Heyyyy all you wonderful readers!

Hope all your holidays are going fabulously! The year's almost over, so here's one more chapter before 2023!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size.

Xylophone

Kindergarten

May (5), Drew (5), Gary (5), Paul (5)

May had the xylophone this recess.

She'd always wanted to try the xylophone, but someone else always had it. This recess, however, she'd finally gotten to it first.

She took the xylophone to her usual table and sat down to play the instrument. Drew, who was seated next to her, looked up from the picture he was colouring.

"That's a nice xylophone," he said.

May nodded, her eyes locked on the xylophone as she hit each colourful bar with the mallet. "Mm-hm. I'm a musician now."

"Wow. Can I try?"

"Okay, but you have to give it back right after, 'cause it's mine today."

May pushed the xylophone over to Drew, who tapped each bar thoughtfully. Then, to May's astonishment, he started playing the tune to Twinkle, Twinkle Clefairy Star.

"You can make actual, real life music!" May exclaimed.

Drew flipped his hair proudly. "My music tutor taught me!"

May reached for the xylophone. "Gimme, I wanna try too!"

May tried to hit the bars in the same pattern as Drew, but she couldn't remember how it went.

"It's like this," said Drew, taking the mallet from her. "See? You hit this one first, then this one, then..."

May tried again, and did it a little better, but by the time Drew guided her through the whole tune, she had forgotten how to do it on her own.

"Hm," said May, frowning. "You're better at making music than me."

"There are lots of ways to make music," Drew reassured her. "Maybe you're better at the drums. Or the violin. Or singing."

"Well, I am pretty good at singing," May said, brightening up. "Mommy always says so. Though I never got to show Daddy because he's always busy when I'm singing."

"Maybe I could make the music with the xylophone, and you could do the singing," Drew said.

"Yes— WAIT A MINUTE!" May exclaimed. "What if we and Gary and Paul all did music together! We could be a band!"

She skipped over to where Gary was playing with blocks.

"Gary!" she said. "Do you wanna be in me and Drew's band?"

Gary looked up, a spark in his eye. "Do I get to play a guitar?"

May nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! You can be the guitar person, and I can be the singer, and Drew can be the piano person - except we don't have a piano, so we'll use the xylophone."

"I wanna do the singing," Gary whined.

"But I'm the singer," said May.

Gary looked like he was going to protest, but then Drew came up to them.

"How about you both be the singer?" he suggested. "May will be the main singer, and because Gary is the main guitarist, he won't sing as much, but he'll say some stuff in the background."

Gary nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I've seen some people sing like that. It sounds cool!"

"Okay!" May cheered. "Now we need to see what Paul will do!"

They went over to where Paul was looking at a book by the bookshelf. May was going to tap him on the head to get his attention, but he was wearing his black rain hat (because of a particular hair incident May did not like to think about), and May remembered she was not supposed to touch his head.

So instead she asked, "Paul, what are you gonna do in our band?"

Paul looked up. "What?"

"A band, Paul, we're starting a band! And you have to be in it!" May bounced on her feet in excitement. "I'm the main singer, and Gary's the main guitar person who does a little bit of singing too, and Drew's the piano person, except we're using the xylophone instead! What about you?"

"I don't play music," Paul said.

"I know - you can do the drums," Gary said. "All you gotta do is hit the drums with sticks."

"We don't even have a drum," said Paul. "Or a guitar," he added, looking pointedly at Gary.

"We don't have a piano either," Drew pointed out. "So we're using a xylophone instead. Maybe we can find something else to use instead of a drum and guitar."

The four paused in thought.

"Rubber bands!" May said suddenly. "Sometimes, if you stretch rubber bands, they make a sound like a guitar!"

"I'll go ask Ms. Kelly," Gary said.

He raced off to the teacher, yelling, "Ms. Kelly! Ms. Kelly! Do you have rubber bands? I really really need rubber bands super-fast!"

"What about for drums?" said Drew.

"I have an idea!" May said.

She went through the classroom toys and found a toy bucket. She picked a couple of markers Drew had been using to colour and handed them to Paul.

"See?" she said. "This bucket can be the drum, and the markers can be the drumsticks."

Paul looked at his drum set, frowning. "What kind of music are we making, though? What's the song?"

Drew looked thoughtful. "I know some songs, but I don't know if people sing them in bands."

"I know a band song," said May. "I hear it sometimes when Mommy puts on the radio in the car."

"What's it called?"

"I don't know, but the radio person sings something like this." May took a deep breath and began singing. "I want nothing more than to... be with you! But you took my heart, and you broke it in two!"

"What does that mean?" Drew asked.

"What does a broken heart even look like?" asked Paul.

May tapped her chin in thought. "I'll go ask Ms. Kelly," she said finally.

She skipped off to the teacher. Ms. Kelly had just finished helping Gary stretch some rubber bands over an empty tissue box so he could make guitar sounds when he ran his fingers over them.

"Look," Gary said, showing May. "I have a guitar now."

"Wow!" said May, eyes shining. "That's the best guitar ever!"

Gary proudly went off to show Drew and Paul.

"Ms. Kelly," May said once he'd left. "I have a question."

Ms. Kelly smiled. "What is it, May?"

"What does a broken heart look like?"

"Oh." Ms. Kelly blinked. "That's a very deep question."

Ms. Kelly gazed up in thought, her fingers going to the pendant she was wearing. When she turned back to May, her smile was a little sad, and her eyes had a faraway look in them.

"Usually, someone with a broken heart is very sad," she said gently. "It could be because they were emotionally hurt by someone, or" - her grip tightened on her locket - "because they lost someone very special to them."

"Okay," said May, and skipped back to her friends.

