Chapter Twenty-Three
Ralee Stapp was sitting in the common room listening to the music on the CD when Draco Malfoy sat down next to her. Ralee put down the CD and threw her arms around Draco's neck. "Draco! I'm sorry I haven't spent much time with you lately, I've been busy."
"Yeah with those stupid Gryffindors."
"There's nothing wrong with the Gryffindors Draco, they're really nice."
"Yeah, well I don't want you to be friends with them anymore," said Draco stubbornly.
Ralee stood up. "They're my friends Draco! I'm not going to give up on my friends just because you don't like them. Do you realize how hard it is for me to make friends? And do you know why no one wants to be my friend? Because I'm going out with you! You scare people. And you have no right to tell me what to do, or who to make my friends. If you really loved me, you wouldn't act this way Draco!" Ralee picked up her papers and the CD and fled to the Girls' dormitorys, leaving a shocked Draco behind her.
The next evening, Mandy, Elorra, Lizzy, Hermione, Ralee, and Missy met once again to practice their act. They met in the empty Transfiguratioon classroom again and locked the doors.
Ralee turned around to face them. "All right guys, I listened to the rest of the CD and figured out two other songs that we should do for our main act, then I picked out another one in case we have an encore, then a fifth one in case we win, then a sixth one-just in case."
Mandy leaned over towards Lizzy. "Confident isn't she?"
Hermione raised her hand. "Um, Ralee, there are only five songs on that CD."
Ralee sighed. "Oh yeah you're right. Well we'll just have to write one ourselves, won't we?"
The girls looked at each other, then back at Ralee.
They agreed, each wondering to themselves if they would be able to write that good.
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"Ok."
"Whatever."
"Um...Ok."
Ralee smiled. "All right, first of all have you guys been working on the music?"
They all nodded.
"Good, next song that we'll practice on will be Hold On, by B-Witched."
She passed out music sheets, and the girls took their places.
The song started out with a single drum beat, a clash of the symbols, then the song started. Lizzy kept a steady beat going while Mandy, Elorra, and Ralee sang: "Hold on!"
Mandy and Elorra echoed Ralee separately, then Ralee continued on, after Elorra added the bass.
"You've always been a tough girl, but you feel you're about to break. You're feelin' stuck and out o' luck watchin' your dreams all separate. Been workin' mornin's in the kitchen, and workin' nights at the corner store. As your life flys by, you wonder why and you know that there's gotta be somethin' more."
Then Missy and Mandy joined in with the acoustic and electric guitars and then Mandy, Elorra, and Ralee all sang together:
"Hold on, but don't hold too tight, let go, it's gonna be alright. Don't run away from what your heart is sayin'. Oh, oh. Be strong, face what you're afraid of. Come on! Show 'em what you're made of. I know it's hard when your hope is gone, but you gotta keep holdin' on."
Then Missy dropped out her guitar, and Mandy dropped out her guitar, and left Elorra with the bass, Lizzy with the drums, and Ralee singing alone:
"You hear a voice that's callin', and it's tellin' you to make a change. It's time to fly and say goodbye and move onto a better place. You know you gotta take the first step to get to where you wanna be, just get on track, and don't look back, 'cause it's the only way that you're gonna be free."
Then they all joined in with all of the instruments and voices, singing:
"Hold on, but don't hold too tight. Let go, it's gonna be alright. Don't run away from what your heart is sayin'. Oh, oh. Be strong, face what you're afraid of. Come on! Show 'em what you're made of. I know it's hard when your hope is gone, but you gotta keep holdin' on."
Elorra and Mandy sang alone: "Hold on."
Then Ralee, Elorra, and Mandy sang together:
"You're gonna make it, you're gonna be stronger."
Then Elorra and Mandy:
"Hold on."
Then Ralee:
"Hang in there baby just a little bit longer."
Elorra and Mandy:
"Hold on."
Ralee:
"Yeah, you're gonna be fine."
Then all of the instruments except for the bass and drums dropped out, and Ralee and Mandy sang alone.
"Don't give up, be strong. When the going gets tough, you gotta hold on."
Then Elorra joined in with them, and all of the instruments joined in:
"Hold on, but don't hold too tight. Let go, you're gonna be alright. Don't run away from what your heart is sayin'. Oh, oh. Be strong, face what you're afraid of. Come on! Show 'em what you're made of. I know it's hard when your hope is gone, but you gotta keep holdin' on."
Then Mandy and Elorra sang:
"I know it's hard."
Then all three of them sang the chorus together until they got to 'I know it's hard when your hope is gone.'
They repeated that line twice, altogether singing it three times.
Then Ralee sang alone:
"But you gotta keep, yeah, holdin' on!"
Then Elorra and Mandy blended in:
"Hold on!"
Ralee:
"Hold on!"
