A Christmas Tale

Chapter 2- Be Alert

Listening to the voices coming from his white laptop almost irritated Gabriel, but he had to be fair to all the 50 people who were part of his choir. Actually, his and his friend Michael's choir. 

"Tired yet?" Michael asked. Gabriel nodded, even though he didn't want to. Michael had already done 20 people, as Gabriel volunteered to do more.

"You know, if you can't do it--" Michael started, but Gabriel stopped him.

"I can do it, I'm pretty sure, I just need a little time to rest. I keep on hearing the same song over and over again with different voices and notes. And I'm pretty sure I've chosen a soprano and a bass already." He said. Michael shrugged and plopped a small angel mug on the table that contained hot cocoa. Gabriel wasn't really the caffeine type.

"Thanks." Gabriel said. Michael nodded and went out of the room. 

Gabriel loved the taste of the cocoa, but then he went back into reality and clicked on a video of someone called "Angelica".

Gabriel woke up at 4AM as usual. It was in his body clock to wake up at 4AM, since he got ready for 30 minutes and preparation took another 30 minutes, he and Michael always warmed up for about an hour, general breakfast was for another 30 minutes, and choir practice started at 7AM. It was all worth it. Gabriel's life was devoted to choir and singing. Even Michael's.

"So...?" Michael asked when he and Gabriel met.

"You first." Gabriel said. Michael nodded.

"I've decided that Harpo will be the tenor and Halo will be the  2nd soprano." He said. Gabriel opened up his white and gold notebook and wrote Harpo and Halo's names on the right spots.

"Now," He said, staring at the notebook.

"I've decided that Amelia will be the alto, Angelica will be the 1st soprano, and I'll be the baritone and you'll be the bass as usual." 

Michael nodded, and they started telling each other the lists of the other people who won't get to have mics whenever they sing. 

Gabriel looked into the mirror of the choir director's room and fixed the collars of his white suit while Michael dusted out the choirbook. Harpo and Halo were already at the main room they used for practicing. 

"I heard Harpo and Halo are having a room in here, like us." Gabriel said, brushing his hair to the side. Michael sighed.

"Hard to believe they're  already 18 now." He said. Harpo and Halo were very talented choir singers, but they were obnoxious. They were like that ever since they were classmates with Gabriel and Michael at 13 years old, when Gabriel was 18 and Michael was 21 as the assistant leader. Once you're 21, you can either stay as a member or get promoted as an assistant leader at the Calvari Community Church choir. 

Michael added, "And can you believe Angelica is already 17?" Gabriel's eyes widened. Out of all the singers, Angelica was the nice, baby-faced choir member. He wondered if she could keep that face for long. 

"I'm pretty sure Amelia's 16 and Amy's 15." Gabriel commented. Every single year, Gabriel and Michael acted like they haven't seen the choir for at least 2 years, which was probably because they had a junior choir, primary choir, and an advanced choir to handle every year. Each choir got 2 hours every single day, so all in all Gabriel and Michael would work for 150 hours to put on 3 choir shows every Christmas. The advanced choir was their favorite, since some of them were classmates from before.

When it was finally 7AM, Gabriel and Michael stepped out to greet the advanced choir. But right before Michael could say anything, his phone rang.

"Um, hello?"

"Hi, is this Michael from Calvari Community Church?"

"Uh, yes. Can I help you?"

"We're looking for a choir."

"Um, what kind of choir? Because we have primary, junior, and avanced."

"We need all of your amazing choirs there."

"Uh, we're actually having a Christmas show--"

"We are, too, and we would really appreciate it if you'd come and hold it at Spielman Recording Studios."

"We aren't really going for a record label,"

"It's a studio for filming, and this is only our second year. We have a Christmas story and some songs ready, but I think we need new ones... Just please consider bringing the whole choir here."

"Um, I guess we could actually."

"Really? Great! If you could just bring them now, then we could discuss the payment and others."

"Um, where exactly is--"

"Google it."

Then the call ended.

"So, anyway, I guess now we have to google it. And don't worry, we'll be back in about 30 minutes before the actual stop time, I'll just notify the church." Michael said. He nodded to Gabriel, who shushed the chattering crowd.

"Now, let's warm up."

1 day later

Gabriel and Michael stepped in Spielman's studio. This was one day after the call, since they had to notify all the parents about the new show, plus all the googling and getting kids to the studio safely. The guard did the exact same thing he did to Paige when she came to sign up. He politely sat all of them down and let them wait.

"Oh, is this the choir?" Spielman asked, looking at all the singers in the room. Michael nodded.

"I'm Michael, the leader of this choir, and this is my assistant leader and friend Gabriel." He said. Spielman shook their hands.

"I'm Mr. Spielman, and this is my assistant Paige." Spielman said. Paige respectfully shook their hands as well. She had been carrying a clipboard for her job, and she handed the forms out to Gabriel and Michael.

"We'll be needing a list of all your  choir members and the necessary information." Paige  explained, as Gabriel and Michael stared at the blank form. After a few seconds, Michael nodded and took out a pen.

"So now that we have choir members," Paige said "happily",

"What are we gonna do if we don't have any original songs?"

"We'll see what we can do." Spielman replied,

"Which reminds me, I need help dusting out some songbooks. If we only had a janitor, I'd have--" 

"I'll do it, it's all fine for me." Piage lied. She felt more than just an assistant. She felt like she was a slave. And she had to pretend she was fine with everything, even after all Pricilla and veronica told her about their history with Mr. Spielman.

~Hi again xD the last chapter didn't receive any comments on who's POV, and I thought that I won't get bombarded by comments so quickly, so I guess I'll have to decide on my own, or make it like this chapter over here, which is sneakily multi-POV(notice how first it was Gabriel then Michael then Paige ;))