The music industry can be a cruel, harsh and unforgiving creative outlet. One minute you can be at the top of the charts, idolized and worshiped by legions of fans awaiting your every product of your musical genius, the next appearing in the bargain bin on cheap CD's.
As Ami and Yumi attempted to pull out some of their usual guitar riffs out of a couple of unbelievably che ap in a tiny garage, the couple or so 6 year olds who hadn't completely run their attention span dry started to roll up whatever leftover party food they had and tossed it at the two, both were feeling for quite some time that their time may've passed, if somewhat unexpectedly and unfairly quickly.
As the two brightly colored singers jumped off stage, or, to be more precise, the deck card table they'd spent the past few excruciating hours trying to woo over obnoxious kids, Kaz quickly skittled up to them, mouth half-full of cake and holding a bundle of cash from their pay for the day.
"Great gig girls! The crowd... Eh, really got into the spirit of your music, eh?" he said somewhat too enthusiastically, considering their audience, venue and performance.
"You mean whatever wasn't painful static from that terrible equipment you landed us with?! C'mon Kaz, this is embarrassing... We were major rock stars half a year ago! What happened?" Yumi bemoaned, frowning as she eyed in Kaz's other hand just how little money they'd made.
"Yumi does have a point, Kaz. Weren't we meant to be on a nation wide tour at the moment?" Ami added, finding it hard to stay optimistic about the dire state of their careers. "Nation wide tour? Sorry girls, but what do you call this then? We were in the east coast last week, now we're down south, I got a couple more calls for some gigs up in DC-" "KAZ!" Stopping him before he could trail off any further, Yumi pegged him to the side of their van. "BIRTHDAY PARTIES. FOR TODDLERS. IN A CRAMPED GARAGE. DO NOT. COUNT. AS CONCERTS!!!" Dropping him down as she caught her breath, Ami continued. "Be straight with us; are Yumi and I... Are we a big deal anymore?" Looking down at his feet as he racked his head for a quick answer to keep them happy and sighing as nothing believable enough game to mind, he mumbled "No."
Looking to each other in case either of them had anything else to hound out of their manager, they started to climb into the trailer, nobody saying so much as a word to each other as they set off down the street, not even sure if they had enough to last the week.
----------------------------------------
It wasn't until the next morning over a questionable breakfast Ami and Yumi finally discussed their situation and their band's popularity; or lack of thereof.
"Ewwwww, no wonder this cereal tastes so stale and bad... It's been opened over a year ago!" Ami whinged as she spat out a few brightly colored chunks of heavily processed cereal back into her bowel, Yumi shrugging and pulling it over to her to start digging in.
"That really doesn't surprise me. Anyway, I think we need to seriously address our situation here Yumi. Kaz may not be the best of managers, but even he can't of somehow messed up getting us a serious performance in every state. It's like somebody's working against us... I just don't see how we went from sell-out concerts, movie deals and promotional tie-ins to nothing!"
"*URRRRP* Don't see what your problem was with this stuff is, tastes perfectly fine regardless of use-by date. Also don't see what your big mystery is; one day everybody liked our music, next day some new guy comes in with something 'amazing' and 'fresh' and we never kicked back. Hence, everybody forgets we exist and we live on next to nothing." Swallowing the last of her huge breakfast, Yumi started to muse over this theory. "Though I don't see how some dork could've one-upped us without us hearing about it until after we're stuck at some brats birthday party..."
A few hours later, mindlessly belting out a few simple chords on her bed, Yumi was startled to attention by Ami bursting into her room. "Hey! What do I ALWAYS say about knocking first!" Ami ignored her best friend's complaints as she reached behind her and producing a rolled up magazine... In fact, one of the ones the two were interviewing with before their careers mysteriously plummeted. "Aaaand I'm looking at what?" Grabbing it out of Ami's hands, Yumi looked over the cover. "Oh man, check out Captain Lardo on the front page. They crane lift her into that photo shoot!? She looks a wee bit familar though... Can't quite put my finger on it..." Ami rolled her eyes and points to each relevant blurb and headline to Yumi. After a few moments, Yumi's giggling stopped. "And yes, before you ask, it's not April Fools day. Our 'mystery rival'... Is 450lbs 'bombshell' as they put it, pop singer Julie."
As Ami said, on the front cover on America's most highly regarded destination for music gossip and news, Yumi's ex-friend and Ami's still-nemesis had finally managed to overshadow the two... Quite literally. Still wearing the same demented smile and her old, now stretched clothes, which now barely clung onto her new immensely plump frame, Yumi took a moment to fully register what she was reading. "... I KNEW she was trouble since I met her!" Yumi cried out in anger, teeth clenched at just how stupid a turn their whole financial situation had suddenly taken. "What!? You're the one who replaced me with her in the band for a night last time! But there IS a bright side to all this Yumi... Now we know EXACTLY we've both been lacking of in great deals of for the past few months" Ami started to wear an uncharacteristically sinister smile as she glanced at the cover one more time, then started to stare at Yumi.
"I don't quite follow where... Wait... You don't mean... Oh god. I know EXACTLY what you're thinking and it would be freaking retarded. No no no NO!"
Ami merely continued to smile. "Yes yes yes YES! Don't you see? This'll be easy! Obviously Julie just turned to comfort food back in the nut house and Americans being the tubbo's they are wanted a pop idol who was larger and dumber then them to make them feel good about themselves! We... Eh, obviously didn't fit into that category at the moment, but give us a few months and we'll be so big-"
"Look, Ami; I know how all this looks, but firstly, I don't want to blimp out... Again. Secondly, we don't have enough dough to pig out for months on end. Lastly, this smells exactly like the kind of thing Julie would've spent ages planning just to get at us. At best, to make us look stupid. She probably knows how much you get worked up about her and at worst, another outlandish plot to kill both of us... Through clogged arteries or leaving us too fat to defend ourselves, I don't know, but I can say that none of this is going to end pretty for us."
Ami's smile faded as her friend continued to shoot down what she saw as their only plan back to stardom. "Well fine then, I guess somebody just doesn't want fame badly enough. Hmmmph!" Crossing her arms Ami turns her back on Yumi, starting to walk to the door. "I guess it's just me from now on! I'll try and remember to call when I'm living it up back at the top!" Before she leaves, Yumi finally makes up her mind. "Ami, look..."
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