Hey guys! Here is another feel-good chapter. Some more action is about to come in the near future, but I hope you still have a good time reading this one.
Big thanks to MrShurukan for correcting it.
Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances
Chapter 58 – Big voices on a big stage
POV Hazel (Brown furred Jaguar, Daniel Fangmeyer´s Neighbor)
I wasn´t quite sure where Daniel had gotten tickets for the biggest Gazelle concert of the year, and why he had asked me to join him, but I didn´t say no of course. I have never been to a concert this big before. All this was very exciting for me, and the mood was just fantastic.
"That is quite a big stage, isn´t it?" I asked him casually while we still waited for the show to begin.
"Yeah, I didn´t expect it to be this large either" he agreed, "And I never knew Gazelle had a band-setup this big…"
He was right. There were a grand piano, various stands with guitars and basses on them, a contrabass, a violin, a set of drums and quite a lot of microphones for everything.
"Yeah! I always thought it was just her on the stage usually…Maybe it´s the opening act…" I guessed then.
"Would be quite a big opening act then…" Daniel chuckled.
"How did you even get those tickets" I then asked, not being able to hide my curiosity anymore, "I thought it was sold out month in advance already…"
"Nick gave me those. I assume it has something to do with him being the SMA of this year…" he explained with a little grin, "…oh, and he added that Gazelle sent her greetings too…"
"Shouldn´t he be here as well then?" I asked with great interest.
"I´m looking out for him as well" he told me with a shrug of his shoulders, "But I haven't spotted Max yet either, there are just so many people here. They´re probably on the other side of the hall…"
"Did he get tickets as well?"
"Yeah, quite a few of my colleagues got them…I guess it´s because of everything we had to go through in the last time…you know, all this crazy stuff with the clans and so on…"
"That makes a lot of sense" I agreed understandingly.
"I won´t complain about" the lion chuckled, "That´s for sure."
"Didn't you say you personally know Gazelle as well?" I just remembered.
"Did I say that?" he ironically asked with a wide grin.
I really liked the mostly calm but occasionally very ironic lion, but sometimes I couldn´t quite tell if he was messing with me or not.
"I´m still not quite sure if I can believe you on all that" I grinned back at him. Then I remembered that he even was in the SMA show, "Oh…"
"Did you suddenly remember something?" he asked in amusement.
"Yeah, yeah, smartass!" I chuckled, "…but then you can´t even tell me who the opening act is…?"
"No" he chuckled while shaking his head, "Nobody lost a word about that, I really just got the tickets."
"And why are you taking me with you?" I stayed curious.
"…because…" he said, "…because I like you…and…you know, you saved me on that evening by letting me into your flat…"
I just nodded with a proud little smile. Our discussion took a break for a moment. I noticed that the elderly couple to my left pointed at the stage and wondered about the exact same thing as us we were talking about earlier:
"You haven't heard anything either about the opening act?" the oryx antler asked me in a friendly way. I just shook my head and shrugged my shoulders with a little smile. Then I threw another glance at the clock on the lock-screen of my phone. It should have started five minutes ago already. "Typical musicians" I thought to myself.
The whole audience was still discussing very lively, drank the hopelessly overpriced stadium booze and just like us waited for something to happen.
Then, finally, the lighting in the whole stadium changed. It got a lot darker suddenly and just one spot in the middle of the stage, pretty close to the edge, got illuminated from the back now. A very dim lighting on the rest of the stage just let us see a few silhouettes of different animals moving towards the instruments quickly. Most of the audience started gradually clapping, and then one of the unilluminated mammals slowly came closer towards the brightly lit spot at the front. Daniel and I really stood close to the stage and had a fantastic view of all that was happening. Coming this early really had paid off as it seemed.
Then, finally, the silhouette got close enough to make its species distinguishable, and now it got really loud in the whole stadium. It was a fox. A very charismatic and handsome looking fox.
"Oh, this makes so much sense right now!" Daniel laughed out while pointing at the silhouette that was just about to enter the illuminated spot.
It was none other than Nick Wilde, the SMA of this year, who walked on the middle of the stage and waved us with a little smile. He wore a quite fancy black smoking and looked just as good as ever.
The hype around us went on for quite a while, but eventually all of the screaming teenage girls, and the rest of us, calmed down a little so we could understand him.
"Wow" Nick began calmly but with great enthusiasm, "This really is a big stadium! Are you guys excited for some awesome music?" he asked the audience loudly.
The answer he got was obvious.
"Alright, alright!" he calmed us down once again, "I promise, I´ll get my ass off the stage as soon as possible, but just bear with me for a second…I need to quickly tell you something…"
He began walking on the stage a little bit so everybody could see him from time to time.
