The Life-Changing Competition (0)

A life-changing competition
Finally , it was the 1st May – the final day of the Youth Rock Competition.
Many student bands from all over the country were preparing for the final battle . The Raven wasn’t an exception. The vocalist, Daemon, practiced the guitar, while the others tried to calm down from the pressure that was thickening the air.
Matrix , the guitarist, had taken his little sister with him. While he himself was practicing with the Ravens , Alice sat amongst the public.
Suddenly, someone shook her hand . The girl turned and saw one extravagant-looking woman .
“You are Alice Owen, right? The legendary Billy Owen’ s youngest daughter ?”
Alice smiled and nodded.
“Yet I don’t believe my father is a legend.”
“Well, for me he’s an idol! I’ve always dreamed about his live -concert! And, now, finally, I can hear his singing !”
“He’s just opening the competition…”
But the woman seemed very happy , so Alice decided not to ruin her mood and agreed to everything she talked about.
Matrix finished all the preparations and went to Daemon, whom was drinking soda behind the stage and watching the crowd.
“Lots of people, Daemon?”
The questioned one smiled and said,” Your sister has gotten quite grow -up, Mat.”
“Alice? Yea, even thought her character hasn’t changed at all!”
“Well, I first saw her nine years ago…”
“Right, I remember! We were in form six then! It was the first afternoon you decided to create a bend !”
“Can you believe it? I’ve known you for nine years…geez, how fast time flies …”
And they started laughing.
“Sorry to interrupt, but the competition is about to start now. Will you take your places , please?” said one of the stuff members .
“ Sure !” answered Matrix and they left the stage.
In the meanwhile Alice had made a new friend – Sheila. That was the woman’s name she’d met earlier.
When the lights went off, Alice and Sheila went to the performers hall. If was full of people, students mostly, but some grown-ups were at present as well.
“Oh, there ’s Mat! My brother ! I must go now” said Alice and ran off.
Sheila waved and went to her band – the Space Dolls .
Matrix was standing, not even noticing Alice. When she was close enough, she jumped and climbed onto Mat’s neck, so he automatically hugged her. When he realized what he was doing he laughed. So did the other Ravens, Daemon even clapping his hands .
“Well, you two sure are close!” commented Faith , the drummer and the second vocalist.
Alice let go of her brother and hugged one by one every band member , finishing with Daemon. Yet, his hug was the warmest, since she considered him her brother as well. Daemon, however , didn’t feel the same …His feelings were deeper – that is the reason why he hadn’t chosen a girlfriend, even thought he was 22 and quite handsome : light -blue eyes , dark hair and slim figure . The only reason that kept his princess away from him was Matrix, a friend he never wanted to lose . Yet he knew “love” was something that would’ve ruined the friendship , so he never went overboard, waiting for Alice to realize his feelings.
Yet Alice was nothing but an ordinary girl, whom still hold tightly onto Daemon’s hand.
“By the way, Alice, who was the woman you were talking to earlier?”
“Oh, you mean Sheila? She’s a friend of mine, a lead singer of the Space Dolls.”
“Space Dolls? What a name!” laughed Simon, the guitarist.
Alice admitted the name isn’t good , but they are quite famous in Spainland, the neighboring country.
Matrix said he’d heard of them and said they were having inside problems lately.
But the conversation silenced once Billy Owen started the opening ceremony of the final battle.
“Now really , your old man hasn’t changed at all, now has he?” laughed Daemon and hugged Alice. She didn’t resist, considering it normal amongst brother and a sister.
Soon the real competition started.
After announcing another time-out, Matrix made an offer to have dinner . After all, they were performing near the end. Everyone agreed and so the five youngsters moved toward entrance.
In the middle of the meal , a schoolgirl entered the cafeteria . She seemed to be in a hurry searching for someone.
Finally, she spotted Alice and ran to her.
“Hi! I’m Renate from the Space Dolls! You know , Sheila wanted to see you saying this was immediate!”
Alice said she’d be off for a couple of minutes and left with Renate.
“So, what’s the matter ?” she asked her friend once they reached the band.
Everybody seemed upset and Sheila looked almost crying!
