The tuning fork and perfect pitch were not only useful when it came to going out of the village for rehearsals, but also the quintet's excursions to the forest looked less suspicious when they didn't have to take the keyboard or any other instrument. Brainy himself was astounded at how beautifully everything went according to his plan. No Smurf suspected a thing.
The rehearsals also brought quick and satisfying results. It was a nice change for the bespectacled Smurf when he could work with others in a pleasant atmosphere. Each member of the band loved music too much to destroy the mood in which they were meeting. Of course, apart from the rehearsals, they usually stopped being nice to each other in the village, and Brainy often heard teases from Hefty and Handy, but he had learned to be patient and keep his mouth shut.
The only problem was the lack of the name for the band that didn't let the brunet sleep. He had gone through all possible options that would have shown the essence of his team without revealing details. The rest of the band also chewed their fingernails, sitting and thinking all days.
And the last day of preparations for the concert had come. This evening, all the bands were to go backstage to sign up for tomorrow's competition. Papa Smurf had asked each band to be in front of the already prepared stage at six in the evening with everything they had. The members were to bring the instruments that they would play during the concert, and if they made their own clothes, they were to come dressed in them as if they were to already start their performance.
The last rehearsal before tomorrow's performance was postponed to four in the afternoon, everysmurf had to come to the meeting place individually.
Punctually at four, Brainy looked up from one of his books and frowned at his three companions. "Where's Smurfette?"
Clumsy shook his head and shrugged, Hefty and Handy exchanged glances. "We don't know," the shortest Smurf replied.
While the boys were discussing Smurfette's absence, the girl sat in her house, bent over a single sheet of paper. The 'document' was in poor condition, with various words written everywhere, some crossed out, some put in a circle, some marked with exclamation and question marks.
The Smurfess quickly scanned the page, humming louder and more enthusiastically with every second. "Yes!" she screamed suddenly, looking up at the clock. "Oh no! The rehearsal!"
The blonde got up vigorously, not paying attention to the knocked over chair, and ran out of the house with the crumpled piece of paper in her hand, almost hitting Harmony walking on the path.
"Hey!"
"I'm sorry!" she shouted back as she ran down the main path of the village.
She drew a lot of attention to herself but didn't have time to worry about it. She was only glad that no Smurf stopped her. She was running like crazy down the main path with a stupid smile on her face.
When she passed the Smurflings' house and ran into the forest, the little ones looked at each other with their huge eyes, astonished. "Galloping Groundhogs! I wonder where she's running!" Sassette squealed.
Smurfette was already breathless, but excited, and also stressed by being late. When she arrived, the band had been trying to practice without her participation. They were doing great as always, only they were missing that one voice.
Out of breath, the blonde entered the very center of a circle they stood in. "I'm sorry... for... being late," she gasped, lifting a crumpled piece of paper above her head.
"What happened to you?" Hefty asked, staring at his sister.
"I have it, Brainy!" she shouted, not paying the slightest attention to the brown-haired Smurf. She waved the piece of paper in front of the bespectacled Smurf's face. "I have a name for our band!"
The brunet looked at her with eyes as big as human coins, waving his ears and wagging his tail. After a moment he held a trembling hand out in her direction, and the girl handed him her notes with a look of a proud preschooler who brought her mom a card made of pasta. The bespectacled Smurf unrolled the piece of paper and looked at its messy content.
After a moment he looked back at Smurfette. "Cinq?" he asked with a small smile, frowning a little.
The blonde nodded vigorously. "Why not? It means five in our language, and therefore the number of band members. It sounds similar to the English words: song, sing, sang, sung."
"More like sink, sank, sunk," Hefty snorted. "And I don't know if we want to be connoted with, for example, sinking ships."
"More like sinking in souls," Smurfette replied defensively. "The point is that our message is to sink in the listeners' hearts and minds. So it also fits!"
Brainy gave her back the piece of paper and took off his glasses to wipe them. He slowly slipped them back over his nose, eyeing his sister with his intense gaze. "Smurfette," he muttered slowly. "You're great!"
"Yeah, I know," she admitted with a smile, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows in satisfaction.
"Very well, now that we have it, we can go back to the rehearsal."
The rehearsal didn't last long. The siblings sang at their best, and their harmony spread throughout the forest.
They had no idea, however, that someone was closely watching their every meeting.
