I took a deep breath and waited as the introduction of the music played on the screen.
Well, this is point of no return. The name of the song is "With You in the Distance."
Here is the song. It's a slow, dreamy ballad romance song. I like those.
I could not get away from you
not a single moment in the day;
the world seems different
when you are not here with me.
You arise in every
beautiful melody
and I don't want to hear it
if you can't hear it either.
Cuz you've become
a part of my soul
nothing gives me solace anymore
if you are not by my side.
Beyond your lips
the sun and the stars;
with you at the distance
my love, I am there.
A part of my soul;
nothing gives me solace anymore
if you are not by my side.
Beyond your lips
the sun and the stars
with you at the distance
my love, I am there.
When the song ended and the music finished, all five girls were staring me with huge eyes and open mouths. They were like, in a trance. As if they were dazed. Hypnotized.
Next thing I knew, I heard nothing but screaming and cheers and whooping and yelling. They were like, crazy for ten whole minutes. Then when they quieted down, they were saying "Oh, Spiny you sing DIVINE. You sing GREAT! You sing ANGELICALLY WONDERFULL! You have a GORGEOUS voice!"
I in turn said, "Oh, come on. You're just saying it."
Kathy looked at me with a very serious face. "Spiny. You know that I only use this tone of voice when I'm dead serious. You. Have. A. Beautiful. Unbelievable. Voice. I am not kidding. You have a gift!"
I tried to process all that information. "Really?" I said. They all nodded. Now, they were very serious. Wow. They were being truthful. Heh.
I cleared my throat. "Well, I'll go. I am exhausted, and I need my 9 ½ hours of sleep. Well, bye."
They all said bye. When I got back upstairs, Larry was snoring away. Twitching, wheezing, grunting, mumbling, and making a whole orchestra of weird noises. On any other occasion I would've kicked him or put my earphones on and listened to music. But now, I was too lost in thought.
So….I really do have the gift of singing? I really have an exceptional voice? What am I supposed to do now?
I fell asleep on those thoughts. Anyways, the rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. On Monday, when I entered the Junior High school, I walked down to my locker. It seemed normal: Tyrone making wedgies on the 6th graders, Kylie and her cheerleaders showing-off and blowing kisses at me—ew!—, and you know, normal. But when I closed my locker, I saw a note taped to it. Huh. I read it: From Mrs. Bentley. Choir Teacher. Please show at our class at 1:30. We would love to hear your beautiful voice as rumor has it.
Rumor? Rumor?! Please! Give me a break! That was the oldest trick in the book. I could explain the whole thing in one word: Kathy. My loud-mouth sister had told the choir teacher about the Singing Incident on Saturday evening.
Oh, great! Well, I was there worrying when I saw Larry appear out of nowhere. "Hey!" he said.
"Where'd you come from?" I asked surprised.
"From the year 567,192 CE. I was out in a different universe. What's up?"
I showed him the note from the choir teacher. He studied it for a while. "What do you know?" He looked up at me. "You going to attend the class?"
I shrugged. "Guess I don't have much of a choice. I gotta go. When a teacher asks you to be in a class, it's pretty much always ordering you to go."
"You nervous?"
I laughed. "Why should I? It's just a practice. I might not get accepted."
"Then again, maybe you might."
I don't know why, but for some reason I wasn't too excited at the thought of singing in the school choir. Well, for one thing I probably wouldn't have time to be in the choir. I already have a busy schedule. I mean, I have all my other classes, plus I'm on the soccer team and that already takes up a lot of time. And it's especially difficult since I'm the captain of the team.
My first class was Science, which is my best subject, but I couldn't concentrate. I had all that straining my mind. Should I join or not? This was like trying to decide whether or not to join a Foreign Legion or something. That's pretty dumb, but, you get what I mean. It's a good thing the teacher didn't ask me any questions because I would've answered something stupid like. "The Second Amarkian Civil War" or something and I would've gotten a bad grade for being distracted and being embarrassed in front of my classmates.
Anyways, at lunch, I was still in deep thought. Larry was munching away at a fruit salad and a shrimp cocktail. Don't tell me how his stomach manages to handle what he eats. I guess it's just part of being Larry.
