King Slayer {1} ✓

IX

"Only the piano, drums, guitar, violin, viola, cello, bass, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, flute, bassoon, oboe. I dabbled in the marimba and french horn for a bit. Not to mention the ones no one has ever heard of." God, he was such an ego case.

"Wonderful! Which would you say is your favorite?"

After what felt like a lifetime of their back-and-forth conversation, Mrs. Weaver moved on to lecture about Guido of Arezzo and the history of the vocal scale. My hand started to hurt after taking so many notes as usual.

Isaiah decided to take this exact moment to lean over and whisper in my ear, "Would you believe me if I said I knew him? We actually conceived of the staff notation together."

"I'm trying to learn here."

"Let's move on and review last night's reading. Can anyone name all of the vocal ranges?" Mrs. Weaver asked and my hand shot up in the air. "Brielle," she pointed at me.

"Soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, and bass."

"Exactly, there are six voice types. Now let me ask another question, what do we call the highest male range?"

Isaiah and I both raised our hands at the same time but she called on him.

"We call it the falsetto register and it is primarily used by countertenor males to match female altos and even sopranos." He explained.

"Good, and what do we call the lowest female range?"

Like before, Isaiah and I were the only ones to raise our hands while the whole class zoned out.

"Brielle," she called on me.

"Contralto. It's also the rarest tessitura for a female."

Mrs. Weaver nodded and walked around the class, "Excellent. And what is tessitura?" Isaiah raised his hand a second before mine. "Isaiah,"

"It is the section of range that a vocalist is most comfortable with."

"Very good! Now what is the difference between tessitura and timbre?"

Our hands shot in the air but Mrs. Weaver looked around the classroom in a sad attempt to engage everyone else.

"Would anyone else like to answer? Sofie?" Sofie looked lost so she asked a few other students, "How about you, Gus? Or Mika? Nico?" They all shrugged and avoided eye contact while I stretched my hand higher in the air. Isaiah did the same. "Did anyone actually complete the reading?"

"Brielle and Isaiah seem to know the answer." Sofie muttered and the rest of the class that was awake snickered.

Our teacher sighed, "Brielle,"

"Timbre is the quality of someone's voice, like if it's graceful or raspy or powerful. The only similarity between the two is that you can have the same timbre and tessitura." I answered.

"Actually, each individual has their own unique timbre." Isaiah corrected me matter-of-factly and I glared at him.

"The reading clearly said otherwise."

"Are you certain you read it correctly?"

Cat noises could be heard from the back of the class.

I turned my head and stared straight into his eyes, "Oh, and how do you know that? Were you alive when they invented music?" We both knew he was but they didn't know that.

He hesitated but was forced to give up, "No."

Everyone started to whisper loudly to each other so Mrs. Weaver clapped her hands three times.

"Okay, okay," she spoke over everyone, "Let's get back on track, class." She stopped asking questions and started to write on the board.

All throughout class, I tried to ignore Isaiah and his annoying personality but it was incredibly hard. I couldn't concentrate and was making more mistakes than usual. Stupid vampires.

As soon as the bell rang, I rushed to pack up my stuff and get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Don't forget to read pages one-hundred fifteen through one-hundred ninety! And Isaiah, if you need any extra help—although I think you'll be just fine—don't be afraid to talk to me. I'm sure Brielle could help you if you get too lost, too." She suggested and I internally cringed when she mentioned my name.

Isaiah faked a polite smile, "Of course. Thank you, Mrs. Weaver."

"I could help you, if you'd like." Sofie piped up infront of us.

Isaiah smirked, "More like I would be helping you."

Sofie's face went slack and I couldn't help but smile at the burn.

When I left the classroom, I ran into Jenny in the hallway. We spoke at the same time.

"Isaiah's here."

"Cecelia's here."

"We just can't get rid of them." I muttered under my breath.

"I'd feel safer if Dexter was here." Jenny admitted.

"He had to go find Caius. Besides, we can handle them. I just don't understand why they're here in the first place." We never did resolve our previous conflict.

Jenny shrugged and took a step in the opposite direction since we had different classes, "Stay safe."

"You, too."

I walked to AP chemistry and made small talk with Lily before class started.

"I'm so hungry." My stomach was growling and I still had another class to get through before lunch.

"The struggle is real." She took out a bag of pretzels and offered me some. I took a handful and shoved them in my mouth.

"Thanks,"

"Are we still on for tomorrow?" Lily asked and I almost forgot. Tomorrow was Tuesday and there was a twenty percent discount on everything at the mall, including food. We usually went to blow off some stress.

"Of course. I'm in dire need of new shoes." Mine had gotten very dirty from all the running around last week.

"Cool. Hey, is it okay if someone joins us?"

That was unusual, it was almost always just us. "Sure, who?"

"I met her today but she's super nice. Her name's Cecelia." She said nonchalantly.

My face went blank.

"She's new and it doesn't seem like she has many friends so I just invited her on the spot," she said quickly after she noticed my strange reaction, "If you don't like her, I can cancel—"

"No, no, you already invited her. I just met her brother today, that's all." I forced a smile and tried to keep my mouth shut about their secret.

"She's nice, Bri. We talked about clubs and how she wants to volunteer for the Red Cross and participate in their blood drives."

I almost laughed out loud. Vampires were supposedly very good at hiding in plain sight but not her I guess.

"Great. I can't wait to meet her."

Now I had to figure out a way to separate them before Lily became Cecelia's personal bloodbank.