Author's Note:

Here's more Vocalist, with this wrapping up very soon I hope that you can all see where I am going with this story.

And although it is implied that there are feelings between Joseph and Weiss, the fact is, is that they will not be "a couple" in this. Not to burst some potential bubbles, but that's it. I never had the intention of writing this with a pairing in mind.

Either way, I hope you all enjoy what I have in this chapter.

- Lor

Chapter 9: Preparations

That night I sneaked out once again to meet the others at Yang's so that we can practice. I was probably the most out of shape in the group as I hadn't practiced in a week with them. Of course, that didn't stop me from practicing by myself. Though practicing by yourself and with a group are two different things. Still, it was good to see that Neo was getting along fine with the others. Especially Ruby, who seemed to really like her. I smiled on the inside; maybe those two are a pair after all.

Either way, I took the bus into the city which took about an hour or so. It was late in the night as usual. While I travelled through the city I passed the Jazz Café that we were supposed to perform at in a couple of weeks. It wasn't anything too fancy, but it did have the same air as an old fashioned bar. Neon lights brightened the night as there was an image of a saxophone and a martini glass right next to it. I could hear the sounds of music coming from inside, though I couldn't tell what kind of music it was as we passed in a second.

I got off in Yang's neighbourhood and proceeded to walk over to her place, holding my trumpet in my hand as the orange street lights shined above me. As I arrived at the house I knocked on the front door, waiting a few seconds I could hear the sounds of moving from below me. I assumed it was Yang setting up for practice. Hearing steps I noticed somebody coming to the door. As it opened I saw Neo smiling at me cheerfully.

She had definitely changed a bit; Ruby was right behind her waving at me from the kitchen. She shoved a cookie from a jar as she walked over to us. "Hi Joseph," Neo greeted with a small voice.

"Hey Joey!" Ruby exclaimed, as her usual cheerful self.

Neo continued to smile, though it wasn't as bright as Ruby's it was different. Though she seemed to be quite happy right now, there seemed to be a lighter aura around her. I myself smiled, "Looks like you're making friends." I told Neo.

Ruby put her head on top of Neo in a loving gesture, Neo's cheeks reddened and I laughed, "Yeah, of course she's making friends!" Ruby smiled with a very large bright smile, closing her eyes as she smiled happily.

"Y-Yeah," Neo said.

"What's all this noise?" I heard another bright voice ask, I knew whose voice this was. It was quite like Ruby's, though this voice was much more darker and much more like an adult.

Yang appeared from the basement, she was wearing a yellow hoodie with tight jeans. She currently had her sunglasses on. "Oh hi Joey!" Yang greeted, excitedly. "Welcome back."

"We missed you," Neo muttered from under Ruby's head.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I apologized. "I'm really sorry, first I was really sick and."

Yang halted my list of explanations as she spoke up, "its fine, we get it. We were fine by the way."

"Yeah, you should have seen Neo, being so cool on the piano," Ruby said, playing the air piano while singing.

"It's really nothing," Neo replied.

"Well, it's good to hear that you guys got along fine without me," I told them.

"So, now that the whole gang's here, let's practice," Yang said. "Oh, and we ordered pizza."

They led me inside and into the basement. Blake as usual was sitting on an amp and tuning her bass guitar. There were five boxes of party sized pizza lying on the couch which I found utterly ridiculous. "Why're there so many boxes of pizza?" I asked.

"What, we're hungry," Yang simply said, shrugging.

Ruby immediately went over to the pizza before sticking it in her mouth before sitting down on the floor. "Ya jub mib the delibery," She said with her mouth full.

Neo laughed quietly, "Ruby, chew."

I too laughed, but not at Ruby, but at Neo's new change, "I've never seen you laugh Neo. It's honestly kind of funny."

Neo then retreated a bit, with her cheeks flustered. We all began to laugh as Neo pouted a bit. "C'mon guys, let's enjoy the food," Yang said.

We all sat down in a circle and brought the towering boxes of pizza into the center of us whilst we ate. After Yang was halfway into her tenth slice she began to speak up, "So, I heard that you've been hanging around the heiress lately." She said non-chalantly. "Do you have a thing for her?"

"Huh?" I said in disbelief. "Me and her?"

"Uh huh," Yang nodded.

"What do you mean uh huh?" I asked, pressed to find the answer.

