Broadway for MarcoMina week
Title: Rehearsal Rooms, part 1
A/n: THIS TOOK SO FUCKING LONG BUT I AM SO FUCKING PROUD OF IT. I'VE BEEN EDITING FOR HOURS AND HERE IT IS.
BROADWAY
FOR MARCOMINA WEEK.
20 THOUSAND WORDS.
SPLIT INTO 3 PARTS FOR CONVENIENCE.
WITH THEATRE JOKES AND BROADWAY REFERENCES.
I hope you enjoy, leave a review if you would like because I would really like to know what you think.
Mina Carolina always thought that RAPA was the weirdest acronym for her current school. But the Rose Academy for Performing Arts still held up to it's reputation as one of the best fine arts education institutes in Rose, it's only competition being the St. Sina Music Conservatory. The january sky put a chill over the urban Trost streets as the pigtailed girl put some hustle in her step to get to her destination. Backpack rustling and constantly hitting against her body as she moved, most likely due to the sheet music she ended up stuffing into the leather confines.
She walked up the academy's steps and into the moderately busy halls, passing over the various other performers and musicians most likely doing the same thing she was intending to do on this very day, squeeze some extra rehearsal time into their daily lives.
On a weekend, one would expect that a girl Mina's age would be going out on the town, hanging with friends, or just generally doing what all the cool kids were doing these days. But a good skill Mina always possessed had been prioritizing, and in the moment, her priorities were focused on passionately practicing Newsies's catchy but difficult Watch What Happens until it was practically impossible for her to fail.
Mina's leather boots tapped against the wooden floor as she made her way directly towards rehearsal room 16. When one booked this specific room for this specific time several weeks in advance, one could not help but feel rather exciting upon climbing up the stairs in anticipation for belting it out inside the academy's largest rehearsal room.
A mandatory element of the utilization of the rooms however, was finding the small clipboard of names in that floor's hall in order to sign oneself in. Mina located the clipboard right by the staircase and reached for the pen tied to the wall with a length of aged twine. She located her time slot for her room and was prepared to sign her name in, but the second her hand hovered above rehearsal room 16's 11:45-1:15 time slot, she noticed that a name had already been written on.
M. P. Bodt.
Eyebrow scrunched in puzzlement, confusion took over Mina's mindset as she squinted her eyes at the paper, "Wait what?"
This was a mistake, it simply had to be. Mina had booked that room for herself weeks before today, how on earth could someone already be in it?
To answer her question, she looked down the hall and spoke to the first people she could recognize, "Hey, Mylius, Nac, is there anyone in room 16?"
The quieter of the young couple nodded his head while Nac was more straight forward with his reply, "Yeah, we actually ran into the guy a while back."
Mina appeared to be shocked, "What? No, that can't be! I booked that room last flippin' month, how did someone get in there?"
Mylius shook his head once more, "I'm not sure, Mina, but you can go talk to the guy. He seemed nice."
Nac chuckled somewhat loudly, "Yeah, he had a song book in his hands. Probably one of those music theory students, y'know, a prep and all that jazz."
A subtle groan escaped Mina's lips as she started stepping down the hallway, muttering something about how while nice people were nice, they were never entitled to rehearsal rooms one spent weeks in advance trying to book. The pigtailed girl bid Nac and Mylius farewell as she made her way towards room 16.
Room 16 was fairly large, as the reputation held. It was mainly windowless as well, with the major exception being a glass pane on the door that allowed one to see if the room was occupied or not. From her position down the hall, Mina could see the room's tenant inside sitting quaintly at the baby grand piano, papers askew everywhere in the room as he played notes and tried to write them down.
As Mina approached him, she started noticing the expression of concentration on his freckled face, an expression of passion that only performers showed when they were trying their absolute hardest. Mina was not a stranger to the feeling, as it was apparent in her several auditions to even get into this school. And she would even try sympathizing with this passionate player if he hadn't swiped away her rehearsal time from under her nose.
Therefore, she had no restraint in tapping on the room's door the second her little dancer's ass got right in front of it.
"Hey, HEY!"
A logical person knew that the room was soundproof, but anyone would be able to hear the loud tapping noise Mina's knuckles made on the glass.
The freckled boy turned his head at the door's window pane. Standing up from the bench, he prodded over to the door and opened it. "Yeah?"
Mina was very snappy and irked in her tone when speaking, which was no doubt a tone shift from the usual kind and gentle nature she took upon on a daily basis, "You took my rehearsal time!"
Freckles seemed to be playing dumb, "Excuse me?"
