Chapter 9
I opened the door to English 10.
Time to enter hell.
I looked into the classroom and saw that the door was to the back of the room. So everyone was in their seats facing the front of the room and they hadn't seen me yet.
I quickly took a seat at the back of the classroom.
Luckily no one had noticed I was in the room yet.
The boys were talking quietly to each other before the bell rang 3 seconds later.
A man in his late 20's opened the door to the classroom and our eyes connected. He had a questionable look on his face as he mouthed the words, Are you new?
I nodded. But seriously, how can I not look new if I'm in a school full of guys?
He quickly walked up to the front of the classroom and stood up in front of the rest of the students.
"Class it seems, we have a special new student." the man said to them.
"You mean special ed?" one of the boys interjected with a laugh.
"No, she is not special ed." he said to them.
"Teach, you just called him a she." they said.
"No, I didn't. I called her a she." the teacher said.
The guys in the room start to break off into their own conversations about this "Girl."
"Now class if you will be quiet for 5 minutes we can introduce her." the man yelled over the commotion.
The class quickly shut up.
"Now, miss, could you come and introduce yourself?" he asked as he shifted his gaze from the class to me.
I got up from the desk I was sitting in and walked up to the front of the class keeping my daze on the floor.
You can do this, Aria. Just don't show fear and try not to be nervous.
I stood next to the teacher as he introduced himself to me.
"Welcome, I'll be your English 10 teacher. Mr. Spindler, but you can call me Spin. Everyone does." he said as he held out his hand for me to shake. I suddenly felt a small amount better.
I took his hand to shake.
"Now miss--" he said noting he wanted to know my name.
"Aria Strider." I said as I smiled a genuine smile.
"Will you please introduce yourself to the class Miss Strider? Just explain basic stuff, like, your name, favorite color, favorite food, where you moved from, how old you are, what you do in your free time, and something interesting about yourself." Mr. Spindler said with a smile.
I turned to face the class as I quickly fixed my posture to seem more confident. I felt 20 stares grazing my body like a herd of cattle. Not cool.
"So my name is Aria Strider, green, mac and cheese, Liv Virginia, 16, I sing and dance and something interesting would be that I have a photographic memory and I can remember almost everything that someone says." I said with a smile as I watched as everyone's jaws in the room dropped.
Some guy in the 3rd row whispered "wow." It made my slightly laugh.
Spin cleared his throat. "Well I think you finished your introduction in record time. Does the class have any questions?" he said as he looked at the class.
"I have a question." said a guy in the first row.
"Shoot." I said.
"Why are you going to this school? It's for guys." he said.
"Really? I didn't know it was for guys." I gave him my, do-you-think-I'm-stupid look.
He responded with rolling his eyes.
"I'm going to this school because I'm staying with...family friends and the girl's school is too far away." I said.
"Oh, cause everyone was wondering." he said.
"Huh, I wonder why?"
Spin laughed quietly but covered it quickly with a cough.
"You can take your seat now Aria." he said.
The class went on. It was pretty boring but it was ok. At the end of class Spin asked me to come up to the front of the classroom again.
"Miss Strider, can I see you schedule?" he asked.
I handed it over for him to see. He quickly read over the classes.
"Does anyone have Chamber Choir next?" Spin asked the class.
"I do." said a guy with dirty blonde hair in the 2nd row. He had blue or green eyes but I was too far away to tell. He wore a purple V-neck tee shirt from American Eagle with plaid matching shorts. Definitely going to be a jock.
"For the remainder of class everyone has free time. Aria and Ethan please join me at my desk." he said as he walked to his desk in the corner of the room.
I followed him to the desk and waited patiently for "Ethan" to get there.
Ethan stood to the left of me in front of Spin's desk.
"So since you two have the same class next, I would like it if Ethan shows you to the classroom, Aria." Spin said.
Ethan nodded as the bell rang. I went to my desk and picked up my stuff before joining Ethan by the door.
