AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey, all! I was shocked to discover that the last time I had published a chapter was in 2019-I really didn't mean to let this story get away from me like that! I'm happy to say that I've been inspired to work on this fic again, and I have about 11K words written already! My plan is to publish a new chapter every Friday, so keep an eye out! A big THANK YOU to those of you who are following this story and who have left comments and reviews and let me know how much you've enjoyed it! This chapter is a little short and may seem slow, but the action will pick up over the next couple of chapters! I hope you enjoy it!
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I walked down the sidewalk around to the driver's side of the Impala.
Dean rolled down the window and looked up at me. "What's up?"
"Um, Ms. Brown called an emergency rehearsal right now, for about 45 minutes… can I go? Please?" I crossed my fingers behind my back.
"An emergency rehearsal?" Dean rolled his eyes.
"She found out that the elementary school wants us to perform for them next week and she wants to tell us about it and practice. Please can I go?"
He held my eyes. "We should call Dad and ask."
I shifted my backpack on my shoulder. "Aw, c'mon, Dean, you know he'll just say no. Can you just...I don't know...let me start the rehearsal and then call Dad?" I gave him puppy dog eyes. "Pleeease?"
Something changed in his face and he sighed. "All right." he said. "Stay there, I'm going to park and come in." He put the car in gear and drove around to the parking lot.
I walked back towards the front doors of the school and waited for him.
"Thanks for letting me do this." I said as he fell into place beside me.
"Yeah, well, I just hope Dad doesn't bust my chops." He replied as we threaded our way through the people still in the halls.
"Hey, sweet ride!" A guy called to us as we walked past. Dean turned and gave him a funny look.
"It's Impala Girl!" Said another guy who was wearing a varsity jacket. He looked at Dean. "Your car is wicked!" He held his fist up.
Dean looked at me with a frown. "How do all these people know the car?"
"Oh come on, Dean, it's not like the Impala blends in. You can hear it coming for miles, and practically all the guys at the school drool after it when you pull up to the curb."
" 'Impala girl'?" he asked me.
"That's what a lot of people call me because they see me getting into the car. Even some of the popular people know me because of it!"
He smiled proudly. "Good to see kids these days can appreciate quality!"
We walked into the auditorium and down towards the stage. A couple of people were arranging chairs in a half circle onstage, but most everyone else was standing around the rows of chairs in the audience.
Ms. Brown was standing on the edge of the stage. "Are you bringing us a new member, Alyson?" She smiled.
"Uh, no, this is my brother, Dean." I introduced. "And yes, this is the guy who drives the Impala, so if you want to ooh and aah over it, get it out of your system now."
Todd and James jumped at the invitation and started flooding Dean with questions, while Jenny hurried over to me. "You're here! I didn't think you'd be allowed to stay!"
"Yeah, my brother said I could." I dropped my backpack onto one of the seats.
She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Do you want to spend the night at my house this Friday? We can go to the football game and then to the party afterwards."
I glanced around- Dean was completely focused on talking to the guys, so he wouldn't overhear us. "Did your mom say it was okay to go to the party?"
She leaned close to me, her eyes dancing. "No, I'm gonna tell her that we're spending the night at Haley's, and she's gonna tell her mom that she's spending the night at my house. No one will catch on!"
I was about to ask if we were going to be at the party all night and how that would work, but Ms. Brown clapped her hands. "All right, people, let's get started. We only have about 40 minutes."
"Aly, I'll be over here." Dean called, pointing to the chairs off to the side. He went over to sit down as I followed the rest of the students up onto the stage. I felt a little shy that he was going to be at the rehearsal.
Ms. Brown sat at the upright piano that was on the stage as everyone found their chairs. I sat between Haley and Jenny.
"Oh look, it's the three divas." Ben called over with a grin. Haley blushed, but Jenny stuck her tongue out at him.
Ms. Brown began to play scales so we could warm up. I thought I heard my phone ringing faintly from my backpack while the tenors were singing, but I wasn't sure.
After the warmup, Ms. Brown was playing through the Mozart piece we had sung before when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over- Dean had gotten up, his phone to his ear, and was walking quickly over to the edge of the seats. Uh-oh, maybe Dad had tried to call me first and then when I didn't answer, he called Dean? Was I going to be in trouble? I knew I should have called Dad to ask permission, but I also knew that with his mood lately, the answer would've most likely been no. It seemed like his mission in life was to hunt, do research, and tell me that I wasn't allowed to do anything I wanted.
"Alyson, the sopranos are supposed to come in at measure 6, can you join us?" Ms. Brown called.
"Sorry." I muttered, feeling my face get hot. I kept an eye on Dean to see if he was going to come over and tell me we had to leave, but after a few minutes, he walked back to where he'd sat down before.
After we sang through the Mozart, Ms. Brown turned to us. "We'll perform the Mozart and the Tallis, but I think we could learn a new one before we go. Let's take a look at this." Ms. Brown held up a sheaf of papers. "Here, Marc, can you pass these out for me?"
