Let It Out

Part 1

Caleb was one of the last few who were still in the classroom. The last period had ended and most of his classmates had quickly packed up their school things and left the room. There were groupings in their classroom that are assigned each day to do the cleaning up after classes. Caleb looked around him. His group was down to the last three members, the others ditched them. He finished shutting and locking up the windows that viewed the giant field of his school. He stared at it and let out a sigh of contentment.

He loved that field. Sure, that was where they always had brutal P.E. running drills, but when they weren't running and sweating and exercising, Caleb would sit on one of the benches that outlined the rough circle field and just let the strong breezes blow by him. It invigorated him. Everytime he was swamped with school work or had headaches from all the junior high drama, he'd go sit on one of those benches and just breath.

He heard the sound of armchairs being rearranged and then heard his classmate call, "Hey, I'm done with these chairs. I gotta go now. Got track and field practice." Caleb's other classmate responded, "Alright, Caleb and I will finish up the rest. Thanks Bea, see 'ya tomorrow!" Caleb and his other classmate waved goodbye to her, then they continued to clean the rest of the room. They just had to wipe the blackboard clean and do a quick sweep. Caleb brought out the broom from the cabinet they had in the room and started sweeping up all the dirt, pencil shavings, crumpled papers and whatnot into a pile in the corner. Just when he was halfway finished with sweeping, Caleb heard a phone chime. It was his classmate's.

He picked it up and read the message. "Oh shoot!" He heard his classmate exclaim. Then Caleb watched as his last classmate began frantically stuffing things into his bag while explaining, "I'm so sorry Caleb. My mom just texted me, she said she's been waiting for so long at the parking lot. You okay with doing the rest on your own?" Caleb, being the shy kid he was, stuttered a response, "O-oh, yeah sure. I'll handle the uh, rest... No big deal." He tried sounding reassuring, but when he said it, he sounded more like he didn't want to be alone. His classmate just gave a sad smile and said, "I'll make it up to you next week. Promise!" He watched as his last classmate left, running out the room and down the flight of stairs.

Huh, stuck alone cleaning again huh? Caleb thought as he put down the broom to finish up the half erased board. In most Thursdays of the week, Caleb would be left to clean by himself, and that always gave him mixed feelings. One one hand he didn't have any real friends to stay with him to keep him company while he cleaned so he was lonely, but on the other hand he could always do the thing he loved the most whenever he was alone: sing.

Looking both directions out of one of the doors to his classroom, Caleb made sure he was completely alone. He listened for signs of anyone who might still be in the adjacent classrooms but heard nothing. Quietly and carefully, he closed both doors to his classroom just to be sure. When he was finally confident enough that no one else was around, Caleb began humming. Most songs that he listened to and sung were always so strong willed and full of long belting. Some of them were love songs, even if Caleb didn't have any crushes, and some of them were just songs about life and growing up and other stuff.

As he cleaned, he slowly began to add words to the song he was singing. He finished clearing the blackboard and was back at sweeping the floor. He made small, elegant movements as he swept, the words to the song getting stronger and louder and fuller. His whole body was feeling the rhythm of the song as he half-danced and half-cleaned up. He was always so happy when he sung. It made him feel so free and alive, similar, if not better, compared to sitting on a bench feeling the field's breeze. When he sung, it made him feel all the joy imaginable in the whole world.

He began to let down his guard as the song he was singing reached the first chorus. He finished sweeping the floor, then decided to do a second wave of sweeping since he wasn't quite feeling like ending his weekly private singing session. Caleb's voice grew stronger, louder, and with more emotion as he sung through the second verse and was nearing the chorus again. Gradually getting lost in his singing, Caleb used the broom he was holding as like a prop or a microphone. He didn't care if he looked ridiculous. He was having a great time and no one was around anyway to laugh at him or judge him.

When he hit the final chorus and last part of the song, Caleb completely forgot about placing the piled up trash into the bin, singing into his broom again. He was really feeling it now. Every thought, worry, anxiety, shyness, and uncertainty left him as he finished singing the song with a long, loud, and impressive belt. The song he was singing ended on a relatively high note, but that was nothing compared to the higher notes Caleb sang before. He raised the broom up high like how singers do the same with their microphones.

However, just when his voice was dying down to fade out, he heard running in the hallways.

Caleb's blood ran cold.

Now that he was back on Earth, all of his fears and introverted-ness came rushing back to him. He immediately shut his mouth and fell deathly silent, ears straining to hear for more sounds. The pair of running feet drew closer and closer that Caleb thought of hiding in the broom closet to escape suspicion. He stood his ground however and just continued cleaning. If anyone did come in here to ask about someone singing, he'd deny it for all he's worth.

With a startling loud sound, one of the doors to Caleb's classroom opened up wide. A boy stood there, looking around wildly. He was wearing a dark green hoodie over his uniform. The boy spotted Caleb and asked in the most curious and somewhat desperate tone,

"Was that you singing?"

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A/N:

Please feel free to comment, vote, and follow if you want :)

Also, comment here if I should keep Caleb's songs unnamed or should I give specific songs?

I chose not to give out any specific ones because I wanted the readers to just insert their own long/loud/'belty' songs as they read.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next part!