“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mami closed her eyes for a moment and let her breathing even. A rush of adrenaline came sweeping her body making her nerves act up. A tingling sensation started on her stomach and she couldn’t help but have a nervous smile plastered on her face.

“30 minutes, SCANDAL. 30 minutes.” One of the stage crew came into their dressing room and told them.

Mami opened her eyes briefly to be greeted by her nervous but excited-looking bandmates. Tomomi was pacing in the room while Haruna kept fidgeting with Canta, the doll. Rina, on the other hand, was drumming invisible sticks on the table and sometimes, she was frowning when she seems to be missing a beat.

She almost laughs on what they were doing but then she remembered what she was up to before she noticed their actions. She was playing her guitar non-stop and kept practicing the same notes for the last twenty minutes and she can’t seem to move on. She groaned silently and put her guitar down back to its rack and plugged her earphones to her ears.

It was their tour in Europe and this is their first stop. After having a successful tour in America, which composed of almost a dozen shows, they didn’t even rest and headed to Europe as soon as they can. Of course, they’re extremely tired but everything they do was rewarding too. Not only they could see different places, they’ve seen different people and even interact with them which is an amazing experience.

Mami’s lips curved up into a smile as she remembered everything that had happened for the last two months of their tour. It was the longest they were away at home but it was also the most fulfilling one.

Somebody then slap her in the back pulling her away from her drifting thoughts.

“Mami, snap out of it. We’re on in five minutes.” Haruna said cheekily. Mami couldn’t help but feel that Haruna wanted to hop around due to her excitement. On the other hand, she’s getting butterflies in her stomach.

“25 minutes already passed?” Mami asked in wonder. She was just sitting there with her eyes closed and now they’re up.

“Well yes. You were sleeping the whole time. You didn’t even answer when we’re asking you something.” Tomomi said to her while picking up her bass and putting the strap on her.

“Oh. Sorry, my earphones are on so I might not have heard you.” Mami said before grabbing her guitar too and headed for the door. Tomomi only nodded at her and gave a small tap on her shoulder before heading out the door.

“Yosh! Well let’s do the shout here!” Rina suggested and gathered the members and the crew of SCANDAL.

The tension was high and everything was happening so fast. Before Mami could even react, Tomomi already started the shout and all she could do was go with the flow. After finishing their heart whelmed shout, the crew tapped the girls on their backs and said their good lucks for their first tour stop in Europe.

“Places everyone! SCANDAL, gambare! First show! Give your best with this one.” Eisuke gave them a thumbs up before disappearing in the midst of the staff scurrying to their places.

SCANDAL positioned themselves at the bottom of the stage and waited for the lift to take them up.  Above where they are, they could hear the crowd chanting their names. It was very loud and they could hardly hear themselves think.

Five. The countdown started and the audience started their uproar. If they were already loud awhile ago, then nothing could describe how they are now.

Four. Mami could feel her heart about to burst from her chest and her hands started getting clammy from nervousness.

Three. She looked to her side where Tomomi and Haruna were standing with their instruments in their hands and their eyes closed.

Two. Mami looked up and saw the top started opening and directing light to their position.

One. With the last count, she heard Rina started hitting her bass drum, teasing the crowd with the sound. She slowly went up with her drum and she heard the crowd went wild. It was followed by Tomomi’s bass riff and she was lifted to the stage, joining Rina.

Mami inhaled deep and waited for her turn to come in. The lift started going up and so she hit her strings, playing the notes to her riff. The lights blinded her for awhile but when her eyes adjusted to it, she saw the great amount of the crowd and she couldn’t help but stare in awe. Good thing, her fingers were trained enough to keep going and she was able to play her part smoothly even if she’s not looking at her guitar.

Then slowly, at the center of the stage, Haruna emerged from the bottom of the stage. The crowd shattered in excitement upon seeing the band finally in front of them.

“GERMANY!” Haruna exclaimed in excitement to the crowd which was answered with a crazy yell from them. “ARE YOU READY TO ROCK!” The crowd roared more as the concert began. Mami could feel the chill on her spine as the crowd yells for them.