"…I´ve just met Gazelle behind the stage…and it turned out she´s just as excited as you guys for this evening. And I´ve got to say: there is a reason to be excited! I can´t wait for it either!"
He began walking into the other direction now while the crowd got a little louder once again. I was so hyped about this too, this was just so cool to watch.
"Can you guess who it is?" he asked us, "No?"
He just waited for another second of confused silence.
"As if it isn´t totally obvious by now!" he chuckled, just before he pointed to the left side of the stage, where suddenly a gate got opened and two bright headlights of a car were to be seen coming out of it, "…who else would bring his entire, amazing orchestra to play some of his music for you guys?" he asked while the car rolled onto the stage. I still didn´t get it though. I tried to think of someone whose music was in roughly the same genre as Gazelle´s, but nothing came to my mind right now.
"Here is our delivery" Nick commented with a little chuckle, while the black and white painted, very flat sports car with the very loud and grunty engine drove into the middle of the stage slowly and came to a halt right next to him finally.
"…Yeah, I haven't really found a better use for this thing until now" Nick told us with a little smirk, "But I think for a big opening it will do just fine…"
The driver turned off the engine and the door on the driver´s side opened slowly. Because of the black-toned windows of the car we weren't able to see who was in the car, but the driver showed herself pretty soon and joined Nick in the spotlight. She obviously wasn´t a musician either, but we just were as excited to see her. Judy Hopps now walked right next to her boyfriend on this giant stage and waved us with a happy and very charismatic smile. We all gave her a warm welcome of course. The feeling in the stadium was just fantastic, and those two notorious heroes just drowned in our love and excitement.
Just like him she had a little headset with a microphone in front of her mouth so everybody could hear what she said. And her sparkly red and golden dress just suited her so well in my opinion. Not even Nick could keep his eyes of her apparently. I honestly was a little jealous about that outfit right now.
"Hey Nicky!" she chuckled, "Did you find some new friends already?"
"Oh, just about twenty-three-thousands of them" he chuckled.
They both just had such a great presence on the stage.
"Have you told them about the opening act already?" she then wanted to know from the red fox.
"I really should let them off the hook already, shouldn't I?" he asked back with a little wink.
She just nodded with a little smile at the crowd and waited for us to calm down again.
"Alright" Nick agreed with her, "So this guy, hands down, is one of the best musicians I have ever listened to in my life. And I still believe he is way too humble about his awesome talent. If we had known about him earlier, believe me, this handsome devil would have easily taken that title away from me, and that´s not only because his sexy voice could shatter an entire planet with the feeling it delivers. And he makes everybody, even the guys, fall in love with him immediately" he told us jokingly, "I guarantee it to you."
Now I believed I finally understood who he was talking about. The anticipation climbed even higher with every second that passed. It really would make a lot of sense, we had even seen him in the music video.
"Alright, Nick…" a very familiar male voice answered him suddenly, and now I was absolutely sure, the hype around us went off the scale suddenly, "Had somebody ever told you how much of a sycophant you are?"
"Yeah, I think I´ve heard that before…" Nick affirmed with a little grin.
"So…you´re in love with me?" the voice asked him with a little chuckle, which was quite funny.
"Madly!" Nick affirmed that as well, "Just tell me when and where!"
The hype went on in the stadium, but we were just able to hear them.
"I still think you´re over-exaggerating like crazy, Nicky" he told him dryly, "You´re good at that anyways, aren't you, Mr. SMA?" the mysterious voice asked him boldly. That made the whole stadium scream and laugh now.
"Haven´t I told you?" Nick asked us with a big grin, probably to change the topic just as quickly as it came, "Has his second number-one-single in the charts in just two months and still acts like he´s just your average gentleman!"
Now the co-driver´s side of the car got illuminated with another spotlight suddenly, and since they all knew who it was by now, it got really loud in the stadium once more. I didn´t believe it was possible for the excitement to increase even more, but it did.
"But holy hell am I happy he´s here tonight Ladies and Gentleman" Nick continued, "He brought his orchestra with him, carried his favorite guitars over here, and everybody who has ever seen him performing live before will agree with me, he´s about to make you fall madly in love with him as well! But now I must shut up finally and clear the stage for, Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Richard ´Rico´ Capaldi!"
POV Rico (earlier)
It was the biggest concert of the year. Tickets had been sold out month in advance for this event, and this stadium fits a little more than twenty-two-thousand mammals on top of that. But Gazelle never had problems with selling her tickets anyway.
About three weeks ago, my new song "Someone you loved" just had reached third place in the charts just one week after it had been released, the well-known singer and SMA-show-presenter herself simply called me in the middle of a recording session with my orchestra and asked if I wanted to be the opening act for that concert:
"What, really?" I asked, after I had put her on speaker quickly.
