A/N: It's a new story! I know I need to update teh other one, and i totally will--but this one was too good to leave alone!
Zoe Michaels ran down the stairs, skidding in her sock feet across the hallway at the bottom.
"Whoooooooooo!" She paused and held her arms in front of her in a graceful circle. She cleared her throat, closed her cerulean eyes and waited a moment for the music on her iPod to catch up.
In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came
That voice which speaks to me
And calls my name
Zoe's voice was young and clear; she hit each note with a crystaline soprano. Taking and elastic band from her thin wrist, she crammed her thick chestnut curls into a loose but becoming bun.
Zoe skipped ahead to Point of No Return on her iPod and let Gerard Butler's smooth baritone fill her head.
Zoe sashayed into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
I have brought you
That our passions may fuse and merge
Zoe took a can of Diet Coke from the fridge and shut the door, leaning against it with her eyes closed.
In your mind you've already succumbed to me, dropped all defenses, completely succumbed to me…
"Take me, Gerry," she sighed.
"Okay, darlin'," said a deep voice close to her ear, an arm suddenly snaked around her waist.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuugh!" Zoe shreiked and dropped the un-opened can on her big toe. Glancing wildly around, she saw a plump blonde girl standing beside her, grinning, and she screamed again, jumping slightly.
"AAAAaaauuugh! Don't do that, Meg!" She took off the headphones and grimaced.
"You know you love it, Christine," teased Meg, or Ana as she'd been named from birth. The two best friends called each other Meg and Christine for fun, since they'd both been fanatics—or Phanatics as they were often called—since they could talk…or sing…
Deciding had been easy enough—Zoe was a curly-headed brunette, and Ana had pale, straight blond hair. Meg was the only one of the two who had ever taken ballet lessions, too, even if only for a year. Zoe was naturally graceful, but had never taken an interest in learning to dance beyond some wild gyrations at Bitter Mountain High School—"Like the opposite of Sweet Valley," Zoe often muttered, sticking out her tongue—where the girls had been attending classes for two years—making them juniors—finally!
Zoe had preferred her voice lessons for the last two years…but ever since her wonderful voice teacher, Felicity, had gotten married and moved away, Zoe hadn't had the heart to find another music teacher.
In their theater class at school, Zoe and Ana had both been used to getting one-line, chorus-y parts so far in the annual school musicals—but this year they had a fighting chance as juniors…that was if Gabrielle Marchant didn't finally have all her boot-licking to the drama teacher, Mr. Nealson, pay off.
"Come on," said Ana. "We have only a month left before school starts. We need to practice for the auditions."
"And by practice you mean sing along with the DVD?"
"I brought the mask."
"Who do you want to play?"
"Well—you're so good at being Christine," said Ana wistfully. "You be her."
"I won't if you want to," said Zoe kindly, knowing that her friend didn't often feel very glamourous because she was, well, to put it nicely she was far too friendly with Ben & Jerry sometimes.
"No," Ana shook her head. "I have the mask—besides you got your Halloween costume from last year you can use. Besides, I'm an alto, so I should be able to sing the guy-parts."
"And Meg. You can sing Meg. She's always so adorable…" offered Zoe, biting her lip and searching for a way to take the crestfallen look off Ana's face. Damn it, she thought. I hate feeling like crap when Ana's so low in her self-esteem.
"Don't be silly," said Ana with a brave smile. "You can't just snap your fingers and have me be a soprano. If wishes were Phantoms, Phangirls would ride…"
Zoe giggled.
"Want a Diet Coke?"
"Sure."
"You can have the one you made me drop on my foot," said Zoe, picking up the soda off the floor. "Thanks for that—my toenail's probably gonna turn black and fall off."
"Chuh, yeah right." Ana grabbed another can from the fridge and shook it, then cracked it in front of Zoe's face.
"Aaaaaaaack!" With a retalitory grin, Zoe opened her own can and for a few minutes the kitchen was the scene of great chaos as the girls chased each other with the fizzing and hissing cans.
Eventually they collapsed at the kitchen table.
"Crap, we'll have to clean this up before my dad gets home," mourned Zoe.
The girls quickly cleaned up the kitchen and went into the backyard and hosed each other off before the cola could dry stickily on their skin and clothes. They then went to the trampoline in Zoe's backyard and jumped on it under the hot California sun, which dried them off in no time.
As they jumped, they sang at the top of their lungs as a warm up.
"How long should we two wait before we're one?" screamed Zoe.
"Who is this angel, this angel of music?" caroled Ana.
The neighbours shut their windows. The girls didn't care. If they preferred boiling with no cross-breeze to listening to the playful antics of two girls with not-bad singing voices, that was their business.
They finally went inside and down to Zoe's room in the basement, decked out with all things Phantom. Ana collapsed on the dark-crimson bedspread and panted a little.
Zoe went to the window high in the ceiling.
"Don't open the blinds," said Ana. "Turn on the aircon. It'll be dark and cool—just like the Phantom's lair."
"Ohh I forgot. Good point."
The DVD went into the player at one end of the room, and the girls had a larger than usual space in which to practice their blocking and songs.
Zoe eventually took a break and lay on her stomach on her bed, watching Ana struggling to hit the higher notes in Music of the Night. Zoe sighed heavily and drew a hand through the tangled and matted curls, cursing the fact that she had forgotten to brush them out before they had dried.
"What's wrong?" asked Ana, interrupting her song to counsel her friend.
"I wish…oh it's stupid."
"Tell me," prompted Ana.
"Ever since Felicity left, I've been feeling so…lost. Vocally—spiritually, almost. She was just such a great friend…especially after my mom died."
"Did you mom promise to send you an angel of music, or what?" joked Ana, trying to make light of the situation, uncomfortable with her friend's sadness, trying to help.
"Haha," said Zoe dryly. "Y'know what, just forget it."
"No, Zoe, really—if you want to talk, you know I'm here for you."
"I know," sighed Zoe. "Something's just…missing. Besides feeling lost, I just feel—blah. Like something needs to happen soon or I'll lose my mind."
"It's just that summer's nearly over and you feel edgy. We all get that way. Not exactly EAGER for school, but eager for something to happen—something to make us react, something to force us to do something."
"I suppose," said Zoe, resignedly.
"Come on—it's your turn," said Ana.
"You never finished…"
"Oh don't mind that. You go ahead. You're better anyways. Do Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. It fits."
"You're right…" Zoe smiled slowly and got up to practice once more.
The show must go on, she thought.
AN: REVWIE! XD :D