Disclaimer: I don't own things that belong to Marvel. Only this character.
Thanks goes to all of our lovely betas: You are all awesome. Hearts and kudos to my co-author.
Concert!
"Ms. Rivera and Ms. Cooper, your proposal for a fundraising event has been approved," Jonathan Simmons, the bloody Dean of Boston University, congratulated us.
A good friend of Kalia's, Kimberly Cooper, the co-captain of the dance team grinned at her with jubilation and they fist bumped, triumphantly.
The other heads of departments grinned along with them. The team pulled out some papers and got down to business.
"We were thinking of reserving the Agganis Arena," Kalia started off, looking to the heads of the departments.
Nathaniel Burgess, head of Residence Life nodded, writing notes in a notebook. "I can reserve it. What date?"
Kalia and Kimberly looked at each other for a moment as if communicating with each other mentally.
"It depends on how long we get everything set up," Kim spoke with a brief pause to think. "I mean right now, we say maybe the last day before spring break. That gives us," she paused again and hurriedly counted the days in her head. "211 days to set everything up. I think that's more than enough. We could give the rest of this month and the first two weeks of October to advertise the need for musical acts; the date to try out for the spots could be on the 15th and 16th. That would make it the Thursday and Friday." Kim finished and she looked over to Kalia who nodded and examined her papers before writing in a few things.
She then took over and began to outline the schedule. "So that's about three weeks for people to know, get something created and register to try out. We could have a registration fee as part of the fundraiser- up to you. As Tryouts are on the 15th and 16th, we could hold a meeting for those that made it in on Saturday the 17th to iron out rehearsal plans. We would need to contact a catering company and rent tables and chairs for a VIP section. There would be a full course dinner for those that donate enough to be in the VIP section."
The dean was furiously writing into his notebook, nodding along with the plans as he wrote.
Kim added with a grin, their plans were coming to fruition, "And there would be a host to hand out 'Thank You' plaques for those that donated a lot. A sort of awards ceremony. Can't expect to not say thank you for your money to them."
Several nodded around the table.
Kalia grimaced somewhat. "While I'd love to be part of the committee, the reason why I suggested this was so that I could be a part of the show. I'm planning on trying out."
"Well, Ms. Rivera, it's approximately 95% of the job that those higher up in the command are responsible for. Therefore, it would be our pleasure to handle this mostly ourselves." Simmons stated and held out his hand.
Kalia leaped up and vigorously shook his hand with a triumphant smile on her face.
October 17, 1987.
'Kalia Rivera hosts the 1988 First Annual UNICEF Concert!' Kalia proudly waved the flyers in the air before pinning up numerous posters. The meeting was Saturday and she needed to hurriedly spread the word.
October 18, 1987
Seated at a large table in the Dean's meeting room were the acts that made it 'in' and the head of the Theatre department, as well as the head of Res Life.
"First, congratulations for making the final cut. The talent BU has is simply amazing. Second, is to work on a schedule for rehearsals. I'm sure everyone needs to rest from the stressful try outs so we'll grant you two weeks before the meeting on October 31st," Simmons stood and wrote Oct 31 on the chalkboard. Several people around the table pulled out their agendas.
"Seeing as how this is our first UNICEF concert, I think that all of your semester finals can be exempt and as a replacement, the concert will act as your final exams." Loud cheers erupted in the room and most people had their hands on their mouths praying in thanks.
Simmons smirked and wrote 'No Finals' on the board. "That said, you guys have the time to now work on your separate acts. The very first rehearsal will be schematics. That rehearsal will be the third week of January of the new year. Date still undecided." Simmons wrote 'Schematics Rehearsal?' and turned to the room. "I will be part of the background getting everything set up. After this, it's Whaley and Bell that will be the main directors since this is their departments."
The two women nodded in greeting. "They set the rehearsal days and times, and the order of performances. Dr. Whaley? Dr. Bell? Anything need saying before I let them all go?"
Dr. Bell stood, a portly older white woman in her 40's with startlingly dark and grayless hair. "Ah, yes. Practice the performances you want to showcase and be ready to perform them in January. Have at least three back up performances. The songs or performances should be approximately 7-10 minutes in length until told otherwise. As a 3 hour concert, at the most there will be 120 minutes of actual entertainment, and even less so when we get down to the final nitty-gritty details. The actual performance has been decides to be the Saturday before Spring Break: March 19."
March 19, 1988
There were several thousand people in the audience in the stadium and Kalia closed her eyes, body trembling in anticipation and fear.
She could hear them from her dressing room, a loud conglomeration of voices waiting for a show. She glanced at the mirror, ensuring that her face full of glamorous make-up was still flawless.
Her hair was tightly braided, in as few cornrows as possible. They had to take them out for the intermission performance anyway.
A tech in all black clothing with a headset and an equally as nervous smile appeared at her side and she gave her a thumbs-up when she realized it was Kim.
