!” exclaimed Chloe when she saw him. “You look great.”

Danny looked uncomfortable. “I didn't really want to wear it,” he told her. “But Judge Jim said I should.”

“You look awesome!” Chloe assured him.

“Do you think so?” said Danny, sounding relieved.

Time was ticking by, and it wasn't long before the whole group of teachers and students was taken to see the studio where they would perform. Chloe had never seen a place like this before. It was huge, but the actual performance space was much smaller than she had imagined.

“It's like a stage set without a stage!” Chloe said to Danny in surprise.

The walls of the enormous room were painted flat black, as were the floor and the ceiling. The ceiling was very high and filled with lots of lights, only a few of which were switched on. In the middle of the room was a circle of white floor with several white screens obscuring the black walls behind them.

“This is where you'll perform,” said Julie, pointing at the white circle of floor.

“It's very small,” said Danny anxiously.

“Don't worry,” said Julie. “Everything fits in okay. We've done this type of concert lots of times. And you'll get the chance for a run-through in a few minutes. You'll feel more comfortable once you've done that.”

“I like the sign,” said Ayesha.

“Me, too,” agreed Chloe. In the middle of the center screen was the huge sparkly star she remembered from watching last year's concert. ROCKLEY'S RISING STARS was in glittery writing inside the star. The students would be standing right in front of it when they performed.

“I thought there would be a much bigger audience,” said Zil, looking at the rows of chairs facing the Rising Stars sign.

Mr. Player shook his head. “Television can play lots of tricks,” he said. “It's a small invited audience, but when the concert is shown on TV, it will look as if you are playing in a very large venue.”

Chloe had been going to ask why the room had to be so big when the performance space was so small, but when she looked around more carefully, she could see the answer for herself. All the equipment needed to make the TV show was spread around in the black part of the room. There were lots of cameras on large stands, and a couple looked as if they were mounted on cranes. Black cables snaked everywhere and a huge fan stood in one corner. What with microphone booms, folding chairs, and strange equipment that Chloe couldn't identify, the space was very cluttered.

There were lots of people around, too. The producer was getting the camera operators to position their cameras exactly where he wanted them, and technicians were putting the finishing touches to the set and the sound equipment. One was assembing the studio drum set right in front of the sparkly star.

“That's an awesome drum set,” said Danny happily. “I can't wait to play it.”

“You'll be able to try it soon,” said Julie. “The producer will want to double-check the camera positions with some people in place and then they'll need to get the sound levels right for all of you, so you'll have to take your turn. Who's up first?” She consulted her clipboard. “Oh, not your band, Danny. It's the other one. Where are you?” She smiled at the students as they came forward. “The technicians will be here for another ten minutes,” she told them. “You can do your sound check right afterward. Then it's Ayesha and Rob, and after that, Zil, it's your band. Then . . .”