Moves Like Jagger
What can I say? Adam Levine and Reno share the same trait – SMEXINESS!
No seriously, this song was stuck in my head (it still is) since last week. It was totally my happy-song while dancing my butt off with dance rehearsals and all that stuff. Yes, the story is inspired from the song "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera. Besides, once I could imagine Reno singing with the voice of Adam Levine… I simply couldn't resist the screaming fangirl in me to go with it!
Chapter 1 – The Poster
Elena stared at the poster in front of her. "… Mick Jagger?" She read out loud. It was a red-and-black themed poster, the famous 'Tongue and Lip' design emblazoned across the poster.
"Commemorating Ackree Fine Arts Academy's 45th Anniversary…" Elena read, skimming through the lines. "Annual Arts Exhibition and Music Concert… Theme for the year is Mick Jagger." She frowned.
Ackree Fine Arts Academy (AFAA) is a well-known fine arts university in the country. It is a small university, accepting only 500 students each year. However, it is an institute of high distinction, almost a thousand students are turned away every year. The privileged 500 students are further divided into different disciplines such as Dance, Music, Drama and Art. Each student wears a collar badge on whatever their own clothings to differentiate themselves from the different faculties.
Elena was the new student. She joined the school one month later than the rest of her cohort. She was accepted into the Arts faculty, having talent in oil painting. The first week of school was terrible. Students refused to talk to her, as if they were more elite than she was, as if she was an outsider. Elena shook her head to herself then, wondering what kind of school life would she be getting herself into.
It is the second week of school for her now. Still not many spoke to her, except Cissnei, a quiet but friendly girl who was willing to sit next to her during lectures. Elena struggled to keep her excitement for school alive, but it was hard.
"Mick Jagger, eh?" A voice spoke right beside her.
Elena jumped and turned back quickly. She came face to face with three guys, all visibly taller than her petite frame and they looked pretty aggressive as well.
"Sorry!" She squeaked and tried to walk away, but one of them held her back.
"It's okay, doll." He smiled. Elena stared at him in shock. He had scarlet red hair, tied up in a low ponytail. His fringe was kept from his face by a pair of goggles. His turquoise eyes were gentle, but there was a glint of mischief as well. "You are too small to obstruct my view anyway."
"It's totally fine, really! I'm just about to go!" Elena hated how squeaky she sounded. It's just that no one has ever spoken to her in school, and she was not exactly ready for a conversation. She glanced at the two guys behind him for help. The taller student, a tanned guy with shades on and ear piercings all around the perimeter of his ear, kept quiet.
The other student, the one with the long hair and a tilak on the centre of his forehead, seemed nicer, but just a little. "Let her go, Reno." He said, his brown eyes narrowing at him.
The redhead called Reno ignored him, his hand was still holding gently but firmly onto Elena's wrist. "Hey guys, it's for the music concert. Wanna join this time?"
"We participated last year." The tanned student said. "I thought we agreed to rest this year?"
"Yeah but it was only because we said we won't be able to find a female vocalist who has what we want…" Reno pointed at Elena. "How about her?"
Elena lost her shyness and exclaimed. "What?"
"Come on, Rude, Tseng!" Reno pleaded.
"Reno," The one with the long hair stared at him with an incredulous look. "I know you for crazy things, but grabbing a total stranger who is from ARTS…" He peered at the collar badge on Elena's t-shirt. "… and expecting her to sing randomly? Explain yourself."
"Tseng's right." The tanned one, whom Elena now knows is called Rude, spoke from his silence. "We can't just kidnap any random student to sing. For all we know, she's tone-deaf."
Elena flushed. "That Rude guy is correct you know? I don't think I can sing at all." Her words are met with a brief silence, and suddenly, Reno burst into laughter. "What?" She asked.
"That rude guy, that's what!" Reno smacked the back of Rude, who was not at all amused.
"Oh, sorry! I don't mean that!" She hurriedly tried to explain herself out of this madness, but Tseng held his hand to stop her.
"It's fine." Tseng shook his head. "Reno's a little crazy like that."
"Come on, Rude!" Reno slung his arm over the tall student. "You gotta admit, she is pretty interesting, huh?"
Rude looked at her. "How good is your singing?"
"Not that good?" She answered doubtfully. "I don't know. I hardly sing in the first place."
"Well, it's time to find out!" Reno decided before anyone could reply. "Let's go to the recording studio!"
"Huh? Wait!" Elena exclaimed but Reno was already pulling her away from the poster, with Rude following behind. Tseng shook his head, but followed as well.
The recording studio was one of the many mini studios that music students have access to at all times. Since it was out of bounds to other students, naturally it was the first time Elena stepped into the studio. Complete with a recording room, controls and musical instruments, Elena was terribly impressed with Ackree's facilities.
