Feathers and Shadows

Chapter 4

The entire class let out a collective gasp at the mention of my last name. All at least except the teacher who just smiled and let out a rather sincere, "Well welcome to the class and I'm sure we'll all be glad to have you, if your anything like your mother at least."

" You know my mother too?" I asked surprised and rather irked.

" Why yes," she said " I was in this very room with your mother, of course I didn't teach but I sat in the exact same two spots you and her are sitting in now." I looked down at my seat and wondered ' My mother sat here?' I scooted a little up the seat for a reason I don't know. " Now let's begin with hearing each of you sing. There are about fifteen of you so I want to finish this today Okay! Now, who's first?" she had barely spoken the last syllable when Tayli's hand sprang into the air. " Oo me I'll go first!" she didn't even wait for the teachers response before she ran to the front of the class. Ms. Cat sat down at the piano and told her to sing some old song from the Holocaust era. Tayli began and I swear time stopped around her singing, now that I can perfectly hear it, it sounded like what a cool stream in a warm spring meadow would feel like to a hard laborer. It was so beautiful I found myself with my eyes closed and head bobbing to the music. I opened them to see similar affects on all the other students faces. A couple of the students actually started dancing to it. They were holding each other in a way that made me believe they were together. Her voice faded into a cacophony of applause and whistling. She blushed and smiled and returned to her seat. Then Ms. Cat, whom I believe I saw tear up said, " That was great Tayli." Tay nodded her head, and said thank you, "You truly are a wonderful singer," she continued," Now Ruby, your turn." She smiled as I made my way down. I grabbed the music and waited for the piano.

"When will the roses bloom? When will the stars shine? When will you have me again? Its soon after noon. I'm running out of time, to see you again. How much do you love? The fact that I'm not your love. When will all of this be real? Why do I cry l? Wishing I would die, when you could have saved me. From myself. Oh these diamond roses that I see, make it so hard for me. They bloom so fast, and reach out with deadly grasp. When will I see? That you mean nothing to me! Oh these diamond roses that I feel, making hard for me to heal. When everyone has gone away, from me." I looked up to a stunned silence. I waited for the boos and laughter, but instead I was met with cheers and screams of encore. I looked over to Tayli who was so shocked that she couldn't speak. She recovered and ran down to give me a hug. " That was the best singing I have ever heard!" she said" Please teach me to do that."

" Do what?" I asked.

" Sing so well it seems the walls and floors are listening. Look you attracted a crowd!" She pointed over to the door and to my utter amazement there was an easy 50 people standing there. What surprised me even more was Dylan standing there in the front with an awestruck look on his face. I blushed and looked away. He just smiled and left. The crowd dispersed at the urging of a couple of unknown teachers and everything almost returned to normal. Almost.

" Hey." I hear behind me, "what the hell do you think your doing newbie?" I turned around to see a skinny girl, I mean really skinny, the kind of skinny that makes you think they starve themselves. She had really small boobs like easily an A or B maybe a small C. She had mid back length auburn hair that she had styled up into a French braid. This girl I had just met and is seriously pissing me off. "Seriously what the fuck do you think you're doing?" she said in this congested, whinny voice. Oh yeah definitely hate her. "I'm not doing anything, bitch." I said with as much venom as I could. She glared at me and stormed off. 'Yeah that's right bitch walk the fuck away' I thought snuggly. I turned to Tayli who was speaking with Ms. Cat about a concert. " So when does the first concert start?"

" Well Tayli, we still need to learn the material and not all the other students have sang yet." Ms. Cat said " Plus on top of that we need proper dress for the girls and guys." Tayli nodded and turned to me," Oh my god, I can't believe you could sing that well!" she said giving me another hug.

" Yeah neither could I." I said truthfully.

" You truly are marvelous Ruby truly marvelous now we must get back to the rest of the trials, I already spent to much time on you two." She smiled at us and we took our seats. The class passed with the rest of the girls trying so hard to match us. One came close, a girl with big boobs by the name of Claudia. She sang pretty good and after her set she sat next to us for the rest of the period.

"Hi," she said after the last girl sang, or more like screamed and whined. She also sang way to high. The. Entire. Time.

"My name is Claudia. Nice to meet you."

"My name is Tayli. Nice to meet you." They shook hands.

"Hi," I said, "I'm Ruby." I also held out my hand but she just starred at it like a child does a Disney character.

I attempted to pull my hand back

but she grasped it practically screaming in my ear, "I LOVE YOU!"

I was taken aback by that much I had no idea what to say so I said, "I'm not a lesbian."

She let go of my hand and looked down and said, "Oh I see. I thought you were because I saw you starring at Tayli's legs." Tayli looked at me with a mixed emotions face.

"I'm sorry," I tried to say but she just left with tears forming in her brown eyes.

Tayli raised her eyebrows and said," you were starring at my legs?"

"More like your vagina, your pink and blue panties were showing." she flushed and looked down checking if they were still revealed.

Then looked up and scowled at me, then laughed saying, " What ever I don't care." The bell rang and I grabbed my stuff and headed out.

"I have Chemistry next, what do you have?" Tayli said.

"I have Spanish with Ms. Gomez." I said back.

"OK bummer I heard she's a tough one." she said.

"I'll try and stay alive. Until we meet again." I said back as Juliet as I could.

"All I can do is hope you return to me." she replied in kind giggling. I laughed to and we parted ways.