Chapter
1:
We Understood We’d Never Be Alone
"Oh man,
Howie! You're gonna love what I came up
with for class today!"
I raised my head
to acknowledge my younger friend as he came in the room. I smiled, taking in his appearance. On his head he wore an electric green furry
hat, to cover up his newly dyed orange hair-I was guessing his mom didn't know
about that change yet. A huge necklace
hung from his neck and the cross was hard to miss. The tee shirt he wore proclaimed: I'M SEXY
and his jeans had so-called "fashion holes" ripped in each knee. Alex shifted impatiently and I finally
snapped out of it.
"What's your
plan?" I asked.
"I'm gonna be
takin' a test," he announced proudly, his dark eyes dancing. "But don't say anything!" he
urged. "I don't want anyone to take
my idea."
I raised my
eyebrows slightly. The whole idea seemed
tame for Alex. We were performing
pantomimes in the acting class he and I shared.
Usually, his ideas were much more unique. But I gave him an encouraging nod anyway.
We both turned
then, as Brian entered. Born and raised
in Kentucky, he still had a thick drawl since transferring here three months
ago. "Hey Brian!" I called loudly. Brian glanced over with interest. "Guess
what Alex's gonna--" Alex clamped a hand over my mouth before I got any
further, and I worked my jaw against his hand.
"D! I ain't afraid to bite you back! Now get your scrawny ass over to the chair
and sit down before I change my mind!" Alex warned with a slight shove.
I smirked. He thought he was so tough. I leveled a gaze at the kid three years my
junior, and tried to look intimidating.
But he was already distracted, talking animatedly to Brian.
I walked slowly
over to my desk and sat down, trying to convince myself that I wasn't
nervous. I knew I was one of the oldest
here, but ironically, that fact didn't give me a sense of security. Especially since all the young talent kept
coming in. Take Alex for example. He was only 15, but in a second-level acting
class. I was 18; Brian was 17.
The instructor
entered then, and class began shortly afterward. He started up the same way every time, asking
for volunteers and I shrank in my seat.
As usual, Alex's hand was the first to go up. Smiling slightly, our instructor nodded and
watched Alex take his place at the front of the class. It was no secret that Alex was the favorite.
I watched in
amazement as Alex sat calmly, waiting for his cue. I glanced across the aisle and saw Brian
chewing his nails in anticipation. I
felt kind of bad for him-he was one nervous fella. In a way, I wonder how he even made it to
Acting II.
I directed my
attention back to the front, where Alex was "taking his test." I grinned as he leaned forward in his chair
as if to cheat, when the phantom "teacher" walked by. The class cracked up watching Alex sit
perfectly straight, his eyes fixed ahead.
His brow knit together as Alex leaned over and pretended to fill out the
nonexistent sheet of paper before him.
It wasn't long before he was dissatisfied with his answer and erasing
furiously. I sure did love watching this
kid perform. He attempted to cheat
again, and even went so far as to feign sickness to get out of the test. I cringed at his ability to turn green on
command. Erasing again-he was too
much! Now Alex picked up his paper and
discovered that he had created a small hole, however, he dismissed it and
continued. It wasn't long, though,
before Alex realized that his paper resembled a piece of Swiss cheese. The class snickered as he made a great show
of sticking his finger, as well as his pencil through the imaginary holes. He turned the paper at various angles peeking
at us. The next time the teacher walked
by, Alex deliberately shredded what was left of his test paper and tossed it
forcefully in the recycling, before giving the teacher an animated and
apparently colorful description about what he thought of the test.
Alex walked back
to his seat proudly-he was strutting. I
sat back, prepared for a whole lot of other people doing a whole lot of the
same thing. That's what always happened. 'Cause Alex was real creative in what he did,
in comparison, the rest of the class kinda seemed boring. Sure enough, I sat through five or six very
blah pantomimes of my poor acting buddies all mute and stuck in boxes.
I groaned inside
as I saw Brian take center stage in his plaid shirt and worn blue jeans. His honey-colored hair fell across his
forehead and his blue eyes were bright with terror as he pressed his hands flat
in front of him. It was one of the
saddest performances I saw up to that point, to be honest, not because it was
bad, but because he was nervous and stuff like that. His hands were shaking the whole way through,
and that made the realism factor go down quite a lot. At least I knew for one thing that the look
of terror and desperation on his face was real, not because of claustrophobia,
but why get picky?
After sitting through
the rest of my classmates' attempts at miming (and making a crappy attempt
myself,) I was pretty disgusted. I don't
want it to seem like I'm arrogant or anything, but they made Brian's box
routine look pretty damn good. I
couldn't figure out if the standard was dropping or if Alex just made it look
that way.
