Summary: In which Yuuri finally meet with his project-mates, spoke with Kanade a little bit on the topic of his competitions in both areas, caught up with the project progress and had a quick discussion with Phichit on his final year project thing and made up his mind to approach Celestino about his FYP.

Chapter 14

"Hi, nice to see that you're back in Detroit... and speaking of which, congratulations on your achievement in your skating competition last week." Shinomiya Kanade greeted Yuuri, the moment he stepped into the classroom for their lecture that afternoon.

"Thank you, but how did you know that I did well for Skate America? I thought you didn't follow figure skating?" Yuuri asked, as he placed his things down and settled himself next to Kanade as they waited for the rest of their classmates to arrive.

"Well… it's kind of hard to miss your achievements when nearly everyone on the social media more or less heard of it in one way or another. While on the topic of competition, I could not helped but notice that the school did not enter you for the Andrejs Jurjans International Wind Competition for both last year and this year. Is there any particular reason for it?" Kanade then asked bringing the topic of conversation to something he could have an easier time relating to.

Yuuri blinked, looked down at his schedule organizer and flipped through them and then responded. "Ah… yeah, to put it simply their competition schedule for the Wind section clashes with my competitive season for figure skating. That's the reason why I told the school not to register me for the Andrejs Jurjans Competition, because I would not be able to make it due to the qualifying tournaments for the Grand Prix Series that tends to also falls in the same month."

"Oh… what about the other competitions? The American Protégé International and that new competition that's currently a trend, since it's conducted 100% on-line and judge by video performances submitted by competitors with audiences voting for their preferred performances?" Kanade then asked, while he had some music background as well he had never really participated in competitions and thus he wasn't all that clear with the competition seasons.

"Well… there's no contradiction for those two, for the American Protégé International I'll just need to submit a DVD of my performance keeping it within 15 minutes long for their audition selection, and once getting past the audition stage they will send us the information with the dates and time for the actual performance that usually takes place in May. Typically, all competitors whom made it past the audition stage at first place would be asked to perform in person at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall of New York City. Of course, recognition would be given to these participants – they includes a $330 scholarship, Judges' Favorite Award Trophy, Judges' Distinction Award Trophy and based on the judges recommendations other Special Awards might also be granted. Ultimately, all participants in the competition would receive a Diploma in Participation. As for that new on-line competition thing, the official name for the competition is call ENKOR and this year is the first year they are holding it. Results would be announced in May, voting period opens in April and Application is in March." Yuuri explained as he flipped his schedule organizer all the way back to the front part, where he had noted down his submission date for the two videos required by both competition organizers.

"Oh… so you pretty much had already finished with all your music related competitions for the year already?" Kanade asked, sounding quite disappointed for some reasons.

"Yes, and I am quite satisfied with the arrangements. I'm after all quite swamped with the Grand Prix Series tournaments between now till early December, and then a one week break before the Japan Nationals begins. Assuming I do well enough to be elected by the JSF to represent Japan in the World Figure Skating Championship, that will take place sometime in March next year. Before going for the World Championship, there is still the Four Continents Championship to prepare for and that would also takes place next year, the exact dates I'll need to check but most likely in the month of February." There was a pause in Yuuri's words, as he stop to greet Kawada Yuki whom had joined them at their row of seats, which was situated towards the back of the room.

"So I'm actually quite thankful that most of the international music competition are conducted in a manner whereby a video could be pre-recorded and send it off for their selection. That, I can easily do it during the off-season of my skating career… and then if I happen to get selected, the performance would be in May whereby I'm generally quite free since it's the off-season period. Granted, I'll still need to keep up with my training and prepare for the next season's programs… but the schedule is not that tight as compared to the year end period." Yuuri was telling Kanade all about his schedule arrangement, when the elder Shinomiya finally dropped into the seat on Yuuri's other side making it that Yuuri was practically seated in between the Shinomiya brothers.

"Heh… so would you be entering on behalf of the school for next year's competition?" Just then, someone whom was apparently sitting behind them and had been listening in on their conversation butted in and asked.

Turning around slightly so that Yuuri could have a better look at the newcomer whom decided to join their discussion found himself quite surprised by the presence of someone whom is not supposed to be attending this impending class of theirs.

"Ricardo? What are you doing here? I thought you're not taking this class until next semester?" Yuuri asked, raising his eyebrows up in surprise as he took in the presence of the guy that is two years their junior.

