Forty-five - Big trouble

"Considering all your last minute preparations," Phineas said with a small smile after their performance, "your group gave a reasonable performance. I'm just curious. It was very innovative although not advisable to meld the two songs together. The four of you will need to work on getting along and show better teamwork for the next ranking competition."

"I'm curious," said Hugh with a taut tone. "Whose idea was it to join the two songs together in that way?"

The whole team turned their heads to look at Stacey in unison. They looked nervous. The expressions on the faces of all the mentors were either somewhat twisted or frighteningly flat. There was the air of having done something very wrong that gave Stacey a sinking feeling.

"It was Stacey's idea," Imogen said in Tadpole.

Way to go team.

Stacey wanted to applaud the other three for finally acting in agreement. It was just that it looked like all three had decided to out her since they all had the sudden inkling that they were about to get in big trouble and she would likely be bearing the brunt of the fallout.

Great teamwork. Great teamwork, guys. Better late than never.

"No wonder," Beryl gave a rueful smile. "Nobody else would have dared to treat Ancestor Bai's 'Pear Blossoms' in such a way."

"I quite liked it," Telea put in. "No disrespect to Ancestor Bai but this presentation certainly put the song and its meaning in a new light. Musically, they went together surprisingly well. Nevertheless, to many traditionalists and others who appreciate what our forebears have done, using 'Pear Blossoms' in this way could be seen as disrespect toward their efforts to free us from slavery."

"No disrespect intended indeed," emphasised Melesse, "but what they have done borders on disrespecting the law and our heritage. I feel that the traditionalists will strongly disapprove. I'm guessing that no one told Stacey that Pear Blossoms is a song almost as important as our national anthem, if not more important. It's considered an unofficial worldwide anthem commemorating the day the humans won their freedom from the beastmen and their gods."

What? Wasn't it about loving your nation and heritage? Stacey looked at her teammates in bewilderment.

"We're in big trouble," Imogen covered her microphone and whispered to the rest of the team. The boys nodded back at her. They all gave Stacey a pitying look.

Stacey fidgeted, not quite understanding. Noticing the mentors' collective uncertainty over whether they should frown at the group's daring or praise their innovation, Blaze pulled Stacey to the back a bit more to use his body to shield her from view more.

Ah. Now he remembered to protect her. Not that it would make a difference now, when he'd already used her as a scapegoat.

"I think we'd better leave it to her tutors to explain to her the enormity of what she's done," Beryl shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her eyes sliding away from Stacey.

"The rest of the group will also need a stern talking to. They ought to have known better," Hugh said with a worried frown, looking down at his hands.

"Wait a moment while we discuss this with the production team and the authorities," Beryl stood up, seeing the production director's signal. "We may have to cut the group out from this week's episode altogether."

All the mentors walked over to the production team and their personal microphones were turned off. The heated discussion lasted several minutes and involved the crew making and receiving a few phone calls. Stacey could see Landen acting very upset and nervous while on the phone. The mentors returned to their seats.

"Can your team tell us what message you were trying to give the audience through the combination of these two songs?" Beryl asked the group.

Imogen and Blaze nudged Derrick who wiped the sweaty palms of his hands on his clothes.

"Originally, my plan was to just use 'Flight of the Evening Crane' in order to express the fight with our memories and dreams within the real and practical world," Derrick said, "but there was a lot of dispute within our team over my ideas. I wanted to try and blend modern ideas with traditional ideas."

"I disagreed," Imogen stepped forward with impatience, speaking in Tadpole. "My family and I are traditionalists at heart. I don't like that song at all and did not think I would be able to present it very well. I believed using 'Pear Blossoms' would be more beneficial if he was wanting to use a traditional theme at all. With such a sacred song, we couldn't go amiss, but Blaze was against blindly following tradition and said that the song is too passive."

Blaze murmured the interpretation of what Imogen said into Stacey's ear.

"Yes, the song represents how humans became free and praises that freedom," Blaze spoke up, "but I felt that we should at least also depict the struggle humans had against the beastmen and ancient gods. 'Pear Blossoms' does not show the fight. Only the end of the fight and I wanted to show more of the story. Songs like 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'Blood Streaked Dawn' or even 'Martial Blossom Dance' would have been far better, but Imogen was fixed on 'Pear Blossoms', and Derrick refused to budge from 'Flight of the Evening Crane'. In the end, Stacey proposed to put the songs together. See, the way we arranged the songs was to show the humans' longing and struggle to obtain the freedom to dream. Then end with the more relaxed and happier but still slightly bitter ending from 'Pear Blossoms' in order to show that the freedom was obtained with a price."

"Stacey? What do you have to say?" Phineas asked her.

"I think I should apologise. I didn't know 'Pear Blossoms' was such an important song. I thought it was just an ordinary traditional song," Stacey lowered her head, trying to hide the tremble in her voice. "I thought that since two people were adamant on performing one song or the other and that they were musically similar enough, we could compromise. There wasn't really enough time for me to truly learn the meanings of the songs and so I arranged it in the way it sounded best to my ear. The others, knowing the meaning of the songs, fixed my arrangements in order to obtain the meaning Blaze mentioned. They were mostly talking in Tadpole so I didn't quite understand. Even so, Imogen was not pleased with combining the songs but we were out of time and overrode her disagreement. Teacher Phineas had also advised us but there wasn't enough time left to decide on a new idea. I'm sorry. It was my fault and my idea."