Established October 2015   ​All Rights Reserved 

Chapter Three: Up's & Down's​

​Reviews
​​When the sun rose the next morning, the girls were completely unaware of it because Enid had put the auto-dark setting on the first floor windows to maximum so they could sleep in a bit. However, Tabitha, who doesn’t even drink coffee, had set the timer on the coffeemaker to 6:30 because she enjoyed waking up to the aroma. So at 6:30, the smell of coffee in the air began waking them. As the girls struggled back into consciousness, they found themselves in the crazy and uncomfortable positions they had exhaustedly folded themselves into the night before.

“What time is it?” Analey muttered. 

“It’s still dark out. Who is making coffee?” added a grumpy Tinsley. 

Sarah instructed the dorm’s computer, “Mimzy, auto-dark off, please.” 

With that, the windows cleared and the early-morning sun streamed in. Rubbing their eyes and trying to straighten their stiff bodies, the Crumpets grumbled and stumbled their way to the kitchen. 

“I feel like I was attacked by a Kodiak Marmoset with an unusually bad attitude,” Kari said as she slumped down on a stool. 

Tabitha was so exhausted, she even went so far as to actually have a cup of the coffee that she had made. 

“Well at least we have a bit of time before the lunch,” Yulia pointed out. 

For the time being, Kari, Analey, Sarah, and Tinsley just sat on the kitchen stools with their heads laid on the counter. Tabitha was propped up in a corner, sipping her coffee, while Yulia sprawled out on the dining room table, mindlessly watching the ceiling fan spinning overhead.

About five minutes or so into their zone-out, Analey perked up and said, “Hey, shouldn’t there be some reviews posted by now?” 

Suddenly the other members opened their eyes.

“Oh yea, reviews,” Tabitha said excitedly as she poured the last of her coffee down the drain while making a “yuck” face. 

The girls quickly rallied around the kitchen counter. Tabby grabbed the kitchen’s tablet while Yulia, who after a comical struggle to get off of the dining room table, trotted with what was left of her dignity into the TV area to grab the other main-floor tablet. With two searches going, several reviews were available almost immediately. Both Tabitha and Yulia scanned the reviews, mumbling and reacting, or I should say, over-acting, but not letting the others in on what they were reading. 

It only took a few moments before the other four shouted, “Seriously?!” 

Tabitha and Yulia grinned and winked at each other. and then Yulia encouraged Tabitha to go first. 

Tabby cleared her throat and said, “Well, our first review seems quite positive.” Whereupon she read: 

“The Looking-Glass Academy of Art debuts the first Looking-Glass Campus unit group. The Gothy Crumpets, who were introduced by Dean Eobseo, are now also the official face of the school. The Crumpets’ debut performance was held at Soshi Auditorium, where the girls and their managers were pinned in a ceremony that featured the Raspberries, a children’s dance troupe from Consortium, who are directed by the school's famed choreographer, May. Reportedly, this was May’s first experience working with such young students, and I think both she and they did a great job. The Crumpets then performed a concert to not only introduce themselves to the world, but also to introduce their first album, a mini-album titled “GothyCrumpets.” The full album is, quite appropriately, due this Halloween.” 

The review went on to give a glowing account of every detail of the show. 

“Wow, we’ve all been reviewed before, at least on our school projects anyway, and this is easily the best that any of us has ever done,” Kari said with a rosy sense of pride. 

“Well, I probably should have told you this first,” Tabitha said, a bid sheepishly. “This was Jimmy’s review.” 

“Tabby!” the others cried. “Of course Jimmy is going to give us a glowing review!” 

Tabitha grinned, “I just thought you should have a good experience before we move on to the hard-core stuff.” 

Then with a serious face, Tabitha nodded at Yulia for her to read the next review from one of the local news agencies. Wide-eyed and nervous, the girls held hands. Barely breathing, they gave Yulia their full attention. As Yulia, serious in face and tone, began reading the review, the girls gathered even closer. Much to their relief and delight, this review was very nearly as positive as Jimmy’s. Once Yulia had finished and all of the girls started to breathe again, they looked at each other and then began screaming and jumping for joy. Even though the first floor’s noise monitors were flashing red, they just kept dancing and squealing.

