Day 7 (Saturday)
I woke up to see a bunch of texts from Sammy.
Sam: We watched your video at school and OMG you should have seen Lila's face!
Sam: So what else have you been up to?
Sam: Seen Ladybug and Cat Noir again?
Sam: OMG I just found out that Jagged Stone is staying right there in the grande Paris hotel so close to you! And he's signing autographs! I will legit pay you anything to get me one!
I answered their texts, trying to answer everything they said. Although in my rush to answer everything, I didn't get to say anything about Lila.
Caitlin: Went to the Eiffel Tower yesterday, saw Ladybug and Cat Noir again, from a distance, and watched them save a baby. And who?
Sam: That French rock singer I like! I've told you about him!
Caitlin: Oh, right. He was part of the reason you were hoping to get picked for the trip.
Sam: Yeah! So, autograph?
Caitlin: I'll see what I can do.
After I got dressed, I went to find Adrien, and he told me breakfast was ready. At breakfast, I asked him about Jagged Stone. He told me Jagged Stone is actually his favourite rock star. He also told me about how Marinette has designed an album cover and poster for him. I texted Marinette to see if she knew was going to today's concert, and it turns out she and Alya are going to see him when he's signing autographs, and that we were welcome to join them. I considered texting Sammy to tell them they might be getting that autograph they asked for, but I decided not to, leaving it as a surprise. Adrien also told me that he had some ideas for something we could do tomorrow, so he also texted some friends during breakfast, probably to plan what he wanted to do tomorrow.
Adrien and I met Marinette and Alya just inside Le Grand Paris hotel, where we joined the line to get autographs from Jagged Stone. The rock star had long purple hair and wore an outfit that looked like something Freddie Mercury might have worn. When we got to the front of the line, Jagged greeted Marinette happily.
"Marinette, my favourite designer! I was hoping to see you while I was here in Paris!"
"It's nice to see you too. I think you've met my friends, Alya and Adrien. And this is Caity. She's here as an exchange student all the way from Australia." Marinette said.
"Rock and roll! I have toured in Australia for quite a while. How are my fans down under?" He asked.
"Well, my best friend Sammy is a huge fan of yours. They were at your last concert in Melbourne. Could you please make out an autograph for Sammy?"
"Of course! It's too bad Sammy couldn't make the trip here with you. I've got a concert here tonight."
"Yeah, they could only let one student make the trip this year. But if it goes well, they're going to let the whole class come next year, so maybe if you have a concert here next year they'll make it." A woman with short purple hair, who had been standing behind Jagged, finished a phone call and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Jagged, a word?" She said. He stood up and walked a few steps away, and she seemed to be telling him something in a low voice.
"What?! No! The show is tonight! We can't have a show without an opening act!" He reacted loudly. He came back to the autograph table and slumped back down into his seat.
"…Are you okay, Jagged?" I asked.
"I just lost my opening act for the concert tonight." He said. Then he glanced at Marinette, and his face lit up. "Hold on. Your friends have that band, Kitty Section! Anarka's kids are in it, right?"
"That's right." Marinette said. "Luka and Juleka, as well as Rose and Ivan are in it. I just design the costumes."
"How would Kitty Section like to perform some of their songs as the opening act before my show tonight?"
"Really?! I'll ask them, but I'm sure they'd love to!" Marinette said excitedly. She pulled out her phone and began texting. After a moment of texting, Marinette looked up from her phone and said, "They'll do it!"
"Rock and Roll! You kids are great! As thanks for saving my opening act, I'll make sure you kids all get tickets to the show."
"You mean even us?" Alya asked, gesturing to herself, Adrien and myself.
"Sure, Marinette should have her friends there too." He waved over the woman he had spoken to before. "Hey Penny. I've found us an opening act. And we need to get these four kids tickets to the show tonight."
We went with Penny for a bit and she took our names so she could get us passes into the concert. Adrien had to call Nathalie to make sure his father will allow him to go to the concert tonight, but luckily he was allowed, provided the bodyguard took him home afterwards, as usual. He was really excited, since before the call he was expecting that he wouldn't be allowed.
"This is great, we should have lunch here in the hotel to celebrate." Alya suggested. "My mum works here at the hotel restaurant, she'll get us a free meal."
So we went to the restaurant in the hotel where Alya's mum made us lunch. Meanwhile, Marinette continued to correspond with the members of Kitty Section, making sure they were getting ready for the show as best as they could. She told us they were very nervous since it was such short notice, but they still wanted to do it.
When it was almost time for the concert, we went in early. Jagged Stone even got us backstage, and we got to help our friends in Kitty Section set up their equipment. Rose tried to get Juleka to test the mic with her, but she didn't want to. Rose kept encouraging her until she finally mumbled "testing." Rose encouraged her to speak louder, so Alya suggested, "why don't you show her how it's done?" and Rose's face lit up.
"You know you can say anything to test it, right? It doesn't have to be just, 'testing'." I added.
Rose took a breath before shouting into the mic, "unicorns!" The whole group of us burst out laughing.
"No one can top that," Alya said.
"Now I see why you're the one who gets the microphone," I added. "Well, I think we can safely say the mic works just fine."
The whole time during the concert, I kept thinking about how much Sammy would have loved this. Not only did I get an autograph for Sammy earlier, but while we were setting up backstage, Jagged told me to use my phone to record a video, and he said a quick, "Hi Sammy, thanks for being one of my fans! I hope to see you next year if you get to make the trip to Paris." Despite knowing they wouldn't respond right away due to the time difference, before I went to bed tonight, I sent Sam a quick text saying, I've got a surprise present for you.