AN: Squeal! I'm back to writing! Ah, the blissful bliss of summer. Where there is no schoolwork or sports or social activities to distract me. Which means I can watch YouTube videos and chill out and, of course, write as much as I want! Now, as I'm sure you can guess, I am a huge Starkid fan. This is purely the work of my imagination, and does not represent any of the Starkids directly. I've never met them, I'm making up their personalities and such. I also don't want to offend any of them, so apologies in advance if they don't like the story or find there to be something wrong with it. All I'm trying to do here is write a good story for other Starkid fans to read and, hopefully, enjoy. I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not know the Starkids. If any details about them are incorrect, it is because I am twisting reality a bit to make it work with my story. Apologies for any offense caused – I can assure you it is/was unintentional. Also, I do not own any of the Starkid productions or music mentioned in this story. They own it because they're cooler than me. Nor do I know any of their backgrounds/life stories, and any details about their past that you see here may, and probably are, completely made up.
Chapter 1: Permission
Olivia Ioria was bored. She was sitting in her best friend Mackenzie Britten's room with the third member of their little trio, Kat Hightower. Kenzie was lying lifelessly on her bed, her face turned towards her friends and a blank expression on her face. Kat was lying on the small, white couch stroking Mackenzie's blue-gray cat Freeze. This left Olivia lying on the floor with her hands behind her head, gazing at Mackenzie in a peculiar, almost upside-down way.
"Well this is fun," Kat said in a dry, sarcastic tone. The other two snorted and Kenzie nodded.
"Sorry guys. This is getting ridiculous," Mackenzie said.
"I know, right?" Olivia chimed in from her surprisingly comfy spot on the wood floor. "I think this is the third time we've tried to get together to play volleyball in someone's yard and it's rained. This would only happen to us," she added with a roll of her eyes. That made the other two laugh and voice their agreement.
The trio of girls was somewhat well known around their school for having the worst luck ever, especially when it came to weather, time, and injuries. None of them had a functional internal clock, and therefore had no sense of how much time had passed while they were doing something. They were often early or late when they didn't have a clock available. As for injuries… well, there hadn't been anything life threatening. Yet. Most of their injuries were just ironic. Kat had sprained an ankle playing volleyball two weeks before volleyball tryouts that past fall, which meant she had almost been unable to try out. Mackenzie had found out she was mildly allergic to chlorine; she was one of the best swimmers on the school's swim team. Olivia had gotten hit in the face with a bat during softball tryouts and ended up with a mild concussion that had forced her to the bench for the first three games. Each one sported a vast number of bruises, scrapes, and tiny scars from assorted mild injuries. They couldn't remember where half of them came from, and they didn't really care. They had been shoved together during volleyball camp two summers ago for a three-on-three tournament. After winning in their age group, the girls had quickly bonded over mutual bad luck, volleyball and softball, and a love of both the Harry Potter books and Team Starkid. They could often be found talking about Harry Potter or Starkid, and usually preferred listening to Starkid music over anything currently on the radio.
Olivia abruptly remembered that Mackenzie had a laptop, and sat up. She started looking around her best friend's room, moving stuff around and poking through the closet without concern for her friend's privacy. She turned when Kenzie cleared her throat behind her, and saw that her friend was holding out the Macbook with a look of amusement on her face. She took the laptop with a sheepish grin and powered it up. She immediately went to YouTube and turned on one of their favorite songs - Granger Danger from A Very Potter Musical. Identical grins appeared on Mackenzie and Kat's faces when the first notes rang out into the room, effectively shattering the silence. Humming along with the guitar part, Olivia opened up a new tab and went to their shared e-mail account. It was with this that they'd e-mailed the Town Hall two days ago to ask a very important question.
The town of Concord, Massachusetts, where the trio lived, hosted a Friday through Sunday, town-wide festival every year in June. It was designed to celebrate both the arts, the skill of people in the town, and the end of the school year. This festival was in just over a month, and the girls had decided that they wanted to sing there.
It had been Kat's idea originally. They'd been joking around about the festival when she'd mentioned in passing that it would be cool to have an act at some point. Olivia and Mackenzie had agreed and they'd all stored the little bit of information in the back of their minds. When sign-ups had started, they'd agreed that they were going to sign up, but had no idea what they were going to do. Kenzie stepped in and suggested singing. Olivia had been the most reluctant – she'd never sang in front of a crowd, even in a choir, and never had a singing lesson in her life. It had taken a bit of convincing, but she'd eventually hopped on board with the plan. Then came the puzzle of what to sing. It had taken all of three minutes for them to agree on Starkid music. The only problem was, when they went to sign up, the people at the Town Hall had never heard of Starkid, and didn't know the music. They'd told the girls to e-mail them a list of the songs they were thinking about performing so that the lyrics could be reviewed to make sure that they were relatively appropriate for children aged 12 and up.