During the Crumpets’ celebration, Enid and Bess emerged from the top of the stairs. When Tabitha saw that they were standing there with a look of bewilderment, and that the noise monitors were going crazy, she quickly tried to quiet things down. 

“We are so sorry we woke you up,” Tabitha said in a loud voice, trying to be heard over her beagles, who were still yelping excitedly. 

“You didn’t wake me up,” Enid said. 

Then Bess added, “I couldn’t hear a thing...in my room that is.” 

Relieved that they hadn’t been too loud, the girls circled Bess and Enid, regaling them with the most obnoxious rendition of the “Saranghae” song that they ever had or would do. 

Once they had finished, Enid exclaimed, “What in the world has you girls so wound up?!” 

Kari, who had not let the discovery that their first review was by Jimmy deflate her in the slightest, quickly answered (whilst hopping up and down like she was on a trampoline), “Reviews, reviews, we got good reviews, yea yea, we got good reviews!” 

Both Enid and Bess seemed rather reserved in their response to the good news, which made the girls wonder if maybe they really had woken them up. With a much softer tone, the Crumpets led Bess and Enid into the kitchen where they proudly showed off the first reviews. They quickly skimmed through them, highlighting the best points. Once they had given their managers a synopsis of the previously read reviews, they were ready to move on to reading new ones. 

To make things more comfortable, they all relocated to the dining area and sat at the table. The girls placed cups of tea and plates of biscuits in front of Bess and Enid as a bit of a peace offering. Once everyone was comfortable, they read more reviews and found them all to be very positive. In fact, the only consistent criticism was making a good-natured point of Tinsley’s, Yulia’s, and Kari’s antics, which ironically would become a much-beloved and customary part of the Crumpets’ stage performances. Regardless, the reviews were going very well, but Enid and Bess still seemed a bit reticent. 

After reading six reviews, the girls handed a tablet to Sarah so she could read number seven. This review was by a critic named Eugene Skrows, who was with Z-TV — one of the largest local news agencies. 

Seeing Z-TV, Sarah said, “Oh, this is biggie!” 

Everyone focused on her and she began reading:

“Last night, the Looking-Glass Academy rolled out a new unit group called the Gothy Crumpets. According to the school’s dean, Victor Eobseo, the Gothy Crumpets are now the official face of the school, and what a face they are. Looking more like disheveled circus folk than professional entertainers, their music and stage presence would need to be considerably better than it was to make anything worthwhile out of this ill-conceived and poorly executed concept.”

Sarah’s eyes filled with tears and her voice shook, but she soldiered on and read the entire review, which had nothing positive to say. Eugene was negative about everything except the Raspberries. He even threw in several rather personal insults about the girls. The Crumpets sat stone-faced, except for Tabitha who had gotten up to stand behind Sarah and rub her shoulders while she read the perfectly dreadful review. 

“I was worried that there would be a few negative comments here and there, but this, this is...poop!” Bess said angrily. 

“Is this why you weren’t very excited about the reviews?” Analey posed to Bess and Enid. 

“Well, I guess we figured that, sooner or later, there would be something negative, and we were concerned about how much harder it would hit you if you were feeling so exhilarated,” Enid replied in a sullen voice, adding, “We didn’t expect everything to be rainbows and butterflies, but this, frankly, is ridiculous.” 

“I couldn’t agree more,” Bess chimed in. “Clearly this Eugene person isn’t a critic. He is a troll, and he should be ashamed of himself!” Bess was really starting to get mad; had Eugene been there, I think she would have gone all Sergeant Apone on him!

Tabitha did her best to set aside her disappointment and anger, and tried to redirect the negativity. “Eugene said that we aren’t professionals. Well, how we handle this determines if he is right or not, and I for one do not want to give him the satisfaction of being correct,” she said in a very confident voice, adding, “We weren’t perfect, but we were damn good. We looked good, our stage looked good, we danced well, sang well, and damn it, the crowd loved it.” 

