Conbellia

Chapter 9

As Jeremiah predicted I'm done with fitness pretty fast. It has been one of my strong sides since I was a kid. I even do remarkably well at the test when I'm not allowed to eat breakfast before running 3 km.
The next step on the schedule for me is entertainment. Therefore Jeremiah literally throws me out of bed at 5 am.
Then he turns on some music so loud I have to cover my ears.
"Will you please turn the volume down!?" I scream over the noise. I hear him laugh before he turns it down a little bit. At least my head doesn't hurt whenever I take my hands off my ears at this volume anymore. 
I make an attempt of revenge by trying to ignore him during breakfast. "Looking towards singing some little songs for Miss Courney?"
It doesn't work. I do my best I swear! But he manages to make me laugh every single time I try to look straight ahead.

At the studio I'm not alone. Four girls are already there when I enter. I recognize Ines immediately. Her and my parents have the same rank and they knew each other well enough.
We hug and then use the few minutes before class for me to get to know the other three.
They're Ingrid, Elize and Elena. Elena's parents are musicians and Elize and Ingrid are both daughters of hunters. I'm pretty sure Elize and I used to have Chemistry together. I didn't really bother with friends at that time. 
Just then a young woman enters. Her hair is cut into a short blonde bob and her eyes are a beautiful blue. She's also  extremely tall. The high heels don't do much to hide that.
"I'm Taylor Courney" she introduces herself. "You can just call me Tay. And you must be Ingrid, Ines, Elize, Elena and Jeanine." We nod. "Can any of you play instruments?"
Elena raises her hand. "Oh please don't bother with that!" Taylor says gently. "Just talk."
"I can play the piano and the violin pretty well." Elena tells her.
"I can play the piano" I say  "and a little bit on the guitar. And I love to sing. I've never danced but I'd love to try that one."
"I don't play any instruments" Ines adds. "But I dance."
"And what about you?"Taylor turns to Elize.
"I dance and I sing" she replies.
"Well, that sounds really good! Let's get started. I'd suggest that you all show me what you can first. Like just play something on an instrument and then sing a chorus of your favorite song and something like that." In response all of us go to an instrument or warm ourselves up for dancing and singing.
Elize starts by singing the chorus of an really old but still beautiful song called "Lone Ranger" by Rachel Platten. I recognize the tune immediately and start strumming on the guitar to it. Once she's done with the chorus I put the guitar down and start playing the piano and singing the first verse of the song. I continue playing and Elize joins me for the chorus again while Ines starts dancing and Ingrid grabs a violin. Elize dances through the next verse while I sing to the guitar. We all sing the last chorus together to the piano and then end with a last loud chord.
Taylor looks at us with pride in her eyes. "Wow." Is all we get.
"You guys are amazing together! And actually, you're all really good! Now, our task is to set up a performance till the end of two weeks. If we're done in one week it'd be even better. It would be really cool if you'd write a song for it yourself but of course you can cover something too. The performance has to include a dance, instruments and vocals. Any ideas?"
"Can we do a remix?" I ask.
"Of course! Whatever you want! I'll leave you for ten minutes to get something maybe you can discuss it meanwhile."
With those words she leaves the room. I wait for two seconds after she closes the door. Then I turn to the others.
"I've written some songs once... maybe we could you use them?"
Eagerly they nod. "I've written something too." Elena says. "We could mix our own songs!"
"Yas!"
"Amazing idea."
I know quite a few things about mixing on computers. We could use some electro sounds too!" Ines adds exitedly.
We all crowd around a keyboard and start discussing it all. I play them a bit of a tune I once wrote called "Fire Storm" and Elena sings us her own song called "Burned Love".
I take a sheet of paper and write all our ideas down.
We spend the next four hours planning, recording, making  a scheme for a choreography and much more. We barely even notice Taylor sitting in a corner smiling to herself while taking notes.
I get the feeling our performance will be the best ever.