Chapter 20 Performance
When it was time for the musical to begin, Ahim and I took our positions just outside the door to enter and Grace and Gai were onstage, waiting for us to come up.
"Show time," I said. "Nervous?"
"A little," Ahim said. "I've never worn anything like this before." She looked at her pants and long-sleeved shirt.
I had to admit, she did look different without a dress and pink jacket on. But, I was no different, wearing a red and blue dress that went to my ankles and black flats. "If only we could trade places," I said.
"But we can't," Ahim said.
"It's time, go out there and bring the house down," Danny said, motioning us inside.
Ahim and I nodded and we opened the door to the house, beginning our lines without hesitation.
Even though I was surprised to see the rest of the Gokaigers, I didn't let that mess me up, but one thing was for sure: they didn't realize that it was me.
"It's about time you come," Grace said in an annoyed voice as Ahim and I joined her and Gai on stage. "We've been waiting hours for you to come!"
"What took you?" Gai said in a bored voice.
"Sorry Erika, Brandon," I said.
"We were held up with the traffic," Ahim added.
"For two hours?" Grace demanded.
"Yes, two hours," I said. "Plus, you know how Abigail is when you wake her up, and we needed to drop her off at her friend's house."
"Yea, Abby takes awhile to wake up," Gai said.
"But let's forget about that," I said. "Come on, it's Christmas! We should celebrate, not fight!"
"You're right about that, Crystal," Grace said.
"Yep, I agree," Ahim said.
"Whatever," Gai said with a sigh, crossing his arms and sitting down on the bench next to him. "I don't really care about Christmas, whether you do or not."
"Oh, Brandon," Grace said. "Where's the spirit?"
"What happened to the singing form yesterday?" Ahim added.
"You really need to lighten up," I commented as I sat next to Gai. "After all, Christmas is the most wonder time of the year!"
As soon as I said that, a song began to play and I got back to my feet, walking between Grace and Ahim and starting my singing part.
If I had been able to see Marvelous', Joe's, Luka's, and Don's expressions, I guessed that they would be surprised because of how well I was, even more when they heard Grace and Ahim.
At the end of the song, Gai simply rolled his eyes. "Nope, still the same," he said.
I looked at my friends on stage and we sighed.
"Brandon, what will it take for you to be in the holiday spirit?" Grace asked.
"What it will take is for you to get off my case," Gai replied, getting to his feet and storming off to backstage.
"We'll get him in the spirit," I said. "I know it. Let me go talk to him." I began to go after him. "Brandon! Brandon, wait! Come back!" I went backstage and turned as Grace and Ahim looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and walked off in the other direction.
The lights went out and the set changed. When the lights came back on, it showed Gai looking in front of a toy store.
"Need any help, sir?" asked a boy that played the store's owner.
"I'm just looking," Gai replied. He shook his head and began to walk off.
That's when I came onstage, stopping and looking around as some of the extras walked by, and then spotted Gai. "Brandon!" I called. "Hey, wait!" I caught his arm and stopped him.
"What do you want, Crystal?" Gai asked, stopping and staring at me with annoyance.
"What's up?" I replied. "You're never like this. You were always joyful during the holidays. What changed?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Gai replied, yanking his arm out of my grasp. He walked past me and glanced at the store again before going off stage.
"Brandon," I said. I sighed and looked as some kids ran by, having fun. They began singing some songs and went off stage.
While they were singing, I went to the bench that was set up and sat down, my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands. "What's wrong with Brandon?" I said when they were done. "He's never in this mood."
The store owner, who had been passing out stuff to the singing kids, noticed me and sat next to me. "Are you friends with that boy?" he asked.
"Yea, we're close friends," I said. "But I don't understand why he's acting like this."
"I hope you find your answer," the store owner said. He gave me a plate that had the leftovers of the cookies he was passing out. "Here, Christmas Cookies always brighten me up. You really need them."
"Thank you," I said, taking the plate. "And have a merry Christmas."
"You, too," the store owner replied. He got up and disappeared into his store.
I also got to my feet and left the scene while eating a cookie.
