Lenne: Ohi guys. I stayed up until like 2 AM finishing this, okay. APPRECIATE IT. Give me a revookie. :c

Ah whatever, enjoy!


Chapter 11: Choir Rehearsal

The day after I came over to his house, I showed him the finished baseball pose of him. He was amazed at the detail and appreciated my work. To surprise him even more, I showed him two more finished sketches. They were simple, half-body drawings of him giving off a friendly grin in two different angles. As his reply, he gave me the same, simple smile.

I spent more time with Ness. I felt like I clung onto him like a lost puppy, but he didn't mind my company at all. In fact, he wanted to be with me for his English project partner, and, he bought me lunch when I forgot my money at home. He asked me lots of questions about my hometown and my family, especially about the fact that Claus and I were twins. He even asked if we had twin telepathy, and we laughed at that joke, because we both knew there was no such thing as psychic powers.

A couple of days have passed since then. It was Thursday, I believe. The day I found out Ninten, Claus, and Ness were really good at singing.

Claus had a choir rehearsal after school for the day. I was curious to hear what Claus' singing ability was like, because I never recalled a moment of hearing him sing before. As for our ride home, Dad was going to pick us up, since his work time ends some time before the choir rehearsal ends, making the arrangements convenient.

After school, I went to the auditorium as Claus said his director instructed. I anticipated seeing Claus' elegant voice or downfall in the rehearsal. I was focused on my path for so much that I didn't see Ness following me.

"Lucas?" he called. I turned around and saw his face, which made me blush a little bit.

"N-Ness?" I replied.

"What?" he stared at me. "Oh, you're coming to watch?"

Right. Ness was in choir with Claus and Ninten. "Oh um...yeah. I guess I almost forgot you were in choir." I nervously scratched the back of my head.

"Well, I am," Ness said as we both began walking inside. "I'm not only a pro at baseball, but I'm also a good singer."

"Really…?" I acted like I was impressed. "Can't wait to hear."

As we walked in, I examined the auditorium. It wasn't so big, but not so small either. All the lights were still on, so I could see a number of other students walking around the stage area and few sitting in the seats. Immediately, a group of girls caught my sight. They sat on the east side in the fifth front row, still close enough to get a good view of the stage. I felt jealousy and anger again because one of the girls was the same girl that was on the baseball field who hugged Ness. I remembered her name was Leila, as Ninten had told me.

I returned my view to Ness' back. I followed him to the middle section of the audience. He entered the second-to-first row and set his backpack on a chair in the middle. Then, he sat down. I was about to set mine down, until he put a hand on the seat.

"Wait, you can't sit here."

"Why not?" I was afraid he didn't want me there.

"Um, the first four rows here are for the Mens' Choir. This is my assigned seat for our concert day."

"Oh, okay…" I was in a sudden panic. I didn't know where to sit. I wanted to sit next to Ness, but I didn't know which seat was reserved or not.

"Oh, you can sit in the west side," Ness said. He got up, taking his backpack along, and gently scooted me out of the row. We entered the second row nearest to the stage on the west side of the audience. In the middle, Ness set down his backpack on a chair next to him as he sat down. I set myself down, with my belongings between my legs.

We relaxed there and made some small chat. Our conversation was interrupted by Ness' ringing cellphone, which he turned away from me to take. I took the time to look around the room again. A man and a woman entered the auditorium from a door on the east side, which I had believed were the choir directors. A couple of girls and a boy was following them up onto the stage with music stands in their hands, and placed them onto the stage. When I took my sights off of them, I glanced at Leila and her group, but then I immediately turned away, because I felt piercing daggers staring at me. I was sure they were jealous of me being so close with Ness.

From the west side doors near us, some boys and a few girls entered. Two of them were easily recognizable. Claus was pushing off Ninten as usual as they walked on in.

"You'll never make me stop calling you Clausy!" Ninten exclaimed.

"You wanna bet?!" Claus had his fist ready above his head.

Their silly fight ended when they saw us. Claus rushed on over and sat on his legs on the chair in front of me. Ninten joined and sat in the same position as Claus in the chair next to him.

