melodies at midnight (a.g x m.j)

my world is upside down

Ariana ~ March 11th, 1983

I walk into the auditorium alongside Courtney, we pass through some big double doors and the huge theatre sits in front of us. There's a few people on stage but no familiar faces yet. We walk pass the seats and a lady swiftly turns around, a smile plastered to her face once she sees us.

"Ariana, it's so lovely to finally meet you in person!" She rushes over, embracing me kindly. This must be Suzanne. She then pulls away and hugs Courtney. "You're Courtney, right?"

My friend nods, properly greeting her as well.

"It's nice to meet you too!" I admire the beautiful theatre. "So, what's the plan?" I ask, my sight falling back on her.

"Well, I'll give you the set list now so you can get a feel for where you'll be in the show and after we're done setting up a few things, you're going to have your time slot to practice. You'll get a few hours and then throughout the week, you're invited to comeback and continue rehearsing." She passes a piece of paper to Courtney and I watch my best friend's eyes pop open and she looks at me with a nervous smile.

"Sounds easy enough." I joke, wondering why Courtney's acting strange.

"To get to your dressing room, it's gonna be behind the curtain and then down the hallway to your left. You should find your name on the door. I've assigned you a shared dressing room. I know it sucks but there's only 1 star room and Diana demanded it."

Who knew Diana was such a diva? I mean...I knew that but now that I've gained a little stardom myself, I can't imagine making demands for things like that. I get it but not really.

"That's all good." I nod and smile. "Do you know who I'll be sharing with?"

"I'll get you that information as soon as I remember." She laughs. "Let me go and see, you get your things ready and once you're back out on stage, I'll let you know."

I thank her for all her help and she walks off to somewhere.

I turn to Courtney, furrowing my eyebrows. "Read that set list right now, I need to know why you pulled that face." Now, I'm starting to get anxious and I don't even know why.

"Okay..." I can see she's holding back a smirk. "It's the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations-"

She continues listing more and more acts. "Adam Ant, Lionel Richie, then it's you-"

It'll be such an honour meeting Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder all in one night, I'm so excited.

I realize Courtney's sudden quietness and it brings me out of my thinking. "That's it?" I ask, there's no way that's everybody.

"No...not exactly. Erm, it's the Jackson's, Randy included."

I nod slowly, I knew they'd be performing but I kind of just didn't want it to be true. The thought of seeing Randy for the first time after all of that just makes me sick, I don't need to reconcile with him. He did me dirty, I never wanted to speak to him again after. Let's leave it at that.

"I bet Michael's not coming though." I state scoffing.

"No he is."

My head snaps in her direction so hard I may have gotten whiplash. From what I've heard, Michael doesn't want to do anything with his family when it comes to music again so I'm shocked he'd agree to do this.

"But..." She looks down at her paper. "After the group performance, he's allotted a time slot for a solo one too."

I think to myself for awhile. "That must be the only reason he's agreed to come."