That afternoon Misao kept herself busy all day. First taking a hour shower, scrubbing her skin until it hurt, cleaning her apartment top to bottom in every nook and cranny, sorting through her clothes and organizing them within her closet. She was doing everything she could to not think of singing at The Shrine.

It was about 4:30 when Misao had finished her cleaning spree and allowed herself to sit in her comfy chair in front of the t.v. Not wanting to let her thoughts wander she looked around her apartment studying various things. Her eyes darted this way and that until her gaze passed over the letter.

Glaring at it Misao's thoughts were of Megumi laughing in her annoying 'I'm better than you' laugh, and her fancy clothes and flashy makeup, and her stupid fans falling at her feet as she got up and sang on a stage….

Misao jumped up from her seat and walked beeline to the letter. She took it to the bathroom where she ripped it up into tiny little pieces.

"I hate you! Stupid, prissy, annoying…" she muttered.

She threw the little bits of paper into the toilet and flushed them down watching each one be sucked away with mild satisfaction.

The phone rang and Misao looked to from the washroom and marched over to it, annoyed with its untimely interruption.

"What do you want!" she said.

"Misao! What's that matter with you? Its me Kaoru," said the phone. "What? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?"

Misao sighed and put her hand to her head and massaged it to calm herself, "Kaoru, I think you need to get over here."

"Why? What happened Misao?" said Kaoru concerned.

"No. No, nothing happened I'm fine. Look I'll explain when you get here."

"OK, I'll be there in 10 minutes. See you soon," and Kaoru hung up.

Misao put her phone down and changed into a pair of loose jeans and a tee and watched 8 minutes of a movie before Kaoru knocked at her door.

"Its open," yelled Misao as she pressed the power button to turn of the t.v.

Kaoru came in a took off her jacket and purse and sat on the couch, "So what's up?"

Misao could bare keep eye contact with Kaoru as she struggled to find words, "Kaoru…I… Did you here anything happening at the club tonight?"

Kaoru looked puzzled, "Yeah, the boss called and told me Megumi was going to be singing in competition so some other person. What does that have to do with you?"

"Kaoru," Misao couldn't think of an easier way to say it. "I'm going to be singing against Megumi."

Kaoru's eyes opened wide then she started to laugh, "Oh come on Misao."

Misao frowned and yelled over Kaoru's laughter, "Kaoru I'm serious! Last night Aoshi told me he's stuck with being manager for Megumi because of some unbreakable contract and I challenged Megumi!"

Kaoru laughter was silenced. The look on Misao's face was too genuinely upset to be lying, "And if you win I assume Aoshi's contract is broken?"

Misao nodded.

Kaoru took a deep breath, Misao need her help now. She stood up, "OK. Well then we can't just sit here. Come on grab your uniform we're going to the club."

"Kaoru, but its not even 6," said Misao.

"So? The boss should be there and hopefully if the equipment is set up we could get some practice in."

"Practice?"

Kaoru grinned and pulled Misao up from her chair and dragged her into her room. Misao quickly found her uniform thanks to her excessive cleaning and threw them and her makeup into a backpack.

The pair walked outside and drove downtown until they reached their place of work.

Kaoru and Misao got out of the car and walked to the locked front doors of The Shrine.

"Kaoru, I'm not sure this is such a great idea. What if there's people getting ready for tonight in there?" said Misao anxiously.

Kaoru knocked on the door, "Hey open up it's me Kaoru! Misao how do you plan to sing for a full house if you can't sing to a fraction of that? Besides you weren't that bad at my kareoke party last month."

"Kareoke? Kaoru I don't remember that."

The door was opened by a young woman dressed in The Shrine uniform and smiled at the girls, "Come in," she said.

"Misao you wouldn't remember because you got smashed. But that's not the point," said Kaoru as she took the chairs down from one of the small tables in front of the stage.

"Misao, how long have I known you, three years? And you were always the most free spirited, funniest, and caring person I've known. And that's why I know you could find the courage to do this. Because you care about this guy, and because you love doing spontaneous stuff, you could find the guts to just be yourself. Misao I know who you are and I know you could get on that stage and sing your heart out to a bunch of strangers even if Megumi's a singing superstar. You just need to find yourself again."

Misao didn't know what to say. No one has ever had so much faith in her before. She could only nod her head to Kaoru as she remembered all those crazy things she used do, entering a arm wrestling competition with a bunch of muscular guys, rolling in the snow with her bathing suit…good times.

