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

Chapter 14: New York City Round One

March 30, 2012 - April 2, 2012
New York City and Bethel, Connecticut

   It’s Thursday, March 30, 2012. Right now, we are on a plane to NYC for our performance of Black Or White on Good Morning America very early tomorrow morning. Since the boys and I partially run a little business, we had our little business meeting. First off, we started doing Master Classes, which we started while Elliot was here. And even though Tara nor Cirque advertises us to be part of the show, or likes to expose us to the press, it’s no secret that five boys tour with this show was dancers, so we do get recognition, and more coming up that we are going to be near home. So we have a lot of different working activities going on the next week or so. Today, we fly to NYC and have the rest of the day off. Tomorrow morning, we have to be at the GMA Time Square Studio’s at four in the morning. Then later on that morning we take a bus to Newark. That night before our first show, we are supposed to be bringing some underprivileged kids, I believe kids who are in group homes or foster care (about fifteen of them) backstage before the show, since we’re around their age and then they get to watch the show.
    The next day we have our second/last show in Newark and then we take a bus back to NYC afterwards. The following day, we are filming a music video with MattyBRaps. He’s the cute little nine year old who ‘raps’ on youtube, but people like him because he’s cute. I’m not saying he’s not talented, but I wouldn’t constantly listen to his music. The following day, Monday, we have a Masterclass in Bethel at 5:30 which is going to be a really late night since we probably won’t get back into the city until like eleven. Sadly, tour rules prohibit us (because we’re minors) from staying anywhere but our hotel while we’re on a stop at tour. Then we have three shows in New York City at Madison Square Garden. We didn’t play anything for those days because we’re planning on doing a lot of touristy stuff while in town. On Tuesday, My Grandmother, Uncle and three cousins are coming to see the show. It will be the first time that grandmother has seen the show, so I’m excited. The Abiatelli’s and Adrian and Marcell’s grandparents from both sides are coming on Tuesday as well to see the show. Oh, and how can I forget Leo’s entire family, I think close to fifteen people are coming to see the show. That includes cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, everyone. To what he tells me, his parents (2), his sister (1), his grandparents (3), his aunt, uncle and their kids (4) and then his other set of uncle, aunt and cousins (5). Everyone’s coming for the opening night and then we were able to get them passes to the after party afterwards.
On the Wednesday show, we are filming the backstage segment with the CT news. None of our family is coming tonight. On Thursday, Ryan’s family, meaning just his Mom, Dad, cousin and brother are coming to see the show with our Youth group, which includes Max, his Dad, Cameron and Kyle, their dad Greg, then Trey, Oksana and Maya. That’s our last show in MSG. The following day we take a bus to Long Island (Unionville) and then the day after that, we’re doing another Masterclass and a show. Two more shows in Long Island after that then a plane to Philadelphia. Even better is that one week after that, I fly with Adrian and Marcell to the Bahama’s for a week vacation with their family (and a masterclass too). C’mon, we have to fit one in there.
    The plane ride wasn’t too long, but when we landed in New York, it was very exciting. It was something we had been anticipating since October. We got off the plane and walked through the airport, a private section where were able to find our things and then roll them out to the bus. We put our things on the bus and then got on. Cherylie did attendance and then we were off. I looked at my phone. It was eleven thirty. We had an early transport, landing us in the city just in time to go and get some lunch.
    On the ride from JFK to our hotel, I spent time on my phone, on Facebook. “Just got into New York City! Good Morning America in the morning, Newark tomorrow morning and the next, then Madison Square Garden followed by Long Island!” I wrote. A lot of people were excited, this was many of our international casts first time in New York. Finally, our bus pulled up in front of our hotel, The Paramount Times Square, a nice hotel right outside of Times Square. This is the only stop on tour where the cast and crew are split for hotel reasons. All but about fifteen support team members and the band flew directly to Newark, but the cast who is needed for Black Or White flew to NYC to do the performance in the morning. They will be in the same hotel as us when we all come to NYC for the shows in a few days.
    Our hotel, amazing. It was normal sleeping arrangements, so we all spent a total of two minutes dropping our things in the room. “It’s so stupid! We are here for one night, then one night in Newark and then back to the same hotel!” Adrian expressed. “I don’t care. I’m not paying for the hotel and I’m getting paid.” I replied. “Good point.” He said. We grabbed our things and headed out to walk around NYC. We’ve all been here a number of times, so we just wanted to walk around and see if there was anything that caught our eyes that a normal tourist wouldn't see.
