Waves

CHAPTER 19

Lunch itself wasn't even that bad. A Caesar salad with chicken, cherry tomatoes, and ranch. Nora enjoyed it immensely, especially since it was so vastly different than the crappy fried food that American schools served for lunch.

Nora learned that Adam was head of the surfing team, and Xander was co-head of the swim team with Keitan. All three of them competed in both water sports, and encouraged Nora to try out as well. Nora agreed on the swim team, but was hesitant for the surfing team. She eventually, after much coaxing from Adam, agreed to try out for the surfing team if he taught her his tricks.

After lunch, Nora thought she would be separated again from the guys, but instead, Adam just asked, "Are you in choir?"

Nora nodded, "Yeah," She said.

"So are the rest of us!" Keitan pumped his fist into the air in excitement, which caused Nora to giggle while Adam and Xander rolled their eyes.

"Come on, it's across campus, so we need to hurry," Adam took the lead, his long legs striding across the ground at a remarkable speed. Nora was glad she was in good shape, since she had to jog to keep up with him.

The group of four left the first building and headed toward one at the back that Nora hadn't spotted before. It had the same plain, white bricks and ugly blue window trim as the first one, but it was drastically smaller.

"This is the music department. There's choir, band, musical, play, and speech in here," Adam explained over his shoulder as Nora hurried along beside him and the others.

Xander pointed, "P.E. has it's own separate building, too, since we have a huge lap swimming pool and stuff. We spend the beginning and end of the year learning to swim and then we're basically allowed to do our own thing, depending on the sport we associate most with. The kids that don't have sports usually just walk laps or something."

"Cool," Nora said. And it did sound cool. She knew immediately that she would probably spend most of her time swimming.

Adam pushed open the doors of the fine arts building and Nora was blasted with ice cold air conditioning. That wasn't surprising, seeing as how most people got hot when they performed something.

The choir room was a giant space with about fifty kids milling around. Another guy teacher stood at the front of the class, drawing something on the smart board. Every classroom had one of those, which Nora was surprised at. In America, she hadn't seen more than one of those things, and it had been a very old version.

"Everyone settle down, settle down!" The man at the front of the room finished drawing whatever he was doing on his smart board and turned around, waving his hands in the air at the students.

Slowly, the murmurs from the kids ceased to exist and everyone stood in their places, staring at him.

"Okay, as most of you should know, I'm Mr. Guntley, and I'm the choir teacher. Now, we have a new student this year, right? Eleanora Kane, are you in this room?"

"Right here, and it's just Nora," Nora called. She hadn't felt like her voice was so soft until that moment, when she realized that the sound nearly died in the room.

Still, Mr. Guntley seemed to hear her. He whirled around to face her and flashed a pearly white smile in her direction. "Well, just Nora," He said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. You're a foreign exchange student, correct? Mind telling the class a bit about yourself, where you're from and what's different compared to Australia?"

"Uh, sure," Nora realized in that moment that every eye in the class was on her. She swallowed uncomfortably, and said, "I'm from Iowa, but I lived in Nebraska, too. They're states in America, in the Midwest. It's different there because, uh, well, we have cornfields instead of ocean," There was a laugh from the class, before she continued, "And football is actually football, instead of soccer, and we drive on the other side of the road, which is really hard to get used to."

"Right then. We're all very excited for you to be here, Nora, and I hope to make you feel welcome. So, do you have any idea what part of voice you sing?"

"Uh, I sort of bounced around a lot," Nora shrugged at Mr. Guntley.

He nodded at her, "Okay. How low can you go?"

"Uh, into the bass clef," She sure was saying 'uh' a lot.

"Right then, we'll put you as an alto 2, because we only have one other one and we're in desperate need, alright?"

"Sounds good to me," Nora walked over to a section of chairs where Mr. Guntley pointed.

Students opened their mouths to start talking again, but Mr. Guntley clapped his hands and cut them off, "Basses, tenors, altos, sopranos," He pointed out the different sections where people were supposed to stand, "Lower divisions go to the-your right, my left-side of the section, and higher divisions on the other side."

People began to move instantly. Nora found herself suddenly standing next to another girl, dressed in jean shorts and a cropped pink top. She looked Nora up and down with disgust, "So, new girl," She said, "Just to warn you, this is my spot and if you try to outshine me, then I will make you pay, alright?"

"We'll be singing Take Me to the Water by Rollo Dilworth," Mr. Guntley announced, "As well as The Hanging Tree by Suzanne Collins and Mark Brymer, and Never Enough from The Greatest Showman. The theme is all about power and respect," Mr. Guntley said before Nora could reply to the girl.

Nora and the other students nodded. They began to talk amongst themselves when he turned to grab the music, and Nora glanced at the fellow singer beside her, although it would be a bit of a stretch to call her a fellow singer.

"I'm not gonna cause any problems for you," Nora whispered quietly. She didn't want to confront the girl. Already, she was probably threatened by Nora's presence, and Nora felt bad for invading her safe space. The place where the girl could shine.

Nora was handed the pages of music she needed by Xander, who grinned down at her, "Excited?" He asked.

Nora nodded, "Can't wait!"

Xander moved on, and Nora heard a soft voice beside her whisper, "You already have."

She turned in her seat to find the other alto 2 glaring daggers at her.