"OK, Kaoru."

Kaoru smiled, glad that Misao had finally come to her senses, "Good now we have to decided on a few things. First what are you going to challenge Megumi to?"

Misao sat down and set her backpack beside her and smiled mischievously, "Well I was thinking of a drinking competition."

Kaoru laughed, "That's great. Could you imagine her stumbling around in her heels? And what song are you going to sing?"

"No idea."

"Well I don't think the boss will let us play any old time rock n' roll so we're out of luck there. Hmmm how about Alanis Morissette's Eight Easy Steps?"

"I don't know her too well, but I guess we could get by with it."

"OK, well you go get changed into your uniform and I'll go grab mine from the car and get the CD."

Misao nodded and walked off into the bathroom to change as Kaoru went back outside.

The washrooms were dark illuminated by a light that gave everything a purple glow. She changed in the first stall and took out her makeup while standing in front of the mirror. First Misao opened a makeup kit with varying shades of blues and purples and took a small brush and applied it on her eyelids with a little black liner. Then some powder foundation on the forehead, chin and cheeks along with some deep rose blush. Then just some lipstick and gloss, but as Misao applied her almost nude lipstick something pulled on her memory…lips?

Last night, her kiss with Aoshi…. Almost hypnotically Misao started to apply the lip gloss but still something else was trying to get her to remember something important to her…

Just then the washroom door swung open and in came Kaoru with her burnt CD in her hands.

"Got it," she said.

"Great, so now we just have to get the band to play it and make sure I can sing it," said Misao as she put away her makeup.

Kaoru went into the same stall Misao did and changed. Misao waited for her. When she came out wearing the identical red and gold oriental style sleeveless shirts and black miniskirts with tall black high heeled boots. Kaoru quickly touched up her makeup and they left the washroom.

They went to the empty DJ's area on stage and put the CD in and played Eight Easy Steps. Misao had heard it a few times and did like it. It was shorter and not too difficult to remember. They listened to it a good couple times while sipping some juice from the bar.

"So you think you could do?" asked Kaoru after they finished listening to it for the 10th time.

Misao took a deep breath, the thoughts of her brave self vivid in mind, "Yeah…I could do this."

"Good lets get to work."

Misao walked up on stage and took notice of the club's employees coming in to get ready for work. Kaoru made sure the microphone was hooked up right and handed it to Misao.

"Now I'll play the song with the lyrics and you just sing along," instructed Kaoru.

Misao took the microphone and brought it up to her face as Kaoru started the music. Misao closed her eyes and started tapping her foot and lightly bobbed her head to the rhythm. The song started up and the first words came and Misao sang with it, strongly, confidently, she had to. She knew what she was fighting for would be worth it.

Kaoru watched satisfied as she pushed Misao to repeat the song over and over and eventually lowered it so you could barely hear it and managed to get the club band to practice it with Misao who only got better and better each time. Kaoru pushed Misao and the band to perfection and the other employees crowded around and cheered them on. Misao relished the encouragement and freedom she felt, and the stage didn't seem like such a awful place.

"YEAH!" cried Misao as she just finished the song once more and decided to let herself and the band take a break.

As she got down Kaoru offered her water, but not before she got many pats on the back and nods of approval on a job well done.

"See? I told you that you could do it no problem," said Kaoru.

Misao smiled in gratitude as she quickly drank down the bottle of water.

"Now the club will open in about 15 minutes so lets clean up and get ready for tonight. Misao I'm really proud of you."

The crowd dispersed and went to work to prepare and left only Misao and Kaoru standing by themselves on the dance floor in front of the stage.

"Kaoru, I couldn't have done this without you," said Misao as she reached up to hug Kaoru.

Kaoru hugged Misao back, "Yes you could've kid. You just needed reassurance and I'm there for you."

Misao and Kaoru released each other.

"Now come on we have to go get the bar ready."

Misao followed Kaoru to the bar and started cleaning some glasses with a cloth humming 'her' tune, glowing.

'Bring it on.'

A/N: Hey guys. Just wanna say I apply a disclaimer to the song Eight Easy Steps by Alanis Morissette. I thought I could see Misao singing this song, oh and don't wanna hear that you don't like the song or that Misao would never sing it because I really don't care, it my fic. Thanks again to all the reviews, luv you guys! Now the final showdown is coming up and if you guys read closely enough you'll know something intresting is about to happen to Misao....(kinda obvious but oh well).
Toodles All!