บท 16: Twenty-Four Slots

"A theme we've come to refer to as The Blind Auditions!" Jack declared, a hint of amusement in his irises.

No sooner had those words left the judge's mouth, a mixed wave of relief, wariness and curiosity washed over all of the contestants in the room.

'The Blind Auditions huh…' Kyle mused to himself, more curious than wary of the new theme.

"So, what is this 'Blind Auditions' you ask?" Kiara picked it up from Jack and continued explaining.

"Well simply put, we judges' are put in a situation where the identity of each and every one of you contestants is concealed from us as you perform a song on stage, the audience excluded"

"The purpose of it, is to solely judge you based off of your singing capabilities without any form of bias…" she kept explaining

"But since that isn't really all there is to it, we'll give you a visual representation of what we actually mean" Blake then chipped in in conclusion.

Gesturing to a few of the production staff to play a prerecorded video that had been made onto the large TV screen in the room, the contestants watched on in curiosity.

The video then started with the real hall which they would be using in L.A for the competitions.

The massively large hall along with its completely empty chairs that could fit about a thousand people, suddenly lit up in bright lights as a production crew member walked onto the stage, seemingly imitating a nervous contestant.

Just opposite the stage, right where he was performing, were three big chairs, each ergonomically and modernly designed in a bulky manner, along with a pretty eye-catching big red button built into one of its arm rests each.

What was most curious though, was how all the chairs had their backs turned to the contestant on stage and how three other people, presumably other production crew members, sat on the chairs, imitating the impartial judges.

And then, a pretty terrible short song began to play in the background as the performer on stage lip-synced to it and performed.

However, even as he 'sang' the song, none of the judges did or said anything to him. They just sat on the chairs and didn't do a thing.

After the song was done though, the chairs then automatically turned around, surprising the contestants in the living room who were actually viewing the video.

And then, with a few painful lashings and brutal words from the judges that was enough to make the average grown man cry, the contestant was dismissed and left the stage in a dejected mood while sobbing.

With this, most contestants viewing the video sucked in a deep breath and immediately understood that said contestant had just been eliminated.

But then the video didn't stop there and instead, it continued on to reveal the next contestant coming on stage and performing a short song that was really good.

Instantly, one of the judges hit the big red button and their chairs turned around, lighting up a long narrow light between them and the stage the contestant was performing on that read; 'I Want You!'.

Having seen that, the contestants immediately understood that this contestant had probably been the one that would move on to the next round.

But as the contestant kept performing, reaching a pretty difficult part of the song and then acing it, the other two judges immediately hit the button and the same exact thing also happened as their chairs turned around and their trail of lights also lighted up.

And then, when the performance of the contestant was done, the contestant and judges had a few nice exchanges between themselves and the contestant was promoted to the next round.

That was where the video ended at.

The contestants in the room, after viewing the video and watching it, soon realized that they all probably had a very good chance of proceeding onto the next rounds.

"Simply put, if and when you perform, anyone of us so much as likes the song you perform, we'll instantly give you a ticket to the next round" Blake then explained further with a thin smile, causing the contestants to become happy.

"But if not even a single one of us likes your singing, you'll be eliminated on the spot" Jack on the other hand added bluntly, instantly pouring cold water over them.

"That being said, we're giving all of you full song choices this round just like the previous. Whatever song you choose to sing will be up to you but you better choose wisely" Kiara added seriously with a clap, her eyes scanning every contestant in the room.

"You have the rest of the week to come up with and prepare what you'd like to perform for us. The dates of your performance will be made known to you over the course of this week so prepare very well for the next week" Blake then picked it up from Kiara again while explaining.

Audible gulps could be heard from all of the contestants the moment those words left Blake's mouth.

"Before we go though, I should make it clear that judging is going to be very strict this round so you all better bring your A-game as only twenty-four of you will proceed from here on out. Maybe even less depending on how things go" Jack, stern as usual, didn't bat an eye as he said to the aspiring stars in the room.