"Why do you care so much if you don't have a thing for her?" Yang asked.

"What? Of course I don't have a thing for her," I said. "I'm just her teacher, why are you accusing that I have a thing for her?"

"I'm just saying," Yang mused on. "It's awfully suspicious that you spend a lot of time over there."

"It's my job!" I huffed out. "Besides, it's not like I find her attractive."

"Oh, so you do!" Yang teased on.

My face reddened as Ruby continued to laugh on, Neo seemed to smile faintly though, Blake was also smiling at me. They all found it funny that I was spending a lot of time near the heiress. "Oh lighten up," Yang said. "I was only teasing."

"Ha, ha, very funny," I said, rolling my eyes.

"So anyways, have you heard how Ruby and Neo," Yang said before Ruby hit her.

I looked over to see Ruby's face pouting, "I thought I told you not to mention that!" Ruby attempted to whisper under her breath.

"Mention what?" I questioned. I looked over to Neo, "Neo?"

Neo seemed to be looking at the ground, shifting a bit as her cheeks were reddened. "Oh you should have seen those two." Yang continued on.

"Yang!" Ruby pleaded.

"So, Neo decided to come over early a few days ago," Yang continued on ignoring her sister's pleas of mercy. "Neo was rather tired from getting over here so she decided to take a nap. So, being the big sister I let her sleep on Ruby's bed. She didn't know that it was her's at the time, and oh the surprise that Neo had on her face. So, Ruby decided to take a nap right next to her, being all smooth and all."

"Oh," Ruby whimpered. "It was embarrassing! And it wasn't like that!"

"Yeah, and besides, I'm straight," Neo proclaimed.

"But your attitude tells me different," I pointed out.

"Well, well, Ruby's just really nice," Neo protested.

"Mhmm," I said.

"Not that you aren't nice either," Neo muttered to herself.

"So anyways, the two were sleeping together, all snuggled up together, and hugging each other, it was utterly adorable." Yang continued on with their story. "So, a few hours later, the two of them wake up and you should have seen them. Neo's face was bright red as a cherry."

Neo was even blushing right now at the memory of how intimate Ruby and Neo were. "Looks like you've got yourself an admirer," I told Ruby.

"What! N-No! I'm S-Straight!" Neo stumbled over her words as we all laughed.

"Relax Neo, we're all just teasing you," I told her.

We continued to laugh and joke around before we got too full to eat anymore pizza. After we finished laughing and enjoying ourselves we began to practice. "Our performance is in a few weeks," I said. "So let's make this good."

"Let's go!" Ruby cheerfully said, taking out her pair of drum sticks.

And like that, we began to play into the night.

Coming back at the mansion it was empty, thankfully. Looks like everybody's asleep, I crept back up to my room and turned on the light, bright white light shone on the room as I found my composition papers strewn on one of the tables in my bedroom. As usual I had neglected to clean up any of my messes, either way my draft of the composition was complete, all that was left was to commit it to print. So I left it for the night and began to fall into a deep sleep, exhausted after a tiring day of work.

The next day I woke up before Weiss could arrive, though she did come knocking at my door as I was standing up and stretching. "Come in!" I called for the person at the door to come in.

Weiss came in as usual with elegance and a studious manner. I beckoned her to sit down in the classroom as I got myself ready for the day. After getting changed into acceptable clothing I headed into the classroom with a collection of notes and sheets. "So how was your day so far Weiss?" I asked, partaking in small talk.

"Not bad," Weiss replied. "It's a fine morning today."

"Yeah, if only I wasn't so tired," I said, stretching my arms a bit before beginning to write on the board. I took a glance outside and saw snow falling, I could feel that it wasn't cold enough for the snow to be staying but it was cold enough in the sky for it to snow. Winter's coming, I thought to myself. "Oh well, ready to get the lesson started?"

"Of course Joseph," Weiss said.

"Good, let's begin with a warm up," I said, calling her over to the piano with me. I played middle C and allowed her to tune herself to it. Weiss seemed to be a bit off the edge of the seat so I scooted over a bit. She noticed this and moved over so that she would fit. I played middle C again and felt a breath of warm air singing beside me. I could feel Weiss' warmth from her body, it was warm and soothing. Pairing that with her voice made it a very relaxing moment, her voice was definitely getting better and her tone and tuning was dead on.

