Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Also, Adrian (whom I'm "borrowing" again) belongs to Little Indigo. When you're done mine, go read her fics!!! I don't own "Reflection", a song from Disney's movie Mulan, either.
Jenashu: Hello, hello! Today's events are: The War of the Bands, The Female Vocalist Challenge, and The Male Vocalist Challenge. (I couldn't resist calling it The War of the Bands^^)
****************************************************************************
Making New Enimies
"Come on Jen, just a little bit?" Tai wheddled, pointing at Jen's breakfast. "You need to eat something," he persisted.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Jen said as she stared down at the table. Izzy sighed and put his fork down.
"Remember what you told me at the amusement park?" he asked. Jen nodded and sighed.
"I can't. What if I throw up on stage? How gross! I'm not touching it," Jen replied in a very final way. Izzy looked at Tai and gave him a defeated shrug.
"But look at the Teenage Wolves! They're woofing everything down," Tai said. He motioned towards Matt, Mitz, Adrian, Yaten, and Kakeyu, who were stuffing their faces.
"They're used to this kind of thing, Tai. They have concerts all the time," Jen reminded him.
"You're always on stage," Tai countered. Jen shrugged.
"I've never been judged before. If I mess up, I might cause us the win in the long run," Jen said miserably.
"I've never seen you mess up on stage," Izzy broke in. Jen sighed and pushed her plate further away. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She knew exactly who it was without looking up. "Yes, hello," Izzy said in a slightly grumpy tone.
"Hey," Garu replied with equal dislike. Then he looked down at Jen. "Good luck, Jen. If you can still sing like you used to, then this will be no problem for you," he said. The brunette girl looked up at him.
"You think so?" she asked. Garu nodded confidently, causing Jen to grace him with a smile. "Thanks, Garu."
"Yeah, well, I guess I'll see you around," Garu replied before walking away.
"Oh, wait!" Jen called after him. "You did very well yesterday. Good job," she said. Garu smiled and turned around again. When he was out of earshot, Izzy mumbled something bitterly under his breath about dumb blondes and jerks.
**********
"I don't like this...I don't like this at all..." Jen whispered nervously to herself while she waited backstage for her turn. Her body moved by itself while her mind was numb when she heard her name. The two feet below her led the stunned girl to the marked spot on the stage. A moment later, the curtain rose. Jen looked out on the auidiance to see thousands and thousands of people (mostly her age, which didn't help) staring intently back at her. She gulped, cleared her throat, and grasped the microphone. Her ice-cold fingers gripped it and pulled it out of the stand. Jen brought the microphone close to her lips and waited for her music to start.
A lightening-quick memory passed through Jen's brain. She saw herself practicing the song over and over as the first notes danced around her. Yes, she knew her song inside and out- she would be fine. Then another source of confidence came to her attention; her friends were waving vigourously, and Tai gave her thumbs up. Even from the stage, Jen could see Izzy mouth "good luck". Jen smiled at them, and felt some of the butterflies dissapear from her stomach.
"Look at me, you may think you see
who I really am
but you'd never know me
Every day
it's as if I play a part
Now I see
if I wear a mask I can fool the world
but I cannot fool my heart
Who is that girl I see
staring straight back at me
when will my reflection show
who I am inside
I am now
in a world where I have to hide my heart
and what I believe in
but somehow I will show the world
what's inside my heart
and be loved for who I am
Who is that girl I see
staring straight back at me
why is my reflection someone I don't know
must I pretend that I'm
someone else for all time
when will my reflection show
who I am inside
There's a heart that must be free to fly
that burns with a need to know the reasons why
why must we all conceal
what we think
how we feel
must there be a secret me
I'm born to hide
I won't pretend that I'm
someone else for all time
when will my reflection show
who I am inside
when will my reflection show
who I am inside"
Jen took another deep breath and opened her eyes. To her amazement, everyone was standing up and applauding. She blinked stupidly at the crowd before sinking into a clumsy curtsy and walking off the stage.
**********
Oh please oh please oh please let me win...Jenashu thought to herself as she sat in a chair on the stage with the other singers. Slowly the judge announced how many points each preformer had won for their school.
"Miss Jenashu Zircona from Japan has won 4,800 points out of a possible 5,000 points for her school-" the announcement was met by thunderous applause from the Odaiba High students.
