Yes, Stephen was in choir, and, no, he didn't enjoy it. He had only joined because the rest of his friends were in it. He didn't care if they said he had a good singing voice. He didn't care if the teacher said he had one of the best baritone voices she had heard from a high schooler. He didn't care about any of the dumb people in the class who wouldn't be quiet when they were supposed to. And he especially didn't care about Mary Jefferson.

Mary had joined choir not long after he had, because she enjoyed being a stalker, apparently. That wasn't enough for her, however. Every single day, she would bother him incessantly. On the day before the concert, in the middle of class, Mary walked halfway across the room to sit next to Stephen. It was extremely unfortunate that the person he sat next to was sick that day.

"Hi, Stephen," Mary cooed, scooting her chair closer to him. Stephen sighed heavily, picking up his book and beginning to read it. Mary just moved closer. "What are you reading?" Stephen held his book up higher, but Mary didn't bother reading the cover. "Are you sure you won't come to my party?"

Stephen sighed again. He wished he could look to his friends for help, but all of them were talking to the teacher about French pronunciations. Stephen only knew English, unfortunately. Also, he knew Mary wouldn't just leave him alone because she's being ignored. "Yes, I'm sure. I'm not going."

"Why not?" Mary whined.

"Because I hate you."

"No, you don't." Mary touched Stephen's arm. Stephen flinched away.

"Yes, I do. You're awful."

"Oh, stop playing hard to get."

"Oh, my god..." Stephen closed his book and looked at Mary. "Do you legitimately think I like you? Or even might possibly like you at some point?"

Mary shrugged. "Well, sure. Not many people can resist someone like me." She flipped her hair as Stephen glared at her.

"You're such a prissy idiot. Why can't you get it through your thick skull that I don't and will never like you?"

"Why are you so mean?" Mary pouted. "You'll never get a girlfriend if you keep acting like that."

Stephen's face flushed a bit. He covered it with a scowl and buried his face in his book again.

Mary crossed her arms. "You can't get a girl by ignoring them all, either."

Stephen stood up and walked away, blocking out Mary's whines. Stephen silently stood next to his friends at the front of the room, who understood what was wrong just by looking at him. When he glanced back, Stephen saw that Mary was grumpily sitting in his chair, waiting for his return. He tried not to puke.

The concert actually went pretty well, surprisingly. With the assistance of Philip, Theo, Adrienne, and Georges, the French song actually sounded good. The solos in one of the songs sounded nice, even Mary's. Of course, Stephen and his friends thought Philip's solo was significantly better.

"It wasn't that good!" Philip argued, blushing.

"Yes, it was," Theo said yet again. Philip blushed more.

"You've got some strong lungs," Adrienne said. She nudged Theo and winked.

"Adrienne!" Both Philip and Theo were blushing, now.

Just then, all their parents found them, giving them hugs and congratulating them on a good concert. Philip's parents were playfully arguing about who Philip got his singing voice from. The twins' parents were complimenting how well they taught the class the French pronunciations in the song. Theo and her dad quietly talked about what went well in the concert and what didn't. Meanwhile, Stephen's parents excitedly fawned over him.

"You did so well!" Stephen's Mum cheered, clapping a few times.

"You couldn't even hear my voice," Stephen shrugged.

"Well, you were at least singing," his Mom said. She was still wearing her suit from work, which she had left early from. "That's better than some of the other kids we saw."

"Heh. Good point."

The whole lot of them started to head out of the school. However, as they did, Stephen heard something: crying around the corner. Stephen slowed to a stop, looking in the direction of the noise. It was quiet, so his friends and family were confused as to why he had stopped.

"Um...you can go on ahead," Stephen said. "I'll be there in a minute." Without another word, he started to walk towards the crying.

Before he even walked five feet, Stephen felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Philip; their other friends stood behind him. "We heard it, too," Philip said. "We're coming with." Stephen just nodded and moved forward again.

They didn't have to walk very far to see who was crying. When they did, Stephen muttered, "Goddammit."

Mary was sitting on a bench, covering her face as she cried. Stephen sighed and started to walk away, but Philip stopped him by shaking his head. Always kind Georges stepped forward and sat next to Mary.

"Mary? What's wrong?" Georges asked her. Mary scooted away.

"I'm fine," she said through her sobs. "Leave me alone."

"Mary-"

"Go away. I don't want to talk to you."

"I...okay..." Georges, defeated, stood and went back over to his friends.

"Well, we tried," Stephen said, trying to walk away again. However, he froze when he realized that all his friends were staring at him. "What?" Philip nodded towards Mary. "No."

"You're the only person she'd want to talk to," Philip stated.

"That doesn't mean I want to."

"I know, but look at her. We can't just leave her like this."

Stepgen looked back at Mary for a moment. Philip was right, he supposed. Stephen stared up at the ceiling and groaned loudly before begrudgingly moving towards Mary. He knelt in front of her and simply asked, "What's wrong?"

Mary looked up, but her glare softened when she saw who was in front of her. Her mascara was surprisingly not running with her tears. "I...it's nothing."

"Yeah, obviously not. Why are you crying?"

Mary sniffed and wiped her eyes. "My parents didn't show up to the concert. I told them I had a solo and everything, but they were too busy working."

Stephen frowned a bit. Even he felt bad, now. He understood what it was like to have a parent not be there for something special because of work. He got up and sat on the bench next to Mary, still surprised that he was doing this. He sighed before speaking. "You know, I'm sure they wanted to come. It's just that they have jobs that they have to go to as soon they're needed."

"I...I know...but...still..."

"I know. I get it." They were quiet for a moment. Mary hugged Stephen. Stephen didn't push her away.

"My friends left, already," Mary muttered. "Do you think you could-"

"Georges and Adrienne can take you home. They're your cousins."

"Second cousins."

"Whatever." Stephen stood and got out of Mary's grasp. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started to walk towards the exit. As he passed his friends, he growled, "Not a word about this."

He left with his head hanging.