Omaga!

The days leading up to the competition passed quickly. Our staging was simple, and with Darcy doing our makeup, that also didn’t require much thought, so time passed, and the day of the national final arrived.

Noah had been tracking the odds, and although I wasn’t a fan of knowing how we were on it, he couldn’t hold back any longer and shared everything he knew. The techno-fusion song “Hard” was apparently the strong favourite to win. Eucalyptro, a well-known techno-fusion artist in Australia, was behind it. I had never heard of his song or knew anything about him, but he seemed nice backstage.

The show was underway, and the hosts soon announced, “This is Eucalyptro with Hard.”

The music started, but all I could think about was that this song was nothing but a series of sexual innuendos. How could it be a favourite to win? It was terrible. The lyrics were overly simplistic and kind of ‘sus’ if you know what I mean. Like, what was that about a chicken? Seems a little creepy if you ask me. Well, I guess it was a little catchy. But it still didn’t mean it was a good song, right?

By the time it finished, I was humming along. It was so bloody catchy. Fuck! We have no shot. It oozed sexuality and good vibes. The whole crowd was screaming in hormonal madness. While I had reservations about the song, I also couldn’t dismiss the reaction from the crowd. They were digging it up.

Several more acts took the stage and performed, but I have to admit they were entirely forgettable. They all seemed like nice people, but Hard was just such a banger of a song. It was clearly in a different league than the others. I was still humming it. Fuck!

We received the cue. This was it. We were up. It was time to rock!

We hopped on stage and got into position. I looked at the crowd. There were so many people. I began to feel nervous. How could I play in front of all of Australia? Scratch that. People were watching from around the world. What if I made a mistake? Just when I was about to crack, I heard a loud ‘Woooo’ From the crowd.

I looked towards where the noise had come from. It was Pete. That bloody mad lad. He’d travelled all the way down for no other reason than to show support. Pete was a bigger legend than Jet was. The performance went off without a hitch. I hit all the notes I had to, and the rest of the band also gave it their all. Although my memory of the performance is a bit hazy, I know, we absolutely killed it on stage. The crowd also seemed to go nuts. I just hoped we did well enough to win. Hard also killed it on stage. It wouldn’t be surprising if Eucalyptro won.

One last song played after us. I couldn’t pay much attention to it because adrenaline was still pounding through my veins. My body was on fire and aint nothing gonna bring me down.

Then, it was time for voting. Of course, voting time meant we had to sit there and wait. Wait for votes to roll in and to be counted.

“We can now reveal the results.”

Oh shit. It’s time.

“The total points will consist of 50 per cent jury vote and 50 per cent public vote. We will begin with the Jury votes, which will be read in order of performance.” The host explained.

Just get on with it, I thought, though in truth, I was terrified. I could barely focus on all the results as I was trying to do mental gymnastics in my head.

“Eucalyptro received, from the jury, 40 points.” Gees, that’s a solid score. One of the Ballads received 39 points. This put Eucalyptro in first place. I couldn’t see any way we could beat that.

“Gal Pals received, from the jury, 42 points.” Fuck me, Gal Pal was a girl group I danced with backstage. I knew they were good, but I hadn’t expected them to beat Eucalyptro in the jury points. Now, there was absolutely no way we could score well. My heart sank.

The cameras all focused on us. My heart was beating.

“Jane Doe and the Cadavers, from the jury, received…” Oh God, please be somewhat decent, I thought to myself. “54 points.”

54?! Are you fucking kidding me? Holy shit. I couldn’t believe it. Like how? What? Why? I was in shock, and I wasn’t the only one. Noah and even Jet also looked dumbfounded. A second later, when the scoreboard updated, Darcy let out an audible ‘fuck yeah!’

The only people not surprised by the results were Luca, who held a sausage roll in one hand and gave a thumbs up with the other, and Pete, who yelled out from the crowd, “I know those guys!”

54 points put us into the lead by a solid Douze Points, and we were also fourteen points ahead of Eucalyptro. Unless the final performance somehow outperformed us, we would finish at the top of the scoreboard going into the public vote. They did not. I thought our chances were fried, but after the jury vote, we might have a real shot.

“That concludes the jury points. Jane Doe and the Cadavers are currently leading the scoreboard. Let’s cross to them now.”

Wait what?

I noticed one of the hosts coming over towards us, but I hadn’t known we would be interviewed. After my last interview, it was probably best I didn’t answer.

“So, Jane Doe, how does it feel to be in the lead currently?”

A few seconds passed by. None of us knew what to say. I don’t think any of us thought we would win the Jury.

