~Melody~ [Chim]

Chapter Four: Touch

The recording studio was up three flights of steps, and by the time we had reached the summit, Nicola was thoroughly pissed. "Why am I surrounded by children" she complained as we ground to a halt behind a 10 strong gang of young girls. One of them with long blonde hair and a face of freckles turned round with her mouth open ready to come back with a snotty retort, then shut her mouth and finished her turn back round when she saw the tall angry Nicola behind her. I swear I heard Nicola growl, but before I could question her we were back on the move through the bustling crowds. I hadn't caught sight of Kimberley, much to my discontent, I was hoping she was in my group. And that Nadine wasn't.

We finally reached the recording studio - at least the massive sign above the double doors claimed to be the entrance - and walked into a corridor,with smaller rooms with windows into them along the sides. There were microphones and various instruments scattered throughout these booths, and as I peered into them I felt a tingle of excitement. Singing was a talent me and Nicola both shared, though polar opposites in vocal ability. We came to the end of the corridor through another set of double doors into a larger version of the small recording booths. There were chairs stacked at one side, and stacks of paper and boxes on the other side. The room filled quickly and it was quite a squeeze. A few people headed towards chairs and pulled some down, so me and Nicola followed suit. We sat down near the stacks of papers, and I peered at them curiously. Nicola went full on nosey and picked up one of the booklets. "Oo, scripts and lyrics" she said, leafing through the first few pages.

"Hope you don't mind me sitting with you" a Bradford accent said next to me, accompanied by the sound of a chair scraping next to mine. I didn't even have to turn around to know whose voice it was. Kimberley plonked herself down next to me, and smiled at me. She glanced at Nicola, who was studying the same part of a page a little too hard to be realistic. "You're the only people I spotted that I knew" she explained, smiling apologetically at Nicola, who just ruffled the pages and sniffed. I found myself irritated at Nicola. Kimberley had done nothing to her, plus she was bloody gorgeous. The music director Steve came in then and the room hushed quietly. He smiled and started handing out pieces of paper to people. "Hiya guys, I'm Steve. Just going to hand out these timetables and a bit of admin and paperwork then we'll get started" he said kindly, passing me, Kimberley and Nicola our timetables. Me and Kimberley glanced eagerly at ours, whereas Nicola took it as an opportunity to throw a dirty glance at Kimberley without being seen, but I caught her. "As you'll see, you're in here with me until dinner, then again for a bit after dinner, so we've got plenty of time after sorting out all the exact details of the workshops. Then after you're done in here you have a few hours break to go and eat or shower, then there's the whole group 'campfire' thing later in the theatre room to go and chat to friends, grab a hot chocolate and some of my cake." he grinned at this "That's pretty much all I need to explain because the timetables are fairly simple." he explained. "now here are you lyric sheets and scripts for Wicked, which I must add is my all time favourite musical" he beamed, passing out scripts from the box Kimberley had passed him, reflecting his beam.

Her smile, oh my.

Nicola clearly wasn't as besotted as me as she sniffed again at Kimberley before returning to her script. Kimberley passed me one, and I smiled shyly at her and mouthed a thank you.

Did her smile possibly grow wider?

I shook my head slightly and looked away. I'd know this girl for five minutes and she was already in my head, making me feel drunk. I didn't even hear what Steve said, but the sudden sound of movement roused me. I turned to Nicola for help, but she too looked clueless, lost in her own thoughts. We both turned to Kimberley, praying she had the answer. "We're doing vocal warmups, sopranos on the left, altos middle, male and low altos on the right" she explained, standing up. I nodded and wandered towards the middle. I was an alto, whereas Nicola had a beautiful soprano voice I wished I had. I was guessing Kimberley would be an soprano too, she seemed the type, but then she followed me to the alto cluster. I looked at her surprised, and she looked equally taken aback. "You looked soprano to me, all skinny and pretty, she commented" before taking place next to me. My heart glowed. She called me pretty!

Steve struck up the piano and my joy turned to panic as I realised I was going to have to sing. Luckily, it was a simple vocal exercise that I was already familiar with, and I found myself enjoying it. I looked at Nicola, who was enjoying flexing her head voice, much to astounded glances from people around her. I felt a sense of pride, that my big sister was in the limelight.

"That was really good guys, now just a few warm ups in individual voice groups. So first sopranos" Steve said, striking a chord on the piano. Some of the younger sopranos struggled with this exercise, and I had to admit that even Nicola looked to be struggling. As Steve finished and turned to the altos, I could sense the discontent in the altos as we began the exercise. Kimberley seemed to cope though, and she soldiered through the difficult notes and complex wordings. I followed her rhythm and found her easy to follow and copy. Our voices went together so well and she looked at me whilst grinning. We came to the end of the exercise, then it came to my attention we had been the only two still singing.

Feck.

I blushed and looked away from all the stares, my stage fright kicking in. Kimberley was unfazed, and laughed at me and elbowed me playfully. We didn't have time to discuss it though, because the boys and low altos were on the exercise now. My blush had barely lost it's hue by the time Steve announced we were working in pairs, and Nicola marched firmly towards me, obviously staking a claim before Kimberley did. When Nicola stood next to me, Kimberley stepped away calmly, and whispered to me "You are amazing" and wandered off towards some friends. Nicola raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head, refusing to meet her gaze. Singing with Kimberley had felt incredibly intimate, an intimate moment I hadn't wanted to share with the entire group, and I was almost embarrassed that I had sung with her. I was also intrigued as to her friendliness - her over friendliness, and this thought stayed with me through the rest of the workshop right up until lunch. Me and Nicola worked on a few of the songs together, and whenever me and Kimberley caught each other's eye, Nicola sighed huffily, clearly displeased that her earlier advice was being blatantly ignored. At the end of the session she dragged me out of the room before Kimberley, not even letting me say goodbye. "I told you to stay away from her" she hissed as we walked down the stairs towards the canteen. "Sorry, not my fault she's an alto" I grumbled. Why couldn't Nicola understand? I couldn't control my attraction towards Kimberley, and I couldn't control her interest in me.

Dinner passed in silence. Me and Nicola queued together in silence, sat in silence and ate in silence. I was too afraid to break the quiet, knowing if she spoke that all hell would break loose. Nicola hadn't been so pissed with me for a while, and I was slightly scared. Nicola was savage when she wanted to be.

After we ate, we made our way back to the recording studio, Nicola still sulking. The chairs had been cleared from the room and microphones had been set up. We looked around, surprised and slightly scared. When everyone had arrived and taken in the new set up, Steve said "We're just going to record a few samples of any song whatsoever you want to do, so just practice until we come and fetch you" he said smiling. Any song? Multiple options flitted through my mind, and I was scared of the prospect of recording. Nicola already looked resolute in her choice, looked at me and said "Shakira for me" then flounced off to a corner and pulled out her phone and earphones. Fab, Nicola had now abandoned me to the sharks. I scrolled through the songs on my phone, but very few were songs I could sing, even fewer were ones I could sing in company. Eventually I found the one.

Recording was a daze. From the moment I walked into that room, hands trembling, to recording my sample, to walking back out of the room, I was in a nervous, shaking trance. As I walked out of the room, I said dazedly to the girl going in after me "you...can go in now..." and walked past. She grabbed my hand and held me close.

"That was astounding" Kimberley whispered into my ear, awestruck. Then she let go, leaving my palm burning, and my ears tingling from her breath passing over them. I felt a tug on my heart and butterflies in my stomach as I registered what had just happened. I craved to touch her again.