"Yeah, why not?" she chuckled, "I love your music, and I´ve heard only the best about you! You know…I know those police officers you should be familiar with as well…"
"Yeah…but normally there are just big names for your opening acts…"
"You still don't consider yourself a big name?" she chuckled in amusement, and my colleagues started chuckling about it as well, "…they told me you´d be down to earth about yourself…"
"Well…" I told her calmly, "…its very nice of you to say that…but…"
"But?" she wanted to know with another little chuckle, "Scared of the big stage?"
I just looked at my colleagues once again, then I shook my head and winked them shortly.
"Alright, I´ll do it. But I would do it only under a few conditions…"
…She had agreed to all the conditions I listed - it weren´t too many things anyway, but nevertheless - and now we were just a few minutes from the beginning. One of my conditions had been that I wanted to have none other than Ben as my sound-engineer, because it was notorious that the mix of the opening-acts usually sounded a lot worse than the main acts on purpose. The second thing was that I wanted this to be a surprise for the people. I mostly did this for Nick, because I knew how much he enjoyed that, but I enjoyed those positively surprised faces too, I couldn´t deny it. Of course, I immediately asked them if they would help me with this, and just like I expected they were absolutely thrilled to hear it.
But right now, I was not the only one who was a little nervous. From one of the backstage monitors I could see Ben sitting at the front of House with Gazelle´s sound-technicians behind a mixing table that was even bigger than the one in our studio, had dozens of colorful illuminated Faders and buttons and probably was worth more than most of the cars that stood in the car-park.
He seemed to still have everything in order, but I could tell that this was pretty new to him as well. We did quite an excessive sound-check in the afternoon and everything just went perfectly, but you never could be totally sure what was coming. The ones from my orchestra who I took with me seemed to be a little unsure about it as well right now. Neither of us had played in front of such a big audience before. Good thing we had Nick and Judy with us, because they did a good job with calming us down and motivating us. Now I was just minutes away from the biggest moment of my career, probably.
We had worked out a pretty accurate plan for our big opening, and luckily, we got an allowance from the person responsible for the stage. We had rehearsed it once or twice this afternoon, and now it felt like there pretty much wasn´t anything left that could go wrong.
Just shortly before it was about to begin, Gazelle herself joined us backstage once again.
"So, how are my favorite foxies doing?" she asked with a little grin.
"This is going to be awesome!" Nick told her enthusiastically.
"I can´t wait to watch it!" she told us excitedly, "And our duet later will be so much fun as well!"
"Can´t wait for that either" I told her happily, "That was so much fun when we practiced it!"
"It really was! But now it´s just your big moment first of all, she motivated me with another little wink, "Have fun out there, show them what you got!"
"I will, thanks!"
"This is going to be sooo cool" Judy said excitedly, "I cannot wait for it to begin!"
"I´ll stay here watching it with great excitement" Gazelle promised, "See you later, Guys!"
POV Daniel Fangmeyer
When the scissor-door on the co-driver´s side of the new Wildehopps-mobile slowly opened, the stadium turned off the scale crazy all over sudden. He just shook his head with a mischievous little smile and shortly covered his eyes from the multiple spotlights that blinded, illuminated and followed him now. Nick and Judy quickly got into their car and maneuvered it out of the way backwards. The whole orchestra and especially the grand piano in the front got illuminated as well now and Rico wordlessly went towards the tripod with the big singing microphone. He took his time getting across the stage towards his orchestra and smiled happily. The hype in the crowd still went on and it looked like he still wasn´t quite able to believe it. The love and excitement just kept on hailing down on him.
Then, without further ado, his pianist played the first few chords on the grand piano, and we immediately knew which song that was.
"I´m going under and this time I fear there is no one to save me…
This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy…"
Rico began singing his second number one single. Nick wasn´t too wrong with his description of his voice, because it just sounded amazing over that PA-system. Not even Gazelle delivered that much feeling and power with her voice.
His performance captured the whole audience immediately and just after the first two lines we all began singing with him. We knew the lyrics all by heart of course, it´s been running up and down all the radio stations for two weeks already. Just him and his pianist produced a feeling that wasn´t possible to describe.
"Oh, I love this so much" Hazel cried joyfully, "Thank you so much for inviting me here!"
I just nodded with a happy little smile. She really seemed like she enjoyed every second of being here and wasn´t shy of dancing and singing along either. It made me so happy as well.
"And now the day bleeds, into nightfall,
and you´re not here to get me through it all…"
As the end of the song came closer, he paused his singing shortly and motivated the audience to continue singing the lyrics on their own, which worked out just perfectly. He did so well with the crowd, I couldn´t quite believe that he hadn't done this before. This was so much fun. His pianist suddenly stopped playing as well and then it was just the audience.
"I let my guard down, and then you pulled the rug, but I was getting kind of used to being someone you loved!"