"A person with a broken heart is very sad," she informed them. She paused. "What are you all doing?"

Her friends were all trying out different clothes and accessories from the costumes box.

"People in bands look really cool," Gary said. "So we gotta wear stuff that makes us look cool."

"Great idea!" said May.

She joined her friends in picking out her outfit. Soon, they were all dressed in fancy band clothes. Along with her usual red bandana, May wore pink-framed sunglasses, a fluffy pink scarf, and several large bangles on her wrists. Drew had found a clip-on tie and an old blazer that was more like a long coat on him. Gary put on yellow, star-shaped sunglasses and a baggy blue hoodie. Paul still wore his rain hat, and he now wore leather gloves as well, even though they were a bit big on him.

"Hm, something's missing," May mused. "Oh! Don't band people sometimes have pictures and makeup on their face? Maybe we can make stuff on ourselves too?"

"Like what?" Drew asked.

"Like stars and swirls and stuff!"

With that, she picked some washable markers and drew a swirl and star on Gary's and Drew's cheeks (Paul didn't want anything drawn on his face). She was going to do the same on her own face, but then she remembered the song - it was about a broken heart, which meant being really sad. So instead of stars and swirls, May drew hearts on her cheeks, and tears trailing down from her eyes.

"Now we have a band," May said proudly.

"We should do a concert," said Gary, too excited for his usual snark. "That's what bands do, right?"

"Gary, that's a great idea!" said May. "Let's do a concert!"

Before any of her friends could say anything, May stood on a chair.

"Attention, class!" she called out. "We have a band, and we're going to have a concert! So everyone has to stand there" - she pointed to an empty spot in the class - "and listen!"

"May, please don't stand on the chair," Ms. Kelly said, exasperated.

May got down from the chair, but she had everyone's attention. Her curious classmates were starting to gather.

"What's your band's name?" someone asked.

"Ummm..." May turned to her friends.

"The Coolest Band," said Gary.

"The Four Musicians?" said Drew.

Paul shrugged.

May couldn't think of an idea herself, but if she combined what her friends said...

"The Four Coolest Musics!" she said.

"Musicians," Drew corrected, but she'd already turned to their audience.

"We're the Four Coolest Musics!" she announced. "And now..." She picked up a marker and held it like a microphone. "Let's play some music!"

May knew that, in reality, she and her friends were in their kindergarten class in front of their classmates, wearing outfits from Ms. Kelly's costumes box, and using instruments that weren't like the actual instruments real bands used.

But with a little imagination, everything transformed so she and her friends were dressed like real musicians, with real instruments, standing in front of a cheering audience on a stage flashing with lights.

"I am gonna sing a song called 'Broken Heart'!" she announced to the class.

Then, she took a deep breath.

"There's nothing I want more than to... be with you! But you took my heart, and you broke it in two!" she sang. "There's nothing I want more than to... be with you! But you took my heart, and you broke it in two!"

She started jumping and striking poses, pleased to hear her friends playing their music behind her.

"There's nothing I want more than to... be with you!" she screamed. "But you took my heart, and you broke it in two!"

A part of her felt there should be more lyrics, but she couldn't remember what the radio singer sang. So instead she added:

"Two-oo-oo-oo!"

"Yeah yeah yeah!" Gary yelled in the background, strumming his guitar.

"Two-oo-oo-oo!"

"Yeah yeah yeah!"

Drew was starting to get hyped up too - May could tell because whatever the tune he was playing was getting faster, and louder, and more freestyle. Even Paul had found a rhythm to play his drum at.

"Yeah! Yeah!" May joined Gary in screaming a couple of "yeahs!", then continued: "There's nothing I want more than to... be with you! But you took my heart, and you broke it in two! There's nothing I want more than to... be with you! But you took my heart, and you broke it in two! Two-oo-oo-oo!"

"Yeah yeah yeah!"

"Two-oo-oo-oo!"

"Yeah yeah yeah!"

"TWO-OO-OO-OO!"

"YEAH! YEAH!"

May stretched her arms out dramatically. "In... TWOOOOOOOO!"

Gary threw his arms up too. "YEAH!"

Drew ended with sliding the mallet over the xylophone a couple of times, and Paul concluded the performance with one final bang.

May was breathing hard by the time she ended. She'd sung her loudest, and it'd had ended up taking a lot of effort!

Ms. Kelly started clapping, though she wasn't able to clap very well because she was also recording May with her phone. The applause became much louder when the rest of the class joined in.

"What a great performance," Ms. Kelly said. "You four are great musicians!"

Then, she put away her phone and clapped her hands together loudly.

"All right, everyone, recess is almost over! Time to clean up and get ready for class!"

As their audience dispersed, some muttering May's lyrics as they went, May turned to her friends.

"We were great, weren't we?" she said happily.

"We were so cool!" Gary said, his eyes shining. He didn't look like he cared the rubber bands making his guitar strings had snapped halfway through the performance.

"Weren't you just saying the same thing over and over?" Paul said.

"Singers do that all the time," said Drew. "It's still really nice to listen to!"

"Yes," May said, bobbing her head up and down. "We were great!"

As the Four Coolest Musics put away their costumes and instruments, May took the xylophone one last time. Drew had stopped playing actual tunes during the concert, but their band had still sounded great. Maybe it didn't matter if May could play real music on the xylophone or not - everything sounded wonderful when you were having fun!

So May ran the mallet over all the bars, savouring the music she made, until Ms. Kelly reminded her it was clean-up time and she put it away.

And done!

What did you think? Let me know in your reviews!

This is probably going to be my final update for the year. Wishing you all a great winter holiday and a wonderful new year! (2023 is so close!)

Bye bye for now! Have a great day and be sure to smile all the way! :D