How had she dared to bare herself to everyone so completely? What had she done?
The entire auditorium - all the mentors, trainees and staff stared in shocked silence or seeming retrospection. Their faces were all blank. Stacey didn't know whether their reaction was good or bad. It was probably bad. The shaking in her hands grew worse until she felt her entire body shivering unceasingly. Even her heart felt like it was trembling. She stood up but her legs felt weak and wobbly, causing her to fall back onto her seat again.
Awkward and clumsy. That was her.
She felt like she had completely exhausted all her energy and that there was nothing else left of her.
Over. It was all over. She was done for.
Glancing around the silent auditorium, Stacey spotted a gap between the production crew and cameras and darted for the door. She wasn't sure what she was feeling, only that she felt torn wide open and exposed. Too exposed. Like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. It was a pity her legs wouldn't carry her and she ended up collapsing on the stage. So ugly and ungainly. In front of so many cameras and eyes.
Couldn't get up. Couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. No escape. Unable to do anything else, Stacey turned her back on everyone and put her head between her knees, taking deep, shuddering breaths to try and calm herself down. She could feel herself hyperventilating to the point of fainting. Unless she wanted to make a bigger spectacle of herself, Stacey had to get a grip on her runaway emotions.
Arms enveloped her. Followed by another pair of arms. Another and another. Swallowing hard, Stacey looked up to find all the mentors had gathered around her and had hidden her from the cameras in a group hug. None of them said anything. They only gave her strange smiles that she couldn't decipher. Even Orlan who had seemed to dislike her the most had moist eyes and Stacey didn't know why.
Stacey struggled with herself and tried to concentrate on her breathing before she passed out.
"I told you some people are just special," Hugh covered his lapel microphone and whispered to Orlan after a long time.
"I believe you now," Orlan replied.
"People like her need to be protected," said Telea in a soft voice, stuffing a tissue into Stacey's clenched fists.
"She's an endangered species," Beryl sighed in agreement.
"That wasn't just music improvisation," Phineas shook his head in amazement, speaking with specific emphasis. "That. Was. Art. Art at its purest with the clearest exposition of emotion that I have ever seen or heard for a long time."
"Are you all right?" Melesse whispered to Stacey. "Have you got yourself back under control yet?"
Stacey gulped at the lump stuck in her throat and took a few sobbing breaths. She swallowed the lump with effort. A few more breaths and her breathing calmed down. Beryl took a tissue and dabbed at Stacey's wet eyes. She made space for Tonton to dart into the circle of bodies on the floor and fix Stacey's makeup. He gave her a thumbs up through his teary eyes and darted away again.
"Ready to face the world again?" Telea asked.
Stacey took a deep breath, bracing herself. Not really but she shouldn't delay the filming any further. She nodded.
With Phineas' help, Stacey stood back up on her still trembling legs. Melesse and Telea took over to support Stacey and lead her back toward her seat.
At that point, people seemed to have finally come to. The auditorium burst into applause and cheers so loud, Stacey fell back down in fright.
"It's alright," Melesse told her, helping her back up onto her feet again and preventing her from trying to bolt away in terror. "You're alright."
Stacey was helped back to her seat amidst the thunderous applause that didn't and wouldn't die down. Ken and Endo edged out of the row to receive her in the aisle and escort her back to her seat. The two boys exchanged meaningful glances with each other at how shaky Stacey was.
Trainees made excited discussion, jumping around and making exclamations of disbelief. Those nearest to her reached out to slap her on the back, pet her head or pat her shoulders.
"She's earned my respect, no matter what the rumours or anyone else says now," proclaimed one trainee to his friends. Those around him made sounds of agreement.
"She's serious competition after all. No wonder they let her into the program."
"Did you notice that at the start, she had no idea what she was doing? Nobody could fake that. She learned and figured things out so fast," another trainee lamented. "If she learns that fast and catches up in her studies, I'm done for!"
What was this? Seriously. What had she just gone and done? She shrank in her seat while the people around her patted her on the back and praised her.
"Who said you'll be easy competition?" Endo whooped, waving a fist of victory. "Who said you'll be one of the first people to be voted out of the program? Who said you can't do anything? Yeah! You showed them. In their face! Respect!"
"Did I do a good job?" Stacey asked, not quite able to believe that she had produced anything worthy of attention when she had lost herself. Mrs Igor had said she wasn't and would never be any good. Had she really made up something reasonable?
