Playing All The Right Notes

The Rally

"I-It's a b-beautiful song s-sure, but I-I don't th-think it's b-best for a high school pep rally." Penny reasoned, putting the sheet music in the 'no' pile.

"Well then, what is?" I asked, frustrated. 

We're getting nowhere and we have to go on in less than an hour.

"Well, how would we know? We've never even been to one." Vanessa reasoned.

"Penny, have you ever been to one?" I asked, hope filling my voice since she's an avid sports fan and must've been to dozens of these events.

She shook her head, making the small little dandelion of hope in my chest die.

"I-I never r-really went to th-the r-rallies. T-too many p-people."

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay with this one?" Julian asked, brotherly concern in his voice.

"I-I think s-so. I h-have you guys with me now." Her smile was like pure sunshine, making all of our hearts warm at seeing her come out of her shell.

"So what now?" I asked, bringing us back to the topic at hand. "We still don't have anything prepared and we're going to need at least half an hour to get up to speed."

"Is there someone else we can ask?" Meadow questioned, making me stop and think.

"Who do we know who's been to a pep rally?" Vanessa asked.

As if the music gods had been listening to us, the door swung open at that moment, revealing the jocks who had unwillingly been inserted into our choir. As usual, they were late to class, but today, that would actually be a good thing.

In unison, our eyes locked onto the jocks who had barely noticed that we were in the room. 

Slightly wary, Kane dared to ask, "Hey, guys, what's up?"

"Storm asked us extremely last-minute to perform a song at the rally today and we have no idea what to sing." I explained, gesturing to the pile of sheet music behind me.

Callum snorted, making Meadow practically glue her eyes to the floor to keep from making eye contact.

Kane elbowed him not-so-subtly and Colton walked over to look over the music, only to throw it all into the 'no' pile after looking through it after two seconds.

"Sorry, Mouse, but none of this is gonna work. Maybe something from this century?" He teased, though I could see what he was saying.

Julian looked at me with a devious smirk on his face and mouthed, Mouse?

Shooting him a look that clearly said shut up, I looked back to the task at hand.

"What about what we sang for the Summer Festival last year?" Meadow asked, running to her get her music folder and pulling out the song.

She handed me the music and I looked it over, humming to myself to remember the melody and how the song went. The song was actually chosen by Julian last year and he and I collaborated on arranging it for a project for our composition class.

"Now we're talkin'." He praised, handing it back to me.

"Awesome. Now all that's left are costumes and rehearsing." I turned to the only aspiring fashion designer in the room, "Meadow, got anything?"

"Since we're singing a song from last year's Summer Festival, we can use the costumes from that day. And they're gold and ivory, so they're in school colors." She supplied.

"Fantastic. Penny, if you could help her sort out the costumes that would be great. Callum and Aaron, since you guys look like big, strong men, " I goaded, ignoring Callum's harsh glare, "You guys can help them bring everything up here. Silk and tulle petticoats are much heavier than they look, trust me."