Overcoming Herself

It wasn't until a moment or two after the song had finished when Mio was brought back from her forced reverie to reality. Imagining different things – even if slightly incoherent – had helped her deal with standing on center stage in front of everyone, with the majority of people looking at her and only occasionally on the rest, their eyes full of expectation. That initial sight of this huge crowd had caused her body to visibly shake with insurmountable levels of anxiety, and the only way she could cope with it was by having her mind escape to distant places during the song.

She was just not ready for this – this kind of attention – and she didn't think she would ever be. That was why she was supposed to be the mere bassist, and Yui should've been the one doing the lead vocals. The fear of failing to deliver, even after practicing as much as she had, only added more and more to her nervousness. The uncertainty of not knowing what people would think of the song and its lyrics had been more than enough for her.

They ought to have postponed the performance or something; surely Yui would have had more luck if the girl simply had the time to learn how to play the guitar and sing simultaneously, and everything was going to be fine, they wouldn't have had to risk this… Nobody said that they just had to perform at this Sakura High Festival.

Right now, however, Mio couldn't believe the absolute rejoice she was seeing in front of her. The hundreds of students who had gathered in the room were vigorously clapping, all of them with wide and genuine smiles on their faces. Was this still part of her hopeful, naïve imagination?

It didn't seem to be. They loved the song she had written and the group's performance today, and it was reaffirmed by everyone's minute-long cheering. Mio's quivers had been brought to a stop and instead she had frozen in disbelief. Her sharp black eyes flickered as she kept looking from one end of the room to the other until her gaze landed at each of her friends next to her. Ritsu smirked her way and then excitedly gave her two thumbs up, while Yui and Tsumugi beamed at her with heartfelt grins on their features.

And then Mio recalled what they had said to her just before the song had begun.

"Everyone knows that you practiced hard."

"That's right, Mio."

That had assured her plenty, but the looks on their faces now were more comforting to her than any of them knew. It was a wonderful and soothing feeling, and the uneasiness she had felt before didn't seem to be coming back.

They had truly done it. All of them had given their best and earned the applause they were now receiving.

With a wide smile of her own, Mio turned back towards the crowd, bowed, and then leaned a bit towards the microphone as she happily shouted:

"Thank you everyone!"

That was what they wanted to hear as they began clapping louder in response, still as enthusiastic as ever.

The festival was a success, and that day, Mio left the stage with a great deal of more confidence than she ever had before. The rosy blush on her cheeks signified her embarrassment at the beginning, but in the end, that color came from nothing else but her sincere happiness.

Back in the light music club room later that day, everyone had changed back from the maid outfits Sawako had forced them to wear and now had their school uniforms on, much to Mio's relief. She would have much rather picked her own clothes that actually suited her style – black might've been her color, but a maid uniform was definitely not her.

All four girls had formed a circle as they joined their hands together and lifted them in a single loud cheer. For a while, everybody was too ecstatic to just sit down at the chairs around the table and paced in the room a little in excitement instead.

"That was some amazing stuff, everyone!" Ritsu joyfully exclaimed. "We totally owned the stage! Not bad for our first real performance together, eh?"

"It was so fun too, wasn't it?" Yui shared in some of the exaltation herself, sounding somewhat hoarse. "All of our hard work paid off!"

"Especially Mio's," Ritsu noted, turning her head to face the black-haired girl, whose cheeks were still a little red with glee. The upbeat president of the light music club put one of her hands on Mio's shoulder as she added with a smirk, "I think it's safe to say that Jeff Beck has some serious competition now!"

"He plays guitar, Ritsu," Mio had to clarify, yet she couldn't help but grin and blush even more at the comment. Her friend knew that he was her favorite guitarist, after all.

"You were great, Mio-chan!" Yui told Mio, her round brown eyes looking at her warmly. Her voice still suited an elderly woman in her eighties more than it did a high school girl like her, but Mio had gotten used to it by now. "We knew you could do it. You really did practice hard."

"T-thank you," Mio replied mirthfully while one of her hands played with a strand of her long, straight black hair. She looked around the room, making eye contact with each of the girls as she said to all of them, "I appreciate your help there… at the stage. What you guys said meant a lot to me."