After hearing her tone and beautiful voice I snapped myself out of whatever state of relaxation I was in and got back to work. I began to play a scale, letting her sing each note and understand the tuning. This was very important as most vocalists do not have perfect pitch, thus, it is important to have a good idea what each note sounded like. Thus, playing a tuning note helps the vocalist understand what each note was and allowed them to adjust to their vocal range.

Afterwards, we began to practice with several other warm up techniques. First I worked on intonation and tone as well as air support with long tones before moving onto quicker sixteenth note scales to test her articulations.

To put it short she was immaculate and very precise. "Good, now with the warm ups finished how about we get onto a piece?" I said.

"Yes, of course," Weiss began, "Now, which one are we going to do for the concert?"

"Oh, you want to start preparing now? I wasn't going to start until tonight," I told her.

"Well, I would like to see what we are playing," Weiss said sternly. "Also whether or not we need to hire accompanists."

"Fine, fine," I said. "So pressy."

"Hmph," Weiss said.

"Still the same old Weiss," I smirked.

"That's not true!" Weiss said.

"Well show me that you've got some patience and I might change my mind," I remarked teasingly.

I went to the next room and pulled out several sheets of rough staff paper. I had yet to commit them to the computer for printing so I still had the very original copies. I handed Weiss the set of vocal sheets that I had made and took my place on my piano. "Ready?" I asked.

"Is it just rough pages?" Weiss asked.

"I barely get enough time to sleep, let alone compose a full piece in a week, so take your pick," I told her. "Unless you want to begin tonight."

"Fine," Weiss reluctantly agreed.

"Great, let's begin," I said, taking my place on the piano.

We began to run through the piece; this piece wasn't particularly difficult in terms of rhythms and the technical aspect. But there was one point where the vocal solo was in the transitional phrase before repeating the melodic line in a different variation of the orchestration and accompaniment. The vocal line would reach up to a very high pitch in the soprano register. Now, I had tested Weiss' vocal range for quite a while and found that she was definitely a soprano.

Now her top register was getting there but she needed a bit more practice so that she could expand her vocal range. Right now she was struggling to hit the high note, as I could see her face becoming slowly redder.

"Weiss, I think that'll be enough for today," I said, stopping the piano part. Weiss immediately began to breathe uncontrollably, as she panted. "Now there's something for you to work on, your vocal range. You need to increase your range so that you can hit the high note with ease. Just keep practicing with the higher register, I recommend that you sing tones in the highest register that you can. You should already know all the proper techniques so now it's just expanding and practicing your endurance." I finished. "Now, have a good day Weiss." I told her.

Weiss collected her things and left the room, but not before saying goodbye, "Have a good day Joseph, and remember about the Jazz Café."

I laughed, "Of course."

The day passed as Weiss came in as usual for her lesson. At night I made my usual trek over to Yang's for our usual practice. As usual the streets were dark as I walked down the streets. When I reached over to their place I found music being played across the street. Must be having a party, I thought to myself as I knocked on the door I found that it was already open. When I went downstairs I found only Blake sitting on her amp with Yang beside her, warming up her saxophone.

"Hey, where's your sister and Neo?" I asked.

"Oh hi Joseph, they should be upstairs, check Ruby's bedroom," Yang said in her regular voice. Which I found awkward, Neo was obviously embarrassed by Ruby so why would she be alone with Ruby? "I think she wanted to show her something," Yang said, continuing in her same tone. Again, I found this very suspicious.

I turned around and began to head to the stairs; I heard snickers from behind me and turned around. Yang then switched back to playing on her tenor saxophone. As I left for upstairs I could hear chatter from beneath me.

"That's going to be quite the surprise," Yang said.

"Well, you did just get both your sister and Neo drunk," Blake stated.

"I had too! Those two were made for each other!" Yang protested.

"Even though Neo proclaims to be heterosexual," Blake stated.

"You've seen the way Ruby and Neo look at each other," Yang added.

"You're right about that," Blake agreed.

"Now, let's head up and watch the show," Yang smirked.

I walked upstairs and checked the rooms in Yang's house. I then proceeded to go through the bedrooms until I found one of them closed, when I opened the room I found the most disturbing sight. Ruby and Neo were under covers and sleeping, now, the implication of that was the most disturbing part. They seemed to be very passed out as Ruby had her arms around Neo in bed. Damn it Yang! Of all people, you have to get those two drunk! And for what? We have a performance in a week!