“ . . .sing
'Hero'?" Alex was asking. He was staring at me as we walked to our next
class together. I figured I better pay
attention to him, or he might bust out with Mariah Carey any minute.
"What?"
I asked.
"I
SAID," Alex emphasized, looking impatient, "D'you think we're gonna
sing
'Hero'
today?"
"I don't
know; do I look like Mr. J?" I asked, referring to our choir director.
"Actually,"
Alex ventured, cocking his head to one side and looking serious.
"Y'all set
yourselves up so good." Brian advised, grinning and shaking his head.
"Don't start,
Rok." I shoved him good-naturedly
into the choir room.
I watched in
amazement as "Shy Bri" as I call him, came to life suddenly. He ran over to his cousin, who was my
age. Kevin was sitting at the piano,
playing some chord progression I didn't recognize. Kev's family's also from Kentucky, I
sometimes joke that those two do everything together, 'cause they moved here
around the same time, though Kevin came a few months ahead of Brian.
I backed off as I
noticed a blond blur barreling our way.
I couldn't help grinning when I realized who it was. Though three years younger than Brian, this
new kid now had the older slung over his shoulder and was spinning him
around. Nick was just a freshman, the
youngest kid in class-he just turned 14.
Maybe it was both of them being new that made he and Brian get along so
well.
"Hey
y'all," Nick greeted happily, Brian still slung over his back.
"Hey
kid," Kevin returned, rescuing his cousin, and setting him on the
ground. "You all right,
Bri?" Brian looked sort of sheepish
at the concern, but nodded.
I knew that we'd
have to get started soon, so I started moving toward my seat in the middle section
of the students. I was caught off-guard
when I felt someone grab me and spin me around.
"Howie
D! Howie doin' today?" Alex was
asking from behind me. He always thought
he was so funny. I rolled my eyes, and
tried to stretch out to make my feet touch the floor, but the spinning motion
was getting to be a bit much for me.
"Aw, Howie, you're just too damn small for your own
good!" I was trying to get my wits back
together when I heard the sound of a real distinct throat clearing. Oh crap.
“Alex, put Howie
down, and find your seat.” Mr. J had
arrived.
“Hey! Mornin’ J!”
Like usual, Alex was totally unfazed by being scolded. I watched as Alex threw an arm around Kevin’s
neck and Kevin did the same. Then the
two doofos made a big deal of tromping over to their section. I was actually surprised; Kevin usually
didn’t go for stuff like that.
We went through
warm-ups the normal pattern of solfege stuff we did every day. I had to divide my time between keeping up
with the tenor part in the round we were in, and glaring at Alex, who insisted
on singing every pitch on the same shrill note.
"Do it again
for Alex." Mr. J told us. He looked
pissed. That could be because the same
thing happened every day. Alex always did
that the first time through, so we always ended up wasting time where we
shouldn't. Kevin put a hand on his arm,
talking seriously to him, and Alex nodded, pouting.
Once we were done
with all our warm-ups, we began working through "Hero" much to Alex's
delight. He was still fighting hard for
the solo, even though Mr. J insisted that it was written as a female part. Anyone else would have let the decision
stand, but it just made Alex want the part more than he did to start with.
I watched as Mr. J
picked two girls to do the solo. He was
totally ignoring
Alex's raised hand
by now. Even when he started waving it
wildly and jumping up and down, it didn't make a difference. I almost felt bad for Alex. Almost.
As Mr. J worked
with the two girls for the solo part, I was distracted by little conversations
around me. When I heard stage
whispering, I turned and was somewhat shocked to see Brian and Nick holding a
side conversation all their own. I
reached over to smack them with my folder before Mr. J noticed and yelled at
them.
We'd been in class
almost an hour when Mr. J finally released us to go work on our ensemble
pieces. See, if we wanted, we could do a
small-group thing in front of class for extra points, and as it was nearing
Christmas and everything, Nick, Alex, Brian, Kev and I decided to do, like, an
a cappella version of "O Holy Night."
We all crammed in
a practice room, which, if you've never been in one, they're really small. It totally doesn't work to have, like, over
one person in them at a time. Now imagine
the five of us. It was not a good time.
Kevin took a seat
at the piano and eyed Alex, who was singing Mariah's verses to "Hero"
in a painfully high octave. Nick
giggled, which was not a good thing to do when Alex was on a role. It only reaffirmed his performing ability.
"IT'S A
LO-O-ONG ROAD!" Alex sang, "WHEN YOU FACE THE WORLD ALO-ONE! AND NO ONE REACHES OUT A HAND FOR YOU TO
HO-O-O-O-O-OLD!" He dramatically
dropped to one knee and reached his hand out pathetically for Nick, who swatted
it away, blushing furiously. "YOU
CAN F--” Alex was cut off when Kevin slammed a purposely sour chord on the
piano.
