Chapter 1: Beginnings?

Fans roared.

My heart races as the stage lights flick on.

I adjust my bow and step out into the light.

The crowd screams and starts chanting my name.

"Rin!…Rin!"

I smile as my heartbeat races and I look out into the crowd that's cheering for me. The music starts to blast in my ears as I take a deep breath, lifting the Microphone to my face.

"Rin!...Rin!"

BEEP! BEEP!

"Rin…"

BEEP!

"Rin…"

"RIN!"

I let out a yelp as I jumped and fell out of bed.

"Owww…" I grumble as I sit up rubbing my back.

"Well serves you right! I've been trying to wake you up for ten minutes now!" Neru yelled in her annoyingly obnoxious voice.

"Yeah, yeah." I said, waving a hand dismissively.

She just rolled her eyes. "By the way, Miku is going to be here in about an hour so I suggest you hurry up."

My eyes grew wide as I looked at her then glancing at my alarm clock that is still noisily beeping at me.

"Crap!" I yell as I scramble off the cold ground, stumbling as I run to my drawers and jerk them open.

I began to file through my clothes, flinging them everywhere just to find something decent. I was in such a rush I didn't have the time to enjoy the fact that I hit my sister in the face with a pair of hastily thrown pair of jeans.

Finally finding something I ran to my bathroom for a shower.

By the way, you must be wondering who I am aren't ya? I'm Rin, Rin Kamui. I'm a 15 year old first year student at Sakura Academy. Nice to meet ya! As you can tell, I'm a world famous singer! Er…I want to be anyway.

The reason I'm in such a rush today is I was planning to go shopping with my best friend Miku, but…I kinda overslept. Annyywwaayy , that annoying cow yelling at me earlier was my older sister Neru. She's a 17 year old third year, which means she's graduating at the end of this year, and man will I be happy when she's gone!

I hopped out of the shower and ran out of the steaming bathroom fully clothed in a yellow tank top, denim half jacket, white skirt, white bow, and black leggings. I then trotted down the stairs screaming.

"I'm late! I'm late! Where are my shoes?" I yelled looking at the shoe rack by the front door.

"Calm down white rabbit and eat something." My mom said, shoving a piece of toast in my mouth.

I rolled my eyes, still trying to talk. "Mur Mwi Mweed Mwy Moos!" I mumbled exasperated, spewing crumbs at my mom.

My mom just giggled, "There in the closet."

I took the toast out of my mouth and thanked her hurriedly, putting on my black flat ankle boots with the buckle on the side.

I heard a honk and I ran out the door calling over my shoulder, "Bye mom!"

I closed the door, not waiting for a reply as I ran toward Miku's mom's van.

Before I reached the van I stopped and swear dropped, spotting a very angry Miku as she tapped her foot waiting for me. I walked the rest of the way up there with my head held low, like a puppy who just got scolded.

Miku, besides being my best friend, was also very temperamental. Unlike me Miku was a second year at my school, being a sixteen year old. We've been best friends since grade school because of our parents and we've never spent long periods of time apart. She was also always the better looking one, her long teal hair always pulled in their usual twin tails, with her sea green/blue eyes and fair skin. I've always been slightly envious of her for it.

Today her hair was the usual, tied back with black ribbon. She had a teal halter with a black tank underneath to hide any unwanted cleavage that might show, black skinny jeans, and silver sparkly converse.

"Where the heck have you been?" She scolded me, her eyes breaking down any potential attempt at guarding.

I flinched and rubbed the back of my head with a nervous laugh. "Uh…sleeping?" I said, as more of a question than statement. She didn't seem to care.

"Sleeping? Sleeping!" She yelled at me while I reeled back. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh well, whatever. Let's just go."

I breathed a sigh of relief that I got off lucky and followed her into the van.

"Hello Rin, how have you been?" Miku's mom asks me as I buckled my seatbelt.

"Just fine Mrs. Hatsune, how are you?" I asked back, being as polite as I could. You always want to be nice to Mrs. Hatsune, if not she'll chase you down and beat you with a leek.

You think its funny? I'm not joking. Poor, poor Mr. Hatsune, he mad that mistake once and he will never forget it. I bet thats where Miku gets it from. I once saw Miku beat up this guy in her class named Mikuo for accusing her of liking him.

Of course she does like him which is why she turned beat red and then beat him up saying she didn't... but you didn't hear it from me.

Mrs. Hatsune smiled as she put the car in gear and began to drive. "I've been fine. I'm so happy for you girls though! This contest is the chance of a life time!" She exclaimed as she made a left turn at the intersection.

I smiled back at her. The contest shes talking about really is a chance of the life time. You see Miku and I share the same dream, to someday become singers, and when we were looking through a magazine a couple of weeks ago we spotted a chance to achieve just that.