    Somehow, we got into Chinatown. I was really excited to be in Chinatown. I had never been here before, so we needed to find something to eat. What else to eat in Chinatown but Chinese food? So we sat down and crammed so much food into our bodies, it couldn’t of been healthy. We then walked around and explored these shops. Nothing good, a lot of NYC touristy things and about a third of it being actual chinese things. We got some ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and then found this large supermarket where I got this really really good chinese gum. By now, it was 3:30, so we continued and walked through Little Italy. Since all three of the younger boys are near 100% Italian, they wanted to come back when they weren’t so full. “When your family is here on Tuesday, that would be a good time to come here.” I said to Adrian and Marcell.
    We didn’t really feel like walking all the way back to the Times Square, we figured out the Subway System and took a five minute subway ride back to Times Square. By this time, it was 4:15, and to kill time, we went into the Spy Exhibit at the Discovery Museum. It was really cool! I am so glad that we went in there! It was probably the coolest exhibit I’ve seen.
    Tara advised us to go to bed quite early since we had a very early morning. We have to be at the studio’s at four in the morning, which means I’ll probably get up at 3:15AM to get the boys up at the same time. Remember, we have to make the short walk, but it’s going to be longer since we’ll all be tired.
    We spent the rest of the time hanging out in the hotel. Believe it or not, Ryan and I actually studied for a history test coming up. Even though we school much differently than ‘regular’ kids, we still on occasion use flash cards, both written out ones and ones on our Ipad. We also have textbooks and notebooks and on occasion, we HAVE to take notes, written notes. It’s more of a memorization thing, and it works. It’s good to have different things because it always keeps our mind open.
    I honestly think this is the earliest I’ve ever had to get the boys to go to bed. I made them go to bed at eight at night, in order for them to get seven and a half hours of sleep. I didn’t decide this, Tara did. She also checked on both Ryan and I around 8:30 to make sure we were at least laying down. “You gonna go to bed, right?” She asked me. “Yeah, shortly. I just need to finish this.” I told her. “Okay, good night.” She said, leaving my room. I presumed she did the same thing to Ryan. What I was doing was nothing I needed to finish, I was just on Youtube watching random videos.
    The following morning, my obnoxious alarm woke both Leo and I up. Within a minute, Leo was up and in the bathroom getting ready to take a shower. I got up to wake up Adrian and Marcell. I unlocked their door using the key given to me. I silently went into the room and started shaking Adrian. Well, I thought I was, but it ended up being Marcell. “I could’ve sworn....” I mumbled to myself. “C’mon, gotta get up and get ready.” I whispered. “No, not now.” He said, pulling the blankets over his head. I pulled them off of his head. “Now.” I whispered back. He moaned and threw the covers off of him. I turned around and shook Adrian. I knew that this was Adrian. It had to be. It didn’t take long to wake him up. He’s good. Once I shake him and he opens his eyes, he’s awake for sure. “We’re leaving here in legit twenty five minutes, so get ready.” I said in my morning voice, leaving the dark room. I started letting them turn on their own lights. I’ve been giving them a lot more freedom, helping them become more individuals now.
    I had to wait for Leo to get out before I could get into the shower. Once I was in the bathroom, I quickly did my morning routine. Shower, dress, shave, brush my teeth and then get out. I can do this in about ten minutes. By the time I had finished with my morning routine, it was 3:35. Leo was all ready to go and the Abiatelli’s were almost ready. Hadn’t heard anything from Ryan, but he’s a big boy and can do things on his own. We’ll see him eventually.
    By the time we left, Adrian was already filming on his camera. It wasn’t four in the morning and he was already doing it. We walked down the street into the main part of Times Square. The area was nearly vacant except for a few people cleaning and the maybe thirty or so people putting up the stage and camera equipment for our performance. “I didn’t know we were actually performing in Times Square!” I exclaimed. This got me really excited. We were performing in front of the GMA studios, in Times Square.
