A few of Lilly’s band friends joined us, and the discussion quickly turned to the new boy. Well, new for them.
“He lives on Mountain Creek Drive?” Michelle Patterson was asking Lilly as I tore my eyes away from the football player and cheerleader table. My gaze drifted over to my sister and her best friends, Libby, Erin, and Colleen. I didn’t see Luke anywhere. I didn’t know if he didn’t have this lunch period or if he was already skipping.
“Yeah, we hung out some this summer,” Lilly said, inclining her head towards me. “His family moved in a few weeks before school started.”
“He’s in choir, too,” I said, popping a chip in my mouth from the bag I was sharing with Lilly. “Next period, with me.”
There were some excited faces and some surprised.
“I didn’t know you sing!” said Amanda Gregory with a smile. “I’m in choir, too.”
I happily returned her smile. It would be nice to know someone other than Josh. Melissa and Katie hadn’t seemed too friendly at auditions.
“We’ll see if they don’t kick me out after the first day,” I said. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Well, it’s good you’re starting junior year; it’ll go on your college applications,” Amanda said, nodding her head. Her serious expression combined with her short, dark bob made her look very mature and wise.
Rather than wise, I felt sick. My stomach lurched as the talk turned to college.
My sister was pretty set. She had worked her butt off the past 3 years and the recruiters were starting to get back to her. I still had no idea what I wanted to study, let alone where. Most people went to Denver or Boulder, but I had toyed with the idea of going out of state. I wasn’t really sure where. I just liked the idea of being away. Far away.
Not that I didn’t love my family, or my friends. Okay, maybe a break from my family would be kind of nice. But I also wanted to be somewhere where I wasn’t Jenn’s little sister or Luke’s big brother. I couldn’t do that if I went to college with all the same people I’d seen throughout high school. Even Lilly.
“No college talk on the first day!” declared Michelle. I breathed a sigh of relief as we switched to discussing what everyone had done over the summer. Having nothing very interesting to report other than babysitting and meeting Josh, I let my gaze drift back over to him. He was laughing at something a perky blonde cheerleader was saying. I sighed and tried to focus on the conversation at the table. Silly or not, it looked like the promise Lilly and I had made to each other would be pretty easy to keep.
“Hello, everyone,” called Mr. Price as we all entered the choir room. I walked in with Amanda at my side, looking around to see if Josh was there yet. I had tried not to track his movements with my eyes as everyone left the cafeteria. “Please leave your signed paperwork on my desk and check your seating assignments.”
I groaned. My parents had forgotten to sign it. They’d probably already forgotten I was in choir. They hadn’t seemed all that excited when I’d told them about it a few days ago.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were auditioning for choir?” my mom had asked at dinner that night.
I tried not to pout. This wasn’t exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for. Would a “great job” be too much to ask for?
“How much will all the materials cost?” asked my dad, digging into his macaroni and cheese.
I shrugged in response to both of their questions.
“I didn’t want to tell you in case I didn’t get in,” I admitted. “It wasn’t a sure thing like Jenn being captain.”
She beamed from her chair across the table. She had been slightly less crabby to me since she found out and had started asking for rides from other people. Most days.
“Well, we’re very proud of you, sweetie,” said my dad with a smile in my direction. My heart lifted a little.
“We’re proud of all of our children,” said my mom with a significant look at Luke. He was picking at his food without any actually going into his mouth. They had gone to see the principal that day about allowing him to start ninth grade. His grades meant he should have stayed behind and repeated eighth, but I heard them telling our neighbor Mrs. Coronado that they’d promised they’d get him a tutor. I had been his tutor up until now, so I guess I hadn’t been doing as good a job as I thought.
“Aren’t there like, uniforms or something you have to wear?” asked Jenn, wrinkling her nose. Our school colors were pretty ugly.
I saw my dad restrain himself from having to ask the money question again. Considering what they spent on Jenn’s own uniform - not to mention shoes and all the away games and soccer camp - I was pretty sure they could handle a choir shirt or something.
“I have a list with all the events and requirements and everything,” I said. “I think I just need a black skirt, and we’ll do fundraising for the competitions.”
My parents didn’t bat an eye at the words “fundraising” and “competition,” but my own stomach felt a bit fluttery at the thought of having to actually compete. And sell things to people. Deep breaths, Leah. For now, all I had to do was go to the classes. Everything else would come later.
“This will be so fun having all three of you at the same school,” said my mom happily.
“It’ll make it easier for us if you could drive Jenn home from practice once you’re done with choir,” said my dad.
“It’s a class, not after school,” I reminded him.
“Oh, well, then you’ll have a chance to get started on your homework in the library,” he said. I sighed.
“I thought I could get a part-time job this year,” I said, bringing up something that I’d briefly mentioned at the beginning of summer. “Now that the Stevenson’s have left, I don’t have as much babysitting.”
“What about the family that moved in?” said my mom. “I went over the other day with cookies, and she had a little boy and girl like you said. They were practically hanging off of her.”