The ad was for a singing contest for a chance to become the new representative singer for the best company in the business. Vocaloid and Associates Incorporated. Their the best in their line of work at selecting and endorsing singers. Rumor has it that every artist they've signed has made it big.

Anyway this was a huge chance for us! All you had to do was send in a track of you singing and they select the best to compete in the final competition. The best part of this deal was that there was an unlimited number of people they could sign as long as they deserved it, and no age limit! Which means both me and Miku could both be potentially signed.

We couldn't pass up the chance so we both began working and wrote songs that we recorded and sent in.

Two week later we received a letter from the company saying we both passed the preliminaries and we couldn't even begin to tell you how much both Miku and I screamed out of happiness... Plus we went to get ice cream. :)

I'm pretty sure at one point we bust into tears... but thats besides the point. We had made it. Our first step to our dream.

Miku's mom pulled into the parking lot of the town mall and we both unbuckled and got out quickly.

"Bye girls have a fun time! Call me and I'll come pick you up!" Mrs. Hatsune yelled as she began to pull away.

We turned and walked into the doors to the mall. The mission: find the perfect outfit.

I couldn't tell you how many times we read over the letter, explaining the rules and such. We pretty have that ENTIRE thing memorized.

The clause of the contest was that it was to be televised and that practice for a group number would begin in two weeks (tomorrow) after receiving the letter.

In other words, we were gonna be on TV! As well as we had to preform with all the other contestants in one huge dancing/singing number. (A/N like American Idol when they all preform together at the beginning.)

Miku and I stepped into the first store to try and find a performance outfit and a practical one for the group practices.

I stopped at a near by rack and began to hum to the song playing in the stores background as I filed through different types of clothes.

The song was well known seeing as it was preformed by one of Vocaloid's top artists, Len Kagamine.

"Rin!" I hear Miku call my name as she came running up holding a VERY girly outfit. I may like some girl stuff but that dress Miku found had crossed about four lines.

The dress was a bright yellow, which was a plus since my favorite color is yellow, but had to many frills and ribbons for my taste. I gave Miku a 'are-you-kidding-me' look and she sighed in understanding as she walked back to where she came from. (A/N where ever that is XD sorry couldn't resist.)

Finding no luck we walked out of the first store and headed over to another. We were about to turn the corner when..

BAM!

I was flung back as something hard hit me like a ton of bricks. I crashed, dropping my bag and hitting my head on the cold, hard tile floor.

I let out a groan as I rubbed my head trying to sit up. I looked down to see what hit me and I find a boy, about my age, on the ground in front of me as well.

'He must be the one who knocked me over.'I thought as I looked at him.

He let out a groan too as he sat up, rubbing his head with one eye closed in pain.

The boy was pretty plain looking as he had invisible rimmed rectangular glasses that were laying slightly crooked on his face, (probably from the collision.) and a black hat. He had blond hair from what I could see, as his hair was sticking out from underneath his hat, and cobalt blue eyes. He had on a black shirt that read in white 'Bite Me', jeans, and black and yellow converse.

Actually looking closely at him, he could be pretty attractive if he loosed the glasses, hat, that dumb goofy look on his face.

The boy continued to rub his head until he touched what must have been a bump on his head. He grabbed his head with both hands and tilted it up to the ceiling yelling, "ITAI!"

"Well maybe you should look where your going!" Miku yelled at the boy in a smug tone.

The boy looked at Miku for a minute with a confused face before turning his head to look back at me. He paused for a moment, looking as if he was piecing together a puzzle before realizing what had happened.

His eyes grew wide and he clapped his hands together and bowed his head. "Gomen! I was in a rush I'm soooo, so, so, sorry!" He exclaimed loudly.

I began to notice people stopping to look at us and I blushed a bit from embarrassment. I turned my head away and pouted a little saying a small, "Its okay."

The boy smiled at me gratefully and then looked down at his black watch. "GAHH!"

I jumped at his sudden outburst and looked up at him.

"I have to go! I'm so sorry again!" He yelled as he scrambled up off the floor and took off.

Miku huffed. "Geez, people these days."

I just continued to stare after him before letting out a small giggle.

'He's a pretty interesting guy.'

I dropped my bags on the floor flopped down on my bed, exhausted. After that run in with the weird glasses kid, Miku dragged me all over the mall.

Note-to-self: Never go shopping with Miku again... EVER!

I rolled over and looked at my clock. 8:00. Still to early to go to sleep. I grabbed the pillow and slammed it over my face, groaning.

"That is sooo attractive." I heard Neru say as she entered my room.

I removed the pillow and sighed. "What do you want, cow."

