Double-Take

School events were never my favorite, nor were they anyone's. But out of all the events that the school has had, the talent competitions were usually the best. You either enjoyed watching the acts, or you enjoyed watching the acts fail. Either way, they were usually eventful. Especially the one a little over a week ago, when my best friend, Jax Kramer, decided to perform with two of his friends. He asked me to perform with him, of course, but I was never much of a singer, so I decided against going up with them.

Some acts were pretty good, others were just okay. "Double-Take," the name Jax and his bandmates chose for themselves, was the last group to perform. As they stepped onto the stage, it became clear as to why the name was chosen; two of the three members were identical twins. They were practically the same person, just with different personalities. Jax played piano, Tim was on drums, and Tom picked up the guitar. Although I may not remember the song they played, it'd be nearly impossible to forget what happened as they reached the bridge.

In the song, the bridge split off into the main singer's voice, and a crowd of voices backing the singer up. Jax, Tim, and Tom each sang separate pieces of the song, while still playing their instrument, except for on the bridge, where they all sang together. As the bridge reached a crescendo, a dim blue light began to emit from the band. Two people stepped out from behind each band member, which I realized were past versions of the members themselves.

They remained until the end of the bridge, and died out as the voices did. Practically everyone was stunned by what happened, and, as to be expected, Double-Take won the competition. Afterwards, as the crowd filed out of the auditorium, Jax walked up to me.

"Man, you should've been up there with us! You could've been the lead singer. I'm sure you would've been great up there. And if you got too worried, we could always switch out your part, or give you a shorter part. You could've sang the bridge, us three could've sang a verse each, and we could all sing the chorus, just like this time." He beamed, obviously ecstatic about winning.

Someone from the grade above us walked up to him, and started congratulating him. He seemed really interested, and asked Jax how he made the special effects seem so realistic.

"Special effects?" Jax questioned. "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"You know, how all of the younger versions of you and your band mates came up behind you on stage? How'd you do that?" the senior asked.

Immediately, all of the color drained from Jax's face, as if he had been drained of all life inside him. The senior didn't seem to notice, as he kept looking at him, awaiting a response. I cut in, trying to save Jax.

"Oh, I remember Tim saying he was doing the special effects. He mentioned something to me about it, asking about what part of the song to do it at. I'm not sure how he did it, though. That was all him." I responded, hoping the senior would accept my answer.

"Cool, cool. See you later, Jax? I gotta run. I'll have to ask Tim about the special effects sometime. Later." He walked away as he said this, and said something neither Jax nor I could hear, so we left it at that.

"Dude, what happened? He mentioned your past selves, and you looked like you were being drained by leeches or a vampire. Is everything okay?" I asked as we walked to the buses.

"Thanks for covering for me. I just got caught a little off guard. I wasn't expecting them to come up again." he replied, jaw clenched, and eyes forward.

"No problem... Wait, what do you mean again? Has something like this happened before?"

"Kinda... It's a lot to explain. If you wanna hang out after school, I'll explain it all then."