Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, Gainax does.
The Swedish Royal House proudly presents:
The Talent HuntChapter 1: And so it begins.
Thursday
Fourth period
Tokyo-3 Municipal High School
This was one of the few classes of the week that Shinji actually enjoyed (besides watching the girls during PE of course), Music class.
He had always been interested in music. He loved to listen to it, play it, and even watch it. It was his only escape from the everyday gloom, and quite possibly the one thing that had kept him sane this long.
The teacher, Mr. Yoshida, was a lean man in his mid thirties that always reminded Shinji of Kaji. They both had that same twinkle in their eyes and, according to the rumors, the same appetite for women.
"Ok kids, I have a special announcement." He addressed the class.
"For some time now I have been trying to come up with an assignment to finish off the semester with," this was no surprise, he had been taking up suggestions for the last two weeks, but they had all been too expensive or too extreme for his taste.
"I have decided that we will organize a talent hunt." He continued, "Does anyone want to sign up right away?"
The room fell deathly silent, no one dared even move, except for the Tanaka sisters (who always sucked up to the teachers anyway) who were waving their hands excitedly in the air.
"Riiight, kinda expected that." He sighed.
Then he looked out over the room with a wicked smile and leaned back in his chair.
"It doesn't matter any way, this assignment is mandatory, and you wont get a passing grade without it."
There was a moment of shock, and then the shouting begun.
"You can't be serious!" Touji exclaimed.
"For once the stooge is right!" Asuka interjected, "This is below my dignity, I have graduated from collage for god's sake!"
"Show some respect you guys, were still in class you know!" Hikari shouted to try and make herself heard over the pandemonium.
"Silence!" Mr. Yoshida shouted and slammed his hand down on his desk.
"You will all participate or you will all be failed, make a choice." He announced as he glared out over the class.
He kept his glare for a moment and then folded his arms across his chest and continued with a milder tone.
"I am not an unreasonable man, there will be prices waiting for the top three performers, the first price being a fully paid weekend at the Ritz, for two." He now wore his usual mischievous smile as he let the idea sink in, and soon enough the students started to see the potential the situation held, especially the boys.
"Ok, but I still think it's a bad idea." Touji said as he sat down, but Shinji noticed that he kept glancing in Hikari's direction, and he could almost hear the gears in his friend's head starting to turn.
"The rules are simple." He continued, "Each one of you will imitate an artist and perform one song. The judges will concentrate on the acting, so you wont have to sound that good, as long as you act and look like your artist you have a shoot at first place. You just have to participate to get your grades, but enthusiasm is always appreciated." With that he rose from the desk and gathered his things. "I will let you use the rest of this class to think about who you want to imitate, but you must submit your choice by the end of the week, you have until Friday next week to practice your performance. And now, dismissed."
With that he left the room, and the students immediately broke out in a loud chatter.
***
"Can you believe that old geezer? He can't force us to do this, we have rights you know!" Asuka ranted while flailing her hands angrily in the air for emphasis. She had been going at it the entire walk home and Shinji had been trying his best to tune her out since the beginning. The problem was that she seemed to require some form of verbal response with regular intervals, but that didn't require more than the occasional grunt or "right" when she stopped to catch her breath.
"Hey! Are you listening Shinji!?" she suddenly exclaimed in his direction, he immediately realized he hadn't said anything for the last five minutes and mentally slapped himself.
"Yeah yeah, evil teacher, I understand." He blurted out, and when he realized what he had said the damage was already done.
"You haven't listened to a word I've said you stupid jerk!" and with that she stormed of swearing incoherently in German.
Shinji just continued on his way home with the sad realization that she would be impossible to deal with for at least a week now.
***
Touji was lying on his bed, dreaming of how a weekend at the Ritz together with Hikari would be like. He wasn't a complete fool, regardless of what people thought, he knew she had a certain interest in him, and he would lie if he said he wasn't a bit interested himself, and a weekend at a expensive hotel held some interesting possibilities. But how the hell was he supposed to win that price? He sung worse than a sick cow and wasn't that much of a music fan anyway.
Suddenly the phone rang.