"Hurtful!" She exclaimed, pretending to be offended. "I just wanted to see how my baby sister was doing."

"Oh shut it! I know thats a load of crap, and who said you could come in here anyway?" I said propping myself up on my elbow to look at her.

She rolled her eyes and sat on the end of my bed. " I was actually telling the truth you little troll. I also wanted to wish you good luck at rehearsal tomorrow." She said giving me a soft smile.

My expression softened as well and I gave her a small smile as well.

She got up and waved over her shoulder, "Night, kid." She walked out and shut the door gently behind her and I couldn't help but to continue to smile to myself. 'Maybe she wasn't such a bitchy cow after all.' I thought to myself as I rolled over on my bed.

"Rin! Get your ass in here!"

I take that back.

The next morning I actually got up on time. I rolled out of bed and gave a tired yawn as I stretched my arms, and went into my bathroom to brush my teeth. After coming out I changed into a pair of gray sweats with words in hot pink down the side that said 'Dancer', a matching pink tank top with a black shirt that hung off one shoulder and had a shiny silver texting smiley face on the front.

I decided to do something different with my hair today so I pulled it into a small ponytail, leaving my bangs out, and tying my ribbon over my ponytail holder.

I smiled to myself in the mirror, thinking my bow gave me rabbit ears and ran downstairs. I grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it into my mouth and chugged a glass of milk. I put on my black converse and kissed my mom on the cheek and ran out of the house saying goodbye.

I got out of the van with Miku and stared in awe at the building we were suppose to enter. It was about six stories tall and VERY wide, taking up a lot of land.

We entered the building together and again stopped to drool at the decor. It was very modern with the walls being made of glass, and the floor being white marble with strips of black and gold. Spread through out the lobby there were sleek black couches and glass coffee tables with red rugs underneath. In the right corner there was and elevator and escalator leading up to the next floor.

There was a secretary's desk near the middle that was also made of glass. Sitting in the sleek leather chair typing away at a black computer was a small girl with light brown hair. She had on a light pink shirt with a bit of ruffles and black slacks.

As we began to walk up to her desk, she noticed us and looked up. She smiled warmly as she began speaking "Hello I'm Miki Furuhara, but please call me Miki. Are you hear for the contest?" She asked, closing her eyes with her smile and tilting her head to the side.

We nodded together nervously and she stood up.

"Follow me please." She said as she walked to the escalator, her black heals clicking lightly on the marble floor.

"First of all welcome to Vocaloid and Associates, as well as congratulations. What are your names?" Miki asked as we made our way up on the escalator.

I spoke first, stuttering a bit out of nerves. "I-I'm Rin Kamui, and thanks for the welcome." I said giving her a small smile myself. I thought that companies were suppose to be tough and have rude employees, but Miki seemed nice and shes really pretty too.

"I'm Miku Hatsune, nice to meet you." Miku said with a smile next to me.

Miki dug in her pocket and handed us a pen and a name tag. We quickly wrote down our names and handed the pen back to her sticking the name tag where people could see it.

We got off the escalator and we began walking down a long hallway. The hallway seemed the same as the lobby only with doors lining both sides of the marble walls, with occasional couches and water fountains dotting the walls as well. Stopping halfway down we turned to face a huge mahogany door on our left-hand side.

Miki turned and walked up to the door, pressing a series of buttons on a keypad next to it. After a minute the door beeped as it unlocked, letting us through. Miki opened the huge doors with one swift move while saying, "Welcome to your practice room ladies."

Miku and I gasped at what we saw, it was like a full scale auditorium, fixed with red theater seats and a huge stage. I felt like Charlie after Willy Wonka opened the door to the candy room.

A couple of people were already on stage stretching, and chatting, waiting for something to happen.

"Feel free to use the stage to stretch or warm up your voices while you wait for practice to start." Miki said as she gave us one last smile and exited the room.

Miku and I continued to stare at the stage, slowly taking steps forward for a closer look. We climbed the small set of stairs onto the stage, feeling triumphant. As if we were finally famous.

But our drooling session was soon called to a close as the doors opened again and in walked a tall, beautiful woman. She had flowing white hair pulled into a loose ponytail with a purple ribbon and a purple suit top with a white undershirt, black tie, and purple pencil skirt. Her black heels clicked loudly, unlike Miki's, as she walked up to the stage.

All the talking had stopped as everyone looked at the woman walking towards them. She gave them all a smirk before she began to speak.

"Hello I am Haku Yowane, vice president of Vocaloid." She said in a highly regal voice.

Whispers began to spread through out the stage as she cleared her throat to speak again.

"I will be conducting this contest and will be viewing your practices, and let me say to you all congrats on getting to this level." She said with a small smile. She clapped her hands and Miki appeared again with a huge stack of sheet music.