Elorra and Mandy blending in:
"Hold on!"
Then altogether:
"Hold on!"
Elorra's bass trailed out, then they all stopped and looked at each other, a little breathless.
"Well," said Ralee. "That wasn't so bad, but it was far from perfect. Let's all take a break and work on the song we're writing, then we can practice again."
They all sat down in a circle, after they put the instruments and microphones away.
Ralee thought a second. "Ok, here's what we can do, we'll all write a draft of a song, then we'll all choose the one we like the best and work on it, ok? Don't worry if you're not good at writing songs or poetry, I'm not sure I'm so great myself." She made a face.
The girls all bent over their papers, and wrote. Some feverishly, some thoughtfully, some slowly. When they were done, they passed their papers to Ralee and she looked them over thoughtfully. Then she laid them out on the floor and had everyone look at them.
After everyone studied them for a few minutes, Ralee sat back.
"Ok, so let's hear your votes."
All of the girls minus Missy pointed simultaneously at one piece of paper.
Ralee looked at Missy.
"Well, Missy?"
Missy shrugged. "I can't decide."
Ralee looked at the paper everyone had pointed to. "Well, who wrote this?"
Everyone shook their heads, except Missy, then they all looked over at her together.
Missy blushed.
"Missy!" Ralee exclaimed. "You wrote this?"
"Well...yes."
"Well, then that's final, we'll do this one. Alright?" She looked around at them all.
They all nodded.
That first draft went like this:
Could Have Been With You
As the wind wafts through the trees, as time passes by, I mourn.
I grieve the time lost that could have been spent with you.
I could have been with you during all of the time I wasted.
But I was afraid.
Afraid of love in vain; of love not returned.
I know better now, deep in my heart; that I should waste no time when it comes to love, because life is free.
And it ends. It ends.
And you ended, away from me.
I rue the day I decided not to send that love letter, the day I didn't tell you how I felt.
Now my time is up.
But you know now, how I feel.
I could have been with you.
I'm going to move on.
And when I end, I'll see you again.
Goodbye.
The girls worked on it for the next two hours, laughing and giggling over their ideas, until the song turned into something that wasn't very different from what it had started out as. It was a little longer, and they had added the instruments to it, and it sounded very good.
Ralee looked at her watch. "Gadzooks! We're out of time, I'll see you guys, same place, same time tomorrow. Don't forget to practice!"
And they were sent on their way.
Ralee Stapp was sitting in the common room listening to the music on the CD when Draco Malfoy sat down next to her. Ralee put down the CD and threw her arms around Draco's neck. "Draco! I'm sorry I haven't spent much time with you lately, I've been busy."
"Yeah with those stupid Gryffindors."
"There's nothing wrong with the Gryffindors Draco, they're really nice."
"Yeah, well I don't want you to be friends with them anymore," said Draco stubbornly.
Ralee stood up. "They're my friends Draco! I'm not going to give up on my friends just because you don't like them. Do you realize how hard it is for me to make friends? And do you know why no one wants to be my friend? Because I'm going out with you! You scare people. And you have no right to tell me what to do, or who to make my friends. If you really loved me, you wouldn't act this way Draco!" Ralee picked up her papers and the CD and fled to the Girls' dormitorys, leaving a shocked Draco behind her.
The next evening, Mandy, Elorra, Lizzy, Hermione, Ralee, and Missy met once again to practice their act. They met in the empty Transfiguratioon classroom again and locked the doors.
Ralee turned around to face them. "All right guys, I listened to the rest of the CD and figured out two other songs that we should do for our main act, then I picked out another one in case we have an encore, then a fifth one in case we win, then a sixth one-just in case."
Mandy leaned over towards Lizzy. "Confident isn't she?"
Hermione raised her hand. "Um, Ralee, there are only five songs on that CD."
Ralee sighed. "Oh yeah you're right. Well we'll just have to write one ourselves, won't we?"
The girls looked at each other, then back at Ralee.
They agreed, each wondering to themselves if they would be able to write that good.
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"Ok."
"Whatever."
"Um...Ok."
Ralee smiled. "All right, first of all have you guys been working on the music?"
They all nodded.
"Good, next song that we'll practice on will be Hold On, by B-Witched."
She passed out music sheets, and the girls took their places.
The song started out with a single drum beat, a clash of the symbols, then the song started. Lizzy kept a steady beat going while Mandy, Elorra, and Ralee sang: "Hold on!"
Mandy and Elorra echoed Ralee separately, then Ralee continued on, after Elorra added the bass.
"You've always been a tough girl, but you feel you're about to break. You're feelin' stuck and out o' luck watchin' your dreams all separate. Been workin' mornin's in the kitchen, and workin' nights at the corner store. As your life flys by, you wonder why and you know that there's gotta be somethin' more."