"So, how did you manage to get into Chamber Choir?" Ethan asked.
"I'm actually not really sure, but I guess my last school recommended me." I said as I slide past a group of guys that couldn't keep their hands to themselves. I swatted their hands away.
"Hm." he responded with.
"So how many guys are in Chamber?" I asked so I had an idea of how many guys I would have to keep a wary eye out for.
"With me, there are 14. We're pretty small but if we had more we would sound tone-deaf because you couldn't hear any of the really good singers." he said with a slight chuckle.
I laughed. We had gone through the half circle hallway and down the stairs to where I had found "what's-his-face" to bring me to English. We walked to the left down the hallway to a pair of double doors.
Ethan pushed a door open and it led into a shorter hallway. We took an immediate left and went into a classroom on the right side of the hallway.
The classroom had risers with chairs set up on them. There was a piano sitting in the middle of the room. To the right of the door, there were shelves set up to set your folders that held your music. Next to the shelves was a large mirror facing the risers.
"Follow me." Ethan said, sending me out of my daze.
I followed him to the other side of the room. There, was a door. He pushed it open. It led into a small hallway, it looked like a passage way.
"Here are the practice rooms. Each of them has a piano in them but the band classes also share the practice rooms so you usually hear other instruments coming from the other side of the door." He said pointing into one of the rooms. There were about 6 of the practice rooms.
Ethan pointed to a room on the left.
"This is Mr. Grahams' office. He's a pretty cool teacher." he said. I nodded in response.
Ethan led us through Mr. Grahams' office so that we were back in the chorus room.
"He also lets us do whatever we want before class and in-between songs." he said, as we took a seat in the second row on the risers.
"That's way better than my last teacher. She had a "no yawning" rule in her room. Every time you yawned, you lost points for the day." I said.
"Wow that would suck. Girl teachers always a crazy, that's why we have all guy teachers here. The school board thinks that they can "understand" us better." he exclaimed as he put his hands in the air to make air quotations.
I looked around at the guys in the room.
They had all noticed that I was in here so they were talking to each other while staring at me. Just what I had wanted, more attention.
I looked at the clock on the wall. We only had 5 minutes in-between classes and now we had 2 minutes before the bell rang for the beginning of class.
I turned to Ethan. "Um, since we have 2 minutes until the class starts, I'm going to go to a practice room and warm-up."
He nodded as I stood up.
I walked to the door to go to the hallway. I opened the door and walked down the hall. I stopped at a practice room and put my ear to the door.
Nobody was in there.
I reached for the door handle and opened the door.
I walked in and shut the door behind me.
I walked towards the piano and thanked my parents for forcing me to go to piano lessons when I was younger.
I sat down on the piano bench.
I placed my hands on the familiar keys.
A slow smile formed on my lips as I played the chords.
I pulled out my phone. I had 1 minute before the bell rang. I quickly set an alarm for me to leave to go back to class.
I thought of the perfect song to play before I had to go. Catch Me by Demi Lovato.
It explained almost everything that I felt. About my family, about my life.
I started to play the chords from memory as I sang along with the music.
Before I fall
Too fast
Kiss me quick
But make it last
So I can see
How badly this will hurt me
When you say goodbye
Keep it sweet
Keep it slow
Let the future pass
And don't let go
But tonight
I could fall too soon
Under this beautiful moonlight
But you're so hypnotizing
You got me laughing while I sing
You got me smiling in my sleep
And I can see this unraveling
Your love is where I'm falling
But please don't catch me...
See this heart
Won't settle down
Like a child running
Scared from a clown
I'm terrified
Of what you do
My stomach screams
Just when I look at you
Run far away
So I can breathe
Even though you're
Far from suffocating me
I can't set my hopes too high
'Cause every hello ends with a
goodbye
But you're so hypnotizing
You got me laughing while I sing
You got me smiling in my sleep
And I can see this unraveling
Your love is where I'm falling
But please don't catch me...