"Miss Mimi Tachikawa from America has won 4,500 points..." Jen's head jerked up. Mimi Tachikawa? She looked all over the stage for a splash of pink, and found the girl sitting down a few seats to her left.
"Meems!" Jen hissed. Mimi looked left and right in confusion, wondering who had called her. Finally, she saw Jen. Her face lit up, and she waved vigorously. Suddenly, the judge was silent, and Jen realized that no one had scored higher than her, which had to mean...
"And the winner, who earns an extra 5,000 points for her school, is...Miss Jenashu Zircona!" Jen stumbled to get on her feet as her friends stood up and cheered. She felt her cheeks darken as each eye looked at her; she smoothed her dress down a bit. I did it! she thought happily as her friends beamed at her.
*********
"That was a brilliant performance!" Izzy said happily to Jen. She smiled and walked into his outstretched arms. Izzy squeezed her tightly. "You were fabulous!"
"You won! You won!" Sora cried happily as she did a mad little jig. "Japan has conquered the first two challenges!"
"Too bad we didn't win the third, though. I swear, Seto can't sing worth a crap," Matt said with a sigh. "He only got 2,500 points." Jen opened her mouth to reply when Mimi came bursting into the cafeteria.
"Jen! Sora!" she cried, trying to hug both of them at once. This was made difficult by the fact that the two girls were in chairs. Mimi's weight caused them all to crash onto the floor in a heap.
"Mimi, Mimi, I'm so glad to see you, but would you please get off of my back?" Jen laughed. Mimi shot up and started hugging everybody. "I told you Matt!" Jen added after a moment of thought.
"Yeah, well...I'm glad to see you, Meems, but I need to go to the auiditorium," Matt said. He motioned to his band, who all abandoned their dinners and followed their leader.
"This doesn't feel right," Kakeyu said suddenly, stopping dead in his tracks.
"What do you mean?" Matt asked.
"He means that we've been here for about three days now and we haven't started any trouble yet," Yaten said. Kakeyu nodded and rushed back to his food tray. He picked up a handful of peas and threw them as hard as he could at the nearest person.
"Who did that?" a teenage boy demanded. When no one answered, he chucked a corn-on-the-cob at the nearest person he didn't know. Soon, food was soaring everywhere.
"Satisfied?" Mitz asked with a sigh. As a giant blob of jello hit Mitz in the face, Yaten and Kakeyu nodded and smiled.
"Yes," the said simply. "Very."
**********
"I turn around, I can't see what's behind me," Matt sang. Jen smiled and sunk back into her seat. She was so glad that she didn't have to worry about competing anymore. Jen knew what it would be like if she had had to wait until the last day to perform; she imagined a cartoon character looking up to see an anvil over his head, just floating there, about to fall at any time. That was how it would feel.
Jen looked at the stage. Mitz's normaly shy demanor dissapeared as he pounded the drums with perfect timing. Yaten's fingers raced across the keyboard at light speed, but he never missed a note. Adrian's electric guitar and Kakeyu's bass guitar complemented each other. Matt's guitar (why do they have three guitarists?, Jen wondered) hung unused by the strap around his chest as he sang. They're so good, Jen thought with a big smile.
***********
"...and The Teenage Wolves (what will they call themselves when they're not teenagers anymore? Jen asked herself), from Japan, scored 5,000 points. Consequently, they are the winners, scoring a total of 10,000 points!" the judge announced. "Congratulations, boys! Everything was perfect; you worked like a well-oiled machine."
"Yay Matt!" Jen shouted from the top of her lungs as she jumped up from her seat. Part of Jen was wildly euphoric, while the other half was glad that Jun Motimiya wasn't there, for fear of the scene that she would surely have started.
***********
Jen sat with the Digidestineds and the band in a common room. "You guys were so good!" Jen cried happily. The door opened, and a blonde boy walked in and sat next to Mimi. "Oh, hi Micheal!"
"Hello," Micheal said cheerfully. "You did great today. You too, guys," he said, tilting his head towards The Teenage Wolves. "You'll never guess who I saw in the Digiwo-". Mimi elbowed him sharply in the ribs and looked at Matt's band.