"This is the music for your group number, the highlighted parts are what you sing. We selected each part based on the vocals we heard in the song you submitted to use. Right now we are just going to run it so please don't be discouraged. Choreography will be added later, as well as a few other elements. Even people." She said, whispers rippled again through the stage.

Pieces like "They should be here then to practice," and "Don't we need to prepare?"

"I would like to announce that you will also sing with fellow Vocaloid singers, as some of them are here already." Haku said, watching as everyone looked around for the so called 'stars'.

I was one of the people looking around. There were many older and beautiful people as they looked for their idols. I found myself being slightly disappointed that I haven't found famous people, but I kept looking to spot any competition.

Thats when I spotted him.

The glasses kid.

'He's here to?' I thought to myself, not believing it.

He caught my gaze and smiled. I blushed a bit and turned my head back around.

'Poor kid,' I thought. ' Does he realize that Vocaloid's singers also model? With his face he'd never make it.'

I took the paper Miki was passing out to me and I smiled saying a grateful 'thanks.'

Haku walked over to stand behind the sound booth about to start the music, but before pressing play she announced, "Please line up at the front of the stage and pick up the microphone in front of you, and do try your best!"

We lined up, and I found Glasses guy standing next to me on my right side, with Miku on my left. Miku and I were the last two in line so it was easy to spot everyone as we waited.

Haku pressed play and I soaked in the music as a piano played softly, while I looked over the music.

The title was 'Leia'.

(A/N I soooo encourage you to listen to this song! Its amazing! Oh, and its the nico nico chorus version of Leia, so everyone can sing!)

I smiled to myself, 'this is going to be a really pretty song.' I thought as I counted the measures silently in my head.

Suddenly there was a pause and I jumped, making a small 'eep' when the music started to blast out rock.

I had just enough time to catch my breath, slow my heartbeat, and start counting to the new tempo when a group began to sing.

It was a blond and a pink haired girl who said/ whispered the first lyric. The blond's tag read 'Lily' and the pink haired girls read 'Luka'.

I began to sing the first phrase with some other girls and realized that we didn't sound all that bad together. There were spots but other than that it was pretty amazing.

I waited as two girls sang on and off of each other before I noticed Miku take a breath to sing. Of course like many other things Miku's singing in perfect, but I couldn't help but thing that Miku sounded wierd with the other girl she was singing with.

As I continued to wait for my turn again I felt a little pang in my heart. I realized she's singing more than I am and got a solo line, but I ignored it and continued listening as she still sang.

A few others began to sing and I closed my eyes listening to the soft contrasts of the low and saprano voices.

I smiled as I finally looked and saw a highlighted part so I looked at the line, took a breath and whent for it. It was a duet part with a young man with blue hair, but I couldn't see really who he was.

I listened to how me and the blue haired man sounded together and smiled when we sounded pretty good. I looked over to see Glasses boy taking a breath ready to sing for the first time with Luka... Man I gotta find out his name.

I smiled. It may have only been a line, but it sounded pretty good, I listened as he continued with a couple of other people.

I looked at the next notes on the page and they seemed to be a octave higher than most of the song and I looked around to see who would sing it, but nothing could have prepaired me as my jaw dropped as I saw Glasses boy open his mouth to sing.

Glasses boy put a hand where his diaphragm would be and closed his eyes as he held the Mic and bent forward, singing the word 'Leia'. He actually did it. That note only seemed possible if someone kicked him in the jewels. Everyone seemed to turn to look at him and he blushed in embarrassment when he realized. People were in so much shock that the next ones to sing were almost late coming in.

I looked at my paper and nearly jumped. I had a solo. My hear began to race as I smiled greatly. I took a breath to begin.

The words were soft and sweet, until I heard another voice join me.

I looked over to see who was singing with me and smiled as I saw it was Glasses boy. He smiled back at me and we sang, looking at one another. We surprisingly sounded really good together.

The end of the song came and I decided to give it my all as I closed my eyes and let the rhythm move as I belted out the lyrics. Everyone sang at the end and the sight of all of us singing must have been awesome.

Luka whispered the last line and I lowered my Mic, looking out at Haku. Everyone was panting with sweat coming down their foreheads and I smiled, feeling I did a good job.

Haku smiled, her eyes shining. "Amazing! Everyone!" She said as she stood and clapped. " There are a couple of spots but thats to be expected. By the time the contest comes everyone will faint!"

I smiled and looked at Miku who smiled back. I honestly felt proud. My heart was racing and my smile wouldn't come off no matter how much I tried.

'So this is what it feels like.'

"Take the sheets home with you to practice. CD's are in this basket please grab one as you leave. We will start choreography tomorrow, you are dismissed."