May's POV
"Do, a dear, a female deer, ray, a drop of golden sun! Mi, a name I call myself! Fa, a long long way to run! So, a needle pulling thread! La, a note to follow So! Tee, a drink with jam and bread! And that will bring us back to Do-o-o-o-o!" I trilled, and everybody clapped.
"That's from the Sound of Music, right?" Leaf asked.
"Oh my gosh, I love love LOVE that movie so much!" Marina squealed.
"I know, right? Me too!" Dawn exclaimed. She and Marina high-fived.
"Yeah, it is," I confirmed.
Zoey smiled and turned to Iris. "How about you try it?"
Iris started fidgeting. She seemed embarrassed. "Why do I need to do it?"
"Um, because you're the one singing romantic feelings here!" Lyra yelled, clearly unimpressed.
I think all of you were thinking of doing the same thing though.
Maybe so, but it was more important for Iris at that point.
Iris flushed red and huffed. "Well, its nice listening to you guys. And I don't know what to do anyways."
"Just do what May did," Marina gently pressed.
"I don't know the words."
"Wait a sec," Dawn called. She then started scribbling them down on a napkin.
Piplup pip?
"Yeah, I know, Piplup," she retorted, not really paying attention to what he had to say. "Listen, later, okay?"
Pip!
Piplup turned around, crossed his flippers over his chest, and stormed away. Dawn sighed. I suddenly felt guilty.
"Here." She shoved the paper at Iris, still looking in the direction of where Piplup had walked.
Iris snatched the napkin and glared at it, her cheeks getting redder by the minute.
"What's wrong?" Leaf asked.
"Nothing!" Iris blurted. "I'm just reading it, that's all."
We all glanced at each other, then Iris. Something was up.
What's wrong with her? Just sing it already!
"Did you forget the tune?" I asked.
"Yeah! I did! Can you sing it for me again?" Iris almost shouted, like she was startled.
"Um, okay." And I broke out into song again, and at the end, there was another round of applause for me.
We all looked at Iris, and she sank a little lower in the chair she was sitting in. Lyra started tapping her foot impatiently.
"Look, we don't-" Lyra had started to shout something at Iris, but Marina had put a hand over her mouth, so it all sounded like blabber to us.
Iris squeaked a little, and sunk even lower into the chair. Her brown eyes started brimming with tears. All of a sudden, she began to sob.
We all looked at each other incredulously, sending across the message, "Is she for real?" We then started to console her, even though we didn't know why she was crying in the first place.
This girl is seriously messed up.
That's mean! You don't even know her!
I can tell.
You're hopeless. This is why you don't have friends.
I was stroking her long, gorgeous purple hair when she finally said something.
"I-I-I just c-can't sing!" she choked out, and a fresh set of tears splashed out.
My eyes widened in shock. This couldn't be happening.
Seriously? This girl is SO not for real!
"Wait, what?" Dawn voiced.
"I. Can't. Sing!" Iris yelled, and we all jumped back a little as she kept bawling.
Wow, she thinks she's real special, huh? What a nut case.
I can't believe I have someone as mean as you for a conscience!
"I can't, can't, can't, can't, can't, can't, can't sing! I'm so terrible, I'm horrible, I have no musical talents…" Iris kept insulting herself, while everybody stood watching her with mouths agape. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists, my brown bangs shading my face.
She must have a screw loose, I mean just look at her-
I started to tremble.
Maybe she IS one of those special kids. Why I she overreacting so much? It's not like we're gonna kill her or something-
Blood pounded into my head.
And of course, she's crying and yelling. It's not like it's our fault that she's a stupid, ungrateful, little-
"DON'T YOU EVEN GO THERE!" I screamed. Iris went silent and stared at me, along with everybody else.
What the foe did you just do?
Oh crap. I was actually just yelling that to you, but I guess saying it out loud was okay too.
You're right, I shouldn't even go there. I don't even have a word appropriate for a T-rated story that would be okay to describe you now.
…I'll deal with you later.
Going with the moment, I walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. I slowly looked up and flashed a smile. She slowly smiled back too.
"Don't worry. We'll work it out."
"Yeah."
Drew's POV
I groaned and covered my ears as Cilan began his long concerto.
Are concerto and opera the same thing?
No one cares, you know.
Gary cleared his throat. Cilan glanced at him, but kept going.
Gary cleared his throat again. Cilan glared at him, but he still continued.
Gary then cleared his throat for a third time. However, this time, he did it so loudly and sarcastically that he actually started coughing and sputtering around the room. Cilan smirked, stuck his nose in the air, held a long, final note for an agonizing amount of time, and finished perfectly.
"The point is, you have to sing an ACTUAL song," Jimmy clarified.
"But, I just sang one of the greatest musical pieces of all time! Mozart has such wonderful taste-"
"NO!" Gary had recovered and was now standing up, rubbing the back of his neck. "Actual songs that people listen to TODAY. Not some song made by some dead guy, but a song that actually SOUNDS like something!"
Cilan gasped dramatically. I rolled my eyes. He reminded me of those actresses in old black-and-white movies who would faint, gasping and holding a handkerchief to their forehead while moaning.
"Well, I'll tell you that these things you call 'songs' today are pieces of RUBBISH!" Cilan shouted.
"Well, I'll tell YOU that you must be deaf to think that's music!" Gary yelled back.
"Music today is crap!"
"And music back then was a piece of-"
"A hem," Khoury went sarcastically, sounding like Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter. "I actually enjoy opera. That piece you sung was from The Magical Flute by Mozart, correct?"