    We entered the studio and were directed to a large string of hallways that we could use. “Feel free to look around the studios, you can sit at the desks, take pictures, but I ask you not to move any of the sets or things on the desks.” A man kindly said. Tara turned her head and looked directly at us. “Why are you looking at us?” Leo whined. She just continued to look at us. “We’re not going to touch anything.” Adrian said in quite a stance.
    Of course we walked around and took pictures, and video’s of us sitting at the news anchor desks, in front of camera’s, etc. Adrian was having a blast, getting to film stuff all over the studio. “I see a big video coming in the future.” I whispered into Ryan’s ear. “Oh, most definitely.” He told me. Around 4:30, after a quick meeting with Tara and one of the studio managers, we did a quick staging rehearsal. It didn’t take much, maybe half an hour to re-stage and another five minutes to practice the transitions.Other than that, we got this down. But the boys, I and most of the other cast were distracted and amazed by the glowing Times Square at four in the morning, we didn’t pay much attention to Tara. Trust me, she wasn’t paying that much of attention either.
    Inside the studio, we were treated to an awesome breakfast of bagels, muffins, all kinds of pastries. Then of course, coffee, smoothies, any kind of breakfast drink you could want. Huge HUGE platters of fruit took up an entire table. We sat and ate at tables inside of this catering room. Looking at the clock, it was 5:30 in the morning, and we had almost an hour and a half before we were advised to start getting ready. We continued to eat, beacuse the food would wake us up. It had to wake us up. I had maybe three large cups of coffee, I let Leo have one cup and the other boys just filled up on fruit.
    We were able to pretty much roam freely and explore different parts of the studio until 6:30 when the studio kicked into gear to start the 7:00AM live showtime, in which we would be pushed into our hallway and told to get ready for our performance. Similar to a stage performance, it takes us a good hour to get fully ready. Well, it does for me. When they pushed us in the hallway, I updated my Facebook. “Currently in the Good Morning America Times Square Studios getting ready to perform a special performance from the show at 8:12EST LIVE! We’ve been in the studio since four this morning, but we got to explore around it and was treated to a large breakfast and lots of coffee. Wasn’t so bad! 8:12AM on ABC! Watch!” I posted. The boys followed me and posted similar things to their profiles.
    The boys talked to their parents who had said that they were eagerly watching the program, waiting for us. I knew my Grandmother, mother and uncle was. A little after seven, we began getting ready for the performance, which includes makeup, costumes and stretching. Due to the limited space we had, and with New York Child Labor Performing Laws, we need to have our own dressing room, so the five of us were crammed into one tiny dressing room maybe for maybe three or four people. Luckily, Adrian, Leo and Marcell are quite small so it was a bit easier, but I wish, I really wish we had more room.
    By eight, we were fully ready for our performance. I updated my Facebook and Twitter one last time saying “Just a few minutes until we perform on GMA! Look for us!” I then put my phone in my backpack. I just hope that this performance goes well. This is the first show since Vegas where I haven’t had my letter from Michael on my makeup stand. Let me clear that up, we don’t have our makeup stands right now. Luckily I have the necklace which I got clearance from Tara to wear.
    At 8:10, we lined up outside of the GMA studio’s behind our little stage. People gave us plenty of dirty looks. Without nearly any notice, we were told “25 Seconds” and then Tara started talking to the camera and we started, with such a limited amount of notice. But we put on a smiling face and did it. Of course, I wasn’t first out, none of us kids were, but it caught people off guard.
    Probably one of the best parts of our job, one of my personal favorite parts of the job is hearing the audience scream, cheer and sing along. There was so much audience enjoyment from the small audience we had, maybe seventy five people. But they screamed, cheered and you could clearly hear some of them singing along. And then the applause at the end is usually even better. It gives you motivation because you want to hear it. You need to hear it to carry on.
    We were also given an applause as we all walked back in the studio to get changed. Once back in our dressing room, the first thing we do, which relates to every show we do is take off our costume. Our costumes then are hung up on the rack in the dressing room a very precise way. We had a class before the tour started on how to properly hang up certain costumes. Once back in our regular clothes, often times, I’m shirtless, we use baby wipes to clean the makeup off our face. The majority of the makeup is around our eyes, but there’s a brief powdery substance that applies to our entire face but whatever the sweat doesn’t take off by the end of the show, we take off with the wipes. Taking makeup off takes me about five minutes to do since it’s just intense scrubbing. All five of our faces, mainly around our eyes are slightly red from the intense scrubbing for a small time. We then need to take our makeup and put it back in the cases. (In each case is our personal makeup, the baby wipes and instructions on how to put it on. Each case is orange and has our tour number and first name on it.)
