Maka arrived at the front doors of Shibusen Academy wearing not her usual uniform, but a simple white tank top and jeans with a black jacket. She looked at the evening sky, as her father parked the car. Maka entered the school and began to make her way across the black-and-white tiled floor to the familiar choir room, whose two doors from each side were now marked with "boys" and "girls", instead of the usual "choir room". Maka entered the girls' side to find a majority of the other girls save for Jackie and Kim, three makeup vanities, and an opaque black room divider separating them from the boys.

"Can't believe it's finally preliminary night, huh?" Tsubaki asked, unbuttoning the first few buttons of her top.

"Yeah, I can't believe we made it this far," Liz replied, taking off her shoes. Maka set her bag down, and took off her jacket.

"Anyone else a bit nervous?" she asked, getting her costume out from her bag.

"Yeah, I can't sit still," Patty replied, pacing back and forth. "Should we wait to start changing until the others get here?" she asked, looking at Tsubaki and Liz.

"What, I only took off my shoes," Liz replied, noticing Tsubaki's halfway unbuttoned jacket. Jackie entered the room and set down her bag next to Maka's.

"It's kind of weird being at school out of uniform, isn't it?" Jackie asked.

"We can hear every word you girls are saying," Hiro called out, unnecessarily.

"Yeah, we know," Maka replied. "The divider isn't soundproof," she added, hearing Soul sneeze loudly on the other side, before hearing Hiro start to get into a panic over people sneezing and possibly being sick. Maka thought he was being far-fetched, and chose to ignore him. Certainly nobody would come to an important event like this sick, she thought. Just then, Kim arrived, already taking off her athletic jacket with the letters " " and a stylized skull across the chest. Kim tossed her jacket to the side, revealing a plain white fitted tee.

"Can I change now, or are we still waiting for someone?" she asked, scanning the room.

"Well, all the girls are now here, but I don't know if Crona'll use this room or some other place to change," Maka replied.

"They're not on our side!" Black Star said at a raised voice. "Where is that kid?" he asked. As if on cue, Maka heard a familiar voice's annoyed groan at the doors, before hearing a knock at the girls' door.

"Anyone changing in here?"

"No, Crona, you can come on in," Maka replied, as Crona cautiously opened the door to the minimum point where they thought they could slip in. Not getting their hips through, they had to open the door a bit further, almost getting their skirt caught in the door.

"Maka, you're right," Kim whispered. "They did pick somewhere else to change," she added. "Sure glad I didn't bet money."

"I put this on at home," Crona replied, passing by to the corner.

"What's with the blazer?" Liz asked.

"Neckline's low," Crona replied, sitting down.

"Are you wearing the straps?" Maka asked, pulling out a pair of clear elastic dress straps, meant to be clipped onto the costume.

"No," Crona replied. "I probably should," they added, unbuttoning their blazer. They turned away from the girls to slip it off, before searching their bag for the clear straps. "Oh, found them," they said. Maka walked off to one of the makeup vanities and took out a makeup kit. She did her foundation and eyeshadow, before leaning in really close to the mirror to put on waterproof mascara, careful not to poke herself in the eye due to inexperience putting it on. Careful, careful, she thought, finishing the upper lashes of her right eye, before moving to the left. Wait, am I supposed to put this on both the upper and lower lashes? Maka leaned back to see how her eyes looked. Yeah, maybe I should. Maka quickly went back in by the mirror, starting to do her lower lashes. The only other time she had worn makeup was at a school dance in eighth grade, and even then her mother did her mascara for her. But Maka had watched her mother apply her mascara on the few days where she hadn't gone to work before Maka got up, and combining that with seeing other girls freshen their makeup at locker rooms and public bathrooms, Maka had a fairly good idea as to how applying mascara worked. She finished up her application, and moved on to applying a bit of blush, before pulling out a tube of lip stain. She opened it, and slowly brushed the light pink color against her lips with the little lip stain wand. She looked in the mirror at her handiwork. Not bad, she thought, as Kim sat down at the vanity next to her, and started to apply her own makeup. Maka got up from her chair. All right, appearance-wise, I'm ready to go on, she thought, seeing Crona approach in the mirror. The first thing Maka noticed when she looked over at them was how much their collarbone stuck out. It looked like it came from one of those starving dogs from the ASPCA commercials, or a particularly underweight model before Photoshop. They look like they've lost weight since we met, Maka thought, expression instantly turning to concern. And they were already really skinny before, too. Should I say something?

