Note: I'm dedicating this chapter to Diamond Core for cheering me up after I received that silly note from Flamer (self explanatory). And also for being the first one to review 'The Small Things in Life'. Plus, she said she was dying and I'm not too fond of funerals.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lindsay Lohan's "Speak." I realize I truly suck at choosing songs, because this song is too weird for the context, and I had through the trouble of going through websites to find lyrics because I don't own the CD.


The Case Of Bryan's Panties

Restaurant, Hilary's POV

"Hello sir, may I please take your order?"

"Why yes thank you, I would like the poached potatoes served with vegetables and gravy. My wife here will have the salmon bathed in red wine sauce and with a side order of peas." A rather old gentleman answered as he looked at his wife to make sure the order was okay with her.

I nodded and copied down the orders as I quickly scanned the restaurant. As soon as Kai and Mindy had entered the restaurant, we immediately got into our positions. I and Ally were to attend to the other tables so that Kai and Mindy wouldn't notice we were there. Ray (wearing a ridiculous getup that consisted of thick glasses, a fake nose, and a mustache) guided them to a table near the stage for Bryan's performance and was currently taking their orders. Tyson and Max was somewhere behind the stage, working on the lighting and supposedly talking to Felicia and Bryan, while Emily was tending to the drinks.

The 'Giggle Lights' was a very weird restaurant compared to all the others. It had a variety of the strangest foods on the menus. There was fast food, fancy food, and in-between types of food on the menu (don't ask). Also, there seemed to be different parts in the restaurant. There was a big stage in front of the restaurant, beside it there was a mini bar where all the champagne and alcohol was, on the other side of the stage were all the elegant and sophisticated looking tables are (all that fancy stuff). In front of the stage there were all the small round tables used for fast food.

"Yo Hilary, could you get back to Earth already?" I blinked as I saw a hand waving in front of me. I rolled my eyes and batted it away. 'It' being the hand of a certain Chinese girl with pink hair who decided to be the chef for the whole thing.

"Well sorry, but I was really enjoying my time in the clouds." I teasingly responded as Mariah and I shared a nice round of laughter.

"Whatever Hil," Mariah started, still chuckling. "So what's the order?" I pressed the paper filled with the list into her awaiting palm and grinned.

"I'm gonna go check up on Ally, Don't burn anything!" I warned her, only half serious. Mariah maybe not be a bad cook, but there were times when she got careless and her chicken ended up looking small and black. On more than one occasion.

Nonetheless, my obvious concern for the food only rewarded a brilliant thwack to the head.

I should've been a village idiot.


Back Stage, Third Person's POV

"Is everything settled?" Max asked as he tapped his clipboard and talked into his earpiece (the walkie talkies were so five minutes ago!).

"Lighting's fine." Max heard Tyson respond from his earpiece. "You wanted everything a bit dim right?"

"Right." The blonde responded. "Is everything going okay Ally?"

He received static.

"Ally?"

"That…brzz….hussy…brzz…gonna…brzz….her…"

It was pretty obvious to Max that Allison was probably plotting a certain stuck up girl's death.

"Uh…I'll take that as a yes."

"Everything's fine here Max." Emily's voice was heard as Max nodded (wait, how could she see him?) to show he heard.

"Okay. How about-"

"MAX!"

The blonde winced as the shriek was clearly (hundred percent) received, with no amount of static whatsoever.

The gods must hate him.

"Yess…Felicia?" Max asked as he dragged the 'yes' to show his exasperation. He was pretty sure the black haired girl wouldn't notice unless it danced naked in front of her.

"Bryan says his panties are missing and-"

"Bryan wears panties?"

"It's for the costume Tate."

"……I knew that."

"Of course you did, anyway, they're missing and I have absolutely no idea where they are. Got any suggestions?"

The gods did hate him.

"…we're scheduled to go in only two hours right?" The blue eyed American inquired weakly.

"Yep."

He hated the gods too.


