Alrighty, here is chapter 5, ready and waiting for you to read X3 X3 X3
And to DK, thank you so much for your comment, hun! I love that song too, it's so beautiful! :3
I hope you guys enjoy!
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Sylvia sighed as she watched the crescent moon come down closer and closer to her from Meena pulling the lever behind the curtain.
When she first started working here at the theater, she didn't really know what to expect in her job description. House keeping was pretty much a given, and errand girl, okay, Buster did tell her to expect that he and Ms. Crawly would find a few extra things for her to do to keep her busy.
But what she didn't expect, as she looked down at the sand paper in her right paw and cans of wood stain and gold paint on the floor near her feet, was suddenly becoming a carpenter when Buster asked her sand out the rough edges along the moon prop and touch it up...or was the correct title for it 'handyman'?
Well, either way, at least she could look forward to a colorful resume for future reference by the time this show was over...
"Are..are you sure you don't need any help, Sylvia?" Meena called over as she watched her new friend climb up on the hanging stage prop once it was far enough for her to reach and began struggling to pull herself up to the top so she could work her way down.
"Nope." Sylvia grunted out, inching further bit by bit "I got it."
"Really, it's no trouble." the young elephant insisted. " I can get some sand paper too and get the top of-"
Sylvia rolled her eyes a bit, she really liked Meena, after coming out of her shell a little since they met, she was very sweet, eager to please and they had actually become rather good friends with each other since they first exchanged numbers the other day, and although she could appreciate the young elephant wanting to help out, Sylvia would be sure to ask her for her assistance if she really needed it for something.
"Meena," the young fox ground out as she then stretched a paw up to try and grasp the top of the moon. " I said I'm-"
But just as the tips of her claws just barley touched the wood, she gasp when she suddenly lost her grip and slide down along the curve of the moon, getting a bit of height as she sailed off of it and crashed to the stage floor.
"Aah!" Sylvia cried out, clutching her right leg tightly as her knee as it suddenly felt like it was on fire.
"Sylvia!" Meena cried in alarm as she hurried over to her friends side as the young vixen sat up, still favoring her knee. " What wrong?"
"I-it's nothing...ow!" Sylvia winced, berating herself because this was her fault for being so stupidly stubborn. And sucking in a sharp breath through her teeth as she pulled back the now larger rip that was already there in her jeans and inspected the damage, where she discovered that a small patch of her black fur had been scrapped off as well as a good sized lump under the skin of her knee where a big splinter was nestled in.
Making her dread the fact that she was going to have to dig that sucker out as soon as the pain wasn't burning her too much to walk...
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" a voice asked in worry as she looked up to see Rosita and Gunter running over to them.
"Yeah, I just got a splinter." Sylvia told them, trying to wave them off. "It's nothing serious."
"Is everything alright over there?" came Busters voice from the making Sylvia look over to find that she had unintentionally drawn a crowd as he, Ash, Johnny and Ms. Crawly all seemed a little concerned when they heard Sylvia cry out after her fall.
The only exception was Mike as he just seemed extremely peeved over it.
"Not hardly!" the white mouse stated angrily. "Some of us still need to practice winning the show, so if you wouldn't mind, keep it down!"
And as he stormed back to his rehearsal space, Rosita just gave a distasteful shake of her head before she knelt down beside the young vixen.
"Here, let me see..." she instructed, motioning for Sylvia to move her paws from her knee.
"Really, I'm fine!" Sylvia insisted. " Just go back to practice and I'll take care of it."
But Rosita refused to hear any of it as she forced Sylvia's paws apart with a surprising, and rather uncharacteristic, forcefulness from the usually soft spoken and gentle pig.
And after she took a few moments to look over Sylvia's injury, she turned to her partner as he and Meena were both leaning over her shoulders to take a look as well.
"Gunter, I'll need a damp towel." She said in a tone that Sylvia could only describe as the 'mom voice'. "Make sure it's nice and warm."
"Ja, coming right up, Rosita!" the exuberant pig affirmed with a quick salute before he practically bounded across the stage to do what was asked of him.
"Anything I can do?" Meena asked, wanting to help as well.
"Yes, if you could go grab my purse from our practice room, that would be great." "Rosita said as she helped Sylvia stand to her feet; And as Meena hurried away to get it, Rosita sent a smile over to Buster and the others as she walked with the young vixen towards backstage.
"Don't worry, everyone, I'll take care of her." She announced. " You just go back to rehearsals, okay?"
"Rosita, you really don't have to..." The silver fox began, even though she already knew that it was all but pointless to get this pig on a mission to stop what she was doing, especially when she let out a hiss of pain as her knee seemed to pinch and sting from moving.
"Oh shush, it' no trouble at all." Rosita told her with a wink of one of her hazel eyes. " As a mother of twenty five, I'm an practically an expert as getting splinters out as painlessly as possible."
Sylvia nearly choked at that bit of shocking information as she stared at Rosita in amazement, twenty five?! Holy flipping muffins!
