Rise To Stardom

The week following the very first preliminary auditions passed by in a flash and soon, all the few hundred contestants that were accepted were back in Montreal, Canada, at the same hall they had previously done the auditions.

Over that week though, Kyle had mainly focused on continuously practicing his singing by busking and tweaking his other original songs to be better in case he had the chance to sing it.

Also, he ensured to submit an advance leave of absence to the administrative block, all while juggling other college duties too.

That being said though, he now truly understood that as he did progress, each level was getting harder to ascend to, especially since he hadn't even gained a single level over the week.

Even exp. points were slowly becoming a rare thing to gain as evidenced by the measly 35 points he currently had on his system's UI.

Despite all of this though, the young man remained optimistic and just kept up the hard work.

Now, currently standing in the massive hall with many other contestants conversing and making small talk while waiting for the next instructions from the host or judges, Kyle gently removed his glasses and started cleaning the fog on it, the air conditioner in the room causing him to shiver a bit.

Although he had a prescription for contact lenses, he had never really been all that stoked to use it as he felt more comfortable, donning his normal glasses.

However, in the process of trying to clean the lens of his glasses, he actually smudged them instead, soliciting a small frown from him.

"Your eyes look so small right now you know" Ryan suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

This immediately caused the raven-haired young man to raise his head a bit upwards while squinting his eyes, in an effort to locate where the voice came from.

Having met them a week ago, the trio had actually talked with him a few more times over the past week so Ryan suddenly coming up to him again wasn't a surprise.

Considering they must've, presumably, come by plane as opposed to coming by bus like he did, he also wasn't surprised that their gang must've arrived far earlier than he had.

"Can you see how many fingers I'm holding up?" Ryan further asked playfully and Kyle was tempted, just ever so slightly, to reply with a pretty snarky response.

"I'm not blind Ryan. Just have trouble clearly seeing things that are afar" he calmly retorted instead, finally putting his glasses back on.

"Oh don't mind him Kyle. He's quite the insensitive little shit" Katie gave Ryan a weak shoulder jab while Lily walked over and quietly asked, ignoring her two friend's and their usual bickering.

"Myopia with astigmatism right?"

A bit surprised by her solid deduction, he nodded in response.

But before he could ask how she knew though, Lily spoke again.

"I have a younger sister in high school who uses prescriptions too"

With another nod, Kyle was about to reply when the judges, the host and a few of the production crew with their multiple cameras casually strolled in.

Immediately, the hall became quiet as all the contestants held their breaths in anticipation for what would come next.

With a charming smile, Chris, the host, began to speak.

"Congratulations on making it this far aspiring musicians and stars!"

"Making it from a group of thousands I'm sure, was no easy task and you all should be immensely proud of your achievement"

"However, that was only the beginning because from her on out, only 80 out you 240 contestants will make it to the next round!"

The moment Chris uttered those words, audible gulps and mutters could be heard, an instant wave of nervous tension cascading all over the room.

The camerapersons ensured to zoom in on the faces of the many contestants in the hall in an effort to further increase the tension they were experiencing.

"I'm sure you all know, that this was never going to be an easy experience because at the end of the day, only one contestant will make it to the very end and claim the winning prize" Jack, casting director and the toughest judge on the show said with a pretty intense and sharp look.

The winning prize of $1,000,000 was legitimately nothing to scoff at and judging by the competitive spirits which had now being ignited in the eyes of every contestant, they were all gunning to make it to the very end.

"But remember. Although you might not win, there are still prizes to be dished out to the second and third runner-ups" Kiara drew all the attention to herself with those words and she continued speaking.

"That basically means that you must get as far as you possibly can because even if you don't win the grand prize, you will still be rewarded and I'm sure a record label or two would be willing to pick you up"

The second runner-up was given a pretty hefty sum of $500,000 while the third would be given $300,000.

Even those amounts were nothing to look down upon and the effect Kiara wanted it to have, was immediately noticed as the contestants got even more fired up to do their very best.

Most of them were aspiring singers that had just been hoping for that one big break or the other so, realizing that they could potentially be the ones to latch onto that chance, was an opportunity they were not willing to lose.

"Now, with that out of the way, we will announce what the theme of the next round will be…" Blake clapped his hands and another round of nervous gulp and mutters from the contestants filled the room.

As he did this, a staff on the production crew slowly walked in with a large tray containing three different envelopes, all of which were elegantly designed with the Rising Stars logo on it.

One, out of these three envelopes, was basically going to decide their fate for the next round based off of the theme that would be selected.

With slow and casual movements, Blake picked up one of the envelopes, and with no sense of urgency at all, opened it with a thin smile on his lips.

His movements however, only served to increase the nail-biting tension and anticipation all the contestants were now feeling.

All of them except Lily who had a pretty calm expression on her features, seemingly undisturbed in the least by all that was happening.

Even Kyle was feeling the tension and as he watched Blake view the contents.

A thin smile soon surfaced on the judge's face, after which it then widened even further into a small grin.

The bespectacled Kyle, along with the rest of the other contestants then watched as he handed the card over, back to the production crew staff without mentioning the theme.

Already expecting this, the staff then went out of the hall, seemingly handing over the card in the envelope to the production crew backstage.

'Last year was a team-round knockout but…' Kyle thought to himself as he waited in nervous anticipation like the rest.

'I wonder what the theme for this year would be…'

Finishing his internal thoughts, the giant screen present in the room suddenly lit up, a haze of bright colors and the logo of the reality show spinning around rapidly until it then exploded in a crackle of fireworks to reveal the theme of the next phase.

A Three-way Knockout Round!

Instantly, every contestant in the room, unconsciously considered the person next to them a potential enemy and the production crew was especially keen to grab onto even the smallest micro expressions from the contestants.

"So there you have it folks! A three-way knockout round!" Chris let out an excited declaration, a wide grin plastered on his face.

"Three contestants will face off against each other over the course of a week from now, at this very same place." Blake took it from Chris and began to explain.

"However, only one contestant would be allowed to advance to the next round" he further explained and once again, mutters and hushed whispers filled the room.

"You will however, be performing not just in front of us but in front of a small audience too. Think of it as a small, intimate gig." Jack then continued and casually added while pointing to the doors opposite them, not minding their hushed conversations.

Although Kyle and many other contestants had wondered why the doors had been previously locked since the day of the preliminary auditions, it was now clear that it was going to be used for the second round of auditions.

"With that being said, you all can make your way back to the hotels which have been specially reserved for you" Chris announced once again with his signature smile.

"The buses are already outside, waiting and ready to take you there"

"More details about the next round and whom you will be up against would be given to you once you get there so give it your all and goodluck!" Chris concluded as the camerapersons zoomed in on his face.

Following this, he, along with the judges, casually left the premises, leaving the nervous contestants to their own fates as the production crew kept filming, wanting to get as much footage as they possibly could.