White Lies and Music Notes

Chapter Twenty-six

"You?" We both said, at the same time, disbelief in our voices.

"I thought..."

"It was..."

"Why is..."

"You are..." We just stood there absolutely stunned. I was the first to recover myself. I turned to Mr Campbell.

"I can't sing a love song with him." I said.

"Yeah, Mr Campbell." He said, "I have a girlfriend. She was the one who was meant to do this."

"Exactly. You can't make him sing a love song with someone he doesn't feel attracted to." I could feel his body tense beside me. Did I do something wrong?

"We CANNOT sing a duet." He said, as if it wasn't clear enough.

"Bollox." Me Campbell said, "Here." He passed me a guitar and grabbed one for him, too. "I know you both play guitar. I want you to show me what you can do." My eyes went wide. What? "That's right, just play." He said after seeing our disbelieved faces.

I sat down and placed a capo on the third fret, and put my fingers into positions to start strumming.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Chris sneered. "I think you don't understand, Mr Campbell. I am not going to do this."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Chris." I said with a sweet smile. "I guess that means I win." He glared at me, remembering the battle we had a few days before.

"After you, then." He said watching my every move. I took a deep breath, before starting the introduction of "Just give me a reason-Pink". It was the newest thing I had taught myself, and the strumming pattern was variable, which was good. I closed my eyes and began singing the song, letting my voice ring with confidence and attitude. The only reason I was doing this was to win. As immature and competitive as it sounds, I was not going to back down. I was going to keep fighting until one of us would snap. Loose. And that person was going to be Chris Firth.

As I sang, Chris watched my fingers closely. Then, just before the second verse, he joined in, with a different strumming pattern, and at the next chorus, he started singing a harmony. My eyes went wide when I heard him sing. His voice was low and soft. He was a male version of Susan Boyle. Well, not really. I mean, he was pretty handsome and all, but he was strong and muscly, and I expected his voice to be gruff and just...different. And yet his voice was something that sounded like it came from a completely different person.

His eyes narrowed and he began singing louder. Not wanting to let him overpower me, I raised my voice, singing with more power than before. As the bridge came, I slowed down my strumming, and Chris followed, and by the end, the speed of the song was slow and our voices were quiet, making a nice effect. Admittedly, I felt our voices moulded well together, the fact that he had such a low voice, and I had such a high one, they just...worked.

"He'll do." I said to Mr Campbell once the song was over. Over my dead body was I going to admit that I kind of liked the way our voices sounded. Don't get me wrong, I still didn't like him in the slightest, but it wasn't difficult to imagine I was singing with someone else.

"Yeah, she'll do." He muttered.

"Well." Mr Campbell said enthusiastically, "I have to say, I'm impressed by both of you. In fact, I think that song is the perfect song for you both to sing at the concert. This is how I'm going to do this, Leah, you will sing the tune and Chris the harmony for the first verse and chorus, and then switch for the next verse and chorus. The bridge and the last bit is for you to decide yourselves. I would like you to meet up in your own time to sort that and to practice." I was about to object when Mr Campbell put up his hand, "The next rehearsal is the same time next week." He smiled, "Good luck." He stood up and left, leaving us sitting with our guitars, alone.

"Well," Chris said, hesitantly, "I guess there's not time like the present." I sighed and nodded, as I pulled out a sheet of blank paper from my school bag to wright down notes. I guess, I had to go through with this if I was going to win this war with Chris.

________________________________________________

"LEAH WITHINGTON AND ERIC DAVIS. I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO GIVE YOU DETENTION AGAIN!" Professor Ironside screamed at us in Biology.

I looked at Eric who just raised an eyebrow at me.

"THERE!" He continued, "YOU JUST DID IT AGAIN!"

"I'm sorry, sir. But could you just clarify why we are getting into trouble?" I asked, innocently.

"BECAUSE YOU...YOU..." He trailed off, obviously not knowing what to say. Putting my brain into gear, I picked up a pen and clicked it up and down, deliberately. "STOP CLICKING YOUR PEN!" I obediently put it down, just to pick up my pencil, and my sharpener and start to sharpen it, braking the silence with a quiet sharpening sound, making the Professor annoyed again.

"PUT YOUR PENCIL DOWN, LEAH WITHINGTON!" He screamed. I put it down, and got my lip balm out of my pocket, and started putting it on. "DO NOT APPLY MAKEUP IN MY CLASSES!" He shouted.

"But, Professor Ironside, it isn't make-up. It's-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT IS. PUT IT DOWN. STOP DISRUPTING MY CLASS AND START LISTENING." He sighed and went to his chair. In the split second where he had his back to us, Eric got out his calculator and started doing the sum on the board, with deliberately loud clicks of his keyboard.

"ERIC DAVIS, THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!" He spun around. "DETENTION FOR BOTH OF YOU."

"But, Professor! I was just doing the sum on the board!" He defended himself. After Professor Ironside realised he had a point, he excused himself for a moment, and left the classroom. After a few seconds of an awkward silence, the whole class started laughing. Melanie came over to me.

"That was the most amusing Biology lesson EVER." She laughed into my ear.

"MELANIE HUNTER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEXT TO LEAH?" Professor Ironside had appeared again. She immediately dropped to the ground.

"I dropped my pencil." She muttered.

"WHY WERE YOU OVER THERE?"

"I was going to sharpen my pencil, sir." She lied smoothly, pointing to the bin for her scraps. He nodded curtly as he walked back to his chair. Suddenly having an 'Ulrica' moment, I took my hair-band out of my hair, snapped Eric's eraser in two and grabbed one half of it, turning my hairband into a catapult, and flinging it at the roof. It bounced around, with so much force, it gave me just enough time to put my hair-band back into my hair, before it hit the Professor square in the face as he turned. Now he was fuming.

"WHO THREW AN ERASER AT MY FACE?" He screamed. I widened my eyes, trying to act innocent. "LEAH WITHINGTON? WAS IT YOU?" I shook my head.

"I still have my rubber." I picked it up and showed him it.

"ERIC?" He asked.

He shook his head, picking up the other half of his eraser. I just hopped the Professor wasn't smart enough to try and match them. Luckily he just set an evil glance around the class. When the class moved on, I grabbed Eric's eraser and rubbed the freshly snapped edge on a plain piece of paper, trying to make the shape different than the other half.

That definitely was the most EPIC lesson ever. I smiled to myself.

I had changed.

At my old school, I was the goody-two-shoes. The girl that wore no make-up. The girl with no friends. The girl with no fashion sense. The girl with perfect grades. The nerd. The loner.

Here, I was a relatively popular kid who wore make-up and more fashionable clothes. I was a girl that stood up to bullies. A girl with friends. A girl who chatted to guys. A girl with guts.

I preferred the new me.

~authors note~

This chapter is dedicated to my friend 'ViteaPaz'. Thank's so much for encouraging me to continue when it felt like a lost cause :) I really appreciated the support and if it wasn't for her, I would have probably given up. Thanks :)