"Calling all Flotsams to the stage," a monotonous voice declared over a small
speaker in the waiting room. The fish Neopets all chattered excitedly to one
another, making last minute preparations before filing hurriedly out of the
room to compete.
"Good luck!!" FluffyRabbit called after a striped flotsam she had been chatting
with.
"Thanks, Fluff!" the flotsam grinned, giving a hurried wave before scuttling
out of the room. The faerie Uni turned to where Rose sat beside her, staring
off into space and her legs nervously bouncing beneath the skirt of her dress.
She reached out, touching the red uni's shoulder gently and making her jump
a little as she came back to her senses.
"You'll do fine, Rose," she assured her. "What are you so nervous about, anyway?"
"Oh... just don't think I'm cut out for the stage..." she smiled weakly. "That
and I think a few people I know are going to see me."
"Well that's good, isn't it? I mean... they'd vote for you then."
"Actually, I think it would be more like a few of them to laugh at me..."
her mind turned to Dr. Death as she thought of this. Had he come tonight or
was he just pulling her tail about attending the contest now and then? Her head
began to pound with an oncoming headache as the room suddenly seemed too stifling.
The smell of hairspray and perfume was thick and everyone was packed so tightly
together that the heat they created made her feel dizzy.
It occurred to her with dawning horror that she hadn't had time to prepare
any special act for the show... what was she going to do when her turn came
to do a solo act? She doubted that the karaoke machine the contest staff had
supplied would have any songs on it that she knew nor did she think she'd be
able to wing a decent performance even if they did. A speech! She could give
a speech! But about what? She was bad enough at public speaking without trying
to make it up as she went.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure I'm going to blow
my act..." FluffyRabbit offered.
"Oh? What're you doing?" Rose asked.
"A tap dance routine." Fluff blushed. "Been working on it all week. I keep
tripping and falling at this one part. It would've been easier to just leave
that part out of the routine, but I'm kind of a perfectionist," she admitted.
"What about you? What're you going to do?"
"I'm...ahh...." she faltered. "You know, I don't know what I'm doing..." she
whimpered. "I didn't remember we had to prepare an act...." The faerie uni's
eyes flew wide.
"Oh no! What are you going to do??" Rose shook her head and shrugged. Before
Fluff could offer any suggestions, however, the door to the waiting area burst
open and a starry Uni pranced in, clapping her front hooves together loudly.
"Okay people!! We're up next, let's show a little organisation!" she declared
loudly, commanding the attention of all the Uni contestants. "Let's have all
the males in one line, all the females in another. Hurry now! Quick quick!"
Rose and Fluffy exchanged a worried look, but both rose from their seats to
get in line with the other girls. For a moment, Rose debated slipping to the
back so she would be among one of the last girls to go on...maybe it would give
her a chance to think up something for her solo routine. In the end, however,
she stayed where she was. If she was going to be humiliated, better to do it
with style, she supposed.
"If I don't find my nail polish, things are going to be unpleasant around
here!!" DarlingAngelFae snapped to the empty dressing room. Everyone else had
left, leaving the golden Uni to rummage for her missing fashion accessory by
herself. She gave an irritated snort, swishing her tail angrily. Someone was
in big trouble, she decided, as she tossed aside a large pile of discarded jackets
and backpacks belonging to other contestants. Still no polish. The golden Uni
was all but sizzling as she stood rigidly amid the scatter of coats. It wasn't
that she needed the polish...she knew she was going to win....but looking anything
less than perfect REALLY irked her.
Well, that left one place to look. DarlingAngelFae turned her gaze to the
small closet in the corner of the room that had, early on, been filled with
the belongings of the contestants who had arrived early. She didn't hold out
much hope, but decided it was better than being left wondering as she crossed
the room and ducked inside. Much to her surprise, her missing purple nail varnish
was laying in the middle of the floor as though it had simply been waiting for
her to find it.
The golden Uni rolled her eyes, deciding that it must have been picked up
by one of the other contestants who had used it and then realised it wasn't
hers and left it here in an attempt to look innocent. Dirty ragamuffins... As
bent over to pick up the polish, there was a loud slam and suddenly, she found
herself in complete darkness. She blinked and then looked over her shoulder
to find that the closet door had been shut behind her. Most people in Darling's
position would have been frightened...yet she wasn't. In fact, she was enraged.