"Oh my
God," Nick muttered under his breath.
"It's a damn good thing he's not accompanying us," he said,
laughing.
Brian elbowed Nick
hard for his language, and looked to Kevin.
Kevin looked about ready to strangle all of us one by one, in various
ways, so I pulled Alex to his feet and flipped open my music to approximately
where we had left off.
I smiled as Brian
sang the first line softly to himself, "O holy night. The stars are brightly shining. This is the night of our dear Savior's
birth!"
"Y'know, Bri,
it's all right if you relax a bit," Kevin encouraged.
"AND it
starts!" Alex exclaimed in an announcer's voice, obviously annoyed. "Kev, why don't you just let Brian do it
how he feels it? Maybe he's not ready to
belt it out like you are!"
"It's fine,
Alex. He's just tryin' to help
out," Brian offered softly.
I shook my head at
Alex. We didn't need anymore of this in
rehearsals. What we needed was some real
time practicing the piece. It was more
difficult than I had assumed. Anything a
cappella with five-part harmony is gonna be difficult-even a Christmas carol.
Alex went through
his solo very well, but like anything, there was room for improvement. Kevin was quick to point out exactly which
areas those were.
"Hey,
Alex? Don't worry about stylistics right
now. You gotta know your notes
first. 'Cause it doesn't do any good to
make it sound cool if you don't know what you're singin'"
"I know what
I'm doing, Kev! Just because you're
older than m-me doesn't mean you can tell me how to sing my part! It's MY damn part, okay? If y-y-you had a solo, I guarantee none of us
would be on your ass about it, telling you how you breathed wrong in the fourth
measure!" I sighed as Alex threw
his music forcefully at Brian and stormed out of the practice room.
"He'll be
back," I assured the guys, who all still looked upset by Alex's
outburst. I don't really know why since
they happen every time we practice. He
just doesn't take correction, or any type of direction well. He'd rather screw it up and learn from his
mistakes on his own. Sure enough, five
minutes later, Alex came back and picked up his music like nothing had
happened.
"The thrill
of hope, the weary world rejoices!"
I cringed as Nicky's voice cracked.
"Sorry guys. Can we go
back?" He almost looked scared,
like he was afraid Kevin would give him a beat-down. Good thing Kev's patient.
"Sure,
kid. We'll start a couple beats before
you come in, all right?"
"Yeah."
Nick stood a
little straighter, reevaluating his posture, and put a hand on his stomach to
monitor his breathing. I smiled to myself as I watched his face scrunch up with
passion.
" . . .And
yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!"
Nick's hand went to his mouth to cover it, like he couldn't believe the
same type of sound came out again.
Sometimes, we forget how young he is.
We'd all gone through the voice-changing stuff.
"Guys, I'm
sorry. I don't know what's up with me
today." Nick looked down and out,
sort of like his recurring mistake is the worst thing that could happen in
rehearsals.
I reached up to
put an arm around him. "Hey, it's
cool. We all went through that before.
Nothin' you can do about it.
Okay?" Nick didn't look
convinced.
We'd been counting
on getting through the whole piece today, but Nick's solo was taking really
long to get through. His voice and him
just weren't on the same page, I guess.
Brian suggested he go get some water and he went. He looked totally bummed.
"Y-y-y'all,
it's taking way too long to get through this!" Alex whined. "He can't keep stopping every time he
messes up. Even if his voice cracks or
something-I mean, it happens to everybody.
You don't see any of the big names always going back to do the same
thing over and over!"
I was pretty
surprised when Brian spoke up. "Y'
know, though, Alex? That's why we're in
here now. This is the place where Nick
and the rest of us CAN make mistakes and it's all right, 'cause we can fix
'em. Mr. J's always tellin' us that we
should be makin' some errors in rehearsal, just so long as we're tryin'. You gotta keep in mind, too, that he's a lot
younger than the rest of us-even you, and he's probably gonna make more
mistakes, just based upon that. We gotta
be patient though, all right?"
"I
guess," Alex sulked. Brian grinned
at him and slapped him on the back as
Nick came back
in. He looked calmer now, that was good.
I was pretty
shocked that Alex seemed to suddenly have a longer fuse now than when we
started out. And he actually listened to
someone! That was amazing to me! But I guess Brian was gentle about it with
him, and didn't make him feel too defensive.
I think that's why Alex doesn't take to well with Kevin. For some reason, it's like, Alex's afraid
that Kevin's being disapproving when all he's trying to do is help out our
sound and our group dynamics. I was just
happy that the rest of practice went smoother than in the beginning. Thank you, Brian!
***