"I'm not taking the class per say, I'm just here to gossip. And since I overheard the discussion between you and your friends, I decided to make my presence known since I'm quite a fan of your performance." Ricardo was telling Yuuri that causes Yuuri to flush an adorable shade of red.

"Well… if you really must know, I haven't decided anything for next year yet. I guess it ultimately will depends on whether or not I'll be graduating in March of the coming year. I'm hoping of course for the positive, but one can never be so sure of it. Seeing as the competition will take place in May, if I am going to be graduating next March… I seriously doubt I would be entering the competition on behalf of the school." Yuuri eventually responded after taking some moment to consider his response.

"I see… oh well, I'll just have to wait and see how it folds out then. Right, and Shinomiya – I have the CD you want for your project or whatsoever. My sister said to inform you that you owe her big-time for this." Ricardo then whipped a CD out from his backpack and hands it over to Shinomiya Kanade.

"…" There was a moment of delay as the two Shinomiya siblings glanced at one another before turning their glance onto Ricardo, and asked in unison. "I'm afraid that you are going to be a bit more clear on this, which of us are you speaking to?"

"Erm… wait let me double check." Ricardo said, and hurried to look down onto the CD casing that comes with a note attached before looking back up at them and replied. "It says down here it's for the both of you, so I guess the both of you simply had to listen to the tracks in here and decide among yourselves whom gets what tracks in it."

"Alright then, hand it over to us and you can start going back to your own class. The lecturer is coming, and it would not do for her to catch you in here." Shinomiya Kanade said as he reached over to take the CD away from Ricardo before shooing the guy off in a dismissing manner.

Once Ricardo departed from their classroom, Yuuri turned towards Kanade and asked. "Is that the music for our project?"

Kanade glanced down at the CD in hand and nodded in affirmation, "Yes… I would think so, but I would need to listen to it first and separate out the music tracks that has nothing to do with the project first. I should have remember to tell that girl to split the music commissioned into two separate CD… I'd completely forgotten that she did music consignment for both of us."

The lecturer entry to the class put a significant stop to all their ongoing conversation as they shifted their attention back to the front of the room, deciding to leave the topic of their project discussion until later.

It was after lunch hour that the group meet up again, this time in the lounge area of the school dormitory. Apparently, anywhere else they risked the possibility of having the Shinomiya brothers swamped by swooning fan-girls of theirs.

"Are you sure we can meet in here? We aren't exactly a fellow resident of the dorm…" Kanade was a little apprehensive with the idea of stepping foot into the dormitory building.

"It's fine, so long you don't leave behind a mess… the caretaker of the dorm won't really care. After all, the Detroit Skating Club members tends to have get-togethers over here in the lounge as well, and not everyone in the skating club resides on campus." Yuuri hurried to re-assure, this is the only place he could think of that fan-girls would not be able to creep in on them.

The lounge was rather empty of activity at this hour of time, and so the group settled themselves comfortably on the sofa seats with their notes and outlines for the project spread before them on the coffee table and ready themselves for the discussion to come. Yuuri was first updated on the progress the trio had done or decided during the week whereby he's away for Skate America, before they moved on to their agenda for this week.

"Right, so the script is half-way done by now. At least Act 1 is ready, we are just missing Act 2 and then it's ready to start the rehearsals. As for the music, it's finally here but I need to sort them out first so probably we can decide when to hold the audition for the musical by next week. Dance steps can be choreograph on the go after we'd confirmed our performers list so no need to fret just yet." Kanade added the last part when Yuuri started to look nervous over the idea of choreographing the dance steps for the musical project.

"Okay… right, and how many main cast are there?" Yuuri asked, turning towards Kawada Yuki eager to have the dance choreography pushed to the back of his mind for now.

"Well… for starters' I'm aiming for six main casts, and looking at about twenty supporting maybe? As for the genders, most likely three males and three females. I'll need someone to play the role of the dean of the school which the musical is set to play out, a role for the trainer is also needed, and then two young men to play the role of Steven and Leroy, and two young ladies to play the role of Julia and Hannah. Of course the names are subjected to change following the end of the audition but for now these are the tentative arrangements." Kawada Yuki was informing the rest of the group members as she passes out her copy of the drafted script for their reference.

