Disclaimer: See Chapter One.
Author's Note – Sorry it's been so long! Real life got in the way!
Inspire Me
Chapter Three – Loving That Man of Mine
"Took you long enough to bring her here, Finn! You know Fran's on the prowl!" A bubbly raven-haired young woman greeted as Dewey, Ned and Summer walked in the studio.
"Ssorry, sorry. Some things came up."
"Yeah, yeah. Some thing ALWAYS comes up."
"It really wasn't my fault this time!"
"Sure, sure… eh-ni-way… Summer, ready for this week's lesson? I had a few pieces of red Pixie Stix today, so you better watch out." She shot a glance at the two people following her. "Oh, and just who are these guys with you?"
"I'll be ready with whatever you dish out today, Elle." She replied then put on an angelic smile that made everybody wary and keep all silent. "The black haired one is Lawrence and the one with that looks like a dumb hedgehog is Freddy." She continued on, ignoring his sputters of denial at the insult, "They're in School of Rock."
Freddy blurted out before he even thought about it. "Funny you're likening me to a dumb hedgehog. Is that a good way to talk about your boyfriend?"
Summer whirled around to face him. "You are not my boyfriend, Alfred."
He placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned in. "Mare, can we talk about our problems and work out our relationship after your lesson? I really don't want to lose you over some things we say in the heat of the moment and don't mean." He said it loudly enough and with such earnest he could that if she was on the outside looking in, she'd think he was telling the truth.
As she wasn't, though, she felt her blood boil, and her face turn red. Thinking that she walked right into that one, she sputtered, "You, you… I… uhh, err… grrr! We have no relationship to work out! And Mare?"
"You know you love me calling you by that nickname." He gave her a meaningful glance that said he could have revealed her middle name by then. Then being Freddy, he took advantage of the close proximity and gave her a small peck on the cheek. He pulled away, smiled bashfully and said, "The lady doth protest too much."
She didn't know why she didn't hit him for sounding so smug and taking liberties. "Keep it up. See if I ever tutor you in English ever again, Jones."
His eyes twinkled. "But you like me too much to stop our afternoon and weekend rendezvous with Shakespeare!"
She glared. "You have that all wrong - I hate you."
"You know what they say about love and hate…"
Before Freddy could finish that sentence, Dewey couldn't keep quiet anymore. "Okay, you two. Enough already! You argue like a married couple! I say break it up, and work it out la-terrrrrr."
Lawrence mumbled something along the lines of, "preferably out of our sight and hearing." Ned just shook his head, extremely laid back about the whole thing. Elle's eyes twinkled.
Summer noticed and turned a deeper shade of red, while Freddy just smiled. "Of course! Won't we, Pumpkin?"
She swore at someone she considered her friend for the first time in her life. "Bite me, jackass." She left them with that parting note and walked into the practice room where she knew her coach will follow her.
He simply smiled. "She loves me, I know she does."
Lawrence shook his head this time as the adults all sighed. Their thoughts, however, were at different wavelengths.
Elle spoke up, "Well that was interesting. If you guys follow me to my classroom silently, you may observe her lesson." They quietly followed the vocal teacher from the front of the building to where Summer went. The instructor gave all boys a look to be quiet, and stay quiet.
"Okay, first we warm up." Elle announced as she walked into the chamber and made her way to the piano. The boys filed in after her and silently took places as far from the teaching area as possible. "Sound the siren with 'mm' please."
Mimicking a siren, Summer took a deep breath and started to hum from her lowest note to her highest then brought it back down.
"Great! Now, with 'oo'."
She repeated the exercise with her lips pursed.
"And 'ah.' We'll move in with shoulder rolls, neck rolls, and jogging in place straight after that, okay?" Her response was a full blown siren. "Wow wow wee! That's awesome! Alright, repeat after me…"
Summer kept on with the warm ups, including some calisthenics with the upper body, until Freddy thought the exercises would never end. He didn't know that vocal lessons had a good amount of warm-ups preceding the singing aspect. He did notice that Summer had better control than Marta, and she possessed a pretty good range of low notes.
She's an alto, Freddy thought with much surprise. She's been trying to sing high notes, and be like the singers in the band – but she's an alto!
Elle clapped her hands after they finished the last exercise. "I think you can now do warm ups on your own, and I trust that you'll do it every time you wake up. For next week, I will only lead you through an arpeggio and the solfege, alright? Remember to always keep your stomach tight."
"Yes, coach."
