"Wow!" Kokomi gasped.
"What? What do you see?" Carter questioned.
"Absolutely empty, 'Emptyorium' one might say," Albert answered for her in a deadpan voice.
"But I hear chattering from a distance. What are you two talking about?" Carter questioned, confused by their answer.
Beyond, Simon and Nahida entered the auditorium and stood behind them. Farihin and his sister, Aliyah, walked through the entrance right after with their equipment in hand. Farihin was carrying a keyboard case while his sister held its' support structure.
"Are we at the wrong place?" Carter questioned.
"Hopefully not?" Nahida said sheepishly.
"Maybe they're still preparing?" Beyond openly questioned, placing a hand under his chin.
"No, no, no. Are we seriously at the wrong place?" Aliyah exclaimed.
"Hey, anyone brought the flyer with them?" Farihin inquired.
Everyone placed their equipment gently onto the polished tiled floor and began to rummage through any pocket they had on their clothes. Kokomi brought out her phone instead to check it online. She began scrolling through the official website of the annual competition.
"Maybe they have bingo night?" Albert questioned.
While everyone stood awkwardly by the entrance, another group of people soon entered with their equipment in hand. A familiar friend or enemy, depending on who's looking, had entered the building. Kokomi glanced up at them to see that it was Ranni and her bandmates.
"Ranni! I'm so glad to see you," Kokomi said, jogging up to her and attempting to embrace her.
Ranni didn't let Kokomi hug her by holding a hand out to push her face away from her. She sighed in annoyance.
"Of course I have to deal with my annoying senior." Ranni grimaced and muttered.
After a few minutes of struggling, Kokomi decided to give up and returned to her spot next to Carter.
"By the way, this is the lobby. Of course it's empty; everyone is already inside the main auditorium, stupid heads," Ranni stated, facepalming at her dull-witted competitors.
"Oh, I know that. I knew you would be coming in behind us, so I just said what I said, hehe," Kokomi snickered, placing a hand near her mouth to try to cover the huge smile she had on her face.
Carter gently slapped Kokomi's shoulder in dismay.
"Hey, that's not funny to me," Carter said, pointing at his eyes.
"Sorry, not sorry. Kokomi smiled and shrugged.
Soon, the other twin began walking towards the group after he spotted them talking to Ranni. Kokomi had already run off to inform Beyond of the powerful bands that they might have to compete with.
"Hey Albert and Carter! Fancy meeting you here," Rajesh waved.
Carter heard a pair of footsteps walking towards them with a skip. He waved while Rajesh gave Albert a fist bump. Cheery, the band's bassist, walked up towards the boys and introduced herself.
"Rajesh told me so much about you two. Well, I did see you two at that fast food place that day, so we haven't properly met. Nice to meet you, boys," Cherry greeted.
"Likewise," Carter answered.
"Where did Kokomi wander off to?" Rajesh questioned.
"She probably went to Beyond. I know not of her reason, though," Albert said.
"Oh, and this is my friend, Jessy." Cherry grabbed a shy-looking woman by her shoulders and dragged her into the group.
"Hi," Jessy muttered.
Everyone said their own greeting. Hello, Hi, Nice to meet you, etc.
"Don't worry about her; she likes to hide her face behind her hair because she's shy," Cherry explained, patting Jessy's back gently.
"She's cute," Albert complimented.
Jessy blushed as she tried to cover her red face more with her hair.
"I know! Those doe eyes would kill a man at close range if she showed them more. Overall, she's a great keyboardist. We're going to end up winning because of her," Cherry laughed, wrapping her arm around Jessy's shoulders.
Kokomi soon came back to the group and smiled.
"There you are! How are you doing, Kokomi? Nervous," Cherry asked.
"Who isn't? We're probably facing off with powerful bands, you know," Kokomi said.
"Some of them can be beaten easily if they have no passion for music," Jessy mumbled.
"I'm pretty sure everyone here has a passion for music if they are competing in this competition," Carter chimed in.
"I don't know; many enter competitions to chase fame or to be better than everyone else who opposes them," Albert suggested.
"Speaking of members, where are yours, Farihin?" Carter questioned.
"Yeah, where are the rest of 'The Black Panthers'?" Kokomi questioned.
"Hua just texted me; they're already here," Farihin said, checking his phone.
"That's great!" Cherry squealed.
Beyond called out to the three members of The Clockworks, saying that they should enter the auditorium and get ready to pull their numbers. Albert, Kokomi, and Carter said their goodbyes to Farihin, Cherry, Jessy, and Rajesh. The three headed back towards where Beyond was standing and collected their equipment. Kokomi held firmly onto Carter's hand this time because she knew that the auditorium would be filled with competitors and audiences alike. She came to that conclusion after he mentioned that he could hear them chattering from the lobby, despite them being inside the main auditorium.