"With pleasure." Marc stood up and walked around handing out the sheet music. When he got to Jenny, she held her hand up and he acted like he was going to give it to her, but then he yanked the paper away from her. He turned to me and held it out with a flourish. "For you, milady." He said in a formal voice.
"Thanks." I took the music from him.
"Gimme one, you butthead!" Jenny said.
Marc winked at me and then put the music behind his back. "I'm sorry, we're all out, you can't sing with us." He said to her. "Now get out."
"You twit!" Jenny stood up and punched his arm, and everyone laughed. They love to give each other a hard time.
"Anytime you're ready, Marc." Ms. Brown said, and everyone laughed again.
Marc hurried over to his chair and sat down.
"Now, this piece has two choirs- I know, I know-" Ms. Brown held her hand up at the protestations. Our choir was small, only 16 people in it. "The main choir sings the melody, and the second choir sings a refrain in Latin. The second choir will be four soloists, and our resident expert in Latin will lead them." She smiled at me. "Think you can handle it?"
My face got hot. "Uh, sure."
A couple of people clapped and someone said, "Go, Aly!"
"So the second choir will be Aly on soprano, Mikalya on alto, Marc on tenor, and James on bass. I'll play the whole piece through once so you can hear how it's almost a call and response." Ms. Brown began to play the piano.
When the last piano notes died out, I had goosebumps. The music sounded almost ethereal. Someone else said, "Wow!"
Ms. Brown nodded. "It's especially effective if you can separate the two choirs. When we performed it in a church, the first choir was at the front of the church and the second was at the back, and there was a wonderful echo. It was really powerful. Depending on how big the stage is, we may be able to have the two choirs facing each other." She gestured to us. "Second choir, come up here and stand around the piano so that you can really hear your parts."
I stood up and walked over, ending up between Mikayla and Marc.
"Um, how do you say that?" Mikayla pointed to a word.
"Peck-a tree-cheh," I pronounced. "And then the next phrase is 'deh teh- gen- uh- tree-cheh', with a hard 'g'."
Marc was watching me. "You're good at that." He said admiringly.
"Oh, well, I-" I shrugged, feeling my face get hot again.
He smiled at me.
"All right, let's try and get through as much of this as we can." Ms. Brown began to play. We worked on learning our individual parts, eventually singing the first two pages of the piece before time was up.
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When rehearsal ended, Todd and James walked with Dean and me, talking a mile a minute about the Impala. I wandered behind them.
"Aly!" Someone called. I turned. Marc was hurrying toward me.
"What's up?" I asked as he caught up with me.
"Hey, so, uh, are you, uh, you going to the game this Friday?" He was out of breath.
"I have to ask my Dad."
He nodded. "Oh, okay. Well, uh, if you go, do you want to-"
"Aly! Shake a leg!" Dean called back. He and the other guys were standing at the doorway to the parking lot, waiting for me.
"Sorry." I said to Marc.
"No, it's okay, I gotta go too. See ya around." He turned and walked back the way he came.
Dean raised his eyebrows at me as we walked outside. I didn't say anything.
"So, can I take a look at the engine?" James asked when we got to the car.
Dean said regretfully, "Sorry guys, we've got places to be."
"Next time you come pick Aly up, you gotta let us look things over!" Todd said, running his hand down the side of Baby.
Dean chuckled. "Yeah, we'll see."
"See ya later!" They both called as we climbed into the car.
Dean glanced at me as he backed out of the parking space. "You and those damn puppy dog eyes, just like Sam. Now Dad's pissed at me for letting you go." He sighed.
"Did he yell at you?"
He grimaced. "Not in-so many words."
"Sorry." I looked down at my hands in my lap. I didn't mean for my brother to get into trouble.
"I had no idea that people knew about my Baby." He said with a little chuckle.
"It's pretty funny when you consider that I'm a big nerd, but popular guys know who I am and say hi to me because of the car!" I laughed.
"Speaking of guys," Dean said. "The guy who came up to you in the hallway? What's his name, Matt, Mark?"
"Yeah, Marc, he's Jenny's friend."
Dean glanced at me again. "He likes you."
"What?! No, I don't think so, Dean." I shook my head in disbelief.
"Yeah, he does," he insisted.
"How do you know that?"
"I was a teenage boy once, I know the signs. And the way he was acting during the rehearsal-he's definitely got his eye on you."
"You're crazy!" I turned to look out the window. At the library, Haley had said that Ben hinted that his friends were interested in her friends, but that probably didn't mean me. It was a known fact that Ben liked Haley, and Jenny and Marc were like brother and sister.
After a long moment, Dean said, "You really enjoy singing in the choir, don't you?"
"Yes," I said. "It's something that I'm good at and I have fun."
"I could tell. I was watching you, and you were really into it. I could pick out your voice too. You sounded good. That last song was really pretty, too."
I felt embarrassed by the compliment. "Thanks. Yeah, it is a really pretty piece."