"Are we planning to perform dressed in some specific clothes?" Smurfette asked as the band returned to the village and met for a little sweet something at the girl's pink house.
"I didn't think much about it," Brainy admitted, shrugging. "I focused on the essence of the performance and the name of the band, because these were necessary things. Anyways, the enrolling starts in less than an hour and I sincerely doubt we have time to get some outfits ready."
"Unless you have an idea, Smurfette," Hefty spoke up. "You've already had one, why not surprise us a second time?"
"I didn't think about it myself..." The blonde lowered her ears slightly as she walked around the room with a platter of smurf taffies. "We could use some theme."
"There's no point in thinking about it now," Handy said. "We don't have time to prepare the outfits, even if it were only small details added here or there."
"But what if we..." Clumsy began timidly, but lost his little enthusiasm when the rest looked in his direction. "Never mind, it's not important..."
"No!" Smurfette shouted. "It is important! If you want to make a suggestion, feel free to do so!"
"Everysmurf has the right to suggest something," Handy added.
"I just thought..." the redhead continued quietly, staring at the floor. "Maybe we could just dress in autumn colors? You know, yellow, red, orange, and so on..."
"This is a really nice idea, but-"
"I, for instance, have only white clothes," the blonde cut in.
"I have my red tank top, so I don't see the problem personally." Hefty shrugged.
"And I have a spare pair of work trousers, they're orange."
"I'm sure I have a yellow shirt somewhere," Brainy mused. "If only Smurfette had a colorful dress..."
"I have a brown hoodie. It's also an autumn color, right?" the klutzy Smurf asked.
"Yes." The bespectacled Smurf nodded.
"We could sacrifice one of your dresses and quickly dye and dry it," the blond offered, looking at his sister.
"What do you mean by sacrifice?" Smurfette seemed scared of the proposition.
"There is a probability that after soaking in a natural dye and extreme drying, the dress may shrink," Handy explained.
The Smurfess' lips twisted slightly as she contemplated her brother's idea. She had started the topic herself and sincerely dreamed of the band performing in nice outfits. On the other hand, the autumn colors were Clumsy's idea, and the redhead apparently still felt like a fifth wheel, and all of them wanted to avoid that.
The girl looked briefly at the red-haired Smurf. "Let's say I can try it with one dress."
"Okay." Brainy got up from his chair and stood near the door. "Hefty, Clumsy and I will find the right clothes, and you two will try to dye Smurfette's dress."
At six in the evening, the incomplete Cinq band lined up behind the other bands to sign up for tomorrow concert-competition. An incomplete band, because no Smurf had heard from Smurfette and Handy. The other boys hadn't seen them since they had left their sister's house to find the right clothes. Now they couldn't back down from their chosen outfits.
Brainy had found the buttoned up elegant yellow-gold shirt with white buttons in the depths of his closet. He'd figured a brown tie would go well with the shirt and gray suit trousers. Black dress shoes was an obligatory footwear with the rest of his outfit.
Hefty, as usual, hadn't thought much about elegance. He believed that everysmurf should dress in such a way as to show their true self on the stage, which was why, as promised, he had put on his favorite red tank top, brown shorts and gray running shoes. Or at least that was what he would have been dressed like if Brainy hadn't reminded him that the warm days were over. Therefore, under his top and shorts, the brown-haired was wearing heating clothes made of thin gray material.
Clumsy was quite comfortable in his brown hoodie and dark gray sweatpants. But his anxiety about the absence of Smurfette and Handy was most noticeable. The redhead often looked around with his ears pointed downwards. To add to all that, signing up for the competition also stressed him a lot.
The brunet stamped his foot impatiently, trying not to arouse suspicions. The other Smurfs standing in the line repeatedly looked at the trio with glances full of various intentions, most often they seemed surprised by their presence. "That's enough," Brainy half sighed, half growled, finally. "Watch our place in the line, I'm gonna look for them."
"Okay," Hefty grunted, standing with his back to his companions, and facing the backstage, where every band was walking in every few minutes.
"Golly, Brainy, how about you stay here?" Clumsy sent his brother a pleading look.
"It'll take me a minute or two at best," the bespectacled Smurf assured him, then pushed himself out of the line. "I bet they're at Smurfette's!" he shouted over his shoulder.
