Whatever Miss James said, Joey wasn't going to sing. Not Tarzan and Jane, not in front of his music class, and certainly not with Seto. It was as simple as that.
And what could she do about it? Make him sing another song? He laughed quietly to himself. And how would she make him do that? Her plan was flawed on so many levels that it was almost funny.
For starters, it relied on both him and Seto actually showing up for practice every afternoon. Secondly, whatever she did, she couldn't reach down their throats and pull the music out; they had to be willing to do it. And thirdly, she was assuming that both Seto and Joey actually could sing.
They only had music in fifth period on Mondays. That was therefore the only day on which Miss James would be present at home time to make sure they didn't just leave. And since it was now Tuesday, Joey knew he wouldn't even have to worry about it for nearly a week.
Joey's fifth period on Tuesdays was Maths, and his classroom was positioned on the opposite side of the school from the music centre. He wouldn't even need to pass it on his way home.
He was feeling especially smug when the final bell rang and his maths class was let out. Miss James didn't actually expect him to come, did she? She was going to be waiting for a very long time. Without sparing her a second thought, Joey turned in the opposite direction to the music centre.
Only to hear a voice behind him. "Mr. Wheeler, I assume you know what today is."
Thinking he was hearing voices, he spun around to face his music teacher standing outside his maths classroom. Several other onlookers noticed her too.
Joey almost gawked at her. She had come all the way from the music centre to make sure he didn't ditch? This would me more difficult than he thought.
She smiled dryly. "Since you apparently have difficulties with your spatial centre, I thought I'd better point out that the music centre is in the other direction."
The onlookers from his maths class giggled, and Joey turned bright pink. "I can't go this afternoon."
She sighed and shook her head. "That would be effectively failing to turn up to a detention, Mr. Wheeler. Come along."
Not meeting the eyes of any of his classmates, Joey ran after her. "Look, Miss; if you're here with me then where the hell is Kaiba?" he smirked. "If anyone, you should be escorting him, not me." Before she could respond, he added, "And how old am I, seven? If I plan to go to your stupid detention...lesson...thing, I'm quite capable of-"
She cut him off. "But you didn't plan to."
"Of course I did," he lied. "I left something in my locker that I needed to pick up first."
"Yes...of course you did." She didn't bother disguising her sarcasm.
Joey tried a different approach. "Why are you even doing this? You could just keep putting us on detention rather than this...thing, and it would have taken less time."
"You might as well learn something in that time. And, Mr. Wheeler, contrary to popular belief, teachers do have better things to do every afternoon than sit with students in detention. I need a more permanent solution."
Joey snorted. "You really think I care about this stupid punishment? You really think making me and my worst enemy sing an extremely degrading song in front of our peers is going to magically straighten us out?"
She shook her head, smiling. "Of course not; but that's not your punishment. That's only a small part of it; it's the process of having to actually learn and get good at you act that's the real punishment here. It's not teaching you to respect music that I'm truly trying to achieve, it's teaching you to respect each other, and in turn, to stop your meaningless quarrels. You see, as a music teacher, I of all people know that music isn't for everybody. But I also know that hatred is for nobody."
These words surprised Joey, who had expected a frustrated snap of the word 'yes', as any normal teacher would have done. But then again, any normal teacher wouldn't go through the trouble of making such a punishment, or of going out of her way to make sure he showed up for it.
They had arrived at the music centre by the time she finished speaking, and Joey didn't have time to say anything else before the sight of a certain Seto Kaiba, who was standing beside the reception desk with a deep set scowl on his face rivalled only by Joey's.
So he did show up here after all? Joey wondered.
"Miss, I don't care if you are my teacher; you brought me here against my will; I can have you arrested for that. You had no right to just drag me out of class like a six year old before school had even finished and then leave me here to be babysat by the rest of the music staff while you went and fetched-"
"Hey, Kaiba," Joey said, appearing behind Miss James and glorifying in the look on Seto's face when he realised Joey was also there. "Miss James did what? Wow, that's even worse than she did with me."
"Shut up, Wheeler. Miss, I feel I should warn you that if my company suffers in any way from having its Chief Executive Officer absent even more so than I already am, you will be held legally responsible."
Miss James didn't flinch under his cold blue glare as so many did. "I am well aware of that, Mr. Kaiba, but as you are also aware, my job is to teach you music, not to help in the running of your company; if you were so keen to run it, you should remain quiet in class." She led the way into one of the rehearsal rooms, Joey and Seto following behind, lightning flying between the two of them.
There was a piano in the middle of the small room, which their teacher promptly took a seat in. Upon seeing this, Joey could quite literally have died. Until now, it had only been a prospect. Now, it was actually happening. He was having a singing lesson with Seto Kaiba.
He cast Seto a sideways glance. The CEO was lingering by the door as if he were looking for a chance to escape. Joey would have done this too, if it didn't place him right next to Seto. Hmph. I guess we have more in common than I thought.
Joey crossed his arms and turned his attention back to Miss James, who was flexing her fingers above the piano keys.
"Alright, we'll start this lesson off with the basics; I want to hear what your voices sound like. One at a time then; who wants to go first?"
"You already know what our voices sound like," Joey said. "We're on trial here because we talk too much."
"Wheeler, if you're going to try being smart, why don't you actually be smart for once?" Kaiba asked. "That comeback was just stupid. And inaccurate; we aren't on trial, we've already been convicted."
"That wasn't even funny, you-"
"Enough." Miss James hit middle C, and the single clear note rang through the small rehearsal room. "You obviously aren't mature enough to choose between yourselves; Mr. Wheeler, you go first. Sing 'ahh' along to the first five notes of the scale of the chord I play. Like this." She played a C major chord and then played the respective scale, singing along with the piano. She then played the chord again and started to play the scale.
