Chapter 2
The next day at Carmel, all of Vocal Adrenaline stood crowded around their usual area at the quad, looking around as they surveyed the crowd of students shuffling in from different doors of the school.
"Giselle, what exactly is the point of this?" Travis asked, though it came out more like whining. "Everyone in this school goes through an audition the first day of school. There's not anyone here who hasn't already tried."
Giselle ignored Travis's intelligent point, refusing to believe that someone who didn't know the difference between immolate and emulate could have actually made sense.
"That doesn't matter," she said, brushing off his words. "We need a lead, and we are going to find him. We will not lose to that school that belongs on the Island of Misfit toys."
The first warning bell rang, causing all of the students around Vocal Adrenaline to speed up, the halls suddenly shaking with noise of lockers closing, people running, and laughs echoing the halls. Vocal Adrenaline stayed still, though. Everyone knew Vocal Adrenaline could essentially set the school on fire and get away with it as long as they took home Nationals, an antic Travis had tried not more than a few months earlier.
As the hallways clear, Giselle sighed, obviously accepting defeat, and realizing that, while obviously none of them would attend their first period, they should head to their normal first period hang out in the back of the school in the courtyard. Again, they never worried about hiding because they were, after all, Vocal Adrenaline.
Giselle reached for her phone, looking at the time, (she never bothered to use the clocks the school provided. Analog? Really?) when all of the sudden she felt herself walk straight into another body. She had bumped into almost every member of Vocal Adrenaline, whether that be during dance rehearsals, or in a more intimate way (Shelby often said that the way Vocal Adrenaline interacted with each other outside of practice was Jersey Shore worthy, not that Giselle would ever associate herself with such a show), but she didn't recognize this body at all. It was small, certainly not scrawny, however not nearly as much muscle build as Vocal Adrenaline's male dancers.
She stumbled backwards, thankfully not falling, as she could never afford an injury, looking to see who had been so careless as to bump into her (she would never admit that she shouldn't have been texting). She saw a young man, probably a senior, or maybe a junior-they all looked young to Giselle-stumbling himself as he defied gravity, not falling, with help from the guitar case he was holding.
He seemed the like typical indie kid that Carmel was full of; those kids who carried around guitar cases but never opened them, and were always listening to their iPods full of bands no one ever heard of. Everything about him screamed this, from the way his brown hair was styled, messily, but definitely styled, to his graphic tee covered by a leather jacket, to his converse. As Giselle surveyed him, she internally rolled her eyes.
Guyliner? Really? Could he be more of a cliché?
Instead of the usual apology that normally followed when someone bumped into Giselle in the hallway, this person collected himself and simply said, "Texting and walking is almost as deadly as texting and driving." With that, he walked off, leaving Giselle alone to gape at how normally he had treated her.
"Does he…does he know who we are?" Giselle stuttered. "Who I am? How we practically pay for the desks he'll sit in for the next seven hours?"
"I've never seen him," Haylee said. "He's cute though. And he had a guitar case!"
"She's right," Travis said. "Maybe he could be our new lead. I mean if he plays guitar, he must be able to sing. No one does just one these days." The rest of Vocal Adrenaline murmured in agreement.
Giselle rolled her eyes. "Idiots! All of you! Didn't you see him? He screamed 'annoying emo kid'! There is nothing theatrical about him, and just because he carries around a guitar case doesn't mean he plays," she said, stating all of this as if it were as plain as day.
"She's right," Victoria, one of the younger members, sighed. "That could be all for image."
"Exactly," Giselle said, nodding. "Come on, I can't stand these hallways any longer." She stalked out of the school, slowly realizing, as she arrived at courtyard, how screwed they really were.
She and Jesse never got along, they were both easily the most talented in Vocal Adrenaline, therefore they were always competing for vocal solos, dance solos, ideas, everything. And though he always seemed to beat her, damn that showface he could pull of, she had to admit that he was talented and impossible to replace. They were never going to be the same, she accepted that. But giving up like this, without a male lead, was not going to happen either. But where was she going to find someone who could give them something like what Jesse did?
Giselle sat down away from the rest of Vocal Adrenaline, staring out at the woods behind the school. She grimaced as the rest of the group laughed and joked; completely unaware of how close they were to losing everything. Another thing about Jesse she liked; he was just as serious as she was. She hadn't realized how much she missed that until now. Now, she was alone. And without an official coach, either, it was all riding on her.
Later that day, Giselle was walking down the hallway to her fifth period class, the only class she bothered to go; the young male teacher being the reason. Lunch had just ended, so occasionally there would still be a student loitering at their locker, avoiding whatever class they had now.
During lunch, Giselle had been surprised to see Indie Boy in fact not sitting with the Indies, but actually with the theatre freaks. He didn't seem like theatre was his forte, as he was not flamboyant (call it stereotyping, but it was always the first thing Giselle checked for when she met a male thespian), or dressed in all black carrying a script of a play they had been working on since they were five. Yet he seemed completely at home with them, laughing at jokes surely no one else would get and listening to things surely no one besides them even cared about. To Giselle, this only proved she had been right; theatre freaks don't have time for Vocal Adrenaline, so there was no way this boy was their potential lead.
As she walked past a small music room, she heard a guitar being played softly, and a beautiful voice, yes, even she had to admit it was beautiful, accompanying the melody. She recognized the tune as Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, but the melody had changed slightly, making it more of an acoustic song. She hated Green Day on principle, however this she actually enjoyed.
She found herself forgetting about the class she was supposed to be attending, leaning against the wall, listening to this voice. It wasn't perfect. He had some pitch issues and his projection would need work, and based on this performance he preferred slower songs, which would have to change, but she knew this was their guy.
She opened the door to the music room, ready to break the news to the lucky boy that he had been chosen to join the prestigious Vocal Adrenaline-without the rigorous tryouts, even!-when she saw who the voice belonged to.
"You've got to be kidding me," was all she could say, as she looked at the person before her.
The only thing Giselle hated more than people who didn't respect her, was being wrong.
I know I couldn't have made it more obvious who it was, especially if you caught on who Indie Boy is modeled after ;)
Next chapter soon! Let me know what you think!
xo
