Sing!

Chapter Twenty-Four: Never Say Goodbye

SOFTLY, DEFTLY, MUSIC SHALL CARESS YOU. HERE IT, FEEL IT, SECRETLY POSSES YOU.

|Charles Hart|

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The crowd was anything but silent. Chears erupted through the hall. A standing ovation. Screaming, yelling, clapping, wailing, anything and everything. Everyone gave every ounce of power in their lungs to let everyone know how brilliant they were and always will be. With the cheers came fists in the air and eyes flung wide. They were electrified, awake, soaring to new heights of emotion.

Elsa stepped out from the cast. A smile was placed on her face as she watched the audience. Elsa was bewildered. She couldn't get her words in, they were cheering too loudly. That mere thought made her grin wider. They loved it. They adored the show.

Everyone calmed, allowing Elsa to speak.

"I'm guessing your all wondering who won this evening," Elsa asserted as she watched over the audience, "somehow, I this year, it doesn't really matter," Jack was gazing towards her. Listening to her words intently, "a lot of people told us we couldn't do this show," glancing towards Jack, Elsa smiled, "but we did," turning back to the audience, "and maybe we couldn't keep our school open," Elsa felt her emotion in those words, the pain and sorrow behind the words, "but they couldn't keep us from being here," Elsa declared while the cast behind her, held each other's hand, smiling towards one another, "and maybe we stay here in Brooklyn," it took her moment to contain herself, "or maybe we have to move far away," Elsa cracked, saying the words out loud brought a pain that she had not experienced before, "but at least we know, we'll always know, just how good it can be," Elsa looked around to everyone, including the cast. Smiling to them all, "'cause we've lived it," Elsa beamed, pride filling her, "and I bet there's nothing like it, not anywhere," people nodded in agreement towards Elsa, "so if anybody tells you that this neighbourhood is dead," Elsa spat, hating the very sentence, "if anybody ever tell you again, no," Elsa shook her head in disagreement, "remember tonight."

The crowd cheered again. Everyone standing. They clapped towards Elsa's words as she let out a breath of relief.

Jack, pride filling him at Elsa's inspirational speech, threw his candle away while clapping towards her. Biting her bottom lip, Elsa turned to glance towards Jack who was beaming towards her.

Music filled the room. The soft melody of the piano played. Everyone knew the song. Everyone knew it soft tune. It was a song none of them would ever forget.

"We share the days of laughter..."

The senior's waved on the juniors. Bringing the entire cast of Sing onto the stage. They held one another, friend or foe. No one was left. Each one comforting each other as they sang their school's anthem for the very last time.

"We share the nights of sorrow..."

The crowd had begun to sing. Wrapping their hands around each other, they swayed to the slow drifting music. They were all as one. All swaying in a single, perfect motion. It was perfect.

"and in the morning after, we face the bright tomorrow..."

"Happy," for Elsa, was a relative term. Happy was something that elevated the spirit, lifted one from the mire of whatever was normal. Happiness flowed through her, warming her skin like the rays of an early summer sun. Her customary cautious grin exploded into a radiant smile that she had never worn before, not even as a small girl.

"Side by side, we'll always stand..."

Yet, a single tear rolled down her cheek and fell. Her eyes became glacier blue under the sheen of water, constant, yet allowing the tears to flow without pause. Was she crying of happiness or was it because that would be her last few moments with her fellow student, teachers and school? Elsa didn't know, but she allowed her tears to fall.