Grumbling, Mina pointed her hand back down the hallway, "There's this clipboard at the end of the hall with the names of the people who want to use these damn rooms and I had this place booked for the 11:45 slot! You took my spot, idiot!" The extended hand soon returned to the girl's side, fingers clenched into a fist to release moderate amounts of annoyance plaguing Mina's system. At least the yelling helped release it, even though her singer's lungs projected the noise throughout the entire hall.
Fingers rubbing the tip of his nose, freckles sucked in a somewhat nervous breath. At least her aggression managed to frighten him. Where was this feistiness during her last dramatic monologue? Anyway, she could see a small tremble of fear in his face."Oh, w-well, I'm sorry about that, b-b-but Dot Pixis owed me a favour after I gave him one of my cronuts, and I've always wanted to compose with a baby grand piano. Plus, my epiano at home needs a new pedal so..."
"So you steal the rehearsal time from someone who spent weeks booking it?" Mina accused, pointing a finger at him like an overly stern mother.
Considering his next words, freckles could have had a nickname change and start being referred to Captain Obvious, "Listen, I-I can tell that you're mad at me, but this was the only time Pixis could give me, and I took it."
"Yeah, I noticed, Captain Obvious," Mina scoffed, arms suddenly crossing. Her chest moved up and down with her breathing, rage slowly phasing out of her system as she tried to calm herself down. She was never used to being this pissed or mad, it was simply not in her nature. Luckily, she had learned to push her anger out of her system with the simple task of breathing deeply.
Calm and composed like the score to Once, Mina's tone was now less loud and aggressive, coming out more like someone trying to be a mature adult in this situation. "All right, you already have the room, so I should really stop bothering you." She managed to look him in the eyes this time, "You're a composer, aren't you?"
Freckles nodded and put on a modest smile, "Yep." He reached out a hand to her, "Marco Bodt, WIP songwriter and EP creator."
Mina found herself shaking his hand, "Mina Carolina, no official title, but broadway hopeful might work."
Marco nodded, raising an intrigued eyebrow at the announcement of her unofficial title, "Ahh, theatre major?"
"Musical theatre actually," she corrected, disconnecting her hand from his. "I was going to use this room to practice for my next critique, but I believe we already clarified that I now cannot."
His expression softened sympathetically, "Y'know, think I can snag you some time to rehearse if I can get talking to Pixis again. Just hand that dude the food you're eating and he'll grant you anything."
Mina shook her head, putting her hand up to halt him, "No thanks, I can just book a smaller room 2 weeks from now. It'll be okay, Bodt."
"Marco. Just call me Marco," he insisted, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Rummaging inside, he pulled out a small off-white square of paper, "This is my number, call me at 8 tonight and I can guarantee you a good time slot in any rehearsal space you want."
Mina took the card gingerly, reading over the black boxy text to take in the information.
Marco P. Bodt: Musician/Producer/Freckled Jesus
"Freckled Jesus?" Mina raised an eyebrow at the card, proceeding to looking up at him in question.
"My friends want it to be my stage name," Marco explained, scratching the back of his neck somewhat nervously. "We're trying to get a band started, but I'm sure we're gonna need songs first before we start choosing names."
Mina understood, tucking the card in her shirt pocket, "That why you're in here?"
He nodded in confirmation, "Precisely."
"Hm, well, good luck on your project then," Mina acknowledged, adjusting the strap on her shoulder bag in preparation to leave again. "I guess I'll be going then."
"See ya," Marco bid farewell, bowing a little too formally as he did so that seemed a bit satirical in all honesty. "And don't worry, I can get you some good workspace. How do you feel about Theatre 104?"
That particular theatre happened to be a quaint blackbox theatre painted pitch black with the 112 seats all raised up to look down at the sufficient bit of stage. Mina had been in it once to see Hitch and Marlowe last year in the scottish play, sitting a top one of the highest seats. It was tiny compared to theatre 850, but Mina found it rather cozy and enjoyed the fact that it made some performances seem more small, close, and intimate.
Still, however, she could only raise an eyebrow at Marco's bold statement, "A whole theatre for one person? You're really that confident?"
"Are you?" Marco retaliated easily.
Of course, Mina was confident. Heck, confidence could've been her middle name if it weren't for that whole actual legal name thing going on. Getting back on subject, Mina's nod in reply was doused in self-assurance. "Musical theatre majors usually need confidence to work."
"Then don't worry about it," Marco assured, patting her shoulder in a friendly nature that only seemed natural for him. "I get you Theatre 104 by next weekend and this entire feud will be settled, deal?"
Affirmatively, Mina found herself agreeing, "All right, deal."