"We can't skip stage makeup, right?" Crona asked, arms hiding their chest. "I didn't bring any."

"Is the neckline still not staying up?" Maka asked in return, before noticing Crona had put the clear straps on and tightened them to their tightest possible setting. "And no, we can't skip stage makeup," Maka added, handing Crona her makeup bag.

"No, the neckline's fine, I just don't think I can deal with showing off this much skin," Crona sighed.

"It's not too revealing," Patty interjected, looking in the mirror at the amount of cleavage her costume displayed. "Damn, I do look good though," she added. "Well, even on me it's only a tiny sliver, so it's not too bad," she said, looking at Crona's crossed arms.

"Mine isn't really showing cleavage," Maka replied.

"Yeah, it's really just mine and Patty's that are showing some," Kim added. "Well, I guess we now know who's the bustiest," she said.

"Hold up, I think mine's purposely cut higher than all yours," Maka interjected. "Yeah, nearly everyone else's necklines are heart-shaped, while mine's more linear," she added, looking down at her chest. "Is this just a mishap?" she asked. I have got to ask Papa about this.

"How do you use this stuff?" Crona asked, pointing to the contents of Maka's makeup bag.

"You put it on your face," Patty replied, smiling, apparently unaware of the unhelpfulness of her comment.

"Let me help you with that," Maka said, walking up to Crona. "You're much paler than I am, so this foundation's gonna be useless unless I cover every inch of exposed skin with it, which I do not have enough for," she added, glancing down, noticing it really was everyone but her who had the heart-shaped neckline. Her eyes remained there for a second, before she quickly looked back at the makeup, silently chastising herself. Why the hell did I glance there? she thought. Okay Maka, keep your cool, you only looked for like half a second anyway. Maybe they didn't see that.

"You know how to do eyeshadow, right?" she nervously asked.

"Which one's the eyeshadow?" Crona asked in return. I guess the answer is no, Maka thought, almost amazed at how her friend could be so ignorant of cosmetics in this society, before hearing someone on the boys' side make a similar inquiry to another. Maka silently hoped that boy was not mocking Crona with that comment.

"That one," Maka replied, pointing to a subtly olive-colored eyeshadow palette, with brown, black, and an off-white.

"Maybe you should do this," Crona said. Maka just stared for a second. Well, I wouldn't expect Ms. Gorgon to be the type of mother to allow them to wear makeup at this age, regardless of whether or not they want to.

"Okay, close your eyes," Maka replied, opening the eyeshadow. "Just a fair warning, I am not a professional makeup artist," she added, getting a bit of eyeshadow on the small brush. Maka held it up to Crona's eyelid, and hesitated a bit. I feel like I have to be more careful now than with my own eyelids, she thought, cautiously applying subtle eyeshadow to one eyelid, then the other. Crona flinched a bit, almost messing it up. The olive eyeshadow, despite Maka mixing it as best she could with the off-white from the palette, still looked terrible with Crona's pink hair and blue-gray eyes, Maka tried not to show her disdain visibly for the resulting color palette, and instead covered it up with the black, which she felt suited Crona far better anyway. The result looked rather muddy, but at least it didn't clash as much with the rest of their face or their hair.

"You can open your eyes now," Maka said, putting away the eyeshadow. Crona opened their eyes, blinked a bit, and looked at their reflection. "How's that?" Maka asked.

"Different," Crona replied, trying to smudge it off with a tissue so at least it would be lighter. Maka could see Liz cringing in the mirror.

"Okay, this is going to be the worst part," Maka said, getting out the mascara wand. "You have to keep your eyes open for this, hold still," she added as she came in closer. She started applying the mascara, trying to get it over with quickly, yet do it right. She knew what it was like to have someone else apply her mascara, knowing it was not a pleasant ordeal. Some things are just better done yourself, she thought, hearing a small whimper escape Crona's lips.