"All in a day's work," Ritsu spoke, waving her hand dismissively, looking very pleased with herself. She folded her arms and closed her eyes, her face smug. "Am I the rightful president of this establishment or am I not? I'm sensing a fan club for us forming right this moment!"

"Careful, Ritsu... Your head barely fits through the school doors as it is," Mio joked as she mimicked her friend's gesture herself, giggling a little as she did so. The apparent widening of Ritsu's grin was proof enough that she took Mio's words as a compliment.

"I think some tea is appropriate for this occasion," Tsumugi chimed in as she clapped her hands together excitedly.

"Not a shabby idea, Mugi-chan!" Ritsu seconded that notion.

"Yeah!" Yui agreed in a nod.

"As if we weren't going to drink tea anyway," Mio let out another laugh, but otherwise nodded her head herself.

At that moment, the door to the light music club room opened up and the band's advisor walked in, closing it behind her as she did so. The girls turned to look at the new arrival and grinned her way.

"Sawako-sensei!" Yui exclaimed.

"I see that the celebrations have already begun, eh?" the older woman said to them, visibly pleased, adjusting the frames of her glasses with the fingers of her hand. "Those outfits I got for you were quite the breakthrough, weren't they?"

"I'd rather not wear something like that again," Mio frowned at her and furrowed her brows.

"Ah, but Mio-chan, you seemed to have finally found your footing back there!" Sawako complained with a hurt tone in her voice.

"…With singing center stage, maybe. Not wearing that," the student clarified as she exhaled deeply. She was putting her foot down this time.

"Ah, but you were so cute, Mio," Ritsu spoke with evident disappointment, earning herself a sharp look from her childhood friend in return. That glance did shut Ritsu up, though, as she conceded with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Fine, be rebellious," Sawako spoke in a nonchalant manner and closed her eyes – though it seemed rather forced. "All teenagers are. It's quite normal – you'll get over it eventually."

Mio doubted that she'd ever willingly want to wear a maid's outfit of all things, especially at a stage. She was sure that the rest would agree that they'd rather just keep to their own style even if they didn't say it outright.

Standing up to her teacher on the matter did feel good, though. Perhaps it was the new-found courage that helped her do that.

"We were just about to have some tea," Tsumugi then told Sawako cheerfully, tilting her head to the side. "Would you care to join us?"

"I never thought you'd ask," Sawako said, the smirk returning on her face, and with that, so did the light-hearted atmosphere in the room.

All of them proceeded to sit down at the table, with Tsumugi sipping tea for everyone in the room. Before the girl was done with doing so, Sawako cleared her throat, looking as if she was about to start one of her woeful and melodramatic tirades. And just like that, in a second or two, she began.

"Ah, your performance reminded me of my days in my high school band when I was your age, yet I was not adored by the teachers back then like you are now, or even by some of my classmates… It was a very hard time for me, and I can't lie and say that I didn't feel any despair or confusion at my first concert, to say nothing of the boy I liked as I wondered what he would think..."

"But everyone was absolutely ecstatic for us!" Ritsu cut her off, completely oblivious to the tone of Sawako's words, clearly too excited by the first success of her own band. "We should commemorate it by taking a long break from practicing."

"You'd think today would get you motivated to work even harder," Mio gave out a sigh as she closed her eyes and shook her head, but nevertheless smiled afterward. Ritsu was still very much Ritsu, and she couldn't help but be amused at that.

Mio glanced at Yui next, however, and added, "I agree that we do deserve a little rest after the hectic week we've had, though."

"I think so too," Yui said, and then started rubbing the back of her neck through a blush. "And my voice needs some time to get back to normal… Hehe…"

"Besides, Mio, we have studying for the terms to focus on now, don't we?" Ritsu then pointed out, grinning at her friend and batting her eyelashes. She couldn't even keep a straight face for more than a second or two – nor did she seem to care.

"As if you'd actually sit down and open a textbook and not some manga," Mio couldn't resist teasing her, even if Ritsu knew something to that effect was coming.

"So Ricchan hasn't been studying, eh?" Sawako then chimed in, once again adjusting the frames of her glasses with a rather ominous expression on her face. It was a look that only a (former) heavy metalist could pull off. "Then where do the good grades come from, I wonder?"