Clumsy began biting his nails, sticking closer to Hefty who fortunately didn't care about his proximity. He was more preoccupied with keeping a close eye on the ragged material that served as the backstage entrance door.
"Where's Brainy?"
The dark-haired Smurf jumped up, surprised, and turned around with Clumsy. Smurfette and Handy were staring at them with furrowed foreheads.
"You here?!" the strong Smurf almost screamed.
"You feeling worse?"
"Stop playing dumb! Brainy went to look for you two to Smurfette's place. You should have ran into each other on your way!"
"But we were in the workshop," the blonde replied, stunned, and exchanged glances with Handy.
"Just great," Hefty growled, rolling his eyes. "I'm gonna get him."
"Wait!" Smurfette put her hands on his shoulders, effectively stopping him. "We are next to go inside there in a moment. Maybe we'll just go in without him and say we had some little trouble?"
"They didn't order us to come in all our glory and performance clothes, so that we would come in there without the founder of our band. Anyways, when we tell them that Brainy is the leader, they won't be surprised he didn't come," the brown-haired sneered with a light laugh, looking at Handy who also gave a small laugh.
"Stop it!"
"Next!" a voice from behind the curtain roared and the band realized it was their turn.
Suddenly, Hefty was no longer laughing and he swallowed loudly. He couldn't hide it, he was anxious that they wouldn't be allowed to sign up. Smurfette rolled her eyes with a frustrated sigh and pushed her way between Hefty and Clumsy. The boys obediently followed her.
The girl heroically tugged at the material covering the entrance and walk inside the backstage.
The tittup of her heels immediately caught the attention of Poet sitting behind the desk. The brunet had been suffering from a lack of creative inspiration for a few days, so he himself had suggested to Papa Smurf that he would have taken on the tedious task of signing up the bands for the concert. "Oh, hello, Smurfette," he greeted her, pleased to see her. "Are you taking part in the competition? I'm sure no Smurf can compete with your ambition."
"I came here with the rest of the team." The Smurfess pointed at the brothers standing behind her. "We would like to sign up for tomorrow's concert."
"Of course." Poet took a form from under the desk, and prepared a pen for himself to write something on another piece of paper. "Founder's name?"
"Brainy."
Poet hung his ears and scanned the Smurfs gathered in front of him hurriedly. "I'm sorry, but I can't sign you up," he said seriously, frowning.
"What?!"
"Why?"
"Because the founder of your band is not with you."
"You gotta be kidding," Hefty snapped, tense with anger.
"Hefty, Hefty." Handy tugged lightly on his arm, almost hanging off it. "Relax, Smurfette and I will deal with it without unnecessary drama," he said in a low and gentle voice, smiling sweetly at his best friend. When the strong Smurf calmed down a bit, the blond let go of his arm and stood next to Smurfette, leaning slightly over the desk. "Look, everysmurf has the right to have a bad day. Guessing by your latest lamentations, you should know this perfectly well. So kindly sign us up for this concert!"
"Why do you have it in for me?!" Poet moved slightly away from the desk, eyeing them both.
Smurfette was dressed in an orange dress with a slight hint of brown tone, underneath it she wore a gray turtleneck and tights, and her high-heeled shoes gleamed like polished chestnuts. Handy wore dirty-orange work trousers, a gray turtleneck underneath, and combat boots.
The brunet laughed. "So you guys are playing twins now or what?"
"Ugh, you-!"
"Brainy will come in a moment," Smurfette interrupted Handy, saving the situation. "Until he shows up, we can start filling in the forms, okay?" The blonde blinked charmingly, playing with Poet's feelings.
The latter made a weird noise, something between a sigh and a groan, but he held his pen to the paper. "Band name?"
"Cinq. C-I-N-Q."
"You'll be the last to perform."
"And why is that?" Handy hissed.
"Guess," Poet replied in the same manner.
"Boys, boys." Smurfette waved her hands briskly, acting as a mediator.
Meanwhile, Clumsy, who wasn't interfering in the quarrel, jumped as if he had at least seen a ghost, when out of nowhere somesmurf's hand rested on his shoulder. Hefty turned his head slightly toward him and raised his ears at the sight of breathless Brainy.
The brunet adjusted his glasses without a word, took a few deep breaths, and then smoothed his tie. "I'm back," he gasped. "I guess they weren't where I thought they would be."