Lilia came at that moment and sat next to me. "Hey, Spiny."
I looked at her and smiled. "Oh, hey. What's up?"
She shrugged. "The usual. How about you? How's the day been so far?"
I shrugged. "Fine, I guess. Except that I…well, I haven't been able to concentrate lately."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Because he's too chicken to ask you out on a date."
"LARRY!" I felt my face burning and Lilia's face was also red. Thank you, very much, Larry! You have officially ended my life. "Get out!" I said to him.
"No, I think I'd rather and listen to…"
"Get. Out. Before I stick a breadstick up your nose all the way to your brain!"
"All right, all right. Don't have to be so touchy about it." He stood up and was just about to leave, when he turned and said, "You know…"
"GO!" I yelled.
"I'm going! I'm going!" Eesh! Some people just don't how when to take hint and leave! I mean, seriously…well, I guess Larry's just out to look for me. Anyways, Lilia says to me, "So, what's the problem?"
I sighed. "Well, I don't know. I guess I'm just nervous. I mean, I don't know how it'll turn out."
She smiled. "Well, I really sincerely believe that you sing beautifully." I blushed at that. "Well," I said. "I really appreciate your comment, but, I just guess I'm…insecure." Now there's a word I don't really use that often. I don't use it at all, actually.
She sighed. "Well, you know, the decision is yours, but I just think that you should try something that could help you develop your talents." Then she looked at me with those beautiful, irresistible, honey-brown eyes, which matched her hair. Her perfect, angelic face, shaped just divinely. "And though I haven't been friends with you that long, I do know that," she blushed before saying, "you're a very talented guy."
I felt my face blush. I smiled. "Well, I…I guess I should at least give it a try." I smiled at her. "Thanks."
She looked so gorgeous. Before I knew what I was doing I'd put my hand over hers, and was leaning towards her face. She was doing the same. I felt my heart racing so hard it started to throb my chest and it felt like it'd burst out of there. I was so close and dang it! The bell rang.
We quickly pulled away from each other and put our hands in our laps. I looked away, my face hot. I cleared my throat. "Uh, uh, I have to go. Don't want to be late." She smiled nervously. Her face was also flushed. "Yeah, sure. Um, hope everything goes all right."
I nodded. "Yeah. Well, bye," I said quickly.
She blinked. "Bye."
I quickly ran and got out of there as fast as I could. It was a good thing that Kylie wasn't there. If not…I don't even want to imagine what kind of greatly embarrassing scene that would have ensued.
But if the bell hadn't sounded and if no one had been in the cafeteria…sigh.
Well, anyways, I went off to the choir practice room. Got in just in time. The teacher welcomed me. "Why, come in, Your Majesty, come in." She pointed me to the front seat. There were several other kids sitting down, all had papers on their desks. When I looked at mine, I saw that it was a music sheet. Hey! I recognized that song! It was actually one of my favorites!
At first we all just sang notes. You know, do re mi fa sol la ti do. Then, we went through all the chords and piano notes. Then we did breathing exercises, humming, and preparing the throat. And then, the teacher said, "All right, I do believe we are ready to practice for our first song!"
A few kids groaned. I didn't say anything. I just took my place in the front. HUH? In the front?! Now, wait a minute! Oh well. I couldn't change anything. Well, we went through several different songs, starting at Baritone or G2 level and went up to Mezzo-Soprano at A4. And I was the lead singer in every one! And you know what? I actually did pretty well. I mean, the teacher was astounded, the girls were about to faint, and the guys were shocked. I got an A+ right away!
I'd been able to sing from Baritone all the way to almost falsetto. The teacher especially liked my tenor and light lyric tones. But she also said I did excellent in the other ranges. According to her, my voice range covered pretty much 87% of the whole vocal scale! How cool is that. I'd been quite skeptical that I could actually sing, but now, hearing it from someone who was actually an expert and studied about vocals and singing…it finally came to me.
I could sing. I had the gift of singing!
"And you'll sound just wonderful at the recital in two weeks!" the teacher said, all excited and jumpy. Recital? Wow! This was exciting! I couldn't wait!
Guess it pays to sing karaoke at your sister's slumber party after all, right?