IMMORTALIZED - Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour by Cirque Du Soleil

Chapter 10: We're Tight With The Jacksons!!!!!!!!!!!!

Los Angeles and Montreal
January 26, 2012 - February 3, 2012

    Once we got into the hotel, I spent no time getting them into bed. “It is 1:20 now. I am waking you guys up at 6:50. We must be up and ready to go.” I said. I closed the door to Adrian and Marcell’s room then headed back to my room, turned off the TV that Leo was watching and climbed into bed. I drifted off to sleep, but heard the alarm on my phone way too soon.
    I swung my legs off the bed and saw Leo twisting around in his bed. “Yo dude, get up. Shower time.” I said, pulling a part of the blanket off of him. He slowly climbed out of bed and into the bathroom. I left the room and opened up Adrian and Marcell’s room. I heard some movement from rooms of others, doing the same. In Adrian and Marcell’s room, I woke them up nicely, and they obliged. I usually get Adrian up first because he can handle getting Marcell up. I trust him like that.
    Once Leo was out of the bathroom, I got in. Leo and I got this down. The two of us can get ready in our rooms in nearly fifteen minutes. We got it down flat. By 7:20, everyone in our little party was ready to go. We met Tara down in the lobby, along with some other cast members. We took the walk to some Chinese Theater we can’t pronounce. It’s the Graumans Chinese Theater. Once arrived, a crew, not our crew, was busy putting the final touches on the stage, seating, and audio equipment. They must’ve been here at the wee hours of the morning.
    We were able to drop off whatever we had in the green room of the Chinese Theater, well behind the stage. Out of the five of us, I was the only thing to put back there. My bag filled with the needed stuff. By the time I got back from putting it away, Tara had already started explaining what would be needed done for the rehearsal. We were doing Black or White. It would be a bit different because of the sizes of the stage. It’s pretty much the same thing though we don’t have B-Stage, the Catwalk and steps. But the rest is the same, so it was easy to accommodate. Tara just moved some people around the stage and we rehearsed it quietly twice. Remember, it’s barely eight in the morning now.
    We now had over three hours until our performance but the management of the ceremony wouldn’t let any of us leave, so the forty of us cast, some costume and makeup people, then the directors were all stuck inside the Graumans Theater. It was large enough, but it was going to get boring fast. I didn’t bring my laptop and don’t want to waste my phone battery. I sat down against a wall on the floor since the chairs were taken and Marcell came up next to me. I swear, this kid was asleep, leaning against me and later on my lap within ten minutes.
    I fell asleep too, and when I woke up, it was just after nine and the entire inside of the building was buzzing with celebrities, tech people and especially, the Jackson Family. Of course we needed to find the kids. I had talked to Prince yesterday and we are planning on going out to lunch with them afterwards and then we are going over to their home on Saturday.
    Before being forced to start our makeup by ‘Mom’, we introduced ourselves to several celebrities, and were introduced to many from the Jackson Kids. We met Chris Tucker, Justin Bieber, Quincy Jones, and of course, we caught up with Travis Payne. We got pictures with all of them. I’m sorry, but if you are introduced to Justin Bieber by a Jackson child, then you know that something has happened in your life to make it big, in a way.
    We did have to do full makeup for this, which sucked because I had a hard time concentrating with all the people I saw running around in my mirror. After we finished our makeup, I made sure the boys closed and locked their makeup stand so no straggler comes in and takes our MJ possessions. That also reminded us to thank the kids and the family for the gifts. “Dear, it was our pleasure.” Katherine said to Adrian.
    This day just keeps getting ‘better and better’. We are not allowed to go out and watch the ceremony and have to watch it on a small TV screen in the back. The most amusing part to me was Chris Tucker’s funny speech and a performance by the Debby Allen Dance Company, which really rocked it. Maybe five or six of the kids being around our age, the five of us went up and introduced ourselves. We all shook hands, especially with Debby Allen who asked a big favor of us. “Do you think, being that you work with the tour, you could come and do some work with our kids and teenage group while you’re here?” She asked kindly. “I need times, like when...” I said. “Well, we have one tonight at seven until nine and then another one tomorrow, an after school one that goes from three until five.” She said. “I guess. Just give me directions and we’ll be there.” I said cautiously. I don’t know what I am getting myself into. “Yeah, if you can just come teach some dances, maybe give them some tricks and stuff.” She smiled. I waved to Tara, asking her to come over and talk to Debby. Literally in about two minutes, Debby set up a workshop with Tara, one tonight, one tomorrow afternoon and then one Sunday afternoon.