"So you three are music students?" She tried to create small talk with Rude, but he merely nodded and walked over to the drumset.
"Elena!" Reno walked over to her with flourish. "Take your pick!"
Elena looked around her. "Pick what?" She asked, confused.
"A song that you're familiar with." Tseng replied calmly. He was standing at the keyboard, just that there are a lot more buttons and knobs than an average piano.
"That's right." Reno agreed. "Tseng is widely versed in all kinds of music, and can play them instantly. Very talented person, but not as good as me." He grinned.
Elena frowned. "Okay… How about 'Understand'?"
Tseng shrugged. "Good choice." He proceeded to tune the keyboard.
Reno gestured Elena into the recording room, and she did… hesitatingly. He closed the door behind her, engulfing her in complete silence.
"Erm…" She looked around frantically when Reno's voice came through the speakers.
"Tseng's gonna play and you can start whenever you like, okay?" Reno said over the microphone in the control room. "Have fun." He grinned and pressed the button to switch off his microphone.
Elena gingerly walked over to the hanging microphone. "Hello?" She asked. "Can you hear me?" She felt stupid when Reno covered his ears, signaling her to slip on the headphones. Once she did that, Reno gave the thumbs up.
The instrumental music of "Understand" filled her ears, Elena smiled. Tseng did have a talent at creating the music on-the-spot. What talent. She thought to herself. Oh well, I'm just going to sing whatever, prove to them that I can't sing and get the hell outta here.
She opened her mouth. "I used to think that happiness could only be something that happened to somebody else…" She trailed off as the music stopped suddenly. "What happened?" She stared into the window, where Tseng was looking at her in surprise.
Elena heard the click of a button before Reno's voice was heard over the speakers. "Nothing, please continue." She shrugged and continued singing.
In the control room, Reno muted the microphone as Elena's voice filled the room. "So? Gotcha, didn't I?" Reno's grin was one full of victory and smugness.
Tseng's face resumed his stoicism as he played the chords. "Where did you find her?"
"What are you talking about?" Reno grinned. "It's the first time I'm speaking to her!"
As she sang, Reno and Rude simply listened attentively at her vocals. Rude sat on the stool, pushing his sunglasses against his nose. "I find it weird that she has never had any singing experience. She's… not bad." He observed.
"Shh… she's coming out now." Shushed Reno as Elena removed her headphones.
As Elena stepped out of the recording room, she smiled sheepishly. "There, I'm pretty average for you guys. May I go?"
"Are you kidding me?" Reno exclaimed. He walked over to her and shook her head. She blushed at the contact. "You were awesome! Even Rude and Tseng agreed!"
Rude coughed and nodded while Tseng said, "Your voice is raw, but with three weeks left before the music concert, I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Wait a minute!" She exclaimed. "I… I don't want to be involved in the music concert!"
"Why not?" Asked Reno. "The arts exhibition will be over by then."
"Precisely!" Elena argued back. "I want to focus on my arts, not… this!" She gestured at the recording studio. "I'm clearly not talented in music nor singing, I'm new to the school but it doesn't mean that I'm stupid!" She glared at the three boys. "The students in my own faculty refuses to speak to the new kid, much less students from other disciplines!"
Her words were met with silence, but this time none of them were laughing. Reno sighed. "Oh doll…"
"Don't call me 'doll'." She warned Reno. "My name is Elena."
"Okay fine. I'm Reno, this is Rude and Tseng." He gestured to the other two. "We are second year students in AFAA and we've always been looking for a good female vocalist."
She shook her head in disbelief. "Why me? There are tons of female music students out there better than me!"
"Not what we want." Rude said bluntly.
Tseng nodded at Rude. "Believe it or not, we haven't found any girl who has the voice that we want." He stared at her. "I believe… I want to believe that you are the vaguest example of what we want."
Reno started fidgeting in his place. "Please, Laney?"
Elena made a face at him. "What 'Laney'?"
Reno grinned. "My nickname for you?"
Elena rolled her eyes at them. "I still don't get what you all are up to but… if my inclusion is really important for you then…" She frowned hard at the microphone in the recording room. "… Alright."
"YES!" Reno shouted with joy. "Oh man! We're gonna rock the concert, yo?" Turning to Elena, he grinned. "You're the greatest! I'm so happy that I'll be your artist assistant or something!"
She raised her eyebrow at him. "Come on… You have no idea how tiring it is to do a painting."
Reno scoffed, tossing his red hair. "How hard can it get?"
Reno mumbled behind Elena, mixing oils and solvents of sorts. "Okay, so it's a little hard." He furrowed his brow and tried to pour the liquids together without destroying anything.