“Hey, Sheila, what’s the matter? Something happened ?”
“It’s over!”
“What is?”
“The Space Dolls…My dream …”
“What do you mean?”
“Alexa left,” said one of the other five women , “We don’t have the pianist any more, and she was our leader up until today …”
One blond maiden said, “Well, we can handle the leader stuff, but the pianist is still missing …”
“And what do want me to do?” asked Alice.
“You are Alice Owen, surely you can play it, right?”
“Well, my brother is a guitarist, yet dad teached us violin and piano in our childhood.”
“How old are you?” asked Sheila after a moment of silence.
“I’ll be 17 in June.”
“But you look older – that’s good! Hey, will you be instead of Alexa?”
“What?”
Alice stood shocked of such an offer, but the others seemed happy about the solution .
“I think make-up will suit you perfectly!”
“Wow, and look at this shiny blond hair!”
“And your cat- yellow eyes are so attractive!”
“Your figure has no complaining as well!”
“So, shall we start?”
The same moment lights went off and Billy Owen announced the seventh round – the Black Cat versus the Space Dolls.
Alice found it was meaningless to protest, so she let the women to dress her up, as they wanted it.
They gave her a black Victorian- aged dress with some big light- purple butterflies on it and put her hair up is geisha’s style. The make-up reminded of purple butterflies as well and so Alice turned into modern Lady Butterfly .
“Wow,” said Sheila, “you sure are a beauty , Allie!”
Alice looked in the mirror and nearly fainted – there stood a perfect grown-up woman before her, golden waist- length hair shining in the stage lights.
“Are you ready ?” asked Sheila and hugged her.
Alice nodded and the same moment decided to win the competition, overcoming even her brothers .
“Okay, everyone! The Princess is ready! Lets go and turn on the heat of the rhythms!”
The women clapped and went towards the stage.
Alice smiled and walked towards a new beginning – it was the best day of her entire life, she thought.
In the meanwhile the Ravens returned to the back stage, but Alice wasn’t there. The battle began, and suddenly everyone heard a fast, yet light piano solo , that was never heard before. The notes were gentle, but grew stronger every second. Soon the judges stopped writing the report and just stared boldly at the Spice Dolls. They were marvelous. Especially good were two band members: the flashy vocalist and elegant Lady Butterfly behind the piano.
Billy Owen smiled as he recognized his daughter, whose skills impressed all of the judges.
“I think we’ve got a winner !” he whispered to the other judges and clapped after the final accord.
Behind the curtains Alice was praised by all the band members and especially be Sheila. Yet some girls felt uneasy about the fact that Alice was so talented and young. They seemed happy and smiled with the others, but in their heart they felt jealousy.
Soon, Alice went with Sheila to the Raven’s, who were to competite against the Spice Dolls later .
Matrix saw Alice on stage and now just stared smiling at her.
Daemon wasn’t so calm-tempered and after spotting Alice he hugged and kissed her many times , calling her the best praising names he knew.
Alice was extremely happy now, and so were her friends .
Mat treated everyone a soda, not forgetting about Sheila, who became of quite a liking the handsome guitarist.
Matrix thought Sheila was nice as well, so a proper party was set up.
Some of the other Space Dolls’ members joined in as well, but the jealous ones stayed in the shadows.
In a couple of hours , the competition ended with the Raven’s victory. The Dolls had lost with a single point only, so they weren’t unhappy – this place was much higher they had expected !
Yet the naïve members didn’t give up on their jealousy – now they thought they could’ve won the competition, if some high school girl hadn’t replaced Alexa.
Sheila didn’t even want to hear stupid arguments like this, so the furious members decided to pay a revenge to Alice.
In the next evening they gathered to the City Royal , a hotel in which Alice stayed with her dad and Matrix. But they didn’t know that Sheila had informed the police of the upcoming danger. So as soon as they entered the guest hall, they were caught and sent to imprisonment for attempting to ruin a winner’s success.
Alice Owen became a full Space Dolls’ member and in five years got married to Daemon. Matrix married Sheila and in a couple of years had twins – a boy Raven and a girl Alice. All of them were happy and if they aren’t dead by now, they’ll live happily forever.