"Don't move," Maka said, moving to the other eye. She could see the uneasiness in their expression, and she could swear their eyes even appeared a lighter and icier blue for a

second. Contacts? Maka thought. Or a trick of the light... Crona made another small noise, flinching a bit, away from Maka and the mascara wand.

"I'm almost done," Maka said. "Just hold still for a bit longer," she added.

"I don't think I could deal with doing this for much longer," Crona replied, trying not to move.

"Just hang on just a second," Maka said, finishing up the last of the mascara. "Okay, I'm done with your eyes," she said, gesturing towards the mirror. Oh my gosh, their eyes look even wider than they already are. They're so huge...

"You can do the blush yourself, it's really simple," Maka said, getting out some light pink blush and a makeup brush, before handing them to Crona. "Just add a tiny bit to your cheeks at about here," Maka added, gesturing to where she put the blush on her own face.

"Okay," Crona replied, quickly dusting their cheeks with the blush, before glancing again at the mirror. "Well, at least it's already pink," they muttered, running their fingers through the long strand of hair in the center of their bangs, which some of the powdery blush had gotten into. "We're done, right?" they asked.

"We still have to do your lips," Maka replied, pointing to the tube of light pink lip stain, before picking it up.

"Oh, you're going to do that?" Crona asked.

"If it's okay with you," Maka replied.

"Yeah, that's fine," Crona said. Maka leaned in closely, eyeing Crona's lips. Am I too close? she thought. But she didn't pull back. Maka opened the tube of lip stain, and pulled the wand out of the tube, scraping the excess off onto the sides. She slowly brushed the lip stain against Crona's lower lip, turning it a pleasant shade of light pink. Crona flinched a bit, apparently not expecting it to feel like that. They made another small noise, and moved their left arm a bit, almost near Maka's hand, before stopping themself.

"Okay, relax," Maka softly said, moving the lip stain back and forth a few more times with gentle strokes, making sure she got every centimeter covered, before moving to Crona's upper lip. Maka made the first stroke, feeling a bit of their warm breath hit her index finger. She made the rest of the strokes, pulling her hand back a bit to admire her handiwork, still almost intimately close to their face. Huh, it turned out nice, she thought. But in comparison, the rest of Crona's face looks so pale, almost like a ghost. Still, they look oddly beautiful. Although now, it's in a way that seems more... not them. Maka leaned back to a normal standing position, and took a few steps out of the way so Crona could look in the mirror at the finished job.

"Is that..." Crona began, looking closely.

"Is it what?" Maka asked, noticing Tsubaki looking at her and Crona with bewildered eyes, from two vanities over.

"This is fine," Crona replied, not sounding convinced. Do they not like it? Maka thought.

"Well, we're done with the makeup, so no more of that," Maka said, turning to Tsubaki. "And just what were you looking at?" she asked, unintentionally drowning out Crona's sigh of relief.

"Maka, could you come over here a second?" Tsubaki asked. Maka walked over to her. "What was all that?"

"What was what?" Maka inquired, raising her eyebrow.

"That," Tsubaki replied. "The lip thing," she added. Oh yeah, we weren't alone in here.

"I was just helping them," Maka explained. "They had never worn makeup before, and had no idea how to apply it."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to be so..." Tsubaki started. "How do I put this without sounding awkward?" she mumbled to herself.

"Oh no," Maka muttered. It looked weird, didn't it?

"Yeah, I have no words," Tsubaki said, getting back to her makeup. Maka waited for a few minutes, before she heard the sound of her father knocking on the boys' door.

"Is everyone done changing?" he asked.

"On our side, yeah," Black Star replied. "How about the girls?" he asked.

"We're good, just finishing the last touches of makeup," Liz replied, as Spirit opened the boys' door, and began to push back the room divider, so the two groups could see each other for the first time that night.

The boys were wearing white button-up shirts and khaki pants, with ties the same shade of light green as the girls' dresses.

"Kim, you look just as radiant as an evening sunset in Paris atop the Eiffel Tower," Ox said.