SCANDAL sang their songs and the crowd didn’t let them down. The concert went for two hours and their fans were screaming and jumping all throughout their concert. The girls felt overwhelmed with their reactions and when they’ve sang SCANDAL BABY at the end of their concert, the crowd sang with a heartfelt emotion for them that made them tear up already even if this was just the start of their adventure in Europe.

Mami felt like everything comes into blur and before she knows it, they were already bidding goodbye to them. They gave their last thank you and bow to the crowd and headed to their dressing room with a grateful smile and teary eyes.

“Awesome!” Rina shouted at the top of her voice before throwing her body to the couch designated at the room.

“Scoot.” Haruna motioned for Rina to move and she sat with her. “The tour just starting but I felt like crying already.” Tomomi said across the room.

“You’ve already cried in the stage awhile ago.” Haruna commented and the girls laughed at Tomomi’s statement. She only pouted but didn’t retort back.

“That was a huge crowd. I’ve never expected that.” Rina interjected while taking off her equipments that were put on her awhile ago.

“Yeah. I was surprised too.” Mami commented back while rubbing her aching shoulders. She found an ice bag to the table and took it then settled on the chair, putting the ice bag on her shoulder.

“You okay, Mami?” Haruna asked in concern.

“Yeah. I think I just overdid it.” She gave them a rueful smile before putting her attention back to her aching shoulders.

“Well she did enjoy running around the stage.” Tomomi chuckled which earned her a flying ice bag on the face.

“Shut up! I’m not the only one. Who suddenly have the urge to do a stage dive awhile ago?” Mami bantered back at her. Tomomi only looked at her in disbelief before saying, “I didn’t do a stage dive! I almost did, but I didn’t!”

“Yeah, if Haruna didn’t caught you on the sleeves. I swear, you’ll be out in the crowd in no time.” Rina said and they all laughed except for Tomomi. They’ve almost rolled on the floor when Tomomi started turning red and sulked at them.

“Mo! I just got carried away!” Tomomi fumed out. A tear escaped from Haruna’s eye and wiped it. Feeling a bit sorry for making fun of Tomomi, she focused their attention on someone else.

“Hey, look who’s talking. Who suddenly had her tempo raced on Shunkan Sentimental?” Haruna directed a smirk at Rina then. Rina’s face suddenly flushed on Haruna’s words. She admitted that she got carried away too in the middle and increased the tempo of the song without noticing it.

“Ooh, I’ve noticed that too. Someone got all hyped and started beating the drums like crazy.” Tomomi snickered and a pillow came flying to her face. Tomomi deflected it with her arm and threw back the pillow to Rina.

“Hey! My face is not a landing site! Stop throwing things at me.” Tomomi glowered at them. She then regretted what she said when she noticed the exchanged glances the three made. Their lips curled into a wide, mischievous grin and they’ve started grabbing pillows that were near them.

“No. Don’t do it. I warn you.” Tomomi backed up to the door only to notice that Mami blocked her only exit.

“Stop! Or you’ll regret it!” Tomomi shouted, keeping a watchful eye on whoever comes near her first.

“Don’t worry, Tomo. This will not hurt a bit.” Mami gave her the most sarcastic smile she could make and Tomomi swore her life is in danger.

“Don’t!” Before Tomomi could bolt out to the door, the three girls attacked her at once and started hitting her with the pillow. Tomomi blindly reached forward her, looking for that one thing that could help her fight the other three girls. Then she found it. She pulled the thing out and slashed back at the three.

“Haha! You will not get me with this!” She exclaimed with full of pride as she show off her weapon which is only composed of a guitar balloon they’ve used awhile ago. The three laughed and started advancing to her again. She looked at her weapon and realized that it was a mistake that she pulled that one out.

“Chotto…Let me grab something first!” She told them but they didn’t let her. They’ve attacked her once again and it was a futile battle for Tomomi but once she had grabbed a pillow too, they hit whoever they seem to feel like hitting.

“Hey gir-“ Eisuke opened the door and was only greeted with a flying pillow. They’ve hit him square in the face accidentally and they’ve all stopped when they’ve seen his expressionless face.

“Oops.” Rina whispered, realizing that she was the one who threw the pillow.