    Before leaving the studio, Tara, being our ‘mom’, made sure that her and the five of us got a picture with some of the anchors during a commercial break, then she walked us back to the hotel. Once back in the lobby, she split to go up another elevator to her room while we went up to ours. “Remember, the bus leaves at eleven, so make sure you have your things downstairs.” She reminded us. We shook our heads and then got onto the elevator.
    Back up in our rooms, it was just before nine and we have two hours before we leave for the hour ride (because of traffic and us having quite a large bus) to Newark, NJ. I went onto my laptop and posted a link to the video of the performance, already up on the GMA website. I worked for a bit on some projects and then Adrian came into my room. “I can’t figure out how to move the video on Final Cut.” He told me. I waved to him to come over to me. I was laying on my bed. He got and sat next to me on the bed. I brought him through the directions of how to do it one last time. “Oh, that was easy!” He exclaimed, once he got it. He was already nearly done editing the video of our GMA experience this morning. “Kid, you’re going places with these videos.” I told him.
    Around 10:30, we started getting ourselves motivated for the move. There wasn’t really anything to unpack since we were only here for one night. Then again, tonight is once again, our only night in the hotel, then we go back to NYC for six nights! Yea!!!!
    Finally, we made it Newark. It took two entire hours because of the traffic. It absolutely sucked. Luckily, I got some sleep, almost an hour and a half of sleep which felt really good when I woke back up. To my understanding, Ryan slept and Marcell slept, but Adrian and Leo didn’t sleep, which they are going to be dealing with later.
    Once we were in the hotel, we only had four and a half hours before we had to be at work, and Ryan and I made the honest decision to make the boys rest, despite the nice day it was today. They were not happy about it. “Okay. You want to go out? Okay then, but you’ll be drinking an energy shot tonight.” I told the three of them. Leo immediately backed off. He’s the only one who’s ever had to drink one of those and he doesn’t want to do it again. “Dude, let’s just rest.” He told Adrian who was fighting me. “Why? Don’t we need more energy for the show tonight? We’re not going to get any if we just sit here.” He argued. “But if we go out, you’ll be using your energy.” I told him. “Na-uh.” He said. “Adrian, that drink tastes really bad, just rest.” Leo fought on my side. Adrian moaned and went back into his room. “You can watch TV, play video games, play on your computer, whatever, just try to take it easy. We have to be at work in a few hours anyway.” I told him. Just then it hit me. We were on GMA this morning. It did not feel like that happened this morning.
    The boys rested right up until we went to work at five. We had to meet the group of kids we were supposed to be bringing around at 5:30, after they get a dinner in the catering room. The hotel isn’t a far walk, so it took maybe ten minutes, then we checked in and went to drop our things off in our room. Since we’re in New York, we need to have our own dressing room, according to the labor laws. We’re also not supposed to be performing tonight because there needs to be a 12 hour interval between performances, but someone in Cirque was able to pull a few strings. This is the first time that one of the tape arrows on the floor said “Male Dressing Room” with an arrow pointing one way and then another arrow pointed down another large hallway that says “The Boys Dressing Room”. When people on tour refer to us, they refer to us as “The Boys” since we’re the five literal boys on tour. This was a first time for us, so as we got into our dressing room, which was quite large, I was shocked. It’s a bit farther than the Male Dressing Room, which means we’ll probably be running back and forth for costume changes. But it’s just a bit smaller, so we have a lot of space for the five of us. We put our things down on the table, opened up our makeup stand and spread out our makeup as needed, like we do at every new arena.
    We heard a knock on our door. “It’s me.” We heard Cherylie say. “Come in.” Marcell said. She entered the room. “How are you guys? Long day, eh?” She asked. “We’re dealing with it.” Ryan expressed. “Okay, well the group is eating inside of the catering room, they should be done in about five minutes, so if you guys want to start heading over there, that’d be fine. I figured Storm and Ryan, you can take the older ones, I think there's six of them for a tour and Adrian, Marcell and Leo, you can take the other eight of them since their closer to your age, then maybe meet back up at the stage and do something fun.” She suggested. We all shrugged.