"Guys, we are still doing the musical on the ice right? If so, should I start taking the initiative to speak with the rink management about renting the venue for the musical?" Yuuri asked somewhat hesitantly after flipping through the half-completed script in his hands, the sight of the script makes everything more real in his eyes.

"Yes, that would be great if you can assist in that department because seriously we don't really know who to approach for the rental of the rink… because the administrative staff said that the rink is not operated by the school, so we're not really sure on how to proceed with the paperwork pertaining to that." Kanade agreed readily, beaming at Yuuri even when the Japanese skater brought up the subject for discussion.

"… Right, I'll handle that paperwork for us then. Also, since it's going to be on the ice… maybe we can look into the idea of doing a collaboration work with the Detroit Skating Club? I mean, the ability to ice-skate is not something you can train up in a few months… so maybe we can have the audition held within members of the Detroit Skating Club? Of course, we can open the audition up for normal students as well but one of the main requisite is that they should have the ability to ice-skate." Yuuri started, sounding more confident as the minute passes by with no one speaking up to contradict his point.

"That's a good idea actually… shall we go with Yuuri's suggestion then?" Kanade ponders for a minute, before calling for a general vote among themselves.

With no objections after the vote, Yuuri was assigned the task of handling the paperwork pertaining to the rental of the rink for their performance in March next year as well as speaking to his coach Celestino about the collaboration between the Detroit Skating Club and them for the musical.

"Phichit…are you busy at the moment?" Yuuri had asked, sometime later when he was sitting up in bed contemplating on how to broach the subject to Celestino when he thought to seek Phichit opinion on the issue.

"Not really, just checking out the response to my earlier instagram posts… why?" Phichit had responded, looking over to Yuuri slightly before shifting his eyes back onto his phone's screen.

"You are aware that I'm in the midst of my final year project right?" Yuuri started, somewhat apprehensively.

"Erm…yeah, I think so… speaking of, what's the project going to be?" Phichit paused for a moment as he thought about it, before responding.

"Ah…well… it's a musical, and erm… the lecturer wants us to do something out of the norm so we were thinking instead of doing it on stage we are going to do it on the ice instead." Yuuri hurried to get his words out before he could chicken out on the idea.

There was a moment of silence, before Phichit snapped his eyes up and turned towards Yuuri so fast that Yuuri was kind of worried that Phichit might end up spraining his neck.

"WHAT?! A Musical on Ice?! Seriously?! Is it going to be something like the Disney on Ice thing?!" Phichit asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

"Well… it's obviously not going to be Disney on Ice since we are not doing any adaptations from Disney production. Otherwise, I should think the general idea of it being similar enough… anyway, I was thinking of speaking with Celestino about doing a collaboration between the Skating Club and my group for the project. Do you think Celestino would be okay with the idea?" Yuuri asked, genuinely seeking Phichit's opinion on the matter.

"I think Celestino would not be objecting to the idea of it… and if he do, you can always bypass him and speak to the coaches in charge of the novices class at the rink. I bet those coaches would be quite interested in the project, this is after all quite an opportunity for those novices to get a taste of how it would feel to be involved in an ice-show performance. Speaking of, is there going to be ice-dancing in it?" Phichit then asked, looking at Yuuri earnestly as he awaited a response from the fellow Japanese skater.

"… Ice dancing eh… I'm not sure yet, I haven't had the chance to listen to the music and I'll need to look at the audition outcome before I can decide. I'll keep you posted on the updates." Yuuri said, before putting down Phichit's remark of ice-dancing on his notebook and draw a question mark right next to it so he would remember to consider the option later when he starts working on the choreography for the musical.

"Please do! Hm..m… let's see, where's Ciao Ciao right now?" Phichit then started to skim through his contact list for Celestino number and then immediately started to draft a text message asking for him to meet with Yuuri slightly earlier before tomorrow official rink time.

"…" Yuuri sweat-dropped as he received a text message from Celestino soon after, asking him what he had in mind to discuss with him because Phichit had text him minute ago with a message that Yuuri wanted to speak with him.

To Celestino: Yes, I have something to speak with you about but not exactly related to my programs hence I don't want to bring it up during official practice time at the rink.

To Yuuri: In that case, maybe we can meet at the café near the rink around 7 am tomorrow?

To Celestino: That'll work. Thank You & Good Night.

To Yuuri: Great, I'll see you tomorrow at the café then, Ciao Ciao!"

~ to be continued~

Date Completed: 11/3/17.