Glitch

“As scary as it sounds, you have to jump off the edge before you can soar across the skies. Sometimes you fall, and I won't lie, that will suck, a lot, but sometimes your wings catch the right wind and you take off. All you can really do is hope for the best, and prepare catch yourself if it's the worst." -Elaina Jane Taylor, age 17.

Chances need to be taken. Without them, life won't turn out the way it's supposed to be. Take my parents for example. If my father, a top student in his homeland of Japan, hadn't taken such an interest in foreign law, he wouldn't have taken the chance to study at Harvard in the United States. If he hadn't had gone to Harvard, he wouldn't have met my mother, a beautiful, golden haired honour student from Canada, and they wouldn't have fallen in love, and they wouldn't have taken the risk and got married, they wouldn't have had such a beautiful, wonderful daughter... And my brother too I guess.

Anyway, like I was saying, chances need to be taken! I can't imagine how life would have turned out the way it did if my friends and I had jumped on opportunity. It wouldn't be the same, and I couldn't live with anything other than what I got... I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Kimi! You ready? They want to sweep the stage, meaning they want us off," my best friend, Laney Taylor, said from behind me.

Laney was a pretty little blonde, though she'd been a red head when I met her. Turning to face her, I saw her custom fuchsia guitar hanging on her shoulders, and her hands rested on her hips.

"Kim? We're not getting any younger here!" Another girl, our impatient pianist Mickie growled as she coiled as strand of chocolate brown hair around her fingers. "Let's blow this pop stand! Our fans are awaiting us!"

If you hadn't figured out yet, my six best friends and I had started a band together. When I was in the ninth grade, we'd began preforming together, and by the end of grade ten, we'd become an official band. When we'd started, I'll admit, we sucked. A lot. That being said, by the time I'd reached the end of the eleventh grade, we were pretty good. Amazing even!

The lead guitarist and our youngest member, Willow, laughed. "If by fans, you mean the creepy boy with the inhaler that follows Margie and our parents, then yeah, they're probably waiting."

Despite being our youngest member, poor little Willow towered over us all, standing at an awkward 5'11, barely weighing more than the majority of her band mates. Despite her awkward, bumbling proportions, the girl remained bright, confident and cheerful, instantly drawing attention from the audience when her solos came along.

Willow's sister Margret moaned as if she were in pain at the thought of Lucas Zealman, her apparent stalker. "Will, can you like, go get rid of him?"

"Not a chance! I'm not going anywhere near that pervy mouth breather! Angie will do it!" Willow cheered brightly as she sealed her guitar away in it's case.

Jumping out from behind the drum set, Angie shouted "Oh no I won't!"

Matter glanced over at Angie pleadingly, but her infamous puppy dog stare was ignored. "Not a chance Margret! Have Kimi do it! She's our vocalist!”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I snapped. Like my friends, Lucas was the last person I wanted to be within a fifty foot radius of.

As my band gathered around me, Angie smirked. “You're the most vocal of all of us. That means--”

“I know, it means I know how to use words. You've pulled this over on me before Angie! I won't do it! I won't!” For effect, I stomped my foot and crossed my arms tightly. “I refuse! I am putting my foot down!”

The five girls around me burst out laughing.

“Relax Kimi! We weren't actually going to make you do it!” Mickie said laughing, “We'll face him together! We're a team, aren't we?”

“Right!” The other four girls chirped.

Once we had packed up the rest of our belongings, we'd left the theater, only to be swarmed by the “fans” Willow had predicted. Our parents, siblings, step parents and siblings, and of course, Lucas, who Margret made immediate efforts to ignore. Mom and Dad stood closest to the theater doors, eagerly waiting for me. I ran forward and jumped into my father's arms, wholeheartedly excited for the praise that would no doubt follow. My parents were in no way musical people, and did take pride in bragging about their “talented daughter.”

“You were amazing Kimberly!” My mother cooed. I noticed her bluetooth wasn't in her ear, and her friends were within ear range. Clearly, someone was trying too hard to win “Mother Of The Year.”

“Thanks Mom!” I said happily, as she and my father proudly introduced me to their friends.