"Glad to hear it. I noticed many positive improvements since the first session a month and a half ago…"
At this Lawrence and Freddy exchanged glances. That was after they just got into the contest! They looked at Dewey then back at each other. Figures. Nodding at each other, they paid attention to what Elle was saying.
"… so I will start you off with a vocally jazz piece today, and if we have time; I'll work on a song of your choice with you. Don't get mad, I didn't know your boyfriend was going to be here today, otherwise I wouldn't have picked it."
Summer ignored the boyfriend comment. She's been friends with Elle by now and knew that the older girl didn't really think that Freddy was her boyfriend. She'll throw around weird teasing comments anyway, showing she's really younger than one would expect. Besides, she'd get to return the favor later. "Well, let's hear it, then."
"Here's the music. Okay, I'll play it the way I usually sing it. Join me whenever you feel comfy." She started off with a smooth introduction of a medium-paced and slightly low, love song. With a strong alto voice, she began the verse;
Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly.
I gotta love one man till I die
So I can't help, lovin' that man of mine.
Summer smiled. The song was pretty easy and fun. She sang along with the second verse perfectly. She messed up the refrain, but marked an eyeglass where she needed to watch out for it the second time around. Then they finished off with a repeat of the first verse, which Summer nailed perfectly.
"Very nice, Sum. I want you to now go through the song twice more without me, and then we'll record afterward. We'll make this one of your recital songs."
Summer was a bit nervous when she sang by herself the first time. Although she did her best not to show it, Elle picked up on it anyway.
"Okay, girlfriend. I'll tell you something my aunt told me. It's what makes me a good vocalist and coach; or so people tell me. But first, what do you get from the song?"
She frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Singing songs is like reading a book out loud. You get a feeling from the book and you're trying to convey that message to the ones who are listening to you read aloud. It's like you're trying to give people visuals. Like you're painting a picture what the author is trying to tell. Get me so far?"
Summer nodded. "Yes. It's like when you're reading a novel on your own, and you can envision what exactly going on even without the pictures."
Elle's eyes sparkled with pride. "Exactly. Good girl! It's the same with a song. Any one song with lyrics has a meaning that its writer is trying to express. Even those music artists who don't write songs themselves. It's not just the beat, or the fancy tune." Elle recited, "Tell me he's lazy; tell me he's slow. Tell me I'm crazy (maybe I know). But I can't help lovin' that man of mine."
The teacher saw that her student was in deep thought. She could tell that the concept of the song was slightly too advanced for a soon-to-be sixth grader. Maybe she was wrong to do so, but Elle thought Summer was like her at fifth grade; too mature for her age. The girl was very bright and had an old soul; the little girl acted as if she was twenty-five, not ten.
She even surmised that if Hogwarts existed, she'd give Hermione Granger a run for her brains; and the Weasley Twins for their underhanded dealings.
Elle smiled when Summer raised her eyes to meet hers. She got it. She actually got it!
The fifth grader shocked her, "It's somewhat of an ode. It's definitely a love song."
"You're really too smart. I barely know what an ode is. No, no… no need to tell me; I'll look it up later when I study for English Lit. But yes, it's a love song. Care to try it again before we record?"
"Let's record it, now."
"You're that confident, huh?" Smiling, Elle hit a switch button that lit up a sign that said, 'On Air'. "Far be it for me to stop you, Genius. Okay, let me close the door and put on the 'Do Not Disturb' sign."
Summer closed her eyes and pictured that one man, her soul mate as she took the mic. She thought of a Prince Charming in his rumpled uniform, with messy hair and hazel eyes. Although it shocked her that she'd picture Freddy out of all possible candidates in School of Rock or at school, she supposed that she could have done worse.
Besides, she thought as she sang her heart out. It wasn't as if we're ready for something like love.
Freddy silently tapped to the rhythm of the song with closed eyes, totally taken away by the jazz beat and Summer's voice. Who knew she had it in her?
She finished with slight rubato and met Elle's eyes, which shone with much pride.
"Well, Miss Hathaway," she said after she turned off the recorder switch. "I believe that you've got that one in the bag. Which song would you like to work on next?"
Before they could start someone started clapping. Both vocalists turned to the doorway where a really tall guy with buzzed hair smiled sheepishly. He had to duck his head a little to enter the room. He was really tall. (Six feet and eight inches, actually.)
Summer inwardly grinned. Seems like she'd get her revenge on Elle sooner than she thought.
"Sorry," he shrugged as he made his way over to them. "I was walking down the hall and heard some wonderful music coming from this room and had to look in."