"Break a leg chick. First act is up in 10, I repeat everyone to places, first act in 10." Kim exited the room after a quick fist bump with Kalia. Her heart started pumping harder, the nerves building up into a dull roar in the back of her head.
"Thank you ten," she murmured in reply, getting up to wrap a black shin-length trench coat around her form. She hurried to the wings of the stage and got in place next to the first band; they were all as jumpy and nervous as she was. Some of them had obvious ticks like foot tapping or finger tapping, while others shifted from foot to foot. Everyone wanted this to succeed.
First the lights slammed off with a thunderous sound for a dark stage. The audience immediately quieted with incredibly noisy expectancy.
The band members creeped to their spots. The drummer flicked a drumstick on the cymbals as a cue. Everyone on stage and everyone backstage took their final breath in preparation.
The lights flashed back on.
The drummer ticked off the tempo with the drumsticks and the band roared into the first measures of their music with vigour.
It was a sort of funk-like rock sound. Without a visible cue, the band pulled off the loud sound back to very soft playing; the flare gained numerous applause and whistles from the crowd.
With her cue, she strolled onto the stage and stopped dead and center where the mic stand was. She was told to look straight dead and center, with occasional glances around the stadium; don't look at anyone specifically. She couldn't help herself. Her eyes found Tony Stark and his family and her nerves vanished. Her shoulders relaxed and her chest was released from the tight grip of anxiety.
She shimmied and rocked her hips with the music for a few seconds before she cut them off with a sharp movement of her hand, as practiced.
"Welcome. To Boston University's First Annual UNICEF Concert Event! I. Am. Your. Host. Kalia Rivera!"
Applause rang out as she paused and the lights dimmed to soft white, and then flickered over in a dazzling display to a deep hue of blue. Kalia stared out into the crowd at anonymous faces, nerves starting to jump up in excitement and adrenaline rather than nervousness.
She giggled a little in the mic before she allowed the applause to settle. "It is my honour to be a freshman at BU, and put together something this amazing to raise funds for UNICEF. Here's a few statistics for you before the show begins. Here tonight are three thousand students from BU. Their tickets were five dollars each. Here tonight, are four thousand parents of students of BU. Their tickets were ten dollars each. Here tonight, are eighty professors of BU. Their tickets were five dollars each. Here tonight are over five thousand additional donors. Of those five thousand. Three hundred and fifty have donated above ten thousand dollars each! From the bottom of my freshman heart, I thank you all!"
Thunderous applause and cheers met her in reply and she smiled back at the audience before turning to the band and letting them start the celebration with a cue.
The lead singer steps to the mic and belts out a soulful sounding note and that kicks it off. Dancers appeared from the wings and Kalia backed away from the mic unbuckling the strap at the middle of her coat and allowing it to slip off her shoulders. With a choreographed shoulder shimmy and hair toss, the coat fell to the stage floor and was dropped into a trap door.
Boston University's dance team took the stage along with the first band of the night and danced behind the lead singer.
Their uniforms were designed by a kind soul from Savannah College of Art and Design - it was an off the shoulder, single leg jump suit that had ruffles going down the one shoulder. It had the crotch and thigh outlined in a fiery red flame design and the rest of the cloth was pure black. Completing the uniform were matching anklets and bracelets as the dancers were barefoot.
They positively sparkled with a lot of glitter and stage make-up as they almost upstaged the band. The smiles on their faces were genuine and the aura on stage was extremely cheerful, excited, and happy. The stadium rose to their feet as the sound vibrated their seats and seemingly burst ear drums.
When the end of the song came near, the dance team were pulling every last advanced dance technique that they were allowed. And when the drums played out a percussive bomb of the finale, all the dancers dropped into perfect splits to emphasize the ending of the beginning act.
Cheers and screams echoed and bounced off the stadium walls and the lights dimmed from bright white, to black.
The performers on stage exited on either side of the stage, their faces glistening with a light sheen of sweat and smiles or smirks wide on their lips. The next act was being prepared to enter the field.
It wasn't until the dance team was backstage that they gave in to silently squealing and jumping up and down in excitement.
Holy shit, the rush was amazing. Performing in front of thousands.
Kalia emerged out of the mob of dance team members already being helped out of the first uniform. A few techies were strapping the headdress of her next costume on while a makeup handler was cleaning the glitter from her person using. While dark eye-make up was applied she's strapped into the top half of the costume and is allowed to step into the skirt of it. She stepped into the matching flat shoes for the costume and she's ready to sit for approximately forty-five minutes until her next performance.
She received pats on her back on her way to her dressing room and she relaxes as much as she can in her actor's chair to get ready mentally for the next stage appearance.
The next band she was performing with was extremely new age Rock that allowed her to get crazy.
She was decently singing the lyrics while almost making love to the microphone, dragging the stand behind her and striding back and forth across the stage.