    At last, it was time for us to go out. Salah, Tammy and Jean got to go out and be in the pictures for the actual Hand and Footprint ceremony, and our performance was immediately after. Just like being on stage, it was perfect. The only problem I had, and many other said they had was that the sun was in our eyes and made it terribly hard to see.
    After our performance, which marked the end of the ceremony, we got to see many celebrities again and get pictures. Everyone could disperse now and were welcome to leave now that the ceremony was over, so nearly immediately after getting our makeup and costume off, we had to hop in the back of a suburban with Prince which took us deep into Los Angeles to their favorite place for lunch. Of course, Adrian was video-ing it up. “Why is he filming?” Prince whispered in my ear. “He makes these vlogs, which are quite popular, and he films and documents several parts of monumental parts of our lives.” I answered. “If don’t want him filming, I’ll tell him to stop.” I whispered. “Nah, its fine. I was just wondering.” Prince told. “Stop talking about me!” Adrian demanded from behind.
    We went to Panera Bread, believe it or not. We had to learn to ignore the mass amount of press that showed up, but we learned to LOVE the bodyguards. They were really nice and funny too! On our way out, in which they agreed to drop us off at the hotel, many people tried asking us questions about who we are, how we relate to the Jacksons, etc, but I strictly told the boys to ignore them and just walk. Tara nor the tour likes us being exposed.
    Legit, three hours later, Adrian got a call from his sister because they saw us on TMZ and we’re on ET and you can apparently search our names and the pictures from us having lunch are online. I burst into laughter. Looking it up on ET, I read this aloud to us sitting out on the patio. “The five boys sitting with the Jacksons for lunch today at the Los Angeles West Panera Bread are five of the dancers on the Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour By Cirque Du Soleil. They play the Fanatics, five characters who represent Michael within the show. Sources close to the Jacksons say that the two parties met in Montreal when the show opened and have maintained a friendship since.” I read, flipping through the pictures. “That’s a lie! We didn’t actually talk to them until Vegas!” Leo screamed. “Well, then they got wrong intel.” I said. We looked online through many websites, noteworthy and those not so much which had various pictures of us, even one with my bloody mouth open. I had tabloids. I officially hate tabloids.
    At six, Tara and the five of us arrived at the Debby Allen dance studio. We were warmly greeted by Debby and the class of twenty three that were already there. Debby introduced us and we got right to work. Tara did an entire speech on doing your best, staying motivated and pushing your boundaries. Then she had us demonstrate the bridge to Smooth Criminal, which we were going to teach the group to perform. “We make it look easy, but it’s not.” Adrian said. “Okay, everyone get in a space where you won’t trample, trip or tromp on another dancer.” She said. She then began to teach the dance very slowly, walking around. Marcell, Adrian and Leo were stationed around the room to be examples. Ryan and I walked around fixing people and correcting them.
    It took an hour to get the bridge perfect, an entire hour. “My muscles are sore.” Leo told me. They were holding difficult positions for many minutes at a time, so I don’t blame them. “We’ll go back and relax in a bit.” I said. But the next hour seemed even slower as Tara had us demonstrate some stretches and some tricks and such, using us as human examples. Finally, for the last twenty minutes, we got to sit down and talk with the kids, aged nine to sixteen. They asked us questions about touring, about dancing and Michael Jackson.
    We took a group picture before leaving, and being that Tara talks... a lot, we didn’t get out of there until 9:30. Being that we were up for much much longer than we normally are, the boys were actually ready to sleep as we got back to the hotel. I didn’t blame them. They were all asleep by 10:30 and I was in bed by eleven.
    Wow LA! Wow! Premiere was awesome with a capital A! It started with a red carpet filled with celebrities! Damn! Seeing the video of it from backstage is absolutely amazing! Rihanna! Cee-Lo, again, and Beyoncé! That’s only a few of them too! And then when we had our little powow backstage, it raised all of our adrenaline levels so high that the five of us went ALL OUT warming the audience up before the show. They were psyched! And once Marcell flew into the air, they went nuts. They went ape shit! Adrian froze completely on stage in awe. I had to nudge him and he had to shake himself to get back into action. After that, he was good though.
    After the big LA premiere, it wouldn’t of been complete without an after party. Once off stage, we all went back to our dressing room. “Awesome show guys!” Marcell exclaimed, going into the secluded part of the dressing room. “Good enthusiasm Marcell!” Leeco said in response. I took my time washing off my makeup with the kleenex wipes. It opted me to post on Facebook “Did you know that I’ve used over 550 kleenex wipes to remove my makeup after shows since our premiere in Montreal on October 2nd?” It got many likes in a few short minutes. Being that it’s near two in the morning back in Bethel, I wondered what people were doing up this late.