"And by the way, I apologize for taking your time here. I didn't know."
"It's fine," Mina muttered with a monotoned voice that could pass for stoicism and annoyance.
Marco was getting the sense that his apology was not enough for her, "I really am sorry."
"You said that already," she affirmed, finding it odd that he was repeating himself. Maybe she intimidated him a bit too much with her initial displeasure at their dilemma. Mina did occasionally try to intimidate her peers, but that always with her degree of skill, never her mannerisms. Due to this, she was prompted to be a little bit of a bigger person in the situation. "But listen, I know I kind of came off as a bit of a hussy, but don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything."
"Oh, that's assuring." Judging from how tall Marco was compared to her, he got the impression that fighting this girl would be like fighting a hamster. An admittedly rather cute hamster, who happened to have a really loud voice.
"And hey, if you're seriously up for getting me that theatre, then I guess we could be friends in the future," Mina threw out there. The ability to make enemies was not something she would want in her resume.
The prospect of friendship seemed quite pleasant to Marco, "I'd like that."
"Good, good," Mina agreed, nodding her head. Suddenly, embarrassment surged through her veins as she finally took notice to exactly what she was doing. "And right, friends don't rudely intrude on other friend's rehearsal times. My bad." And with everything said, Mina waved Marco goodbye and closed the rehearsal room door before she could come off as a bigger dork than she already did.
Prodding down the hallway, Marco was dead set on returning back to the apartment he shared with a certain skinhead percussionist and ex-hunter turned guitarist. Considering how his composing session went, all Marco truly desired in this moment was to maybe grab a bite to eat, subway home, and lie in his bed until the sound of D major chord finally stopped ringing in his ears. It didn't take a genius to know that Marco was going nowhere in his quest to write enough songs for a decent EP.
Perhaps it was his struggle to compose vocal harmonies, or the fact that his vocals needed some brushing up on their own, or the quality of his lyrics. Either way, Marco felt like he was running into a solid brick wall, and he feared the laughter he would face from his friends considering how much hope and boasting he showed after announcing his quest. All that confidence shot out and wasted, like the money he was investing into this school to get his musical theory degree.
Speaking of wasted, that was what he currently felt like getting tonight. Perhaps Connie could call Sasha up and they could go to that place a few blocks away from the apartment.
However, fate decided to deter those non-productive plans when a slew of papers escaped from his messenger bag. Turning his head back, he saw his sheet music falling slowly in the air before scattering on the floor. Sighing, Marco knelt down on his knees and reached for the papers, dragging them back into a messy pile before trying to straighten the collection of mediocre compositions.
Grumbling, Marco accepted the fact that he was going to need to re-organize these and invest in some staples at one point as he stood up and kept walking down the hall. His usual routine involved cutting through the part of RAPA's campus that housed the theatres as a convenient shortcut, and a new addition to this routine today would be him fumbling with his papers as if he were a middle aged college professor.
Marco trudged along in his quest, pushing the door to the theatre district open with his foot as his hands grasped onto the sheets in his hands. He got the hang of it easily and managed to get everything into place. Once he was sure that everything was organized enough, Marco began stuffing the sheet music back into the leather confines of his bag as he passed one theatre's open door.
But as he did, Marco's sensitive ears picked up a certain voice coming from the room. Perking up, it took some time for Marco to recognize the female tone since it did not seem to be mad at him at all.
Am I insane? This is what I've been waiting for.
Well that, plus the screaming of ten angry editors.
A girl? It's a girl! How the hell? Is that even legal? Look, just go and get her!
Marco's eyes looked to the side of the theatre's open door to read the number before reaching into his pocket to check the time. Information confirmed, he proceeded to slowly walk in, letting the singer's voice intensify with every step. The sound filled the theatre perfectly, coating each and every inch of the room with the pleasant alto.
Two options were at Marco's disposal, he could either walk down the theatre steps among the empty seats or remain safely in the doorway, where he could manage to see the performer on the stage quite easily.
Not only that, there's a story behind the story: Thousands of children, exploited, invisible.
Speak up, take a stand, and there's someone to write about it. That's how things get better.
Smiling, Marco just had to give himself props for knowing that it was definitely Mina practicing here. Who else would be using this room at specifically this time on this day?
And to her credit, she was using it well, as confidence that simply flowed from her presence mixed together well with the song at hand. Her vocals were just the right mix of preppy and perky for the main verses, and they transitioned well into a smooth head voice for the main chorus.
Give life's little guys some ink, and when it dries just watch what happens. Those kids will live and breathe right on the page and once they're centre stage, you watch what happens.
