"Stacey? Hello? Stacey, are you all right?"
Someone shook her and Stacey blinked at the unfamiliar face for a moment. It felt like her mind and body had completely shut down. Like she had gone to sleep. She felt reluctant to wake up out of the daze she was in. She didn't want to have to face the realities and difficulties of her life right now.
It took a moment for her to remember anything or recognise the people staring at her with concern. A woman was standing by her side with a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. Stacey blinked up at her blankly.
Oh. Right. This was Mindy. One of the main writers or something for this weird reality show program for trainees or something.
Stacey looked at her own fingers and then the piano. The sight of the piano in front of her gave her a bit of a shock and made her feel an uneasy dread in her stomach. Had she botched everything again? Then she looked at Mindy.
"Did I - did I just play something?"
"Yes!" Mindy almost yelled. "Darling, that was magnificent! I've never heard that piece before, but I have to say, you're a real treasure aren't you? You haven't been having us on, have you? You aren't pulling anything over us? You just said you had no talents that you knew of."
"I played the piano?" Stacey felt numb with shock that she had gotten so absorbed in the piano music. That she had even dared to touch it after all these years. Belatedly she remembered she was being filmed and if she was going to be an amnesiac lost kid, she shouldn't know how to play piano. She filtered what she was about to say and changed it to something more fitting to her current situation, "I can - I can play the piano?"
She felt as incredulous as the stunned boys in the corner. From the lingering music still floating in her ears - if she wasn't wrong, she had just played her old recital piece perfectly.
People looked surprised at her question and frowned while she stared at her fingers and the keyboard.
"Wow," Stacey whispered almost to herself. Muscle memory was sure amazing.
"You've had some sort of training before," Mindy looked beside herself with joy. "We've really found a gem here."
"Mindy, calm down and come back to your seat," Landen ordered. "Stacey, are you all right?"
Still feeling like she was floating on fluffy clouds, Stacey swivelled around on her seat to face the producer after another long moment. Slowly, she nodded, still glancing between her hands and the piano every now and then. She could barely believe that she could still play anything.
"Do you want to play or try anything else? Maybe try playing and singing at the same time?"
But what?
Stacey looked at the piano and remembered something she had done for school camp once. She might not be able to do all the tricks she had showed off then, but that was a fun song that should still go down well here.
There were a few mistakes and wrong notes but that wasn't that surprising after so many years. Primary school had been a long time ago now. Honestly, Stacey was surprised that she could remember this much.
"All right," Landen's smile wasn't any less, but it had lost some of its luster during that performance. "Something for you to work on. Not bad, considering you don't remember anything from before."
Was he doubting her? That she hadn't really lost her memories and that this was just a sneaky ploy for more attention? Whatever. Anyone discovering these skills would be skeptical of a so-called amnesiac like her.
They tried acting and well… Stacey figured making the room fall silent was a good sign that it hadn't been much to talk about. Nobody said anything about her performance, so she wasn't sure whether it was a great success or a disastrous failure. She couldn't tell from their expressions.
Then they discovered that she could probably dance if she had some classes. At least she had a good sense of rhythm. Her flexibility from her younger days in gymnastics gave her an added bonus here.
It was much the same with fighting and stunt work. She didn't know anything about them but might be able to reach a reasonable level if she was taught and had enough time to practice. Comedy was another story, but Landen said that such things could be trained.
Apparently her young looks and infectious smile, as well as talent with the voice and piano were enough to make a start with. Apparently she was made for the performing arts.
Stacey had thought that she was just another ordinary customer service worker back home and here she was discovering old talents. Maybe getting into this program was a good thing. Maybe?
Stacey wasn't so sure about the entire nation being able to see her face and her 'story' being broadcast for everyone to see, but at least no one she knew was here. She supposed it wouldn't hurt since this place seemed to be an entire new world with a completely different system of doing things. There was a lot to learn.