The man's black hair almost hung in his green-grey eyes. I stared in shock as he smiled, a boyish mischievous smile that could make anyone's heart melt. Except for mine.
"Welcome to your audition." He smirked. I rolled my eyes and turned to the next judge. She looked about twenty, with curls of blonde hair. Her smile was one that was so infectious, it could anyone smile. But me.
The last one was much older than the other two. A black man, with a quick smile and dark eyes that you could lose yourself in. But not me.
"What are you going to be singing?" Adam asked. I hesitated, knowing now who the judge was.
"One of your songs, actually." I admitted after a moment. His eyes widened for a second before he grinned.
"Which? I have about three, four albums out." Adam said easily. I hesitated again.
"Pick you up. I know the octave is hard." I said, a bit more confidently as Adam and Demi exchanged a quick knowing smile. I sang it as well as I could, and considering my voice has a two-note difference between Adam's himself. I hit that quick six-note progresssion, and then juped the octave for the fun of it. Adam's eyebrows had disappeared in his bangs, and Demi looked shocked. Taye Diggs was grinning and tapping his foot to the beat. I ended and took a theatrical bow. Adam laughed and applauded, his shocked expression gone. Demi grinned sheepishly, and Taye grinned.
"Well ,you're a cute one, aren't you?" Demi asked. I blushed, despite myself.
"How old are you?" Taye asked, dodging the punch Demi threw at him. Adam chuckled.
"Twenty. And I'm gay, Demi." I said. Adam spit out the water he'd been drinking, and Demi fell out of her chair. Taye burst out laughin a tthe two other judges. "Anyways, how'd you end up here? And Simon's a producer, isn't he?" Demi nodded sheepishly.
"This is like a mix of The Voice, X Factor, and American Idol. You get one of us as a mentor and a friend. We each get three people. First weeks we duet, then you guys perform together, then solo. And I claim him." Adam said before the ohers could.
"I'm looking for lower voices anways, Adam. Take him." Taye said. Demi pouted.
"I don't get anybody, do I?" She joked. "I hate being on a panel with two guys." Adam grinned as Taye responded, "Well, Adam's not much of a guy, is he?" I raised an eyebrow at their antics.
"So," I said, reminding them I was here. Adam grinned.
"When you leave, turn left. There will be three rooms, each marked wth our names. Go into mine and chill with everyone there." I left, but hid, pretending to leave, and listened to them.
"What was his name?" Adam asked quietly. I heard a shuffling of papers, befre someone answered.
"His name was Nicolas Lambert. I think he goes by Niki, though." Taye said, handing the paper over to Adam, who dropped it. Rolling her eyes, Demi picked it p and handed it back to Adam.
"Niki Ethan Lambert, age twenty, birthday January 31. Voice is brilliant, one to match Freddie Mercury's. Self-trained. Wow." Adam murmured. Demi read over his shoulder.
"He's done theater, as Emmett Forrest in Legally Blonde the musical, for a year, and was Fiyero in Wicked for a couple months in England." At that point, I got bored, but waited a couple more seconds.
"He's quite a talented performer. If I didn't know better, I'd say he reminds me of you, Adam. He's not as outgoing, but that's easily fixed, right?" Taye said in his quiet tenor voice.
"I was thinking about having him play dress up." Adam teased back. I smiled and slipped out of the room. I headed to where the door said ADAM in glitter and plastic jewels. Smiling inwardly at Adam's antics, I stepped inside to see two people already sitting there. Both were girls, but looked like complete opposites. One had white-blonde hair, and the darkest eyes I've ever seen. She was petite with a quick smile and was just chubby enough to be cute. The other was tall, and frowning, with long black hair and light grey eyes. I sat down next to them.
"Hi! I'm Ashley, that's Elizabeth." The blonde one bounced over to me and shook my hand, dimples appearing as her smile widened.
"Call me Liz." The tall one said. I smiled, a clearly fake and polite smile.
"Niki." I said, shaking both their hands. Within minutes after that, Adam slipped into the room, and sensed the awkwardness between us.
"Hey, guys. You all know me, right?" Adam joked, a light smile on his face. Nobody smiled, even Ashley. "Oh, come on guys. We're going to be spending a lot of time together, and as of this moment, you are allies. First week is a riff-off. Anyone seen Pitch Perfect?" We all nodded. "Well ,that's the basic idea. We want to stick with rock songs, if possible. That the aura I chose you for, you can pull that off. I'm going to give you all a small piece of one of my songs, and I want you to practice it for tomorrow. Each group is performing a song. I chose Aftermath, if that's alright." We all nodded again, the tension in the room lifting slightly.
"Now, I have an idea, let's go around the room. You say your full name, age, who your musical role model is, and one other thing about yourself. Ashley," Adam said with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Ashley Cameron. I'm nineteen. I really like Avril Lavigne, and I'm naturally a redhead." Ashley said with a grin. Adam laughed.
"Good! Liz!"
"Hi, I'm Elizabeth Anne Corcoran, Liz for short. I'm eighteen, and I've always liked Fleetwood Mac, especially Lindsey Buckingham. I grew up the youngest in a family of ten." Liz said, her lips twitching into a small smile.
"Niki?"
"I'm Nicolas Ethan Lambert, Niki for short, or Nico if you want. I'm twenty, my birthday is January thirty-first, and my musical role model is-" I hesitated. Should I say the truth? Adam gestured for me to finish. "My musical role model for sining is Adam, and my role model for my instruments is Tommy Joe Ratcliff. I play guitar and bass also." I said, blushing. Ashley grinned.
"I play guitar and piano." She said with a quick giggle.
"Piano and drums." Liz offered. Adam burst out laughing.
"For our performances, I was gonna use my own band, but you guys could pull off a band of our own with Tommy." Adam grinned. We all nodded in agreement, quiet again.
"Alright, so I'll give you a copy of Aftermath. Unless you guys have a different song you can agree on." Adam said, looking at us carefully. I guess he saw the hesitation in my, and in Liz's eyes, because he looked at us strangely.
"Spill." Ashley said, seeing the looks Liz and I were exchanging.
"Well, I think that Aftermath is more of a stay strong type song. We don't want to come off too arrogant, for something like that, so we should start off with something else. I like the idea of an Adam song, but we should probably play it that we chose it, and didn't tell him, so he's unprepared as to what we're singing. Maybe we should do For Your Entertainment. It's a bit risque as our opening, but if you follow my logic, we want them to know we're risque." I said. Liz nodded in agreement. Ashley thought for a moment before nodding.
"That makes sense. How much time do we have to practice on the stage?" Ashley said. Adam frowned.
"None, as far as I know. Sneak in around two in the morning, I'll leave the doors open for you guys. I'll meet you. Split the stuff up, and let me know what I'm singing." Adam shrugged. I guess he followed that because of what I just said, and Liz's reaction, we were able to work out details ourselves. Adam twisted on the couch he was sitting on into a sleeping position and closed his eyes. I could tell he was still listening, though. I think the others did also, because they winked at each other.
"Okay, so I was thinking that-"