"Brrr… It's so cold!"
Shivering slightly at the chilly temperature in the filming studio, an aftereffect of the AC being blasted at full power to maintain the normalcy and ensure that all the equipment were well-regulated, Lily glanced over to the Kyle who was currently standing beside her.
"Want my jacket?" he offered.
"No. Maybe after my performance though" she replied.
"Alright then" Kyle nodded and then returned his focus back onto the stage.
A contestant from their batch today, Steven to be specific, had been the first to go out and was currently performing a pop-rock song on stage, the instrumentals playing in the background.
Due to his [Perfect Pitch] and [Immersion] skill blending in a symphonious manner, the young man was perfectly hitting all the correct notes at the right moment in the song's melody, further amplifying the audience's overall enjoyment of the music and his performance.
The crowd was already so invested in his performance and two of the judges had already turned their chairs over.
The last judge yet to turn his chair, as expected, was Jack and despite not showing any obvious signs on his face, Kyle was sure that Steven was really hoping he would.
Over the course of the week he had known him, Kyle had come to realize that Steven was someone who wanted to be appreciated and acknowledged for giving it his all at something, singing and playing the piano especially.
Also he was quite the competitive person with anyone he considered a major threat to his chances of winning the show – (case-in-point 'Lily').
Eventually, close to the outro of the song he was performing, Jack finally hit the red button on his chair and it turned around, causing Steven to be visibly excited as his song came to an end after a few seconds or so.
Although the judge had wanted to turn around earlier, he actually was purposely stalling just to get a rise out of the audience.
This of course was something he and the other judges were required to do occasionally as per Howard's request to add spice and tension to the show.
The crowd however, just cheered on in excitement and so did Chris Palmer who was standing a bit further from the filming room and close to the foyer of the stage's entrance. It was his job after all to look good in front of the camera at any point in time.
After that, a few words and advices were exchanged between contestant and judges and Steven was eventually allowed to walk off the stage, obviously making it to the next round.
Making his way back into the room, still elated at the reality of making it into the next round, he walked over straight to Kyle who gave him a high-five.
"I hope you make it to the next round too Kyle" he casually said to the young man who calmly replied with a thin smile.
"I'll give it my all. Fingers crossed though"
"As for you Lily, I won't say a thing" he then directed a competitive glare at the beautiful lady who innocently smiled back and responded with the exact opposite of her demeanor.
"Scared, Steven? I would be too if I were facing myself"
Squinting his eyes at her, Steven promised himself he was going to wipe that innocent smile off her face when they eventually clashed again.
The production team on the other hand who was filming all of the events happening behind the scenes were glad that there was an exchange of such between the two fan-favorite contestants who actually had a rivalry going on between them.
That basically meant that they didn't need to cause any drama of sort between them, or, they could further edit the footages they got from their banters to create even more drama.
Lily and Steven of course, were very well-aware of this and with occasional jabs that wouldn't get anyone triggered, they had been subtly laying taunts to each other since the first time they had met and realized that they would probably or eventually end up clashing.
Not minding their obvious attempts to add more flavor to the show though, Kyle just patiently waited for his turn while another contestant was called out.
"Remember, only one chair needs to turn around and you'll make it to the next round. Good luck out there" a production staff reminded the next contestant who was called.
With a nod, the contestant nervously went on-stage and soon performed.
Considering he performed really well, it unfortunately wasn't enough to sway the judges to promote him to the next round.
Although the chairs did automatically turn around after his performance was done and the judges gave him words of encouragement and tried to raise his hopes about the show not being the end of his career, it was still just that. Just words of encouragement.
With a dejected mood and a fake happy smile on his face, the contestant then walked off stage while trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill down from his eyes.
As if that never even happened, the next contestants were called up and the show continued on, with no other contestant still being promoted except Steven.
Since only four or five contestants out of the twelve contestants blind-auditioning today would be accepted, the competition was really fierce and no one had anytime to be really worried about the other.
Soon enough though, Lily was then called up to give her performance.
Taking her violin with her while lightly smiling, she confidently walked onto the stage, not a single bone of nervousness in her body.
Even the light shivers she was previously experiencing, seemed to have just magically disappeared.
