First Audience
First Audience
The week had passed quicker than he would've thought. Em and Leah had more or less stopped treating him with gloves, and he had bumped into Kasim and Tiny on the next day and had insisted they eat lunch together. They had relented after a while though they'd been tense the entire time the girls had been there.
All in all he was settling in a nice routine between his daily morning training, his classes and his musical pursuit.
Speaking of which, he had already accumulated 15,000 or so views on YouTube, while his subscribers had reached 1,543. Slow and steady was the way to go!
He was also getting ready to go perform in front of his first audience, which was nice. He took a look at his watch, it was 1:10pm so he got down the stairs and went to the garage, his guitar strapped to his back.
No one was home, his parents were working while Lou had been invited to spend the afternoon at Haven's house (a new friend) with Anna so he wasn't scared anyone would notice him.
Em was busy with cheerleading, the Rockets from Needham High were going against the Sachems of Middleborough High, and they were playing on the latter's turf. She had dragged Leah with her and had wanted to bring Jay as well but he had begged out, he had no interest in football and both girls knew that so they hadn't insisted.
He turned the garage lights on and smiled at the bike in the corner. Lee had given him permission to do with it as he saw fit and Jay had done just that.
He had bought new tires, a new bike chain and and a can of black matte spray paint from the nearby hardware store and tad-ah! It looked better than brand new.
He got out of the garage and closed it behind him, not forgetting to activate the security system with the remote controller his father had given him.
He took a look at the map he had printed out and made sure he had remembered everything before putting it back in his pocket and starting to cycle.
***
It took him 40 minutes to arrive at destination and he locked his bike up to a nearby railing before making his way inside the building.
"Hello, is there something I can help you with?" a black American woman sitting behind the reception desk asked him.
"Hi, yes, my name is Jay Aslan, I called, I'm here to play some music?" he said with a smile.
"Ah yes, we've been waiting for you." she said as her eyes lit up. She stood up and extended her hand to him, "I'm Charmaine, it's nice to meet you, everyone is very excited."
Jay shook her hand and smiled, "Likewise."
"Please follow me, do you need to set up anything?" she asked while leading the way.
"No, I just need my guitar."
"It's very nice of you to do this, we don't usually have many visitors so your call was a pleasant surprise."
"It's nothing really." he said, a little embarrassed. He had chosen this place because 1), he could get feedback, and 2) it was far enough away that he probably wouldn't bump into someone he knew.
Charmaine led him to a spacious room that was devoid of people. There was a gigantic fluffy rug in the middle and some chairs on each side, as well as various drawings on the walls that made the room seem brighter than it actually was.
She smiled at Jay, "You can just make yourself comfortable, I'll call them now."
He nodded, she went off and he wasted no time getting ready.
He put down his guitar and grabbed one of the chairs available before placing it in the front.
He took Shadow out of its bag and started tuning it... Yes, he had named his guitar. It was a black Little Martin so it fit; sue him!
He heard noises as soon as he was done with the fine tuning, and children came through the doors in pairs. Jay counted and there were 30 of them, each between roughly 6 and 11 years old, no teenagers.
They were very well behaved and all sat down on the rug in order, eying Jay with excitement and curiosity.
Jay smiled and got up, "Hi guys, my name is Jay Aslan, you can call me Jay."
"Hi Jay!" they said in unison and Jay couldn't help but chuckle softly.
"I'm here to sing you guys a few songs, you can also tell me if you have a request and I'll take note of it for the next time, that okay with you?"
"Yes!"
"Great, any questions?"
One of the boys raised his hand, Jay nodded and asked "What's your name?"
"Michael, I'm 8!" he said, apparently very proud of his age.
Jay smiled, "You have a question?"
"Yeah, how did you learn the guitar?"
"I taught myself watching videos and reading books." Jay answered. Which was true, he had never gotten a single lesson, he had always been self-taught.
"Will you teach us?" a little girl interrupted.
Jay turned to her, "Maybe, you want to learn?" he asked and she as well as some of the others nodded. "And what's your name?"
