Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

"How did you improve so much?"

Jackson asked him as Aiden finished drinking water to cool down his throat. He was in the booth for over two hours, singing nonstop, so his throat needed some rest.

"I just practised." Aiden smiled, but Jackson shook his head.

"You improved that much in just a few months. You weren't even able to hit high notes properly the last time I heard you live."

That was true.

The last time Jackson had heard him was the face off round in X-Star. His voice and ability has changed a lot since then.

"It was more like I was on the verge of breaking through something back in X-Star. It was as if a wall was stopping me in my tracks. After the show, I was able to go past it and I realised my singing has improved a lot. I don't know if I'm making sense."

"Not too much, but it's alright, we get it."

Aiden just shrugged. It was hard for him to make others understand how his system worked. Other singers would gradually improve over the years while he could just grind experience and level up.

Though it was unfair for others, Aiden was glad he had the system.

'Looks like Cameron is starting.'

He thought, walking a few steps to sit besides Emily who was working on the DAW (Digital audio workstation).

Aiden was pretty curious to see how Cameron would do on the parts he had given him. Thinking about it, he tried to look at his current skill level.

[Cameron Bryce] [22 years]

[Singing level: Intermediate Grade 2]

[Special skill: Limit break]

'He hadn't improved at all.'

Aiden thought, sighing. He was pretty sure that Cameron with his anime protagonist-like skill would surely gain at least one level over the months.

But he was still the same.

'Is it because it's very hard to gain levels in Intermediate Grade? Am I going to be stuck in it for decades?'

Aiden gulped, wondering about a scenario like that. Shaking his head, he tried to calm down and think about it later.

"Okay, get ready. I'm starting!"

Emily said, starting the recording and Cameron gave a thumbs up as music hit his ears. The verse Aiden had given him to sing was just after the first chorus.

Cameron took a deep breath before starting to sing. This part needed a lot of screaming and at the same time, certain parts in the lyrics were emphasized a lot.

???

"I have fought this war from the day I could walk."

"Doesn't matter even if I'm forsaken."

"The blood in my mouth just makes the pain sweeter."

"Push me down! I will get up! I'm still a believer!"

???

Cameron started off with a loud voice, full of high notes from the start. For a moment, even Aiden was surprised by him as currently, he can't stop a verse straight with a high note.

And would need some time to make it high. But Cameron was truly a lot better than him.

'He's really good. I hope he could keep this—'

As Aiden was thinking, he suddenly noticed something strange. The silver light coming off from Cameron suddenly turned white slowly, like it was losing its strength.

Cameron's notes were still high and he seemed to be lost in his singing, but something didn't feel right.

Slowly, the white light disappeared and only faint traces of it could be seen. It was then that even Emily noticed that the recording wasn't going as she expected.

"Wait! Cameron, stop!"

She quickly stopped Cameron who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What happened?"

"That part was totally off. Can we do it again?"

She asked and he nodded quickly, getting ready to sing again. But the same thing happened once again, like it was a replay.

Cameron started off well, with full confidence but his voice slowly lost any feeling. The notes, powerful voice, resonance and pronunciation was there but there were no emotions.

Even with him covering up the basics, the singing lacked a lot.

Aiden felt stranger and stranger as he listened to Cameron.

'What's going on?'

He wondered in his mind as Cameron, who was cut off several times by Emily, already came out of the booth with a hardened expression.

"Are you okay? Does your throat have any problem today?" Emily asked.

"No, it's not anything like that." He said, frowning. "Give me a while. Maybe it's because I'm singing after a long time."

After saying that, Cameron left the recording room to get some fresh air and the three people inside the room looked at each other with strange expressions.

"Do you all have any idea what's with him? His singing sounds strange."

Jackson said, getting a nod from both Emily and Aiden.

"Yeah, it's like a different version is singing. His voice was way more vibrant and alive back in X-Star. Aiden, do you know what's going on with him?" Emily asked, looking up at him.

"No, I don't." Aiden said, then stood up. "I will check up on him."

He thought before quickly leaving the recording studio. His mind was in a mess, wondering what had gone wrong with Cameron.

'Is he going through a breakup or something?'

He thought, walking towards the lounge area.

There were a lot of theories in his mind about him but all of them were just that, imaginary theories. He could only ask Cameron if he had any problem.

'Here is he.'

He discovered him in the lounge area but surprisingly, he was smoking.

"I didn't imagine you to be a smoker."

He said as he walked towards him. A puff of smoke came out of Cameron's mouth as he looked at Aiden, a bit shocked by his presence.

"I started some months ago." He said, looking like he didn't care a lot. "Why are you here?"

"To talk to you." Aiden said, then looked at the cigarette in his hand. "It's strange to see you smoking."

"Why?"

"Singers are advised not to smoke. You know that well."

Normally, smoking could easily damage the throat of a person. So, as singers' careers depend on their voices, they are advised to not even touch a cigarette.

"A lot of singers smoke."

"That's because of stress, they want relaxation so they get into smoking. After that, they struggle to come out and ruin their voices as they grow older."

There was not just one case in the industry like this. There were countless good singers who had got into a smoking addiction which has damaged their throats, eventually ending their career early.

As the grandson of a composer, Cameron obviously knew the implications of smoking.

"I don't really care about it, Aiden." He said, frowning. "Why are you here?"

"Like I said, I want to talk to you because your voice sounded strange back in the recording. But I guess, I already found the reason."

"What?"

"It seems like you are depressed. Probably lost confidence in your own voice."

Aiden was taking a wild guess but when he saw the look on Cameron's face, he was sure that he had hit the right spot. His strange behaviour was very easy to decipher for Aiden.

"I'm not depressed. You are just saying anything." Cameron raised his voice, anger clearly visible in his tone.

"It's easy to guess. When I told Wade to contact you, he found out that you were nowhere to be seen in the past few months, after X-Star ended. It was like you disappeared but you were always in LA. At first, I thought you were taking a break but your voice seems like you have not practiced in a long time. You can take a break but you won't stop practicing."

Aiden gave out his analysis and for a second, Cameron was stunned. It was mostly coming from an observant point of view.

After all, he had spent enough time with Cameron in X-Star. They weren't friends but they did talk once in a while.

A highly ambition driven person like him would never lose touch in his voice suddenly until he was too stressed or was in depression.

"So, what are you going to do about it?"

Cameron asked, throwing the cigarette on the ground in a fit of anger, then crushing it with his shoe.

"Nothing. I'm not a therapist. I am just here as the composer of the song. Tell me one thing, do you want the song to suffer because of you?"

When Aiden said that, Cameron just stared at him without saying anything. He continued with a smile.

"I got you on board with the project because I wanted your voice to be a part of the song. But it has already lost its touch, so the song will inevitably suffer, especially if you keep smoking." He sighed. "You are not the type to come here to be a part of the recording if you have entirely given up on your voice."

"I lost to… Rachel."

After a while, Cameron finally muttered with a frowning face. He clearly wasn't happy with sharing the one thing that had made him lose confidence in his voice.

"That makes the two of us. At least you lost in the finale." Aiden said with a laugh. "It's not a competition now. I just want to make a good song. You need to get over your defeat somehow."

Aiden said, then leaned on a wall.

"We have a lot of time to finish the recording, so think if you want to keep thinking of a loss that happened months ago or move on from it and try to make something that might make you proud.

"My dad once told me, it's not the failures in our life that define us, it's the moments when we decide that getting back up is all that matters.

...