“I’m sure you could ask if they need someone. She said their son is in football and doesn’t have time.”
I shrugged. I regretted my dibs on the babysitting thing now, a little. Even if we were supposed to be just friends, I didn’t want him to see me as the person who would come over to watch his brother and sister so he could go out with someone else.
“I have all the paperwork you need to sign,” I said, changing the topic back to choir. I didn’t want to think about Josh any more than I already was.
“Are you sure you’ll have time for choir, and a job, and babysitting, and school?” my dad asked.
“I don’t know!” I was stressed enough about it already. “Can’t I at least try and see what happens?”
“Of course you can try,” said my mom. “There’s no need to raise your voice. Leave the papers by the computer. We’ll look at them after dinner.”
Of course they had never looked at them. And here I was, the only one in choir without them. This was starting out perfectly.
“Did your parents forget to sign, too?” said a voice behind me. I jumped and turned to see a laughing Josh. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to scare you.”
He was standing so close to me I could see every single one of his eyelashes.
“Yeah, they forgot,” I said slowly, taking in the full effect of his eyes. I looked down to give my poor, thumping heart a break, and noted happily he was wearing a pair of Vans sneakers I had at home. For the first day of school, however, I had opted for a much cuter pair of platform sandals. “They’re really busy.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure we can bring it in tomorrow,” he said with a smile as he made his way over to the side of the room where the guys were all sitting. They eyed him warily, as they had at the auditions, but he seemed oblivious and waved a friendly hello. I was envious of how at ease he seemed to be. I had known most of these people since kindergarten, and I was still terrified.
“Leah, you’re right behind me,” called Amanda, who had already found h
er seat.
I sat down, my stomach in knots. Melissa and Katie were in my row, and I had noticed their jealous looks as Josh had been talking to me.
I didn’t have much time to think about them or Josh, however, as the class got started. We did warm ups, similar to what Josh had done with me before the audition, and a few new ones. Then there was sight-reading, which was just as awful as I’d expected. While I didn’t seem to be the only one struggling, I was definitely the worst. Mr. Price did a little revision on the board of some notes and keys, which I kind of understood. A little. I wouldn’t have minded asking Amanda to help me, but I couldn’t talk to her from my seat behind her. A quick glance at Melissa confirmed she was not the helpful type.
Finally, we started singing songs that were familiar to everyone from the previous year. I was able to follow along pretty well though I thought the pieces were a little boring. The audition had been a contemporary song, but these were classical pieces with names in German. It was all very pretty, but I wasn’t sure if this was what I really wanted to sing.
I felt a little whoosh of relief when Mr. Price let us start packing up our things a few minutes before the bell rang. I was a little disappointed. But what had I expected? That it would be like Moulin Rouge, singing Elton John songs while we danced? If this was something I wanted to do, would I have to switch my language elective from Spanish to German?
“Leah,” Mr. Price called as I was heading out the door with Amanda. “Can you stay behind for a minute?”
What had I done? I didn’t think I had been that bad, but maybe I was wrong? I looked at Amanda and she shrugged as she walked away, leaving me to face Mr. Price on my own.
“I think you could use a little extra help,” he said gently as the last students made their way out of the room.
“What do you mean, extra help?” I asked, my voice cracking a little. Great, it’s only the first day and I’m already failing.
“It’s not a big deal, Leah,” Mr. Price reassured me. “It’s just to help you learn to read music and some of the other techniques that real singers use.”
“Oh,” That didn’t sound too bad. Everyone else had been doing this kind of stuff for at least a few years, so I knew I’d have to catch up somehow. “Okay, that sounds great.”
“I’m pretty sure you might have perfect pitch,” he went on, smiling like this was a good thing. I smiled in return. “That’s why you can imitate something so well once you hear it.”
I felt a little surge of pride race through me. I’d always been able to do that, but I didn’t know it had a special name.
“Brandon is going to music school next fall, so you can be his first private student,” he said while indicating a boy still in his chair. In my panic at Mr. Price’s announcement, I hadn’t noticed him sitting there. “He’ll get you up to speed in no time.”
“Hey,” he said with a friendly wave. He was tall, and thin, and kind of cute. His short, dark hair was bleached at the tips in a Justin Timberlake style.
I blushed despite myself. I would never admit my N’Sync adoration to anyone; not even Lilly. As far as anyone knew, my favorite band was Blink-182.
“You can practice in the choir room Tuesdays and Thursdays after school,” Mr. Price said. “I even set it up as extra credit, so you’ll be graded at the end of the semester.”
My eyes widened.
“So I could fail?”
Brandon laughed.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you fail,” he said with a smile that revealed a dimple in his right cheek. He was definitely cuter than I’d first realized. I probably would have noticed him during class if I hadn’t been so focused on Josh.
“It’s just matching what’s on the paper to what you’re already singing,” said Mr. Price with a cheery and hopeful voice.
His and Brandon’s smiles were kind, but I felt a heavy weight drop into my stomach. After a few deep breaths to calm myself, I finally managed a smile.