    A shuttle was provided for us to get from the arena to the place of the party. It makes stops at the hotel so we could all get changed. I used the same outfit I used for the Premiere Party. Except I added a white tie, making it black, red and white. I love those colors. Once we got off the shuttle, there were many people already there and the entire place was already pumping. The venue was large, with people everywhere. It was decorated with MJ drop shadows, the food was based off MJ and there was a large cake decorated for the show. On one layer of the cake, it had figurines of the five of us. I took a picture of it, but we better get to keep it from the party. That would be awesome. The little plastic things actually resemble our facial features.
    They didn’t have any meals, but hors d'oeuvres and drinks. We danced, chatted with many people, took pictures, danced and more. I was anticipating more celebrities there, but the only one there was Rihanna. It was the entire staff, which was two hundred plus people, probably like twenty or so audience members who won tickets and then some Californian people, important people who were invited or bought their way in.
    They cut the cake AND presented the few people with figurines the figurines at one in the morning. I had a nice large chunk of cake, and it was really cook! It was Chocolate and Vanilla Mousse cake. It was going to be awesome being able to carry these little dudes around with us. Though as the party died down, we left on the shuttle back to the hotel. We were all at a point of near exhaustion which hit in quickly as soon as we got on the shuttle. It was a long walk up to our rooms and then when we finally separated ourselves into the rooms, I gave Adrian, Marcell and Leo a strict “2:30” bedtime. It was now 2:10. I knew they would oblige. Leo and I got into our room and changed out of our dress clothes. “Can I take a shower?” Leo asked. “Not a long one.” I answered. “Yeah, I feel all gross from the sweat and stuff from the party.” He told me.
    In the other room, I helped Adrian briefly re-organize his suitcase before sending off to bed. I knew that within time, he would fall asleep on the floor, like he’s done before. I made sure he was in his bed this time. Marcell and Adrian weren’t asleep by the time I left the room, but I’m sure they weren’t up too long past it. In my room, Leo was out of the shower and climbing into bed. “What time are we going over Prince, Paris and Michael’s house tomorrow?” He asked. “We have to call them when we get up and they’ll send a car. So whenever. Won’t be too early though.” I said before I dozed off.
    The following morning, I woke up to Leo tripping over something, around even thirty. I called the Jackson’s immediately, knowing that we would have to be at work in just six and a half hours. They said they would send a car near right away. I didn’t want to, but I went in and woke Ryan up, then woke Marcell and Adrian up. “The car to bring us to the Jackson’s house is going to be here in less than an hour, so start getting up.” I whispered, shaking Adrian’s sleeping body. He nodded his head, not opening his eyes.
    By 12:30, we were out of the hotel, in the back of an SUV to meet the Jackson kids at their house. I talked to Prince on the phone. Jermaine was there and was having a BBQ lunch with his two kids, Katherine and Michael’s kids at the house, so that would be our first meal of the day. Being that Calabasas is about forty five minutes away from LA, we spent that time talking and joking around in the back of the SUV. By the time we pulled into the Iron Clad gate compound and saw the beautiful house. The vehicle parked and we got out and were immediately greeted by Blanket. “Hi Blanket!” Marcell ran right up to him. I’m pretty sure the two get along real well. Blanket brought us through a gate into the large backyard, complete with nice patio, outdoor dining room and pool. It was a warm and sunny day for January in California. Prince was chilling in the pool and invited us to join him. He had told us to just wear our bathing suits, so I just dived right in.
    Around two, just as our bodies were craving something edible, Jermaine served all sorts of BBQ food. Being the guests, we were seated at the outdoor dining room. It was like a party, Adrian and Marcell were shirtless, Leo only had a beater on. Ryan and I at least had shirts on. I think I was getting a bit of sunburn too.
    The food was great. I must’ve had two hot dogs, three cheeseburgers and endless amount of homemade chips that Katherine made. Now let me say, she is old, but she is the kindest lady, very kind, very pleasant to talk to and I’m pretty sure that she likes the five of us. Enough to let us come over her house, which barely ever happens. Immediatly afterwards, it was back in the pool for a game of pool volleyball!
    The day was one of the best on tour, just because of where we hung out. On what days can you say ‘Today I hung out with Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson, Michael Jackson’s kids and then went and performed in front a sold out crowd.’ That happened to be my Facebook status. It’s really the best job in the world.