As Kyle watched her walk on, he had a bit of disbelief surface in his eyes as a translucent, light golden wave of energy slowly flowed out of her body, spreading over and enveloping the entire stage she was on.
'Probably her [Stage Presence] skill…' he mused.
And then, with no less than three seconds wasted after reaching the stage, Lily began to perform her song as the other instrumentals also began to play in the background.
The audience, some of whom had instantly realized the tune of [Save Your Goodbyes], a complex and popular piano ballad by the popular singer Milestones that had topped the singing charts for over five weeks, had a wave of utter disbelief and amazement cascade over their beings.
This was because of the fact that the sad piano accompaniment that started off the song was instead being substituted for with the tune of the violin's strings exceedingly well.
🎻♪
…
🎻♪
Even Kyle, Steven and the others, had the exact same amazed expressions on their faces as Lily kept playing for a few more seconds before she then stopped and immediately began the song properly as the other instrumentals picked up, her beautiful voice low and silent, almost like a whisper in the wind.
🎹🎶🎼🎤
This, is, the end…
🎹🎶🎼🎤
Those first few lines from her was all it took for Kiara and Blake to instantly turn their chairs over and the crowd went wild!
And then, with a stellar transitional octave jump from her whisper-like tone to a much more audible, sharp, yet enchantingly soulful one that made the judges and contestants blink their eyes in utter disbelief, Lily continued without even getting distracted by the cheering crowds or the judges' expressions.
🎹🎶🎼🎤
We're a capsizing ship,
Sinking slowly into the depths,
Depths that'll leave us broken for good…
🎹🎶🎼🎤
This time, Jack instantly slammed his palm on the red button and that made it three judges who wanted for Lily to proceed to the next round, all in a matter of seconds.
This was the first time it was happening since the blind auditions had begun and yet, Lily, seemingly excited by it kept giving out a strong performance, her voice never wavering despite the wide smile on her face.
* * *
"Truly, we recruited monsters for this year's season of the show…" Kevin, assistant producer to Howard grinned with excitement as he watched Lily perform.
"Yeah. Steven already started off with a banger, enough to even top his previous performance. Even the other contestants gave very solid performances…" the chubby-looking producer rubbed his chin with a light smile.
"But this… this was truly unexpected" he continued speaking, after which he then concluded with a small grin.
"Guess we won't need to be worried about our ratings slipping by the time the fourth episode airs"
Nodding his head in affirmation, Kevin kept watching the performance while Howard, glanced over to another screen showing the contestants in the studio.
Having his eyes stop on Steven who was watching Lily's performance with a slight frown now resting on his features, the producer pondered over if he should create a bit of drama with that.
Musing to himself as he kept gazing at the screen, his eyes soon darted over slowly to the contestant just right beside him.
'Hmm? Did we have another handsome guy among the contestants that I didn't take into consideration?' Howard inwardly asked himself.
Being the Creative Producer of the show, Howard, despite how he looked, had pretty good memory when it came to remembering people who could be a way to draw attention to the reality show.
Handsome guys and beautiful ladies especially were a main target for him as he knew that some people, only watched the show for those reasons.
But right now, as he kept squinting his eyes, he was having a really hard time remembering any handsome face of such among this year's contestants, possibly due to how the camera wasn't focusing on him.
'Hmmm… Well if he was a really good singer, I'd have probably taken notice. Probably made it this far due to luck'
Deciding to just overlook it, the producer then refocused his attention back on Lily who was about to finish up her song.
Despite actually wanting handsome and beautiful people on the show, Howard knew that the stark reality of a singing reality show was that if your skills weren't up to par, you would eventually end up getting eliminated.
Although luck might get them far, eventually that luck would run out.
This was because the judges would definitely ensure to sieve out those that had just gotten by on luck so only those with real skills to truly get by would make it very far.
'Come to think of it though, isn't that Kyle guy auditioning today? He also dropped an instrumental for an original song he wanted to perform that was really good too'
'Oh well. Probably jumbled the dates in my head then. I have too much to think about than to accurately remember dates easily…" Howard just sighed in resignation and continued enjoying Lily's performance.