Disclaimer: All Characters belong to Dick Wolf and the song The Poet and The Pendulum belongs to Nightwish

Josh pulled on the jacket of his suit and even though he knew his stepdad, Ricky had it tailored for him, it felt like he was drowning in it. But tonight was one of the biggest nights of his life, he was a part of The Manhattan Junior Symphony Orchestra and they were performing at CARNEGIE HALL! And he wasn't just playing violin as a part of The JSO, no he was actually conducting the last song as well. The last song was his own arrangement of the Nightwish song The Poet and The Pendulum. He grinned at himself in the mirror smugly as he remembered the long monthes he spent arranging this song, it was going to be epic, they had two people playing electric guitars and one person playing electric bass to go with The Orchestra. Also three of the best singers in New York who happened to be in the Orchestra named Gabby Peterson, Randy Thomas and Rachel Glick woud be lending their vocal talents to this song. It was gonna be the perfect song to send of Dr. McAllister, the group's founder into his retirement. "JOSH! Randy's here to pick you up!" His mom, Olivia yelled to me. "Coming Mom!" he yelled back putting on his tie and shutting the door to his room.

Josh's POV

"My my, don't you look handsome!" My stepmom, Casey Novak said to me. "Thanks Mom can you guys drop Miles off about a half an hour before the show starts we're gonna run Poet and The Pendulum last." "Alright, good luck" she replied kissing me on the cheek. "Thanks" the reason I needed my ten year old brother is because on the track for Poet and The Pendulum there is a little boy who says some spoken lines and Miles would be saying those lines for us. I quickly grabbed my violin case and went out to Randy's car. "Hey Bro," he said from the driver's seat. I grinned and slid in next to him putting my violin case in the back with his sax case. "Nervous? I asked my best friend. He smirked "Nah you know me! Cool as a fricking cucumber!" I laughed "I brought something to psych us up" I said pulling out my copy of Dark Passion Play and popping it into the CD player. Our favorite song, Master Passion Greed came on and we both started to sing along.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy!!

Who the hell are you to tell me?!
What to do, why to do, why bother?
Leech in a mask of virtue
Such waste, to ever think of you again.


Hey Judas, your christens was our love.
Hit and run, you're be done.
Never sorry, never wrong,
More, more, more, more, more.

Master Passion Greed!
Master Passion Greed!

Hello, how are you?
Let me explain one thing.
All for her and more for me.
Why is it so hard to see?
I see no sense in doing this,
Not enough for me,
I fuck up everything but let me explain."

Some day...

Some day you shall flee,
Panting and weak!

Master Passion Greed!
Master Passion Greed!
Master Passion Greed!
Master Passion Greed!

All within me gone but pain and hope,
Hoping that the pain will fade away.

Greed your master passion,
I feed the mouth that bites me.
Mammon, opiate of the masses,
The reek of your lies draws flies.

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Have her,
Kill her!

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Feast on it all!

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Have her,
Kill her!

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Feast on it all!

With awakening the tears will begin.
To my everlasting shame silence took me"

We both laughed as the song ended and Randy grinned "Thanks for the vocal warmup I needed that." He pulled up to Carnegie Hall and parked his car in the back of the building. We both hopped out grabbed our instruments and went into the building. We went to a woman sitting at a desk in the lobby. "Excuse me could you please point us in the direction of The Isaac Stern Auditorium?" I asked politely. "Oh, you kids must be from The Junior Orchestra?" she said quickly noticing our instrument cases. "Yes" we both replied rigidly. "To get to The Isaac Stern Auditorium you just go down that left hallway and it's at the end of the hall." she jabbered happily. "Thank You!" Randy and I said curtly, glad to get away. We walked into The Stern Auditorium and we were both in awe of the enourmous place. I whistled "what a place!" Randy and I both looked at the rows upon rows of seats. We saw Rachel and Gabby run up to us excitedly.

"There you guys are!" Gabby yelled to us, Gabby was a beautiful 16 year old brunette who was wearing a white blouse black knee length skirt and black sandals. She was also a talented alto singer and cellist. Rachel was also 16 with blond hair and pretty green eyes, an great flautist and the one reason that Randy and Gabby kind of resented her was that she was an amazing, truly AMAZING! soprano singer. "Dr. M wants you to run through our vocal excersises with us Jo." Gabby said using her nickname for me. "Alright" I pulled my violin out of it's case. "Let's begin with some trills," I played a Middle C and they did a scale of lip buzzes. Each time they completed a scale I went up an octave in my playing until they finished. "Good, now Rachel let's just go through Part I, I want to make sure the vocals sound ok." I told her putting down my violin. "O.K umm can you gimme a measure." I nodded and held up my hands like I was conducting and counted off. "Rest...2...3...4" Rachel continued counting in her head and then began to sing.

"The end...

The songwriter's dead.
The blade fell upon him
Taking him to the white lands

of empppppathicaaaaaaa
of innoooocenceeeeeee
Empathica
Innocence"

"Very nice, your tone is great." I complimented. She smiled, "Everyone let's get rehearsing!" Dr. McAllister yelled to his Orchestra. We all ran up on stage, the music had to be on point because this was the biggest night of their young lives.