“Have you got more sausage rolls?” Luca asked. Somehow, he managed to eat over twenty that were out for us. Where did they go on his slim boy? I had no idea. But at least he responded, and the crowd burst out laughing.

“I’m sure we can get you some more.” The host was trying to hold back laughter.

“You’ve got this boys!” Yelled Pete from the crowd.

“Thank you, Pete.” I awkwardly laughed, not sure if I was going to faint from stress, die of a hysteria fit, or simply burst into tears.

“Let’s cross back to find out the public vote.” The host said as he motioned back towards the stage.

“Alright, we will reveal the public vote in order of the participants’ current standing.”

They then read out a number of scores: “12 points, 28 points, 13 points, 15 points, 18 points.” Halfway through, we were still in the lead, but Gal Pals and Eucalyptro were our major competitors. We all would be the final three songs read out.

“Eucalyptro received 60 Points!” What the fuck! Holy shit. That’s not fair. Well, it was totally fair. Hard was still stuck in my head. But still, 60 points meant they were now way ahead of us. Gal Pal received 40 points. That was an amazing score. But they were still nowhere near Eucalyptro.

“We are down to the final two performers. One of these artists will represent Australia in the Solstice Song Contest. Will it be Eucalyptro or Jane Doe and the Cadavers? At this stage, Eucalyptro leads by 46 points.”

Come on! We all know you are padding this. Get on with it. I thought to myself, just bloody say Eucalyptro won, so I can hurry up to a pub and drink my pain away.

“Jane Doe… from the public received… 53 points

Wait. 53? That meant we won, right? We won! Holy shit. Oh my fucking God, we did it.

“Congratulations to Jane Doe and the Cadavers…” The hosts continued to speak, but I couldn’t concentrate. The world around me turned into a buzz, and all I could think about was how I would finally get to see Marco again.

─── ༻ ☼ ༺ ───

You would think winning Australia Selects would be the hardest part of the entire Solstice process. Hahahahah, nope! It was the bureaucracy that came with it.

“I’m sorry, but we cannot afford to pay that amount of money”, James, the accountant working for the SCS, responded.

“I thought you were willing to support us in any way,” I complained.

“Any way possible. That’s not possible.”

“What do you mean? It is totally doable.” I tried to argue.

“Not within our budget.” He shook his head.

“Jim, can I call you Jim?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How much are we looking at?”

“Honestly, after factoring in travel expenditure for the entire delegation, we are looking at about twenty-five thousand for your staging, as well as any add-on effects like pyro or smoke and costumes.”

He pressed some buttons on his calculator, though I don’t know why. He just pressed the plus button a few times. Perhaps he was trying to overcompensate for his tiny financial package.

“Twenty-five thousand? Are you kidding? How can we expect to put on a performance with that kind of budget? It’s like ten thousand alone for just 15 seconds of pyro. That’s almost half our budget gone like that. Even the poorest of acts would get like fifty thousand.”

“Well, maybe it would be better if you don’t have that and use cheaper options. A wind machine is just over a thousand. More bang for your buck. I’m sure we can work something out.”

“We’re a bloody rock band. We need fire, pyro, sparks, waterfalls, all that stuff, and a hell of a lot of it. And that’s gonna cost a bit, not to mention the rest of the staging. Did you have a look at what I sent through?”

“Yes, we decided it wouldn’t be feasible in the budget.”

I spent the next two weeks recalculating over and over again, trying to save even the slightest of dollarydoos. To get the staging I had planned, I would need a lot of materials, which would cost an arm and a leg. I had to focus, especially if I wanted to successfully cook these books. Sorry, I meant to tighten our budget.

I wrote to the Premier to ask for some extra money. It went a little like this:

Hi Premier. Plz give us moar moniez. Thanks.

Okay, it may have been a little sexier than that. I definitely ‘made writing sexy thing’, but it wasn’t a particularly inspiring email. It was mostly grovelling, and a lot of it at that.

Yet somehow, my kiss-ass strategy worked, and the state government decided to chip in some extra cash. And when I say some extra, I really mean it, a bloody million. It seemed they were all for funding us if they thought we had a shot of winning.

I don’t care much for the odds, so I have no idea what they were saying, especially with most countries yet to finalise their entrants. But the important thing was that we were good enough to win in their eyes. However, it was not without caveats. We had to dedicate ourselves to the cause of winning. We were pawns in their political game.

Something that would later come back and bite me when it came time to finally spend some loving moments with Marco. 

─── ༻ ☼ ༺ ───

End of Chapter 3