“Damn straight!” Tinsley hollered in support of Tabby’s efforts. (Frankly she loved it when Tabitha swore, because she only did it when she was really, really mad, which wasn’t very often.) Although Tabitha’s words had effectively stopped the free-fall that she and her mates were in, now they needed to gain some altitude, and that was a tricky thing to accomplish after such a steep dive. 

As the girls mustered their inner resolve, Tabitha began to worry that they might find it easier to just be angry and dismiss Eugene’s criticisms, which, while probably better than feeling defeated, really wasn’t the best or most professional way to deal with things. 

As such, Tabitha wanted to put Eugene’s review on the back burner for a bit, so she said to Sarah, “Why don’t you read us the next review? It is bound to be better.” 

While this may have been a good idea, sometimes things just don’t work out the way we expect. Sarah, who had been handling her feelings reasonably well, suddenly burst into a full-on weep, sobbing, “There aren’t any more!” 

“Stupid Eugene,” Tinsley muttered as she got up and headed to the TV area. With a bit of an attitude, she pulled back one of the love seats, dragged Harey into the middle of the TV floor, and plopped down, leaning up against him. She was soon followed by the others, who also plopped down on the floor, leaning up against either Harey or one of the sofas, or just flat-out lying on the floor. They all knew that Eugene’s review was the only bad one out of seven (six, if you don’t count Jimmy’s), but still, such harsh words cut deep.

Perseverance
Sprawled about on the floor, the Crumpets began discussing what Eugene had said, trying to make sense of the sharp contrast in reviews. They could have dismissed his review as a strange anomaly, but he was with Z-TV, and therefore had some credibility and influence, which worried them. 

They hadn’t made much progress, when a knock came to the front door, which was a little strange as very few people could actually walk up to the door of Crumpet Hall without first being buzzed through one of the gates. Yulia got up to answer the door. Remembering the safety training, she first checked the video monitor before she opened the door.

Not surprisingly, the visitor was Dean Eobseo, who was rather winded and ruffled. When he came into the room, he looked at the girls and said, “Oh no, it looks like you have already read Eugene’s review. I tried to get over here before you did.” 

The Dean knew, from firsthand experience, how much cruel words can hurt. If a review has reasonable criticisms that one can learn from, that is one thing, and the LG students were trained to use those criticisms to grow and improve. However, irrational and personal attacks were another matter entirely. 

“My dear girls,” he said as he sat down. “I should have warned you about Eugene, but frankly I thought that things had changed.”

The Dean explained that he and Eugene had once, very early in their careers, been in a band together, and that his popularity had greatly overshadowed Eugene’s. Eventually the band broke up. He went on to a successful solo career, while Eugene struggled, and ultimately had to give up music and become a critic. 

Torn between anger at Eugene’s attack on the Crumpets and pity toward Eugene's failed dreams, Dean Eobseo’s tone was solemn as he finished his story, 

“Eugene was bitter and he did everything he could to undermine my career. I don’t know, perhaps I could have somehow helped him save his music career. He wasn’t a bad performer, but he was just so very hard to get along with. At any rate, he never attacked the unit groups or performers from the Consortium days, so I thought he would only come after me. I guess now that Looking-Glass has its own campus, he feels that his criticisms won’t hurt the Consortium schools, and will hit me directly instead. Regardless, he is wrong about you girls. You did everything right, and his review of you is pure nonsense. It is one thing for him to attack me, but gunning for you girls is not acceptable.”

At about this time, Enid went to the kitchen. Looking out the window, she noticed KySi sitting at the Ravenhurst gate. She filled up some bottles of water, and took them to the group before she went out to let the big cats in. On her way, she mentioned that the message lights on the tablets were blinking. Tinsley struggled to her feet, and ambled her way to the dining room table to grab them. Back in the TV area, she handed one to Analey, and sat down with the other, wheezing as if she had just hauled both herself and the tablets all the way up Mount Everest. 

While Tinsley and Analey scanned the messages, Enid returned with KySi, whose presence immediately brightened the mood. 