"They were in the workshop," Clumsy replied quietly. "I think they need you. If you don't do something, Handy will bite Poet's head off."
"Don't be stupid."
"I'm able to believe in such a turn of events," Hefty muttered, folding his hands.
The bespectacled Smurf gave him a hostile look, then walked over to the desk and squeezed between his blond-haired siblings. "I'm here," he said as if nothing had happened, then quickly scanned Smurfette's outfit. "I can see that the dyeing worked."
"Fortunately," Handy replied nervously, folding his arms. "We barely got here in time."
Poet listened to the band's brief conversation, but cleared his throat after a minute, drawing their attention to himself. "Now that the band is complete, we can start filling out the form. Founder of the band: Brainy. Deputy of the founder?"
"Handy," the bespectacled boy blurted out. From the look on Handy's face it could be concluded that nosmurf had agreed upon it with anysmurf. "Unless there are objections?"
"No," Hefty said in a low tone, the others only shook their heads.
"There are still date the band was founded, character of the band, names of the band members and your signatures in the appropriate place left to fill."
The day of the concert had come, and all the Smurfs in the village were running around like headless chickens. Most of the bands decided to practice until the competition would begin, not wanting to lose or embarrass themselves. Cinq had decided they would give up rehearsals and instead rest until evening.
Smurfette invited Clumsy to a smurfberry shake. At noon, they asked Baker to prepare two shakes for them and sat down at a round table outside. The blonde really wanted her brother not to be nervous about the evening performance. Brainy himself had offered her to spend a few hours with the klutzy Smurf, explaining that she had a positive influence on the redhead.
"Clumsy, you hand is shaking." The blonde frowned, looking at her brother's uncertain hands.
"Oh, it's nothing," the red-haired Smurf muttered, quickly taking his hand off the table and hiding it on his lap.
"I can see you are nervous." Smurfette leaned over the table and touched the klutzy Smurf's shoulder. She waited a moment until he finally lifted his hand and allowed her to grab it. "Hey, there's nothing to be afraid of."
"How can you know that? I cannot predict what I'll do! What if I make a mistake, or I beat too fast or too slow, or I break my leg when I step onto the stage?!"
"Easy, Clumsy." The Smurfess gave him her most beautiful and sincere smile. "We all have the 'What if...' questions stuck in the back of our heads. You think I'm not stressed? That Hefty doesn't have stage fright? Brainy and Handy can't sit still because of all the worries. The point is, I have a feeling that you think you're alone in this, and that is what stresses you the most. But you're not alone, Clumsy, and you will not perform alone. You will not perform solo on the stage. You will show what you can do, but you won't have to worry about total attention as it will be spread out on the whole band. We're a team where everysmurf is equally important and equally talented. The Smurfs will like our performance, we practiced so many days and sounded so beautiful."
The red-haired Smurf finally returned her smile, it was smaller and less certain, but just as sincere. His hands were still shaking slightly, but Smurfette's steady hands reduced the uncontrollable trembling considerably.
They sat in comfortable silence for several minutes, occasionally slurping their shakes through the straws. The day was quite nice for the end of October. The sun was covered with clouds, but they were white and friendly-looking. The wind didn't bother the inhabitants of the village and the forest, and the temperature was tolerable, most Smurfs were dressed in warm sweatshirts or sweaters and long pants.
"Hi, Smurfette! Hi, Clumsy!"
The siblings visibly jumped in their chairs, not expecting somesmurf else's voice. Sassette stood at the table, her hands clasped behind her back. Her curious gaze swiftly flickered from brother to sister in some inexplicable excitement.
"How can we help you, Sassette?" Smurfette asked politely, exchanging glances with Clumsy.
"I heard that you do take part in today's competition," the red-haired Smurfess replied. "You said you wouldn't take part in this concert. I wanted to ask what happened to make you change your mind."
"I'm sorry, but I won't answer that question." Smurfette raised her head slightly. "I'd rather keep it a secret."
"But why? And why were you running around the village so often? Why were you disappearing into the forest? Is Clumsy in your band as well? Does that mean that you are cooperating with Brainy? How did it happen? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"
"Sassette!" the blonde shouted, covering her ears with her hands. The younger Smurfess had a very unpleasant voice. "Even if you torment me all day, I will not tell you anything. Think of it as a nice surprise for yourself and the rest of the village, okay?"