For the very last line of the song he joined us singing into his microphone again and showed us how much power he really could deliver with his voice. It was just breathtaking.
The applause kept on hailing down for almost half a minute afterwards.
"Wow! Thank you so much!" he yelled excitedly, "Holy hell you guys are awesome!"
The applause and screaming got a little but louder once again, and he really enjoyed every single, well-earned, second of it. After a little while we all calmed down a little and he took the word again.
"So…I think it´s time right now to tell you a little bit about these two police officers, isn´t it?" he asked.
The response of the audience was pretty clear about that off course.
"Alright, so I´m pretty sure you´ve all seen that video-proof of the ZPD which showed what really happened when Nick and Judy were taken hostages…"
Nearly everybody affirmed his question soundly.
"Yeah…so literally ten minutes after that really happened, I had just been taking a shower, someone rang at our door and asked for help. My roommates let them in, saved them from freezing to death in a blizzard that was going on outside…" he told us the story that I was well aware of already.
"…so we suddenly had two very famous police officers in our living-room and drank tea with them. Apart from that we saved them, they treated us with so much respect and kindness, and I´ve never witnessed them treating anybody differently either ever since. And they were just down to earth about their fame, it was just a joy talking to them…and that´s where this whole story starts basically. Everything after that was just insane. I was just a roommate with a normal life basically. And now I´m standing in front of 23 thousand people who are singing with me! Is there anything more a bloke like me could wish for?"
Once more, a giant applause broke lose because of his words.
"I´m not just having the fun of my life right now!" he concluded his little story then, "For me, this experience is just breathtaking…"
"YOU´RE BREATHTAKING!" someone in the audience yelled suddenly, and that surely brought him out of his concentration for a second there.
"No, you´re breathtaking!" he then gave back the compliment while pointing at the guy with a little chuckle, "You´re all breathtaking! Thank you all so much for being here with me tonight!"
With those words, while the hype went on in the audience, he went towards the guitar stand behind him and hung the beautiful red and black electric six-string around his neck.
"Now…" he announced, "…I recently got asked from one of my very lovely and talented colleagues, if we could do something that´s a little more ´Rock ´n´ Roll´ just for once. You should know that my orchestra and I normally produce movie-scores, so we rarely get asked to play something like this. I thought that was a fantastic idea. So here is what it sounds like when we do some ´rock ´n´ roll´. I hope you enjoy it."
With that he went back to his singing microphone and his pianist began playing some other, pretty well-known piano chords. Soon later, Rico began singing to it and surprised us jet once again. It seemed like there wasn´t anything which he couldn´t do with that voice of his.
"Just a small town girl, Livin´ in a lonely world
She took the midnight train, going anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train, going anywhere…"
Then the rest of his band kicked in as well and it sounded even more powerful. I haven't heard that song in ages, but I totally loved it. We all totally loved it, because they were dancing and screaming and singing along like there was no tomorrow. I wasn´t sure anymore if Gazelle could even compete to that performance of his. The sound that band produced was just so capturing and powerful. Then Rico got onto his knees and performed a guitar solo like I never heard one before.
"Don't stop believin´ Streetlights people
Don't stop believin´
Hold onto that feeling…"
His band sang with him, and soon later the whole crowd joined in as well.
Then they ended the song with a big finale, until there was just Rico´s voice left and he faded it out very smoothly. I´ve never seen a performance like that.
"Thank you!" he told us happily, still being a little out of breath, "Thank you very much!"
He waited for a few more seconds and walked across the stage slowly, intending to tell us a little more of the story he began earlier.
"So after taking a quick warm shower in our bathroom…" Rico began telling again, "…only having a towel around his waist, this little show-off…I mean this red-fox who made me question my own sexuality for a moment, just drops the towel and begins dressing himself right there in our living room. And I´m sure some of you know what that guy looks like under his blue police-uniform…" he added with a chuckle, "Well, I guess that´s what you call ´all out of fucks to give´."
He turned around and faced the other half of the hall now. "…but my roommates Ivonne and Sarah, two very lovely and beautiful vixens you must add, surely enjoyed it I would say."
After some more "woohoos" and excited laughing from the audience he continued: "And let me tell you one more thing: That fox would be totally out of control without that lovely bunny that is taking care of him. He´s such a beast, but apparently not an easy one to control…"
He continued walking across the stage and the spotlights kept following him.
"But it´s not like she´s totally innocent either, just to be clear! Do you remember the video of Pyro Heart that we did?"
An obvious answer from the crowd once again. He stopped walking for a second.
"It was Nick´s idea to make a YouTube video in the first place, but it was Judy who stole our shirts and hid them for the shooting. I barely was able to stop her from stealing my shirt today, but don't worry, I would have had a backup one ready which she wouldn´t have found in time!"