“Well, Amber and the girls send us their congratulations on a successful debut and good reviews. Also, they have a few creative words that I don’t understand for Eugene,” Analey said, as she looked at the screen with a puzzled face. 

“Let me see,” Kari said, putting out her hand for the tablet. 

Kari silently read Amber's message. When she got to the part about Eugene, her eyes widened and she turned a bit pink. “Woah, apparently Amber is NOT a fan of Eugene’s!” 

“So what does it mean?” Analey asked. 

Kari leaned in and whispered the answer to Analey, who immediately burst out laughing, “Not a fan, that is an understatement!” 

At that point, Tinsley giggled, “If you think Amber was 'creative' in her assessment of Eugene, you’re gonna freak-out on what Jimmy had to say!”

As the girls poured over the congratulatory messages and played with Dean Eobseo’s cats, their moods improved even more. 

“Wow, there are so many messages. How are we ever going to reply to all of them?” Analey queried. 

Tabitha then asked for the tablets, which she resolutely placed on an end table. 

“I’m enjoying all the congratulations as much as anyone, and I must confess that the outpouring of wrath toward Eugene feels rather satisfying, but being vindictive isn’t very professional. I think that, amongst ourselves, we can afford to revel in it a bit, but our public response should not antagonize more anger, nor should we endorse the more 'creative' assessments of Eugene. I think we should come up with a standard reply that is grateful for the encouragement of our supporters, whilst diffusing some of the anger against Eugene.” 

For a moment the room was silent, with everyone staring blankly at Tabitha. 

Sarah, who had been deeply impacted by being the one to read Eugene’s review aloud, was the first to speak, “As much as I feel like I would like to see some of Amber and Jimmy’s ideas put into action, I think Tabby is right. We need to be bigger than old booger-head Skrows.” 

“Booger-head!” Kari laughed. “What kind of a badass says booger-head?” 

Sarah replied, “Well, booger wasn’t really the word I had in mind, it was just the most professional replacement I could think of.” 

Everyone laughed, Sarah blushed, and the group set about penning their standardized response. 

After a fair bit of brain damage, they had formulated their message:

“To our dear friends:
The Gothy Crumpets want to thank you with our deepest sincerity for your support and confidence. Your encouragement makes what we do worthwhile. We treasure your friendship, and we will keep you in our hearts for as long as we live. Saranghae, Looking-Glass fighting! 

“To our detractors:
In regard to recent unpleasant, excessive, and unnecessary comments made about ourselves and our school, we have decided to adopt the following policy for addressing such matters: If criticisms are reasonable and constructive, we will take them to heart, and we will work very hard to do better. If they are mean-spirited and destructive, we will disregard them and offer only our sympathies to whomever is so petty that they feel that they must say such things.”

Dean Eobseo, who had largely watched from the sidelines as the Crumpets worked out their response, was watching Tabitha. When their eyes met, he smiled the kind of smile he has when he comes up with an idea. Tabitha immediately realized that the wheels in his head were turning, and that she was part of whatever he was cooking up. 

She would have to wait to find out what was in store, as Dean Eobseo simply addressed his stars with, “Well, I must say that I am very proud of you girls. Your first day on the job, and you have already made a very mature and professional decision that I have no doubt will calm some of this nonsense, and set the stage for you to weather these occasional storms with far more grace and dignity that I ever did. Now, not to rush things, but look at the time!”

The girls quickly scampered upstairs to get ready for lunch and for showing-off their new digs to their families. Meanwhile, Dean Eobseo realized that Enid, Bess, Kyan, and Siera were all staring at him. (Bess and Enid had their arms crossed and looked rather stern.) 

“What?” the Dean said, with wide eyes. 

“I couldn't — ” Enid and Bess started at the same time and stopped when they realized that the other was speaking. They did this twice before Enid yielded the floor to Bess. 

Bess went on, “I couldn't help but notice that you let the girls struggle quite a bit with their response to Eugene, and to their mates’ comments on the matter. I trust this wasn't some type of a cruel lesson?” 

“Precisely,” Enid added. 

