The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 148 (Auditions: Auditions Begin)

Freddie walked forward a little and frowned as he watched all the teenagers jumping around and chattering amongst themselves. They seemed to be practically bouncing off the walls, it was frightening! The more mature ones were just standing around, chatting quietly with each other. Fortunately the seven people that he had contacted were just off to the sides and were doing their own thing, not bouncing everywhere. "Okay, everybody have a seat in the chairs, we will call you up." The students clearly didn't hear him, they continued their erroneous uproar. A few of them did hear and were on their way to the auditorium seats. "Everyone, take your seats!" Once again, a few people moved to the chairs, but the majority didn't hear him.

Jonah met his hopeless eyes and laughed once before rising up with an air horn in his hand. Freddie's eyebrows went up in surprise as his eyes landed on that horn. Thinking fast, he followed the girls' move and covered his ears just as Jonah pressed the button on the horn, silencing the crowd. "Everyone take your seats within the next minute, whoever's still standing will not audition." At that, everyone ran for the seats, some of the more mature ones just waited a bit for the excited ones to get out of the way, then they made their way to the chairs.

Taking a deep breath, Freddie made his way over to the table where the others were. He sat down on Jonah's left, with Sam to his left and Carly to her left. "Okay, I think the mature people and the ones that sat down the first two times get some brownie points." Jonah and the girls agreed, it seemed to them that they would be the ones to get along better with the band. "Is Jeremy ready up there?" He looked to the tech booth and saw Jeremy looking over the controls, he was ready. Sam reached under the table and rested her hand on Freddie's leg, hoping to relax him a bit. He took a deep breath and stared down at the list of people. "Okay guys, get ready for them to either exceed expectation or completely butcher a great song."

"Have some faith," Sam interjected with a smile. Freddie looked over at her with an arched eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure some of them will be able to carry a tune. If not, well then we'll keep looking."

"Yeah, you're right." He shuffled the papers on the desk and felt like he was being watched. He shifted his eyes to the side and spotted Carly staring at him with a bit of curiosity. He was getting along with Sam, and that surprised her. "Hey Carly, would you mind introducing us?" She paused for a brief moment and nodded her head.

"Sure, I'll go ahead."

"Thanks."

He leaned back in his chair as his soon to be step sister stood up and waved her hands in the air, albeit embarrassing. "Okay people! This is your chance to shine. The SeattleBeasts have come out of retirement, and with a new name. Freddie Benson, the lead singer and a guitarist, Jonah Brown is the bass, and they need a drummer. Fellow bandmate and friend, Jake Krandal passed on nearly a year ago…A tragedy, but now they've collected themselves and are ready to go back out there and rock. So, welcome, it's great to see all of you here! As they say, rock hard, or not at all." Freddie's eyebrows rose and he exchanged a stunned expression with Jonah. She definitely delivered.

"Thank you Carly." He slowly stood up and turned around, holding the list in his hand. As he glazed his eyes over the people in the chairs, he was overcome by a feeling of horror, there were so many people to go through and this was only the first day! He stumbled backwards a bit and caught his breath. "Wow…Well, I'm glad to see you all here. Unfortunately only one of you is going to be able to be our drummer, we have to know you can get along with us as well as play a decent tune. So, we've devised a test of four songs with a specific amount of beats you have to get correct on them. Jonah?"

"Right, our first song is HighwaytoHell by AC/DC. You need to get at least 90% of that song right. It's easy, you'll do fine. Next is ComeWhateverMay by Stone Sour, about 85% of that song you should hit well, it's another easy one. Then there's IntheAirTonight by Phil Collins, try to get 75% of that. Then finally WaxSimulacra,by Mars Volta." Freddie heard a rushing cry through the crowd as these musician wannabes knew the song well. "An intense drum beat in which we'll be nice to you, only 65% of correct beats are required. However, strive for 100% on all of these, but most of all, have fun doing so! We don't want an uptight drummer that's always business strict, we want a drummer who can be friendly, fun, and knows their song."

"Do you guys think you have what it takes to be our drummer?" An immaculate applause rang out and Freddie chuckled lightly. "So, let's get started."