A few "awws" and "ooohs" where to be heard from the audience now, but he waved it off pretty quickly.
"No no, I´m sorry" he chuckled, "I´m just kidding. The point I wanted to get to was this: I´m very grateful for getting the chance to show our music to the world…and I´m very grateful for meeting those two police officers and all the crazy and awesome people since, like you guys for example…"
A warm and excited "aaaaww" went through the crowd again, and Rico got his Guitar back into his hands once more.
"Speaking of ´getting the chance´, and speaking of that song" he then announced, just before his band began playing again, "Tell me what you think of this new version we created!"
Now they began playing his debut single, but in a little more powerful version than we were used to it. It sounded just as amazing though.
After the first few lines he sung, the girly screaming of the audience became extra loud once again. Now I just noticed that Nick and Judy came sneaking up behind him, Nick being half naked suddenly and Judy still in her beautiful red summer dress once again. While Rico sang and showed off some more of his outrageous guitar-skills, the hare and her red fox began dancing with each other smoothly.
Eventually they picked up the pace a little and Nick began spinning her around him carefully. Then he elegantly lifted her onto his shoulders and walked up to Rico slowly but surely. Those two really were sporty and well-coordinated I just noticed.
When he put his right arm around the black and gray fox with the red guitar, Judy carefully climbed over onto his shoulders and rested her paws on his forehead with a mischievous little grin. Rico couldn´t hide a little smile but kept on singing like a professional. It was so heartwarming to watch accompanied by the noises from the audience.
"…guide me home, guide me hoooome I knew you´re there
My ocean flare, my firework, when the whole world hurts you light the dark,
Pyro Heart…"
Rico sang his lyrics while looking up towards her to the best of his abilities. Nick was running across the whole edge of the stage in the meanwhile and high fived the people he could reach in the first row. It was just such a spectacle.
When Nick joined them once again, Judy elegantly got back onto his shoulders, just before he grabbed her by her paws and spun her around himself quickly. The whole orchestra upped the power a little more now and Rico also went into his beast mode once again.
Nick and Judy danced across the stage paw in paw, being followed by two more spotlights now and it just looked like they had so much fun doing it. A few other couples in the audience were dancing with each other in the meanwhile, and without a warning Hazel offered me her paw as well.
"Nick" I thought to myself at that moment, "I really owe you one for getting us those tickets!"
"…when the whole world hurts
You light the dark
Pyro Heart…"
For the last few lines of his song, Rico got down onto his knees, looked upwards and somehow got even more feeling and emotions into his voice. The spotlights where just on him now, and when the last tone faded out slowly, he opened up both of his arms, still being on his knees and then all the lights turned off completely.
There was a moment of utter silence in the entire stadium, then the spotlight on him turned on once again and another giant applause broke lose.
It was just him and his band-members, who had gathered up at the front of the stage beside him now with the spotlights illuminating them brightly.
"Thank you!" he said with a little smile while getting onto his feet again.
It took another moment until the crowd calmed down a little and he was able to speak again.
"I´m really grateful that Gazelle was letting us do this. You guys are just awesome! Thank you so much for all the love!"
Another wave of applause hit them and went on for quite a while. The band waved the crowd for a little longer, all of them having huge happy smiles on their faces, and he used that time to bring his Guitar back to its stand quickly.
"We wish you all a great evening, lots of fun and a great concert!" he announced, "Thank you so much!"
And with those words, and a lot of excited clapping and screaming from the audience, he and all the other musicians left the stage slowly while waving us one last time. Just like that, the whole evening seemed like it had reached its peak already. It would not be easy to top that performance of his.
It took quite a while until the applause calmed down a little finally and now just the instruments remained on the stage. I still needed a moment to process all that. I was expecting a lot of things to happen tonight, but that was on a whole nother level. Everybody kept talking about it excitedly.
Hazel still seemed to be a little lost for words at first, but then she wasn´t to be stopped anymore.
"And you honestly know all of them personally?" she asked yet once again.
"Yeah" I affirmed once more, "I´ve seen them all naked even, I was at the mystic springs with them and Rico was giving a concert for free there, just with an old guitar they brought him. And, honestly, they´re all totally kind and just awesome. They really are. You should really meet them one day!"
"You mean…could I…" she asked with a little hint of hope, "…Could I meet them?"
"Who knows…" I grinned at her, "…maybe…"
POV Rico
"Yeah!" Ben greeted us excitedly, as he joined us a few minutes after we had left the stage, "That was awesome! You sounded just bloody fantastic in that stadium!"
I gladly returned his high five and made a little more space for him to join us on the couch.
"It was so much fun!" my pianist agreed excitedly, "They really loved it!"
"Did you guys…" I asked them with a little smirk, "...did you have just as much fun as I had?"
