Warped: Running In Time

Episode 11: We Interrupt Your Daily Program For This Special Part 2

The next evening, my group and I arrived at the Musical Tavern to practice our songs, with effects and technology. That was our big advantage. Not only that, we didn't need tracks more the music, because all our music was coming from our own instruments. We had effects and technology and they didn't. With Dimitri's skill with technology, and Primrose's art skills, animations for all the numbers would be playing on the two screens behind us, to either side. Even for the new songs, that included real life music videos. And with my magic, we had all sorts of effects on stage. That wasn't are only advantage though. Since we (my family and Barry specifically) had an hour to familiarize ourselves with the stage, we could figure out how to move around on it. That was good especially for the numbers with dancing. We also rearranged our numbers and who was singing them, when we found out the songs and the quantity that the other team had prepared, so that we could properly compete.
The news station had already started setting up their cameras, and the poll was getting set up as well. We had advertised the challenge all over the city by now. Since I was already locally popular for my songs in Central City, tons of people were already lining up, desperate to get in, like it was a Taylor Swift concert. We all wore costumes for each of our numbers. Because I was in almost all of our numbers, I had a lot of quick changes. But, I was pretty used to have quick changes on stage by now.
Finally, the cast of Between The Lines showed up, just a few minutes before 6:00pm.
"Are you ready to lose this challenge?" Hillary asked.
"I should ask the same of you," I crossed my arms.
"Well, no, because you see all those people outside? They're all here for me. Not you."
I scoffed. "Are you dumb, deaf, or both? People started booing when you entered. Booing means they don't like you. You realize, some of those people have been here since 6:00? Because my team and I were here first, at 6:00, rehearsing. Get ready to be beaten. We're only wait on one person. . ."
"Ha! A person in your team isn't here, what a disadvantage!" Jake laughed.
"Oh, no, he's not singing unless we need a tiebreaker," I said. "He's really just coming to make sure that you don't leave until the very end, when the humiliation starts to hurt."
"Excuse me! Excuse me, pardon me, I need to get through, I'm part of Isabella's crew!" Lucifer's voice echoed through the line. Then he stepped through. "Ah! There you are, Isabella. I'm ready to help!"
Jake jumped in fear, behind Hillary. "That's the guy who threw me into the driveway, and threatened to throw me into oncoming traffic!"
Hillary scoffed. "This short and scrawny shrimp? Pathetic." Lucifer's head snapped to face Hillary. And in a deep demonic voice he said, "Who are you calling short and scrawny?"
Hillary squeaked. "Okay, okay!"

We all got in our places for the challenge, backstage, as people in the line started flowing in, and sitting down and ordering. The news cameras started recording as the Between The Lines director and my manager here at the Musical Tavern came onto stage.
"Hello, and welcome to the Musical Tavern, for a special challenge!" My manager said. "Who's ready to see some singing tonight?"
The audience cheered.
"As some of you may know, there has been some events that have been happening in the last few weeks regarding Isabella and the rest of Between The Lines cast." The director said. "But tonight, Isabella will be competing to gain back her role as Delilah McPhee in Between The Lines, to prove who's on top! The way this will work is you guys will have a poll on your phone, for who does better in each round. And the scores will be kept on the TVs on the sides of the stage after each round. Now let's meet our teams! On team Hillary, we of course have the leader, Hillary Fisher, who played Allie McAndrews and Princess Seraphina, initially, but took on the role of Delilah McPhee after Isabella's three-week long absence from rehearsals and Central City, the reason for her absence, we still don't know why."
"Actually, we do know why she was absent for that long, Jane," My manager here said, as Hillary's picture appeared on the TVs. "She was absent after the cheating of her boyfriend on her, who is now her ex, with Hillary. Then Isabella got word that her father had woken up from an eleven-year coma, and went to be with him. If you do the math, her father went into the coma when Isabella was two, so this would've been the first time she got to really connect with him. If you ask me, that seems like a pretty good reason to be absent for so long. I think maybe she should've taken a bit longer off. In fact, her father is here tonight, to compete on her team, after a miraculous recovery, who you will see soon."
"Well, we don't know if Isabella will get her role back, Anthony," Director Jane said, as Hillary's picture disappeared, and Jake's replaced it. "Up next is Jake David Smith, who currently has the role of Prince Oliver. Jake here has gained quite the bad reputation, since he was the main offender of the scandal that caused Isabella to almost successfully commit suicide. Will he get redeemed in this competition? That's for you, the audience to decide."
As each person was introduced their profile pictures appeared on the screens.
"Up next is Vicki Lewis, playing Ms. Winx, Jessamyn, Jacobs, Mrs. Brown and Kyrie. She is quite the multi-tasker, considering she juggles five different roles," Director Jane said. "Up next is Will Burton, playing Frump and Ryan. He seems to be one of the cast members who is torn between the two sides, but because he is part of the Between the Lines cast, he was forced to join team Hillary. Up next we have Jerusha Cavazos. . ."
