Rising Stars! Rise to the Top!

[Zilla]

Joanna Kerrigan shrugs under the weight of her bags as she waits outside the airport for a taxi. Some music competition? Psh! She'd show them how to ROCK, that's for sure!

Her back ached under the weight of her imitation Stratocaster guitar, and her left shoulder demanded she put down the suitcase that had her heavy practice amp. Her right shoulder laughed at her left with it's easier bag full of grungy punk clothing, but silently complained that it, too, was getting tired.

The early morning sun made Joanna flinch as it broke over the horizon, glaring into her eyes. A restless flight with a smelly old man next to her did NOT put her in a good mood, and she wasn't a morning person to begin with. The long wait at baggage claim tried her patience, and sure enough, she had to wait an extra HOUR for her damn guitar to show up. Her fit at the courtesy desk only blew off a bit of that steam...

She knew that if a taxi didn't stop for her in the next minute, she was going to blow a fuse!

[Hira Kanaki]

"I'm fine with going I have everything ready myself." Chiaki said.

[Maiden Miki]

"I feel ready to go," said Makino as she was wondering about the drums.

[Mystic Mina]

Taylor, while holding Cherry's hand in a gentle grasp, led the group of four out of the hotel's restaurant to the entrance of the hotel, where a classic black limousine with reflective windows, a luxurious leather interior, and a handsome young fellow dressed in a black cap and suit awaited them. Wait, that man seemed rather familiar to Chiaki...

"Oh hey, you're the girl I saw in the elevator last night! Man, what're the chances of that?" He took a step away from the limo to give Chiaki a kiss on the hand. "I don't think I introduced myself. The name's Dean, and I'll be your driver for a while. If you need to go anywhere, I'm your man! So, c'mon! Hop on, and I'll get you to where you need to go!"

"You heard the guy, girls! Let's pile in!" The president slid into the long car and motioned for everyone else to follow. "We've got a schedule to keep!"

---

Meanwhile, at the airport...

When Joanna arrived at the airport after the lousy flight, she was probably too irritated and tired to notice that there was something attached to the case of her beloved guitar. Now that she had the time to look over her things, however, she saw that there was some papers taped to the side of her case along with a strange looking pen with a abnormally sharp tip. If she were to look at them, she would find that they were actually the final agreement that she needed to fill out before she could join the band! Apparently, Blue Sky Records was too lazy to even send someone over to give her the papers...

[Maiden Miki]

Makino gets into the car and had to say that she was amazed with what this job was getting her. A room in a fancy hotel and a ride in a car. This was kind of amazing to her.

[Ookalf]

Nice car... *Jasmine quitely climbs into the car after Makino.*

[Zilla]

Joanna fumes at the lack of a taxi! She knows one is going to fly by at the moment she drops her bag, but she can't take it anymore. She carefully walks over to a bench and sets down her bags, knocking another bag aside to let her own suitcase down. She shrugs off the straps holding her guitar case to her back, and when she sets it down, she notices papers stuck to the sides of the guitar case.

"Aww, damn!" she curses. "Some brat stuck something on my guitar!"

She rips it off the side of the case, and it comes off remarkably entirely intact. She gives it a glance, and stops in her tracks as she notices the Blue Sky Records logo emblazoned on the top. She glances through the contract, figuring out what it was... "Huh..." she muses, reading over it.

She skips to the end, where it has the usual dotted line for the signature. "Shit," she says, remembering that she hadn't bothered to pack a pen. She decides to check to see if she somehow accidentally packed one, and then notices the pen taped to her case. She gasps in shock, and looks wildly around, trying to see if anyone there was responsible for that bit of wizardry (not bothering to account for missing it on her first pass, Joanna thinks the pen was delivered just as she tried looking for one.)

Joanna sighs, then jots her signature on the line. She glances at it, and notices a clause that says something about pricking herself with the pen and pressing her thumb to the page.

Joanna looks around again, thinking that this must be some kind of joke. Still no taxi.

She hesitantly holds her left thumb out and presses the tip of the pen into it. "Urgh!" she says as the sharp point easily pricks through her calloused thumb, welling a drop of blood. "Ow, ow, ow, stupid #!%@#& contract!" she curses, pressing her thumb next to her signature.

[Mystic Mina]

Yeowch! That pen prick stung, and it actually burned a bit too! But there was no time to worry about that now; her taxi was here, and it had a gruff looking driver with a Boston accent to boot. Hurray stereotypical taxi drivers!