    Sunday was our final day in Los Angeles. It’s been a packed few days here, got an awesome Tan, unlike Leo who got a sunburn. We did our third and final class at the Debby Allen Dance studio in the afternoon and then completed our final show that night. During intermission, the notorious Rebecca Black from the ‘It’s Friday’ song came backstage to greet all of us. I never liked the song, but I try to get pictures with as many celebrities as I can. After she left, it led the five of us to be singing the song which got stuck in our heads. Most of the cast who is from other parts of the world had never heard it and was extremely annoyed by it. “Exactly!” I told Pom. “It’s not even Friday.” Gianinni commented.
    After getting all of our makeup off, we hit the rooms in our hotel, having what is called an ‘Open Door’ night, where most of the guys on the floor leave their doors open and we all hang out together. It doesn’t happen as often as it did in the beginning of the tour, but I allow the boys to stay up a bit later when it does happen. I spent most of my time in Mike’s room as he and Don tried laying down some rap tracks. I was no help, but I did the commentary which entertained all of us. Back in my room, after making the three boys hit the hay, I stayed up on my computer and posted a 3AM Facebook status. “Finished three shows here in Los Angeles. Two more shows in LA in August. But now it’s on to Montreal for classes at where our school is Headquartered, the National Circus School and training our new Dancer Elliot!”
    I knew we shouldn’t of stayed up that late. Some things about Parenting just don’t do me well. I woke Adrian up and told him to get Marcell up. I woke Leo, picked him up, carried him to the bathroom and sat him on the closed toilet. That should get him motivated to get into the shower. All this was happening before eight in the morning. “You can sleep on the plane.” I heard Ryan say in the other room.
    Soon enough, we were on our way out the door with our bags into a large Taxi-Van. Our school road case was shipped express from LA to Montreal on Thursday and should already be there, if not getting there today. We just had ourselves and our bags. We were all excited to be going back to Montreal and in addition, meeting Elliot in the morning. Due to the time changes and long flight, our entire day would be spent travelling. I partially wished we had an earlier flight but my body wanted a later flight. Soon, we found ourselves at LAX. After checking in and going through security, we ran into Leeco and Shondra who were going to Australia for their vacation to visit Leeco’s wife and daughter. “Safe travels!” Shondra said as we parted each other. “You too Aunty!” I called back. She hates it when we call her back. She is very good friends with Tara, and being that Tara is our Mom on tour, but doesn’t really show it, we occasionally call Shondra our Aunt.
    Once on our plane, the boys would not go back to sleep. “You guys should at least try to get some sleep. You didn’t get much sleep last night.” I said. “So should you.” Adrian said back at me. “I am mister.” I said. I don’t know what the boys did the entire flight, but I slept. I slept right up until about 5:00 Eastern Standard Time. So that means I slept for five hours of the flight, soundly. When I awoke, Ryan, who was awake the entire flight with Adrian and Marcell said it was a smooth flight. Leo was asleep sitting next to me. Ryan showed me a picture of the two of us sleeping where his head was on my shoulder and my head was atop his. “It’s already on Facebook.” Marcell said. “Nice.” I complimented. I really didn’t care.
    We landed around 6:45PM in Montreal, Montreal time. It was cold, really cold. We had totally forgotten that it was actually winter over here, being we spent the past month in California, and the past two months on the West Coast. But we had to wait until we got our bags from the belt until we could even find a sweatshirt. So we navigated our way through this airport, one in which none of us have been in the public area since we came here last May. Even the inside of the terminals were freezing. We shivered to the baggage terminal where our bags couldn’t appear slow enough. Once we had our bags, we dug through them, finding some sort of hoodies. We sort of can’t change out of shorts right now, so that would have to wait.
    A van waited and took us to the L’ecole Nationale De Cirque. I used the driver to test the boy’s french. They have progressed since Ryan and I started speaking to them in it, but it’s still very Rocky. When we pulled in, we checked right in with the lobbyist, a young female to spoke to us in French, assuming we knew it. Ryan and I were able to follow along, barely. “Nous avons deux chambre pour vous. Vous pouvez les diviser sur vous-mêmes. Une chambre a trois lits et un autre en a deux (We have two rooms for you. You can divide them amongst yourself. One room holds three and the other, two).” She said. “D’accord, Merci” I said. She personally brought us through the lodging area where maybe a dozen or so students studied, played games and relaxed. We were in the far ends rooms. Ryan and I on the left with the two beds, and the other three in the adjacent room. Before giving us the keys, she said “Aussi, nous n'autorisons pas la photographie ou la vidéo à l'intérieur de l'atelier ou à l'école, mais dans le gîte est très bien.(Also, We can’t take photo’s or videos inside the school, it is against the rules)” “Tu comprends?” I asked the boys. They wriggled their hands in that so-so kind of motion. “You cannot take any pictures or video’s in the studio, but you can take it here in the lodging. Got it Adrian?” I asked. “Why you pointing out me?” He asked. I looked at him. He shrugged his shoulders. “Merci Beaucoup!” I said. “Bonne nuit.” She said, turning and leaving the hallway, waving to some kids as she walked by.