With a wave of disbelief painting the faces of most of the contestants in an instant, they once again had the realization dawn on them that they were in a reality singing TV show.

And as usual, the stakes were always high without care or consideration for weak performances.

Leaving the contestants again after having done their part, the judges casually strolled out of the room.

No sooner had they done that, some production crew staffs along with Howard and his assistant producer, quickly walked up to all of them and began speaking.

"As you all know, now that you've made it to L.A, there's a very high chance that your faces might be shown on the TV" the short, chubby-looking producer said.

"That basically means that you all need to look your very best for the cameras" the assistant producer beside him explained further.

"Yes. Just as Kevin says, we need to upgrade your visuals so that you can all individually stand out on the show" Howard nodded his head and then continued;

"But that's not all because asides from that, there's going to be vocal lessons, choreography sessions for those of you who want to incorporate it into your performances, a few legal meetings, interviews and filming. Tons of filming." he kept speaking while scanning around the room with his eyes.

"We won't overwork you because that's just unethical and in addition to that, a lot of free time will also be given but, you may get really busy a few times over the course of this week"

"It might also be a pretty hectic one for some of you but, for anyone who has any aspirations and dreams of wanting to become a star, this should just be child's play as it's barely scratching the surface of what a real star has to go through."

"Considering this is a Sunday though, we'll give you the rest of today to do as you please…"

"However, starting Monday, filming will begin extensively so be prepared to give it your absolute all!" Howard concluded with a clap of his hands.

Nodding their heads in understanding, all of the contestants quickly dispersed and went about doing all they wanted to do.

Some had already decided to do as much sight-seeing as they could today while others had instantly began working on the songs they were going to perform.

Among the former, was Ryan, Katie, Steven and Joe, all of whom were pretty excited to explore a few popular sites and landmarks in the City of Angels like the Santa Monica Pier, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Walk of Fame and many more.

Kyle of course, was among the latter.

Considering they were given the freedom to perform any song they wanted again, he was also planning on singing another original of his.

This original, was the one he had really worked on the most, both in his past life and this current one since he had become self-aware.

A song that he already had all the instrumentals prepared for and was more or less, a pop-rock ballad about the story of a lady suffering from a heartbreak.

Having taken a bit of inspiration from the way his mother had tried to move from one man to the other while trying to get over his dead father and being unable to do so in his past life, Kyle really felt like it was a song that would resonate with a lot of females in similar shoes.

In addition to that, he actually wanted the song to be quite uplifting too, as Kyle, unsurprisingly, was a big fan of happy endings.

Already having created and tweaked the instrumentals of the song to an almost perfect degree with his DAW from his laptop, it was the first song Kyle was going to perform without playing any instruments, which meant he was purely focused on pushing his voice to its absolute limits.

Although he noticed his voice was becoming more refined as he leveled up and he was able to push past some fairly high notes he previously couldn't, he hadn't really explored where exactly his singing strengths lay at.

This made him feel like he was practically a noob at the entire singing thing when most contestants had probably crossed that road a long time ago.

All that aside though, Kyle still very much believed he could make the actual song itself even better and with that thought in mind, the moment he got back into his room and took his bath, he sat down to begin working on it again.

Staring at the lyrics sheet, playing the pop-ballad tune on his laptop, pondering over a few things here and there, Kyle began making a few changes that he felt would further elevate the song.

'Yeah, I should add a bridge now that I think about it…'

'That means I'll need to tweak the instrumentals further to fit the longer length of the song…'

'The instrumentals… a short pause here maybe, build a slight anticipation for the final chorus after the bridge?'

'Hmmm… Using a falsetto would be nice at the ending post-choruses. Should I try it? I'll need to take those vocal lessons then…'

Just like that, the young man tirelessly kept working on his song till night came, getting up only at intervals to eat when hunger struck.