"That's okay, go on," Kakeyu said. "Matt's told us all about the Digiworld."
"I did?" Matt asked in confusion.
"Of course! You don't remember because you were drunk out of you skull," Yaten said matter-of-factly.
"Ah," Matt replied with a shrug. "I hope I asked you not to tell anyone about it."
"We figured that much." Adrian said with his usual grumpy attitude.
"That didn't...freak you out at all?" Jen asked in amazement. Mitz laughed.
"Not as much as when he started singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider," he said. Matt glared at him.
"I'm never going to get drunk around you again," he said to his band. Kakeyu looked mortified.
"But you're so fun when you're drunk!" he exclaimed.
"Something tells me that I don't want to ask questions," Micheal said as he looked at the band with a rather disturbed expression.
"Good idea, mate," Yaten said as he took a swig out of a strange bottle. Jen looked at the drink with a wary expression as she wondered what it was.
"Anyway," Jen said, " who did you see, Micheal?" He gave her a puzzled look, as if he had forgotten what they had been talking about.
"Oh, it was a Digimon called Piximon. He asked me to tell you to come visit him some time," Micheal replied. Jen smiled as she remembered her 'tutor'.
Jen looked at Izzy and noticed that his expression had changed. He looked wary and a bit angry, and he was staring at something behind her. Jen turned around and saw Garu walking toward the group. "Hey," he said as he kneeled beside her, "you were great today."
"Thanks!" Jen said. She was about to continue when she heard someone shout Garu's name.
"Get over here!" a boy from Garu's school called. Jen frowned.
"What's wrong with them?" Tai asked, motioning to Garu's angry classmates. Garu frowned.
"Well, umm, actually...Some of the other schools...they think that there's something inside going on here," Garu said, fidgeting uncomfortably. Jen gave him a blank look, but Izzy's face grew darker.
"They think that we've bribed the judges because we've won three out of the four competitions so far," he clairified. Garu nodded.
"I keep telling them that it's not true, but they won't listen. They don't want me socializing with you guys," Garu said. Izzy stared angrily into his eyes before standing up and walking towards Garu's classmates.
"Izzy, don't!" Jen cried. All of the boys had a full head and shoulders over him.
"Better back that bastard up," Yaten said with a sigh. He rose shakily to his feet and stumbled as he ran to catch up to Izzy.
"Yaten, wait! Hey, don't call Izzy that! Stop! Come back, both of you!" Jen pleaded.
"They think that we have to bribe the judges to win?" Kakeyu asked angrilly. "Come on, guys. This is personal now."
"Please, all of you, come back!" Sora shouted as all of The Teenage Wolves walked behind Izzy. "You'll start a fight! Yamato Ishida, listen to me!"
"She's right, pretty boy," one of the French boys said to Matt in very poor English. "Go back to your girlfriend if you know what's good for you."
"This is bad," Micheal said. "I think that one guy is drunk to top it all off," he added, motioning towards Yaten.
"I could step on you!" one of the boys realized as he looked at Izzy. "I don't think you should get involved in this, little boy!"
Things were looking pretty ugly, and it looked like The Teenage Wolves would start a brawl at any second. Jen jumped to her feet and stepped in the middle of the two groups. "All of you, stop! Honestly, this whole thing is to improve national relationships! I'll tell everyone that's listening that we who represent Japan have not cheated in any way to win The World School Challenge. We're here to compete fairly, just like everyone else here. We'll be mature enough to put this whole thing aside if you'll be mature enough to forget the false rumor that has been started. We don't want any enemies," Jen said as she held a hand out to one of the French boys.
"...Alright, but it's just for now, you understand? At the first sign that something fishy's going on, all of you are toast," he said. Jen nodded.
"Fair enough," she said as she shook hands with the boy. "Good luck to all of you!" The French boys snorted and walked out of the room. Jen sighed.
"Hey, that was good," Garu said. "I doubt that they really would attack you guys or anything, though. Well, I'd better be going. See you tomorrow, Jen." Garu put a hand on Jen's shoulder and squeezed gently before walking out of the room.
"You idiot, I wanted to beat the tar out of them," Yaten said when Garu exited the room. Jen sighed.
"I don't believe that just happened. It looks like we've got some enemies..."
