After practicing for a few hours, the teachers of the piano class called for everyone to get some food and headed to the audience hall. It was a large building with a beautiful stage and massive spectator seats. The second floor was much smaller than the first but looked much fancier with a separate area in the center, possibly designed for the judges. Vivian got to see the stage before getting led to the dressing room. Charlie and Kyle found their way to the seats and waited for the show to start.
Vivian was served by all sorts of people in the dressing room, some styling her hair and others putting beautiful makeup on her. Her piano teacher stood on her side, repeating notes that Vivian needed to be careful with while playing. She was given an elaborate, silk dress that reached the floor, shimmering under the light. It was pure white with short sleeves and it fit Vivian perfectly.
Not just herself, but everyone was stunned with her look. She then played her song on the grand piano she was going to use and got to the backstage.
Selena was going to perform her dance first. The lights turned off exactly at 6 P.M., with almost all seats filled. The entire building went silent, and a beam of white light appeared onto the stage, illuminating a slender figure with her head lowered. She was wearing a light blue outfit, with along rim that reached the floor. She was wearinga blue silk ribbon in her hair that matched the ribbons on her ballet shoes.
As soft music began to play, Selena slowly started to lift her head and began her performance. She was like a blue bird as she glided with her elegant but powerful motions across the stages. Her long dress fluttered behind her and twirled as she turned. The motion of her outfit added on to her performance, making her movements seem to have more complexity. Her performance was stunning. She danced with confidence and did not make any mistakes. As the music faded away, she landed softly on the spot she started and lowered her head again as if returning to the original state she started. The audience applauded with thundering claps, admiring the performance of Selena with all they could. Selena bowed and left the stage. It was a break for the workers to prepare the stage for Vivian.
After Selena made it backstage, she started laugh ingamusingly as if she was sure that she would win. She walked to a dark corner and dialed a call.
“What?...Yes, I’m going to win... I made a tiny mistake, but I already talked to the main judge... yes, I bribed him....Okay, love you, bye.” Selena’svoice faintly reached Vivian’s ears. She was about toget some water before she went onstage, but accidentally caught Selena on the phone call. She was shocked at what she overheard. Selena had bribed the judge, so there was no way for her to win, leaving Vivian demoralized.
Just as Vivian was about to leave and alert the others, Selena’s phone rang again. “Hello?... What? What do you mean you haven’t given the moneyto him yet?... Call him right away and give it to him fast!... Yes, I’d appreciate it.” Selena’s voice went off again, sounding agitated. Vivian halted. There is still time for them to stop the bribe! She quickly ran off and called Charlie.
Charlie and Kyle were currently outside the auditorium. It was an intermission, so they decided to go visit Vivian before she went onstage. Charlie’s phone started ringing violently when they were near the exit. It was Vivian dialing, so she quickly walked out and answered the call. Before she could say anything, Vivian’s desperate voice stopped her.
“Charlie! Selena’s going to bribe the main judge! They are going to call him out of the auditorium and give him the money! We’ve got to stop them, with the main judge bribed, I would never win!” Vivian cried. Charlie processed the sudden burst of information and quickly acted after assuring Vivian that they knew what to do. Charlie told the news to Kyle and quickly ran upstairs to the exit of the judges’ seats. There, they almost ran directly into the exchange. They hid behind a pillar and watched what was going on.
There was only one person, but he was dressed entirely in black, and his face was covered. He also looked like he was armed with some sort of weapon.
He was carrying a black suitcase and was talking to the main judge. After the brief examination, Charlie decided that it was not a good idea to jump in and stop the bribe. Even with two people, they still might be shot or fail to get the suitcase from the two grown men. Just as Charlie was figuring out how to stop them, Kyle patted her and pointed to her bag.
“You have a camera, don’t you?” He spoke. Charlie’s eyes brightened. She came up with a great idea.
First, she grabbed the camera and started filming the two men trading. From her position,she could hear faint voices of the two, mainly about the amount of money and Selena. These words were enough evidence to prove that Selena was planning to bribe the judge. After the man in black gave the suitcase to the judge and both started leaving in opposite directions, Charlie quickly got up and sprinted past the man in black, giving him no time to think about grabbing her. Charlie grabbed the judge, as Kyle restrained the man in black from his back, putting his hands together so he could not pull a weapon. Charlie then held her camera up and yelled out that she had evidence that the judge was bribed. She also told them that she was a journalist, and she could ruin the judge’s reputation if she chose to expose the bribe.