She stormed to the closed door and pounded impatiently on it with both hooves.
"OPEN THIS DOOR!!!" she demanded. "OPEN IT RIGHT NOW!!!" Faint voices from outside...they
sounded like they were laughing. "YOU JEALOUS LITTLE CREEPS!!" she screeched.
"YOU JUST DID THIS BECAUSE YOU KNEW I WAS GONNA BEAT YOU!!!!" There was a sound
of retreating footsteps and then silence. "LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!" she wailed,
even though she knew it was pointless. Ohh...SOMEONE was going to pay for this,
she fumed as she sat back on her haunches and glared at the locked door.
"You think we took it too far?" Hubert asked as he and Dr. Death retreated
into the hallway from the ladies' dressing room.
"Feh. No," the Techo fumed. "With a voice like that, chances are they'll find
her before the contest is over anyway. Call *me* a loser...spoiled little brat."
The thought that he might have just increased Rose's chances of winning was
overshadowed by his own personal grudge with the Uni in the closet.
"I guess you're right," the Mynci shrugged. "Just....wow, I wish Rose had
told us she was competing. I mean, you and I will both vote for her, but I don't
think she'll rake in much more than that..."
"If she thought she was being cute springing this on everybody, then that's
her problem," Dr. Death replied coldly.
"Aww have a heart, doc," Hubert goaded. "She probably just decided to go at
the last minute."
"Doesn't matter," the Techo grumped. "And I hope she at least has the decency
to admit this was her fault if she loses instead of pointing fingers at everyone
else like she usually does."
"Well *I'M* gonna vote for her," Hubert replied with a shrug as they approached
the doors to the auditorium again. From inside, faint traces of music could
be heard and the crowd was silent, signifying that an act was currently going
on. The Mynci pushed the door open as quietly as he was able and winced as his
ears were filled by the sound of a young red flotsam singing very loudly and
out of tune to "Michael Finnigan". Had she been older, the crowd likely would
have booed her straight off the stage, but given that she was little more than
a baby, they were all grinning and bearing it. "Besides, if the competition
in the Uni category is anything like this, she'll have no problem," he whispered
to the frost-haired Techo as the two of them quietly returned to their seats.
After a moment more, the red flotsam finished her act and was greeted with
polite applause from the crowd as she bowed and scuttled to the back of the
stage where the other finalists awaited and the announcer, a well-kept Kyrii
in a suit that could have been the host of Better Than You's brother strode
out on the stage with an enormous grin.
"Wasn't she wonderful, folks?" he asked the crowd. "Little Applejackz there
was our final flotsam competitor. What I'd like to ask you good people to do
now....well, you know the drill." He smiled, raising a small trickle of laughter
from the audience. "But for those of you who've been asleep, I'd like you to
take out the number pad found in the pouch of the seatback in front of you...for
you folks in the front row, they're in a holder on the stagefront...and cast
your vote for who you liked best!" there was a universal scuffling and rummaging
as everyone reached for their numberpad and began to punch in the number of
their favourite contestant.
After a moment of bleeping and booping, silence fell over the auditorium once
again and the Kyrii waited patiently, watching the television monitor in front
of the judge's booth for the results to be processed. A tense moment later,
the screen blazed alight with the figures. "And the winner for the species category
of Flotsam with 43% of the votes is contestant number eight, Glitterfishy!!"
A yellow flotsam that had painted herself up in sparkle paint and sported
a pair of colourfully-painted cardboard faerie wings on her back, squealed in
delight and ran from her place in the line of hopeful contestants, throwing
herself at the announcer and hugging him tightly as the crowd cheered.
"What do you think? Was that one a guild-voted winner?" Hubert asked Dr. Death.
"I dunno. That one at least looks like she put a little effort into her costume,"
Dr. Death shrugged. Better than last week's....it was just a blue flotsam that
had put on a pair of step-out shoes and was ranked second overall.
"Hmph..." Hubert grunted as the Kyrii announced second and third place along
with the honourable mentions. "Well that's what happens when it turns into a
popularity contest, I guess." The Flotsams began to file off of the stage.