Nahida assisted them by holding the door open. After all the members made their way through the main auditorium with their heavy luggage, she closed the door. As they entered, Carter could hear the loud chattering of all the contestants in the area. Some were chatting normally; some were shouting for their band members, while others were laughing happily at jokes. Carter felt Kokomi pause in her step when he stepped forward, like his rope had reached its length from the pole. He waited a few seconds before gently swinging their intertwined fingers to get her attention.
"What do you see?" Carter questioned.
"An amazing sight, there's an assortment of flowers and gold cloth decorations everywhere. Above the stage and at the front. There's even cloth draping coming from the ceiling and skirtings on the front stage ," Kokomi described.
Carter then tried to imagine the scene in front of him. The main auditorium was a spectacular sight to behold. The stage was decorated beautifully with flowers and cloth drapings hanging from the ceilings in graceful folds. Mainly gold cloth skirtings decorated the stage front. Carter could imagine them all, along with the people who filled the auditorium with a lively feeling.
"It looks magnificent. They really put in hard work to make the competition memorable every year," Albert said.
"I'm glad, because this sounds like a dream to me," Carter said.
"How so?" Albert questioned bluntly.
"Well, I can't see, remember? Also, I never thought I'd be able to spend my time in a place like this without you guys," Carter said.
"I'm glad we're making memorable memories with you, pretty boy," Kokomi said, smiling up at him.
Simon then came up behind them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders. He had placed his equipment on the floor beside Nahida before sneaking up behind them. The three didn't even flinch when he did that, so his attempt at giving them a short fright failed.
"How did you guys not even flinch?" Simon questioned in disbelief.
"I mean, we heard your squeaky clown shoes," Carter answered.
"Whatever, these 'squeaky' 'clown' shoes didn't even squeak," Simon said.
"Well, we heard them thumping towards us anyway," Kokomi boldly states, squinting her eyes at Simon.
"Whatever," Simon said, returning to retrieve his stuff.
The clockworks soon found empty seats and sat on them, waiting for the time when they were called to pull for their numbers. The Black Panthers ended up taking the seats next to them. Farihin took a seat next to Kokomi and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
"It looks like we meet again," Farihin smiled gently.
"Oh Farihin! Sorry, I didn't see you there. It looks like the whole gang's here, huh?" Kokomi said, pointing at the rest of Black Panther sitting on his right side.
"Yes, the whole group's here. If they're not here, how would we perform? A band takes teamwork; you know, each member has their own part to play," Farihin explained.
"Of course I know that," Kokomi said.
"Hey, who are you talking to?" Carter leaned forward in his seat.
"Hey, Carter? How do you feel, man?" Farihin asked.
"I'm feeling excited; I'm so glad to be here. This new experience will definitely be engraved in my memories forever," Carter said.
"I'm glad to see you having fun. I'm just used to this stuff, I guess, so I'm not as excited as you," Farihin said sheepishly.
Soon, the announcer for this year's annual battle of the bands stood upon the gorgeous stage, holding a microphone.
"May I have your attention, please, contestants of this year's annual Battle of the Bands? We are going to start the pulling of your numbers so that we can arrange on who shall go first until the one who goes last. So, please send one representative from each band to participate in the number-pulling," the announcer calmly announced.
Nahida pushed Beyond to get moving by pushing him. Beyond rolled his eyes at her childish behaviour and stepped onto the stage as other band representatives began piling onto the stage, waiting to pull for their numbers. Kokomi counted each person on the stage, excluding the announcer and the stage crew. She concluded that there were 25 bands, including theirs. My, this competition is going to go longer than expected. They might even extend the days because there were so many bands competing in the competition.
After everyone had pulled their paper slips containing the number, the representatives stepped down from the stage and returned to their respective bands. The clockworks crowded around Beyond, curious what number they got. Beyond unfolds the small piece of paper to reveal the number '25' printed on the slip.
"Oh boy, I was hoping for a middle placement." Simon placed a hand on his forehead in disappointment.
"What are you blabbering about? Now there's plenty of time to make you all look stunning with my make-up skills," Nahida said joyfully.
"But then we'll have to wait a whole day if they decide to cover the competition in one day," Carter pouted.
"Pfft, get used to it, pretty boy. That's how these competitions go," Kokomi snickered.
"Look on the bright side; at least we can rest up before our turn," Beyond said.
"We can also at least practice," Albert positively said.
Only an idiot would think it's fine to cover all of them in one day. That's psychotic if they want to see everyone suffer. But then again, this might be good for The Clockworks if they were to use this ample time to their advantage. Those who have an act of sheer folly would only think that this time is to sleep the whole time.
"Alright, if time serves me correctly, our turn would be around dusk or at night," Albert said, looking at his wrist watch.
"Huh, plenty of time to get you guys ready to shine," Nahida said proudly as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Let's give the audience a fantastic finish to this competition," Carter said.
"Yeah!" everyone else cheered.
Carter smiled at them in excitement. A fire of determination had ignited in his heart. He vowed to do his very best as The Clockwork's vocalist during their turn.