The musical continued on and before I knew it, we were all together, on the final scene, where we were before. Grace, Ahim, and I were the first to walk on, and we were upset because we hadn't gotten Gai to open up to why he was acting the way he was.
"What do we do?" I asked.
"I don't know," Ahim replied.
"I'm worried about him," Grace said. "He's never acted like this before."
Gai suddenly walked onto the stage, startling us.
"Brandon!" I said.
"How are you feeling?" Ahim asked cautiously.
"You aren't acting like yourself," added Grace.
"I'm sorry," Brandon said. "Look, right before I met up with Erika, I got a call from my brother. He said that our sister had died in a car crash. I'm really close to Jennet, and to hear that, it just took the holiday spirit from me."
"Oh, Brandon," Ahim said.
"You could've told us that to begin with," Grace said.
"Yea, we would've helped you," I said. I walked up to Gai and put a comforting hand on his arm. "Don't forget that we're all friends here, and we keep each other standing when we fall. After all, that's what friends do. And especially on the holidays."
Grace and Ahim smiled and nodded.
Gai placed his hand over my hand on his arm. "Yes, I understand that now," he said. "We aren't just friends: we're family."
The audience let out an "Aww."
Music started up and this was the first time that Gai joined in singing the song.
While the music was playing, the others came onstage and joined us singing the song. By the time it was over, the whole cast was onstage.
Like my character is supposed to do at the end of the musical, I broke character, walked forward, and said, "Have a merry Christmas everyone. We hope you liked our production. Happy holidays."
Everyone stood up and clapped while we did our final bows and when the curtains closed, we ran out the back door to greet the audience as they left.
Gai, Ahim, Grace, and I waited for our friends to come out, since I told them I saw them, and I first saw Luka, who came to us.
"You tell me to sing when you hide it for so long," Luka said with a laugh.
"Hey, I still showed it," I replied as Luka hugged us.
"You still did great," Luka said. "The boys are just lagging behind because they don't know how to say you did a good job."
"I expect that from Marvelous-san and Joe-san, but not Don-san," Ahim said.
"He would've come out with me, but the other two held him back," Luka answered.
"I wonder what they're up to," Grace said.
"I guess we'll find out later," Gai said.
"I'm going to get them," Luka said. "After all, it makes no sense making you guys wait for the complements you so rightly deserve." She went back inside.
"You did well," Brian said as he walked to us. "Working in the booth, everyone was amazed that pirates can really do well in this."
"We're not just any pirates," I said.
"Yea, we have differences," Grace said.
"Real pirates only want treasure, and while our captain is like that, we will help others, no matter what," Ahim said.
"After all, we're part of the Super Sentai!" Gai said, spinning around and striking a pose, causing Grace to smack her hand to her forehead, Ahim to sigh and shake her head, and me to slap the back of his head.
"You don't always need to pose when saying your name, our team, or other Super Sentai teams," I said.
"Yes I do, because they are that great!" Gai said.
Luka came back out, dragging Don. "The other two will come in a minute, or so they say," she said, getting Don to stand. "Don't you want to tell them how they did, Don?"
"It was amazing," Don said. "A really good performance."
"Thank you Don," Ahim said.
"We've put a lot of work into it," Gai added.
"What are Marvelous and Joe planning to do?" I said.
"I don't know," Don replied. "They were beginning to say something, but Luka pulled me away."
"We will have to wait and find out," Ahim said.
Finally, Marvelous and Joe walked out of the auditorium.
"You did good," Joe said as he gave me a brief hug.
"I didn't know you guys could sing," Marvelous said.
"We practiced during rehearsals," I said.
"At first, we weren't really good, but we got better," Grace added.
"After all, practice makes perfect," Ahim said.
"And that just proves it," Gai said.
"Hey, are you four going to join us at dinner?" Danny asked me, Ahim, Grace, and Gai. "After all, you guys are the main stars!"
"We'll be there," I said.
"We'll see you on the Galleon when you come back," Don said.
