authors note: sorry that this took so long everyone! school is more than a pain, it's consuming my soul. i was also suffering writers block pretty hard core. but...i figured you guys deserved an update. i hate it when the stories i'm reading aren't updated. so, here it is. enjoy!

CHAPTER FOUR

Skipper ran out the door and into his friends. They immediately surrounded him, demanding to know what had transpired behind the locked door. "You're all idiots!" Skipper yelled. Tears were beginning to fill his eyes. He wanted to get out of these damn clothes, go hide in a hole somewhere, and just be left alone. Skipper began to furiously elbow his way through the small crowd of his friends, breaking into a run when he was free of them.

Rosa ran after him, catching him when he turned the corner. Damn these heels! He thought. Skipper began to savagely yank them off as Rosa began to babble at him. "Skipper I'm sorry. We're all sorry. We just thought it was a bit of fun. What happened?"

Skipper angrily wiped a hand across his leaking eyes before answering. "I'll tell you what happened. You made me sing the top secret song for the coming Gather. You embarrassed me in front of the whole school. You let me take the blame for the whole thing, even though it's all your fault. And now, I am on the Mastersingers shit list! He was the only Master that I wanted to impress. He is the only Master that can help me accomplish what I want. Fat chance now!"

"Skipper," Rosa whispered, her own eyes beginning to fill with tears now, "I'm so sorry! We can make it up to you. I am Jameth's niece. His favorite niece! He'll listen to me. The others are already in his classroom explaining the whole thing. We're making it clear that it wasn't your fault! We'll take all the blame..." her voice trailed off when she realized that Skipper was shaking his head.

"You didn't hear him Rosa. He yelled at me, heard me sing, said that it was my voice that would be 'forever embedded in Hall dwellers minds'when they listened to that song." Skipper shrugged. He shoved the shoes into Rosa's hands and began walking back down the hallway. "Just leave me alone." Now Rosa really did begin to cry. What a great way to start off his training at the Hall! All because of us, she thought sadly. She swallowed and walked determinedly to her uncle's classroom.

Their stunt was still being talked about in the Hall a week later. It wasn't every day that you saw Mastersinger Jameth lose control like that. In fact, you simply didn't see him lose control like that. Students whispering in hallways, talking about it at lunch, and looking at any member of the group that passed them with great respect, and even awe.

That was how things still stood a week later, as the group headed for their fifth day of detention. Used to the routine by now, they weren't surprised when they were each assigned another classroom to go to when they entered the detention room. Part of the punishment was that they couldn't bear it together.

They were generally sent to the same Master every time. It was with pleasure that Skipper heard he was with Mastersinger Jameth again. He cracked his knuckles and looked at his friends. "Another day to work myself back into his good graces." He grinned at them all. It had taken a few days for them to become comfortable around one another again. The fact that they had tried to take all the blame for him had helped to soften his anger, and when he overheard Rosa speaking with Jameth about the whole situation, he couldn't help but forgive them. Good friends look out for one another like that, and he wasn't about to lose them.

Skipper began his delinquents walk to Mastersinger Jameth's room. He had been slowly, and successfully, he hoped, chipping away at Jameth. Yesterday he had gotten a grudging smile out of the man. He expected another one today.

Skipper entered the room with a cheerful whistle, and plopped into his usual desk at the front of the classroom. He kept up the cheerful tune, adding the tap of his feet and the drum of his fingers to it. The tune just rolled out of him. Without really thinking about it, he began to turn a simple tune into a complex beat. He was rather pleased with how it sounded. Perhaps Jameth is too, he thought. Before he could look up and check, though, Jameth said, in great annoyance, to please shut up. With a sigh, Skipper sank back down into his chair.

After a few minutes of silently drumming his fingers he brightened up. It was a lucky thing, too. He thought that he was about to die of boredom. He pulled a few sheets of paper out of his bag and handed them to the Mastersinger. Jameth frowned as he looked at them. He looked up at Skipper with a raised eyebrow. Skipper looked back at him. After a minute he realized that he was supposed to say something. "Oh! That's the essay you assigned us. There is also an extra credit assignment in there." Jameth frowned and looked at the papers closer.

"This isn't due for a month, and you don't need the extra credit."

"I don't?" Skipper asked innocently. He saw the corners of Jameth's mouth twitch. Yes! Victory! he thought.

"You know very well that you don't." Jameth shook his head, the smile finally spreading across his face. "How do you find the time for all this? Do you just not sleep? Or have you given up a social life?"

Skipper grinned triumphantly. "Actually, my social life is quite healthy, as am I." Jameth raised an eyebrow. Skipper's grin broadened, "I have my ways." The now content boy returned to his desk. Jameth had actually been right on the mark about how Skipper had gotten the work done. He hadn't slept. He felt disinclined to tell the Mastersinger that, though. Somehow he thought it would take away from the mystery of how he had so successfully gotten his work done.