Prodigy

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"Zane!!! Zaney! Zaney! Zaney! LOOK!" Jess roared a week later, hurling the classroom door open, almost flattening another student behind it as she tore into the room, brandishing tickets before her as she steamrollered through the other students to get to his desk.

Zane glanced up when she was upon him and she nearly took his nose off as she shoved the tickets in his face.

"Locke gave me tickets to his concert!" Jess screamed, bouncing up and down and almost crying for joy.

"How kind of him," Zane said, waving the tickets away, dropping his cheek back on his palm and attempting to return to what he'd been doing originally - snoozing.

"WE'RE GOING TO ROYAL ALBERT HALL!!!" Jess bellowed in his ear.

"STOP YELLING!" he roared back. "Go have fun! Leave me alone!"

"No!" Jess cried, shaking him, "No, you don't understand. The tickets are reserved for you. He said you had to come with me or I wouldn't be able to get in. You have to come. Please!"

"Don't be stupid, you have the tickets, it doesn't matter who's name they're under."

"No, he was really insistent that you had to come. Please, Zane, oh please, please, please. Do you know how hard it is to get tickets to his shows? And the Royal Albert Hall? I'll never to able to afford to go to a concert there. Please, I'm begging you."

"Take someone else, tell him I said 'hi and to leave me alone', same as always. You'll be fine."

~~~

Of course, three weeks later, at six-thirty, when Zane was at home studying, headphones on, music up to drown out the argument from downstairs, he got a tear-stained phone call from Jess telling him that, although they were expecting her - her name was on a list and everything - she could only get in with Zane, strict instructions from the star-performer himself.

What a jerk.

He had an hour to get there and had nothing to wear - there wasn't a single person in his whole damn neighbourhood to owned something suitable for a place like that.

He had trousers, a white shirt and a black tie. That was the best he could do. If they wanted the full penguin suit and didn't let him in without it, well tough luck.

~~~~

They did let him in, to his annoyance. And not only did they let him in, they led him and Jess backstage so they got the VIP experience.

Tickets and special treatment - Zane didn't understand Locke, he really didn't.

Backstage was a form of organised chaos. Musicians lounged about, coming on and off stage, talking softly, heading out to take their place on stage and warm up. Backstage crew rushed back and forth in the semi-darkness, getting things in place, talking on headsets to people elsewhere in the building.

Locke wasn't there.

"Are you the friends?" someone asked, approaching them.

"No, we're-" Zane started and Jess elbowed him in the ribs.

"Yeah, we're Locke's friends," she said, smiling.

"That's a first," the man muttered then shook his head and held a hand out, first to Jess, then to Zane. "I'm his manager. I assume you're Zane, the guy he hasn't shut up about for the last month?"

"Not sure I want to be," Zane replied, "Where is he?"

"Eh, probably in his dressing room being sick."