Khoury was sitting out in the hallway with a black eye for a long time.
May's POV
I shuddered involuntarily as Iris began to sing. She noticed me and broke down again. Everybody glared at me, and I sighed.
After we had convinced Iris that she shouldn't commit suicide, we managed to make her sing. We had all thought that she was exaggerating about how bad she sang and that she was just saying that from the stress.
She was not exaggerating. She really was that bad.
Maybe even worse.
Her voice was somewhat nasal, making kind of annoying to listen to. She could not hold a note straight-it always kept wavering. And that was only if she could land the note. Most of the time, she missed it by going way too high.
It was just…BAD.
That's literally all you can say. It really was BAD.
Stop repeating me!
And she tells me to stop repeating her! As if I would repeat someone as stupid as her.
"May, why are you hitting yourself?" Misty asked dubiously.
Slapping your head won't make me disappear, you know. You really ARE stupid.
"See guys, I really am that bad of a singer! May is hitting herself and wishing that I would stop!" Iris wailed.
Dawn glared at me. "Are you stupid May?"
I could answer that.
"No, it wasn't that-" I began.
"Just because we're not as good of a singer as you doesn't mean you should ridicule us!" Dawn yelled.
"Or Iris," Misty added, looking at me in a way that made me want to crawl into a hole and die in a fire.
I gasped. I couldn't believe it. My friends were…mad at me? And I didn't even do anything! "But, it wasn't that-"
This is why you should have listened to me before.
"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING FROM THE LIKES OF YOU!" I bellowed. As expected, that didn't help the situation much.
Everybody gasped, and the message was so clear for me that when Lyra shrieked it, it was completely unnecessary, "Get out!"
Iris sensing the tension, just quietly walked out of the room.
I ran out after her, tears falling from my eyes like fresh rain.
Iris' POV
Well, I'm not stupid. Even I could see that those guys needed some alone time.
Personally, I think I might have acted a little rashly. Yelling that stupid thought of May being fed up about me had started the whole feud, and to be honest, I wasn't even thinking straight at the time. Looking back on it, I realize that it was just probably something else. May, as I know her, at least, would be too nice to do that. Or any of the things she was accused of.
Well, actually, I thought that they would all be too nice. But, underneath, they all seem to be monsters, don't they? Did you see Misty's glare?
Obviously the readers didn't.
Well, yeah, but I'm just saying it for the purpose of the story.
I slowed to a walk and took a deep breath. I was in the living room now. I slowly made my way to the patio facing the ocean. Some nice sea air would probably calm me down.
As I walked toward it, I heard someone behind me. "Iris? Is that you?"
Well, how many people have giant purple pigtails?
Oh, shut up.
"Huh?" As I turned around, the skirt I was wearing got caught on the back of one of the chairs in the living room around my mid-hip. Try as I might, I couldn't get out of it.
I…was stuck.
Epic move, genius.
This is why I'm not a dancer nor a singer.
I kept pulling on the skirt to get unhitched. The person came over.
"Iris? I actually wanted to talk to you."
…Of ALL the people it could be, it just HAD to be Cilan.
"Um, Cilan," I started, my face flushing. "Does it look like I am in a spot to have conversation right now?"
Well, you are.
Besides the point.
Cilan turned red too. "Oh, well…no."
…AWKWARD.
Cilan turned around, the back of his neck and his ears a bright scarlet red. "Do-Do you want h-help with that?"
I sighed. How embaressing. "I guess, yeah."
Cilan turned around again and started stuttering. His chatter sounded like blabber and I completely ignored it as I kept tugging at the skirt.
Eventually, Cilan got over himself and the situation and started pulling too. He also tried a lot of other things, like lifting the chair.
Finally, he got fed up. "Ugh. THIS. IS. SO. ANNOYING!" And he yanked me into the air.
Now, I must say, it was quite a comfortable position, especially since it was my crush who was lifting me. Hands locked around my waist, I was dangling straight up, almost a foot in the air. His hot breath was right up on my neck, and I shivered.
And, it did work. The skirt did get unhinged from the chair.
Sadly, so did part of the skirt.
I sighed, happy that the skirt got unhinged. I was about to thank Cilan when he squeaked.
I turned around, cocked a hip, and asked impatiently, "What?"
Cilan had turned red all over again. Maybe even more so than before. He would have put a Cheri Berry to shame.
"Um, Iris…" Cilan started fidgeting uncontrollably. He then mumbled something really fast in a jumble of words very a lovely shade of purple, he put his hands over his eyes.
"Huh? Can you repeat that?" I asked. "Hey, what's wrong?"Cilan then lifted a shaking hand toward my "areas".
What, does he want to get it on or something?
Oh, GOD NO.
It was probably even worse. My lovely, quite revealing, black panties were almost in full view. I turned red and squeaked like Cilan.
I glanced at the chair, where a piece of my skirt was fluttering around. If looks could kill, the chair would be a burnt piece of ash.
Of all days, WHY did I have to wear this underwear today? Groaning I grabbed the piece of skirt from the chair, covered myself up, ran into the bathroom, and locked it.
…I hate my life.
Nobody's POV, Boy's Room
Gary was holding his head in his hands. Everybody was in a complete silence.
"Hey…where'd Cilan go?"
Nobody's POV, Girls' Room
All the remaining girls were sitting together in a circle, holding hands. There was a pin drop silence in the room.
Marina sighed, after a while. "Who else feels like they were a complete jerk to May?"
Everybody raised their hands.