By that time, Ness finished his phone call, and turned to the two who just arrived. "Oh, hey there!" Ness and Ninten exchanged a hi-five.

"Nice to see ya, bro," Claus said. He reached out for my head and patted it. I accepted it as usual. Then, Ninten reached his hand out and patted Claus. He immediately brushed his arm away.

"What're you doing?" Claus exclaimed.

"I thought you might have liked it," Ninten said with an innocent smile.

"How do you like this?" Claus reached for Ninten's hair and lightly pulled on it. Ninten struggled to get away, but the small laughter on both of their faces made it a situation they both enjoyed.

"Boys," said a deep voice. Claus and Ninten stopped and looked at the male adult on the stage. "Don't play around." They paused their action and gave each other giddy smiles.

By now, numerous other boys and girls were entering the room and taking seats in the audience or up on the stage helping setup gray platforms. Two girls were pushing a small piano near the center of the stage. The female director was chatting with a large group of girls in what seemed to be their assigned seats.

I drew my attention away and turned to my brother. "So Claus," I began, "how well can you sing?"

"Pretty okay," he replied. "The teachers did a voice testing for me, so I'm a baritone."

"What's that?" I asked.

Ness bumped my arm and answered, "They're singers who can sing both high and low easily."

"Are you one?" I asked Ness.

"Nope," he replied. "I sing mostly low, so I'm a bass. I have no problem singing high when I need to though."

I turned to Ninten, "What about you?"

"I'm a tenor, so I sing high a lot." I could tell it was fit for him because of his carefree and easy-going voice.

"Testing, testing…" a boy was up on stage speaking into one of the microphones. The male director next to him then took the microphone once the boy signaled the mike was okay.

"All right," he began, "I need everyone in their assigned seats for roll call. Then everyone will go to the choir room and get their music, then come back here."

"All right, gotta go," Claus said. He left his seat first, with Ninten following behind.

"Gotta go too," Ness said. He got up and hopped over my belongings in front of me. "Can you watch my stuff for me?"

"Sure," I replied. I tried not to look so eager in answering him, but he gave me back a smile anyways, and went across to the central section into his seat. Claus sat four seats away from Ness, and right next to him was Ninten. I could conclude from this that Ninten must have been near Claus every day, so it was good for him while it was bad for my brother. I didn't know whether to pity or be happy. Instead, I focused on Ness, and he was talking with a few of the boys near him. Then they talked to Claus, and for some reason he was pointed at his hair, and then at me. I nervously waved back when his eyes met mine, and then looked down at my backpack. Once I laid my eyes on it, I remembered I had my sketchbook in there. Since I had no one to talk to right now, I pulled it out of my bag, took my pencil, and began drawing. Currently, I was on a new Ness picture. This time, it included Claus and myself as well. I planned it to have the three of us sitting together on the edge of our house pool, feet in the water, with smiling faces enjoying the warm time. I was in the middle, between my overprotective brother and the energetic, leader-like boy that I loved. Currently, the faces and most of the hair was finished, so I finished off by sketching the hair. Once I was done, I began the bodies.

I felt like a long while passed, but the moment I took a small five-second break to look around, a lined group of boys were stepping onto the stage in an orderly fashion, facing the almost-empty audience with apathetic faces. Ness, Claus, and Ninten were included in the line. They all filled the risers, arranged in three rows. As they were doing that, the immense group of choir girls left the auditorium through the east door, heading somewhere. I set my pencil into the spiral of my sketchbook and laid my eyes on them. All of the boys and the male director had black binders in hands. Once the adult got to the piano in the center, he faced the choir group.

"All right, we'll do a bit of warm up and then we'll start with Red Red Rose," he said. He played on the piano, testing out different resonances.

Red Red Rose…the way he said it was a little fast. Was there such a song like that?