Dean Eobseo sat back with a seemingly out-of-place look of satisfaction. 

“Firstly, I cannot say how pleased I am to see that our Crumpets are so earnestly protected by their managers and friends. So long as it doesn't go to their heads, and they remain humble and honest, I think that it is a very good thing,” he said with a sincere tone. He then went on, “As to the business with Eugene, I truly was blindsided by it. I should not have been, but I was, and my old brain wasn't coming up with anything of value by way of addressing the situation. I do feel bad that I couldn't have offered more, but my first thoughts were rather vengeful and ugly. I even thought about buying Z-TV, just so I could fire Eugene.” 

The Dean paused, and then with a bit of a catch in his throat, he said, “Every day, this world is becoming more theirs than ours, and I am glad to see that our students are learning to handle conflicts with civility and decorum. It gives me great hope for the future.” 

Of course, Dean Eobseo knew that very likely the matter was far from over, but it did seem that Eugene’s attack wasn't going to have the kind of effect that old booger-head was probably hoping for. Regardless, later that day, he had the school’s lawyers look into it, and prepare for more trouble. 

Initially Bess and Enid were silent as they digested what the Dean had said. Eventually KySi got up and went to his side, purring and bumping him with their heads. 

“Well, I guess if Kyan and Siera are going to let him off the hook, we should too,” Enid said as she got up. 

“Of course, and as much fun as it was to give our boss a hard time, we all really should be getting ready for lunch and the tour,” Bess added.

As the Dean headed to the door, he stopped and gave Enid and Bess each a hug, saying, “I may have lost my conflict resolution skills — that, or I never had any — but I do still seem to have one skill, and that is that I sure do know how to pick the right people for the job.” 

He smiled and returned to Ravenhurst, leaving KySi to act as escorts for the residents of Crumpet Hall when they made their grand entrance at lunch.

Family Time
When the Crumpets arrived at Ravenhurst, their families gave them a standing ovation, which made them feel quite good. They also found out that, even though their family members had been told about KySi well in advance, a few folks were still a bit shocked at the sight of the big cats; Dangi leopards are, after all, well, leopards. 

Dean Eobseo had also already briefed the families on the Eugene issue, as well as the girls’ response to it, so there was little in the way of discussion about the matter. For the next few hours, their world was nothing but pleasant conversation and feasting on delicious food.

As this was the first time they had eaten that day, and especially considering how many calories they had burned the day before, the girls each made multiple trips through the buffet, prompting Yulia’s mother to comment, “My goodness, don’t they feed you girls? You need to take a quarter off, so you can come home, and I will get a few pounds of baby fat back on you.” 

Yulia blushed, “Mom, I don’t need any baby fat!” 

“But you were so cute with your chubby little cheeks,” her Mom replied. Addressing the group, she added, “I used to call her ‘Koala Bear,’ because of her sweet round face. In fact, I think I have a picture of her at that age here in my purse.” 

Much to Yulia’s horror, her mother did indeed have a picture of her as a baby-faced toddler, wearing a tiger costume (with some red hair peeking out). Of course the other Crumpets heard this, and not only did they absolutely have to see the picture, but they also took pictures of it, and sent it to Jimmy for distribution. 

Yulia buried her face in her hands, crying, “Mom, why do you do these things to me?!” 

Naturally her mother’s response was to say, “Because I love you.” Whereupon she posed for a picture with herself and the Crumpets surrounding her thoroughly mortified daughter. Good times, good times indeed.

Eventually talk started going around about heading over to Crumpet Hall for the tour. Analey’s grandfather was feeling pretty good, and wanted to walk, rather than being taken in a wheelchair. Because he reasoned that it would take him longer than the others to get there, he decided to go ahead and get started. Analey joined him, with the nurse whom Dean Eobseo had hired tagging along. They had a lovely stroll, which took Analey back to one of the few pleasant childhood memories she had — that being taking walks with her grandparents. Analey and her grandfather had just about reached Crumpet Hall when the others caught up. After taking a group photo they went inside.