    “Allez vous installer dans votre chambre.” I said. “Repetez?” Leo asked. I repeated it once again slower, then another time, slower. “Installer dans votre chambre. What does installer sound like?” I asked. “To install.” Leo replied. “Okay, what are you installing in your room?” I asked. “Ummm, our stuff?” He asked hesitantly. “Yes, Installer means to get settled. Allez vous installer dans votre chambre.” I told him. He nodded. “Are you going to speak french the entire time here?” Adrian asked. “Oui, and parlez francais aussi.” I told him. He moaned, but went into his room.
    Ryan and I went into our room and got settled in. It was a nice room. Of course plain on the walls, but the furniture was nice, and we got a nice view of the Cirque HQ right outside of our room. After putting our things down, we decided to be sociable and go out and meet some of the students in the dorms. It’s a high school program, so they should be right around Ryan and I’s ages. “We can’t just go up and say hi!” He pulled me back. “Why not?” I asked. “You just can’t.” He told me. I begged to differ. I left the room and walked out just seeming to look around. “Vous chercher pour quelque chose?” a girl asked. “Non, juste en regardant autour.” I responded. “Oh, Êtes-vous les gars nouveaux étudiants?” She asked. “Non! Ce sont les danseurs du Cirque du Soleil.” Another girl butted in. “Ya.” I said. “Oh, Bienvenue!” She smiled.
    Ryan and I were invited to talk to the small group of Quebecois. They all speak French fluently and most of them were Ryan and I’s age, except one who was a year older. I had Adrian, Marcell and Leo come out and introduce themselves, but they went back to their room because they were watching a movie on one of their laptops. “Sont-ils timides?” Marrissa, one of the girls asked. “Non, ils regardent un film sur l'ordinateur portable. (No, they are watching a movie on their laptop)” Ryan spoke up. “Oh.”
Ryan and I didn’t make it long. “Desole, nous avons réveillé tres tres tot le matin pour nous. J'ai besoin de mettre les garçons à dormir et puis aller me coucher. (Sorry, we had to get up very, very early this morning for us. I have to put the boys to bed.)” I spoke slowly, making sure I didn’t mess it up. They all looked at the clock. It was ten, and they did have school in the morning. “Ya, nous aussi. (Yes, we should also go to bed)” One boy, Antoine said.  By then, the girls split to their half of the dorms and the guys came to the side we were on. “Let’s go, bed. It’s ten and we have official school in the morning.” I told the boys upon entering their room. “C’mon, can’t we finish the movie? There’s half an hour left! Adrian exclaimed. “No, bed, now.” I strictly said. “But!” Marcell said. “No. NOW.” I demanded. The all groaned and got off the floor and into their beds. Similar to Vegas, Marcell was on a top bunk, but over Leo instead of Adrian. Adrian had a single bed a few feet away. “Dans la matinée, je vais vous réveiller à sept heures. Comprende? (In the morning, I am waking you up at seven, understand?)” I asked. “Yes...” They all responded. “Goodnight guys.” I said, turning off the light switch and closing the door. “You do that every night?” Antoine asked, passing between him and Raphael’s room. “No, they are usually tired and go to bed kind of on their own. It’s early and I needed to make sure they actually go to bed.” I told him. “Ah, well goodnight.” He said. “Night Antoine.” I said before going into our room. Together, Ryan and I set up a few parts of our room, but mainly me. On Friday morning, he will fly home with the younger three while I stay here with Elliot to get him trained as much as possible at the Cirque HQ before we fly to St Louis on Monday. This was decided back in Anaheim mainly by Tara. As much as I love my family, I didn’t have any intention of going home. What I really want is a real vacation.
