Chapter Nine:
Kaleigh walked through the open door into Mr. K’s classroom. This room was different compared to a normal classroom in the way that, there were no desks. In the front of the class there was a piano, and then where desks would have been there were risers with rows of chairs on them. Each seat had a folder on it. Kaleigh looked around the room, searching for Mr. K. Scanning the room she saw that he wasn’t there, and then she spotted a door on the side of the room, peering in she saw that it was Mr. K’s office, and he was inside, sitting at the desk. Kaleigh knocked politely on the door, and Mr. K looked up, smiled, and motioned her into the office.
When Kaleigh was inside the office Mr. K gave her a warm smile, “Hey Kaleigh, you’re probably wondering where you are supposed to sit aren’t you!” Kaleigh smiled back at him.
“Yes sir, I was a bit curious about that.”
“Well, you will have to be curious for a few moments longer, first I need to tell you about what we will be doing in this class for the next few months.” He paused, Kaleigh assumed he was building up her anticipation, “For the last few months everyone has been learning how to use recorders, but now we will begin learning how to sing.” He paused momentarily, and then began again, “Yesterday I tested everyone’s voices to see how many notes they could sing, and whether they could sing better higher or lower. Now, I know you just got here yesterday, but would you feel comfortable singing a song for me, any song you want, you can pick one of your favorites, or if you can’t think of any songs the Star Spangled Banner is a popular option.” Kaleigh thought quickly, her mother had taught her so many songs, but which one, which one would be best. Her mind was racing, she envisioned lyrics sheets, and records, and then a memory popped up that made Kaleigh sure of what song to sing.
Kaleigh’s mind was set on the image of Alexa, a few days before the crash, they were walking through Central Park and Alexa said “I heard this song,” she paused, “It was a beautiful song, not a cheerful song, but beautiful I think it’s my favorite, I don’t know who wrote it, or where I heard it, but I woke up and it was in my head.” Alexa started singing the song; it was an unusual song, as it had no words. Instead of words there were syllables, such as Do, Re, Mi; but the way they had been strung together in this melody was haunting, magical even, and Kaleigh agreed with her mother, it was beautiful. Kaleigh heard her mother humming the song a lot up until the crash; the memory of it was vivid in her mind. They never found out who wrote the song.
Kaleigh closed her eyes, took a breath, then opening her eyes she began singing her song, each note she uttered was clear, Mr. K watched her as if in a trance as she went through the song, some parts loud and harsh, others soft and caressing, without words this song told an enchanted story. Kaleigh hit the last note letting it fade to silence.
Mr. K cleared his throat and sat up, “Very good Kaleigh!” he said enthusiastically, “I’ve never heard that song before, where is it from?”
Kaleigh wasn’t sure how to respond, “Well sir, my mother sang it to me, but she couldn’t remember where she had heard it before.”
“Ah, well, it was wonderful, perhaps I can find the writer of the song” he seemed to be speaking to himself more than to Kaleigh so she stood patiently watching him. “Well, Kaleigh,” he said suddenly as if he had just remembered that she was standing there, “The class is divided into three groups, Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, and Alto; I think you will do well as a Mezzo Soprano.” Mr. K reflected for a moment and then, “Mezzo Soprano is such a long word to say so often, I’ll probably just call it the middle part, and soprano the high part, and Alto the low part.”
“Umm, alright sir.”
“Alright” Mr. K said enthusiastically, “Time to begin,” They exited his office and went into the classroom, everyone was seated now, Mr. K pointed to a seat in the back row the first seat on the left. Kaleigh thought this was a curious arrangement, as it meant that the middle section was first, then the high section, and then the low section; which seems a bit out of order, but perhaps Mr. K had his reasons, she decided not to question them.
“Okay! Everybody stand up!” Mr. K stood in front of the class, “Before we begin singing we have to stretch first, to get your muscles warmed up, and the air moving.” Mr. K began to lead the class in stretching their arms in different directions and then their necks. When they had finished stretching Mr. K spoke again, “Now that everyone is stretched we will warm up those voices, everyday I’ll have different exercises for you to sing, today we’ll start with a fun one,” Mr. K walked over to the piano and played a note, then said, “Everyone will start singing on this note, and what we are going to sing is ‘The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue ya haha haha.’ The first part is going to be all on the same note and then the ‘ya haha’ part will go higher, and then the last ‘haha’ will go back down to the original note, and then we will go one note up and sing it over and over again, each time a little faster, until you can’t go any higher!” Mr. K played the starting note again and then they began to sing. It was a very fun exercise, Kaleigh thought, she knew she would enjoy this class; it was almost a stress reliever, something natural that didn’t involve any stress or difficult thinking. Mr. K taught the class some more warm up exercises, and then the bell rang, it startled Kaleigh, the class had gone by quickly, ‘if only all my classes could feel that fast’ Kaleigh thought to herself as she headed to her art class.
1 comment:
this seems so awfully fimilar. jeez. but she's a MIDDLE :D
so how about i tried commentign this last night, and i typed in the varification code, hit submit, and then went off to bed, and apparantly i typed the code wrong, so you're not getting it until today
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