Divergent Paths || Dream SMP Band AU

the contest. pt 1

"Good morning kids." Mr. Blade stood on the stage while all the contestants sat in the audience below. He tapped a pen to his clipboard, impatient. "Okay, now that all of your attention is on me, we're gonna do a mic test so if you can be as quiet as possible." The teacher went on to test all the mics. The four boys were unfortunate enough to sit right in between Pink on White and the Feral Boys. They told themselves it's whatever, but it really wasn't. They had their masks on already, since they were scared that their names were just going to get called randomly.. "Now that we're done with the mic check..." Mr. Blade looked to the contestants, which, to the boys' surprise, was open to the entire community. So students and adults alike gathered in the auditorium. "Let's head backstage, and we'll also do rehearsals before you guys can go home and get ready for the contest itself, and come back here at 7pm, okay?"

The auditorium rang out in agreement as the teacher started to give a more detailed timeline: there were going to be two rounds, from the first round, they'll pick out three professionally chosen contestants for the second round. The winner will come out of the three.

The four had no idea if they would get to the second round. Would they like to? Hell yeah, but would they? Probably not.

"Alright, mic checks... Feral Boys." Mr. Blade spoke, and the five went up quickly, getting their shit set up, and playing the first verse of their song. From that, the paths were sure that they'd be here for a while. The Feral Boys played a cover of We Are Young by Fun. Some other people came on, including that Pokemon kid, Charlie. He wasn't bad at singing, they were sure, but he definitely wasn't trying.

Pink on White went on after, and sang a cover of Coffee by Beabadoobee. Niki's voice was light and beautiful, which made the four path boys more nervous. They tested Niki's guitar and ukulele and Puffy's piano before they left the stage and Divergent Paths were called.

They put on their masks a while ago, so they were fine, but both Pink on White and the Feral boys recognized them, not just the name, them. Dream giving them a look when they walked past. It wasn't a bad look, nor a good one. Niki gave a surprised look, while Puffy was confused.

"Okay..." Tubbo sighed heavily as he got up to the mic, and plugged the keyboard into the cord that the staff gave them. "Here we go..."

"You guys ready?" Tommy had brought his electric drums, which he had lovingly named Anastasia. The three nodded, and Tommy hit his drum sticks together, "ONE TWO THREE FOUR!"

They played a few chords before Tubbo sang the first verse, they stopped right before the chorus, but a lot of the audience already recognized them.

"Tu-" Mr. Blade glanced at the crowd. "Path A, is the mic too high up?"

Tubbo looked to his music teacher in surprise, for someone so nonchalant, he was pretty caring. "Yeah, a little."

"Okay, tech, make a note to lower it before they come in." The teacher turned, "Okay, you for are good. Next..." The four moved off the stage quickly, packing their instruments backstage. "Actually we're done! Okay you guys..." The path boys came back out just in time to catch the final words of the music teacher. "Go eat a lunch and dinner, come back at 7," He repeated. "And we'll be jumping right into it! There will be no like..." He tapped his fingers on his clipboard, "any like talking from the judges or me, or tech, before the thing, so best of luck! Have a nice day, see you tonight."

Everyone started getting up, and the path boys were going to go too, before they faced the Feral Boys.

"You four were the least expected out of literally anyone in our class to be them." Dream crossed his arms.

"Come on, we didn't even expect them." His boyfriend argued.

"Dream, back off of them, they're new to the scene." Puffy stepped in.