"Whazzap Touji my man!" Kensuke's overly cheerful voice greeted him from the other end.
"Could be better." He responded glumly.
"Do I detect a hint of heartache old friend? Not to worry, I have what you need." Kensuke continued on with that same manic cheerfulness, "I have devised a way to win that talent hunt so you can put the moves on a certain class representative."
Touji bolted upright, "Now you're starting to make some sense for a change, do go on!"
"First I must warn you, if you repeat this to anyone, I will let the entire school know about that little mishap during that camping trip last year."
Touji blanched, that would force him to quit school and move to Indochina. "Of course I can keep my mouth shut. Now spill!"
"Ok, its a little known fact that I took singing lessons for a brief period a couple of years back. My parents decided that it would be a nice pastime, and I thought it would impress the girls. Anyway, what I propose is this: we team up, I handle most of the singing and you handle the acting bit."
"But if we win and I take Hikari on that weekend, what are you getting out of it?" Touji asked with a bit of suspicion.
"Simple, you will owe me a favor. There's this girl I like, but I don't really know how to talk to girls…"
"And I do, is that what you're saying? You want me to help you land a girl?"
"Basically, yeah." Kensuke answered.
Touji thought about it for a second, and then he decided.
"No problem, you didn't have to bribe me you know. Who is the girl anyway?"
When Kensuke told him his eyes widened in shock.
"We better win that price Ken, that's all I'm saying."
***
Hikari was lying on her bed, dreaming of how a weekend at the Ritz together with Touji would be like. She had seen the looks he had given her in class, and she had a hunch of what he was planning.
"But how is he going to win? He can't sing worth a damn." She thought and immediately grew depressed.
"Lets face it, the only way I can go on that weekend is if I win it myself." Suddenly she had it, the obvious answer. She was not half bad at singing and she probably could pull of the acting without to much trouble, she could win that price and invite Touji. But that was against the rules, girls don't ask boys out on dates, especially not nice girls like her.
She thought about it for a moment, and reached a decision.
"Screw the rules!" she exclaimed and immediately started to search her CD collection for something fitting.
The kids at school had always referred her to as a "Goody two shoes", and frankly she was getting very sick of it. You'd think that she would be into Boy Bands and suchlike as the rest of her friends, and while in school she pretended to, but the music Hikari listened to at home was somewhat…different. Now she was going to show everybody just how bad she could be, plus the added shock might score her some extra points as well.
After a couple of seconds she found what she was looking for, and as she reached over to the phone she found herself grinning, almost manically.
"Hello Mr. Yoshida? It's Hikari from 2A; I just wanted to tell you that I have decided who I want to be in the talent hunt. And I also need a favor, I need a man to sing backing vocals…"
***
At the other side of town, Rei Ayanami was also browsing through her (although a lot smaller) CD collection. She had stashed both it and her stereo in the back of her closet to keep them out of the way, it was a small apartment after all. Most people would be surprised to know that Rei was actually a huge music lover. All her spare time was spent at the local music shop; she was on a first name basis with the entire staff, but she only owned a few carefully selected discs that she played constantly when alone. After a few minutes she found the disc she was looking for and a small smile graced her lips, there were few things she found pleasurable in life, but music was one of them.
She was really going to enjoy this.
***
Shinji and Asuka were standing in the opposite corners of the elevator. The air was still frosty from the little incident earlier, and the rest of the walk home had been in silence. As they reached their floor, Asuka pushed her way past Shinji and entered the apartment with a distinct purpose: talk her way out of that stupid talent hunt.
"Misato, were home!" she hollered as she removed her shoes at the door.
Misato lay sprawled across the couch; remote in one hand and the ever present can of beer in the other. This was one of her few off-days and she had vowed to make the most of it, hence watching soap operas and drink beer all day (that's the good life people!).
"Hi Asuka. How was school?" the major answered, without taking her eyes of the TV.
She had to be cautious if she was to talk her way out of that stupid contest. but the fact that
Misato was in off mode would surely help a lot, since only her most basic brain functions were operational.
"Yeah about that, there's this ting…"
"You're not getting out of the talent hunt Asuka." The inert form on the couch interrupted.