"An evening sunset?" Kim asked. "As opposed to a sunset in what other time of day?" she added, snickering.

"It's a wonder these costumes even came in on time at all," Harvar said, changing the subject so his friend wouldn't be embarrassed any further.

"Speaking of the costumes," Kidd added, "why is it that only Maka has a different neckline than the others?" he asked, turning to Spirit. Yes, I would really like the answer to this one, Maka thought, glaring.

"I told Blair to order that custom neckline shape to everyone, not just her, guess there was an ordering mixup," Spirit replied. "Thank goodness it's less revealing in real life than it looked on the website."

"Well I for one like it a lot," Hiro interjected. "Especially for you two," he added, looking directly at Kim and Patty. They both glared, before turning away.

"Okay Hiro, that's enough," Spirit warned. "Gather 'round, everyone," he added, as Spartoi started to form a semicircle in front of him, expecting a pep talk. "We may be short one man due to laryngitis, but that won't stop us from winning," Spirit began. "This team may have only been created two months ago, but we still have what it takes. We have integrity, friendship, and our voices on our sides, and with that combination, we're sure to knock everyone's socks off. This day'll make or break us, and I want to show them that we will not be broken. So I want us all to go out there, do our best, and win this not just for ourselves, but for Shibusen Academy!"

"For Shibusen Academy!" several members of Spartoi exclaimed.

"For the legacy of Tone Death!" Hiro shouted.

"For Spartoi!" Kilik added. Hiro glared at him.

"Okay, we're on in fifteen, so I wanna see everybody backstage in the next five to ten minutes," Spirit said, walking back towards the door and exiting the room. Hiro immediately followed him out, as well as Kidd and the Thompson sisters. Other members quickly phased out within the minute, until all who was left in the choir room was Crona. Maka turned back around as she exited the door.

"Hey, are you coming?" she asked, as she heard the pitter-patter of everyone else's footsteps go off down the hall.

"In a bit," Crona replied, looking uneasy.

"What's wrong?" Maka asked, walking back in the choir room to approach them. She could see Crona had still not left the chair at the vanity, and was slouched in it, facing away from the mirror. They were covering the skin the dress exposed with their arms again, and were looking down at the floor.

"I can't do this," they replied, shaking a bit. "I don't want to go out there in front of who knows how many people, especially since I know Lady Medusa and Ragnarok are there, and I feel ridiculous wearing all this, and I-I can't do anything right anyway, and if I'm there, I know we're going to lose, since there's nothing I can do at this point, " Their eyes got all watery after that, and their voice was beginning to sound crackly and choked up.

"Please don't cry, I'm here, okay?" Maka asked, running up to Crona and pulling them into a tight hug. "Is there anything I could do?" she asked, breaking off a bit to see their face, which couldn't hold back a few initial tears.

"I don't think so," Crona replied. "At this point, I can either brave it or do nothing," they added. "And I still don't know if I can."

"You can do this, Crona," Maka said. "I'm sure you're much stronger than you give yourself credit for," she added, fully breaking off the hug. "Here, this might fix the exposure problem, at least," Maka said, pulling out her white tank top. "Hopefully this won't look odd if you wear it under the dress," she added, holding the tank top up to Crona's chest, and comparing how the necklines looked. The tank top's neckline was high enough to cover up to their collarbones.

"Um, thank you," Crona replied, cracking a slight smile.

"I know it won't alleviate all your stage fright, but hey, if it helps," Maka said. "I'm gonna go head backstage, and hopefully, I'll see you in a bit," she added, walking off through the choir room door, stepping down the wide hall on her way to the auditorium's backstage entrance. She looked around for the door, before twisting the knob, and walking up the narrow, stairwell. A light flickered above her as she made her final few steps into the backstage area. Maka could feel her nervousness really set in at this point. I'm here, and I'm going to compete for the first time. She could hear Principal Morte, Kidd's father, beginning his announcements to the crowd, as she turned past a hallway, the dressing rooms of the other two teams. Maka walked up another set of stairs to the wings, where she saw what looked like the correctional school's team, and a tall dark-skinned man, presumably their coach, dressed in a manner far too informal for an event such as this. Wrong wings, Maka thought, crossing around behind the stage to find the rest of Spartoi, as well as Spirit, and Blair, who was busy on her phone.