"We have about one hundred on this list," Sam said as she looked up to Freddie. He nodded and stared at the audience once again, there had to be more than one hundred people here. "Want me to get rid of some of them?" Freddie nodded and rubbed his chin as Sam slowly stood up. "If your name isn't on the list and you're here to audition, please come down here and let us know so we can put your name down. In that case, we also ask that you come back tomorrow, as we only have enough time hopefully go through the hundred who have already signed."

At that, several people started getting up from their seats and walking down to the booth, it looked like there was another hundred people signing up. In just two hours, they didn't think they would get through more than half of the first list. This really was going to take up a lot of time! Sam, Carly, Jonah and Freddie worked quickly to write down all the names of the students who were here.

Freddie turned his eyes to the people still sitting down, some were either people who already signed up, or people who were here to watch the auditions. He put adjusted the microphone on his collar and cleared his throat. "If you're here to watch and not audition, please move to the back of the auditorium. If you're already signed up and waiting your name to be called, please move to the front of the seats."

It took about ten minutes, but everyone did as instructed, he felt a sense of pride in the fact that at least they were listening. "We're going to try to get as many as we can today, if we can't get to you, please come back tomorrow." He was starting to sound like a receptionist at a business office, and quite frankly it irritated him. He took his seat and looked at the drums on the stage, he figured they may as well get started. He looked to the first person on the list and called him out.

"Okay, first person is Aaron Albert." Jonah raised his eyebrows and glanced over as a seemingly lanky looking guy walked to the stage and on the drums. Freddie leaned back in his chair and watched as the kid sat down and grabbed the drumsticks without actually inspecting the equipment to see if everything was there. It would be too depressing if the majority of people did as such. "Okay, now the reason we have already selected songs is just to gauge your skill level, but feel free for a fifth song, to perform any song at all. Now if it's an original, please let it make sense, don't just randomly beat on the drums."

"Got it!" The boy said with a quick grin. Carly looked up at Jeremy and signaled him to begin the music. Highway to Hell started playing and the person auditioning just sat there, staring out at the four people with wide, nervous eyes. Freddie felt a sense of awkwardness coming over him as he slowly turned his eyes to Jonah, who was mimicking the same uneasy expression.

"Jonah. He's just sitting there…staring at us…"

"Yeah I know." Jonah tapped his foot with the beat where the drums were supposed to be and Freddie turned his attention back to the drummer. The guy was still staring at them with his drumsticks raised. Hit a cymbal, bang a drum, do something, anything at all. Stage fright was understandable, but they couldn't work with that. The person had to be comfortable. "Hey, Albert, the drums started a long time ago."

"I'm sorry!" He called out with an anxious tone. "I'm just so nervous." Freddie would have probably given him another chance, Sam probably would have too, but Jonah was the Cowell of the group here.

"Okay Jeremy stop the music!" The music cut and Albert quickly stood from the drums, chuckling nervously. "Have you ever played the drums before?"

"Yes…"

"Have you ever performed in front of people?"

"No sir…"

"Okay. You're done here. Set the drumsticks down and go home." Sam frowned and Freddie slowly turned his eyes to the list of people as Albert dropped his shoulders.

"No need to be so hard," Sam said with a gentle smile. She met Albert's eyes and placed her hands together. "Now we appreciate you auditioning, but the band is going to be performing in the Groovy Smoothie in a couple weeks. Unfortunately, stage fright is something that they can't have in their drummer. You have to be ready now, I hope you understand."

"Yes ma'am, and thank you."

"Please don't ever give up on your dreams though, okay? Keep practicing and maybe one day you'll be able to be a part of a real band. Just right now, Jonah and Freddie don't have room for you…" Freddie nodded and put a mark next to the drummer's name, an X to signify that he wasn't satisfactory enough for them.

"The drummer has got to pull his own weight, Albert. We can't pick up for you, you have to pick up for yourself. Surely you understand." The drummer nodded his head and with a smile, thanked them and started to walk off the stage. "Well, we're definitely going to have a lot of interesting auditions guys…" The others nodded and prepped themselves for the next person.

I feel bad for that guy, bad case of stage fright. Hope you caught the Easter Egg. Think about it: Who is Aaron Albert?