If You're Hurt They Bleed

Monkeys and Madness

"Hey, Moll." I smiled at her, swinging my bag over my chair.

"Hi!" Well, she's more excited than usual.

"How was this morning?" I assumed it went well, based on her sunny face, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Molly often is the happiest when she's trying to hide her true feelings.

"Great. Well, for me and Riles, anyway. Owen broke up with Tanner, though. Said something about maturity levels and being tired of all his crap." She shrugged, a smile permanently stuck on her face. "How was rehearsal?"

A silly grin erupted onto my face. "I think this concert is going to be amazing."

"Great, because I need your help with Beauty and the Beast. The notes are so low!" Molly glanced at me hopefully.

"I'll help during choir today. We're focusing on solos anyway, and I've worked so much on Home and Change In Me that I think I'll have plenty of free time." The thing about Belle's songs in the ranges aren't extreme, so as soon as I got the rhythm down I was good. Mrs. Potts had to be able to sing four octaves, and Molly can hit the high notes flawlessly but doesn't have the range for the low notes.

Molly nodded happily and looked towards the board, where Ms. Pinciotti was waiting for everyone to stop talking. Everyone slowly started to drift off, and she turned on the projector.

"Alright, today we'll be talking about the Holocaust and the many incredible pieces of literature that came from the tragedy." I could already see Cabaret lyrics beginning to flow through Molly's mind, and I Don't Care Much popped up in mine. We had done the show over the summer, Molly was in the ensemble, and I did soundboard for it. It was absolutely incredible but also heartbreaking.

Pinciotti rapped on my desk, snapping me out of my trance. "Maya?"

My head popped up. "Yes?"

"I asked you about propaganda used by the Nazis."

"Oh. Umm... Well, I know that they would put up posters of monkeys in suits that would say something about how these 'monkeys' made more money than everyone." My mind was racing, struggling to remember the research I did on World War II during that show.

"Very good." Mrs. Pinciotti looked too surprised for my taste. "Especially towards the end of the war, Nazis were trying to dehumanize Jews. Anything else?"

Molly raised her hand. "If a Jewish-Non-Jewish couple was together, they would often break it off, either because of the Gestapo or because of fear." More Cabaret knowledge.

"Nice job, girls." She nodded appreciatively. As she opened her mouth to ask another question, the bell rang, and everyone quickly rushed out the door.

"We will continue this discussion tomorrow!" Pinciotti called to an unlistening audience.

"Choir!" Molly hopped next to me.

"Yeah. I'm actually pretty excited." I shrugged and smiled, thinking about this morning.

"Me too. We're doing solos today, and Mr. Robinski said we're keeping Change In Me."

I gasped. That's my favorite song from the soundtrack, but other than the original Broadway version, it's rarely performed. "Seriously? We got the rights to it?"

"Yup. We can also sing Me and No Matter What." She grinned, and though I knew it was because she knew how uncomfortable I would be with Riley since he's Gaston, I did too.

"This will be fun." Grayson appeared by my shoulder. "I'm really nervous. I don't really like singing in front of people."

"You'll be great, trust me." He shot me a lopsided smile and bumped my shoulder.

"You think?"

"I know."

We walked into the choir room, and Robinski was waiting for us so he could give the three of us sheet music for our solos.

"I transcribed what I remember from you guys this morning for Evermore, but I'm entrusting most of that to you." He gave Grayson and me a wink and finished passing out music.

"For most of today, I will be working with soloists." Mr. Robinski started, turning to face the class. "I expect you to split into two groups, preferably altos with tenors and sopranos with baritones, to rehearse. The band room is open, and so is the large practice room. Don't kill each other for the first choice, and don't embarrass me. Go!" Everyone scrambled for the door, racing to the band room.

He turned back to us with a smile. "Now, let's see... We'll start with No Matter What and No Matter What Reprise and go in order from there, hopefully ending with Change in Me. No pressure, but that and Evermore are the showstoppers." Robinski pointed to the front, and Gavin, who is Maurice, and I stepped up to the front.

"You two ready to sight read?" We both nodded. The piano started playing the melody, and I began.

"Papa, do you think I'm... odd?" I started, counting rests in my head.

"My daughter odd? Where ever would you get an idea like that?" I held back a laugh when he pretended to pull goggles onto his face.

When we finished Home, Molly and Kailey headed up for Home Tag. The harmony is incredible in that song, and Kailey did super well with that part.

We did part of Be Our Guest, and Jamie rocked Lumiere's part. Allison is Jamie's girlfriend, and the girl playing Babette, and I cannot think of a more perfect person for the role, It helps that she's smaller than everyone here too.

Grayson and I went up for Something There, and I could see the rest of them giggle at our awkwardness. We did a pretty good job of ignoring them, though.

Molly did pretty well on Beauty and the Beast, though she struggled with the first couple of notes.

Grayson captivated everyone with Evermore, and I hummed the made-up harmony alongside him, facing the opposite direction. I was interested to see Grayson's alternate lyrics for it since I barely knew him.

I saw Molly cheering me on as I walked up to the piano for Change in Me. I nodded to Mr. Robinski and he started playing. I closed my eyes and began to sing, letting the music take me back to a place where I could feel my dreams start to fade. To the day I realized being a writer wasn't going to make me money. The day I realized I would end up a waitress for my whole life if I went to culinary school. When I realized I wasn't tough enough to be a lawyer, not talented enough to be a musician, and not strong enough to be a police officer. Each memory waltzed in time to the music, disappearing just in time for the next one. It wasn't until I was finished and I opened my eyes that I felt tears dripping down my face.

"You okay?" Molly asked.

"Yeah." I shot her a quick smile. "I just got caught up in the moment, I guess."

A/N: Well, there ya go! I'm so excited for this story... (Insert evil laugh) I guess you'll just have to wait and see. Thank you to everyone who got this story to over 100 reads too! It's not even done and I think it's my most popular book for how new it is. Thank you lovelies, and I'll see you in the next chapter.