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Description
Gifted but heavily-indebted Australian music student Andrea d’Arezzo had been happy to stand in for her roommate Wu Xiaomei for exams and auditions in exchange for cash and living rent-free. She didn’t know where Xiaomei got the silicone masks, wigs and contact lenses that turned her into her room-mate’s perfect double, and she didn’t care. But that morning, as she left the music school, she found Xiaomei’s father waiting outside to pick her up. He took her to audition for some record company executives, telling her to play her best. Trapped as Xiaomei, Andi had no choice but to comply. The men turned out to be the producers for the top Chinese girl band, ‘Halo’, looking for a new keyboard player to replace a girl who’d become ‘difficult’. They offered Andi a contract, and Xiaomei’s dad insisted she sign on the spot! Andi had no trouble duplicating Xiaomei’s signature, having done it many times, but what was she going to do now? No way could the real Xiaomei play at the standard she’d just displayed! The record company would most likely sue, and her impersonation would be revealed. Then the school would expel Xiaomei and her for cheating.

As they returned to the school, she came clean. “Mr Wu,” she said nervously, “there is something I must tell you. I’m not-”

“I know who you are, Andrea, but that’s the last time you’ll hear that name from me,” Mr Wu cut her off, “my daughter confessed your disgraceful cheating when I told her of the audition last night.”

“What?! Then why did you make me go through with it?”

“Don’t you realise how much face I would have lost when they heard my daughter, of whose great talent I had assured them, playing like a beginner, not to mention being expelled from the music school for cheating? Intolerable! Instead, Xiaomei, you will resign from the school to begin your career with Halo, while Miss d’Arezzo will drop out because… of a family emergency, let us say. It’s better than being sent home in disgrace, no?”

Dropped off outside the school, Andi looked at her reflection in a shop window. This was going to be her face for the foreseeable future. She wondered if she would ever reclaim her true identity.

Part 2 - Dancing to the Tune.

Description
Gifted but heavily-indebted Australian music student Andrea d’Arezzo had been happy to stand in for her roommate Wu Xiaomei for exams and auditions in exchange for cash and living rent-free. She didn’t know where Xiaomei got the silicone masks, wigs and contact lenses that turned her into her room-mate’s perfect double, and she didn’t care. But that morning, as she left the music school, she found Xiaomei’s father waiting outside to pick her up. He took her to audition for some record company executives, telling her to play her best. Trapped as Xiaomei, Andi had no choice but to comply. The men turned out to be the producers for the top Chinese girl band, ‘Halo’, looking for a new keyboard player to replace a girl who’d become ‘difficult’. They offered Andi a contract, and Xiaomei’s dad insisted she sign on the spot! Andi had no trouble duplicating Xiaomei’s signature, having done it many times, but what was she going to do now? No way could the real Xiaomei play at the standard she’d just displayed! The record company would most likely sue, and her impersonation would be revealed. Then the school would expel Xiaomei and her for cheating.

As they returned to the school, she came clean. “Mr Wu,” she said nervously, “there is something I must tell you. I’m not-”

“I know who you are, Andrea, but that’s the last time you’ll hear that name from me,” Mr Wu cut her off, “my daughter confessed your disgraceful cheating when I told her of the audition last night.”

“What?! Then why did you make me go through with it?”

“Don’t you realise how much face I would have lost when they heard my daughter, of whose great talent I had assured them, playing like a beginner, not to mention being expelled from the music school for cheating? Intolerable! Instead, Xiaomei, you will resign from the school to begin your career with Halo, while Miss d’Arezzo will drop out because… of a family emergency, let us say. It’s better than being sent home in disgrace, no?”

Dropped off outside the school, Andi looked at her reflection in a shop window. This was going to be her face for the foreseeable future. She wondered if she would ever reclaim her true identity.

Part 2 - Dancing to the Tune.