The following, I woke up, woke Ryan up and went right across the hall with Ryan. We barged in the room and quietly woke Leo and Adrian up. “Shhhhh!” I said as they climbed out of bed. We all went up to the side of Marcell’s bed where he laid facing us. “Three....two.... one...” I whispered. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY Marcell!” We all shouted! He awoke with a startle. “Oh my god! I hate you guys!” He said, jumping up. I helped him down from the bed. “Happy Birthday man!” I said, placing him back on the ground. “Gotta think of a place you wanna go for dinner tonight and we’ll make it happen.” Ryan said. He nodded and yawned. “Okay, nonetheless, you guys have to shower, get dressed, get rid of that stank and get ready for the day. We’re going to get breakfast and classes start at 8:30.” I said. They nodded.
Back in our room, Ryan was the first to shower. He has this pet peeve that he has to shower first. Once he was out, I was in and we got ready. Somehow, the boys beat us getting ready. I walked into my room and oddly went up and smelled each one of them. “Oddly, you guys smell fine. How’d you get ready so fast?” I asked. “Magic!” Marcell said. By 7:25, we were out of the room and were escorted down to the cafeteria by some of the resident students. It wasn’t nearly crowded and we got food, sat down and began to eat, it was awesome. “C’est bon!” I explained. “Ah, comme-ci comme-ca. (So-So)” Antoine said. “So, Quand Elliot ne se présentent? (So, when will elliot get here?)” I asked. “En classe.” He told me. I nodded.
As I said, the food was good, much better than any food at our schools. “Ou es Madame Gagné’s classe? (Where is Madame Gagne’s Class?)” I asked. One girl, Mathilide offered to bring us there. We went through a chunk of lengthy hallways. “Merci” Ryan said as she pointed us to the second to last door on the left down this final hallway. We walked down and got to the open door. Leading the crowd, I lightly knocked and slowly walked into the classroom. “Mrs G?” I asked. “Storm!” She said getting out of her chair and running over to us. She gave us all a hug. “It’s so awesome to have you here! I’m excited to have you in my class!” She said.
Inside of her room, our road case was set in an open corner of the room. “You just need to unlock it with your key.” She told me. I walked over and opened it using the code lock that was on it. “So, what is the schedule for today?” I asked her. “Well, you guys are going to be here for homeroom, then when the class leaves, I’ll give you a tour of the school, and then we’ll get back and you guys can be here for my English classes, you can work on the assignments in the back for maybe two hours and then lunch.” She said. We okayed it. I sent the boys back to get their laptops, since they had ignored my comment to put them in their backpacks. “We’re not used to bringing it with us!” They said. “I told you clearly.” I responded.
Around 8:15, students started filing in the classroom. We were seating in the back at a table, two tables. Adrian, Marcell and Leo squished into one table. “So Elliot is really excited, really excited.” Mrs. G said. “I bet, I’ve talked to him a few times. He seems like a nice kid.” I responded. “We haven’t talked to him yet.” Leo said. “Yeah, they haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him yet, but their friends with him on Facebook.”
Around 8:35, a short, partially brown haired, but could mistakingly be taken as gray haired boy made his way into the room and walked right up to us. “Which of you is Storm?” He asked, looking directly at me. “Moi.” I said, raising my hand with a smile. “Bienvenue a Cirque Du Soleil!” Marcell said. It made me laugh. “I’m ready to go on tour!” He told me right away. Ryan laughed. “Dude, we got a lot of work to do before we take that flight to Salt Lake City.” I told him. “Tomorrow, right?” He asked. “Yup, right after your academic classes we’ll go over to Cirque Du Soleil and start.” I told him. He already knew I’d be the one training him. We talked and I introduced him to the other four. He knew their names but wasn’t sure who was who.
We stayed through homeroom where Madame G introduced us and explained why we are are. “Quand les garçons sont en tournée avec le Cirque du Soleil, je suis leur professeur, comme vous le savez. Je cède leur travail, vérifier tout cela et tout faire pour la littérature, français, mathématiques, sciences et classe d'histoire. Ils sont là pour quelques jours de prendre des cours avec moi avant de rentrer à la maison pour leurs vacances. Vous avez été en tournée pendant ce, trois mois maintenant?” She asked. “Non, sur quatre mois. Et Je serai ici toute la semaine.” I answered. “Oh! Bon!” She replied.
After the homeroom left, she brought us throughout this huge facility, reiterating the no photo rule. The tour was great. We met so many people, saw so many awesome places. I was in complete awe of this school. This is a high school! We came back in time to do some work with her as she taught her English Class. She is the english teacher in the school. I got the boys started on Math as Ryan and I did the same. Adrian and Leo were doing some Advanced Fractions, Marcell is doing some work with Polygons and Ryan and I were completing some Algebra work with slopes and such.It took us about the ninety minutes of the class to complete the math and for me, up to the end of taking notes using my textbook. It felt weird having to get up out of my seat to get things out of the road case while she was teaching, but she was cool about it.