Then Missy and Mandy joined in with the acoustic and electric guitars and then Mandy, Elorra, and Ralee all sang together:
"Hold on, but don't hold too tight, let go, it's gonna be alright. Don't run away from what your heart is sayin'. Oh, oh. Be strong, face what you're afraid of. Come on! Show 'em what you're made of. I know it's hard when your hope is gone, but you gotta keep holdin' on."
Then Missy dropped out her guitar, and Mandy dropped out her guitar, and left Elorra with the bass, Lizzy with the drums, and Ralee singing alone:
"You hear a voice that's callin', and it's tellin' you to make a change. It's time to fly and say goodbye and move onto a better place. You know you gotta take the first step to get to where you wanna be, just get on track, and don't look back, 'cause it's the only way that you're gonna be free."
Then they all joined in with all of the instruments and voices, singing:
"Hold on, but don't hold too tight. Let go, it's gonna be alright. Don't run away from what your heart is sayin'. Oh, oh. Be strong, face what you're afraid of. Come on! Show 'em what you're made of. I know it's hard when your hope is gone, but you gotta keep holdin' on."
Elorra and Mandy sang alone: "Hold on."
Then Ralee, Elorra, and Mandy sang together:
"You're gonna make it, you're gonna be stronger."
Then Elorra and Mandy:
"Hold on."
Then Ralee:
"Hang in there baby just a little bit longer."
Elorra and Mandy:
"Hold on."
Ralee:
"Yeah, you're gonna be fine."
Then all of the instruments except for the bass and drums dropped out, and Ralee and Mandy sang alone.
"Don't give up, be strong. When the going gets tough, you gotta hold on."
Then Elorra joined in with them, and all of the instruments joined in:
"Hold on, but don't hold too tight. Let go, you're gonna be alright. Don't run away from what your heart is sayin'. Oh, oh. Be strong, face what you're afraid of. Come on! Show 'em what you're made of. I know it's hard when your hope is gone, but you gotta keep holdin' on."
Then Mandy and Elorra sang:
"I know it's hard."
Then all three of them sang the chorus together until they got to 'I know it's hard when your hope is gone.'
They repeated that line twice, altogether singing it three times.
Then Ralee sang alone:
"But you gotta keep, yeah, holdin' on!"
Then Elorra and Mandy blended in:
"Hold on!"
Ralee:
"Hold on!"
Elorra and Mandy blending in:
"Hold on!"
Then altogether:
"Hold on!"
Elorra's bass trailed out, then they all stopped and looked at each other, a little breathless.
"Well," said Ralee. "That wasn't so bad, but it was far from perfect. Let's all take a break and work on the song we're writing, then we can practice again."
They all sat down in a circle, after they put the instruments and microphones away.
Ralee thought a second. "Ok, here's what we can do, we'll all write a draft of a song, then we'll all choose the one we like the best and work on it, ok? Don't worry if you're not good at writing songs or poetry, I'm not sure I'm so great myself." She made a face.
The girls all bent over their papers, and wrote. Some feverishly, some thoughtfully, some slowly. When they were done, they passed their papers to Ralee and she looked them over thoughtfully. Then she laid them out on the floor and had everyone look at them.
After everyone studied them for a few minutes, Ralee sat back.
"Ok, so let's hear your votes."
All of the girls minus Missy pointed simultaneously at one piece of paper.
Ralee looked at Missy.
"Well, Missy?"
Missy shrugged. "I can't decide."
Ralee looked at the paper everyone had pointed to. "Well, who wrote this?"
Everyone shook their heads, except Missy, then they all looked over at her together.
Missy blushed.
"Missy!" Ralee exclaimed. "You wrote this?"
"Well...yes."
"Well, then that's final, we'll do this one. Alright?" She looked around at them all.
They all nodded.
That first draft went like this:
Could Have Been With You
As the wind wafts through the trees, as time passes by, I mourn.
I grieve the time lost that could have been spent with you.
I could have been with you during all of the time I wasted.
But I was afraid.
Afraid of love in vain; of love not returned.
I know better now, deep in my heart; that I should waste no time when it comes to love, because life is free.
And it ends. It ends.
And you ended, away from me.
I rue the day I decided not to send that love letter, the day I didn't tell you how I felt.
Now my time is up.
But you know now, how I feel.
I could have been with you.
I'm going to move on.
And when I end, I'll see you again.
Goodbye.
The girls worked on it for the next two hours, laughing and giggling over their ideas, until the song turned into something that wasn't very different from what it had started out as. It was a little longer, and they had added the instruments to it, and it sounded very good.
Ralee looked at her watch. "Gadzooks! We're out of time, I'll see you guys, same place, same time tomorrow. Don't forget to practice!"
And they were sent on their way.