I think it’s fair to say that everyone was quite impressed with the rather grand accommodations the girls were given. 

Sarah’s dad remarked, “Had I known, when you told me that you wanted to live in the dorms for the next for ten years, that the dorms were going to be like this, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.” 

Indeed, Crumpet Hall is a nice place, and a safer place probably doesn’t even exist, so not only were the families assured that their girls were well cared for, they also recognized how serious Looking-Glass was about them. Their girls were definitely on the right track toward having long and very satisfying careers. 

Speaking of careers, after a few hours, it was time for the girls to get ready for the show. Their time with their families had been relaxing, and had given them a chance to take a deep breath and unwind a bit, so once again, they were energized and itching to perform. So, all of their family members headed to either Ravenhurst or the Dunraven before they made their way to the amphitheater. Meanwhile, the Crumpets set about donning their outfits, and fixing their hair and makeup.

Amphitheater
With perfect weather, the evening's show began with tag-team musical performances by several of the school's fledgling groups and solo performers. Mixed in were various dancing and acting performances, and finally, a comedy skit before the Crumpets took the stage. The crowd, which was three times more people as the night before, was well warmed-up from enjoying the opening acts. This, coupled with the fact that there were over five thousand LG and Consortium students present, made for a very energetic environment.

Unlike the night before, there was a video shown on the jumbotron screens that introduced the girls. Each Crumpet was shown in a fan-card-styled photo, with a booming voice announcing her name as the letters spelled it out across the screen. After each Crumpet had been shown, in the order determined by the roll of the die an hour earlier, their official group photo came up, “GothyCrumpets” was spelled out, and pyrotechnics exploded, while lasers and flashing lights illuminated the smoke-filled stage. All of this was, as you might have guessed, the brainchild of Jimmy, who won an award, and had several job offers because it. At any rate, as the smoke cleared, the Crumpets appeared on-stage, silhouetted with back lights. The crowd went nuts, and the show went swimmingly. As promised, the girls addressed the reasonable criticisms of their first show, principally by way of explaining to the crowd what D-Cons are, as well as warning them that the Crumpets would probably be a bit squirrelly, and that there were likely to be shenanigans.

Their second show ever was as close to perfection as one could hope for; each Crumpet was in the zone, and they had a great time (which probably would have really burned Eugene's butt, had he been there). Once they were finished, they lingered for a bit, basking in the enthusiastic applause of the crowd before they exited the stage and went to the ready-area. Huddled together by the door, the girls anxiously listened to hear if they were going to receive their first-ever encore request. The applause were still going strong when they left the stage, but seemed to be fading, and a sick feeling started to well up in their hearts. 

Just as they began to think that their night was over, the applause became rhythmic and that golden word filled the air: “Encore, Encore, Encore…” 

It took a moment for the penny to drop. The girls stared blankly at each other for what seemed like a very long time, and then, quite suddenly, they began screaming, prancing about, and rather roughly slapping each other on the back. Still yelping like beagles before a hunt, the Crumpets triumphantly returned to the stage.

Tabitha greeted the crowd saying, “So, it seems that we didn’t scare you off and you want some more?!” 

The audience — the students anyway — went nuts, and began chanting, “Crumpets saranghae, Crumpets saranghae…” 

Others began chanting, “Analey saranghae, Kari saranghae, Sarah saranghae, Tabitha saranghae, Tinsley saranghae, Yulia saranghae.” 

Needless to say, the girls were shocked, and their faces showed it. 

“Great googly moogly, a fanchant! They are giving us a fanchant!” Kari said out loud,forgetting that she was holding a hot mic. 

Hearing Kari’s remark, and seeing that the Crumpets were tearing up, inspired the fans to chant even more enthusiastically. The Crumpets were a complete mess. Enid and Bess rushed in for a quick bit of E-Wamm, even though it was rather hopeless at that point. 

Looking up at one of the jumbotrons, Tinsley exclaimed, “Huh, I guess we do kind of look like disheveled circus folk.” 

Tabitha shot her a rather harsh side glance for bringing up Eugene, but the crowd — those who got it anyway — laughed, and it turned out to be a good segue back to their encore. 