I was left pondering until I heard noises come from the choir group. They made loud and strict noises with their mouths. In a certain melody and speed, all of them sang "Oo-oo-oo" repeatedly, each time going higher in pitch following the director's piano play. After reaching a very high pitch enough to where the tenor section on my right were the only ones singing for five times, they switched to a different melody, "Aa-ahh-aa" but going lower. Each time they sang I tried to focus my ears for Ness and Claus. It was not very clear, but I could hear a hint of Claus' voice ringing in the air. For Ness, it was a little harder, and I couldn't make it out of everyone else's noise. During another high-pitch only part for the tenors, I could easily make out Ninten's high voice. Continuing with their warm ups, they began with "Ooo-ooh-ooo" similar to the first time, but the strings of the sound were slightly longer. This time, after more group singing, the director pointed to one boy and that boy sang the matching tune that was played on the piano. Here, I paid close attention, and waited for the director to point to one of my three friends. He reached Claus first, where he had to sing a moderately high tune. And to my surprise, he sang it with smooth elegance. The director changed the tune again, to a lower key on the piano, and began pointing to lower-toned voices, eventually reaching Ness. What I couldn't believe was that Ness' normal, easy going voice could reach low levels. It sounded like he was a full-grown adult with a changed voice.

I definitely fell in love with the way he sang.

For a short moment, I turned my head to Leila. Their eyes were already set on me, as if they had sensed I was going to glance at them for a moment. Daggers from their eyes tried to stab me, but I immediately looked away, almost a little scared. I pretended innocence in my seat, fiddling my fingers together, but in my mind I could tell she was jealous.

Warm ups for the boys finally ended. The choir director gave his next instruction.

"Okay, open up Red Red Rose, and then we'll just start from the beginning to the end." The boys did as told and opened their binders, flipping through some pages. One boy raised his hand, and the teacher called on him.

"I thought we were going to sing this with the girls today?" he stated.

"We will, but we're doing it separately right now," replied the director.

I adjusted myself in my seat and cleared my ears, waiting for the song to begin. The man played a few keys on the piano, and then after everyone was ready, he began playing a song. The melody was somewhat slow, but in this slow rhythm was a soothing melody. I was completely intrigued, and then I became more interested once I heard the first word of the song.

Oh my love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
Oh my love like the melody,
That's sweetly played in tune.

With each word said, my tension of fear eased and disappeared within the echoing tune in the song. I focused on Ness' voice, and alternated my attention with Claus and Ninten. It was not very clear as usual, but I could hear them adding to the grace of the song.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till the seas run dry.

Till the seas run dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt with the sun;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-well, my only love
And fare-thee-well, a while!
And I will come again, my love
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

When the song ended, Leila and her group clapped for the boys. They probably were doing it to make me look bad, I thought. I was about to join the clapping until the director spoke and began his teaching.

All I did was watch the boys repeat the directions they were given: repeat this part, sing this again with more emphasis, make the sound more smoothly, and etc. Each time the bass section sang, I kept my eyes and ears open only on Ness. When the baritones solely sang, I put my attention on Claus. And as for the tenors, Ninten was set in my sight. When all of the boys sang, I let myself relax in the brief moments of singing before halted by an order by the teacher. They only sang the song fully again once the female choir group returned from being somewhere to be shown the progress the boys were currently in. With this, they were just showing off, so it was like a friendly battle between the genders. I simply smiled through everything, silently cheering for everyone's hard work. Then, the girls joined the stage with the boys, and they all sang as a full choir group.

Two hours passed by, and everyone left the stage with happy faces, mainly because rehearsal finally ended. I got up, holding Ness' backpack in my hands and was about to run up to go see him. However, he exited on the east side of the stage, where Leila reached him first. She held his hand, showing off excitement and cheer for him. All I saw Ness doing was moving his mouth as if he was saying "thanks," while scratching his head nervously. After a bit of suck-up praise, or so how I saw it, Leila hugged Ness once more, leaving me to begin imagining ways to destroy this girl. She had then left the auditorium through the east door in a hurry with her girls in happy manners.

Ninten came up to me from behind, giving me a thumbs up. "Go on," he whispered. "Go say that he was great at singing, and stuff." I nodded, and walked up to Ness. He greeted me again with another smile.