"…I've been wondering about something too, Sawako-sensei. Have your fellow teachers learned about your past yet?" Ritsu fought back with a grin, already knowing that she had won this match. "Maybe it's time we reminded everyone of Sakura High's previous bands and their members, and honor them. They are our inspiration, after all."

"Ricchan is such a blackmailer!" Tsumugi commented in a mix of awe and fear.

"That is… truly kind of you to offer, but it will not be necessary," Sawako answered with a visibly uneasy voice, eliciting the jolly laughter of everyone else around. She herself merrily joined in after a moment.

In the meantime, Tsumugi had finished serving the tea for the rest, and upon her doing so, everyone cheered unitedly once more, this time including their advisor. They brought their cups together in the air as if they were clinking wine glasses, which also had all of them giggle, and their smiles never quite left their faces since then. Even if most of their fellow students had already gone home after the festival, they spent a good deal in the club room simply being in one another's company, enjoying themselves as best they could. They certainly had a reason to.

Back at her house later that day, Mio was lying on her stomach on the bed of her room, her legs casually swinging in opposite directions while she rocked her head slightly as the pleasant rock music from her MP3 player filled her ears. The girl had put on her favorite light blue tank top that tightly clung to her slender form, and she also wore a pair of comfortable black trousers while her feet were left bare. A notepad lay in front of her, with some of the lyrics of what would become the group's next song already scribbled down on the paper. There was a small open box of pocky next to it as well that she helped herself to every now and again.

She didn't need to have any lyrics prepared for a while, but after what happened earlier in the day, she felt particularly motivated – in spite of her band officially taking a break for the time being.

Even when she excitedly thought of what the next line for the new song should be, Mio kept replaying some of the many moments of this eventful day at the back of her mind and softly smiled to herself. She could even feel the subtle rosy blush creep up her face whenever she recalled what her friends had said to her, the way they had reassured her, and how well the festival had gone.

Sometimes, it still felt like something out of a dream – like the fact that she had managed to find the strength she desperately needed to perform the lead vocals, to say nothing of the overwhelmingly positive response of the crowd in front of her. She couldn't believe how huge of a weight off her shoulders that was, especially after having spent so much time just thinking it through in her head and the many bad ways it could've gone.

It didn't, however, and while Mio realized that it wouldn't be this way every time, she now knew that there was little reason to always expect the worst. That was what many people had told her before, of course, but perhaps the girl needed something like this to truly begin getting over her shyness and her stage fright. Being the avid music fan and enthusiast she was, she had fantasized about being on the center of the stage before, and although it sounded glamorous, even just thinking about it had made her nervous – now, it didn't seem so dreadful. She had the events of today to thank for that.

Ring.

The unexpected beep of Mio's mobile phone broke her train of thought. The teenager had placed it next to the gradually emptying box of pocky, and she was grateful for it as she didn't need to leave the comfortable bed.

She flipped her phone open to find that it was a text message from Ritsu.

"Hey, Mio!

I wanted to say that you truly did a great job again today. See – I told you, it wasn't scary at all! You need to stop overthinking things. You should just let yourself go and have fun. As club president, I demand it! That's what the light music club is all about!

Let this be our first step on the road to success, eh? Hollywood Walk of Fame, here we come!

Ritsu

P.S. I'll have you know that I'd have called you, but I've just gotta focus on this math problem I'm trying so hard to solve here for the exams and I can't be distracted!"

Mio's lips pulled into a grin as she read through her best friend's heart-warming message.

"You're not fooling anyone, Ritsu," she laughed with amusement at the postscript.

After sending a text back expressing her thanks, Mio sighed pleasantly and returned the phone to where it was before, and then she proceeded to turn around on her bed and lie down on her back.

She really was lucky to be friends with Ritsu and the rest. Sure, the teasing sometimes got to her, but it wouldn't be remotely the same without them. Joining this club was the right decision all along – it had led to even more friendships and more fun than she ever remembered having before. The girl had a hunch that the remainder of her high school life was going to be a blast indeed.

Everything turned out for the best today. After all, with her friends' help, Mio took a big step forward in overcoming herself.

The End