She kept going over the rest of team Hillary's members, John Rapson, Wren Rivera, Sean Stack, and Julia Murney. They also included Jeremy, who was Jake's understudy, who didn't even want to be there.
"Now, let me introduce team Isabella, which much bigger than team Hillary, and having more people just means there's more skills to be put to use." Manager Anthony said. "I'm just gonna do this in chronological order of births, from youngest, to oldest, for the siblings, then I'll ad the additions. First up, is Ricky, who is a whopping five years old, yet he is performing here tonight, a more difficult song, which is quite impressive. He has gained the nickname, 'Invincible Ricky', because of the way he uses anything he can find, to turn into some kind of defense weapon, and is small and fast. He is very interested in building, and creates lego builds in seconds. So Team Hillary better watch out for this firecracker. Next up, is Evan, who has a heart condition where his heart could stop from fear. Yet, he is also performing here tonight. He is six years old, which is unfortunate for him to have heart condition so young. Like all of Isabella's younger siblings, he was adopted. Nobody wanted to adopt him because of his condition, but the Gomez-Jeanne family gladly took him in. Evan has a particular interest in plants, and even has a pet Venus fly trap, that he actually takes care of. He is sensitive, touchy, and jumpy. Up next is Theadosia, the only dark-skinned sibling in the family. She is seven, but also a bigger firecracker. She is sassy, refined, very hygienic, and has an interest in cooking. Earlier, we found her snooping around the kitchen! Up next, is Eponine. She is a skater, at nine years old. She is extremely balanced, and can skate both on roller skates and ice skates. She's fast, flexible, and very well trained in balance and dancing on ice and roller skates. She gossips, she's sassy, and can be manipulative towards the people she does like. She can skate and sing. Up next, is Aida, ten years old. She is very interested with makeup and hair styling. All of the hair and makeup you will see on Team Isabella, was done by Ms. Aida. She is also the only redhead in the siblings, kind, also very gossipy. She will also be performing tonight. Above her, is Ms. Delilah, that's right, her actual name is Delilah, and she is eleven. She is the most experienced dancer, she is agile, flexible, confident, and acts like the queen. She is also one of the only two blonde people of the siblings. Above her, is Catherine, twelve, the gymnast and acrobat. She has done incredible stunts, with fire even. She's strong, agile, confident, and exotic. She also doesn't mind gossip. Eponine, Aida, Delilah and Catherine are a combination of Heathers and Mean Girls into one. Eponine is Heather M, Aida, is Gretchen, Delilah is a combination of Regina and Heather Chandler, and Catherine is a combination of Veronica and Cady. After Catherine, is Isabella, our beloved. She is the leader of the group, at thirteen, confident, striking, a bit traumatized, and looking for revenge from Hillary and Jake. Her eyes are filled with it. Above her, are the third set of triplets, the artsy trio, Primrose, Lydia, and Elizabeth, seventeen years old. Primrose is a painter and artist, she has created many works of beautiful art, and the art from a lot of the animations you will see for Team Isabella's numbers are her work. She has a very Southern attitude, is competitive, but calm and composed. She is the other blonde sibling. Lydia is the performer, she looks a lot like Isabella, just older. She acts a lot like Isabella, just less traumatized. She's kind, but acts like the most fabulous thing in the room. Elizabeth, or Eliza as they call her, is the fashion and costume designer. All of the costumes and outfits you will see on stage from Team Isabella are Eliza's work. She's patient, colorful, and vibrant. After them, is the second set of triplets, the boy band, the trouble trio, eighteen years old, Orpheus, Dimitri and Usnavi. They're handsome, and have all the girls fawning. Orpheus, the leader of their boy band, has the most talented voice, can go high, but also be angelic. He's compassionate, protective, and caring. He's especially protective of Isabella, especially because when he first met her, after ten years, she was getting trampled at his concert, because of how small she was. And he kicked out the people who trampled her, and sent her backstage to make sure she was okay after the show. Dimitri is the smart one. He is secretly a great engineer. He's muscular, and knows machines like the back of his hands. He created a glitter bomb for package thieves, that could record their reaction, and spray fart spray. We'll show some of the reactions from the thieves on the screen."
For several seconds videos started playing with captions. The audience was entertained and laughing.