So now you see
Why I'm scared
I can't open up my heart
without a care
But here I go
It's what I feel
And for the first time in my
life I know it's real
By this time my eyes were watering as my alarm went off. I usually was never this emotional, but with this song, it pushed my emotions over the edge.
I grabbed my phone and opened the door from the practice room to the hallway. I fast walked through the hallway as I whipped my eyes so no one knew what I had done.
I got to the door and opened. I was happy that I had 2 seconds before class started.
I walked to where I was sitting earlier.
"All warmed-up?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah," I tried to attempt to smile.
I guess it worked because he smiled back.
Mr. Grahams, I think, walked into the room. He was in his late 40s with a small amount of gray hairs in his raven hair. He wore small rectangular reading glasses.
"Is everyone ready to sing?" the man asked.
Ethan shifted his posture next to me as he spoke.
"Mr. Grahams, we have a new student." he said as he pointed to me.
Even though I just met you, you just made me hate you.
"Thanks." I whispered sarcastically to Ethan.
He just smirked back.
"It seems Mr. Scrab is correct. Miss, what may we address you by?" he asked me with a welcoming smile.
"Aria Strider." I said.
"Well, it's a pleasure to have you here Aria. I am Mr. Grahams." he said as he tipped a fake hat.
"Now can someone tell Aria what we do when we have a new student?" he asked as he scanned the room.
A boy with red hair raised his hand slowly.
"Yes, Mitchel."
"Mitchel" turned his body to face mine as he started to explain.
"So Mr. Grahams always wants to know the students more, like he has known them for years. He has everyone in the room stand in a large circle and we all listen to a playlist of different songs. But he always wants us to have more fun, so he points to a different person to step into the middle and have only them sing a section of the song. While you're in the circle you have to make up dance moves too, but they have to go with the style of music. Mr. Grahams says that it makes us loosen up. While there is a person in the circle you have to act like you have been affected to their acting. He usually does this exercise figure out a person's range. But we also do it when we get a new student."
I turned back to Mr. Grahams. "What do we do if we don't know the song?"
"Then you, yourself, have to point to someone in the circle to try and sing it. And if the song is a duet, I pull 2 people in and you have to inprovice the parts. It also counts as acting skills, if it's a song about a story, act out the story."
"Ok then," I said while I thought of how it might actually be fun as long as it was old western songs.
"Now everyone, get in the circle!" Mr. Grahams yelled to the class.
Mr. Grahams went to a counter top and hit play on the cd player.
Mr. Grahams yelled over the music, "We're all going to start singing the song together and then switch it up! And don't forget about the dance moves and you have to rap the rap parts too!"
Oh my God...what have I gotten myself into?
I recognized the first song as I am a Man of Constant Sorrow by The Soggy Bottom Boys. It's from the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?"
Every guy started to do their craziest dance moves in the introduction of the song. But when they sang, Oh My God. Unexplainable of how good they are.
I felt a little awkward when all of the guys were singing in the lower octave and I was singing in the upper octave. But when I looked at Mr. Grahams, he just nodded his head as a slow smile played on his lips.
I suddenly got encouragement to sing slightly louder to the song.
Right before the portion of next song started to play, Mr. Grahams pointed to a boy to go to the center of the circle.
He didn't even look nervous about singing in front of any of the other students.
The portion of the next song started to play as Mr. Grahams put a finger to his lips to hush the rest of us down so that only the boy was singing.
This was going to be great...
The next song was Sober by P!nk.
Mr. Grahams tossed a microphone to the boy as he caught it one handed.
He sang into the microphone as he looked around the circle. He acted like a rock star as he got to the really powerful parts. He dropped to his knees as he got to the climax of the song.
I knew the portion of the song was ending when Mr. Grahams pointed to 2 boys. He tossed one of the boys a microphone. The other boy took the microphone from the boy that just performed.