"Over here!" Soul called out in a hushed tone, as Principal Morte began to announce the judges, starting with the name of the local fish store owner, and continuing to a woman named Misery, the dormitory superintendent for Death City U. Maka stood by Tsubaki, who squeezed her hand for half a second, before giving Maka an eager look.

"And our third and final judge is Death City's youngest priest, Justin Law of... whatever our biggest church's name is, I haven't the foggiest idea!" Principal Morte announced. "Oh, well."

"Oh God, grant me the knowledge of which team will be blessed by your benevolent favor," Justin prayed, clutching his flashily large cross necklace. Hmm, it appears he's gone all out, Maka thought. He's wearing his full priest getup and everything.

"Okie-dokie then," Principal Morte said. "First up, from Deathly Springs Juvenile Correctional Academy, the Big House Beats!" he called out, as the team from the correctional school took the stage, and Principal Morte exited the wings on Spartoi's side. He pulled Kidd aside for a pep talk. Maka sat down on an unused amplifier, and watched the correctional school kids' routine. They chose "Beauty School Dropout," as their first song, and were highlighting a silver-haired girl with birthmarks at the corners of her lips and an feminine-looking boy with neatly combed black hair as their lead performers. Maka disliked the way their voices played off each other, but still watched because there was nothing really much else to do in order to distract herself from her rushing nervousness.

"Hey, where's Crona?" Black Star asked.

"Don't tell me they quit on us," Hiro groaned.

"They'll be here," Maka replied. "See, there they are now," she added, pointing off to a doorway. Maka scooted over a bit so Crona might have room to sit on the amp if they wanted to, as they walked over to the group.

"What's with your costume?" Spirit asked, noticing Crona had followed Maka's earlier suggestions.

"I'm sorry, I'm just more comfortable like this," Crona replied, slumping down against the front of the amp. Maka looked down at them, and gave a reassuring smile.

"It still looks good with the rest of the costume, so no harm done, right?" Tsubaki asked, looking over to Spirit.

"I guess, since it's only the preliminary," Spirit replied.

"Only the preliminary?" Hiro asked. "This is what's going to make or break our team, just like you said, we can't have someone looking that out-of-the-norm," he added. "As club president, I order you to go change!"

"As faculty advisor, I order you to ignore Hiro," Spirit interjected. "You look fine, and besides, Maka's got a different neckline anyway, so we can just use the excuse that we felt a risk of showing cleavage was inappropriate for the freshmen, if anyone asked," he added. Suddenly, the music from the correctional school kids' routine changed from "Beauty School Dropout" to the obviously more contemporary "Teenage Dream."

"Ha!" Ox exclaimed. "Didn't they have to use all songs from classic musicals?" he asked. "We are witnessing our competition get disqualified."

"Actually," Kidd replied, walking back, "This pamphlet says each team must have a minimum of one full song from a classic musical, it says nothing about the entire routine being so."

Spirit's eye twitched a bit. He excused himself from the room, and Maka could soon hear a frustrated scream from the hallway.

"Wait, Kidd, you mean we could've had good songs in our routine?" Kilik asked.

"Hey, 'Grease Lightning' isn't that bad," Black Star interjected. "Although now that I think about it, that's probably just delusion from overexposure."

"No," Maka replied. "I still detest 'Summer Nights' with a passion," she added. "After tonight, I never want to hear it again for as long as I live."

"Got it, we'll play it at your funeral," Soul said.

"Providing I don't outlive all of you first," Maka muttered, hearing Patty begin to practice her scales. Maka looked down at Crona, who was curled up in a little ball, looking like they were about to cry. They're still like this, Maka thought. Poor thing. She got down from the amp and sat next to Crona, putting an arm around them.

"You're gonna be OK," Maka said in reassurance. "Okay?" she asked, trying to look them in the eye.

"I'll try," Crona replied, holding onto their legs harder.

"You can do this," Maka said. "I believe in you," she added.

