Mitzi & Oz

Chapter 5: We Belong

Side A: Mitzi

Shawna Fox has the coolest name I've ever heard. She sounds like an exotic animal. I'm pretty sure it's the whole reason she's popular.

Names are like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You get a cool name, you don't have a choice: you have to be cool. Your parents were probably cool people to think of such a cool name, making you second-generation cool, which is even better than first-generation cool. Your parents would never embarrass you. Instead, they make sure you're as cool as they are. And you have this entitled air about you, like you deserve to be cool and expect to be cool your whole life.

Shawna is a soprano like me, only I sing as quietly as I can get away with. Shawna sings loud enough that I can hear that she's good. Better than her other friends, who act like they're taking the class for an easy A. 

Casey Weber, the blond one, shows that an average name will lead to an average person. You hear it, and you're like, I don't even know if that's a boy or a girl, and I don't really care. It's simple, and easy to pronounce, and boring. Exactly like Casey.

Elsie Rhodes, the one who has no distinguishing characteristics, has a slightly more interesting name, but it's still pretty boring. Is Elsie a nickname for Elsa? Elise? Elizabeth? It can't possibly be Elsa. You don't recover from having the same name as a Disney princess. Or maybe it turns you entitled and snooty. I can't tell with Elsie. What I can tell is that at some point Elsie did something that pissed Shawna off, and now Elsie is constantly simpering for Shawna's attention.

Beyond Casey and Elsie, I can't remember any of the other names of Shawna's friends. I only remember Casey and Elsie because they're also sopranos in my voice class. It makes me feel kind of cool, standing with them in voice class, like I really am friends with them. I mean, I stood next to them on my first day, because we're all sopranos. But now they actually talk to me.

"Are you excited for the auditions?" Shawna asks me the day after she invited me to sit with them at lunch, as we're pulling out our sheet music.

I freeze where I'm squatted on the floor. "What auditions?"

Casey points to the big poster by the door of the voice classroom. Montbourne Idol, it says over a picture of a silhouette with a microphone.

"It's like American Idol," Casey explains. "Well, not really. I mean, it's just one night. But it's like a real concert. The voice students get to be, like, lead singers of a band. We can sing whatever song we want. And then they get the band students to be the band for us."

"Cool," I say numbly.

"Yeah, they call it Montbourne Idol, which is kinda stupid, but trust me, it's awesome. Like, you can sing Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande."

I'd rather kill myself, but I nod like this is so awesome. The kind of music I listen to while I'm in my workshop is not the kind of music these girls would ever listen to. I bet they've never even heard of Joan Jett or Belinda Carlisle.