Hilary's POV

"Hilary, I need you bring this food over to that table in the corner." Mariah ordered me as she handed me a dish of Shrimp Fettuccini(1)

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the dish. "Yes sir." I managed to avoid the hit she was about to give me as I dashed to the said table.

"Here you go, enjoy your meal." I said cheerfully as the couple sitting responded with a 'thank you' and then left (me, not the couple. I don't Mariah's food looks that bad). However, before I could walk a couple of feet away, I felt a pair of hands grab my shoulders and the next thing I knew someone was shaking me like there was no tomorrow.

If the person would stop shaking me, then maybe there would be a tomorrow.

For me at least.

"Will-you-stop-doing-that!" I grabbed hold of the person's hands and jerked them off, trying to regain my sense of sight and…consciousness. I fixed the person who was trying to cut off my air supply.

It was Tyson.

Why was I not surprised?

"Tyson." I growled through gritted teeth. "What is the matter with you?"

The bluenette blinked for a second, scratched his head the nest, and shrugged. "I dunno. But Bryan's panties are missing; Max is foaming at the mouth, and I was wondering if you knew where they were."

Really, if the whole thing hadn't been spelled C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-E, I would've laughed myself silly.

But since it did spell C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-E, all I could do was grab hold of Tyson's shoulders and start shaking him.


Bar Section, Emily's POV

From what I could observe, everything looked to be complete chaos.

Hilary was shaking Tyson at the far corner of the restaurant, Allison was glaring at Kai and Mindy who were in the other far corner, Max was running around in circles at the backstage, Felicia and Ray (who was still in his ridiculous getup) were trying to calm him down, Bryan was probably putting his costume on, and even though I could see Mariah since she was in the kitchen, I thought I did see something that closely resembled smoke coming out the kitchen doors.

Complete, utter chaos.

"Hey can I get my martini over here?" My attention drifted away from them as I handed some random faceless guy his drink before shouting so I could gain Hilary's and Tyson's attentions.

"Hey guys, over here!"

They (well, it was more like Hilary since Tyson looked just a bit too dizzy) ignored me.

"Guys! Hilary! Tyson!"

Still ignoring me.

"GUYS! HILARY! TYSON!"

Okay, ignoring the fact that I accidentally made the random faceless man spill his martini from surprise, I think I did a pretty good job since Hilary and Tyson finally looked at me with two identical sheepish smiles (they would make such a cute couple!) and walked over to me.

"Yeah Emily?" Tyson asked as he sat on a chair that was seated near the bar.

I rolled my eyes. "I need you to watch out for Allison. She looks like she's about to kill Mindy any second now, and I do not need Max's uncle getting mad at us because our friend caused a Cat Fight. It will not earn points for me." I say bluntly as I wiped a glass wine, making sure it looked shiny and pert.

Tyson reassured me. "Relax Ems, Max's family already love ya. And I wouldn't mind a Cat Fight right now." The bluenette gave a wink that seemed like a cross between perverted and teasing.

"But." Hilary cuts in with glare to the bluenette. I'm suddenly happy that perfectionists do exist. "Don't worry; we'll make sure that nothing bad happens." She smiled reassuringly as she tugged on Tyson's sleeve, urging him to move.

"By the way," I heard Tyson call out as he walked with the brunette. "Bryan's panties are missing and Max is going crazy so if you find them could you tell him!"

Three things happened as soon as that sentence was uttered. The random faceless guy spilled his martini again, Hilary gave a hard thwack to him on the shoulder, and I just think that 'I so did not need that.'

In that order.


Backstage, Third Person's POV

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"No, but it's the only one we've got."

"But to not do anything?"

"Look, unless you're planning to give Bryan your panties which I sincerely doubt you're going to, this is the only thing we can do."

"……okay, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that crack about the panties and just concentrate on the fact that Bryan's costume was designed to show certain (cough) parts. I mean, it's not short but it's pretty tight."

"True, but as long as Bryan doesn't do any splits, then maybe we won't traumatize too many people."

"If you say so Ray."

"I do say so Felicia."