And who's there with her camera and her pen as boys turn into men, they'll storm the gates and then just watch what happens when they do!
What followed next was a very high pitched and excited screech, energy stemming from both Mina's energy and the positive aura of the song. Her perkiness was undeniably adorable, in Marco's eyes at least. Also in his eyes, or in this case, ears, the original high-pitched chirp completely caught him off guard. On reflex, Marco threw his hands up onto his ears as her high but simultaneously sweet tone filled up the theatre.
Mina retained her perkiness, even after the squeal was over. However, the a few seconds passed before her expression hardened into a look backed up with thought before she moved her hand up to place it on her throat, feeling for something worth feeling for.
Was something up?
Her mind seemed to be thinking about what ever was up as she quickly prodded over to the lone stereo on the corner of the stage before kneeling down the pressing the 'off' button. Mina took a seat beside the system, one hand reaching over to the part of the floor where she had placed all of her stuff to grab her water bottle. She only then noticed Marco when she took a well-deserved gulp of water from the container, thus looking up and seeing him learning in the theatre's doorway.
The second her eyes gazed upon him, Mina almost choked on her water. But after coughing and getting the liquid through her throat, she finally managed to speak, "Hey, freckles, I thought friends don't barge in on other friend's rehearsal times. Are we gonna have to get used to running into each other like this?"
A small wave of panic did flow through Marco's system the second she looked at him. But it flowed quickly enough for him to get over the first-hand embarrassment and reply like a normal person. "N-no! I swear, I wasn't!" His expression showed his nervousness as he rubbed the tip of his nose with his finger, "I-I uh... just heard you outside, and I just wanted to see what was making such a good sound. You know, you sound really nice when you're not yelling at me." Marco felt like it was best to start walking down towards the stage, arriving at the stairs, and eventually stepping down with each sound of contact from his feet to the stairs ringing through the theatre with a distinctive 'tap!' noise.
Mina raised an eyebrow with a confidence-ridden semi-smirk on her lips, "Really? So you didn't come in here to watch a sweaty girl in a tank top and tights singing her head off?"
"For the record, no," Marco justified, nerves just a little bit more calm which allowed him to speak normally. "But if you ask me, I think you'd probably sweat less if it wasn't so hot in here."
Mina shook her head, putting her water bottle down as she grazed the back of her hand against her forehead for a brief moment. "My dance teacher told me that performing in cold areas will make you pull a muscle more easily, and I can't afford that right now. Plus, my teacher kind of scared the entire class into not disobeying him, so yeah, he basically refers to us as his bitches now." She reached down to her stuff once more, where her unzipped duffle bag resided. Reaching in, she pulled out a rather comfy looking hoodie and pulled it over her head to be encased in the warmth. In her life, the Carolina had a rather high tolerance for heat, and she even learned to ignore the raised eyebrows she got when she walked into the summer heat with her favourite sweater on.
"Makes sense. My buddy Jean's on a scholarship to the Stohess Dance Academy and he says his teachers are from anything deeper than hell." Marco agreed, going back to her first question. "But who's your dance teach? Dietrich? Rheinberger?"
For the second time, she shook her head, "Shadis. He's an instructor from the deepest parts of hell, my buddy Thomas was a TA for him a while back and now he has mental scars." Mina then got on her two feet, leaning down towards her discarded stuff on the floor to retrieve her phone. After checking the time, she made a brief face and started gathering her stuff. "Hey, you heading out now?"
Marco shrugged his shoulders, aware that his plans for the evening were not officially written in stone, "Meh, I got some time to spare."
"Good," Mina replied as she stood up straight, taking the stereo in her grip and shoving it right into his arms. "Mind putting this back stage for me?"
He did stumble under the weight, but seeing as his new female accomplice appeared to be tired from practicing, Marco made the choice to be the bigger person in more ways than their height difference, "Augh! Uh... okay." At least the stereo wasn't as heavy as one could expect.
Mina gave him a thankful smile, "You're a real saint, freckles."
Shuffling towards the back of the area, Marco had the need to refresh her memory, "My name's Marco, remember? Marco Bodt? There was a reason the initials M. P. Bodt were on the practice room sheet."
The zipping noise made when she shut her backpack shut was rather loud in the theatre, "Of course, you gave me your card." Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she watched Marco get backstage and place the stereo in a safe spot, "By the way, what's this whole Freckled Jesus thing going on? Is that your street name? Childhood moniker? Or just a very weird stage name?"