    We headed over to the catering room and met the group of kids and their five chaperones. They all seemed a bit eager to see the cool stuff but some of them were real shy. We let them finish eating, then separated the group between youngest and oldest. The oldest child there was a girl one year older than Ryan and I named Stephanie and the youngest was a third grader name “Denim”. Cherylie was right, most of the older kids were right in Ryan and I’s grade, and the younger ones ranged in ages from eight to thirteen. We started by going separate ways. The younger kids went to the stage first while the older ones explored other backstage aspects.
    After giving the tour, we met back up on the stage and offered to give the group a dance lesson of one of the songs from the show. We let those who chose to participate pick what song to do. They chose “Wanna Be Startin Something” which could be really easy because it’s just a lot of running around, so we simplified it. Though Ryan and I were the only ones who knew this dance, so it was a lot of us doing the work.
    The group was invited into our dressing room to watch us and talk to us while we put on our makeup, and to make it easier to them, we all changed in the bathroom across the hall. That way, they wouldn’t all have to get out of the room then come back in. Once we had our costumes on, incredibly early, close to six forty five, while we stretched, we offered to do a Q&A session. It was a lot of Favorite songs in the show, “Were you a fan of Michael before this?” and such. Very basic questions. We then got some pictures with the group and they made their way out into the VIP seating in the audience. We finished stretching and were then ready for the show. Adrian had to leave to go do a private Red Carpet with some special people from Newark such as  the Mayor and his family.
    When we went out into the audience, we messed around with our guests a lot. They seemed to have a lot of fun with it and there was a lot of laughing. Then the show started. Wanna Be, Dangerous, Thriller, Beat It, They Don’t Care About Us, Billie Jean, Black Or White (For The Second Time Today) and then Man in The Mirror. By the end of the show, the boys and I were completely pooped. Completely. We didn’t waste any time getting out of there and getting back to the hotel. Before I could go in and say goodnight to Adrian and Marcell, they were asleep. By the time I got back to my room, Leo was already asleep. Actually, by the time I got back to my room, I am pretty sure I was asleep.
    The next day, I slept until one in the afternoon. It felt so nice. You know that feeling you get when you stretch in your bed once you wake up? Yeah, it was like that, and it was awesome!
    Just minutes after waking up, I got a call from Mike. Or his stage name ‘Mikey Dropz’. He’s just a few years older than me, one of the youngest on tour. “Hey Storm, Pom and I are doing a dance video in Times Square in the next couple of days. Think you guys would wanna be in it?” He asked. “I don’t see why not. Lemme talk to the boys. Can I get some more info?” I asked. “Yeah, yeah sure. We’re doing it to a remix of “Spend It” by TI choreography. It’s gonna be filmed during the night at Times Square. But we’re going to be doing it at like one in the morning when there’s not many people there.” He told me. “When?” I asked. “Monday night, technically Tuesday morning if you want to be literal.” He said. “Okay, I’ll talk to the boys about it.” I told him. “Great, thanks man.” He replied. “No prob.” He said. We hung up the phone.
    Once the boys were up, I mentioned it. They were very eager to do it. I texted Mike back “We’re in.” I said. Next, he wanted to know when we were going to be able to rehearse. We have a small part, maybe thirty seconds in it, but it still needed to be choreographed. “How about tomorrow?” He asked. “No, we’re dancing in a music video for MattyBRaps.” I said. “Oh right, how about Monday?” He asked. “Ohh, yeah, we won’t be in the city after ten since we’re going back home for a MasterClass. But we’ll be back in time for the shoot.” I told him. “What about right now? Let’s meet in the arena and we’ll work on some stuff.” He asked. “Sure, how about at 3:00?” I asked. “Sounds good, meet ya there.” He told. “Aight.”
    It didn’t give us much time. We quickly got dressed, showered and went out and got Panera Bread for a large lunch. Afterwards, we got right to work at the arena with Mike and Pom. We were able to learn the choreography in about an hour, and then practiced it for another hour. Working with those two are a lot of fun because they have a great sense of humor. It’s always relaxed and there’s no judging. It was no stress to learn this choreography. Well, it kind of was because we only had a few hours, but it ended up working out.
