mermaid 》 alemanda ✔

chapter seven.

alesha

I sat in the music office alone. Simon hadn't been in school today as his son had been sick so I had taken over his classes, combining them with my own which proved easier with the band and chorus classes than with the others. It was afterschool and I was waiting for the script reading of Matilda to start.

It was pretty quiet in the school since it was afterschool. I liked it when I was alone in the office and when the arts hallway was quiet. I could hear Amanda's music playing quietly from her classroom as she worked on stuff. I could smell Paula brewing a new pot of tea and I could smell wood in the woodshop.

It was nice just being alone in the band room. I got up from my desk chair and I walked around the band room. I sat down at the piano in front of the white board and turned it on. This was my favourite piano to play in the school. It sounded the best and the keys pressed the easiest.

I played a few notes and started to hum, warming up my voice. I played a couple more notes and sang a scale once.

"She just wants to be beautiful
She goes unnoticed, she knows no limits
She craves attention, she praises an image
She prays to be sculpted by the sculptor
Oh, she don't see the light that's shining
Deeper than the eyes can find it
Maybe we have made her blind
So she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away
'Cause cover girls don't cry after their face is made.

"But there's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark
You should know you're beautiful just the way you are
And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful
Oh-oh, oh-oh
And you don't have to change a thing, yhe world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful.

"She has dreams to be an envy, so she's starving
You know, covergirls eat nothing
She says beauty is pain and there's beauty in everything
What's a little bit of hunger?
I could go a little while longer, she fades away
She don't see her perfect, she don't understand she's worth it
Or that beauty goes deeper than the surface
Oh, oh
So to all the girls that's hurting
Let me be your mirror, help you see a little bit clearer
The light that shines within.

"There's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark
You should know you're beautiful just the way you are
And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful.

"Oh-oh, oh-oh
And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful.

"No better you than the you that you are
No better life than the life we're living
No better time for your shine, you're a star
Oh, you're beautiful, oh, you're beautiful.

"And there's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark
You should know you're beautiful just the way you are
And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful
Oh-oh, oh-oh
And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful." I played the last couple of notes of the song and I heard the door to the band room creak open.

I stopped playing and I looked up. Paula was standing in front of the open door and a smile was on her face. "I thought I heard you playing."

"I was," I replied. I got up from the piano bench and I shut the piano off. "Did I disturb you, Paula?"

"No, of course not. I just like hearing you play. I never get to. All I get to hear is movie soundtrack songs being played by Simon normally. It's a nice change when you play," Paula replied. She came into the room and smiled.

"Does Simon disturb you just to get your attention?" I questioned. Paula nodded.

"It's because he's like a schoolboy with a crush around me and I know he has a crush on me. He's too obvious about it to him to be able to deny it," Paula replied.

amanda

I could hear Alesha singing but I didn't go into the band room to hear her. I had seen Paula go to the band room to talk with Alesha. I felt like an outsider because of how close the arts department was from how well they knew each other and they barely knew me. I had closed myself off from most personal and intimate questions whenever they tried to get to know me. The only person in the department that I knew sort of well was Alesha. I had talked to Paula a couple of times whenever I would have to go into her classroom to get something for one of my drama classes as I had no art supplies. I was waiting on the order of markers, Sharpies, and poster board that I had ordered last week to come in. My students had already done one poster and I had needed to go to Paula's art room to borrow markers and Sharpies and get poster board from her.

I stared at my computer screen, desperate to try and grade something. My students had all written short responses to the scenes of Macbeth that we had read for homework during class today and I liked to stay on top of my grading. I knew I shouldn't grade at school and instead save it for something to do while I was at my flat. I closed my laptop, deciding I would have a late night tonight with the script reading and having to grade when I got home. I took my copy of Macbeth off of my desk and I flipped to the scenes that my advanced drama class were reading for homework tonight. I began to get enthralled in the world of Macbeth, Banquo, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff.

Macbeth was one of my favourite Shakespeare plays along with Midsummer's Night Dream because of the fantasy in them.

[]

I startled when I heard the sobbing coming from a classroom and it sounded like it was coming from the costume closet. I had no idea who it was that was crying but I decided that if they were in the costume closet, they wanted to be alone. I opened the book back up but I couldn't concentrate on reading the lines. I set the book back down and I opened up my laptop again, clicking on the Google Drive bookmark and on the grading software that the school used. If I couldn't concentrate on trying to read the last scene of Macbeth, it would be easier to try to get at least some grading done.

My advanced drama class was small as it was all students that were all going to pursue drama in university and had gotten a GCSE in the subject. One of the boys in my class was actually going for theatre education as he wanted to be a drama teacher after finishing school completely. I had already told him that most schools would hire him with just a degree in theatre and a teaching certificate, which I had, instead of majoring in theatre education that way he would have a backup option if he could not get a job as a drama teacher in a school. We had talked some and he had decided to take the route that I had for the backup option.

I smiled as I read through the short essays that the students had written. I wrote a couple of comments on one of them and I put in the grade for it. There wasn't that many essays to grade as there wasn't that many students in the class to begin with. I took the CD out of the CD player and turned the radio on instead. I listened to the news.

I checked the time on my phone and I still had fifteen minutes to go until the script meeting was due to start. I shut my laptop and I unplugged it from the charger to take with me. I carried my laptop and my copy of the script against my chest as I went to the band room.

The chairs were already set up in a circle, something I had asked Simon to do for me. I sat down in one of the chairs and I set my laptop up to play the music.

[] hey guys! Uh oh, someone was crying in a closet, any guesses on who it was? What do you think is going to happen next and what did you love about this chapter? Bye until the next chapter!