Sassette pouted her lower lip and crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly grumpy. Smurfette's poker face made it clear that the redhead was not going to win this time. The younger girl snorted, offended, and walked away, stamping loudly. The older Smurfess knew that Sassette wanted to arouse pity or other negative emotions in her, so she didn't care about her sister's act and went back to sipping the shake, shrugging her shoulders.
Meanwhile, Hefty and Handy were busy repairing a bench in front of the workshop. A few days earlier, the beams to sit on had broken halfway, when full Greedy had decided to take a short break from walking. When he had been joined by Lazy, who had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and by Grouchy, who had wanted to sit and complain about everything while observing the square, the poor bench couldn't have survived. Of course, those three couldn't be blamed really, the bench had been old and the breaking had been its destiny. But it could be useful to Handy, so he couldn't throw it away or, what was worse, leave it in such a poor state.
The working Smurfs were humming and whistling in two voices at work, occasionally one or both mumbled the lyrics under their breaths. They looked relaxed and enjoying the day. It was probably the last such nice day of the year.
Engrossed in their activity, they didn't notice that somesmurf was watching them closely. The gaze that fell on them was full of suspicion, jealousy and false conviction of that Smurf's superiority over them. First, he watched them from behind one of the houses, then he stood closer to the center of the square, and after a while he approached the bench.
When a shadow fell on Hefty's face, Hefty looked up from his crouched position, then raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly. "Hello, Harmony."
Handy, who was leaning over the bench with his knee between the beams, only cast a glance out od the corner of his eye, wrinkling his nose and wondering what Harmony wanted.
When the brown-haired Smurf with a trumpet didn't leave after a few minutes, the short Smurf sighed loudly and turned to face him. "Did something happen?" he asked reluctantly. "We're a little busy, as you can see."
"I saw you two in the queue to sign up for the competition yesterday," Harmony said shortly. "I can also hear your pitiful humming from time to time. Did you happen to team up with Brainy or Smurfette?"
The two brothers exchanged glances and shrugged. "Why are you asking?"
"All the bands are practicing, only you guys are slacking and I was wondering... Do you think you are so smurfing awesome that you don't need to practice?" The last sentence sounded quite hostile.
Handy grimaced even more and looked at Hefty as if he wanted to ask him 'What is Harmony talking about again?'. Hefty pouted his lower lip as a signal that he also had no idea what the false musician was about. The blond fanned his ears in sudden frustration. "You know, Harmony," he began in a serious tone. "As far as I know, you are also taking part in the concert. So what are you doing here when the others are practicing so hard?"
Harmony huffed in indignation. Handy stared at him with serious but bored eyes, showing no emotion. Hefty looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, gave a short laugh and folded his hands, looking back at furious Harmony. They knew very well that his ego was very fragile, and the boy considered himself the best musician, singer, virtuoso, etc. in the world. Handy's remark was enough to effectively close Harmony's mouth.
The offended Smurf turned on his heel and walked away proudly, holding his head high.
Hefty went back to picking up the boards, but stopped when he noticed his friend trembling slightly with anger. "Hey, doe-eyes," the dark-haired snorted. "Everything's okay?"
"Yes," the blond muttered. Harmony's arrogance got on his nerves, and his insistence on being nicer than he would have liked always had a bad impact on his well-being.
The strong Smurf decided not to push the topic further.
At that time, Brainy was helping Papa Smurf in moving the books from the lab to the new small library, because there was no room for more books in the village leader's house. The brunet had been devoting himself to some small work since the morning, so as not to think about the evening performance. As the founder of the band and a Smurf who was generally disliked in the village, he probably felt the greatest fear of them all, even greater than Clumsy.
Papa Smurf knew that Brainy would take part in the competition, but didn't ask him for any details. He'd seen that the boy was stressed, so he asked him to help with arranging books. Brainy could also take some of his books to the new library, as the room had been built to be used by all the Smurfs.
The bespectacled Smurf was just leaving the lab with a few books in his hands when Poet, slightly out of breath, stopped him. The artist grabbed his knees and took a deep breath, feeling a slightly confused gaze on him. "There you are!" he gasped finally. "Don't make such a face! I've been looking for you for almost an hour!"
"Our village isn't that big for you to take so long to find me," the taller brunet replied. "Anyways, I'm walking back and forth all the time, so it's hard not to notice me."