****************************************************************************
Jenashu: Oh no, the Japanease have a big problem!!!! We'll see if Yaten really does get to beat the tar out of them soon!
Jenashu: Hello, hello! Today's events are: The War of the Bands, The Female Vocalist Challenge, and The Male Vocalist Challenge. (I couldn't resist calling it The War of the Bands^^)
****************************************************************************
Making New Enimies
"Come on Jen, just a little bit?" Tai wheddled, pointing at Jen's breakfast. "You need to eat something," he persisted.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Jen said as she stared down at the table. Izzy sighed and put his fork down.
"Remember what you told me at the amusement park?" he asked. Jen nodded and sighed.
"I can't. What if I throw up on stage? How gross! I'm not touching it," Jen replied in a very final way. Izzy looked at Tai and gave him a defeated shrug.
"But look at the Teenage Wolves! They're woofing everything down," Tai said. He motioned towards Matt, Mitz, Adrian, Yaten, and Kakeyu, who were stuffing their faces.
"They're used to this kind of thing, Tai. They have concerts all the time," Jen reminded him.
"You're always on stage," Tai countered. Jen shrugged.
"I've never been judged before. If I mess up, I might cause us the win in the long run," Jen said miserably.
"I've never seen you mess up on stage," Izzy broke in. Jen sighed and pushed her plate further away. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She knew exactly who it was without looking up. "Yes, hello," Izzy said in a slightly grumpy tone.
"Hey," Garu replied with equal dislike. Then he looked down at Jen. "Good luck, Jen. If you can still sing like you used to, then this will be no problem for you," he said. The brunette girl looked up at him.
"You think so?" she asked. Garu nodded confidently, causing Jen to grace him with a smile. "Thanks, Garu."
"Yeah, well, I guess I'll see you around," Garu replied before walking away.
"Oh, wait!" Jen called after him. "You did very well yesterday. Good job," she said. Garu smiled and turned around again. When he was out of earshot, Izzy mumbled something bitterly under his breath about dumb blondes and jerks.
**********
"I don't like this...I don't like this at all..." Jen whispered nervously to herself while she waited backstage for her turn. Her body moved by itself while her mind was numb when she heard her name. The two feet below her led the stunned girl to the marked spot on the stage. A moment later, the curtain rose. Jen looked out on the auidiance to see thousands and thousands of people (mostly her age, which didn't help) staring intently back at her. She gulped, cleared her throat, and grasped the microphone. Her ice-cold fingers gripped it and pulled it out of the stand. Jen brought the microphone close to her lips and waited for her music to start.
A lightening-quick memory passed through Jen's brain. She saw herself practicing the song over and over as the first notes danced around her. Yes, she knew her song inside and out- she would be fine. Then another source of confidence came to her attention; her friends were waving vigourously, and Tai gave her thumbs up. Even from the stage, Jen could see Izzy mouth "good luck". Jen smiled at them, and felt some of the butterflies dissapear from her stomach.
"Look at me, you may think you see
who I really am
but you'd never know me
Every day
it's as if I play a part
Now I see
if I wear a mask I can fool the world
but I cannot fool my heart
Who is that girl I see
staring straight back at me
when will my reflection show
who I am inside
I am now
in a world where I have to hide my heart
and what I believe in
but somehow I will show the world
what's inside my heart
and be loved for who I am
Who is that girl I see
staring straight back at me
why is my reflection someone I don't know
must I pretend that I'm
someone else for all time
when will my reflection show
who I am inside
There's a heart that must be free to fly
that burns with a need to know the reasons why
why must we all conceal
what we think
how we feel
must there be a secret me
I'm born to hide
I won't pretend that I'm
someone else for all time
when will my reflection show
who I am inside
when will my reflection show
who I am inside"
Jen took another deep breath and opened her eyes. To her amazement, everyone was standing up and applauding. She blinked stupidly at the crowd before sinking into a clumsy curtsy and walking off the stage.
**********
Oh please oh please oh please let me win...Jenashu thought to herself as she sat in a chair on the stage with the other singers. Slowly the judge announced how many points each preformer had won for their school.
"Miss Jenashu Zircona from Japan has won 4,800 points out of a possible 5,000 points for her school-" the announcement was met by thunderous applause from the Odaiba High students.