"So, what'd ya think?" he asked.

"You're an amazing singer," I replied.

"Told ya." Ness chuckled and gently grabbed his backpack from my arms.

Claus walked up from behind Ness and looked at me suspiciously. "What about me?" he asked.

Ninten appeared on my left shoulder. "You're a great singer too, Clausy!" he exclaimed.

"I wasn't asking you!" Claus pulled Ninten's hair for a moment, and let go before he could get caught by the teachers.

"So, you guys going home now?" Ness asked.

"Yeah," replied Claus, "our dad should be here soon, so we gotta head to the front."

"Okay then, I'll see you guys later. I gotta do some more choir stuff." He clenched his fist and extended it to me. "See you later, Luke," he said.

…Luke? He gave me a nickname!

I bumped my fist with his and said good-bye to him. He left through the east door, following some other choir boys.

Once Claus made sure he was finished with choir business, we both left the auditorium towards the school entrance, with Ninten following us. The three of us sat in the grass by the metal gate, waiting for our dad while watching others leave the school in their rides. Ninten left after five minutes of waiting, poking Claus in the forehead before he could run away into the safety of his mom's car. And so, Claus and I were left alone waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

And waiting.

So far, it's been thirty minutes.

"Where's Dad?" I asked. Claus pulled out his cellphone from his pocket and called him.

"Dad?" Claus began. "Where are you? … … …What? … … …Seriously? … …Ugh. …Fine. … … Eh, don't worry."

"What'd he say?" I asked.

"There was a problem at his workplace, so he has to stay an extra two hours…"

"What?" I almost yelled.

"Yeah, it's stupid." Claus threw his back at the cage loudly, but he didn't flinch from being hurt. I sat by him, holding my knees with my arms.

Up ahead on the walk path, a familiar black-haired favorite friend appeared, walking towards us. He waved at us, but we only kept sitting. He reached us and changed his normal smile to curious lips.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Our dad's not getting us for another two hours," Claus replied.

"Wow, seriously?" Ness responded.

Immediately, a vehicle pulled in along the sidewalk. Ness perked up and recognized it as his mom and sister. Before he rushed off to it, he looked at us, and then hurried to the car. When I looked over, Ness was speaking to his mother through the window. Then, both of them, and Tracy, looked at Claus and I. Ness turned around and hurried back to us.

"You guys want a ride home?" he asked.

"Really?" Claus responded.

"Sure, you live close by our house, so it's no problem."

"Ness, you're the best!" Claus exclaimed. He got up, grabbing his backpack, and patted Ness on the shoulder before rushing to the car. I got up as well, wanting to thank Ness. I did it very shyly though.

"Um, thanks a whole lot, Ness," I said, almost looking down.

He put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it." I blushed from the warm touch of his hand as it pierced the fuzz of my shirt. He led me to the car where Claus was impatiently waiting by tapping his toe on the ground. He climbed in first, and I went in next. Soon, Ness came in as well, leaving the three of us sitting together in a somewhat cramped space. However, I liked it, because I was closer to Ness, which was completely more than okay for me.

The drive felt shorter compared to being on the bus. We soon arrived on our house street. I wanted the ride to be longer, so I could unconsciously fall asleep on Ness' shoulder. It was too bad my fantasies were just fantasies.

Claus exited and stretched his body as I followed him out.

"Thank you for the ride," I said to Ness' mother.

"It's no problem sweetie," she replied. "You boys take care now," she said.

I nodded, then looked at Ness. "Bye Ness," I said.

"See ya, Luke," he responded. I felt like every time he said "Luke" I was going to go crazy from giggling on the inside so much.

I closed the car door and walked towards the house with Claus, watching the car drive away and turn when they needed to. Claus called Dad and told him we arrived home safely. Mom had baked us brownies as Dad's apology, which Claus and I happily ate a lot of. I played with Boney for a little bit by tugging a rope with him, then I finished the evening by starting a new drawing. It was going to be a drawing of Ness, Claus, and Ninten, side by side standing on the stage, singing their hearts out.