"Lady, are ya' gonna get in hea' or what? I've been waitin' half a minute for ya' to sit ya' butt down in the back!" The dude shouted from the open window of his taxi. Obviously, he was a man with very little patience... And probably very small lungs, because his taxi was steaming with cigarette smoke! Ick! "C'mon, I could be servin' otha' people besides ya', so hurry it up with the packin' and stuff!"

He popped open the trunk of the taxi and made a bunch of wild motions with his arms that roughly translated to "You put your crap in the back yourself!" Man, you gotta love those stereotypical taxi drivers and their nice attitudes...

[Hira Kanaki]

"Yes, I see that we meet again." Chiaki said blushing slightly, from the gesture while getting into the vehicle.

[Zilla]

Joanna gave him a glare that told him to calm down and quit hassling her, as she picked all her bags up. It hurt like crazy to hold her heavy bag in her hand with the stuck-thumb, but she hauled her three pieces of luggage into the trunk of the taxi. She had a bit of trouble fitting the guitar in nicely...

She slammed the back down, dashed over to the door, and planted herself in the backseat. She didn't even bother with a seatbelt, instead opting to suck her thumb.

"So take me to Blue Sky Records, you loudmouth," she says, giving him a fiery look.

[Harri-chan]

Cherry climbed into the car, making sure she ended up sitting beside Taylor. "Wow, I've never been in a car like this before... ", she murmured, the thought of sacrificing fourteen years of maturity seeming more and more worth it with each new perk that got revealed. Letting go of Taylor's hand, she wriggled her feet up onto the leather seats, her t-shirt pulling up over her top as she reached up, and slid open the sunroof before standing upright to poke through the opening. "I always wanted to do this!", she called back down.

[Mystic Mina]

Taylor chuckled at Cherry's antics, but he didn't stop her. Girls just wanna have fun, right? Besides, he was too busy pulling a soda out from the limousine's mini-fridge to do that.

"Anyone want drinks? We've got water, soda, some alcohol... Actually, might not be a good idea to get drink this early. Forget that last choice!" He took a sip from his soda and let out a satisfied burp. "Aaah, nice and chilly!"

So their journey to the studio began!

---

The irate taxi driver turned around and was about to give Joanna a little more loudness, but then he noticed the girl's hair. He could have sworn it was just black when she climbed in the car. Now, the tips were bright pink and the color was spreading. Also, was it just him or was she actually a little shorter than before?

"Uh... Right. Sure." He slowly faced away from Joanna and began the drive towards Blue Sky Records. "Musta drank too much last night..."

[Ookalf]

Taylor chuckled at Cherry's antics, but he didn't stop her. Girls just wanna have fun, right? Besides, he was too busy pulling a soda out from the limousine's mini-fridge to do that.

"Anyone want drinks? We've got water, soda, some alcohol... Actually, might not be a good idea to get drink this early. Forget that last choice!" He took a sip from his soda and let out a satisfied burp. "Aaah, nice and chilly!"

So their journey to the studio began!

Have any grape soda there?

[Zilla]

Once the taxi actually begins moving, Joanna relaxes a bit. It was another bout of waiting, but at least things were in motion, and she didn't have to do anything.

Instead, Joanna just kept sucking on her pricked thumb, trying to numb the dull ache that it was giving her. She was certainly relieved the guy wasn't giving her any crap anymore.

After a few moments of silence, she fished her generic .mp3 player out of her pocket and popped her earbuds in. She didn't quite know what she was in the mood for, but after a quick skim, she decided on the Sex Pistols.

As she adjusted her earbuds, the tips of her hair caught her attention. They were pink! She honestly didn't remember ever doing anything to color them, but... pink tips were edgy, and she liked the way they looked. She tried futilely to get a look at her hair in a reflection from the back window, but it was too translucent to really appreciate the effect.

She tugged on her hair a little, and it was definitely hers. She sunk back into the seat, not really noticing that the cab seemed a little more spacious than before.

[Mystic Mina]

"Yeah, sure. Just let me check in here..." Taylor shoved his arm into the small fridge and pulled out a purple can of what looked like grape soda. "Here ya' go! Hope you can catch!"

He tossed the beverage over to Jasmine and waited for the girl to drink it up. Unbeknown to him or her, however, that purple can wasn't soda... It was beer. A very high alcohol content foreign beer, to be exact. It was still tasty!

---

Perhaps it was for the best that Joanna couldn't get a full look at her hair, because now it was completely pink! Even though she couldn't see her new hairdo, though, she definitely knew that something was changing about her body. Her clothes just felt a little too roomy for comfort... Except around the chest and rear, which were actually tighter!

"What the... No way." The driver muttered under his breath as he watched Joanna's little transformation from the reflection of the rear-view mirror. He considered telling the woman what was going on, but he was a bit too shocked to say much of anything.