Her Early Bird

Fake Love

It was now, if ever, that she was nervous, waiting for the metaphorical curtain to rise. She was actually under the stage on a platform being raised to the surface. As her head emerged, she could feel the crowd's energy through the thick layer of fog over the stage, all her nervousness fell away as if she could syphon courage from the cheering masses. The atmosphere was so invigorating; she never failed to feel alive during a concert.

The music started as her rising platform came to a halt. Her brightly coloured flowing pants waved through the air as she walked purposely forward. They were so loose, in fact as to look like a skirt, but she could feel the skin tight fabric underneath. Her arms were clad in a stiff jean jacket, with red stripes that also concealed part of her second costume. She was barely five feet tall, and therefore, wearing high platform shoes to conceal this fact. Her light brown hair had ginger highlights in it, and was up in a neat bun at the back of her head in such a way that if she pulled the pins out, her curls would fall lose about her shoulders, revealing her second look of the evening. She could feel the layer of stage makeup covering her skin. She never did like the feeling, but it was part of the job. She did have to admit that the thick black lines she knew to be around her eyes, made her usually boring brown eyes look much better, more exotic.

There were blinding lights behind her, and backdrops on standby high above her head. Brightly coloured lights shone over the stage from every angle as she took the mic that was really just for show. She had a concealed microphone secured behind her ear.

Danica Louise Martin, known to her fans simply as Dani Brookes, greeted the gathered crowd who yelled back at her with great enthusiasm. She couldn't see the people past the bright stage lights, but she knew the Royal Albert Concert Hall in London seated over five thousand people. It was strange to feel so isolated while speaking to so many. The colour of the lights shifted, music began, and Danica started singing.

"The back of your hand touches my skin," Danica started her first song of the night, a slow romantic one. "As you walk by." Her hand not holding the mic, she slowly extended straight from her body in time with the music. "I can feel you here. Know you're near. I'm aware," she held the note, waiting for the cue from the music. "Of you." Again she held the note as she followed the melody, or rather, she pretended to hold the note. She'd actually recorded the song last week in the studio.

Two backup dancers joined her on the stage, swaying back and forth on either side of her as they snapped their fingers. They were dressed to match her costume, and were wearing the same jean jackets with red detailing, but on a more downplayed outfit.

"I'm aware, oh so aware of you," the chorus of her song started, and harmonies were added as she continued to lip sync to the recording of her own voice. "The lights go out, it's as if we are alone. I feel you in the room. I'm aware you are near me." The song ended, and Danica addressed the crowd, introducing her next track.

"Trash you ain't," she said between the beat of the drums as her next song started, a faster paced, self-love song. "You feel like the dirt on someone's shoe. I know you believe you aren't worth it." The music picked up as the drum rhythm intensified. "But trash you ain't." The song had a rap quality to it that made you want to tap your foot to the beat. She tilted the mic stand to the side for dramatic effect as she started the chorus. "You are brighter than the sun. Powerful like crashing waves against the rocks." Easing her jacket from her shoulders, Danica flung it into the crowd to the screaming fans in the front row.

The dance for this song was fast, and Danica was out of breath. Not singing live while performing really ruined her fun, but she had to admit, she sounded so much better recorded than gasping.

The lights dimmed as she started to hum the first few notes of her next slower song. "Empty conversation," she sang softly. "Hollow words and that vacant expression. Leaving your company I am cut down by shallow love, more painful than a knife to the heart." As she sang, Danica remembered when she'd filmed the music video for this song, the fake blood from her dramatic knife wound had stained her skin for days.