Vocalization

Pinky Promise

The next day, I went to work, as usual. But when I got home, I was greeted with a tasty smell. "I'm home, boys!", I made myself audible and immediately heard footsteps. "Hey, Eve!", Earl welcomed me, smiling across both his cheeks. "We ordered pizza so you wouldn't have to get cooking immediately when you come home." "That's sweet of you", I said, taking off my thin coat. "But we can't do that every Friday, you know." Earl rolled his eyes comedically. "Just get changed already. I'm sure you don't want to stay in your work clothes all night. We'll wait in the living room for you." I nodded and went to my room. "Oh, Evelynn!", Layne tried to get my attention when he saw me in the hallway. "You said you had a solution for my problem last night." Once more, I nodded and smiled. "Just you wait. Grab yourself a slice of pizza before the others steal it from you and don't lose your head about it." I entered my room, closing the door behind me. Then I changed from my work clothes into a comfortable, wide t-shirt and a pair of leggings. Smiling, I grabbed my holy artifact from the wall, taking it out with me. Confidently, I walked towards the living room.

Eli saw it first and his jaw dropped. To the underworld. "Tada!", I sounded and held up what I had in my hands. Immediately, all eyes were pinned on me. "Eve, is that-", Earl began and I nodded, a spark in my eyes. "An 80s-style keytar, right here for you to see." I put the strap over my shoulder and smiled at all five of them. They looked like little boys on Christmas, their eyes glowing like neon lights. Not all of them seemed to know what a keytar was, but it looked cool enough to amaze all of them. "And you can play this?", Eli asked. "Sure." "Anything else you haven't told us about?" "Of course. A girl has her secrets. Now, where is that sheet music?"

Not much later, we were gathered around a tablet with Layne's written arrangement. Immediately, he corrected a few things concerning his work. "I must have been really tired that night", he sighed. "It was 1am already", I remarked once more, placing my fingers on the keys of my instrument. I hit the first few notes, an electric sound coming from the little speakers in the casing. "That's Happy by Pharrell Williams!", I realized after the first few chords, not having read the lyrics to it. But soon enough, after a kind of jingle, the song changed to Summer by Calvin Harris. I glanced at the lyrics of the next part and saw that they said "number 8". It was a countdown. Next up: Turn down for what by DJ Snake. See a pattern here? The other songs were Jason Derulo's Wiggle, All of Me by John Legend, Stay with Me by Sam Smith, Am I Wrong by Nico and Vinz, Magic!'s Rude, Problem by Iggy Azalea and lastly, Charly XOX's Fancy. The entire set of sheet music was written in treble and bass line, as well as one fiver (what I always called the five-line system of sheet music) with percussion notes. However, it was a lot more complicated than this. I had only stuck to the chords I could actually play with my limited amount of five fingers and the main voice, which Layne had – thank goodness – marked. "Wow, that actually turned out quite good", Layne laughed. "I had no idea what harmonies those even were, only one part at a time." "Oh, you play the violin, right?", Earl remembered, scrolling through some feed on his phone. "That explains why-"

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence,staring at the screen. "Guys, look at this!" Everyone crowded around him excitedly, leaving me with a smirk. Just like little boys. As if I were any different. Slowly I put my keytar down on the table. "What's going on?", I asked, walking over to them. Then I noticed my problem: I was standing behind a wall of people all taller than me, unable to see. "Cheerleader has reached over 3 thousand views!", Earl told me, his voice almost cracking over the excitement. Immediately, I put my hands on the shoulders of the boys in front of me and pulled myself up so I could peak onto the screen. And really, there it was: The video of Cheerleader they had sent me a long time ago, uploaded on the channel I had named, with 900 likes and 5061 views. "Should we read the comments?", J asked happily, but I just sighed. "You guys just can't stay focused, right?" Immediately, all eyes were on me. "Come on, I hate being the responsible one, but work first, then we can get to the good part." "You're right", Geoff said and got back to the tablet, inspecting it with a sigh. "We have a lot of it. Alright, everyone, listen closely to how Evelynn plays or else you might have no idea what you need to sing." "As long as I don't have to sing", I murmured, placing my hands on the keytar, ready to pick it up. But before I could start playing, J's voice cut me off.

"Why not?!" "Yeah", Eli agreed with him, visibly upset. "Eve, we've heard you sing!" My cheeks turned a bright red, visible even on the right side underneath my bangs, and I wanted to disappear. He had heard me. They all had heard me sing. I knew I shouldn't have. "You have the voice of an angel; we can't pass you up!" The others nodded, but I viciously shook my head, sending my bangs flying. "No way. I am not a singer." "Since when are we?", Layne tried to argue but I didn't listen. I stepped back from the table in shock. "That's completely different. Your voices are perfect. You harmonize. But I'm nothing more than an alley cat compared to you. You should do this alone." I turned around and ran to my room. My blushing face had turned a pale white. The door fell shut behind me and I dropped on my bed, burying my head in my pillow with a soft cry. The cushion muffled out all sounds. At least I believed that. I hoped it would. A few seconds passed, then my phone rung. It was a message. Containing the sheet music as a file. A second cry left my vocal cords and I threw my phone onto my desk. "I can't", I whispered to myself, my voice almost gone. "I really can't! Why am I like this?" I don't know how long I kept lying there. Maybe ten minutes, maybe five. Perhaps even fifteen. But then I heard a knock on the door. I shut my mouth, trying to keep in my whining, but I just couldn't get myself to, neither could I speak to send whoever was there away because they would hear I was crying. In fear, I turned away from the door, attempting to be as quiet as possible. But the door clicked open and I cowered even more, following the concept that, for someone I couldn't see, I would also be unseen. How foolish. "Eve", Layne spoke softly as he placed his hand on my shoulder. "We didn't want to upset you, I hope you know that..." I sniffed and relaxed a little. "I'm just acting like a little child, ain't I?" "You're just taking your turn." His words caused me to smile a little. There was silence for a while. But then I explained, quietly. "I'm just so scared to be seen. Or recognized. What if my parents find out...? I was never meant to sing. Everyone told me my voice wasn't good enough. That a girl like me singing alto was weird, that I was too quiet. That my voice didn't go high enough for me to ever make it. "Your range doesn't even go as high as your tiny little body", they said" I heard Layne chuckle quietly. "Well, I bet someone thinks your body is great." This lit a fuse in my mind. I turned around to him so quickly I almost hit him with my hair twirling around my head and ruffled through his already messy black hair. "Stop! That's unfair!", he tried to defend himself, but I pushed him over onto the bed. I burst out into laughter and held my bangs behind my ear to keep them from gravity. Layne smiled as well and let me pull him back up. "If you ever get short hair, I'll be sure to mess it up for you", he promised, trying to fix his own. "Now thinking about it, I could probably destroy those perfect bangs you have." "Do what you want, I have the ultimate weapon." "What?" "A hairbrush." "Oh, no!", he exclaimed, breaking out into laughter simultaneously. We laughed and hugged. "Would you help us out even though you don't want to sing?", he asked. I looked him in the eyes and sighed. "You know what... I'll lend you my voice, but only if I don't have to be seen. Pinky promise?" "Pinky promise."