And as Rosita left Sylvia to go grab the items she needed from Gunter and Meena, Ms. Crawly who came back and offered her a small cup coffee while she waited. Sylvia accepted it with a 'thank you'. But right after she took a sip, it took all she had not to make a face or cringe at the black, store bought coffee as the strong, overly bitter taste coated her mouth.
"Does it taste okay, dear?" Ms. Crawly asked with a comforting smile. "It's not too hot, is it?"
Not wanting to hurt the well meaning iguana's feelings, Sylvia offered a meek grin and hummed while shaking her head before giving the elderly lizard a thumbs up. Though the second Ms. Crawly had turned and left to go back to her business, she immediately spit it back in the cup and placed it down on the floor with a disgusted shudder.
Man, she really needed to start bringing her own coffee!
"Okay, let's get down to business..." Rosita said as she took a seat in front of Sylvia, placing with warm, wet towel over the splinter before she took her big yellow purse and pulled out a pair of tweezers, some ointment and a small, white plastic case of band-aids. Placing them all on her lap before she started off to work. It twinged a little to feel her trying to work it out, but true to what Rosita said before, it really didn't hurt that much as Sylvia let out a sigh of relief when she finally pulled out the evil splinter.
"Okay, see? That wasn't too bad now, was it?" Rosita said, dropping it in the trash bin before she picked up the ointment and put a dab of it on her finger. Which Sylvia shrank back a bit upon seeing as she knew it was the kind that stung.
"Uh, that's okay," She started, trying to get to her feet. " Just give me a band-aid and I'll be good."
"I'd feel better if we put just a little bit on." Rosita said, making her sit back down and reaching over to Sylvia's leg, making the silver fox start to panic a little as she tried to stop her by swatting her hand away and moving her knee this way and that.
"Wha-Hey-Sylvia, hold still!" Rosita told her in a firm tone.
"Seriously, Rosita, I don't-AAAWHOOOO!"
Sylvia clapped her paws over her mouth as Rosita jerked back after rubbing the ointment over her wound, she Gunter and Meena all staring at her with wide, surprised eyes after the high pitched, literal howl of pain the young vixen just emitted from the sting of the medicine.
And after a few moments of she suddenly noticed that she gained another audience, specifically in Pete and the three frogs as they watched her from behind the glass of their practice rooms.
"...What are you all staring at?!" Sylvia demanded loudly, her ears and face burning as they immediately adverted their gaze and went back to practicing. Besides Mike, who she could hear laughing his tail off in his room.
Rosita giggled a bit as Meena and Gunter gave a smile of their own at this new side of Sylvia they had not seen before while she just glared down at the floor with embarrassment.
"Here now..." the mother of twenty five said softly as she pulled out a blue band-aid with pink flowers and put it on her knee before she gave a gentle pat on her leg. "Gunter and I need to get back to practice now, and I'm sorry that the medicine hurt a little, but it's better to be safe than sorry right?"
Sylvia only nodded and mumbled out a small 'thanks' before the two pigs when back to rehearsing for the act, and Meena left to start working on the moon back at the stage herself while the young vixen picked at the flower printed band-aide...thinking about what just happened.
She wasn't very used to getting taken care of like this, as far back as she could remember, Sylvia always looked after herself. It wasn't by any fault of her parents, they never neglected her, but with both of them working she learned at an early age that she never wanted to be a burden to them or have them worry over her when they had so much to worry about already. So she pretty much taught herself how take care of minor, everyday bumps and bruises like this, and never put herself in a situation where it was likely that she would get seriously hurt.
But Rosita didn't give her much of a chance to do it herself like she would with her parents, and even if this this whole experience made her a little uncomfortable at first, it still felt a little nice to be shown a bit of maternal attention from Rosita... she really was a good mother.
...and that made her think that she really needed to go see her own mother soon, too...at least just to say 'hi'.
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After the whole splinter incident, Sylvia just took a little break right where Rosita left her. But once she checked the time on her phone, she had about thirty minuets of work left before she had to go to the cafe.
Buster had wanted her to make a sweep of the practice rooms before she left, spot cleaning mirrors and tidying up anything that the contestants used. Pete had left early that day, as did the frogs because two of the member had gotten into another ego fight and refused to practice with each other anymore for today. And by the time she was done with those two rooms, Rosita, Gunter and Mike already clocked out and started home.
The only one that was still being occupied was by Ash, who seemed to be in a mood fit to kill as she switched off a stereo that was playing some kind of girly pop song when Sylvia stepped inside.
"Hey, you taking a break in here?" Sylvia asked her. " Mr. Moon wanted me to make a quick sweep of the practice rooms before I take off."
"Knock yourself out." Ash growled as she sat down on a chair in a huff, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she glaring daggers into the floor while Sylvia walked over to one side of the mirror.
"Wow, what's got you in such a prickly mood?" the young vixen asked as she pulled out a bottle of Windex and some paper towels.