"Lily, I'm 7." she smiled broadly.
Jay nodded and smiled, "Nice to meet you Lily, I'll see what we can do about guitar lessons. Any other questions?"
Nobody had any so he dragged his chair closer to the children and sat on it with his guitar propped on his lap.
"Alright, this first song is called [Don't Stop Believin'] and it was originally sung by Journey..."
***
"Thank you so much for coming, the children were so happy! And you sing so well!" Charmaine gushed while walking him out.
"No, thank you for letting me do this, I had fun. I'll definitely come back, I don't know if I can make it every weekend but every other week shouldn't be a problem." he said sincerely.
"Oh would you? That would be fantastic." Charmaine squeezed his hand and smiled.
Jay hugged her and smiled back, "I will, see you next time." he bade her farewell and left.
He unlocked his bike and mounted it, before taking one last glance at the building behind him and its giant sign "Horizons for Homeless Children", before riding back home.
Thinking of those kids who were at most a year or two older than Lou made him feel suffocated. He had come because it was convenient for him but he would come back for them. He would make sure to go as often as he could, and he should also find another guitar in order to teach them, he ardently thought while cycling.
***
Somewhere in the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California.
"What are you doing?" a woman asked.
"Watching YouTube videos." an teenage girl replied before propping her chin with her hand and tilting her head. "You know it's actually really weird, I was watching videos of adorable kittens, and I have no idea how I ended up watching song covers."
The woman chuckled, "How long have you been watching for?"
The teenager paused, "You know… I'm not sure."
She felt like maybe she should stop and settled on watching one last video. She swiped through the most trendy ones available and clicked on a featured cover of Replay by Iyaz.
"White hair?..." she muttered.
"What?" the woman asked.
"Nothing." she replied, putting her earphones on and turning the volume up.
She fell silent as she listened to the young man on the screen do his rendition, and found herself pressing the subscribe button.
Someone knocked on their hotel door and the woman went to open. She talked with the person who had appeared before she turned around and said, "Sel! They're ready for you!"
"Coming!" Selena smiled before putting her laptop away and joining the woman.
They went backstage where the staff wired Selena with a microphone before giving her an okay sign after which she simply waited.
"... You know my next guest from her hit Disney show 'The Wizards of Waverly Place', now she's got a new CD coming out called [A Year Without Rain], please welcome back... Selena Gomez!" the host proclaimed and she appeared.
She smiled and waved at the cheering audience before joining the host on stage and hugging him, after which they both sat on the available couches.
"Welcome back, wow! The last time you were here you weren't feeling great." Lopez said.
"I really wasn't, I had lost my voice temporarily and had to use a talking box to speak in my stead." Selena chuckled and Lopez chortled at the memory.
"You just turned 18, congratulations about that!" he said and the audience clapped with enthusiasm. "And you also released your new album called [A Year Without Rain] featuring The Scene," he added, bringing the album's cover out to the cheers of the crowd, "Your tour starts on October 20th, correct?"
"That's right, we're doing a small tour, only 19 cities. But yeah it's pretty nice. It'll end in May." she said, not mentioning this tour would be more like an opening for the next one they were preparing, who'd include many more cities.
They chatted some more and when the time came Selena performed her single 'A Year Without Rain' before bidding Lopez and the audience goodbye and exiting the stage.
She went back to her dressing room where her manager was waiting.
"You okay?" the woman asked.
"I'm fine, just a little tired, gonna take a nap before we leave, is that okay?" Selena wearily answered.
"Of course, I'll make sure no one disturbs you." the woman kindly smiled and left.
Selena plopped down on the couch, and started thinking about the next tour that would probably start mid-2011 which was a little uncanny to do since this one hadn't even started yet.
But there were plenty of things to prepare for, the songs, lighting, opening acts...
She paused at that last point, and for some reason the guy with white hair from YouTube flashed through her mind for a second.
She chuckled wryly and shook her head, it wasn't time to be thinking about this, there were more than 10 months before that. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted asleep.