"WHAT! WHY THE HELL NOT!?" she roared, this was just to much.
"Mainly because its necessary to get that grade, and Mr. Yoshida already cleared it with us over three weeks ago." Misato answered calmly, witch only seemed to infuriate Asuka even more. Muttering curses under her breath she stormed of into the kitchen, Shinji had watched the entire exchange and let out the breath he had been holding. That had gone better than expected.
"Hey Shinji, have you figured out who you're going to be yet?" Misato asked as she slowly and lazily got up from the couch.
"I haven't thought about it that much, I cant sing or anything…"
"I don't know about that, you sound pretty good in the shower." Misato interrupted with a grin, which promptly made him blush furiously.
"Hah, you must be joking, Pen-pen sings better than this idiot." Asuka interjected as she returned from the kitchen.
"Anyway, you could always play your cello, that should work." Misato glared at Asuka, which she completely ignored.
"That's just boooring! Couldn't you at least pick someone from this century?"
"I don't know; I don't listen to that much modern music."
Asuka rolled her eyes, "I forgot who I was talking to, you should wake up and smell the 21'st century Third Child." And with that she walked to her room to contemplate the injustices of the world.
***
Shinji was sitting in his room, sulking, those comments from Asuka had hurt. Normally he wouldn't care, she was just wired that way, but he felt a bit touchy today. It wasn't his fault that people found classical music dull; he liked it just fine that way because it always seemed to match his mood. He did listen to some modern music, but mostly instrumental songs, so that wasn't an option.
It was then he came to think of the box under the bed.
A couple of years ago, before his taste shifted, he had been into a more aggressive type of music. At the time he had been very angry with his father, the people he lived with and the world in general, but after a year or so he had mellowed out and become the depressed guy he was today. Nowadays he didn't really care for that kind of music but he still had nice collection stashed under the bed. And he would really like to shut Asuka up once and for all.
***
The aforementioned redhead was, ironically, also cooped up in her room entertaining thoughts along that same line. She was of course louder than Shinji, but still.
"Why the hell do I have to be in that stupid talent hunt?" she muttered and glared at her favorite crack in the ceiling.
She hated to admit it but she wasn't much of a singer, and everyone in class knew it (courtesy of another one of Mr. Yoshida's little assignments a couple of months ago). So if she wanted to win this stupid thing, and she did, she would have to focus on the acting, and if possible distract the judges from the singing part. But how the hell would she do that? What could she do that would be distracting enough? At that moment she happened to look at the mirror situated over her desk, and then it hit her. She knew she was beautiful, and she was actually flattered by all the love letters she got from the boys (on some level), but she would rather die than show it. If this worked out like she planned she would drive the boys crazy and most likely win the whole thing. Men would always be perverts and this time it would work to her advantage. And besides, a weekend at the Ritz with Kaji, now there's an interesting thought.
***
The following two weeks were hectic for all the students of class 2A. Great deals of money were spent on costumes, wigs and other necessary articles, and in this chase the Children had an advantage, with their rather large salaries and all. Through some silent agreement everyone decided to keep their selections secret, they figured it would be more exciting that way. The only one who knew everything was Mr. Yoshida, and he had been shocked by some of the choices that had been made. Especially the Children and Miss Horaki, who he had agreed to help with the backing vocals, had surprised him greatly. At least it would be something to remember, and even this early he knew it was going to be a success.
Time seemed to fly by and suddenly the night of the talent hunt had arrived.
This was going to be a show to remember.
Next: Shinji's Performance/ Getting Even.
*************
Wow, this one developed a life of it's own and ran away from me. I intended it to be a short introduction of the characters and establish their motivation, but it became a bit larger than I thought. I have tried my best too keep the characters IC and I believe it went pretty well. Shinji might have a bit more spine than normal, but the others worked out fine. A note on Asuka: all girls like compliments, they might not show it but they all want it. Anyway, let me tell you how this fic will continue. The following chapters will be shorter and describe the performances of each main character. And, as you might have guessed, they will be songfics. There might even be some WAFF ahead, depending on whom I choose to be the winner. So be afraid, be very afraid.