Both Smurfs entered the library, Poet watched impatiently as Brainy placed heavy books of spells on the shelves. The bespectacled Smurf was obviously taking his time, but the artist was quickly running out of patience. The boy was stamping his foot lightly, leaning his shoulder against the door frame.
"So," Brainy sighed softly, dusting off his hands. "Why were you looking for me?" He gave Poet a surprised but curious look.
"I was looking through all the documents from yesterday's registration and noticed that you didn't have any instruments written down, which means you can't perform with them!" The slightly shorter Smurf looked very concerned by this fact as he was sure there was a major mistake in the documentation and the Cinq band would suffer heavy losses.
For a moment, Brainy even felt sorry for Poet, but only for a moment. The bespectacled Smurf remembered the problem the other had had with the registration and thought that Poet deserved it, karma always comes back. "I assure you, Poet, that there was no mistake," he muttered, head held high, leading the other brunet out of the library. "Now you can go back to your duties and let me do my own chores."
The library doors closed right in front of Poet's nose. The artist frowned, not understanding anything.
Seven bands had been registered for the competition. Maybe it was a lot, maybe not, it didn't matter much. The event had been mentioned every day by everysmurf ever since Papa Smurf had announced the competition. The month of preparations had passed very quickly for the participants. Brainy felt as if after the competition announcement he had blinked once and suddenly found himself backstage, wearing the yellow-gold shirt, brown tie and gray suit trousers, surrounded by the rest of his band and other bands.
The Smurflings were the first to perform with their modern version of the most popular Smurf songs. The kids didn't look stressed at all, they probably found the concert great fun and didn't care about the adults' opinion. A few years ago, Brainy would have described their musical style as too innovative and far from tradition. However, his band was planning to show something completely different in the smurfy music repertoire this evening, so he would have had to call himself a hypocrite if he had denied that the Smurflings' music shed new, interesting light on plain old songs.
So far, all the bands had been sitting silently backstage in the order they were going to perform. Cinq were sitting on some boxes and chairs in the corner to the left of the stage. Only Hefty stood with his back against the wall, his arms folded, eyes closed, and he was breathing loudly. Brainy took a lonely chair, his head resting on his clasped hands, and put his elbows on his knees. Leaning slightly forward, he stared blankly at one point, trying not to think about anything. His right leg was bouncing lightly with stress.
The other three members of the band were sitting on the boxes. Smurfette was holding Clumsy's hands, but this time she was unable to prevent the panicky trembling of his hands. Handy was leaning his head against the wall with his knees pulled up to his chin. He sat closest to the curtain and occasionally grabbed the edge of the heavy material to peek out at the stage and the benches for the audience. "The whole village is here," he muttered. "Even Grouchy came."
"He certainly doesn't like every single band," Smurfette tried to make a joke, but said it very quietly and hesitantly, forcing a smile.
The other bands started vigorous conversations, the leaders cheered on their musicians and singers. In this chatter, Cinq seemed to be very unmerry, even lost. Smurfette looked at the rivals, some Smurfs were stealthily giving them various glances.
Papa Smurf appeared backstage, drawing attention of all the bands immediately. "I wish good luck to every band," he whispered happily. "Do your best, my little Smurfs. I have a huge request to all the teams. After the performance, each band doesn't return backstage, but sits in the audience so as not to cause chaos." Most of those present nodded. The village leader took the microphone from the table, then emerged from behind the curtain and stood in the center of the stage, greeting the audience. His speech was short and held little information. The older Smurf showed the order of performances, then introduced the jury. "The jury consists of: Grandpa, Nanny, Poet and Tailor. I am the main judge of the competition."
The jury was sitting in the front row, Grandpa looked like he couldn't wait for the performances, Nanny was knitting and pretended to be bored, Poet was snapping a pen, every now and then writing something in his notebook, and Tailor was playing with his scarf.
"The first band to perform is the Smurflings' Band, consisting of: Sassette, Nat, Slouchy and Snappy! Clap your hands for them!"
The young quartet let out a wild cry, giving each other high fours, and the Smurflings ran onto the stage with their instruments.
When the concert officially began, and everysmurf was listening to Slouchy's incredible saxophone and trumpet playing abilities, Smurfette took the opportunity to pull Brainy by the sleeve. "We're not doing warm up singing?" she asked.