Eisuke sighed and picked the pillow from the floor before facing them. “What’s going on here?” He asked seriously.

The three straightened up and hid the pillow to their backs, except for Rina. “Err, just playing. What is it?” Haruna asked cautiously.

“I just wanted to say that you guys are awesome today.” Eisuke smiled and walked towards them.

“Good job and keep it up! We’re in good shape for this tour.” Eisuke said and tapped on their shoulder. Mami winced when he hit hers though but tried to hide it.

“Oh and Rina, you should better watch out for your beat. You’ve rushed it in Shunkan Sentimental awhile ago.” Tomomi, Haruna and Mami stifled their laughter after hearing Eisuke’s comment. Rina on the other hand frowned and glared at the three. Eisuke felt like he was missing something but shrugged it off when he realized what time it is.

“Oh. Time to go. Get ready and I’ll meet you guys outside.” Eisuke told them and headed out of the dressing room.

“Told you.” Haruna said before dodging from an incoming attack from Rina.

“Hey, hey. We need to go or do you guys prefer to stay here?” Mami said while taking her toiletries and changed of clothes with her. “Nope. I prefer a soft bed to sleep right now.” Tomomi said and yawned before following Mami to the shower room.

“Let’s go, baby dino!” Haruna teased once more and ran away from Rina as quickly as possible leaving her fuming.

After taking a quick shower and changing to their regular clothes, they’ve fixed their bags and took another picture as a souvenir. Once they were satisfied, they’ve all headed out of the room and into the entrance of the building.

Once they were out, they didn’t expect what they saw in front of them. They didn’t even managed to get as far as five step from the entrance of the building before a swarm of reporters blocked their view. The girls were blinded by the flashes of the cameras and the reporters were telling them something in a language they don’t understand.

“Err, did they forget we’re Japanese?” Tomomi asked in the sideline while keeping her hands to her eyes.

Just right on cue, the security of the building made a body-barrier between the girls and the reporters. They were suddenly relieved but the distance between the reporters is still dangerously close so they’ve hurried up to their vehicles.

In the midst of the shouting of the reporters, Mami could clearly hear her name and something she have done.

“What did I do?” She asked but the others just shrugged and desperately ran for their lives.

Once they were safely in their car that was the time they could breathe properly. They drove off leaving those reporters on their trail and headed to the hotel.

“What was that about?” Haruna asked, still looking back if there are still reporters persistent enough to follow them.

“Uhm, well…” Eisuke was frantically searching on the internet, trying to know what caused the sudden uproar from the reporters. His search didn’t take long because the cause of it just showed up in a blink of an eye. He whistled in amazement and had a huge grin on his face.

“That’s new.” He chuckled and read the article fervently.

“What?” The girls waited in suspense as the manager read the article in silence.

“Well, you guys need to see it for yourselves.” He handed the tab containing the article and the girls grabbed on it in an instant. Once they saw what was on it, their jaw dropped and their eyes widened. Slowly, three pairs of eyes directed on Mami, who was still looking stunned on the article.

“Mother of Fender, that didn’t just happen right now.” Mami stuttered the words, still dumbfounded what she was seeing. It was only when Tomomi shrieked in delight followed by Haruna and Rina when it finally sank in her. The three threw themselves to her and gave her a resounding congratulation which seems like only a distant voice for her. She couldn’t believe it but it was clearly written there.

A SUDDEN CHANGE IN LINE UP

                Guitar World, the most renowned guitar magazine and everyone in the guitar business looks up too, had made a sudden change of the lineup of this year’s hottest guitarists. Following their website update, there was an unexpected addition to the list.

                After finishing a tour in America just days ago, this band’s lead guitarist has caught the attention of the staff of the magazine. And just a matter of days, she beat almost fifty lead guitarists around the world who were vying for a spot on the list, landing herself among the top 20 easily.

                We are talking about but none other than Mami Sasazaki, the lead guitarist of SCANDAL. The band called themselves as the Most Powerful Japanese Girl Band and they did lived to their title. Right now, all eyes are on Mami Sasazaki and her skills which impressed the staff and editors of Guitar World. As they go international, Mami Sasazaki’s recent achievement will lead to many more opportunities for the band.