Turning around from his finished task, Marco smirked as if he had answered this question a thousand times before and was way too used to clarifying, "It's my attempt to make a stage name." Stepping out from the backstage area, he confirmed a few things, "Me and a few buddies of mine are trying to start a band, and they said that if I could become the official song writer, we could name it Freckled Jesus and the Springles!"
Mina raised a curious eyebrow, "What's a springle?"
"It's a long story," Marco sighed, not wanting to bore her with the details of Connie and Sasha's relationship. "But name aside, all I got to do is write 5 songs, we put together an EP, and our band's up and running."
"An EP?" Mina asked, intrigued by this small but potentially proud project. "You write original stuff?"
"Write, yes. Compose, somehow," Marco answered. The piano had been his forte ever since his parents brought him to his first lesson at the age of 6. But after years of playing concertos and waltzes, Marco's brain was not shaped into the best composing mindset. "I can write down instrumental melodies fine, but it's vocals I have trouble on."
Mina perked up at the word vocals, seeing as it was one of her fortes. Show choir and musical theatre all through high school trained her soprano and toned her diaphragm into perfect belting condition, and it was no doubt the one true thing that managed her a spot in the school. "Didn't know you were the singing type." As she spoke, she began making her way out of the theatre. Luckily, the place would be used again in the hands of other students, therefore, she wasn't given the daunting task of locking up the place for the night.
Marco grinned modestly at her assumption as he followed the pigtailed girl up the stairs among the seats, "Kind of, just a little bit. I'm probably nothing compared to you, really. But I do karaoke really well."
"Hmm... you a tenor or a baritone?" Mina scratched her chin, recalling the sound of his voice. He had never raised it high enough in her small history with him, but Mina did always have a good sense of how high someone's vocal range could potentially be if she were to speak with them long enough. "You could be both..."
Marco himself never put too much thought into the quality of his voice. Besides, Sasha was going to be the lead singer in Freckled Jesus and The Springles, he would simply sing back up for the songs he wrote on the comfy piano bench. "Never thought about it much, really."
"Well, if you ever need help with anything singing related, I'd be happy to be of assistance," Mina offered, though, she wasn't too entirely serious, considering that at a school for the performing arts, there would be much better vocal teachers than her. Besides, the only experience she had with teacher was helping Mylius hone his angelic tenor to earn top marks on their own version of Les Miserables's A Heart Full Of Love during freshman year.
But unlike Mina, Marco interoperated her little offer made jokingly as if she was in fact being serious. "Really!? You'd do that?"
The first words that went through her mind were Holy shit, I was just making some conversation. Thankfully, the first words that went through her mouth were, "Uh... yeah, yeah!" Mina cleared her throat, trying her best to regain her confident image she projected to many that she did not like to break, "I think I can at least." All she could really offer was a few vocal runs that would get his voice into somewhat good singing shape, nothing like what Mr. Smith pushed her with.
As they approached the door, Marco's smile grew wider, "Dude, that'd be amazing! I mean, I don't think I can pay you a lot, and I'm sure I'll shatter glass with my voice, but I'm sure it'll do wonders for my band."
She shrugged him off at the prospect of payment for her potential services, "Oh, don't worry about that, I can work free of charge." Suddenly, her expression turned sheepish as they entered the halls of the academy, "But um... y'know, a girl's still gotta eat though..." Perhaps it was the emptiness in her stomach talking, or the fact that Ymir had snagged the last granola bar in her bag during their last stage-fighting class.
At least Marco didn't laugh too loudly and appeared to assume a rather minimum level of all the dork in Mina's being, "Heh, I see. That I can do."
Nodding, the little joking offer Mina made soon formed into a full-fledged plan right before her eyes, "All righty then. Is there a specific place you wanna meet? I got a keyboard back at my apartment, or we could just book some more rehearsal rooms later on." She would truly be okay with both, even though she wasn't too sure how Annie and Hitch would react to not one, but two voices practicing vocal riffs in the tiny confines.
"I can book a rehearsal room next week," Marco offered, thinking back to how easy Mr. Pixis could be manipulated into granting students anything. "Maybe not the big one, but they're all soundproof. It'll be fine."
"That's great," Mina accepted as their little pace through the hallway ended and the two were faced with the building's entrance door. With the kick of her shoe, Mina pushed the door open and stepped out somewhat joyfully. However, a small pang of nervous tension did sear through her system regarding what words she would say next, "Erm, uh... do you have my phone number?"
On response, Marco reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his device. Fingers touching the screen, briefly, he soon shook his head before handing it to her, "Don't think so. Mind adding it?"
Mina took the phone in her hands with a nod, "Of course. Hold on." Briefly, she moved her fingers tips over the screen and placed her number into the device. "I think I still have your card. Or you could just call me."