"Miss Mimi Tachikawa from America has won 4,500 points..." Jen's head jerked up. Mimi Tachikawa? She looked all over the stage for a splash of pink, and found the girl sitting down a few seats to her left.
"Meems!" Jen hissed. Mimi looked left and right in confusion, wondering who had called her. Finally, she saw Jen. Her face lit up, and she waved vigorously. Suddenly, the judge was silent, and Jen realized that no one had scored higher than her, which had to mean...
"And the winner, who earns an extra 5,000 points for her school, is...Miss Jenashu Zircona!" Jen stumbled to get on her feet as her friends stood up and cheered. She felt her cheeks darken as each eye looked at her; she smoothed her dress down a bit. I did it! she thought happily as her friends beamed at her.
*********
"That was a brilliant performance!" Izzy said happily to Jen. She smiled and walked into his outstretched arms. Izzy squeezed her tightly. "You were fabulous!"
"You won! You won!" Sora cried happily as she did a mad little jig. "Japan has conquered the first two challenges!"
"Too bad we didn't win the third, though. I swear, Seto can't sing worth a crap," Matt said with a sigh. "He only got 2,500 points." Jen opened her mouth to reply when Mimi came bursting into the cafeteria.
"Jen! Sora!" she cried, trying to hug both of them at once. This was made difficult by the fact that the two girls were in chairs. Mimi's weight caused them all to crash onto the floor in a heap.
"Mimi, Mimi, I'm so glad to see you, but would you please get off of my back?" Jen laughed. Mimi shot up and started hugging everybody. "I told you Matt!" Jen added after a moment of thought.
"Yeah, well...I'm glad to see you, Meems, but I need to go to the auiditorium," Matt said. He motioned to his band, who all abandoned their dinners and followed their leader.
"This doesn't feel right," Kakeyu said suddenly, stopping dead in his tracks.
"What do you mean?" Matt asked.
"He means that we've been here for about three days now and we haven't started any trouble yet," Yaten said. Kakeyu nodded and rushed back to his food tray. He picked up a handful of peas and threw them as hard as he could at the nearest person.
"Who did that?" a teenage boy demanded. When no one answered, he chucked a corn-on-the-cob at the nearest person he didn't know. Soon, food was soaring everywhere.
"Satisfied?" Mitz asked with a sigh. As a giant blob of jello hit Mitz in the face, Yaten and Kakeyu nodded and smiled.
"Yes," the said simply. "Very."
**********
"I turn around, I can't see what's behind me," Matt sang. Jen smiled and sunk back into her seat. She was so glad that she didn't have to worry about competing anymore. Jen knew what it would be like if she had had to wait until the last day to perform; she imagined a cartoon character looking up to see an anvil over his head, just floating there, about to fall at any time. That was how it would feel.
Jen looked at the stage. Mitz's normaly shy demanor dissapeared as he pounded the drums with perfect timing. Yaten's fingers raced across the keyboard at light speed, but he never missed a note. Adrian's electric guitar and Kakeyu's bass guitar complemented each other. Matt's guitar (why do they have three guitarists?, Jen wondered) hung unused by the strap around his chest as he sang. They're so good, Jen thought with a big smile.
***********
"...and The Teenage Wolves (what will they call themselves when they're not teenagers anymore? Jen asked herself), from Japan, scored 5,000 points. Consequently, they are the winners, scoring a total of 10,000 points!" the judge announced. "Congratulations, boys! Everything was perfect; you worked like a well-oiled machine."
"Yay Matt!" Jen shouted from the top of her lungs as she jumped up from her seat. Part of Jen was wildly euphoric, while the other half was glad that Jun Motimiya wasn't there, for fear of the scene that she would surely have started.
***********
Jen sat with the Digidestineds and the band in a common room. "You guys were so good!" Jen cried happily. The door opened, and a blonde boy walked in and sat next to Mimi. "Oh, hi Micheal!"
"Hello," Micheal said cheerfully. "You did great today. You too, guys," he said, tilting his head towards The Teenage Wolves. "You'll never guess who I saw in the Digiwo-". Mimi elbowed him sharply in the ribs and looked at Matt's band.
"That's okay, go on," Kakeyu said. "Matt's told us all about the Digiworld."
"I did?" Matt asked in confusion.