"Imagine the audience in their underwear," Black Star suggested. Crona made a noise that suggested that they really didn't want to do that.

"I always thought it was imagining them naked," Soul added.

"My mother's in the audience," Crona replied. "I can't do that."

"Then imagine them all as memes," Patty loudly suggested with such passion and aggression in her voice it was unclear whether she aimed to motivate or threaten. Crona let out a small "eep" in response. Well that was the cutest noise I've heard today, Maka thought.

"Imagine the audience as refrigerators, that's what works for me, don't ask why," Harvar said. A few people stepped away from Harvar. "What?" he asked nonchalantly. I really wanna ask why, several thought.

"Just imagine the audience as whatever won't scare you," Tsubaki said.

"Okay, I'll imagine them dead," Crona replied. Maka removed her arm from their shoulder, taken aback. "Dead people can't judge you," Crona added. Technically true, but really macabre.

"Well, whatever works," Tsubaki said, taking a few steps back. She whispered something to Black Star, who nodded. Spirit came back with several headset microphones, which he handed out, and a bag of single serve Doritos which he soon began chowing down on. Blair looked up from her phone at Spartoi.

"Oh, you guys all look fantastic!" she squealed. "Although one of you seriously isn't getting the point of assigned costumes," she added.

"Keep your voice down, people are competing," Spirit replied, as Crona tightened their dress straps until it got to the point where the straps could not go any further, pressing into their shoulders. Their dress was still unable to go completely flat, though, but that would likely not be noticeable from the distance the judges were going to be at.

"I gotta tell those art club kids to get that car prop up here," Spirit said, walking off again. During the time it took for him to get back, the correctional school kids transferred to their third and final number, which happened to be another Katy Perry song. Soul tried to silently groan, as well a make an exaggerated gesture of annoyance. Spirit returned with some older students, a Vietnamese girl with braided hair and glasses, a short redhead boy with headphones, and a girl who looked sort of like Patty, except she had heavier mascara and carried herself more modestly. The four of them were carrying a life-sized and somehow very realistic three-dimensional cardboard car, meant to look like the one from Grease. I guess this is why Papa didn't want the boys to play around on it, since it's cardboard and all. I really thought our school would have a higher budget than that.

"Thanks guys, you've been a real help," Spirit said. "Now go watch the performance, if you can find seats in that practically full house out there," he added. A noise similar to a wheezing pig came out of Crona, which startled Maka. The art club kids left the backstage area without saying anything, as Hiro silently cheered.

"We've nearly got a full house, and it's only the preliminary!" he squealed, barely able to contain his excitement.

"It's because I'm here, no doubt," Black Star gloated. "I can't help it if the masses flock to my massive star potential," he added, still sporting a cocky grin.

"I hired the entire Mathletes team to show up," Ox whispered to Maka.

"That's just yourself, Harvar, and a senior with dumb sidebangs," Maka whispered back. "So you paid one guy," she added. Ox gulped, no doubt thinking his gesture would've been seen as much grander.

"I got half the cheer squad to come, and not including us, that's like a dozen people," Kim retorted. "And I didn't have to pay them."

"Oh yeah?" Kilik asked. "I was able to convince a few of the football team's members."

"How many?" Ox asked.

"Um, four," Kilik replied. "Still more than you, though."

"I got some of my relatives," Maka said. "Mama was busy, but my grandma promises to record it for her."

"I got two of my friends," Blair interjected.

"I convinced Ragnarok," Crona mumbled, adjusting their neckline.

"That doesn't seem like enough for a nearly full house though," Hiro said.

"There's still the friends and family of the other teams," Maka replied, stepping almost into the wings. She looked upon the other team's closing movements and lyrics, until they struck their final pose. There was thunderous applause from the crowd, as the curtain went down. Maka could hear the black-haired boy call out to his coach, who she soon found out was named Noah. Spirit called over Black Star to help him set up the car prop, as the other boys walked out on stage to their starting positions.

"Good luck, you guys!" Maka called out, as the other girls flooded into the wings. Blair dashed off to hopefully make it to the audience in time.

"And now, Shibusen Academy's own Spartoi, formerly known as Tone Death!" Principal Morte announced.