The trio had spent hours agonizing over which songs to include and which to omit. All the songs from Me and My Dick and been omitted immediately. They figured that any song they tried would be shot down for inappropriate content. Then came the really tricky part of finding the songs that they liked the most with the fewest swears. They'd scrapped To Be a Man next, seeing as the chorus was: "Fuck you, I'm gonna kick your ass! Fuck you, I'm taking you down, fuck you!" They'd agreed on Goin' Back to Hogwarts as an opener, seeing as it was one of the most well known songs. Granger Danger was the next to go on the list, with a few lyrical edits by Olivia. They jokingly called the new song Ranger Danger because she'd changed the chorus to: "I think I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a starship ranger!" Olivia had suggested I Wanna Be next, which Kat had been quick to agree to. Kenzie had never seen Starship at that point, so they watched it together and got her approval. Kat had practically begged to sing the Kick it Up a Notch reprise, so they'd thrown it in there. Mackenzie had desperately wanted to sing one of Harry's solo songs, so they'd offered To Have a Home, which she'd gladly accepted. Then it had occurred to them that they hadn't looked at Holy Musical B man at all, so they headed over there. Super Friends was an obvious choice; they knew the entire dance as well as the words. After much consideration, they'd decided to include The Dynamic Duet because no one really wanted to sing Holy Musical B man, The American Way, Robin Sucks, Rogues Are We, or the Rogues Are We reprise. Olivia had tentatively offered to sing Status Quo, which the other two had fallen over themselves to agree to, seeing as she was the only one without a solo song so far. Days of Summer was quickly added, along with The Coolest Girl. They toyed around with the idea of Pigfarts, Pigfarts, Here I Come, but had eventually decided against it. It was kind of an inside joke for the play, and you definitely had to have seen it to understand what was going on in the song. Mackenzie had suggested Boy Toy from Little White Lie, which they'd agreed to because it was a pointless song that would probably make the listeners laugh. Olivia had suggested The Way I Do from Starship, which everyone had liked after listening to it a few times. Kat had brought up Stutter and Gettin' Along moments before they'd sent the e-mail, which had led to a revision of the list. Then Mackenzie had thought of Different as Can Be while adding those two, which had led to another revision.
The list had been checked about six or seven times before they'd finally sent it off. That had been almost five days ago. The girls had been obsessively checking the e-mail every hour the past four days, and had continued to do so today. Olivia drummed her fingers on the computer, perfectly in time with the beat. Her friends were singing along, but she didn't join in until the chorus.
"This could mean danger! I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love! I could be falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a starship ranger!" All three girls roared out 'starship ranger' at the end, completely drowning out Joey Richter's voice telling them he was falling for Hermione Granger. Then they collapsed into giggles at their own crazy fan-ness. Olivia looked down from the ceiling, which she'd been shouting the lyrics at, to find that the e-mail's inbox had loaded. And sitting there was an e-mail from town hall. She immediately paused Granger Danger, ignoring her friends' annoyed and confused expressions, and opened the e-mail.
"Guys, it's from town hall! Let me read it!" An expectant silence filling the room instantly as both Mackenzie and Kat turned their full attention to the girl on the floor. She cleared her throat.
"Okay, here goes. 'Dear Misses Ioria, Britten, and Hightower: We are delighted to inform you that all of the songs you have selected have been passed by our inspectors. You are free to perform them on any and all festival days, so long as you have a stage or space to perform on or in. If you need assistance in procuring a stage, contact Mrs. Margaret Steele, chairwoman of the festival for this year.' And then there's a phone number and e-mail address, but no point in reading those." Olivia looked up at her friends, her eyes sparkling with excitement and something that neither of the other two could read before it winked out. "Guys, do you get what this means?"
"It means we need to get our hands on a stage so we can start rehearsing ASAP!" Kat's voice cut through Olivia's, drowning her out with her own opinion. Everyone laughed and nodded.
"Let's do this thing," Mackenzie said determinedly, picking up the phone. "Where's that phone number?"
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Three hours later, they found out that determination could not overcome everything. They'd called Mrs. Steele, who'd given them the names and phone numbers of several directors of local places they could sing at, mostly stages. But as they'd called each one, they'd been turned away, either because they didn't have the money to pay or because they were kids. Every single stage but one had been crossed off the list; the only person left to call was the director of a stage that was being set up in the local park. No one was optimistic, seeing as the stage was only set up when everyone knew that there was a band coming. It was Olivia's turn to make a call, so she picked up the phone and carefully dialed the number. It was picked up on the first ring.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end of the line was definitely a guy, and he sounded calm and collected.