"Oh I know I had!" Irene, the bunny who played the violin in my orchestra said with a big smile, "That feeling is just fantastic!"
"Wanna do it again someday?" my next question followed right afterwards, before I added: "You´re not doing it for free of course…"
"Like…really?" Ben asked with big eyes.
"Yeah…" I chuckled, because they all kept staring at me now.
"Do you want to do more concerts with us?" he wanted to know.
"I would want to do all the concerts with you" I told them, "Who else would I ask for that? You´re the most talented musicians I know…" I told them in all honesty.
"Oh this would be so awesome!" Irene screeched enthusiastically, before she just straight on jumped onto my lap without a warning and hugged me stormily.
"You´re the coolest Boss ever!" she stated excitedly, "I wanted to tell you this since quite a while!"
The others just chuckled happily and I couldn't hide it either. So I hugged her back with a little smile and nodded contentedly.
"Alright" I chuckled in amusement while hugging her back, "…I take that as a yes I suppose…"
POV Nick
When Judy and I got back to the backstage-area for ourselves finally, we accidentally had taken the wrong exit and had to walk around quite a lot of show equipment and stuff, we met Gazelle´s background dancers who just prepared for the show with a little bit of warm-up. One of the four tigers winked me quickly. It took me a second to recognize him, but then I remembered.
"Oh hey there, Mr. Seven!" he greeted with a chuckle, "Having fun on the big stage once again?"
"Yeah" I replied with a happy smile, "We had lots of fun actually!"
"What about you?"
"Can´t complain about that job" he grinned back, "The paycheck is right and the act itself is a lot of fun…"
"Mr. Seven?" Judy asked with a giggle.
I sighed a little first of all. "He´s the guy I pushed off the throne in that stupid SMA rating…" I explained plainly, "…sadly."
"Still not getting rid of that title?" the tiger asked with an amused grin.
"Not yet" I sighed, "But I know somebody who could get pretty dangerous to the both of us next year…"
"He´s a chilled dude" he told me while nodding in agreement, "I´ve been talking to him earlier…" he told us while following his colleagues towards the stage quickly. Then he waved us one last time.
"Break a leg" I wished him while waving back shortly.
"Thanks, catch ya later!" he told us for the farewell. Then he went out of sight with the rest of his crew.
We went through yet another door and then we finally were in that backstage-room once again. We spotted Rico and his team on the same couch as earlier.
"Yeah!" I yelled excitedly when they noticed us.
"Woooooohooo" Judy joined in, "That was awesome!"
Rico just smiled about it proudly but calm as ever and his team loudly agreed with us.
"Rico, that was one hell of a performance" I told him, "They still are totally flashed!"
"Thank you" he chuckled, "That was a lot fun!"
"He can't get enough of it to be more precisely" his soundman Ben told us with a wide grin.
"Yeah" Irene agreed, "He wants to do this more often with us!"
"With you guys and only you guys!" he affirmed.
"That is the only thing I wanted to hear!" I told them proudly while hugging them one after another.
"We should raise our glasses to that" Ben proposed soon afterwards.
I thought that was a great idea, so I quickly went to the dispenser from one of the energy-drink-sponsors and got Judy and I two cans of the stuff. Since they all had something already, Judy simply opened her can and put it in the middle of the table.
"Salute!" Rico said, "On a great evening with great friends!"
"On the most awesome boss in history!" Irene added happily.
That made all of us smile even more before we raised our glassed and took a sip.
"Alright…" Rico chuckled then, "…but you guys really have to tell me this now: did you really consider me as your ´boss´ all along…?"
POV Hazel
After Rico and his orchestra had left the stage, there were a few more minutes of silence before something happened. Just a few technicians who changed parts of the stage were to be seen here and there. They pushed the roll-riser with all the instruments further back on the stage and raised the singing microphone´s stand quite a little bit higher.
The first ones who then showed up were Gazelles well-known background dancers, but they just got onto their positions quietly and crossed their arms in a cool looking pose.
Then we suddenly heard her voice through a microphone. "Wow!" she said calm but somehow still excitedly, just before the next big applause kicked in. She slow-and elegantly walked onto the stage with microphone in her hands and now yelled even louder: "Woooow!"
She came to a halt and put her microphone in the stand in the middle of the stage, "…this guy was on a stage this big for the first time in his life and freaking blew us away!"
Now it got even louder around us.
"That was freaking fantastic!" she stated.
She waited for the cheering once again and walked across the stage in a relaxed way.
"And he´s got a voice to die for, hasn´t he?" she asked, now a little lower.
I couldn´t agree with her more, and I was glad that she was this chill about it, "Tell me ladies, how wet are your panties right now?"
The happy and excited laughter had a little higher pitched tone this time. Apart from Daniel, who screamed a loud, "WHOOO!" at the top of his lungs.