"It's ok." She said, slightly blushing at the compliment.
Elle shot her a look before she turned to the guy still advancing to where they were. "Class is in session, Alex. You know you can't do that during the middle. You either observe from the beginning or not at all."
He smirked and leaned against the piano. "Oh come on. Give me a break. If you didn't really allow people to come in here, you'd have locked the door."
Completely ignoring his last statement – it was somewhat true, she exclaimed, "I ought to fine you five hundred dollars for leaning on my Steinway, you obnoxious cur!"
Eyes bugging out he asked, "Obnoxious cur? What happened to egotistical pri-" He didn't remove himself from his position.
"My mistake, you are far more severe than egotistical. Get off my Steinway, Pennington!"
Dewey made an offhand comment to the boys as they watched the exchange. "Does this sound familiar to you?"
Alex smirked. "Oh yeah? What would you do about it if I don't?"
With a jerk Summer was ready for, Elle pulled the piano (it was, after all, mounted on wheels) and the guy fell on the floor, his head narrowly missing the percussion's base.
Ned nodded to Dewey. "Looks like how Summer and Freddy act."
Lawrence groaned.
Freddy protested. "Hey! I would never fall flat on my ass like that!"
Smiling wryly, the guy stood up and brushed himself off. "Guess you could do that."
"Good observation, Sherlock."
Turning away from the temperamental lady, he faced Summer. "I must say, you've gone a long way from when you started!"
Smiling sweetly, she said, "Thanks. Elle's been really cool through all this. I think she deserves a reward."
"She puts up with Aunt Fran, and she's turning you into quite the singer. Of course she does."
"You forget that 'she' is still here, and I also put up with you when you're around; God knows why!"
Slyly, Summer replied, "I know you do not dislike your protégé so you couldn't be talking about me – however, I also know that on days like this, you spray – ."
"You don't want to finish that sentence!" Elle exclaimed, blushing while Alex whipped his head to look at her.
"And why not?"
"None of your business!"
"I disagree."
"You could disagree all you want, but it doesn't mean that it's true."
Ned tapped Dewey. "I see what you mean, dude. It's like watching Summer and Freddy."
The blond shot him a disgusted look, "I really resent that, Schneebly. There's no way I am remotely similar to that dude who gets his ass kicked by the girl."
Lawrence snickered at Freddy possibly for the first time in his life. "I seem to recall that she kicked your ass at the beginning of the year."
Suddenly defensive he replied, "No, no – I was letting her win!"
"Right."
Dewey chose to interject at that point with, "Do I even wanna know?"
"Before they assigned us a substitute in September, during recess Freddy and Frankie were arm wrestling with each other one day."
"You really don't wanna do this, Larry."
Ignoring the blond hedgehog, he continued, "The score was pretty close, Freddy beat Frankie fifteen to twelve. Soon enough a cue had formed for a tournament; Freddy in first, Frankie second, Marco surprisingly came in third. Then Summer, ever the lovable feminist she is, wanted to join."
As Lawrence uncharacteristically and cheerfully told the story, Freddy tried to come up with dirt on his band mate. Anything at all to keep him from finishing the story. He slapped his forehead, not really believing the theory that you lose brain cells for every blow to the head. He even tried to think hard. Contrary to popular belief, Freddie did think – it just gave him headaches and stress.
Like now.
"Frankie is not the type to put girls down, his older sis kind of beat chauvinism out of him. So while everybody, from Billy (who came in last) to Gordon (who came in fourth, narrowly beating Zack who was sick that day) protested; Frankie was all game. I promise you, Summer and Frankie duked it out for five minutes straight. At first, it seemed like Frankie had it in the bag but Summer, held on to that last inch for dear life and just started over powering him. Then the closer they got to five minutes, the weaker Frankie became and she actually beat him."
Dewey eyed the band manager with a newfound respect. "Wow. Who knew she had it in her?"
Freddie muttered, "Frankie let her win."
The pianist shook his head, "No he didn't, and you know it. Summer earned that win fair and square."
He muttered some more.
"Anyway, so by the rules of the tournament – her win bumped Frankie down to the number three spot, Gordon fourth, Zack fifth-"
Dewey cut him off, "Yeah yeah, she took number two, right?"
"Yes. And she remained in second place until she challenged Freddy and he lost."
Freddy threw his hands up and started to truly protest, "She had nails and she used them! It was foul – foul, foul!"
The piano made an awful noise and all heads swiveled to the flushed vocal coach behind the piano. "Class dismissed!"