invisible string ─ s. rogers

practice

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CHAPTER TWELVE
PRACTICE

Mean
Taylor Swift

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"What the hell?" Daisy groaned, being awoken from her peaceful slumber by her blaring phone. "My god, some people can't grasp the concept of time."

Even though she was annoyed, Daisy answered the phone and shoved it against her ear, battling with her horrible bed-head whilst the phone connected to the other line.

"Hello. Is this Daisy Stone?" A man asked from the other side.

"Yes... who's this?" She asked, skepticism lacing her tone. If someone was calling at six in the morning, it had to be some form of serial killer, right?

"My name is George Davidson, I'm a friend of Jo's from university." He explained, letting Daisy know that he was not, in fact, a serial killer. "My apologies for calling so early in the morning, but I really need a favour."

Okay, big red flag. Daisy never met this man before, and he's asking for a favour?

"What do you need?"

George cleared his throat. "I own a small venue for live music in Times Square. I accidentally double-booked one of our performers and I needed a last-minute entry. I was at Gray and Jo's wedding, coincidentally, and your musicianal skills were amazing."

"Wait, so you're asking me?" Daisy asked, immediately shooting up in her bed.

The man laughed a bit at her obvious excitement, although he didn't hide his chuckling well enough from the phone speaker, as Daisy went red from embarrassment. "Yeah. The performance is tomorrow night, and if you're free, we need you for rehearsals by ten today."

"I'd be honoured!"

"Sounds good. I'll message you the location and we'll get you all settled in." George smiled. "Thanks for your help, Daisy."

"No problem!"

The phone clicked and the line went dead. Daisy placed her phone back onto her nightside stand and shot up straight out of her bed.

"I'M DOING MY FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCE!" She yelled, dancing around as she chose out an outfit for the rehearsal. She didn't know what she was going to be wearing during the actual performance, so she just picked out a cream coloured sweater and black leggings.

It was almost April, so it was definitely getting warmer outside. Daisy was very thankful that she could start wearing more summery clothes more often.

Daisy grabbed up her phone again and dialed Steve's number, smiling with happiness as she bit into the apple in her fridge.

"Hey love!" He greeted.

"You will not believe what just happened!" Daisy exclaimed, dancing around her apartment as she watered all of her plants.

Steve laughed a bit at his girlfriend's excitement. "What just happened?"

"Okay so this guy, he went to Jo and Gray's wedding and watched me perform, right?" Steve nodded, she couldn't even see him, yet it felt like they were right next to each other. "This dude calls me like an hour ago, and he owns a venue near Times Square for musical artists, and I'm going to be performing for a bit tomorrow!"

"Oh my god, Daisy that's amazing!" Steve yelled, smiling softly at the little excited squeals coming out from the other end of his phone.

"One problem."

Steve's smile dropped. "What's the issue?"

"My car is getting fixed in a shop downtown, and Times Square is almost an hour away from Brooklyn." Daisy's voice sunk a bit as she talked, making Steve frown at her dejected tone.

A lightbulb flickered above his head. "I'll drive you!" He exclaimed. "I'd love to watch your rehearsal if possible anyway!"

"Steve, you are a lifesaver."

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After a full hour of bad karaoke and deep conversations, Steve and Daisy arrived at the venue. It wasn't a stadium, but it was big for a first ever performance.

"Good luck Dais'. I'll be cheering you on!" Steve said, kissing Daisy's cheek as she left the car.

"I'll see you there." She waved and disappeared into the venue, looking around hopelessly for someone to guide her around.

There were stands of merchandise of other musicians performing before and after her, making Daisy a bit anxious as she spotted the names among them.

"Daisy Stone?" Someone asked behind her. She turned around to face a young boy, probably an assistant intern. "I'm Thomas, I'm here to show you to your stage area."

"Sounds good. Lead the way."

The boy led her to one of the many stages. It was huge. She had lights, confetti, platforms, dancers, and so many instruments at the tip of her fingers.

The two of them finally stood on the stage, and Thomas handed Daisy a piece of paper and pen.

"Write your setlist down here, maximum like- ten songs? You can do covers, originals, whatever you want. Draw what you want the set to look like for each song and what instruments you'll need and what instruments the band will need."

Daisy nodded, trying to comprehend all of the words Thomas was spewing out at a high speed. Before she could even process it, the boy had disappeared, leaving her, the stagehands, and the dancers.

"Okay, you can do this." She whispered, sitting down on the stage floor and writing down a few of her songs that she wanted to perform. Only a few of her demos had gone out on Spotify and iTunes, so she could only choose a couple of her own songs- then have to deal with some covers.

After around four original songs and four covers were written down and eight sets were drawn on the back of the paper, Daisy placed it on the piano so she wouldn't lose it and grabbed one of the guitars.

Daisy took a deep breath in as the microphone was hooked up, she was ready for sound checking her first ever full acoustic song.

She was nervous, of course, but seeing Steve's excited face in the crowd made it all so much better.

"Sound check? One two three? Is it working?" The stage hands nodded and she began to strum the tune of the song she had written for the man in the crowd.

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Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing. But all you are is mean.