    After tonights show, we took a bus back to New York City, to our new hotel. I had thought we were staying in the same hotel we were staying at before, but no. We’re staying at the Empire Hotel, and according to Google Maps, it was a thirty minute walk to MSG. Since we were in NYC, they were not supplying us with a shuttle, so as we exited the buses, people passed out Metrocards that should only be used to get to and from work. While on the bus, I checked my email. I had an email from MattyBRaps, a.k.a., his Mom. It read: “I’m very sorry, but we will have to cancel the shoot tomorrow. Something came up and we were not able to fly out to New York today. Hope this isn’t an inconvenience. Sorry for the short notice. We’ll be in touch soon!” I told the boys and Ryan about this, since we were supposed to film tomorrow morning, but now it’s not happening. None of us really cared. It’d be cool to do, but we were fine not doing it. But we checked into the hotel, found our rooms in this nice hotel and got settled.
    Nobody was tired. We were way too excited to be spending the next six nights in New York City performing at Madison Square Garden. At the same exact time, all five of our phones rang. We all got the same text... from Tara. “Going to Times Square with some others for something to eat. Wanna come?” She asked. “Just to bug her, we all texted her back the exact same thing. “Yep, meet you in the lobby in five minutes.”. Then she texted me back. “Really?” I had all the boys, including myself text her back “Yes, really.” Haha
    We found Taxi’s to take us to Times Square. Ryan and I went in a taxi with Giannini and Leeco while the boys got in one with Tara. Once we were in Times Square, at one thirty in the morning, nothing much was open. So... we go to McDonalds. There’s one right by our hotel, but not going to the one in Times Square defeats the purpose. Seeing the lights, even though we did it less than 48 hours ago is just amazing. Adrian was filming. The group of maybe twelve of us messed around on the near vacant grounds of Times Square. People doing flips, people doing moves while trying to juggle a McDonalds sweet tea or apple pie. I don’t normally do flips, but Thomas got me to do some, because I’m one of the few dancers who can actually do that. I have just the balance of weight and muscle to accurately do one without using my hands. Adrian got plenty of videos are Thomas and I in sync doing handless flips with McDonalds food in the air. Adrian showed me one video. It looked very cool. Another thing we did, which took a little bit of time was taking a bite of a Big Mac while upside down in the air all while facing the camera. Fifteen minutes and three Dollar Menu Cheeseburgers later, we were able to do it while it was filmed in a HD camera.
    We got back to the hotel around 2:30 in the morning and we all went to bed. I said “Goodnight” to Adrian and Marcell before they went into their room. Before very long, I was sound asleep.
    There wasn’t much to do the next day, but since it was Sunday, the start of the school week and we wanted to have as much free time in New York as possible, so we decided to spend the day today doing ALL of our schoolwork, just to get it completely done with. So we opened up the windows in my room, cleared off some tables and we all went to school for the day. I think this is the first day on the entire tour that we had actually sat down and decided to knock out all of our school work in one day.
    We worked on it for three hours, then ordered room service for lunch, and worked right through lunch. I can honestly say, we worked our hardest today and we were all finished with our school work for the entire week by four thirty in the afternoon. All done and free for the entire week! How did we celebrate? Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. “I see a lot of Times Square in our future.” Adrian said. “Yup, I do too.” I said back.
    Of course, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and got the sticker, and then headed over and explored Toys R Us. As you may know, the place is huge, so we spent, had to of spent eighty minutes just walking around, browsing. We ended up getting two new basketballs. “We need to start going to the park and playing Basketball again.” Leo mentioned. “Yeah, that was cool, when it gets warmer out, and we’re in a cleaner city, I’m game.” I said. “Why, is Stormly afraid of some hoodlums?” Ryan asked. “No, but I really don’t need to deal with crappy people in New York Basketball courts.” I said. Ryan didn’t want to say anything more.
    After Toys R Us, we made a quick visit to the M&M store and got some M&M’s that should last us a couple of days. We went back to the hotel around eight and hung out in the rooftop pool. While swimming, hanging out and relaxing, we went over our plans for tomorrow. “So, let’s legit try to sleep until we absolutely need to go tomorrow, because we’re going to have a long day tomorrow. We have to go to Bethel, teach a masterclass, then we’re driving back with the your parents, and then we have to film that video with Pom and Mike.” I explained. The Fragmelli’s and Abiatelli’s are coming back with us tomorrow night, the are driving us back to NYC that night, staying that night, seeing the show and going to the party the following night and then going home the next day.