"You're the 'resident Latin expert', huh?" He asked teasingly.
I felt my face get hot. "Yeah, no one else knows how to pronounce anything!"
He chuckled. "I'll bet Dad never thought that teaching us Latin would help you with something like that." He reached over and squeezed my shoulder. "I'm glad you found something that you like to do."
"Thanks again for letting me go." I said. "Even if Dad is mad at us."
Dad's glare and hands on hips when we got home indicated that he was indeed mad at us, although more so at Dean than at me.
"I put rules in place for a reason, Dean." Dad said sternly. "Not for Aly to ignore when she feels like it, not for you to ignore either."
"Yessir, I know. I said I was sorry." Dean said regretfully.
"Dean, you know we have to be careful right now!" Dad snapped. He turned to me."What was this for?"
"Ms. Brown just found out that the elementary school wants all the music groups to perform there to give the kids a chance to see what they're like. The band is going this week and the choir is going next week. Can I go?"
"What day?"
"I'm not sure, but it'll be during school."
He frowned. "I don't know, I don't have time to check out the other school right now and make sure it's safe, let me think about it."
"Dad, please!" I said.
He gave me a look. "What did I just say, Alyson? If you keep pestering me the answer is going to be no."
I turned to go to my room. "You're probably just going to say no anyway." I muttered under my breath.
"What did you say to me?" His voice was hard. He took my arm and turned me to face him.
"I said you're probably just going to say no anyway!" I flared. "That's all you seem to do these days anyways, is tell me no about anything that I like doing!"
He shook my arm. "There are more important things happening right now than you going to a school activity!"
"Oh, let me guess, something having to do with hunting or research?" I rolled my eyes.
"Watch your mouth-"
"Aly, let it go for now." Sam interrupted. "Dinner's ready."
Dad let go of my arm and we all trooped into the kitchen. Sam had put a frozen lasagne in the oven and there was a store-bought salad.
The middle of the lasagne was cold and the lettuce was a little wilty, but I forced myself to eat. There was tension in the air and no one talked, and I kept my eyes on my plate the whole time. After dinner, I washed the dishes and then went to grab my backpack from the living room.
Dad was sitting at the end of the sofa, a stack of books and papers on the coffee table in front of him. Sam was sitting at the other end of the sofa, a book in his lap.
I removed my cell phone from the outer packet of my backpack and walked over to stand in front of Dad. "Here." I held out my phone.
He glanced up at me, a pen in his hand. "Why didn't you answer your phone earlier?" He rumbled.
"Because I was at rehearsal, Dad. Even though school was over, I was still technically doing something for school." The school rule was that your cell phone had to stay turned off during the school day.
He grunted and held his hand out, and I handed the phone to him and then turned to go to my room.
"Hey, you never told me what you got on your Jane Austen paper and your Social Studies paper." Sam said.
"We got a B minus on the Jane Austen. I don't know about the other one yet."
"Just a B minus, why didn't you get an A?" Sam asked with a smile. I could tell he was teasing me but I wasn't in the mood.
"I don't know, Sam, I guess because I'm just dumb!" I snapped. I turned to stomp to my room, stopping short of slamming the door. That would have brought Dad storming in; one quick way to get your butt smacked in the Winchester household was to slam a door.
I tossed my backpack on the bed and sat down with a huff. I was in the middle of pulling my books out when Dean appeared in the doorway.
"What?" I snapped.
He leaned on the door jamb, crossing his arms. "You want to give Sam a break? He didn't do anything to you, and he was just asking about your schoolwork. You should feel grateful that you have family who cares about your schooling and stuff."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, yeah, three men who get on my case about every little thing. It's great." I said sarcastically.
He stepped over to the bed. "Hey, lay off the eye rolling and snark, would ya? At least be thankful that I let you go to practice today, even though Dad read me the riot act while I was waiting for you."
My anger deflated. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, just ease up a little on everything, okay? We're not out to make sure you have a shitty time, ya know?" He gave me a lopsided smile.
"Well...okay." I smiled back at him and he left the room. I told myself I'd check in with Sam later and apologize for snapping at him.
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I woke up feeling someone taking my shoe off, and I sat up quickly.
Dad was sitting on the edge of the bed, his hand on my ankle. I blinked at him, frowning, and he set my shoe on the floor. "All right, let's get you under the covers."
"Where's my books?" I asked thickly as I got up.
He pulled the covers down. "I put everything in your backpack. C'mon, in bed."
I got under the covers and turned on my side, facing away from him, already falling back to sleep. I felt him smoothing my hair back from my face and then his lips brushed my temple. "Good night, Alyson." He murmured as he pulled the covers up and tucked them around my shoulders. As I drifted off, I realized that it had been a long time since he had tucked me in.
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Author's Note: The piece mentioned in this chapter is "Hymn to the Virgin" by Benjamin Britten. My favorite performance is by the group Chanticleer. Give it a listen and let me know what you think! (I've actually performed it in a church with the choir separated, it was beautiful!)