Gazelle even noticed him, standing beside me in the fifth row from the stage.
"Hey Dan!" she greeted him with an amused giggle, "You´re wet as well?"
The lion got some loud and excited cheering for his action as well.
"WOULD TOTALLY DO HIM!" he yelled back ironically.
I couldn´t stop myself from laughing loudly anymore, just like a lot of others around us.
"Oh, I´m sure you would!" she chuckled with a big grin, "But I can´t even blame you…he´s such a sweetheart, isn´t he!"
We all soundly agreed with her, and while the applause and giggling went on she got onto her position once again.
The beat kicked in, the stage got illuminated really colorful and hazer dust settled on the floor slowly.
Then, without further ado, she began with her show and started singing right away. She did one of her recent radio-singles, and it surely worked in terms of activating the crowd once again. But even though she was a very talented and experienced singer with a lot of success, tonight she stood a little in the shadows of Rico´s performance. She really did, at least in my opinion. But it was enjoyable nevertheless, I always liked her music.
But I really was fascinated by that fox ever since I knew him. And just like that he was the surprise-act at a freaking Gazelle-concert. There wouldn´t have been a better choice for the opening act.
"You weren´t kidding" I told him in amazement, while Gazelle was taking a short little break after her first two songs, "She really knows you well as it seems!"
"Didn´t you believe me when I told you about it earlier?" he asked with a little chuckle.
"I believed you when you told me that you met her before, because I´ve seen that SMA show" I clarified, "But I didn´t believe that she knows you that well…"
"Would you believe me if I told you that I had sex with her?" he just asked me dryly.
There were quite a few people around us who were listening quite closely actually, ever since he made Gazelle point him out, but he still seemed totally relaxed about all that.
"Well…considering your confidence…" I grinned, genuinely surprised by that bold statement of him, "…but let me ask you this: Why didn´t you get backstage-tickets for the show if you are so close to her?"
With that he searched his pockets shortly, before he actually showed me the tickets for the first time now. "BACKSTAGE" it said on the golden ribbon that went around the whole fancy piece of paper.
"Wait…" I said in total disbelief of my luck, "…really?"
POV Ava
I would ask him if he´d marry me the next time I met him. I knew that my chances were low and that I was just fourteen, but I was just so unbelievably in love with him. He was just perfect.
I was a little surprised when Christian and Sarah asked Lily and I if we wanted to join them on a Gazelle concert, but we didn´t say no of course. This was just so cool. First I thought it was a little weird to go to a concert with our teachers, even more because it was just us and not the entire class, but soon I felt just like at home in their presence. Then we got to know my teacher´s other roommate Ivonne and Rico´s girlfriend Anita, who really were nice to us as well. First I thought we just got lucky with the places we got in the stadium, but then I found out that we had gotten some elevated premium seats with our tickets.
And then Nick suddenly came onto the stage and raised the whole evening to a whole nother level. I was just so in love with the world. I secretly wished that Rico wouldn´t even leave the stage anymore and just sang for us this entire evening.
While the little break that followed after his performance, we got ourselves into quite an interesting talk with two of Rico´s neighbors, as they introduced themselves to us. It was a little vixen that was even younger than Lily and I, her name was Mia and she was with her mother Katy, and I thought that both of them were really cute together. She told us about her day she spent at the ZPD with them and about her shopping tour with Judy, in which they bought that beautiful dress she wore tonight. We were so jealous when she told us about that, but then we could at least tell her about our awesome day we had when they visited our school.
Then it was time to talk to our teachers again.
"So what do you think of our little surprise?" Christian asked us happily.
"That was so cool" Lily told him with gleaming eyes, "Thank you so much for this!"
"You have to thank Rico for it" Sarah told us with a little chuckle, "He gave us those tickets for you…"
"Just for us?" Lily asked in disbelief.
"Just for the two of you" Sarah affirmed with a little wink, "He wanted to say thank you for the awesome day he had visiting us…"
"And you knew that he would be on stage?"
They all nodded with little smiles, but there still was no way we could be mad at them for not telling us earlier of course. This was just the best thing ever.
"I just love him so much!" I told them without any shame, "Why can't there be more like him?"
"Awww" Sarah said, "Don´t be too sad about it. You know, just like Nick says all the time: There are a lot of lovely guys around, you just have to find the right one."
She looked at Christian while saying it, and that made Lily and I giggle with joy once again. Teacher-love-stories still were quite exciting.
"Now you´re getting a little cheesy, aren't you?" her roommate Ivonne asked her with a big grin, "Why don't you tell them some of the more interesting details about Rico finally? I bet that´s more what they like to know about…"
"Ivonne!" Sarah told her while nudging her shoulders with an awkward smile.
We were burning to hear those things of course. Anita just grinned at her and winked us quickly.