"We don't really have the conditions to do so." The brunet shook his head. "Take it easy. We'll do a very quick warm up when Papa Smurf announces us. Oh, and I don't have the tuning fork with me. I didn't bring it for yesterday's registration, so I can't have it during the performance. I have two suggestions. First option: you all start singing with a note from memory and you hum my first note for me." The bespectacled Smurf pointed his finger at Handy. "Second option: you hum first notes for everysmurf. The second option is safer, but less professional and we will lose the first surprise effect. I leave the choice to all of you."
Hefty sighed loudly, but otherwise stayed in the same position he had been in since the band had come backstage. Smurfette and Clumsy began a quiet conversation, shaking their heads every now and then and shrugging their shoulders. Handy remained passive, because he didn't care about the decision, and he was looking furtively on the stage, full of admiration for the Smurflings.
There was more and more space backstage with each performance. Each band was briefly commented on by the jury immediately after their performance, and the jury members wrote something down on their piece of paper.
Harmony was the second to perform, he went solo of course. There's no need to describe what his performance looked like and sounded like. In fact, he wasn't allowed to finish his new piece. Papa Smurf tried to be tolerant, but his headache was growing worse with every false note and won with his will to be fair.
Brainy's former team was the third band. Their performance was short, concise, and unremarkable. Well, maybe except for the fact that Lazy, who played in that band, fell asleep after playing one note.
After that performance, Cinq stopped paying attention to the other bands. Their turn was approaching fast, and the stress, fear, and anxiety of each member of the band increased. Brainy's leg was jumping faster and faster, and the brunet didn't have much control over it. Hefty was waving his ears and his tail was curling into a ball and uncurling. Smurfette tried to teach Clumsy the technique of deep breaths to calm down, and Handy wrapped his tail tightly around one leg.
Time passed very quickly. A blink of an eye, and Papa Smurf announced the sixth band. "The sixth band to perform is the Smurftastic Group consisting of: Jokey, Greedy, Tuffy and Vanity!"
The Smurftastic Group emerged from the backstage, leaving all space to Brainy's band. The bespectacled Smurf stood up with such rapidity that the chair tipped over, and the rest of the band jumped, startled. The brunet began to walk back and forth, rubbing his hands together. Despite their great results in rehearsals, he was still haunted by incredible doubts. He was afraid of being called a hypocrite. He was afraid that the Smurfs wouldn't like his idea, that he would fail again, and that no Smurf would look at him with the recognition he fought so fiercely for. What if nosmurf liked his voice?
And what about the rest of the band? All four had agreed to participate in his idea, but he had promised them that they wouldn't embarrass themselves. He shouldn't have made any declarations. Despite the prejudices a part of the band had toward him, they all had gone into his plan and had trusted him. Moreover, they had begun to see their possibilities and appreciate themselves. And all this would be lost? Should that happen, the full responsibility rested with Brainy.
The brunet scanned his band with his eyes. Everysmurf was trembling like jelly, lost in their thoughts. The stress was eating them from inside, and that was because of Brainy. They didn't deserve it, neither of them. Brainy had seen their potential and if they were to be booed, it was only because his concept had failed.
The last thing Brainy wanted was to let anysmurf down.
Jokey's band received quite loud and enthusiastic ovations, well deserved. The Smurftastic Group made a great show, full of positive energy. The quartet received brief praise from the jury, then they fled the stage and were replaced by Papa Smurf. "Once again, applause for the Smurftastic Group! Our competition is slowly coming to an end."
"Come here," Brainy said softly, gesturing awkwardly with his hands. Cinq gathered in a circle and grabbed each other hands. The brunet quietly sang one exercise, and the rest repeated after him. One exercise for clear sound, one for proper articulation, one for correct diction. "Remember, together we can create an amazing harmony, we can do anything."
"I'll hum the first note for you," Handy whispered. "We'll be able to join without me humming the rest."
"Okay."
"The seventh and last band on the competition to perform is Cinq, consisting of: Brainy, Handy, Smurfette, Hefty and Clumsy! Greet them loudly!"
Smurfette's hand tightened on Brainy's hand. The bespectacled Smurf saw Handy doing the same with a reassuring smile in Clumsy's direction.
When the brunet took his band onto the stage, the rumbling in his ears completely drowned out the note hummed to him by Handy.