"Hi, is this Mr. Hantlin, director of the stage in the park?" Olivia was using her most professional voice, which she usually saved for when she was umpiring. Her friends were snickering at how adult she sounded, and she sent them a fierce glare.
"Yes, may I ask who's calling?"
"This is Olivia Ioria. I'm a resident of Concord, and I had a question about the festival next month, if it's not too much trouble."
"No trouble, no trouble at all!" He sounded much more friendly now. "What's your question?" Olivia took a deep breath.
"Well, I'm part of a trio of singers. The other two are my best friends, Kat Hightower and Mackenzie Britten. Town Hall has agreed to allow us to perform during the festival, but only if we can find a stage or space to perform on or in. Would it be possible for us to perform on your stage at some point during the weekend?" Olivia held her breath as the man on the other side of the line was silent for a moment. Finally, he spoke.
"How many songs would you be performing?"
"We currently have sixteen picked out." Mr. Hantlin whistled in surprise.
"That's quite a few songs you've got there," he pointed out.
"Yes, we were a little surprised ourselves when we counted them up. However, at least one is less than a minute, and most have large instrumental parts as well."
"Well, I would love to have you girls, but I'm not in charge of picking the performers. However, if you like, I can ask you a few things and tell my coworkers, and we'll make a joint decision about it. Does that sound okay?" Olivia's face lit up, and her friends looked at her questioningly. She held up a finger to tell them to wait a minute.
"Of course! Ask whatever you need to."
"Could you please repeat your names and tell me everyone's ages."
"Olivia Ioria, age 18. Kat Hightower, age 18. Mackenzie Britten, age 17."
"Excellent. Who is the artist of the songs you will be singing? Or, if there's more than one, please tell me all of them."
"Well, all the songs are by a theater company calling Starkid Productions, or Team Starkid. Would you like me to list all the singers?"
"Do you know them all?"
"Actually, yes," Olivia said, which earned her a chuckle from the other end of the line.
"Then please do."
"Okay, this is kind of a long list. Darren Criss, Lauren Lopez, Joey Richter, Dylan Saunders, Bonnie Gruesen, Tyler Brunsman, Devin Lytle, Joe Walker, Meredith Stepien, Brant Cox, Nick Lang, Brian Holden, Brian Rosenthal, Denise Donovan, and Chris Allen. Then there are several people who sing as part of an ensemble, like in a big group, because all the songs are from musicals except one. Do you want me to name those people too?"
"No, no, no, the list you gave is more than sufficient," Mr. Hantlin responded quickly. "I just need to call my coworkers, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Can I reach you at this number for the rest of the day?"
"Yes, most definitely," Olivia assured him.
"Okay, I'll get back to you as soon as possible," he said kindly.
"Great, thank you so much Mr. Hantlin!" Olivia said brightly. She could hear the smile in his voice as he replied.
"You are very welcome Miss Ioria! I'll talk to you later."
"Excellent! Goodbye!"
"Goodbye." There was a click over the other end of the line, but Olivia kept the phone up to her ear for another moment before slowly lowering it and pressing the "end call" button. She knew that there was a grin spreading slowly across her face as she looked up at her friends.
"Well?" Kat said expectantly, annoyance flickering in her gaze. Kenzie laughed.
"Yeah, come on Liv! We both know how impatient Kat is!" Kat chucked a pillow at Kenzie's head, which the younger girl ducked. Laughter rang around the room as pillows flew everywhere. Olivia silenced them, the occasional giggle escaping her mouth.
"Come on guys, don't you want to know what he said?" Both of the other girls immediately dropped their pillows and turned to face her. She chuckled at their sudden silence.
"He said that he was going to call some coworkers and tell them what I told him about us and they'll make a decision together. This is way better than what anyone else told us!"
"This is fantastic!" Mackenzie exclaimed, her face glowing with excitement. Kat nodded with agreement.
"Yeah, except I have no idea when he's going to actually going to call back," Olivia pointed out. That led to a short silence while the other two digested this.
"Well, why don't we figure out the parts for the songs while we wait," Kenzie suggested. They all agreed, and prepared for hours of talking.
AN: Well, this chapter was going to be longer, but I felt like this was a good place to end it. Well, I usually can't write a cliffie, but this is a pretty good one, I think. I'd appreciate it if you let me know what you think of this chapter and this story idea! Reviews are always appreciated and I hope to get a new chapter out relatively soon! Thanks to all you reviewers in advance!