Thus, being the responsible adult, I was forced to go wake them up. Yang … I cursed to myself. Walking over to the bed I shook Neo awake, she seemed to be on the other side, her hair was all over the place and the pink strands were over her face. She looked very peaceful in her sleep with not a care in the world; I wondered what she was dreaming. Ruby on the other side of the bed was also in the same state of bliss, and like Neo her usually short hair was a messy mess.

I sighed before shaking Neo up, she turned and I could see the mess of her. Her face was quite red as her cheeks were puffy. She seemed to be drowsy as she looked at me for a brief moment. Smiling and hiccupping, I looked at her figure and found her wearing clothes at least. Though it was quite a messy mess, her white dress shirt was wrinkled and part of it was slightly unbutton. I could see a bit of her chest which did not make this any better.

After Neo stirred Ruby came too in a couple of minutes, both of them looked at me as if I was just another person. They both were a red with puffy cheeks. They both smiled at me as if they had not a care in the world. "What are you two doing?" I asked, with a very harsh tone in my voice.

"Why Joseph!" Ruby hiccupped. "How nice of you to, hic! Join us! Hic!"

"You two are both drunk out of your heads!" I scolded.

"Since, hic, when did you, hic, become a party pooper," Ruby said.

"Since you two became irresponsible," I scolded. "And Neo! What are you doing! I thought you were more responsible!"

"Hey, lighten up, you're surrounded by friends, hic," Neo said.

I took a deep breath, and walked over to Neo before shaking her body, rocking her head back and forth violently. "Get a hold of yourself!" I shouted. "The performance is in a week! And we still have to practice!"

After I let go Neo slumped her head down for a bit before shaking it herself. She looked around before jumping up from the bed. Her face turned a bright shade of red but she was back to her usual self. This time she was blushing and stuttering, "I, I," She stammered before she ran downstairs.

"Now why'd, hic, you have to, hic," Ruby began before I walked over and hit her in the head as well. There was a brief moment where Ruby was confused before everything clicked back in. She clutched her head afterwards before looking around; the redness seemed to have died down. "Where's Neo?" Ruby asked, with a slight hint of struggle.

"Your sister intoxicated both of you," I explained to her.

"Oh no, what have I done," Ruby whined to herself.

"Don't worry, I think that Neo knows that Yang did this to her," I told Ruby. "Either way, now that you two have finished being passed out, let's practice. You can make this up to her later."

Ruby nodded before we went downstairs, the performance would be in a week, and newer and newer things were happening every day. This was the first and wouldn't be the last. This coupled with Weiss performance would make for a busy week. Especially since Hector made the performance a very last minute performance and the fact that I want her to perform Mirror, Mirror.

After the very awkward practice with Neo being very distant we took the bus home together. I wanted to make sure that she was okay as she was probably having a hangover after the amount of alcohol they must have drank.

While on the ride Neo leaned her head on me, she was clutching her head with her free hand. I in turn began to rub it softly, soothing her head. She then let go and allowed me to continue taking care of her for the time being. "Hey, Joseph is it possible for a person to be both straight and homosexual?" She asked out of the blue.

"Is this about Ruby?" I asked.

"Yeah," Neo confirmed. "The truth is, I, I really like her, but."

"But you don't know if you're homosexual," I continued, taking the words right out of her mouth.

"And, um," Neo continued before pausing, "I," taking another pause Neo said the next phrase in one quick moment. "I like you Joseph."

"Really?" I said, unsurprised. She did seem to have some kind of attraction towards me. Though now it seemed to have shifted and wavered. Though only slightly, I'd caught onto this when she was embarrassed when I complimented her. But I just never pressed on it.

"And, Ruby's nice, but, being homosexual," Neo continued on, she was about to ramble before I stopped her.

"Neo, I know that whatever decision that you make will be the right one, though I will say this. Choose the person that you love more, regardless of what kind of relationship it is, if you choose the one you love more you'll find an even greater happiness than settling within the rules," I explained to her.

The bus stopped and Neo got off, I followed after her towards the door to her apartment. "Neo, I can't tell you what to choose. I can only give you advice, the choice is yours, I just know that you make the best choice." I turned around, wishing Neo good night. "Good night Neo, I'll see you tomorrow."