I wake up on the couch next to Sid, Samarchi, and my brother. I look over at the digital clock, it says sunday I double look. Does that mean we've been asleep for two days. I try to get up but my body doesn’t move an inch, crap my muscles can’t even move.
“Hey Sabiti” even my jaw is in complete agony.
“yeh “ both Sid and Samarchi call, opening their eyes, what idiots.
“Can you guys move”
“yeh “ they say both movin-, actually no they both just make grunting noises while trying to move.
“You guys are pathetic” my brother calls now all high and mighty.
“see “ he says, getting to his feet. He takes a step forward however instead of stepping forward he faces plants.
He is now knocked out.
We spend the next week unable to move any of our muscles. Meaning I miss another week of practice for becoming an Idol, and also miss another week of school. I just gotta hope this training bears some results and isn't a complete waste of time. Or I have just wasted my life in complete pain for no reason.
“You know Sid”
“Why the hell did we do this with them!” Samarchi yells as he winces in pain, as he tries to slightly adjust his position on one of the couches.
…
“What happened to that Sanaka? Has she quit already.” says a girl called Liana with too much mascara, and the tips of her hair dyed blonde. says as they walk by each other to the practice rooms. three weeks into proper practice they had all now been accustomed to the amount of rooms and the directions of the halls.
“I don't know, she seemed pretty motivated about the thing,” Hayate recalled while picking her nails with her teeth. Hayate was also confused greatly about her friend's sudden decision to go on a hiatus from school and practice.
“Well she seemed really annoyed everytime Sayaki did well. She obviously has a vendetta against her. Maybe she is doing private practice. She probably won’t be too pleased with the performance arrangement. " This time it was a tall girl named Hosta with big wide eyes. She had beautiful black eyes, she did not fit the tall calm person stereotype, she was very energetic for being the tallest in the group.”
“But they can change, remember”
“What you don’t like being at the back, do you LIANA.” replies Hosta giggling. Hayate wasn’t really too pleased about her position as second front left. Yes it is a good position, and she appreciated being there. But it was scary without anyone to hide behind. I guess there was the one center to her left who was out in front of her. The center did seem to draw attention to herself. And the other person on the other side of the center she had never really talked to before and seemed like friends with Sayaki. They hurry to the change rooms knowing the punishment for being late.
“So it looks like Sanaka isn't here again,” says Yahiga, shaking her head. They are currently in the training formation. The room is fairly large with a large mirror wall opposite to their training.
“Okay as some of you may know, today is the…”
“I’m here, sorry I got lost in the halls.” Sanaka says pushing through the double doors, doing an odd smile but more sorry type smile but also like a grin, unable to explain just odd.
“Well it was good of you to join us, for endurance practice.” Says Yahiga smiling. She’s now thinking how a girl that hasn't done any practice in two weeks is gonna hold up.
“Endurance practice!” Sanaka seems slightly alarmed. Hayate also thinks it's because she has been on hiatus for two weeks. Like Hayate, lots of people giggle when they hear Sanaka’s disdain for endurance practice.
But for Sanaka it's because she doesn’t know if her body has fully recovered, yes it has been a week.
“Also you are back here with me” calls a small cute girl known as Soa. She really does have big eyes with reddish hair.
“Okay thanks.” Sanaka says getting back in line.
“As we were saying before, someone kindly joined us. We will perform the A teams regime 3 times” everyone seems a bit shocked. The regime is 2 hours long, that's six hours of performing. Most people are in fear of the pain, While Sanaka was trying to remember the dance moves.
“Okay we will start now.” as she says this the music started playing for the first song.
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…
Yahiga Pov
Amano had said to Yahiga that Sanaka would come back. She did believe him, but he had also said something about Sanaka being vastly improved. but now that she is looking at Sanaka she cannot see it. Sanaka seems as she was when she started ‘bad’ and everyone else has improved. Amano was right about most things but he obviously was wrong about this.
2 hours and 23 minutes in, they had only 23 minutes into the second loop. Everyone's performance had dipped off, even Sayaki’s performance was starting to wane. It is looking like it is going to be a slog just to finish this thing.
Another hour had passed and it had gone down another tier. Everyone's legs seemed wobbly. There was a lack of energy in the air, what you expect 3 hours in.
She turns around to the door as she hears the door's familiar creek as it is opened. It is Amano in his usual turtleneck attire who is walking in.
