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 . . .”
Chloe’s stomach did a flip, and she took a deep breath. Soon, very soon, she would be standing on that gleaming white floor doing her sound check. And then, a little later, she would be giving the performance of her life.
8. Almost There!
It wasn’t long before Chloe and the rest of the band were called for their sound check. Nervously, they made their way to the performance space and Danny slid behind the drum set. Chloe had to wait while the sound engineer listened to Danny play each of his drums in turn. And once the levels were set for the way Danny played the drums, the engineer asked Jeff to play a few bars of his bass. It was Lenny’s turn next and then Zil’s.
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Chloe swallowed. Her throat felt terribly dry. Would she be able to make any sound at all when the engineer wanted to set the level for her voice? It was one thing to sing a few lines at school for Mr. Timms so he could set the levels right for a performance or a recording in the school studio, but this was different. Would this engineer be impatient with her if she messed things up?
But it was all right. To Chloe’s relief, he was very friendly and she was well able to sing a couple of lines into her microphone for him.
“That’s fine,” he told her. “Could you all play together now, please?”
Danny counted them in and they ran through their song.
“That’s it,” said the engineer. “Your sound levels are good. Do you have any problems?”
“I can’t hear myself very well,” said Chloe.
Until she had sung with the band, Chloe had sometimes wondered what the black boxes were that all bands seemed to have in front of them when they played. Now she knew. The audience could hear a band because the speakers pointed out toward them, but the band needed to hear what they were doing as well. The black boxes were extra speakers called monitors that played the band’s music back to them. In the Rock Department, Chloe’s voice was played back to her through a monitor, but the studio had given her a small earpiece to wear instead and the sound wasn’t coming through.
“What’s the problem?” asked the engineer.
“Zil’s guitar is too loud in my ear,” said Chloe. “I need less of him and more of me.”
The engineer adjusted the sounds going into Chloe’s earpiece and they tried again.
“It’s still not right,” she said, feeling really embarrassed and very worried. But it wasn’t her fault that the levels weren’t quite right, and it was vital for her to be able to hear well.
The engineer played around with all the levels, but poor Chloe still wasn’t getting the right sound. Everybody was beginning to look jittery. Time was ticking by and there were other acts to sound-check before the start of the program.
“How is it now?” asked the engineer.
But this time Chloe couldn’t hear anything in her earpiece at all. “I’m sorry,” she said, close to tears. She was losing her confidence now. Maybe it wasn’t a technical problem. Was she doing something stupid? It was awful having such an important thing go wrong just before the program was supposed to start. What will I do if they can’t figure it out? Chloe asked herself. If I can’t hear, I might come in at the wrong time and ruin the whole song! It was every singer’s worst nightmare and it was happening now, at the Rising Stars Concert.
The engineer’s assistant brought Chloe another earpiece. “Maybe the problem is at this end,” she told her kindly. “Let’s try this one.”
Sure enough, it was the earpiece that had caused all the problems. Chloe gave a great sigh of relief.
“These things happen,” said the assistant, smiling encouragingly at Chloe. “Don’t let it throw you off.”
Chloe knew the assistant was right. She shouldn’t allow a technical hitch to unsettle her just before she was scheduled to perform.
“How are the levels for you now?” asked the engineer.
Chloe gave him the thumbs-up. “It’s much better, thank you,” she told him. “Now I can hear what I’m doing and what everyone else is playing, too.”
They ran through the song again and this time it went really well. But there were still the cameras to consider.
“Make the camera your friend,” the producer advised them. “Yes, you have a small live audience, but don’t neglect the camera. That is your audience, too.”
Chloe was thrilled at this piece of advice. She’d read about making the camera her friend a long time ago, before she’d even gotten to Rockley Park School. She’d practiced in her bedroom long before she’d had any idea that she would be able to do it for real. Now she could put all her practice to the test!
When the sound checks were finished, the students went back to their rehearsal room to wait for their call. It was difficult, all this waiting. While they were doing something, Chloe’s nervousness disappeared, but as soon as she sat down in the rehearsal room, her anxiety came flooding back. So she found a quiet corner and did some breathing exercises that Mr. Player had taught her. They did calm her down, but Chloe was sure the only thing that would really help would be to get back onto that small white circle and perform. She joined the others again. There really wasn’t long to go now.
“I wonder what everyone is doing back at school?” she said to Danny, who was trying to twirl his drumsticks and not doing it very well, although he was usually very good at it.