"Definitely," Marco acknowledged as he took his phone back before checking the times. He made a wincing noise at the revelation of the true hour as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, "Listen, I gotta jet right now. I can book a room soon, so I'll hit you up in a few days and we'll see what works, deal?"
Nodding, Mina gave him a thumbs up, "Do what you have to, Freckles. I'm free most monday and friday afternoons, FYI."
"All right, cool, cool," Marco agreed, trying his best to remember this information for later. "Anyway, I got a subway to catch. See you later, Mina."
"Arrivederci, Freckles," Mina bid adieu to her new friend, and possible employer as he waved her off and dashed to the in-ground staircase leading to the underground subway placed on the street corner.
"See ya, Mina," Marco said as he ran off, his name rolling off his tongue oddly. But while odd, it did feel interesting to say her name. A good interesting. Smiling to himself, he was just about to duck into the subway, but before he could, he turned on his heel right in front of the stairs to look back at her. "And by the way, it's Marco! Not freckles!"
"Right, right." Rolling her eyes, Mina had a sense that she was probably going to keep calling him that. Besides, he was no Annie, and she was sure that this seemingly harmless guy wouldn't hurt her if she referred to him as Big Beak, whether it be accidental or not.
Hitch's catty laughter rang through the cafe as the two females found their way into a comfortable table for two, "Dang, Carolina, I didn't know you'd stoop low enough to hang with a nerdy theory student."
The corner of Mina's mouth perked into a smirk as she wagged a finger at her friend, "Hey, don't listen to every rumour you hear in the hallways. Music theory students are actually more than just nerds, and they can get you good rehearsal space if you make them feel guilty enough." Setting her coat down on a chair, Mina soon plopped herself down comfortably, "But then again, you're the one who believed that drinking coconut water and hot sauce would help you lose the freshman 15..."
Hitch looked offended, "Don't make me put a slug between your shoulder blades! And for the record, that was backed up by science, and it was simply my allergies that made it not work on me." It was a very terrifying way for shakespeare major to discover that she was allergic to coconut when it was mixed with a condiment hotter than hell. "And hey, isn't the main topic here the fact that you're practically gonna go on dates with this guy?"
Mina raised an eyebrow, "Wait, what do you mean by dates? I just offered to help him with basic vocal training one-on-one. If that would be considered a date, then I probably went on plenty with my high school choir teacher." It was only seconds later that the Carolina realized how odd that sentence sounded.
"Pffft!" Hitch puffed, grasping her mug full of some sort of espresso drink with one hand and pointing a mocking finger at her friend with the other. The catty girl could have earned a degree in assuming too much and making everything awkward. "Come on, Carolina. You are aware that those smaller rehearsal rooms are windowless and soundproof, right? And they are smaller, y'know." She hid her smirk by simply taking a long pull of her drink.
The mere idea of what Hitch was implying was enough to make Mina blush redder than the blood of angry men, "... Hitch, why do you have to ruin everything?"
"I'm just sayin', Carolina, we all know the cliche here. You tend to bond with people you spend hours performing with simply because you get trapped into small spaces with them for hours at a time. It's not a law or anything, but that's just the way it is. And when you're trapped in a rehearsal room with someone you just met, it's kind of like a date. You get to know them, they get to know you, and it can either be fun or agonizingly painful," Hitch explained honestly, leaning back in her chair to relax. "I wouldn't be surprised if something happened between you and this guy. It's not like he's way older than you, and I doubt that male theory students are like male musical theatre students when it comes to what team they play for, if you know what I mean." The suggestive eyebrow waggling she did seemed so unnecessary.
Mina rolled her eyes and facepalmed herself, "Hitch, not every guy majoring in musical theatre is gay."
"Right, right," Hitch appeared to agree. "Just Mylius, Nac, and isn't Thomas 85%-15% favouring his preference to dudes?"
"That doesn't matter, Hitch! Besides, I can't afford to fall for someone right now," Mina clarified, trying to make herself clear as she leaned over the table. "I mean, it'd be sweet and all, but I got my critiques and classes to worry about, and I'm still trying to find an agent to help me find auditions and gigs. And I swear that my broadway debut is getting closer and closer. I just need it to get into grabbing distance and I'll accept it with open arms."
Hitch rolled her eyes, laughing into the lip of her mug, "All right, all right, say what you will. But I'm just saying, Carolina, everyone bonds during the rehearsal process. Especially you." A pause suddenly followed after Hitch's last words. Hesitating, the short-haired girl took the time to change her tone, lowering her voice, "We just don't want you to get hurt again, okay? After that whole Mylius thing that happened freshmen year, me and Annie kind of understood when you hesitated to sing that duet with him. Then again, we were surprised that you ended up not hating Nac's guts. Or anyone's guts."