And the next song is--
Eenie Meenie by Sean Kingston featuring Justin Bieber
It's one of my favorite songs!
They did an epic performance of their portion.
But then, you know what's coming.
He pointed to me.
The guys started to cheer. I could hear comments like, "Let's see how this girl really got in without an audition."
But then he pointed to Ethan too.
Thank God I don't have to do it alone.
Mr. Grahams paused the song before it started.
"Now let's make it even more interesting and have it be a sing off. Because that's what this song is kind of like. And we can see how much power you can put into your voice."
I smirked at Ethan.
Bring it jock!
The song's introduction started and it sounded familiar but I wasn't sure. It must have showed because Ethan smirked at my reaction.
Just before the singing had to start, I figured out what song it was.
You're My Only Shorty by Demi Lovato featuring Iyaz
(Me)
Last night was crazy and today it's setting in
Did you really mean it and could you say it again?
Oh-oh, even if you just say it over the phone
Come on, ring, ring, ring
I start to walk circles around Ethan to make me look like I want to know.
Love makes me crazy, restless, dumb and paranoid
But I'll take a chance on us and hope you don't destroy my heart
Just give me one guarantee; I'm the only girl you see
What you say, boy
(Ethan)
He starts to walk in circles like me.
You're my only shorty, you're my only shorty
I'm telling you the truth, girl, it's only you
You're my only, you're my only, you're my only one and only
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
I'm telling you the truth, oh, girl, it's only you, whoa
You're my only, you're my only, you're my only, and you're my only shorty
Am I your only shorty?
(Me)
Every day and night you got an open invitation, whoa
As long as I'm your one and only destination
Fly with me, I'll be your fantasy, oh, yeah
I backed away from him.
You're in demand but baby, baby, so am I
But if you're weak and try to sneak
I'll have to tell you bye, bye
I'm a put you on the spot
Am I your only girl or not?
What you say, boy, woo
(Ethan)
Ethan stepped toward me and wrapped his fore arm around waist to bring me closer to him.
You're my only shorty, you're my only shorty
Am I your only, yeah?
I'm telling you the truth, girl, it's only you
You're my only, you're my only, you're my only one and only
Am I your only?
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
I'm telling you the truth, oh, girl, it's only you, whoa
You're my only, you're my only, you're my only, you're my only shorty
Am I your only shorty?
(Me)
We interlocked our fingers so that we were holding hands as we sang to eachother.
Please, baby, please, give me
All your attention, say it
Don't let my heart go seeking no other direction
I gotta be the only one for your affection, oh yeah
(Ethan)
Oh yeah, baby girl, did I mention
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
You're my only shorty, baby, come clean
I'm telling you the truth, oh, girl, it's only you, oh
You're my only, you're my only, you're my only, you're my only shorty
Am I your only shorty?
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
You're my only shorty, am I your only shorty?
I'm telling you the truth, oh, girl, it's only you, oh
You're my only, you're my only, you're my only, you're my only shorty
Am I your only shorty?
(Me)
We looked into each other's eyes.
Am I your only, am I your only?
Yeah, tell me, am I your only, yeah, shorty?
Yes you are, yes you are
Wanna hear you say, yeah
Am I your only shorty?
Mr. Grahams paused the cd player again as we let go of each other's hand and looked back at Mr. Grahams.
"That was one of the best performances that I have ever seen any of my students do. Very well done." he said as he started to clap his hands together.
The rest of the class joined in clapping their hands.
I heard murmurs of, "I guess we know why now."
I smiled to myself.
"Now class, I would like to tell all of you the news that I was told last night by the principal. The Chamber Choir has permission to sing 4 songs at the assembly tomorrow. You, as the class, get to pick what songs to sing tomorrow. But I thought that maybe, we could turn this "game" into a competition to see who gets to sing a solo and a duet at the assembly. So shall we compete?"