He looked at his watch. “It’s almost time for dinner,” he said. “They’ll be coming out of French.” He twirled his sticks again and dropped them both.
“I don’t think you should try that on TV,” said Zil.
“Don’t worry,” said Danny. “I won’t!”
Just then, Chloe’s cell phone vibrated and she pulled it out of her pocket.
“Mine’s going off too!” said Danny.
Chloe looked at her text. Thinking of you. Break a leg. Love Lolly, Pop, and Tara.
“I got one from them as well,” said Danny, when Chloe showed him the text. “Oh, and Marmalade’s sent one, too. He never usually texts people.” He showed her his cell phone. “Look, it’s for you as well.”
Chloe read the text. Friends, make me proud! it said. Chloe giggled. Trust Marmalade not to put anything obvious like “good luck.” But it was nice to know that people were thinking about them. Everyone at school knew what time the performance was going to take place, so they must have realized that dinnertime was a good opportunity to send their best wishes.
Very soon now the audience would be arriving and settling into their seats. No one knew exactly who would show up, but there would certainly be some important people there. That knowledge only added to Chloe’s last-minute nerves.
Would she remember all that she’d learned? When the program was eventually shown on TV, she knew all her friends from Rockley Park and beyond would be watching. Her family would watch it, too. She simply couldn’t let all those people down. And what about Mr. Player? He had spent hours helping her to get the best out of her voice. Now Chloe wanted to show him that she had taken to heart all that he had said. She wanted to do it for him and for Judge Jim, who had always encouraged her. She wanted to do it for her friends and family, too, but most of all, Chloe wanted to make a success of this concert for herself and the rest of the band.
As Chloe was thinking this, everyone else was quiet, too, mentally readying themselves for the performance of their lives. Then the door opened and Julie came in.
“It’s time,” she said.
9. Chloe Sings
The first act followed Julie out of the room, and the remaining students cheered them on.
“Go for it!”
“Break a leg.”
“You can do it!”
The door closed behind them and the room fell silent. The other band had looked very nervous. Chloe hoped they’d be all right. Just then, a screen mounted high on the wall flickered into life, and the students could see the studio for themselves. The audience was there and waiting for the first act to appear.
“Fantastic!” said Zil. “I didn’t realize we’d be able to see the concert, too.”
The band got into position and their drummer counted them in. Chloe watched carefully. Shots from all the cameras were being fed to the monitor and sometimes she could see clips of the audience reaction.
“Mrs. Sharkey is there!” said Jeff, pointing at the screen.
“Where?” asked Chloe.
“I just caught a glimpse of her as the camera panned over the audience.”
Then they saw her again. Mr. Player laughed at the students’ excitement. “You didn’t think the principal would miss this, did you? It’s the high point of the school year for her.”
“I guess so,” said Lenny. “It just
hadn’t occurred to me she’d be there. I feel much better now that I know she’s backing us up.”
Chloe felt the same. Mrs. Sharkey could be pretty scary, but somehow it was reassuring to see her in the audience.
In no time, the first band had finished their performance. They arrived back in the room looking relieved that it was over. Ayesha and Rob were already on their feet.
“Break a leg!” Chloe called out as the two singers disappeared with Julie.
Danny picked up his drumsticks and put them down again. He beat out a nervous rhythm with his fingers on his leg. It was almost their turn.
Ayesha and Rob were fantastic. They sang wonderfully together, and Chloe was sure the TV audience would love them. Their performance was impressive and truly professional.
But now Julie was back, waiting to take Chloe and the boys along to the studio. Chloe jumped up. Suddenly she didn’t feel ready, even after all the time they’d spent waiting for this moment. But she had wanted to be a Rising Star ever since she had started at Rockley Park. She had to be ready. She took a deep breath.
I can do this, she told herself. Of course I can. I’ll be fine. It felt so right being here. This was what she was made for. Yes. Of course she could do it. As long as no one made a mistake.
“Make sure you leave your cell phones behind,” warned Julie.
Chloe put her phone on the table, the makeup lady flicked a last spot of powder on her cheeks, and they were ready to go.
Chloe exchanged a nervous smile with Danny. This was it. It was their turn now. She and the boys bunched together behind Julie.
“Ready?” she asked. They all nodded nervously. In a moment, they were in the narrow hallway heading toward the brightly lit studio. Rob and Ayesha were coming toward them, and Chloe could see that Ayesha’s eyes were bright with excitement.
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