The agitated grumble Mina expressed indicated how touchy this subject was, "That was almost 2 years ago, Hitch, I've let it go and me and Mylius are good friends. Nac treats him well, and I guess he needed to find out who he was." She regained her composure rather quickly, forcing herself into a calmer state, "This relationship is going to remain professional, I vow. I'm not gonna be falling for anyone any time soon."
Hitch shrugged her shoulders, "Your choice, Carolina, not mine." She took a sip of her drink before speaking next.
"And at least you can cross 'get used like a tissue as someone's beard' off your bucket list," Hitch admitted, a mix of honesty and light-hearted humour intertwined in her tone.
"And you can cross 'have biscotti forcefully pushed into mouth' off yours in about 5 seconds."
Admittedly, Mina was nervous upon walking into the rehearsal room with Marco by her side, all thanks to Hitch, who practically had a degree in making things awkward for everybody. Truth be told, she didn't know much about this dude, and perhaps she only offered some half-assed vocal lessons because she had previously finished practicing the first half of Watch What Happens for the 17th time in a row and was tired as hell. At least she wouldn't be falling for him any time soon.
All she could really tell about this practically harmless guy was that he was a possible baritenor in the making, was a musical theory student, and had his sights set on using the skills learned from his classes to help write songs for his band.
"Be honest, where did the band name Freckled Jesus and The Springles come from?" Mina asked as she followed him into the room and shut the door behind him. Shrugging off her coat, the corner seemed like a good place to stash all her shit for the next hour and a half.
Setting his bag and jacket in the same corner, Marco perked up at the mention of his unofficial moniker, "Oh, it's a bit of a fable. Long story short, according to my buddy Sasha, I'm kinder than jesus or something like that, and that eventually turned into the name Freckled Jesus, even after we graduated high school. And my buddy's name is Connie Springer, and I suppose that's a bit self-explanatory." Boring Mina with more exposition depicting Sasha's unofficial title as Potato Girls back in their days of secondary school was the last thing Marco wanted to do at the moment.
Nodding, Mina seemed to buy it, "Oh, okay then..." Scooting over to the piano, she sat her ass down on the upright's bench and pushed the cover back. "So tell me, do you really have no past singing experience?"
"My shower really likes the sound of my voice, but that's it," Marco replied, joking, but at the same time, being completely honest with his lack of experience.
She cracked her knuckles with a nod, "Okay then. Lets see what I can do with you." Pressing down on one key right in the middle of the piano, she played a short 5 note riff going down in terms of key, whilst singing the same riff with her vocals in a distinctive 'ah' sound. "Can you repeat after me?"
Once he gave her a nod, Mina played and sung notes one more, Marco being able to follow one octave lower than her, but it was still better than nothing.
Judging from Mina's surprised and intrigued expression on her face, Marco realized that his voice might be better than he expected. Or worse, and Mina was just trying to be nice for the sake of his self-esteem.
"That's pretty good," Mina observed, now playing the exact same riff, but one key below. "I'm gonna keep moving down, okay? Try to follow along. Sing using your chest instead of your throat, got it?"
"Got it," Marco comprehended, giving her a thumbs up as he psyched himself into a determined singing mood.
Mina continued to play the riffs and Marco did all in his power to keep up with his voice. She went down 8 half-steps, including the one before, and Marco followed with all of them, his throat suddenly feeling dry by the 4th and his lungs suddenly starting to hurt right as she got to the 6th.
Thankfully, Mina took her hands away from the keys, which was a good signal for Marco to finally take a long well-deserved breather for a rare free moment.
Raising an eyebrow at his wheezing, Mina smirked, "Holy crap, are you tired already?" Trying to be nice, she scooted off the bench to approach her pile of stuff. What she handed to him ended up being her water bottle. "Drink it, there's a hint of lemon inside."
"Thank you..." Marco wheezed, grabbing the container and taking a quick pull from it, nothing more than what he absolutely needed at the moment. "Damn, how do you singers do that?"
"Years of training," Mina replied in a somewhat cocky fashion, pride in her abilities showing somewhat obviously. "And having really strong lungs usually help. But you're still singing in head voice..." Approaching him, Mina brought herself in rather close proximity with the freckled musician and ended up pressing her hand flat on his stomach. "You can hit really high notes and belt with chest voice. Try using your diaphragm when your breathe."