"Let's give all of them a big hand, everybody!" the announcer cried, making
the crowd burst into peals of applause. "Up next, Neopia's favourite mystical
equines, let's bring on our Uni contestants!!" Cheers and whoops went up from
various sections of the audience as the first of the colourful unicorn Neopets
began to walk on-stage. Amid them was Rose, her shoulders slightly hunched and
looking as though she was trying not to be noticed.
"Looks like you could knock her over with a feather," Hubert remarked. Dr.
Death nodded as he watched the contestants all line up along the back of the
stage.
"I'm wondering what she's going to do for her act," the Techo said quietly.
"She wasn't exactly practising anything." He fell silent as the first contestant
was called forward to perform. A young blue Uni wearing a pastel frilly dress
stepped forward as a stage attendant scurried onto the stage to lower the microphone
for her. The equine looked shyly at the audience and began to recite a poem,
presumably of her own, as everyone listened.
The next act were a pair of young striped foal twins that had brought an electric
keyboard with them and played a slightly discordant duet of Heart And Soul,
ending with the two of them fighting over who's turn it was to turn the music
page and being gently ushered off the stage by an assistant, much to the audience's
amusement.
One by one the contestants performed, each getting their share of applause
and approval. FluffyRabbit's tap-dance routine, as luck would have it, went
off perfectly and she didn't stumble once. And at last, it was Rose's turn.
The red Uni crept to the front of the stage, wringing her hooves nervously.
She had decided, as she had sat and watched the other Unis perform that she
would recite a poem she had memorised from her school days.... but as she drew
near the microphone and stared out into the sea of faces of everyone watching
her, the words slipped out of her mind.
Rose opened her mouth in an attempt to speak, horrified by the thin ribbon
of whisper that came out. She attempted again, trembling all over as the silence
of the crowd sank in. There had never been a time she could remember when she
had been this nervous and swore that her heart was threatening to come straight
out of her ears if it pounded much harder. She took a deep breath, starting
to feel dizzy.
"Hello...I'm..." she managed before the world spun out of control and a veil
of white settled over her vision. There was the faint sensation of falling,
a thud...and then she slipped into blackness.
A murmur of anxiety passed through the crowd as she laid still, showing no
motion of getting up. "Geez! She fainted!" Hubert cried, jumping up and followed
shortly by Dr. Death. Before the two of them could fight their way out of their
row and up to the stage, however, two of the backstage attendants had already
scurried forward and were in the process of hovering over Rose. After a moment
one of them,a red Techo, picked up the microphone.
"Ahhh folks, I'd like to ask if ya'd just calm down and stay in your seats.
It looks like just a little heat exhaustion up here....she's all right," the
Techo attendant said, averting his eyes from the crowd. Apparently he wasn't
too keen on being up in front of everybody either as he briskly replaced the
mike and talked to the other attendant. After some fumbling, the two of them
picked the red uni's inert form up and carried her clumsily off of the stage.
Finally free of their seating row, Dr. Death and Hubert hurried out of the
auditorium and made a B-line for the backstage entrance.
"Thought you said you didn't care about her..." Hubert said as they ran.
"Never said that....and this isn't exactly romantic circumstances.....now
is it, you moron??" the Techo panted in reply as they both paused for a moment
to catch their breath before shoving open the door and stumbling inside. Another
act was going on to playcate the audience while a small circle of people were
huddled around Rose.
"What happened?"
"Don't know, she just keeled over."
"She okay?"
"Poor dear..."
These and numerous other sentiments were exchanged among the throng of onlookers
as the Mynci and Techo muscled their way into the circle. The two attendants
who had rescued Rose from the stage were both kneeling over her.
"She'll be all right," one remarked, peeling back one of her eyelids to shine
a flashlight in her eye. "Her pupils aren't even dilated. It was just a panic
attack." As though on cue, the Uni groaned and began to stir.
"Wha....?" she asked wearily. "Did I oversleep again...?" she asked.
"You just fainted, Miss," one of the attendants told her gently, helping
her sit up. She winced, her hoof going to the base of her skull where she had
hit it on the stage floor. "Randy, go get her some water," he barked at the
red Techo that had been on the microphone a few moments ago.
"Rose, are you all right?" Dr. Death asked, ducking between two people and
kneeling beside her.
To be continued... | 