"Of course! You don't remember because you were drunk out of you skull," Yaten said matter-of-factly.
"Ah," Matt replied with a shrug. "I hope I asked you not to tell anyone about it."
"We figured that much." Adrian said with his usual grumpy attitude.
"That didn't...freak you out at all?" Jen asked in amazement. Mitz laughed.
"Not as much as when he started singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider," he said. Matt glared at him.
"I'm never going to get drunk around you again," he said to his band. Kakeyu looked mortified.
"But you're so fun when you're drunk!" he exclaimed.
"Something tells me that I don't want to ask questions," Micheal said as he looked at the band with a rather disturbed expression.
"Good idea, mate," Yaten said as he took a swig out of a strange bottle. Jen looked at the drink with a wary expression as she wondered what it was.
"Anyway," Jen said, " who did you see, Micheal?" He gave her a puzzled look, as if he had forgotten what they had been talking about.
"Oh, it was a Digimon called Piximon. He asked me to tell you to come visit him some time," Micheal replied. Jen smiled as she remembered her 'tutor'.
Jen looked at Izzy and noticed that his expression had changed. He looked wary and a bit angry, and he was staring at something behind her. Jen turned around and saw Garu walking toward the group. "Hey," he said as he kneeled beside her, "you were great today."
"Thanks!" Jen said. She was about to continue when she heard someone shout Garu's name.
"Get over here!" a boy from Garu's school called. Jen frowned.
"What's wrong with them?" Tai asked, motioning to Garu's angry classmates. Garu frowned.
"Well, umm, actually...Some of the other schools...they think that there's something inside going on here," Garu said, fidgeting uncomfortably. Jen gave him a blank look, but Izzy's face grew darker.
"They think that we've bribed the judges because we've won three out of the four competitions so far," he clairified. Garu nodded.
"I keep telling them that it's not true, but they won't listen. They don't want me socializing with you guys," Garu said. Izzy stared angrily into his eyes before standing up and walking towards Garu's classmates.
"Izzy, don't!" Jen cried. All of the boys had a full head and shoulders over him.
"Better back that bastard up," Yaten said with a sigh. He rose shakily to his feet and stumbled as he ran to catch up to Izzy.
"Yaten, wait! Hey, don't call Izzy that! Stop! Come back, both of you!" Jen pleaded.
"They think that we have to bribe the judges to win?" Kakeyu asked angrilly. "Come on, guys. This is personal now."
"Please, all of you, come back!" Sora shouted as all of The Teenage Wolves walked behind Izzy. "You'll start a fight! Yamato Ishida, listen to me!"
"She's right, pretty boy," one of the French boys said to Matt in very poor English. "Go back to your girlfriend if you know what's good for you."
"This is bad," Micheal said. "I think that one guy is drunk to top it all off," he added, motioning towards Yaten.
"I could step on you!" one of the boys realized as he looked at Izzy. "I don't think you should get involved in this, little boy!"
Things were looking pretty ugly, and it looked like The Teenage Wolves would start a brawl at any second. Jen jumped to her feet and stepped in the middle of the two groups. "All of you, stop! Honestly, this whole thing is to improve national relationships! I'll tell everyone that's listening that we who represent Japan have not cheated in any way to win The World School Challenge. We're here to compete fairly, just like everyone else here. We'll be mature enough to put this whole thing aside if you'll be mature enough to forget the false rumor that has been started. We don't want any enemies," Jen said as she held a hand out to one of the French boys.
"...Alright, but it's just for now, you understand? At the first sign that something fishy's going on, all of you are toast," he said. Jen nodded.
"Fair enough," she said as she shook hands with the boy. "Good luck to all of you!" The French boys snorted and walked out of the room. Jen sighed.
"Hey, that was good," Garu said. "I doubt that they really would attack you guys or anything, though. Well, I'd better be going. See you tomorrow, Jen." Garu put a hand on Jen's shoulder and squeezed gently before walking out of the room.
"You idiot, I wanted to beat the tar out of them," Yaten said when Garu exited the room. Jen sighed.
"I don't believe that just happened. It looks like we've got some enemies..."
****************************************************************************
Jenashu: Oh no, the Japanease have a big problem!!!! We'll see if Yaten really does get to beat the tar out of them soon!