"You were so awesome I'm considering whether I should give up now to save myself the trouble," Ken told her, looking like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry. He wiped away the tears that kept dripping from his eyes.
"Phineas was right," Flail blew his nose. "That wasn't any old music improv. That was real art. I'll take a leaf from Endo's book. Respect!"
"Really?" Stacey whispered but nobody could hear her above the sound of the continuous applause.
So perhaps Mrs Igor had been wrong and Hugh was right. Perhaps she was a natural at this after all. She could extemporise. She could compose and improvise music on the spot. That was a good skill for any musician to have. Maybe she was better at all of this than she thought.
"That goes to show," Hugh took back control of the stage when the noise had calmed down enough, "that being able to read and write doesn't define how good somebody can be at music. Don't underestimate each other and get complacent, my friends. As Stacey has shown us, there are definitely hidden gems of talent hiding among you. She may be behind on her academics and be lacking in some formal training but that doesn't mean she isn't just as worthy of being here as the rest of you. This is what the program is all about."
So the mentors and production crew had heard the murmurings of some of the other trainees and had decided to use her to address this problem today. Right? It was only the second day, for goodness' sake! They couldn't have warned her first? But then she wouldn't have gone and done something so hugely embarrassing. Maybe only done something mildly embarrassing. Had they purposely led her to slap the rumourmongers in the face with this performance?
Stacey wasn't entirely sure how to feel about this. Was it a good thing or a bad thing?
Who said she hadn't had formal training and schooling? It just all happened to be in another world in possibly another galaxy. Years ago. She'd forgotten a lot. Besides, a person never sounds as smart in a second language as they are in their first. And music was her first language. She had started learning to play the piano before she could even speak. Although playing institutionalised music as opposed to freestyle music was different, if she thought about it, they both still followed similar rules. Playing freestyle just wasn't as rigid. Not every musician could improvise and freestyle and not every musician could read music or play classical pieces. Every musician had their areas of strength.
She thought most of her musical gifts would have been lost with disuse, but it seemed her skills were still there. Waiting for her to pick them back up. Maybe she was better at music than she thought she was. Being able to play music again was like refunding a piece of herself. It felt good.
"If anything," Hugh continued, "you all just might need to watch out she doesn't overshadow you through the sheer strength of her hard work on top of her raw talent, even if she is not as well rounded and trained as most of you are. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed how hard she's been working so far. Can we get the crew to replay Stacey's performance for us on the screen? I want to point certain parts out. Can we have the video with the close up of her hands, as well as the overall picture on different screens?"
Goodness. Stacey buried her face in her hands. Did Hugh have to use her as an example? Look how many composition mistakes she had made. The arrangement could definitely have been better. A different inversion there and a major seventh there would have sounded better than using a supertonic. A six-four would have been a better choice of chords here. She would have to remember that for next time. And what sort of a chord was that meant to be?
The rest of the master class passed without too much further excitement. Aside from further embarrassment for Stacey when it came to the dancing masterclass and Stacey was forced to remind everyone that she had no idea how to dance when a hopeful Phineas asked her. Thankfully he hadn't pushed her to go down to make a fool of herself.
There was a large scale freestyle dance battle that got the trainees excited again. They discovered an abundance of strong dancers of in their midst.
Stacey didn't even want to try. She really didn't know anything about dance. Everyone else obviously did though. Some more than others. Some knew various styles of dance. Some had only trained in one type and were experts in it. There was also a clash between what was considered classical, traditional, modern and 'vulgar' street dance.
It was a big mess, but from the mess, victors arose. Among the champions of the big dance battle were Blaze and Gieger.
"Those two are lost kids as well," Stacey pointed them out to Ken from where they were standing.
"Really? Then we'll need to keep an eye out for them," Ken said. "How are they to get along with?"
"I don't know," Stacey replied. "I've only met them once."
"You aren't in the same tution classes as them?" Ken tilted his head. "They haven't been in any of the mainstream classes that I know of."
"They must have separate classes," Stacey said. "They're unlikely to waste time sitting in my classes for babies. You know, I'm still learning the alphabet."
"Hmm," Ken replied in thought.
When the masterclasses had finished, all the students left Stacey alone with her tutors once more. Despite still feeling tired and shaky after her impromptu performance, Stacey adjusted her emotions to focus on her lessons.