Marvelous, Joe, Luka, and Don left and Ahim, Gai, Grace and I changed into our regular clothes and began our walk to the restaurant.
"Wait, you're going to walk there?" asked one of the girls, catching up with us.
"Yea, we always walk places," I said.
"Let one of us drive you," suggested the girl.
"We'll be fine," Grace said.
"After all, we know how to fight if anyone tries to do anything to us," Ahim said.
"We'll go ahead and reserve the room for the rest of the cast and crew," Gai said.
"Alright, I guess we'll see you there," the girl said. She went to join her group of friends.
"Come on, the sooner we get there, the more likely we are to get the room we want," I said.
The other three nodded but before we could leave, Gormin suddenly attacked the group behind us.
"Great," Grace said as we spun around and ran back.
"Hey! Let them be!" I called.
"Just because our backs are turned doesn't mean we don't know you're here!" Gai said.
"Leave our friends alone," Ahim said.
The Gormin came at us, leaving the cast and crew alone.
"Come on, let's do this," I said as we took out our mobirates and ranger keys.
"Gokai Change!" we said.
"Gokaiger!" our mobirates shrieked.
"Let's make this quick!" Grace said as we fired at the Gormin.
"Gladly," Gai said.
We quickly took down the Gormin and made sure the others were ok, powering down while we were at it.
"I guess it was a good thing we casted some pirates," Danny said. "We're fine."
"Yea, they didn't hurt us," Brian added. "Go on ahead. We'll meet you there."
Still a bit hesitant, we went to the front gate and looked back at them, wondering if there was going to be another attack or not.
"No, I'm going to stay," Grace said. "If they are attacked again, they'll need help."
"I'll stay, too," Gai said. "Ahim, Amanda, you two go on."
"You two, you better be careful," I said.
"Same for you," Grace said.
"Come on, Amanda-sama, let us go," Ahim said, tugging my sleeve slightly.
I nodded and me and Ahim began our walk.
"I hope the others will be ok," Ahim said.
"With Grace and Gai, I know they will," I said.
"Yes, those two will keep the others safe," Ahim said.
We reached the restaurant and got the reserved room, waiting for the others to come.
Little by little, the others came and everyone was together.
It gave us some reassurance that everyone was safe and sound, and Grace and Gai told me and Ahim that there were no incidents, which also gave us from relief.
As we were eating, Brian got to his feet and said, "We have one night down, and one more to go," he said. "I know that we will be able to do well again. Tonight, everyone get a good night sleep and we'll get together for the final night, where it's going to be better than the first."
We nodded and gave a small cheer, knowing that finally all the work we did was getting off to something good.
Later on, I noticed the time and told the other three pirates, "Marvelous is going to call lights out in thirty minutes. We need to be there when he does, so we should get ready to leave."
"Yes, let's pay and go," Grace agreed.
We got our check and got to our feet.
"We must be going off," Ahim said.
"But we will be ready for tomorrow!" Gai said.
"Have a good night," Brian said.
"See you tomorrow," Danny added.
We paid the check, left a tip, and left to go to the Galleon.
While we walked, we took a chance to go over some of the songs, singing to them and if there was a line that we didn't have, we would sing it anyways.
When we reached the Galleon, we climbed the aboard and went inside.
As soon as we came inside, Marvelous got to his feet and ordered, "Light's out!"
With no complaints, we went to our rooms and got ready for bed.
I paused before going to sleep to get out a small book from under my pillow. Ever since the others had been captured and Marvelous and I had to save them, Joe and Ahim suggested that it would be best for me to keep a journal to just write in every night. They added that it would be best especially with all the loss that had happened to me in a short time span.
I thought for a moment before writing down, "One production night down, one to go. Gormin attacked but we saved the others. I just hope it doesn't happen during the show tomorrow. If that happens, I don't know what the audience will think of, since it'll be hard to get back to the whole character. But, as long as I keep up hope that it won't happen, it won't happen. After all, that's what always happens, right?"
I closed the book and replaced it under my pillow, hoping that the next night would be just as successful as the first.
Finally, I laid down, covered up, and closed my eyes to fall asleep.