    We stayed up a bit late, probably until 10:30 playing Gamecube games, mainly Mario Kart. The next morning, we slept until nine, got up, got ready and was out the door by 9:30. All the boys were excited, especially Adrian. Since Adrian had stayed with me in Montreal to train Elliot, he hasn’t been home to Bethel since the beginning of December, almost five months ago. He also hasn’t seen his family in almost four months too, so he was getting real exciting. Leo, Marcell and Ryan who went home in the beginning of February were also excited to be back in Bethel, even though it’s only a few hours. We made the ten minute walk through blocks and along avenues to get to Grand Central. Before the tour, I would see Grand Central about once a month, maybe every two months. Being away for almost a year makes the inside of the building that much more amazing.
    We caught a train to South Haven. There wasn’t much to do on the train. No internet access, no space to practice dancing, we just kinda sat there and mind our own business. Some of us were listening to music while others just blankly stared out the windows. But it felt weird. Usually we take a train to the city and then back to get home. Now we are taking a train to Bethel and then we are going to be taking a car ride back ‘home’.
    We switched trains in South Haven and took another train directly to Bethel. We got off the train in Bethel around one thirty in the afternoon, and Adrian and Marcell’s parents picked us up. We wanted her to drop us off at the school. Adrian and Marcell wanted to surprise Melissa in school, Leo wanted to surprise his sister, and Ryan and I wanted to go see Commander and MSGT, as well as a few other teachers in BHS.
    Mrs. Abiatelli dropped Adrian, Marcell, Ryan and I off at BHS. “So, you’re going to take the bus home with your sister?” I assured with him. He nodded. “Okay, call me if there’s a problem.” I said. Even though we were in Bethel, I still had to watch out for them. If something happens to them while in tour, Ryan and I’s ass is grass. Tara would throw a fit.
    We checked in at the office and they looked up where Melissa was. “She’s in Ms. Yonsky’s class.” The secretary said. “You know where that is?” She added. “I’ll bring them there.” I told her. She nodded. Once we all had our visitors stickers, and our passes clipped on our sides (it always helps), and walked upstairs to Mrs. Yonsky’s room. I looked through the window. She wasn’t teaching and it looked like a study hall, but it isn’t. I let Marcell open the door, but the class took notice of the door opening and everyone looked to see who was entering the room. “Melissa!” Marcell exclaimed as he entered the room. Her head flipped towards the door and she grinned.
    It was a nice reunion, especially between her and Adrian. Ryan and I having Mrs. Yonsky the year prior decided to stay in the class since they weren’t doing anything anyway. She got us catching up and talking about the show. “What’s it like backstage during the show?” She asked. “Very hectic, very fast paced.” Ryan answered. “Where have you toured so far?” She asked. “A lot of places. Today marks the exact date, six months ago was the premiere of the show and the day we started touring.” Adrian said. I thought back. “Oh yeah, it is.” I remarked. “But what places have you been, some give me a few.” She asked us. “Ummm, “ I started. “Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Orlando, Miami, Raleigh, right now we’re in New York City. But there’s many many more than that” I said. “We also stayed in Las Vegas for a month.” Adrian added. I shook my head.
    At 2:15, when the bell rang, we all went with Mrs. Abiatelli back to their house. Well, we dropped Ryan off at his house, but nobody was home at my house so I went over theirs. Adrian’s parents own a Daycare, run out of their basement. It’s a full facility, but most of the kids during the school year, most of the kids are pre-schoolers and then a few elementary aged kids that come after school. Mrs. Abiatelli requested we do a few dances for the kids, so we ended up doing Smooth Criminal and Thriller. Followed by that, her staff took over and the five of us went upstairs into her house and sat down and started having a conversation at the kitchen table. It was about logistics of the tour, and legal stuff. “I had no idea how much Cirque had to pay attention to the child labor laws.” Mrs. Abiatelli said. “Yeah, it’s amazing how much they work to have us on the tour. It’s a lot of work.” I said. “Then again, we are one of the higest paid people on tour.” Adrian spoke. “True, true.” I said.