“Hello Amano” she calls, not taking her eye off the group.
“Yes, how long has it been”
like him, straight to the point.
“3 hours and 26 minutes”
“Did that girl come in late?” he says pointing to the back right corner. Which she recognised as Sanaka.
“Well she started at the same time.” Why did he question whether she had started late? She looked over at Sanaka now at the back.
“What?” she accidentally mumbles. Everyone's performance must have been at 30-40 percent of their best. While she was at around 130 percent, why is her movements more refined than when we started? In fact she doesn’t seem to really be that tired, yes she is sweating heaps but her face doesn't show it, she looks as focused as when she started maybe even more.
“So you have noticed”
“That she is obviously really fit?”
“Her mental fitness is next level. They have been at it for 3 hours, and yet she continues to look for ways to improve her performance, breaking down each aspect at a time.” he says before turning around and leaving.
“How did he know?” she mumbles to herself as she looks over at Sanaka again, what sort of training did you do over the two weeks.
…
Sayaki has a healthy amount of self-esteem, she knew she was the best. And maybe for the first 2 hours she was the best. But after that she couldn't help but feel something was wrong. Why was Amano and Yahiga looking towards the back left, why weren't they drawn to her dancing. Yes she knew she felt absolutely miserable in complete pain, and that her performance had dropped, but so had the others?
Yet when she glanced over to her left there was Sanaka dancing nearly as badly as she had been doing at the start. Nearly As badly? She thought, but shouldn't have gotten worse. Was Sanaka now out performing her. New determination set in, but even with motivation to be better. her brain couldn't focus, her legs were in ‘let's survive this’ autopilot. Was she getting shown up by one of the worst dancers in the whole group? Who hadn’t even been to training since two weeks ago.
She lost. Is the only thought that could go in her head, to that idiot. All of them were tired as hell yet at the end she seemed nearly fine, she couldn’t comprehend if she was always that good or not.
…
After the training Sayaki walks down to their spare training room. Normally alone or with few of the better performances like Hayate and Sunia. This time it was Sanaka who was already in the midst of practicing, not even glancing over as Sayaki had entered. Like usual she set up practicing every routine she could.
She would normally spend about 2 hours there, making sure that she was always the last to leave the room. However the 4 hour mark ticked and Sanaka was still going strong. Her dance moves were not refined but they were improving. 4 hours in and she was still improving, everyone knows it's pointless to try and work on technique when you're at the limit of fatigue. But to Sanaka it seemed that she wasn’t even at that desperate point of fatigue. Naturally Sayaki was still going however barely she had already done the endurance practice, and now this. She had intended to only go for a short time not expecting Sanaka to push her for this long. Her knees, back, scrap everything was in complete pain, she knew her technique was waning badly.
“You know you shouldn’t try and work on technique when you are that tired”
Sayaki’s jaw dropped, ‘What! this bitch noob is telling me stuff like 'I wouldn't know’’ Sayaki was not happy, she was now getting humiliated by one of the worst performances. Two weeks ago it seemed this person was eating her dust but now everything had changed.
Over the next few weeks things did not improve. Sanakas ability to be able to practice and improve for such a long time field her ability in dancing, singing, everything. A week ago she was the girl that people were laughing at for being a dropout. Now she had just created the co-center position in the group.
“What we're going to have 2 centers” Sayaki says fuming, “With that bit– with her”
“Yes Sayaki you heard what I said, Amano said it was the best call of duty in order to make sure that your first performance was successful” Yahiga says while rearranging the board for the formation.
“This will be the second final change, it is however going to be hard to change positions for the next one, that is only if really drastic situations change. “
“Sorry, I was doing something, have I missed anything.”
“She got lost” was echoed simultaneously by everyone.
“Your co-center” Hayate cheerfully congratulating Sanaka.
“Wait, you're saying that I have to stand at the front” Sanaka asks, mouth far open.
“Yes” everyone except Sayaki, who was giving a death stare through the crowd, wondering why this person was going to be standing side-by-side to her.
The performance was in 3 weeks, Sayaki knew that in order to regain her position as number one. She would have to make Sanaka look totally out of her league. And in her eyes she did that. Every Time they had a rehearsal she was the best, she made Sanaka’s performance look simple and rough. But to Sayaki's surprise no one was mentioning the difference in their performances.
It was true that her performances were better than Sanaka's.