The people were eating this performance up; Her look was almost a tribute to Cher. A ridiculously fluffy black headdress with silver highlights, a strap of cloth that covered her breasts barely, but fabric criss-crossed its way up her throat in a parody of modesty, a bare stomach and a skirt that fell in glorious sequined waves to the floor*.
Of course the song she was currently screaming to the crowd was half way seductive, half way angry. There were musical parts where she had to use a breathy, gentle voice. And then there were parts where she battled head to head against the drummer.
When the song came to an explosive close, the lights dimmed to black before coming back as a soft purple. There was sweat dripping down her forehead and down her back.
And she chuckled as the crowd went nuts cheering and applauding. "Ahaha. Thank you. Everyone. Missing Riots, everybody. One bad ass band, if I may say so myself." She paused, grooving to the background music playing from the band and she points upward in a superheroic strong pose.
"LIGHTS!" The stage lights blasted to full house 'on'. But that was okay because the band had pulled out their sunglasses and pushed them on.
"LIGHTS!" She pointed out towards the audience this time, shimmying and shaking as the lights in the audience came up to full power.
"And STOP!" The band drug down its final notes and she bowed deeply to the audience whispering a seductive. "Intermission, ladies and gentleman."
She walked back stage to the loud applause and energy of the audience.
When she opened her dressing room door, she had to bite her lip to keep from falling into hysterical laughter.
Somebody - the cast- had filled her room with bouquets of flowers.
Carefully sweeping the flowers from her chair she placed them in a neat pile on the floor and started disrobing to underwear. She had some time before intermission ended and the final act begun seeing as how her final and last performance of the night was The Finale.
For the finale, Kalia was shimmering in sequined gold. The top was embroidered on each breast, with a little sleeve that just covers the upper bicep. The skirt of the piece was also embroidered and sequined with slits up the sides of each leg. There were two straps that would settle on her love handles. She would again wear matching flats. She readied for the finale with a stage hand helping her into a mic set. With a final sliver of tape and a pat on her butt, the stagehand left her and she got into position beneath the stage for her appearance.
Fog filled the stage, the lights dimmed to an ominous blue, and the last band stayed on the stage as the keyboards drag out a solo, solemn note.
She started her singing with a literal thank you.
She was actually under the stage looking at a lyric sheet so she doesn't mess up any of the names. And there were a lot of names. Excluding the students and professors, she belted out the names of every donator that gave more than twenty dollars as donation: over three hundred names.
The drums began, keeping her tempo at the middle of her list. At the final name, the elevator lifts and she popped out of the trap door and stalked to the middle of the stage, halfway obscured by the fog. The lights flash to full power on and she bowed deeply, her voice punching out of her chest as she sang the final thank you.
The audience jumped to their feet in a standing ovation. The curtains closed and once they closed they opened back up with all the acts on stage. The bands and performers all bowed or curtsied in the curtain call, as rehearsed, and they fell upstage and parted in the middle for Kalia. She herself bowed deeply twice to the catcalls and cheers. The ensemble melded together behind her gesturing to stage right, and to stage left, and to the audience, and then to the sound and light board above and they bowed a final bow as an entire ensemble.
They stepped back as one and the curtains closed a final time.
They didn't dogpile Kalia until they were well backstage and she was crying tears as she hugged them all back as much as possible.
Her dressing room is mostly clean, however there was a Tony Stark waiting for her with a huge bouquet of wildflowers in a dapper tuxedo. They eyed each other in appreciation of each other for a full minute. She shyly smiled at him. He pressed the bouquet into her arms and enfolded both the bouquet and her in a strong hug.
" your costumes look great on you." They parted and she carefully placed the unique bouquet dead and center on her dresser. She turned back to him with a grin on her face.
"How did you like the performance? We did raise a lot of money for UNICEF and by the crowd reaction, we rocked!"
Tony unashamedly watched as she started removing her costume; he could multi-task. "Yes, it rocked." He rolled his eyes, sitting in the actor's chair like he belonged there.
"Thank you! We worked hard on this for months. Thank you for also being one of the top contributors." She had sang all of the Starks names on stage for the final thank you and she had been pleasantly surprised that all of them donated. They were of course in the VIP section during the show. Kalia stepped behind the rack of clothes to pull back on a business casual pair of pants and a blouse. Tony's "interested in what I'm seeing" gaze was really intense and focused. The only thing that saved her from stuttering and blushing was that she knew she wasn't his type, nor he hers. She held the long coat that she was allowed to keep over her arm. "Now how the hell did you get back here?"
"Stark trademarked secret." He popped the cufflinks on his tux as pretentiously as possible.
She only shook her head, watching him and trying to figure out how. "Aha! You flirted with one of the stagehands, didn't you?"
The use of the names are randomly generated. Any and all similarities are purely coincidental.