A Beautiful Thing

5. Lightning Strike at the Michigan Theatre

Joey couldn't see a thing. All that was in front of him were a few faint stage lights, filtered by the visor he was wearing as he walked forward, just behind Joe Walker. What he lacked in sight, however, was more than made up for in sound. As the band played their opening riff, an unbelievable roar of the audience crashed over him as they stepped forward onto the stage.

Faintly, the microphone materialized from the darkness surrounding him and, realizing he had reached the correct spot, turned his back on the audience as his cast-mates did the same. The music began to crescendo as he reached up and placed his hands on each side of his motorcycle helmet, slowly lifting up. As his eyes and ears cleared the helmet, the lights and sounds of the stage suddenly hit him full-force. In front of him, Clark hit a familiar chord on the piano and Joey spun around, facing the full-intensity stage lights and the 1,700 pairs of eyes watching him intently.

"I wanna be... a Starship Ranger..." he sang into the microphone, his voice almost immediately dissipating into the roaring auditorium. He smiled to himself. This was gonna be a fantastic show.

Two Starkids down, a short brown-haired girl stood with her back to the audience, looking at the floor and listening to Joey sing. As he drew out his first few words of the song before the tempo picked up, she smiled to herself. He always made her laugh with the way he sang that opening. She made the smallest possible movement with her head, shaking away the thought and concentrating on the next series of events. This was gonna be a fantastic show.

Half an hour later, Joey was gripping his black stool like his life depended on it as Meredith's performance of 'Coolest Girl' rang through the auditorium, accompanied by the screams of a thousand fans. Joey knew what song was coming next and, sure, he'd rehearsed it a hundred times before, but something about this particular performance made him feel slightly uneasy. Maybe it was Meredith's last-minute suggestion after the final dress-rehearsal that he and Lauren touch each other before and during the song or maybe it was still the echoes of the unfinished business that he still hadn't resolved with his friend from early in the year.

Nevertheless, he knew there was nothing he could do at this point and as Meredith sang one last "yeaaaaaaaaaaah...", he cleared his throat and prepared to walk out from the stage-left wing.

The roar of the audience flooded his ears as Meredith waved to the audience and exited stage-right. It was time. Gripping his stool even more firmly, Joey strode on stage and caught sight of his duet partner making her way on as well. Without speaking, they both grabbed their respective mic stands and met at the center of the stage, placing both the stands and stools down before taking a seat, sitting about a foot apart. Gripping the microphone with his right hand, he turned his head to face his partner.

"Ok so Lauren, I'm - uh I actually - I've been looking to talk to you about something," he began, sputtering as he worked his way through the half-improvised dialogue.

"I'm actually pretty glad you brought your stool out here so-" he continued but was interrupted.

"Oh, I'm always up for some stool-talk, my most precious friend. Tell me your problems and I will help out as best as I can."

"Thank you, my oldest and most loyal friend. Well, um, you see, ahh, the thing is, I'm...obsessed with this girl!"

"Me too!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, yeah, except I never really talk to anyone about it. I just find myself talking to no one in particular, kind of on the-"

"Right side of the stage..."

"Left side of the stage..."

"You go first..." they said simultaneously, followed by a pause. They then continued together "okay well if you insist..." Another pause then the familiar electric guitar riff surged up from behind them and the audience exploded with a multitude of screams.