When her homeroom class, with Elliot came back into the room for their English class, there was a surprise waiting. Seconds after the bell rang, a few people from the cafeteria came in with a pretty large cake singing Happy Birthday. The class joined, looking directly at Marcell. I burst into laughter. He was petrified. I’m so glad Mrs. G got a video. By the end of the song, when they sang “Happy Birthday Dear Marcell” i joined along, and at the end, he blew out the eleven candles.
Mrs G asked us to talk about school on the road while the entire class ate cake for Marcell’s birthday. It was hard, but accomplished. “Umm, that is a lot of stickers you have there.” Nick said in a deep accent. “Well, do you know what Hard Rock Cafe is?” I asked. Mrs. G translated. Some people nodded. “Well, quand nous allons Hard Rock Cafe en la ville sur tournée, nous achetons un autocollant et mettre... le autocollant en notre cas d’ecole.” I said very slowly. “Wow!” Mrs. G said. “You have a lot of them!”
When that class left and the next came, we did more of our work. We were all able to fully concentrate and were able to knock out a lot of our work. By lunchtime, when we were escorted down by Elliot, we were hungry and a bit tired. We devoured our food, and then were transitioned into another part of the school, over to the studio where the students trained. Elliot introduced us to the dance instructor in which he was minoring in. Elliot’s main focus was Aerial Acrobatics, but he stopped that yesterday to focus on dance today. Once the class started, we did a little workshop with the fifteen students in the class, showing them good stretching methods and such. “Can you maybe teach a dance from the show?” The teacher asked in near perfect english. “I guess, Elliot has to learn it eventually too.” I said, making that my main reasoning. We decided to do Smooth Criminal, which was incredibly difficult to teach in French, like you have no idea. I’m just glad the teacher was fluent in both English and French.
After the classes ended, and I talked to Elliot and his Dad about the upcoming training, the five of us visiting Connecticut people walked down the street to a rib place that Marcell wanted to go to. It’s his birthday so he gets to pick wherever he wants, which is quite difficult when you don’t know the area too well. He knew of this place because of the near four months we spent here. We got a table right away. Of course I had to sneak in about his birthday to our waiter. She winked at me. Something was going to happen before the end of the night.
Canadians make good ribs. It’s no lie. They are loose, fall off the bone meat, with the tastiest BBQ sauce. I’ve only eaten here once before and it’s still amazing to me about this. Usually, ribs is a USA sort of thing. While we were finishing up and about to order desserts, the waiters and waitresses came out singing “Quel Age Avez-Vous!” Which is Happy Birthday in French. He was, as this morning, very embarrassed. His face was red, but he thoroughly enjoyed the layered cake he was given. Then it was back and off to the dorms, in which we would spend the rest of the night. “Marcell, man.” I said to him. “I have your birthday present, but it hasn’t been delivered yet, so I’m just going to have to give it to you when we get to Salt Lake City. Sorry.” I said. He didn’t mind, he’s just happy he was getting something.
The boys and I hung out in the common area with the other kids in the dorm. This really tested their french, to see if they could keep up a conversation. I wasn’t really paying attention to them, I was doing work on my laptop. The internet was very slow here though. I wasn’t pleased, none at all.
Around ten, I had the boys in their rooms, getting them to sleep. I had major trouble. Just like little kids, I heard “But I’m not tired!” “Can’t I just stay up and watch a little bit of TV?” and the infamous “It’s way too early! We usually don’t go to bed until like midnight!” “Well, we’re not on tour right now, we’re at school. I don’t care, we have school in the morning and you need a good nights sleep.” I argued. They argued back. “Adrian, Marcell and Leo. You ARE going to bed right this instance!” I said, shutting off the lights and closing the door.
The following morning, I did apologize for yelling at them the previous night, and they apologized back for being quote “pain in the asses”. We did nearly the same thing as we did the previous morning, but Mrs. G had Ryan and I attend a class for Math with kids our age. She works with the other teachers, so we were learning the same things this class was learning in math. It was good to be able to get real help and not have to find the help online. Though the afternoon was different. Ryan continued having the workshops with the kids from the school with Marcell and Leo, but after lunch, instead of having Elliot attend his studio time, Adrian and I brought him across the street. The two of us had to dig out our passes out of the bottom of our suitcases which we need to wear while inside the HQ. We also kept our tour passes with us. Elliot already had his because he was brought in to do costume fittings, health screenings and the general. He’s had very little training. For the training I would give to him, we were given one of the larger studio’s even though a creation process was happening there. The floor was taped with the correct measurements of the stage so I could teach him. Tara had also showed me what is going to be needed to be done, meaning his routine. So I knew exactly what to teach him.