The classroom was filled with "Yes'"
"The duet will be sung between the 2 finalists. Everyone has 5 minutes to pick the song they are going to sing. You are welcomed to use the practice rooms."
With that he walked back into his office.
I walked over to my stuff by the chairs and picked up my water bottle.
Ethan can up beside me, "You've got one hell of a voice."
I smiled sheepishly, "Thanks, you too."
"You definitely have a chance at getting that duet." he said.
I was just about to say thanks again, but then I finally figured out what exactly he said.
"Duet? Why not the solo?" I asked.
"Because only the best gets the solo." Ethan said with a smirk.
"If I'm not the best, who is?"
"Well isn't it obvious? I am." His smirk getting larger.
"We'll see about that." I said as I turned to open the door to the practice rooms.
I went into a practice room.
I thought about the song that I would do. I quickly got a great idea. I smiled to myself.
-----------------------------------------------Performance Time--------------------------------------------------------
I didn't need to practice in the practice rooms but I knew that people would ease drop to know what song I was going to sing so I played random songs that I memorized when I was little.
And of course, some of the guys were singing the songs that I played.
It was Ethan's turn now.
I knew that I was good but I could never be as good as Ethan. But I was totally right about him being cocky.
Ethan was singing, of course, Sexy and I know It by LMFAO. I don't think I like him that much anymore. Not that I ever did, but just saying.
I knew that Ethan would pick a pop song but I knew that my song, even if it was pop, would stick in Mr. Grahams head.
As Ethan finished, he smirked at me. He walked past me and as he did so he whispered in my ear, "That song was dedicated to you." I could almost hear the grin in his voice.
I fake gaged.
Nasty!
"Aria, it's your turn now." Mr. Grahams said, motioning for me. "What song?" he pointed to his iPod dock.
"Yeah, that's the thing..." I walked over to Mr. Grahams.
I whispered in his ear, "Could I use the piano?"
He nodded.
I turned around to walk back over to the piano, as I did so; I saw the smirk on Ethan's face drop. He knew exactly what I was doing.
I sat down at the piano bench. "I'm going to be performing, Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap."
Even though I sang it in the shower, doesn't mean that I can't sing it here.
I slid my hands down on the keys.
I played the chords as I continued to sing the lyrics.
where are we?
what the heck is going on?
the dust has only just begun to form
crop circles in the carpet
sinking feeling
spin me round again
and rub my eyes,
this can't be happening
when busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads heavy
hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
all those years
they were here first
oily marks appear on walls
where pleasure moments hung before the takeover,
the sweeping insensitivity of this still life
hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
blood and tears
they were here first
Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmm that you only meant well?
well of course you did
Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmmm that it's all for the best?
of course it is
Mmmm whatcha say?
Mmmm that it's just what we need
you decided this
whatcha say?
Mmmm what did she say?
ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs
speak no feeling no I don't believe you
you don't care a bit,
you don't care a bit
(hide and seek)
ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs
speak no feeling no I don't believe you
you don't care a bit,
you don't care a (you don't care a) bit
(hide and seek)
oh no, you don't care a bit
oh no, you don't care a bit
oh no, you don't care a bit
you don't care a bit
you don't care a bit
As I finished the song, I could feel a lot of glares coming from Ethan's direction.
I didn't really care about winning the competition, but I just couldn't stand Ethan walking over me like some kind of trash.
"Well, you were the last one Aria. The results of the competition will be posted on the door after next period. But right now everyone needs to come to a conclusion on what the 2 group songs will be. Everyone: deliberate!"
As I walked to go back to my water bottle again, I passed Ethan. But I couldn't help myself, "The song was dedicated to no one. Just for my own enjoyment." I said as I passed him.
"You have no idea what you've just done." he said with pure venom in his voice.
"And I'm fine with not knowing," I said with just as much venom.
I grabbed my water bottle and started to drink it.