"AND I SAY YOU NEED TO GET ME-MMPH!"

"……remind me again why you thought it was a good idea to tie Max to a chair so he wouldn't go crazy, without taping his mouth?"

"…I forgot."

"Hmhm."

"Mmph."

"……let's just go check up on Bryan and see whether he's ready or not okay?"


Restaurant

As Hilary observed from her table, she could clearly see Mindy hanging all over Kai and Allison, well...not very happy about it.

What an understatement. Of the year.

Currently, the mentioned redhead's face was shade of splotchy red, her eyes had a fire that spelt d-i-e, she was breathing very erratically as her chest rose up and down, her feet seemed to stick onto the ground with superglue, and her hands were curled in such tight fists Hilary was afraid they might start bleeding.

How this managed to go unnoticed from Kai but not Tyson (the bluenette had been observing Allison as well, seeing as he was standing right next to Hilary), Hilary the Perfectionist shall never know.

Though she wasn't surprised Mindy didn't notice. In all honesty, she would have been shocked if the blonde did.

"Oh Kai, you're such a great guy!" Mindy giggled hysterically as Kai started to explain how a married should take care of their baby properly, "I think it's great you know all this stuff! In fact, I bet you know a lot of other stuff as well." Mindy fluttered her eyelashes (Hilary wished they would just get stuck together) in a not-so-flirtatious way. More like silly.

Kai oblivious to Mindy's banter replied. "Well, I am knowledgeable about what sorts of food Pregnant Women should eat if that's what you mean." He took a stab at his salad and ate a piece of lettuce.

"No Kai," Mindy started in odd breathy voice that Hilary assumed was supposed to sound seductive, "That's not what I meant at all." Taking three seconds to watch Kai frown confused at her words, she leaned forward from her side of the table, yanked the front of Kai's shirt, and seized his lips into a kiss of a collision of two lips.

Hilary could feel her husband's-I mean-partner's jaw drop behind her as she watched Allison. Who was watching the kiss with a furious expression.

It was obvious the redhead's eyes did not spell d-i-e, but D-I-E.

Hilary could only lean into Tyson's comfortable body from shock (since when did he smell so good?) as she watched the other girl stalk forward with ragged steps.

In the next few moments, Allison had yanked a certain person out of the kiss, and launched the most perfect, strongest, most painful, punch Allison had ever launched in her entire life.

Hilary fainted.

And the music started.


Stage

Usually, when a sickening crunch is heard (obviously because the nose is in the process of being broken) people turn their heads to the sour, trying to identify it.

However, this did not happen as the sudden blast of music, fog, and blinking lights of every singled color imaginable threw people off in a daze (this including Tyson, Emily, Allison, Kai, and Mindy.) Then suddenly, the fog cleared way for a bit so people could see a girl playing a slow melody on a grand piano.

The girl was Felicia. Who was wearing tight black pants, with a white turtleneck with no sleeves; she seemed to sporting fingerless fishnet gloves that went all the way up her shoulders. She was also wearing red boots, red hoped earrings, and a red choker. Her face was done up with just a touch of mascara and lip gloss along with a little foundation. Felicia's hair was done up in tight Chinese styled bun (complete with chopsticks) along with her long bangs done in short braids so they hung to the side of her face.

While she was playing a low melody on her piano, the fog started to clear down even more as a figure started to emerge from the shadows. As soon as Felicia started to pick up the beat, everyone was able to see the figure clearly as the person stood perfectly still in front of the stage, looking very……er……pretty.

He or she was wearing a high collared green mandarin(2) styled dress with silver designs, the slits reaching all the way up to the upper thighs. Underneath the dress, there were tight black fishnet stockings. The person had ballet shoes and what looked like an anklet bracelet poking through. Also, one could see many rings and bracelets on both of the person's arms and fingers, plus two dangly big earrings hung from the ears and a long intricate necklace was on the neck. Her or his face was done heavily in makeup with lots of mascara on the eyes, blood red lipstick on the lips, along with many layers of foundation and powder with lots of other things.