"Ha. 'prickly'. That's a good one..." the porcupine said, her icy blue eyes rolling as her husky voice oozed with sarcasm.
"Whatever, I'll just be in and out." Sylvia said with an eye roll of her own as she started cleaning up all the smudges she could find. Her knee was still throbbing and she had a long evening of making coffees for tons of customers to look forward to, so she didn't need to add an obviously irritated animal to her list of stresses for the day.
The whole room was quiet save for the squirt of the cleaner and the occasional squeak that came from Sylvia rubbing the towel over the mirror, and it went on like that for a good few moments before Ash was the first to speak again.
"Have you ever cared about someone so much, you would literally do anything to see them happy? To support them and encourage them to do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true?" she asked in a softer tone. "Only to feel like they wouldn't do the same for you?"
Sylvia glanced down at Ash's reflection in the mirror...They never had much interaction with each other, even as they passed each other doing whatever as they worked. She mostly kept to herself in this room playing her guitar or having almost one sided arguments with Buster about his song choices for her. But as they young fox looked at her, gone was her cheeky and sarcastic attitude, and instead, a very solemn and exhausted looking porcupine stared back at her. Making Sylvia turn around to face her properly as she figured Ash wanted someone to talk for a bit.
"Care to elaborate?" Sylvia finally asked.
"My boyfriend, Lance..." Ash began. "Before I started coming here, we actually had our own band together."
"We both auditioned for the show when we saw the flyers, but for some reason, Moon just wanted me...and Lance didn't want me to come at first, he just thought I wanted to sell out."
"Well, I guess something changed if you're here now." Sylvia said, gesturing around them.
"Yeah, after I kept telling him over and over that we could start our own labeling company for his songs if I won the money..." Ash said. "My only problem is that I hate all these frilly pop songs!"
"I'm sure I could write a better one if I was given a chance, but Lance all but made it clear that if I want to win, I need to do what Moon says...I don't think he believes that I have it in me to make my own song."
"But, Lance is pretty much an expert as musician, and he's already written a bunch of great songs...if he thinks I can't make a good song, then maybe he's right..."
"Have you even tried to write your own song before?" Sylvia asked, finding it a little hard to believe that her own boyfriend wouldn't be supporting her in something that she wanted to do, regardless of whether he though she could write a song or not.
"Well...not exactly." Ash confessed with a shrug of her shoulders. "Lance usually writes our songs, I'm just the back up singer."
Sylvia nodded at the information, it sounded like she really idolized her boyfriend for what he could do, but even though Ash played if off as him knowing best because he's an experienced writer, something still bothered her a little...
"Look, no offense or anything," the young vixen started as she went back to cleaning up again. " But he really doesn't sound like all that great a musician to me..."
"What?" Ash started defensively. "How can you say that when you've never met him?!"
"Well...why did Mr. Moon just pick you, then?" Sylvia asked. "What you just said leads me to believe that this Lance guy's caught up in his own hype, and if he's cutting you down like that because you want to write your own song, then maybe he's the one holding you back from what you can really do as an artist."
"But Lance would never..." Ash began, but she trailed off as her expression made her seem a little unsure.
"I think you're here because of what you can do, Mr. Moon saw what you were capable of and the talent that you have, that you could become more that just a back up singer." Sylvia continued as she finished tidying up in the room and made sure that everything was back in place. " And from what I've heard, I wouldn't put it past your ' oh so supportive' boyfriend to have gotten jealous because Mr. Moon saw potential in you while he was completely passed over like a stale bagel."
"But, that's just my own opinion." The vixen added with a shrug as she dusted off her hands after she was satisfied with her work. "You don't have to take anything I say seriously if you think any different."
Ash just looked down at the floor as she thought about what Sylvia told her, wondering if the silver fox really meant everything she said...but before she could even think of something to say, Sylvia had one more thing to add...
"And you know, as far as songs go, I think you should go ahead and make something anyway." Sylvia told her. " No one should have the right to say you can't if you haven't actually tried."
"And contrary to what Mr. Moon thinks, I seriously don't see you as the 'Pop Star Princess' type."
"Well that makes two of us." Ash said, finally cracking a smile. "You should see the dress he expects me to wear."
"Let me guess, glitter and bows, right?" Sylvia said with a short laugh of her own as she gathered up the cleaning supplies and started heading out to put them back in the sticky broom closet. "Yeah, I'd rather keep my eye sight, thank you very much."
"Hey hold up a sec!" Ash started, stopping her from stepping out the door. " I'll probably just go along with what Moon wants for a little while, but...if I get around to writing my own song, would you mind listening?"
"You know... for feed back and junk?"
"If you want me to, then sure." Sylvia said with a nod, not really seeing any reason why she shouldn't as she gave Ash grin. " See you tomorrow."
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Lol, from personal experience, I find that the absolute worst places to get splinters is in your fingers, toes and knees XP ANd WOOT! Sylvia's starting to get to meet all our favorite stars! *happy dance*
I'll try and get some more chapters done soon, thanks so much for reading guys!