    It’s true. I think the highest paid people on tour are Salah (plays The Mime), Tara, Cherylie, Andy (Production Manager) and then us. They are that interested on having us on the tour that they are paying us very well. We get just about $500 per show we do and then every other week we get a touring allowance of $400. So, we do on average four to five shows per week. In addition, Ryan and I just got a bit of a raise since we do a lot of the parenting for the other boys. It was just an extra $50 per show. “On Average, we make eleven thousand dollars a month. Since working for Cirque, each one of us has made over $16,000. Personally, I don’t use that much money while on tour so I have about fifty thousand in the bank.” I said. “That’s completely ridiculous.” Melissa said. “Well, you know how much they want us? We’re the only performers in the entire show who were signed on a three year contract, for the entire world tour.” I said. That means that however many shows the tour does around the world, we will get paid and be on stage for ALL of those shows.
    Mrs. Abiatelli made us Ravioli before driving us to the Bethel Dance Studio. Her and her husband, as well as Melissa was staying for the workshop. Melissa and two of her friends (meeting her there) were participating in the workshop. When we got there, around five, the studio welcomed us warmly. Ryan and Leo were already there, stretching on the dance floor. “Apparently, we’re sold out with the thirty five open spots.” Ryan said. “Well, that’s what they told me.” He added. “Cool.” I nodded.
    People started arriving around 5:10, which led us to introduce ourselves to people and talk to them. Ryan’s parents, brother and cousin were going to watch, not participate. Leo’s parents were doing the same thing, but his sister and two cousins were going to be participating. Finally, my Mom arrived. I gave her a really big hug, but withheld my incredibly happy emotions. My cousins, with their father, the ones who came to visit me in Vegas had also arrived. My two cousins were participating in the workshop.
    At 5:30, we started right on cue. “Okay! We’re going to start now! We have to do this and then go shoot a video down in the city, so let’s get rocking!” I said jokingly. “But no, he’s not kidding. We really are needed for a video in the City in legit seven hours.” Ryan said. We all introduced ourselves. “We have a very special job. I hope you read the description of the workshop, because what I’m about to say was in that as well. So it’s a recap! Anyway, the five of us play The Fanatics in Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour by Cirque Du Soleil. The Fanatics are fans of Michael Jackson who run around the show based on his personality. We also have several other ‘characters’ in the show, but we call them ‘costume changes’. (The group laughs). We are the Jackson 5, we are Gangsters in Smooth Criminal, and Ryan and I do Dangerous, a really cool pole dancing scene. We are zombies in Thriller, Adrian, Ryan and I are robots for They Don’t Care About Us and there are a few other characters in the show. But today, we are going to work on a dance called Remember The Time by Michael Jackson. This is our first time teaching the dance, so give us a break.” I asked.
    The workshop went real well, we were able to teach the forty five second choreography in about an hour, rehearsed it and actually performed it with filming the next half an hour then we sat down and did a Q&A session with the class. That lasted about a half an hour, which led us to perform a dance we did for the master class in Vegas to “On The Floor” by J-Lo.
    The workshop ended just about 7:30, and I said my goodbyes to my family, but just until tomorrow. I got in the car with the Abiatelli’s, along with Ryan and we drove back to the city. Leo drove in the car following us with his family. Right now, it was simply Mrs and Mr. Abiatelli, Melissa, Mr and Mrs Fragmelli, Julie, Chase and Chase’s sister Hannah. While in the car on the way to the city, I texted Leo “Ask your fam in they want to come to the shoot tonight. Mike said all are welcome.” I knew that The Abiatelli’s were going at least for a little bit. He texted me back a few seconds later “Ya, they’re goin”. I knew that the families were staying at different hotels than us. They are staying in the Marriot hotel in Times Square, which will be good for them since we’re filming near there.
    The drive to the city took about an hour and a half, and they dropped us off right at our hotel. “How bout you meet us in Times Square at one in the morning?” I asked them. That’s the time we’re gonna start filming. “Okay, where?” Mr. Abiatelli asked. “You’ll find us, we’ll be one of the few there.” I said. He nodded and then drove off. I had Leo tell his family the same thing.