Tyson wasn't sure whether he wanted to clap and cat call because the costume looked too funny or shriek in terror due to the fact that the person wearing the costume was Bryan Valkov. He was leaning towards the latter though.

Though Bryan's face was set in a scowl, one couldn't really be too sure what is was with all the makeup covering the face. Suddenly Bryan glided over to Felicia and the piano where he grabbed a microphone off the head and sat on the piano (not the key part, the one where you open the case thing.)

Then he started belting out lyrics.

Oh the horror.

"C'mon and let it out

Give it to me

You know that I can take it

Be because the more

You say the more I'm at ease

C'mon don't keep me waiting

I don't wanna guess, not a test

Tell me what you're thinking"

Now there are some things you have to realize about our favorite Russian (actually our favorite Russian's Kai but who cares). Bryan Valkov has two major talents. One, is beyblading (duh!) and two, is being to scare the wits out of you just by staring.

Singing is not a major talent, and probably not even a minor for Bryan. So it would suffice to say that everyone was taken aback by his terrible shrieking. Tyson would have closed his ears but he was too busy supporting Hilary who was lucky enough not to suffer because she fainted.

Felicia just had to join in for when Bryan was halfway through the chorus.

"Keep it real no big deal

Tell me what you're dreaming

Speak, let it out, breath"

So the two of them just continued through the song, sounding horrible together (maybe they had more in common than they thought), and taking no notice of the brunette that fainted, the bluenette that was holding her (who hadn't let go for some strange reason), the redhead who was staring shell-shocked, and the other two who were suffering because of the singing.

Wait; scratch that, because everyone was suffering because of the singing.


Some Time Later

After Felicia and Bryan (who while singing, kept moving all over the head of the piano, obviously trying to give a good show) had gone through "Speak", "Rumors", "First", and many other songs, they decided that it was time to stop playing.

Felicia stood up from the piano and bowed with Bryan who had gotten up from his spot on the instrument. While the young boy looked like he wanted else than to die and take everyone else with him, the dark haired girl smiled, happy that they were able to a job well done.

"Well everyone hope you enjoyed the good show! I know I di-" Felicia stopped mid sentence as she took in the view of the audience's shocked and disturbed faces, and stared dumbstruck at the little scene that consisted of a fainted brunette, a helping bluenette, a gob smacked redhead, and the other bluenette who wasn't sane plus the blonde with cotton in her head (obviously too soft for rocks).

One of the two was supporting a bloody nose.

"……right."

Stardom was obviously not all it was cracked up to be.


Backstage

"So…how's it going Ray? Has Max calmed down yet?"

"Mmph mmph."

"Oh sorry Max, didn't see you there."

"Hmph."

"Don't worry about it Mari, Max has calmed down quite a bit. Where's Emily?"

"Last time I saw her, she was muttering about how her in-laws were going to hate her or something. I think she thinks that she won't be accepted in Max's family. Poor her."

"Mm…"

"I'm sure it'll be alright. By the way, what's happening with Ally and Hil? I thought I heard someone faint but I'm not too sure."

"Well…Hilary is kind of asleep, Tyson's holding her, Allison still looks shocked, and Kai or Mindy has a bloody nose, I can't remember."

"Mmph?"

"……alright. So…how was the show? Did you like it?"

"…I was pretty amazed with the results."

"Hmph."


Chapter Six Ends……….TBC

Note: Next chapter we'll see the aftermath of Bryan's show, plus we'll get a look at Mr. Marshall's and Ms. Landon's career problem.

Also please take your guesses: Did Allison punch Kai or Mindy? I've already decided who she punched but I want to see your guesses.

(1)Shrimp Fettucini: Have no idea what it is? You're not alone. I only saw a slight mention of the dish in some book I read and thought it sounded nice.

(2)Mandarin style dress: It's just an elegant chinese styled dress. Similar to the Viatnamese dresses you see rich people wearing, but the style is slightly different (I think).