In The Wings

Act IV Scene V

Within the Phantom's new compositions for the Light in the Piazza, he had included a song that featured the entire cast. Of course, there were plenty of solo opportunities for Clara so that Christine could shine. No one was surprised by that much, at least.

But there were solos for some of the other cast members as well. Unfortunately, not all of them could reach the perfection that the Phantom was striving for. At the moment, Mr. Montegomery was struggling to get Ian to hit the correct notes.

"Ian, once again if you please," Mr. Montgomery sighed, pressing the starting note on the piano again. All the eyes were on him, making everything just that bit more stressful. He personally loathed this new music, along with his girlfriend Carly.

Ian opened up his mouth, his eyes focused down on the notes within the pages. He stared for several moments, his mouth hanging open. He couldn't get it out as he sat there. The sound of the starting note echoed in his ears again. With a sigh, he tried to sing the phrase again. His notes ran amiss once again, causing Carly to burst out into a fit of giggles.

"Nearly," Mr. Montegomery said. "But no." He started to plunk out the notes on the piano yet again, prompting Ian to try it again. Once again, it ended up failing.

"Oh, his way is better! At least he makes it sound like music!" Carly exclaimed.

Mrs. Leary had been watching over the rehearsal like a hawk. She now took this opportunity to take charge and speak. As she rose and walked over, she said, "Carly, would you speak that way in the presence of the composer?"

Carly blinked and did a little eyeroll. "The composer is not here." Carly started to go on, starting to be overcome by her attitude. "And if he was here, I would tell him-"

But Carly was cut off by Mrs. Leary saying, "Can you be sure of that?"

Everyone became silent as they peered around, half expecting a ghost to pop out at them. Meg could swear that she felt a figure behind her that wasn't a chorus member. It almost felt cold and foreboding.

She was going to lean over and tap Christine to tell her about it, but then she saw her friend's face. Christine's face was pale and getting whiter by the second. In her eyes was a hint of tears that glittered as she looked up into the light.

"Now, Mr. Peterson, if you please!" Mr. Montegomery said, getting rather exasperated by all of these unneccessary distractions. "One, two, three, four."

At this point, not a single person in the room made a noise. There was no shuffling of paper music or crumpling of clothing. Everything was entirely still and entirely silent, waiting to see whether or not Ian could pull these notes off. The music was almost shaking in his hands as he prepared himself.

Then, the notes came out wrong once again. The entire cast burst into frustrated chatter, all angry that so much of their time was being wasted on this.

Carly leapt out of her seat at this point, saying, "What does it matter what notes we sing?" She looked around at the entire cast as Mr. Montegomery started to bang random keys on the piano in an attempt to get the group back in gear.

"No one will know if it is right or wrong!" Carly shrieked. "No one will care!" Snatching the music right out of Ian's hands, she looked over the soprano line and then proceeded to sing the entire thing at an octave above what was written. Even as the room erupted into meaningless and heavy chatter, you could still hear her shrill voice ringing out above it all.

She bashed Mr. Montegomery with the sheet music, forcing him to rise from the piano as she ran over the notes and tried to show him what he thought was best.