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The once long and crowd line outside of the city hall, was now short and sparce.
Luka Couffaine, marked as contestant #154, was finally at the start of the line.
Jagged Stone was holding a talent scout to discover a young artist to collaborate with. Luka was completely against the idea at first, the rules were single proformers only and since he couldn’t enter with his band, Kitty Section, he didn’t want to enter at all.
His Mother and Sister, Juleka, begged him to enter. They both knew well enough that Jagged Stone was his favourite artist and that being a produced musician was his dream career, he’d never get another chance like this every again.
It was the day of the deadline, he had 5 hours left to submit a video recording of his audition, yet he still stubbornly refused. He told Juleka that he was no traitor and that he was loyal to the band.
Not wanting her brother to miss a once in a life time chance , she called an emergency band meeting so they could all knock some sense into her idiot of a brother’s, thick skull.
In the end the band had a vote, and Luka was thrilled to see his band mates all support him in furthering his career. They even helped him with his audition video, which he passed with flying colours, easily making it into the top 100.
So that lend the Couffine siblings here, today at the city hall, waiting for Lukas live audition.
“This is bad, this is bad, this is bad.” Luka hysterically panicked as he paced back and fourth. He was a massive Stone fan and all he wanted to do was impress the man but he felt like his chance of that were extremely low.
“Hey, it’s be okay” Juleka smoothly whispered, gripping Lukas arm tight, trapping him in place. “You’re an amazing artist, these are just preproformace jitters.” She smiled.
“Yeah you’re right, I just need to breathe and relax.” He breathe out as he started some calming exercises. After a few minutes he was totally calm again. “Alright, I’ve got this!” He confidently exclaimed. Juleka was very relieved to hear that and gave her older brother a hug.
Suddenly a loud cry was heard from inside the audition room that made Luka and Juleka jump. They both gave each other a look of confusion before straining their ears to try and find out what was going on. The door to the audition room was thrown open as a young girl came running out, tears and snot, running down her face as she wailed.
Luka suddenly felt all the panic from earlier rise back up, or was that vomit?
...
Marinette Dupin-Cheng was a very talented girl, and all those talents had led her exactly where she was today in a music audition room with Jagged Stone, yet non of her talents were music. No, she was here as a friend that jagged trusted with good judgement to help him with his contest.
Things started off well, Jagged was happy, positive and alert. He interacted with each contestant and ask them questions about their music, trying to find someone emotionally in tuned with their music rather then just a good musician.
But after the first 100 he got a little fed up with the amount of people who had talent but didn’t care about the music at all! Most of them were in it for the fame and fortune or just to meet Jagged, it was quite disheartening to watch.
The last poor girl didn’t even stand a chance against his bad mood. He simply ignored her the whole audition, not once lifting his eyes from his phone. Marinette guesses the girl was quite sensitive because she ran out the room crying.
“Next!” Jagged yelled in annoyance. Marinette made eye contact with Penny, Jagged’s manager, she had a look of worry on her face as well.
“Okay, next is contestant 154” Penny read from the list on her purple clipboard. “His a 17 year old called Luka Couffine.”
At the mention of his name Marinette perked up. She didn’t know Luka was entering, why didn’t he tell her? She felt a odd sense of sadness as she realised he probably didn’t tell her because they aren’t that close yet. Wait yet?!
As Marinette had a mini crisis over her choice of words, Luka entered the room. The boy poor was having his own crisis. He was already nervous before that girl came running out the audition room crying but now, now he was terrified. He was 100% going to screw up in front of his #1 Idol and be hated by him forever.
“Okay, Luka start when you’re ready.” Penny said as she sat up straighter in her seat, giving him her full attention. Luka swung his guitar around from his back and to his front, he placed his Capo on the 3rd fret and positioned his finger. He was going to play an acoustic cover of jagged’s song Miraculous, but couldn’t find the will to start.
“Take your time but please be considerate of the other contestants.” Penny said politely but one look at her face and you could see she was crawling with nerves. She was clicking her pen continuously as she threw nervous glances at Jagged who wasn’t even paying attention at all.
Marinette was very worried about Luka. She had only meet him a handful of times but the pair had bonded enough for her to know that this was completely uncharacteristic of the boy. Luka was like a sea breezy, cool and calm, always caring sweet soft sounds to those around him. He was never nervous, shy and panicky, heck the teenager hadn’t even raised his head once to look at the judges. If he’d just look up he’d realise Marinette is here for him.
“I’m gonna have to kick him.” Penny whispered to Jagged, who remained unfazed, and Marinette. Painic now set a course through Marinettes veins, she had to fix this for Luka.
“Wait!” she whispered harshly. Penny froze in her half standing position before sitting back down to listen. Even Jagged had froze and turned to look at Marinette. She assumed it was because she hadn’t said much all day.
“I know Luka, other then you Mr. Stone, he is one of my favourite artist, just give him a chance, I’ll talk to him.” Marinette didn’t even wait for a reply as she rose from the judges desk and walked towards Luka.
The sounds of approaching footsteps made Lukas head snap up and his gaze fell upon Marinette.
“Mari?” He whispered in disbelief, if he didn’t already think she was an angel before he certainly did now.
“Whats wrong Luka? you never get stage fright!” She exclaimed worriedly. She reached out a her hand and placed it on his shoulder.
“Jagged.” Was all he managed to reply. Both teens then turned to look at said man, who was now off his phone, leaning forward, staring intensely at the pair.
“Listen, Luka.” Marinette started, she knew exactly what was wrong. “I know you’re a fan and don’t want to dispoint him but if you don’t play anything. Disappointing him is all you’ll end up doing” she explained, “you are a truely talented artist, Luka, you can always somehow play what I’m feeling, maybe just play what’s in your heart instead right now.” With that she gave him a soft smile and squeezed his shoulder.
“Thank you Marinette if you weren’t here I would have-“ he cut himself short, “what are you doing here?” He asked in confusion.
“I’m a judge Mr. Couffine.” She smirked, giving him a cheeky wink while she returned to her seat. “We’re ready when you are!” She called out, as if to prove her point.
Luka smiled softly to himself, closing his eyes and feeling his heart speak to him, it only whispered one word, Marinette. He opened his eyes and looked directly at Jagged and gave him a smile before turning his gaze towards Marinette. This didn’t go unnoticed by Jagged at all.
Luka then removed his capo and started to pick and pluck at the string, a beautiful, soft melody floated through the air. Between the shy smile Luka was giving Marinette and the deeply emotional music he was producing, Marinette was a blushing mess. She wasn’t exactly sure how she understood Luka so well, when he spoke through his guitar but she was positive he just confessed his love for her.
Luka played his last note, the sound ringing out around the room. He smirked as he realised Marinette was blushing. He then turned his head to look at Jagged Stone and realised he too was a blushing mess, this caught him off guard.
“Him” Jagged whispered “Marinette’s boyfriend is the winner!” He cheered, standing up and clapping his hands for Luka.
“Boyfriend?” Both Luka and Marinette screeched in union, completely embrassed by his assumptions.