Chapter Ten

Their first song was Hella Good by No Doubt. Karen and Lina were singing.

"The waves keep on crashing on me for some reason
But your love keeps on coming like a thunderbolt
Come here a little closer
'Cause I wanna see you baby real close up," Karen sang the first verse.

"You got me feeling hella good, So let's just keep on dancing
You hold me like you should, So I'm gonna keep on dancing," Karen sang the chorus as well.

They switched off.

"A performance deserving of standing ovations, And who would have thought it'd be the two us?
So don't wake me if I'm dreaming, 'Cause I'm in the mood come on and give it up," Lina sang the second verse.

"You got me feeling hella good, So let's just keep on dancing
You hold me like you should, So I'm gonna keep on dancing."

They switched off singing the last four verses and that was basically the end of the song. Everyone cheered for more. It was a pretty good start. Rikku ran up to the side of the stage and got Lina's attention by screaming her name over the rowdy crowd.

"What?" Lina asked her when she finally heard Rikku's calls. By then, Rikku's voice was raspy and coarse. Rikku held out a single CD and asked Lina if she could sing songs in Japanese. Unfortunately for Rikku, Lina shook her head, saying, "No...not unless I know it." Rikku sighed, but handed her the CD anyways.

"Play number three on this CD and just dance to it or something. Come on...after avoiding Miaka and me like that, it's the least you could do to make up for it. Please just play it...I don't really know it either, but I want to show Raras," Rikku yelled to Lina over the still chatty crowd and then suddenly ran off to find Raras, a good looking, perverted man with mysterious intentions. Apparently, Rikku was really getting to know Raras.

"Fine," Lina sighed and handed the CD to Seifer who popped it into a huge stereo normally used for his guitar, but also useable in this occasion. Lina tossed each of them an ear set so they would be able to hear what they were saying. "Like we rehearsed, guys. Karen you take the first verse, Dan you get the chorus, I'll get the second verse, and Seifer... you just follow along."

The music started. Karen took charge.

"Okay, let's step forward, one, two, three," she directed them. "Alright now... elbow, elbow, swing side and turn." They took three steps forward and at the beat they pulled their arms to the side, turned and twirled. They had rehearsed these moves the day before so they were fresh in their minds, but the performance was totally impromptu.

"Good, keep going," Dan said through the ear set and the others heard, nodded in acknowledgement or muttering a short 'yes' in between the twirls. The girls from the audience screamed. Seifer was dancing! "Repeat once guys, this is longer than usual because it's Japanese."

"Um...squid, pull back and twirl and repeat," Karen directed and that was the beginning of the song. Squid was a code name for one of their moves; sometimes they used code names instead of actually saying, "Stick your arms out and create a wave-like motion and let it pull you aside to a small drop." They didn't fall, but their feet caught them. They took a few steps back and twirled around. Seifer's face was going red; he hadn't rehearsed as much as the others and now all the girls of Balamb Garden were watching him and screaming over him in delight, even when he made his mistakes.

"Robot and then partner flip. Seifer you just stand there and look cute," Karen directed. Seifer didn't have a partner right now to do the flip dance move with. They all acted two-dimensional and then paired off. Lina went with Dan; Karen went with Scott, where as Seifer stood their stroking his hair coolly to make up for his earlier mistakes. The pairs did a flip. The boy held the girl's hands, the girl crossed other their held hands with their legs and then flipped forward until they were within the boy's arms. "Alright, Dan, over to you for the chorus," Karen winked at him shortly.

"Okay now, let's see every time it says 'what can I do for you', step and twist to your right," Dan referred to the only English line in the entire song. "Now stamp with the Matrix." They all pounded their right feet and then did a kick in the air while twisting to try and imitate the Matrix. "Repeat after a kick and a twirl." They did as they were instructed; what he had directed seemed pretty much an explanation of what to do. Then came the second verse.

"Hm..." Lina was in charge here. "Tush push combo." Lina had learned a dance in the past and now she altered the steps. They all took a step forward with their right foot and were sideways on the stage. They shook their hips twice, turned and did the same with their left foot. Then the girls pulled their arms in the air and swung their hips to each side twice, alternating. The boys did it with their elbows, they were too embarrassed. "Shimmy, right step, drop and up, then to the left."

The girls shook their shoulders, while the boys just stepped over. They took a step to the right and then dropped their heads to knee level, leaning over towards the right side. Then, immediately, they lifted it back up; their hair flew in the air. They did the same on the other side. The second verse ended and now it was the matter of the chorus repeating itself, but it was starting to get old.

"Ah...I think I speak for all of us when I saw we're running out of ideas," Seifer muttered. Miaka suddenly came to the rescue. She ran up the side of the stage and tossed something at Lina. Lina caught it and stared for a moment.

"Glow sticks!" she gasped. Miaka threw pairs at Seifer, Karen, Dan, and Scott as well. "Thanks!"

They cracked them immediately and started raving. The lights went down lower so they were more noticeable. Dan messed up because he didn't know how to rave where as Scott was extremely skilled and probably at the advanced level with strings and everything. Lina was pretty good too, but she couldn't surpass Scott; she stuck with figure eight, liquid and box. They went through figure eight, swing, box, liquid and many others. Scott apparently had string with him because he was doing the butterfly.

"Dan! Toss one here!" Lina tried to save her best friend from the embarrassment. Dan did and Lina tossed one towards him as well, they repeated the pattern over and over until the song ended. Miaka really saved the day and when the song was over they all sighed in relief.

"Let's do a slow song now..." Lina suggested. "I think we need a break." They all nodded furiously.

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