"Word of advice: Watch your back at this school. Some guys won't take your crap as well as I did." he said as he once again, whispered in my ear, causing me to choke on my water.
He laughed.
He's right. I had forgotten about every guy being in a gang. I have no idea how many enemies I had just made on my first day.
My thoughts were quickly interrupted when I heard a large thud. I turned around to see a guy on the ground with blood coming from his nose.
A guy was standing above him with his fists clenched.
I recognized him. He was in my English class. He was the guy that asked why I was going to school here.
"Mr. Lockwood, office now!" Mr. Grahams yelled to the guy.
He walked out of the room without a word.
"And Mr. Goodnit, you can go to the nurse to have that checked out." He said to the boy on the floor, cupping his nose.
The boy got up and walked out of the room too.
Ethan came up to me.
"See, some guys wouldn't care that your a girl, and you could be left laying on the floor. Watch yourself." with that he walked away.
I really didn't want to go to this school now.
"We'll have bells practice tomorrow!" Mr. Grahams yelled as the bell rang for the next period.
I grabbed my things and tried to remember where Advanced Grometry was.
Mr. Grahams came up to me.
"Do you know where your next period is?" he asked.
"Um, not really. I forgot." I said.
"What class?"
"Advanced Geometry" I said.
"Oh, that's just down the hall, 3rd door on the left." he said.
"Thanks." I said with a smile as I walked out of the room.
I walked down the very crowded hallway.
I'm guessing that the guys in the school found out that I went here because they all were checking me out. Maybe I shouldn't of changed out of what Lucas picked out...
Most of the guys couldn't keep their hand to themselves so they all got shoved away.
"I like a girl that's fiesty!" one guy yelled.
I rolled my eyes.
I saw the Advanced Geometry door and was about to grab the handle until a very built guy stood in my way.
"Move." I told him.
"What do I get if I do?" he asked.
"A suprise, close your eyes." I said, changing my tone to seductive.
He closed his eyes as I lifted my knee into his gut.
He bent over and stumbled away from the door.
"Thanks." I said in a cheery voice.
As I went into the class room, he yelled over his shoulder, "You'll pay for that."
I shuddered. I really shouldn't of done that.
The door closed behind me with a loud bang.
The whole class looked at me.
"Um, is this Advanced Geometry?" I asked trying to make it less awkward.
"Yep." said a guy in the back of class.
"Thanks," I murmured as I took a seat.
The bell rang about 1 minute later.
The teacher walked in and said, "New girl, up here." as he pointed to the front of the class.
I walked up to the front of the room.
"Introduce yourself. Name, age, last place you lived, and GPA from your last school." he said as he sat down at his desk and started looking at some papers. I haven't seen his face yet so I'm guessing he isn't really a people person.
"Aria Strider, 16, Liv, Virginia, 3.94" I said. With that he lifted his head.
He had an oval shaped face. His eyes looked frustrated? I couldn't tell but there was definitly emotion there. He had lots of gray hairs in his light brown hair. I'm guessing he was in his early 50s.
"16? How are you in this class? It's for senior's. And you have to be a sophomore." he said.
"I've always been advanced in math classes so I was placed in this class but I'm still considered a soph--" I was cut off when the door opened revealing someone that I really didn't want to see me in these clothes.
There was Ryan. His head was down like he didn't want to be noticed when he was late to class.
"Mr. Tucker, why are you late to my class? You just interupted a student." said the teacher to Ryan.
Ryan then looked up at the teacher's desk to explain why he was late but then he realized which student the teacher was talking about.
Ryan's gaze shifted to me and it was a suprised look until it turned angry.
"What are you doing here?" he asked his voice full of anger. But what his question really meant was, "What are you doing here, wearing THAT?!"
"Um, I'm in this class." I said just when the teacher said that it was time for lunch.
I walked out of the class for lunch. I was going down the main hallway until a pair of strong arms pulled me into a janitor's closet.
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Author's Note
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