Elena snorted. It has been a few days since her encounter with Reno, Rude and Tseng. Reno has learnt (the hard way) that painting was not as easily as he claimed. "It's only 3 hours since I started, you know." She smiled.
"Yeah, but all you did was pick a canvas sheet, draw some picture on a piece of paper, transferred that over to the canvas using that squarish paper… and you've barely touched your paints yet!" Reno complained.
Elena turned around. "Firstly, it's a grid-paper. I need it to translate the size of the smaller sketch to the canvas. Secondly, 3 hours is quite fast for an oil painter. Do you know it takes hours and days before a piece of painting is complete?"
Reno shook his head, sitting on the floor in defeat. "Fine, so it's tedious to do art. Music is so much easier." He leant back and reached for his guitar. "Any song request?"
Elena shrugged. "You know that I don't really like music."
"What a shame." Reno murmured. "I've never seen a creature like you."
"Hey!" Elena cried, grinning. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Reno, Elena." Tseng appeared at the doorway of Elena's art studio. Like music students have access to their recording studio, art students are able to rent their art studio for days, up to a week.
"Hey Tseng!" She greeted cheerfully.
Over the past week, she had gotten to know the three guys better. Tseng was a serious man, but he was indeed a talented one. Elena thought that he was quite a stern person to talk to, because he often spoke of work and seriousness. Rude was silent, choosing to observe rather than participate. Often, Elena wondered what was going on in his head. She also marvelled how he was able to flick the drumsticks on the drums perfectly. Reno well… he is as crazy as he can get. She couldn't find any other word to describe him.
One thing she never realized was that Reno, Rude and Tseng were three very, very popular guys in AFAA. She cringed at the thought of the very first time she was seen in the canteen with the three guys. Suddenly she felt all eyes on her. Elena could almost feel jealousy from some girls who were from Music. If looks could kill… Elena would be stabbed every few minutes.
"Ignore them." She remembered Rude telling her. "They're all here for Reno's attention anyway." She shrugged, her mind devising of ways to show that she was included in the group by force.
"Yoo-hoo, Laney!" Reno's voice broke into her thoughts.
"Huh, what?" She snapped out of her thoughts and stared at Reno.
Reno shook his head at her. "Tseng was just done with the lyrics of our song!"
"Our… song?"
"Yeah! We only do originals for large-scale concerts like this." Reno grinned. "Read it!" He passed the paper to her.
She turned to Tseng. "You wrote all these?"
"Yes." He nodded.
Reno gave Tseng a pat on the back. "Tseng wrote the lyrics, but I made it awesome!" Elena gave Tseng a questioning look, who explained that what Reno meant was that he added some more into the song to give it a little spice.
As she read it, her face grew skeptical. "It doesn't make sense." She handed it back to Reno. "Moves like Jagger?"
"Yeah!" Reno stood up and did some weird, leg-shaking movement. "Everyone wants to have moves like Mick Jagger!"
Elena narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to her canvas. "I'm pretty sure that people want to have moves like Michael Jackson… and even I, the music-idiot, know that."
She saw that Tseng covered his smile with his hand and she giggled as well. Only Reno wasn't amused.
"There's nothing wrong with the lyrics!" He insisted.
"Yeah… 'You say I'm a kid, my ego is big, I don't give a shit'. That's poetic, alright." She grinned.
"I must say, Reno… Elena is quite capable of differentiating between my lyrics and yours." Tseng said calmly, though his brown eyes glinted with the slightest hint of mischief.
Elena slapped on some tan-coloured paint on the canvas. "But I'm good with whatever you've got. What am I supposed to do?"
"Here." Tseng passed the lyrics to Elena again. "Your solo."
Her eyes widened. "Solo?"
Tseng nodded. Elena groaned and wondered how she'd allowed herself to get into this mess.
I admit. I usually am quite prepared for stories. I write with the vision of how it'll end, and most of the structure in between would've been completed. THIS is an exception. I am terribly UNPREPARED for this story! Please don't shoot me for the lack of depth for this story and the ton of potential loopholes!
As for oil painting, I'm no expert. I just read up a little on what's the process like. If there are any mistakes I made, please forgive me!
I want to get this chapter out in the open so that I am (forced to) finish the story before I chicken out XD That being said, I'm currently writing a multi-chapter story (which is supposed to be a non-commitment project but I have no idea why I'm updating every week!). If you're interested, please head over and read "I Want To Be A Turk!"
Don't worry, this is a short story, I promise =P
Okay, I won't guarantee that this story will finish over the next week or something. I'll try to finish it up by October though =3 Note. I'll TRY.
Please! Read and review! If you haven't heard of the song… don't listen to it? But if you do, I don't blame you. It is SUCH an AWESOME SONG!