"Well, that's all for Dimitri, other than the fact that the effects you will see from Team Isabella, and the technology behind it, he is responsible for. It's time to move on to Usnavi," Manager Anthony said, "who is a literal Tarzan, jungle man. He is the animal expert, and has some animal voodoo or something. Is there something wrong with an animal. He knows instantly. He knows tons of facts about them too. He is also a bit crazy and exotic. He's a jokester. He has a pet snake, a cobra, named Noodles. Speaking of Noodle, that's a nickname Orpheus has for Isabella, just so you know. Onto the next triplets, the first triplets, the Enriched trio, meaning they have jobs that could potentially make them rich. They are Christine, Matilda and Anastasia, nineteen years old. Christine, is a writer, and she's been writing novels. She hasn't gotten to a bestseller yet, but I'm sure she will with how she writes. She wrote the scripts for the music videos you're going to see coming from Isabella's team. She's quite shy, and reserved, but when it comes to her family, she's strong and not afraid to stand up for what's right, including when a role is taken from her little sister for no valid reason. So she will be performing tonight, with that secretly powerful voice of hers. Up next is Matilda. She is currently thriving on a career in medicine, and is currently interning to take the medical exam. Considering how experienced she is with human anatomy, I'm sure she will become a very successful doctor. She's caring, gentle, and is very much like a mother towards a lot of the siblings, because she knows how to make all their wounds go away whenever they get hurt. She's smart, and quick-witted. She knows what to do in any situation. Then there is Anastasia, or as the siblings call her, Anya. She, like her sisters, Isabella and Lydia, is an actress. But lately, she has been expanding her acting horizons into shows and movies, with on-screen acting and voice-acting, which could get her far. She's confident, and is an inspiration to all her sisters. She has an incredible range, and in a way, is her own leader for the siblings, for she is the oldest woman in the siblings. Now time to move on to the two oldest siblings, starting off with Jack, who is twenty years old, and is a police officer in training, more of a rookie. He's an officer and detective, and he is also the handler of one of the K-9's of the station. In fact, he is the handler of the only Rottweiler of the team, named Hercules. Jack is protective of his family, and you may see that in his performance tonight. He's observant, notices things others may not notice. Then there's the oldest of the siblings, Alexander, at a whopping twenty-two years old. He is a lawyer, with a massive winning case streak. Like his younger brother, he is very observant, and can be quite an astonishing sight in the court room. He is experienced with debate, and works in family law, as well as entertainment law, and every so often, a bit of criminal law. His language is very eloquent, and isn't one to use slang very often. He is defensive over his siblings, and stands up for them whenever he can. When Isabella needed to be taken out of custody of her old foster parents, for them to be arrested, he was her lawyer. Outside of the courtroom, he's understanding, forgiving, and was the provider when his father was in the coma. But be careful not to set off his fuse, for when his fuse is lit, there is no escaping for you. If you haven't already guessed, all the older siblings, including Isabella are prodigies, and wow, there is a lot of potential you can see within the family. Even the younger siblings have a level of experience and confidence that rivals anyone. Now, moving onto the adults. Meet Louis, the father. As you can tell, a lot of the siblings did not gain his looks, except Primrose. But they all have those blonde highlights just like their dad. Most of them gained his personality, rather than his looks, and they look mostly like their mother, who is unfortunately passed. His wife had a dream to have the biggest family ever, to even adopt if necessary, so that they could influence as many generations as possible, and he was in on this dream, and they have done quite a great job of that. He has passions for all of their passions. He's protective, and doesn't like seeing anyone hurt or being unjust towards his kids. He has Alexander with his wife a year after they were married, at nineteen. He had Jack at twenty-two. He had Anastasia, Matilda, and Christine at twenty-three. He had Usnavi, Dimitri and Orpheus at twenty-four. He had Eliza, Lydia and Primrose at twenty-five. At twenty-nine, he had Isabella. At thirty, he adopted Catherine, and at thirty-one he adopted Delilah. The rest were adopted while he was in the coma, for eleven years. Chronologically, he is forty two, though his body is still physically thirty-one. Next up is the estranged uncle, who has been estranged until now. I don't know what sicko gave him his name, but he has learned to live with the name Lucifer. In many ways, he is like the devil, Lucifer, in the aspect that he is not afraid to become violent. But he's socially awkward, and has frequent mood swings. He could be depressed, we are not sure. He has not allowed us to use his age. He is not here to sing, but only to watch, to make sure the other team doesn't leave if they feel humiliated. He will not sing unless a tiebreaker is needed. The last member of Team Isabella, is Central City's very own, Barry Allen, forensic scientist, at CCPD, who took in Isabella while she was in Central City, and has become like a big brother to her, and will be performing tonight with her."
"Now that we've got our teams over with," Director Jane said. "Let's move on to the competition, shall we? Each team will be performing a variety of songs to compete with the other' team's songs. Some are repeats so we can compare. You guys will get to vote who does better in each round, and the numbers will prove who does better, and who's on top! The first number is 'Another Chapter' for both teams. Hillary will be going up first."
She sang the song, coming up on stage. I put ear plugs in my ears, it was all wrong. She was boring to watch on stage, there was barely any passion to it. She had the wrong dynamics, and it was like it was all in your face at once. Nobody even laughed when she said, "and those tights really flaunt his thighs." The timing was off too. And the falling part, my favorite part of the song, the most vulnerable part of the song, was too in your face. It was supposed to get soft.
After she was finished singing, it was my turn. I was wearing the microphone, like a true professional. I had connected myself to the harness, and was in the Delilah costume, with glasses. My hair was up. I sang my song the way it was intended to be sung. I was passionate about it, and moving around the stage so it wasn't boring. I hit all the right notes, and dynamics, and during the falling part, the harness lifted me up into the air, and I went int a falling position, as it slowly lowered me to the floor, and after it was over, I took off the harness easily, as I continued singing. I even put in some choreography in there.