Story #10: Trouble Choir
A/N: So I was rereading WWS for kicks and came across a line I threw in without really thinking about it. But it makes excellent BFT fodder. So I'm going to expand upon it!
I'm going to say they're in…second grade at this point. Because their voices can't have broken yet…
Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.
Bambi belongs to Walt Disney Pictures.
"Hey! Hey guys!"
Francis grabbed Antonio's sleeve, causing him to stagger back a little. Gillian finally caught up to them, panting slightly.
"Let's go rollerblading on the boardwalk on the weekend? It'll be totally awesome!"
Antonio's face lit up at the prospect, but Francis shook his head. "We can't, Gilly. Sorry."
The little silver-haired girl was not so easily deterred, and her red eyes narrowed at the choice of words. "We?"
"…Um, yeah." The boys made the mistake of eyeballing each other surreptitiously. Gillian scowled.
"It's not awesome to make secrets without telling me!" She stomped forward and jabbed a finger against Francis's chest. "You suck at being a best friend! You too, 'Tonio!"
That was a little harsh, especially for the one who hadn't spoken a single word yet. Antonio's cheerful expression crumpled, morphing into one of worry as Francis and Gillian began to argue.
"You don't even know what we have to do. Stop being so unfair!"
"Unfair? You guys are the ones being unfair and unawesome and just super super sucky. Making plans behind my back and everything!"
"It's not our fault," Francis declared staunchly. "It was our moms' idea."
Gillian raised one eyebrow, frowning sceptically.
"We…we have choir practice."
There was a momentary pause as the two friends stared at each other. Then Gillian threw her head back and let out a scream of laughter.
"Are you serious?"
Francis shrugged, but Antonio piped up. "It's really fun! You should come!"
So that Saturday afternoon found the three of them tramping into Miss Julie's Treble Choir class at 3 PM. The kind-hearted conductor peered down at the children over her glasses.
"Good afternoon, Antonio, Francis. Who's your friend?"
Gillian stuck her hand out, beaming. "I'm Gill, and I'm awesome!"
"Nice to meet you. Is this your first time singing?"
"I can totally sing! Do I have to sing for you first? Can I si-"
"No, that's alright. Are you a soprano or an alto?"
Red eyes blinked blankly at her. Miss Julie gently pulled her aside to allow other kids to get to their seats. "Do you sing high or low?"
Gillian shrugged. "I dunno. Can I just sit with Francis and 'Tonio?"
Miss Julie sighed. "Francis is an alto, and Antonio is soprano. Tell you what, you can sit with Antonio for now, and tell me if it's too hard to sing, alright?"
"It won't be too hard! I'm awesome!"
Miss Julie watched the girl scramble excitedly up the benches, not paying any attention to the winces and indignant cries of those who were being elbowed aside. Antonio scooted over, delighted to have his friend nearby.
"Alright, my choristers. Let's begin! Today we're going to learn a new song. Some of you might know it already – has anyone here seen the movie Bambi?"
About two-thirds of the room raised their hands. Exactly 1/32 though, began flailing excitedly.
"I've seen it! It was happy, but scary, and sad when the mommy deer dies, because the hunter shoots her, but then Bambi grows up and gets really awesome, which you can see from the awesome antlers he grows, and-"
"Si, and the bunnies were very very cute!"
"Uh, okay, that's wonderful that you've seen Bambi, because that's where this song is from. Gill, please don't talk until I call on you. Here's the music. Be careful now; they're originals." Miss Julie lifted up a stack of neatly folded packets and started to pass them out. Antonio opened one and began to explain sight reading to Gillian.
"So when the little dots go up, you sing higher, and when they go down, you sing lower. And we sing this part only, because we're the sopranos. The altos sing that line-"
"Does everyone have music? Good," Miss Julie announced. "Before we start singing, I'm going to play the tape so those who haven't heard it before will get an understanding of how it goes. Follow along in your music."
Drip drip drop, little April shower,
Beating a tune as you fall all around.