“Wow, an encore request and a fanchant! Seriously, you guys are spoiling us worse than Dean Eobseo,” Tabitha said as she shot the Dean a “heart” sign. 

“I feel like I am a Soshi” (a member of Girls’ Generation), Yulia declared before yelling, “Looking-Glass fighting!” 

Naturally this got the crowd going again. 

Worried that this was going to go on all night, Kari, over-acting, pouted and muttered to Sarah, “We are never gonna get to do our encore.” 

Seeing a chance to make up for her image-crushing “booger-head” comment, Sarah seized the moment and stepped up to the plate, hollering, “Hey, everybody, how about a new song from our upcoming full album?!” 

The audience enthusiastically shouted back, “Yes!” 

“I couldn’t quite make that out,” Sarah replied. Putting a hand to her ear, she yelled, “What is it you want?!” 

The crowd recited back, “New song, new song, new song!” 

“Alrighty then, “Perspectives” it is!” she fired back. 

Even though they normally wouldn't perform a yet-to-be-released song, in this case they planned to, because they needed more material, should they do an encore. Tabitha shrugged and signaled the sound booth to roll audio. 

Skipping back to Kari, Sarah curtseyed and winked saying, “That is how a badass does it.” Taking her position, Sarah raised her arm, and then, at the first beat of the music, she lowered it and pointed to the ground, exclaiming, “Drop it!” 

Fortunately for Kari, the first verse of the song didn’t include her, as she was laughing pretty hard at this point. Unfortunately for Kari, who was still laughing, the second verse was all hers. Choking back her laughter, Kari managed to do her part, all the while chasing and swatting at Sarah, who fled to hide behind Tabitha. Incidentally, Tabitha artfully slid out of the way, leaving Sarah exposed to Kari’s assault. 

Their encore of three songs went very well, even though there was a lot of horseplay. The girls were, after all, both very excited and rather exhausted. After receiving their final ovation, which was a big one, the Crumpets left the stage.

The bus ride back to their dorm was much quieter than the night before, and once they were home, they all made a beeline to their rooms to get washed up and ready for bed. Reluctant to let go of the day, but too tired to rally on the first floor, the girls and their managers held a virtual dogpile video chat. Their first V-pile, as they came to be known, didn’t last long, as one by one, they began nodding off. Bess and Enid stayed to the last, taking pleasure in seeing their girls finally getting some proper sleep in their own beds. 

Of course those who left their cameras on — which was everyone except Analey — had to deal with the collection of embarrassing sleeping pictures that were later posted by Enid, who declared that they were just too cute not to share. If you haven’t seen the pictures, Tabitha looks like she is sucking her thumb (she claims she was resting her head on her hand, and it just looks like she’s sucking her thumb); Sarah’s hair is draped across her face, so it looks like she has a moustache; Tinsley is cuddled with Harey, and has one of his ears stuck in her nose; Yulia’s mouth is hanging wide open, and she is drooling (this picture was voted the most embarrassing several times in various polls); and finally, Kari is sleeping with her tongue sticking out. 

With their in-Glass debut under their belts, the girls were able to get rested-up and enjoy the remaining week of the fall quarter kickoff, with only a few small-ish parts to play. Since Eugene had been sent to a large event happening elsewhere, all of the second-night reviews turned out to be very good. Another bit of good news was that Dean Eobseo managed to convince Analey’s grandfather to remain in Zeitgeist permanently, which made Analey especially happy. 

In the end, despite the drama caused by Eugene’s awful review, the first step of the Gothy Crumpets’ debut went very well, and they were feeling pretty good (okay, frankly, they were walking on clouds). After a couple of intentionally quiet weeks, which were necessary for resting and getting started on the fall quarter, the girls would need to begin preparing for their other-side debut, planned for the big Halloween festival and show, held annually at the Zeitgeist Civic Auditorium. Leading up to it were quite a few interviews and guest appearances on shows that the girls would need to do. They were, as the saying goes, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Established October 2015   ​All Rights Reserved