Within this circle of adults stood a familiar looking man, who shared the same golden blonde hair and green eyes as my mother. “Uncle Ethan!” I squealed with excitement, wrapping my arms around him tightly, like I had as a little child.

Ethan was my favourite uncle. He was funny, always brought the best presents, and he just so happened to work for a big name music company known as Rising Sun Records, the biggest record label in the entire country! Yeah, he was kind of a big deal around those parts.

"Hey kiddo!" He said just as brightly, tossing my curled black hair around. "Great show tonight!"

"Thanks! But I thought you weren't coming home until tomorrow?" I asked. Ethan had a tendency to be very punctual, it was strange for him to hop on a plane before he'd planned.

"Elena called me a few weeks ago, said you'd be performing at a local concert. I thought I'd surprise my favorite niece," He explained, "That, and I wanted to see if you were as good as Elena insisted you were."

I could feel the excitement bubbling within me at that moment he said those very words. "And what do you think?"

"You're on your way kiddo. Give you a bit more experience and we just might talk." Ethan adjusted his computer bag on his shoulder and pulled a card from his pocket.

I'm sure my eyes must have doubled, maybe even tripled in size. "Are you serious?"

Both my parents stared in disbelief and repeated "Are you serious?"

Ethan nodded. "Very. She's all Cove, that girl... On the inside anyway." By this, I could tell he was referring to my jet black hair, caramel colored skin, and slanted eyes, all which I'd inherited from my father. "All Mitsubishi on the outside, though."

"So you really think Kimberly and the girls could get somewhere?" Dad asked nervously.

My father was a strange man, I never really understood him. By his behavior, it was impossible to tell if he was hoping for a yes or a no.

Ethan nodded, saying, "They've got almost everything, except the one thing that sets them apart from the rest of the performers we've got lined up. The second they find it, call me."

I titled my head slightly in confusion and asked, "What is that?"

"You'll have to find that own your own Kiddo."

Jutting out my bottom lip and batting my eyes, I asked, "Please? Just a little help?"

Before he could even answer, Margret came running up to me and roughly pushed me in front of her. "What happened to being a team? I just spent the last five minutes hiding!" she snapped, her nails driving into my shoulders.

"Sorry..." I mumbled, trying to pry her hands off of me, "My uncle distracted me... You know, the one who works for Rising Sun?"

A weak squeal escaped her lips. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." I repeated as I watched the excitement take over her as it had taken over me earlier on.

Pressing to fingers to the corners of her lips, Margret loudly whistled and called the band together. "Girls! Here, now!"

Within a heartbeat, three other girls circled around us. I noticed that only Willow, Mickie and Angie standing around me.

"Where's Laney?" I asked.

"Where do you think?" Angie scoffed, "Natalie had her in the car on the way to dance before we had even gotten to our parents."

Natalie was Laney's overly competitive dance teacher of a mother. I mean, I do have to admit, Natalie did have her reasons for being strict and controlling, but more often than not, she pushed it just a little too far.

"For real? That sucks, Laney would have loved this," I mumbled, "but anyway! This here is my uncle Ethan! He works for--"

Unable to contain her joy, Margret blurted, "Rising Sun! He actually works for Rising Sun!"

"Thanks Margret, but I totally could have gotten that myself."

"Sorry Kimi, anyway, continue, continue!" she encouraged, pushing and pulling me back and forth until I began to speak again.

I sighed, before becoming giddy again, "Anyway! Uncle Ethan says that we're almost there! If we can find the 'it' we need, he'll sign us!"

Ethan quickly clapped his hand over my mouth while the four remaining girls screamed at the top of their lungs. "Hold on! Hold on! That's not what I said! I said we'd talk!"

"But," Mickie squealed, "those pretty much means the same thing!"

What happened after that, I don't really remember. I'm only assuming there was a lot of screaming, squealing giggling, cheering, and no doubt scolding from our parents. I suppose the rest of the conversation wasn't all that important, after all, I hadn't bothered to lock it away safely in my mind.

Really, it probably didn't matter, because it was that very day that I learned we were on our way to become what we'd always dreamed of, and there was no turning us back around again.