"Guess it would be fair, wouldn´t it?" she asked, obviously having fun with this as well, "And I would want to know something like that too, especially at that age…I mean…who wouldn´t?"
"Yes, pleaaase!" Lily giggled excitedly, "What´s it like with him?"
"Well…" Anita giggled, "…let´s start it this way: what do you imagine it to be like?"
POV Daniel Fangmeyer
Gazelle had been playing for over an hour already and the mood in the stadium was still fantastic. But somehow she couldn´t quite reach that excitement that Rico achieved with his surprise-performance. She couldn´t quite reach the power of his earth shattering voice either, but it was still a pretty solid performance. Her Hit-Singles worked well, like they always did, and no one in the audience seemed like they wanted their money back.
Just when she was done with "Try Everything", I noticed the rolling stage with the instruments slowly moving forwards once again.
"Now…" Gazelle announced after drinking a few more sips out of her water-bottle, "…I want to do something which I have never done in any of my shows before: I want to sing a duet. And I don't want to sing any old duet to some playback music, I want to do something that is fun! Something powerful!"
The applause got a little louder once again.
"So I probably need a little bit of help for that."
Now the whole stage got illuminated and the background-dancers left the stage slowly.
The entrance to the stage got illuminated as well once again, and a brown furred hare now walked onto the stage with a little smile. She was followed by a pug, a female panther who I saw playing the bass-guitar earlier and a red-panda who played the drums. They all were followed by the leader of the band, who just waved us with a humble little smile.
"Please give them a warm welcome once again, Ladies and Gentleman! The absolutely breath-taking Rico Capaldi and his beautiful orchestra!"
She was just barely to be heard because the screaming was so loud. I probably wasn´t the only one who really hoped for something like that to happen.
"Hey guys" Rico greeted us once again, using the second wireless singing-microphone he brought with him, "Are we having a great evening here or what?"
Originally, I wanted to scream something like "FUCK YEAH" right now, but it was so loud around us that it simply would have drowned right now.
"You´re getting used to the big stage pretty quickly, aren't you?" Gazelle asked him with a little chuckle when it got a little quieter finally.
"It´s still quite overwhelming, but I surely had worse experiences before…"
"You don´t say!" she replied with an ironic grin.
He just smiled back with a sympathetic little nod, then he took a quick look at this orchestra who was preparing their instruments once again.
"So…is there anything you´d like to sing?"
"Oh, I think you´re going to like this" Rico told her with a little nod.
"Let´s do it!" she motivated him, and the whole crowd supported that idea soundly.
POV Anita
The violin began smoothly, a smooth guitar and then the piano followed it and
Rico began singing again, once more surprising us with the versatility of his voice. Even Gazelle looked a little surprised, but just like the rest of the stadium she totally adored it.
"Well I´ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don´t really care for music do ya?
Well it goes like this: The fourth, The fifth,
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
He really did it. Since he asked me if I had an idea for a song he could do with Gazelle together, I suggested one of my favorite songs of all time. And it sounded amazing, just like always when he did music. Then Gazelle and finally his whole band joined in on the chorus and made it even more goose-bumpy. I couldn´t be any happier anymore.
"Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Halleluuujah
Halleluuuuuujaaah"
While he sung the second verse, he slowly from one of his band-members to the next one so everybody had a little more of the spotlight, and it seemed like everybody he visited had a little more volume on his instrument while they were in the focus. But Rico never lost concentration and powered through the verse with his voice, all the way until the chorus came once again.
Then Gazelle motivated us to wave our arms for the Hallelujah-part, and most of them even lit up their lighters or the flashlight of their phone cameras.
She joined him for the chorus once again, but it seemed like she was a little too staggered by his performance to give her best at keeping up with him.
She probably made a mistake with performing alongside with him on this evening. She had the crowd under control before, but what Rico did with them tonight was not possible to describe.
"But Baby I´ve been here before
I´ve seen this room and I´ve walked this floor
You know, I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I´ve seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It´s a cold and it´s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Halleluuuuujaaaaaaahh"
For that last one he sung, she just stopped singing and just like us stared at him in pure disbelief.
He got up from his knees again in the meanwhile and came walking up to the edge of the stage while singling the last verse, and they all were reaching their hands out for him.
This was his evening. His and his alone. I really hoped that somebody would be recording this right now to upload it to YouTube later. He could easily fill a stadium like this one all alone in the future. I had no doubts about it. He was just born for the stage, although he really seemed rather restrained and calm normally. Here, he was a very different animal.
"Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Halleluuuuujaaaaaaahh"
For the last time he sung the refrain, he even got some pyrotechnical flames that shot at the ceiling at the side of the stage. By all means that an epic finale for this evening.
There we are. Feel free to tell me what you think, I´m always listening ;)
Have a good day
~furr