Drip drip drop, little April shower,
What can compare to your beautiful sound?
Beautiful sound, beautiful sound.
Drip, drop, drip, drop…
Drip drip drop, when the sky is cloudy,
Your pretty music will brighten the day.
Drip drip drop, when the sky is cloudy,
You come along with a song right away.
Come with your beautiful music!
Miss Julie surveyed her brood carefully. The smaller children seemed happy with the extremely simple song, though the older ones didn't seem to mind either. Every eye was trained upon the folded papers in their hands. Antonio was still pointing out the changes in the musical notation to Gillian as the song progressed. Originally, the girl didn't look particularly interested in the lyrics, but about two minutes into the song, her eyes suddenly popped open.
"Thunderstorm sequence? That's awesome! I wanna be the thunder! Francis can be lightning! And Toni, you can be the rain!"
She began waving emphatically at Francis from across the room, and Miss Julie realized this was probably a moment to intervene. "Gill-"
"Hey Francis, now you can actually have an excuse to flash people! It's like your lightning attack!"
All the other children were now staring incredulously at the hyper eight-year old, who had taken to standing on her bench in excitement.
"BOOM! I'm the thunder!"
"Gill! Sit down right this instant. This isn't the ti-"
"BOOM! Watch out for the awesome thunder!" Gillian leaped off her perch to land hard and loud onto the wooden bench in the row in front of her. Which, unfortunately, was next to an extremely shy kindergarten girl who promptly burst into a fit of tears.
"Hey, don't cry. You can play too! You can be a raincloud, because you're crying, and that's like raindrops, kinda."
"GILL!"
Nearly a week later, Francis, Antonio and Gillian raced out of school and towards their favourite snack shop. After being sated with a cherry popsicle each, the three seated themselves on the curb and began to chat.
"So…Gilly, are you coming back to choir tomorrow?"
Gillian was busy licking the sticky, melted mess off her hands. "Nah…"
Antonio looked disappointed. "Aw, why not?"
"It's just not that awesome. Why sing about a thunderstorm if you can't be the thunderstorm?"
"You knocked over two benches and made someone cry! And then that kid who keeps his keys attached to his belt puked all over the floor-"
"That's not my fault!" Gillian frowned at Francis's accusation. "Just because it was my first time there doesn't mean everything happened because of me."
"Then why are you leaving?"
Gillian finished her popsicle and began chewing on the stick. "Hmm. I don't think it's my thing…I don't like sitting on a bench all afternoon. That's boring!"
"But that's okay," she announced generously. "You guys can still go."
"I don't think you have a say whether we do," Francis remarked drily.
"I'm going to do something more awesome on Saturdays!" She grinned at them with slightly stained teeth. "Lizzy's mom told me about this girls' soccer team that she's in, and I wanna kick her butt. So while you guys are gonna be sitting in a boring room with boring music and boring everything, I'm going to show everyone just how awesome I am!"
And for emphasis, she flicked the popsicle stick out of her mouth, and delivered a spectacular kick that zoomed it across the street.
A/N: Awww, I haven't written about these guys in so long. Side projects sidetrack. I love how in grade school, Francis and Antonio go to choir and Gillian plays soccer. That's just adorable.
YET ANOTHER THEATRE REFERENCE. WHO CAN GET IT? Here's a clue: think Nordic.
On a completely unrelated note, I would just like to use this time to lament the fact that I think I'm going to have to drop my minor. The reason is that I'm going into my fourth year, and I would really like to still graduate on time, but a course required for this minor has a conflict with a drama course I refuse to drop (it's hard to get into, and I got accepted). It's okay because I'm a specialist, so I don't need a minor, but I guess I wasted two credits on film technique and theory now…sigh, I was so looking forward to taking Chinese cinema in the summer too :C But on the bright side, I think I'm going to use the remainder of needed credits on history courses! I'm applying for History of China and History of Hong Kong. I've never taken a history class (except for theatre history) in university before, so I'm very, very excited.