“So we’ll start tomorrow?” I said brightly. Brandon nodded eagerly.
“Great!” said Mr. Price. The next class started to file in, and I rushed out the door.
Just what I need. I sighed as I headed to my next class. Even more work. At least it would give me something to do while waiting for Jenn to be done with soccer practice.
Chapter Seven
Jenn was angry. My first after-school lesson with Brandon had gone on longer than expected, and she was waiting by the soccer field, alone. Everyone else had left at least fifteen minutes earlier. I asked her why she hadn’t gotten a ride with one of her friends.
“Because my sister was supposed to be driving me!” she yelled before stomping off to the car.
I guess her good mood about being made captain had been short-lived.
She sat there in the passenger seat, arms crossed and staring out the window, while I tried to ask her about her day and practice. Nothing. She didn’t even turn to look at me, remaining silent the entire ride home.
When we finally got home, our parents and Luke were already at the table.
“Why didn’t you call us to tell us you’d be late?” my mom said as we dumped our stuff at the kitchen door to dive right into dinner. “Your phones both went right to voicemail.”
“Mine ran out of battery,” I said sitting down across from Luke.
“Mine too,” said Jenn taking her place next to our dad. “But it’s Leah’s fault we’re late. What were you doing at school so late?”
“I have extra choir lessons,” I said. “I told you yesterday, Mom.”
“You did?” she looked up, and stopped chewing to concentrate. “I guess you did. I forgot.”
“You also forgot to sign my choir papers,” I said. “I need those for tomorrow.”
“There’s an awful lot of forgetting in this house lately,” grumbled my father. He glanced at Luke. Was he seriously in trouble after only two days of school?
“How did coach like your training suggestions?” my mom asked Jenn.
Of course she remembered that but not my choir lesson or the papers. I sighed and dug into my tacos, not needing to participate in the conversation now that it had shifted to soccer talk.
I couldn’t wait until Jenn was off at college. I hoped she went far away. I didn’t really think my parents would pay more attention to me, since Luke was still a hot mess, but at least I wouldn’t have to drive her everywhere. Luke was grounded so often that he didn’t go anywhere anyway. I would have my evenings and weekends free to do… what?
I actually didn’t mind soccer or watching her play. It just wasn’t my entire life the way it was for her. I didn’t care about anything the way she did about soccer. Or Lilly and the clarinet. Or Josh and… well, he seemed to be as split and undecided as me. Though at least he was really good at a bunch of different things and would have choices later.
“Leah!” my mom said, her voice an impatient screech. It hadn’t been the first time she’d called my name, apparently. “What did you decide about the AP classes?”
“I have three this quarter,” I said.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to manage it on top of choir?” she asked, her brows furrowed. “You should really be focusing on your grades this year. These are the transcripts colleges are going to be looking at.”
I held back an eye roll. Like she hadn’t already told me that eight hundred times this summer.
“Colleges like extracurricular activities, too,” I said, though not very loudly. Luke had spilled his drink all over the table, and she jumped up to clean it up. I caught him looking at me with a devilish grin. I smiled back, appreciative of the effort he’d made to distract them. Whatever trouble he was getting into, I hoped it wasn’t anything too serious.
A few weeks into the new school year and things had fallen into a routine. Josh and I said hello at our lockers in the morning, he sat with the other football players and a few cheerleaders at lunch, was friendly with Amanda and me (and everyone else) during choir, and Lilly
and I were in our usual homework ritual. Except on the days I had extra choir lessons.
I mastered the notes pretty quickly - it was just putting letters next to what I already knew how to sing - but there was a whole set of theory and postures and exercises he thought I should learn, too. We did a little in class, but Mr. Price was more focused on learning the songs. There was the winter concert to prepare along with all the competitions we’d have in the spring. I tried not to think too much about those and just focus on learning what I could.
After that first lesson with Brandon making me so late, I told him we really had to keep things punctual or my sister would throw another fit and I might have to stop.
He would get so excited when explaining something that he usually walked me out to the soccer field, still talking about a song or a technique that he thought I should know about.
Brandon was into music. Like, really into music. It was crazy how passionate he was about it. It made total sense that he was going to music school. He lived and breathed this stuff.
“Do you, like, dream in music notes?” I teased him one day as we were waiting for my sister.
Jenn was now the one running late, almost every single day, as if to make me pay for that first day of making her wait. I didn’t really mind since by positioning myself close to the edge of the football field I could check out Josh practicing. I had figured out that by facing Brandon, rather than standing next to him, I could talk to him and still see the practice going on behind him. I’m pretty sure he knew what I was doing, so I tried to ask him questions about himself to keep him talking. He didn’t seem to mind.
“I don’t even remember a time when music wasn’t in my life,” he was saying and launched into a story about the first time he’d sung in front of his family at just two years old. In a diaper.
“I guess I’ve always been singing, too, but no one ever made a big deal about it,” I said when he was done with his story. “So I didn’t really think I was that good. I just liked it.”
Leah's Song Page 5