Unsurprisingly, Joey made no sound.
She sighed. "You know, you are going to keep coming here every afternoon until I decide myself that you're both ready to perform, so the sooner you learn, the sooner this will all be over."
"Go on, Wheeler; you know you want to," Seto jeered.
"Can he leave?" Joey could hear the edge of a whine in his voice, and he almost hit himself for showing weakness in front of Kaiba.
"Why? Because he's disrupting your learning? No. No, he can't."
Joey had to close his eyes to avoid looking at Kaiba as Miss James played the chord again and began the scale.
"Ahhhh..." he sang, almost inaudibly, up the scale, and then down again. Miss James quickly brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes and played a B chord, and ran up the scale with Joey again. Then a B-flat.
It was torturous. He could hear Seto sniggering to himself the whole time. He had to hand it to Miss James; she was the devil himself, but she knew how to pick a true punishment.
At least an eternity had passed twice before she finally โ finally โ moved out of his vocal range. After making some comment that Joey couldn't hear over the spinning in his ears, she dismissed him.
"Mr. Kaiba; it's your turn."
Seto's smug grin instantly froze in place as though the wind had suddenly changed. Joey almost laughed. Not so funny now, rich boy.
Casting him a twisted smile, Joey stepped away from the piano and claimed Seto's spot by the door as soon as it was vacated. Seto turned his head towards their teacher, but didn't take his slitted eyes off Joey.
"Up and down the first five notes, and then again for whatever chord I play, as before. Ahh..." she said, playing the first chord and starting the scale.
As with Joey, Seto didn't sing, only this time the lack of sound was accompanied by a total un-lack of contempt. Seto crossed his arms. "Unlike Wheeler, I cannot be bullied into singing. Not by you, or by anyone."
"What, you're scared nobody will like your voice, moneybags?" Joey taunted, having gotten over the shock of his first voice exercise as soon as it was Kaiba's turn.
Miss James sighed and played the chord again, and started the scale. When Seto didn't sing, she kept going up and down the scale patiently.
"You can't keep me here," Seto said matter-of-factly. "And you can't make me sing."
Miss James didn't stop playing. "Do you know what my name is, Mr. Kaiba?"
He frowned. "Miss James."
"Exactly. The 'Miss' means that I can be here all day and nobody will notice." She continued playing expectantly. "But since you need to get back to your company, I suggest you hurry it up."
"You still can't make-"
"Ahhhh," she sang, going up the scale again. Joey was having a great deal of fun from watching Seto squirm.
And then Seto's voice suddenly burst out and climbed up the scale, making Joey jump. He stared in stunned silence as Miss James smiled and played the next chord, and then the next. Joey couldn't believe it; Seto was singing! It was just a single sound, but Seto was actually singing.
It wasn't natural. But it was happening.
Seto's voice wasn't even half-bad. If it weren't for the shock of hearing it, and the identity of its owner, Joey may have had the slightest possible chance of actually liking it.
When Seto finished his turn and stepped brusquely away from the piano, Joey couldn't even jeer. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. All he could do was stare.
Seto had other plans. His head snapped around to glare at Joey. "What the hell are you gawking at, Wheeler?"
Joey blinked himself back to reality, still struggling for words.
Miss James interrupted before Joey's speechlessness became evident. "I can see we've made progress today; well done, both of you. If you want, you can go."
Joey was closer to the door and already had it open by the time she finished speaking.
"I'll see you both here after school tomorrow. I won't come and escort you here like I did today, if you come willingly. But I should warn you, if you don't, I'm going to drag you out of class in the middle of the day on Thursday. In front of all your friends."
"Yeah, thanks, whatever. I am so out of here." Joey made his escape.
"I hate her!" Joey fumed as soon as they were outside the music centre. He didn't care that the only other person there was Seto, who followed him out a few seconds later, having walked out rather than running. He just needed to rant. "I can't believe she's making us do this. She's got some kind of inferiority complex and feels better when she makes her students suffer! She thought of this punishment when she was a kid and wanted an excuse to try it out! She's some kind ofโ"
"I don't like this any more than you do, Wheeler," Seto said darkly. "Stop trying to make me feel sorry for you. This is your fault."
Joey stared, instantly furious. "My fault? You're the one who picked that lousy song!"
"What, and you honestly think any of the others wouldn't have been better? She could have had us singing 'Barbie Girl'."
Joey grimaced. "Or Who Let the Dogs Out."
"Brady Bunch theme," Seto countered.
"Scooby Doo theme," Joey threw in, unconsciously turning it into a challenge.
"Friday!"
"Baby!"
There was silence.
"I win. There's no way you can top that," Joey said smugly.
"Wheeler, I would write a song more annoying than that in order to beat you, but unlike you I have more important things to do with my time," Seto said abruptly, falling back into his usual cold, contemptuous manner. "I will see you tomorrow, if I'm lucky. If I'm not then I'll speak to you too." He brushed past Joey, deliberately knocking him in the shoulder as he passed. Without offering even a fake apology, he headed towards the student car park.
Joey watched him go, thoughtfully. Two impossible things had just happened.
One, Seto had sung.
Two, for one brief moment, he had acted...well, almost...normal. It had been over as soon as it had begun, but just once, Seto hadn't been acting like a CEO.
Joey's lips curled into an amused smile. There was no way he was ever going to stop hating Seto Kaiba, but on this one occasion, they had been given something to agree on. Mulling this over in his mind, he turned away and headed in the opposite direction to Seto.