Since Adrian was there, we started in the way back of the show with They Don’t Care About Us. It’s a tricky dance, so having Adrian there means all the help. It took all of us three days to learn this dance and do all the choreography, but that was because Travis was choreographing twenty of us at once. Adrian and I were able to get with him the choreography down in five hours, and be able to run through the song, but its rough and a lot of details are needed. One song kinda down, seven more to go!
That night, after making sure Elliot’s father had picked him up, we ate with the other kids from the dorms in the cafeteria. It beat having to go out and buy dinner since all of our food is free here. “So, one more day until you guys get to go home for the weekend!” I told the boys. “I’m so excited.” Adrian said, with literally no enthusiasm. “Don’t sound like it. You could always stay here with me.” I said. “I’ll stay and help!” He expressed. I kind of ignored the comment and moved onto something else. Near the entire day, even the past few days, Adrian has been hinting, and I have been picking up little things that he wants to stay here. When we got back into the dorms, I kicked Ryan out and pulled Adrian into my room.
“Adrian, why don’t you wanna go home?” I asked. “I never said I didn’t.” He replied. “But you’ve been hinting it. I’ve picked it up Adrian.” I told him. He knew I was. “Dude, why don’t you want to go home?” I asked. “It’s not that I don’t want to go home, but I want to stay here and help you get Elliot ready.” He told me. “But you don’t want to go home and see your sister, and your Mom and Dad with Marcell?” I asked. He shrugged. “What else, there’s something that you’re not telling me.” I said. Trust me, I knew. “See,” He started. “...You’re not going home, and you’re staying on tour to work with Cirque. I want to have the best tour life and work with Cirque as much as I can. I love it and if that means that missing a vacation to help you work, I wanna do it.” He said. “Adrian, I volunteered to do it because there isn’t too much for me to go back to in Bethel.” I told him. “This is embarrassing..” He said. “What is?” I asked him. He scratched the back of his neck. “Promise me you won’t judge me?” He asked. “Promise.” I said, widening my eyes. He took a deep breath. “I want to be like you. I want to stay on the tour, I want to help. You said yourself, that you’re probably not going to go back to Bethel on a vacation until the summer, and I’m thinking the same.” He told me. I smiled. “Adrian, I want you to do whatever you want, but I do that because I’m trying to create my own life, away from Bethel.” I told him. “What if I want to do the same?” He asked. “Adrian, you’re eleven, you have time. When the tour ends, you’ll only be in High School. I’ll be done with High School.” I told him. He shrugged. “I want you to do what you want, and I know that I, and your parents will let be okay with whatever decision you make. If you want to stay here with me, that’s fine. But think about it and let me know in the morning.” I said. I stood up and messed up his now frizzled hair. He hates when I do it.
The next morning, Adrian let me knew first thing that he wanted to stay here with me. I told him that he had to call his parents and first ask them, since he is supposed to go home the next morning. “Adrian, you understand that it’s over two months until we’re even in New York City and over three months until our next vacation?” I made sure. He knew.
His parents agreed it and I had to call the travel and lodging at Cirque and let them know that he would be with me. They would make/change the travel arrangements. That afternoon, Adrian and I once again worked with Elliot. I was very surprised that he remembered much, almost all of the choreography taught to him yesterday. We just went over it and spent maybe another hour fixing different things and sharpening it up. In addition, by this day, the rehearsal stage was set up, so we literally had a mini stage to rehearse on. Tomorrow, Rich and Tone Taluga would be coming in to teach him the moves to Jam.
The next morning, I was up early getting Leo and Marcell ready to go to the airport with Ryan. He did most of the work, getting them up, ready and out the door with their things. Adrian also had to move his things to my room, since we weren’t going to take up two rooms anymore. By six in the morning, there was a Taxi outside. Now, this was the first time that any of us would be separated by this length in about eight months. When we were home on Vacation, we were separated but in the same town, in the same area. Now, Adrian and I will be in a complete separate country than the other three. So we said our goodbye’s, Adrian and Marcell hugged, Adrian and Leo ‘bro-hugged’ and I gave daps to Ryan. Before long, they were driving away in the taxi. Adrian and I were left in Montreal. We went back inside and hung out in the common room. I drank some coffee and Adrian played on his computer. We both knew that we wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.