Choirs Against Humanity

The Final Rehearsal

The final rehearsal before the spring concert was meant to feel as true to life as possible (hence why they moved to the auditorium), but the irony was that poor Mrs. Kase was run so ragged in the final hours before the concert that she was continuously pulled away from the choir to attend to other matters. That meant lots of impromptu breaks sprinkled throughout.

"—got my arm stuck in a vending machine trying to get a candy bar unstuck from it," Hayate said in a completely frank and matter-of-fact tone, shrugging as she shared some of Arisugawa's hidden horror stories with the students of the other choirs and schools.

"You're lucky you didn't bring the whole thing down on top of you!" Beside her, Kokoa snapped. Hayate only grinned and brushed Kokoa's cheek before leaning back, lying down such that her head was resting in Kokoa's lap. Kokoa looked away, sputtering softly. "W-wait! Wh-what the-?!"

"Hey! Isn't stealing, like, against one of the commandments, or something?" Muni asked, torn between disdain and genuine curiosity and confusion. Beside her, Maho sighed in secondhand embarrassment. This conversation was divine punishment for something, she was sure of it!

"Only when the nuns are looking," Miiko chuckled. "But that's why we gotta make up for it and be extra bad when they aren't!" she giggled.

"Ugh. Whatever. I'm too tired to care..." Beside her, Haruna exhaled heavily through her nose. Ordinarily, she was much more disciplinarian, especially when visiting a different host school, but even she had her limits. Again, "hidden horror stories". They strove for perfection, but as the nuns preached every day, only God was perfect. Sometimes, all Haruna wanted to do was go home and sleep. It was hard work being an honors student on the Disciplinary Committee while juggling as many extracurriculars as she did, including choir!

Kokoa could only side-eye Haruna too. Hmph! Maybe I should run for Disciplinary Committee instead! Haruna is growing soft...

The other two students of Arisugawa were locked in conversation elsewhere. The first was Miyu, who was the first to get Tsubaki to speak since choir began hours earlier. The two had sung together in church, so they had somewhat of a bond that many of the others lacked.

"I can't believe I forgot to take into account that church choirs are typically more... serious than public school,"Tsubaki chuckled under her breath to Miyu. One would've thought choir would've been a perfect class for her! But again, as she said, those in church choir typically wanted to be there, even if Sunday mornings could be brutal. But public high school? And as the last class of the day? Forget it!

And to think, I took this class because I thought it would be MORE manageable with my depression... Though to be fair, sometimes the antics of the choir were enough to temporarily shock the depression out of Tsubaki. The inside joke of "Choirs Against Humanity" rang true once more. Even Miyu couldn't deny it. She chuckled and nodded ruefully in agreement with Tsubaki's disappointment.

Miyu was one Tsubaki might've called a genuine "try-hard", sometimes infuriatingly so, with how perfect and peppy she always was. But very few were able to resist her charms, even if they were insufferably perfect. That didn't mean, though, that Miyu didn't understand why her peers were tired and frustrated. Much as she loved choir, like Haruna, even she had her limits.

This is a 12-hour day! Miyu mused. It was up at 6AM to leave by 7AM for school to start by 7:30AM and end at 2:30PM. But since tonight was the spring concert, they didn't go home. Instead, it was a two-hour rehearsal. Then they would get a break, but the concerts typically began around 5PM to 6PM and lasted, on average, one and a half hours. That could keep them until 7:30PM, and that didn't take into account all the time it took to fully end the show, put away robes and music books, and then travel home. And anyone with homework couldn't go to bed just yet either.