Rowdy Rehearsal

Marie To was standing in the middle of stage. According to her schedule, Minh Tuyet and LTQ were supposed to be at rehearsals now. She put her hands on her hips while taping her feet. She finally lost her patience,
"WHERE IS MINH TUYET AND LUONG TUNG QUANG?"
Like magic, they rolled out from the side of the stage, still wrestling each other in front of her.
Marie was speechless. She jumped in with several other people who were standing around, trying to break up the fight. Both were still fighting--punching the air--even when they were split up. Marie went to LTQ and yelled,
"What did I tell you? Did you lose your mind?" He seemed to ignore her and went on to stick out his tongue at Minh Tuyet. She shook her head and went over to Minh Tuyet. "Tuyet, you're a famous celebrity, act like one!"
LTQ jumped in, "I KNOW!"
Marie: "Well, you're a man and you're not acting like one! What kind of guy fights with a girl?"
Minh Tuyet: "The ones that are too weak to fight with a real man!"
LTQ: "Are you calling me gay?"
Minh Tuyet: "Duh! Are you deaf?"
LTQ: "Ahh! You see Marie? You see how evil she is!"
MarieL: "Both of you stop it! You are wasting my time with your bickering. Now I'm not in the mood to yell at you guys so let's just pretend that this whole thing didn't happen and let's start the rehearsals!"
Minh Tuyet and Luong Tung Quang glared at each other before taking their positions. Marie interrupted once more, "Wait...what are you two wearing? I thought you guys were going to perform Tinh Du Tram Loi?"
MT: "The idiot probably didn't even know the song. He thought it was hip hop and upbeat!"
Marie: "But how…” She suddenly understood. "Don't tell me you can't read music."
LTQ: "Uh....I-I-I never was trained in reading music"
Marie dropped her jaws open and her facial expression turned deadly serious.
LTQ: What?
MT: Ms. To, this is so unfair to the other contestants. ..Why don't we just make it easy for you and the audience and disqualify him?
LTQ: "OVER MY DEAD BODY!"
Marie To: "No one is going to die when I'm in charge!"
Marie To: "Now get back in your positions and I'll tell Calvin to make something for you two"
LTQ: Can I say something?
Marie & MT: No!
Marie: Get the music ready!
The music quickly started. Minh Tuyet, immediately, without much difficulty, got her mind into the music, whereas her singing partner stood still awkwardly, not knowing what to do. It was supposed to be he who sings the first line of the song but the background music went on without any sound coming from LTQ. Minh Tuyet turned around and shot an angry look at him. He turned his head away to avoid that look but was caught with even a worse one, coming from Marie.
LTQ: What? You know I don't know the song.
Marie had her mouth opened wide and was about to scream at him but managed to stop herself. No, she had to be better than those typical bosses who scream whenever people messed things up. She knew better than that. “Who here thinks they can help LTQ with his music?”
No one volunteered.
Great, LTQ thought.
Disappointed with the reactions she got, Marie said demandingly, “Tuyet, you’re helping him with it. One word from you two and…” She paused to think about what it is that she’s saying. What can she do, really? Kick them out of the show? Right! If Minh Tuyet’s gone, so is Bang Kieu, and so is half of their audiences. She could let LTQ go but that’ll surely upset him—then he’ll say something to the press. Letting him in this show was already trouble. Scandals and a trip to the front page are the least things Marie will need now. “Never mind, get the musical director here.”


It didn’t take long for LTQ to learn the song—he’s been doing the same thing for the pass 3 years! Now they are finally going to put up an acceptable performance, or at least that’s what Marie’s hoping for. She felt proud that now both Minh Tuyet and LTQ are being serious in getting the job done. They went through the song pretty well, even better than she had expected. It seems like even they themselves were surprised at how perfectly their voice matched. Their misunderstandings are finally resolved, Marie thought.
But—there’s always a ‘but’—just then, right after that moment, LTQ had accidentally stepped on Minh Tuyet’s gown, causing her to fall to the ground. He quickly came to her side and helped her up, but was met with a slap the instant he was within her reach. Her other hand was still holding on to her nose, which was dripping blood.
“WHAT?! I was trying to help…” He didn’t have time to finish before another slap came down upon him. Then she just started hitting him non-stopping. He defended himself by catching her arm and held it in one place. Looking into her eyes, he said,
“I’m so…”
But he forgot that Minh Tuyet could still use her legs—and she was wearing those pointed, high-heel shoes. She kicked him and the next thing she knew, he was laying on the floor crying out loud.
“HOW DARE YOU?”
MT: "That's so you'll know not to mess with me!"
They were too busy fighting that neither notice that Marie had fainted long ago—she cannot handle seeing the blood—until Bang Kieu arrived and screamed on the top of his lungs for them to shut up and get some help for Marie.