Brown eyes widening, Marco flinched just slightly and her sudden touch, "I um... uh, what?" With someone currently making physical contact with his abdominals, Marco had the sudden urge to flex his abdominals.
The undeniably dorkish words of confusion coming out of Marco's mouth was enough for Mina to feel his diaphragm barely moving. "See? You should be able feel your stomach rising and falling as you sing." Her hand manoeuvred up to Marco's torso, just grazing his pectorals. "Head voice could work for now, but if you wanna belt, use you're gonna need chest." It only took Mina a few seconds to realize just what she was touching, and when she did, her eyes widened greatly. "Oh, uh... didn't mean to touch you like that." She took her hand away and forced herself to ignore her internal screaming and keep up a nonchalant facade, "My apologies."
"It's fine," Marco assured, hiding a blush as he turned back to the piano. "So, should I sing a song for you, or what?"
Mina crooked her head at him, "Sing a song? We're not done warming up yet."
His jaw dropped in utter shock, "Wait, what!?"
"That was just one warm up, most singers do more to get their voices into shape. I do about 3 before rehearsals and 5 before important performances as a bit of a standard," Mina explained, walking back and sitting back down on the piano bench. She played a new riff, that was quite simple, but still involved a certain amount of vocal effort. "Ready to try singing up the scale?"
Sighing deeply, Marco took another swig of lemon water before nodding his head, "All right, come at me, bro."
-OOO-
Packing up around the last few minutes of rehearsal seemed quite wise in both Mina and Marco's opinion. By now, a cold windy feeling stung inside Marco's throat, which prompted him to unfortunately empty Mina's supply of lemon water.
"Sorry for drinking all this," he apologized honestly as he handed her the empty container.
Mina shrugged it off, slipping her bottle back into her backpack, "It's fine, everyone forgets their water bottle at one point. Just remember to keep one with you if you can. Or, you could try filling up a flask or travel mug with herbal tea. No sugar, decaf, and a little bit of honey to make it taste better."
Most of that flew right over Marco's head, "Uh... okay. I think I can remember that."
"Hey, don't sweat yourself," Mina assured, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly. "It was your first vocal lesson, there's plenty of room for improvement."
"Yeah, I guess," Marco admitted, hand rubbing his nose's tip somewhat nervously. "But be honest with me, am I as bad of a singer than I thought?"
Slinging her bag's straps over her shoulders, Mina let her mind think for a brief moment, "Hm... well, we at least confirmed that you're a baritenor, and that you're gonna need plenty more practice when it comes to belting, but if that whole 'youtube pop singer' voice is what your band is looking for, then you definitely got it."
Acknowledging her constructive criticism as he opened the room's door, Marco nodded, "I think I can work with that. Thanks for the feedback."
"No problem," Mina replied with a polite bow of her head as she followed him out of the rehearsal room. "Besides, with a little bit of work, you'll be right and ready for the stage in no time soon, I can guarantee you."
"We'll have to cross our fingers and see," Marco put out there, half his tone being hopeful with the remaining possibly pessimistic. "But in the mean time, this singing lesson stuff is pretty darn fun. You're lucky that you get to do it more than once a week."
The wince on Mina's face signalled her friend to just how bad of a vocal teacher Mr. Smith could possibly be, "Yeah... maybe not lucky, but at least Mr. Smith helped me get a hang of belting last year. Speaking of which, if you plan to belt with any of your songs, you're gonna need to improve on chest voice." The pat she placed right on Marco's torso was rather playful.
"There's a chance I will," Marco though, thinking back to the last song he composed. It was simple piano-and-vocal-centric tune, probably improved with some rhythm guitar and percussion, which Sasha and Connie would easily be able to provide to him, but with only the score composed, that song was in dire need to lyrics. Heck, and even a title.
The thought of how much of a mess that song would be started to give Marco a headache, and since he had a tendency to faint upon the occurrence of especially bad migraines, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind to prevent him from all out fainting in the middle of the hallway.
Changing the subject helped out greatly, "Anyway, one lesson done, I reckon it's time for payment, right?" They stepped down the academy's hallway, passing various other classes in session as they did so. "Do you have a place where you usually get meals from? Or would you like a recommendation?"
"I kind of eat anywhere, but there's this shawarma place my roommate Annie usually buys from, and you can get a discount if you mention her name," Mina admitted. Annie's minor obsession with the food would be considered concerning in many people's eyes. But musical theatre majors still needed to eat, it didn't matter what their roommates brought home.
Marco made an interested expression, nodding his head in agreement, "Excellent, lead the way then."
Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki No Kyojin, or Watch What Happens. Those belong to Isayama and Disney.