"I'm sorry. I will try to do better now."
Rachel said after she entered the recording room again. Her hair was a little wet, hinting that she had probably splashed water on her face in order to calm herself down.
"Rachel, can I talk to you for a second?" Aiden asked after collecting his thoughts.
He felt like he would be able to help Rachel out a bit.
"Yeah."
"I was going through the recordings, and I noticed something. I feel like I would be able to help you sing the chorus."
Rachel widened her eyes hearing that. Her mood wasn't good because she was feeling like she would mess up the song again. So, Aiden's words gave her a bit of hope.
"What did you notice?"
"Well, take this and listen to it."
Aiden handed her the headphones and played the recording of the first and second verses. These were the easiest parts of the song, and Rachel had sung them pretty well.
Her voice was bright and powerful, creating a strong silver light.
"If you listen closely, your voice in it is powerful and confident. Now, let me play the recording of the pre-chorus."
This was the part where Rachel had a lot of trouble. It was only after an hour that they were able to get it right.
"In this, you sang well, but the confidence and belief that you showed before were very low. It's like you think that you can't do the part."
"What do you mean?" Rachel's face froze. "Are you saying I'm not a good singer?"
"No, you are an excellent singer."
Aiden clarified before the atmosphere could take a wrong turn. The sound engineer who was listening to the whole conversation took a sigh of relief seeing Rachel's shoulder sunk.
"It's not about your skills. It's more of a mental issue." Aiden pointed at Rachel's forehead. "You do not believe in yourself enough."
"What?"
Rachel had an expression like she was wondering, 'what is this guy saying?' Without wasting any time, Aiden tried to explain as clearly as he could.
"Think about it a little. When the part is easy, your mentality is like, 'It's not going to be easy, but I can do it,' but when it's a hard part, you start to fear thinking that you are going to mess it up. You don't believe in yourself enough. It's completely different from when you were in X-Star."
During X-Star, Rachel was one of the most confident contestants. Not only did she not fear any other contestants, but she also sang every type of song perfectly. Even the songs that others had found very difficult.
She had dominated throughout the competition, and only Cameron was able to challenge her. In the end, she did win over him, even managing to throw him into depression.
"This is not X-Star." Rachel said, frowning.
"Yes, but you are still you. You just lost your confidence. Look, you are not going to get your confidence back just because I said some words, but try to believe in yourself. You are the person who eliminated me. You have enough talent to sing this song easily."
That was the extent of what Aiden could do. He wasn't a motivational coach or anything. He wasn't even friends with Rachel and was only speaking as another singer.
He didn't know how much effect his words would have, but he just hoped Rachel could improve.
"Thanks."
Rachel just said that and took a deep breath.
"Let me try it again." She looked at the sound engineer.
"Okay."
***
Standing inside the booth, Rachel's mind was chaotic. A lot of thoughts were moving in her head, but one thing she knew was that she didn't want to disappoint again.
She wanted to sing and sing well.
'You are the person who eliminated me. You don't believe in yourself enough. You have enough talent to sing the song.'
Aiden's words rang in her mind, and she closed her eyes to focus.
Belief.
Maybe that was really the thing that she was missing.
Rachel tried to make herself believe that she was a great singer and that this part won't be hard for her. She had sung much more difficult songs before.
She could do it.
Outside the booth, Linda and Aiden were having a conversation about Rachel. She had also heard what he had told her.
"Do you think she can do it now?"
"It's on her. I can't really say." Aiden replied. "Just I know she could do it if she just believed in herself. She's good enough to sing this song."
Linda didn't say anything after that and just focused on Rachel inside the booth. At that moment, the sound engineer started the music, and Rachel finally started singing.
"So, why can't we be like fireflies?"
"Alive and bright, flying across the night."
"No one to hold us, no one to bind us in our skin."
"Just brightening the darkness within."
This time, her voice had a bit stronger voice about it, and she also didn't straight go to a high note. Instead, she slowly elevated the level of it, from low to medium and then to a high note.
Like that, she was able to maintain the emotions in her song. Her high notes also didn't break and stayed intact throughout the verses.
At the same time, the silver light coming out was very bright. It was the brightest till now.
"She improved drastically."
Aiden muttered, and Linda was also smiling.
When the music ended, the sound engineer looked at her.
"It was very good. Way better than last time."
"Really?" Rachel looked a bit surprised.
"Yeah. Can we go at it again? I feel like you could do even better."
"Okay, sure."
As they were talking, Aiden secretly checked out something he was very curious about and found out that he was right.
'I was actually right.'
[Rachel Rose] [24 years]
[Singing level: Intermediate Grade 3]
[Special skills: High notes]
From Intermediate Grade 2, Rachel improved a level suddenly. He had felt like the silver light looked a bit thicker this time.
'So I guess it was really a mental block.'
Aiden's theory was that Rachel was already good enough as a singer, but she herself thought that she wasn't. Due to that, there was a mental block that was stopping her from levelling up, and he had proof now.
'At least the recording would be smooth now.'
He thought, taking a sigh of relief and focusing more on Rachel, who was emanating a silver light that filled the whole booth.
***
As Aiden was busy recording, <Behind the scenes> was selling a lot, so much so that just after a week, The New York Times listed it at number seven on their best sellers list.
It was a huge thing for a debut writer like Aiden.
He certainly hadn't expected such a thing when he had first decided to write the novel, but it was a welcome change, and due to that, Aiden also got experience in his writing skill.
Though, he was sure that it would take a while for it to gain another level.
But coming into the New York Times did help him gain more popularity as a few media outlets reported about it.
<Aiden Silvereye's debut novel <Behind the scenes> got featured in the New York Times best sellers list. Another massive achievement for Aiden who's just piling them up for a year.>
<Is Hollywood seeing the rise of a multi-talented person? After featuring in the New York Times best sellers list, what is next for Aiden?>
<Vikings publishing owner, very happy with the New York Times feature for Aiden Silvereye's debut novel, said that his publishing house would be happy to work with him for a long time.>
Aside from these articles, one more thing was that [30 days of Happiness] was finally coming out of the theatres in a week. The only reason it was still in the theatres was that Omar wanted to cross 100 million dollars at the box office.
Currently, the movie has grossed about 99.7 million dollars at the box office, which was a huge number.
In early December, the movie was still going very strong, but due to the holiday season, too many blockbuster movies had been released. These included movies from renowned superhero studios and franchises.
Just in the second week of December, a movie titled [The Elder Wizard] was released. It was a 120-million-dollar movie with the studio behind it, hoping that it could become a blockbuster franchise.
It also turned out real as in just two weeks, the movie earned 154 million dollars at the box office, taking most of the audience from [30 days of Happiness].
Then on Christmas, a superhero movie called [The Thunder God] premiered, becoming the box office giant due to the spectacle that it provided the audience.
As audiences were more likely to go for a VFX-heavy movie that could give them a fun 2-3 hours with friends, a small musical rom-com was easily overshadowed.
But it was also true that it actually managed to reach a good amount of audience. On a budget of 6 million dollars, it managed to earn nearly 100 million, and it was probably going to cross it soon.
It was a sleeper hit that no one expected.
Moreover, the total earnings from the movie would be way more as overseas rights and streaming platforms are a thing. Earning around 150 million worldwide wasn't going to be hard.
It also meant that Aiden was going to become a multi-millionaire because of having a percentage in the box office.
...