The judge froze. For a professional judge like him, his reputation was the most vital thing that supported his career. With his reputation ruined, he would never get to judge again. The man in black also froze. With this bribe exposed, his master, Selena, would never get to dance again. No matter what happened, the evidence the girl holds is powerful enough to ruin both of their lives. The judge slowly puts down the suitcase and turns to Charlie’s camera held above his head.
“I won’t accept this money anymore,” He said as he kept his eyes on the camera, “but could you delete the video?” He said as he suddenly jumped up to grab the camera.
Unfortunately for him, he was shorter than Charlie and was too old to jump high enough to grab the camera. Hearing this, the man in black started to try to get out of Kyle’s control, not being sure if Selena would win anymore. Kyle was strong and kept him restrained.
Charlie nodded and grabbed the suitcase, placingit by the feet of the man in black. “Return this to Selena,” she said, “and if you don’t judge fair, I will be sure to expose you to the public.” Kyle loosened his grip on the man and allowed him to pick up the case before taking his gun from his belt. He held one hand on the man’s shoulder and another holding the gun, making sure that he would not dare to run before handing the suitcase back to Selena. Charlie gave the judge a fierce glance before following Kyle and heading back to the auditorium.
Vivian was frightened. Charlotte’s feelings about going on stage was filling up inside her and the fear of losing dueto Selena’s plan was also affecting her a lot. It was almost her time to perform. Her heart was beating much faster than usual and she started to sweat due to the nervousness.
“Charlotte!” Called a worker, “Get ready to go on stage!” The piano was ready, and the stage had turned dark again. Vivian took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, before lifting her head and walking onto the stage as if she had a lot of confidence. She sat on the chair and placed her hands on the piano.
A beam of light shone onto her, and she started her performance. The music she played was a slow, angelic song, witha continuous tune and a pleasing melody. Her version of the music had changed, adding wider movements in her hands and arms to reach, making it also beautiful to watch. After a long note slowly fades away, her music pauses and turns into a quick and sped up tune, creating tension within the peaceful music. Vivian was fearing this part of the piece. It was difficult and she did not know if Charlotte could play like she did before with the pressure. However, in contrast to Vivian’s worries, Charlotte seemed to calm as she started playing and increased her enthusiasm as she continued to play. The quick section of the music ended with a short note that was very high pitched, pulling the audience back into the calm beautiful music. Charlotte had a unique talent in playing the piano. As her hands skipped on the black and white keys, the music it created was so intriguing and hypnotizing, that the audience could only focus on her performance and nothing else. Finally, the piece ended with a long set of notes, combined at the very end, drawing a conclusion to the astounding music.
The audience went silent for a few moments, then exploded paced around her dressing room. She also knew that shewould not win this competition against Vivian. While she amazing music she played. Most of them had never heard such great music as this one played before and couldn't help but applaud loudly to show their amazement.
Selena on the other hand, was biting her nail and quickly paced around her dressing room. She alsoknew that she would not win thiscompetition against Vivian. While she performed all her forms correctly, she was lacking the enthusiasm and emotions that the performance brought to the audience. She had no chance of winning against her.
Meanwhile, she also received her money back from the bribe, meaning that the judge did not accept it. How could she win this? This was the most important performance of her career, and she cannot afford losing. But what could she do to save it? Vivian had already won, and she had no chance to fix her mistakes in her dance.
Finally, after the spectacular performance, it was time for the judges to rate who’s going to win. Without any doubt, the winner of the performance went to Vivian. Selena performed well but failed to grab the audience’s attention. Vivian on the other hand, outperformed her despite having stage fright and got everyone mesmerized by her music. Vivian’s eyes brightened as she heard the judge’s announcement and so did Charlie and Kyle. They’ve completed the mission and won the championship. After they’ve gotten off stage, Vivian saw Charlie and Kyle waiting for her near the door. She jumped into her brother’s arms and exclaimed her happiness.
“I thought I was not going to beat the stage fright!” She said, “But I ended up doing even better than I did before!” Charlie nodded. Everyone could see how amazing she had done. Now it was time to go back to the train.
They found a door like the one they saw in Kyle’s changing room before in a corner of the backstage, behind the piano. They moved it together and examined the “keyhole”. It looked like a small rectangle, exactlythe size of the black and white photo stuck onto the paper Vivian sent Charlie. Thinking about the photo again, they were still not quite certain who the girl was, but it was not Selena or anyone else they knew.
Putting the mystery girl aside, they had to get the photo off the paper and see if it fits. Strangely enough, it was much easier to take off than Charlie thought and came off with just a small pull. It was very light but stuck to the keyhole perfectly as Charlie placed it one. The door glowed and opened with blazing white light filled inside. Withone last look to each other, they stepped into the portal. As lights blinded their sight, they all heard some faint music in the distance, no different from the one Vivian played.