Singing Sight

AN: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry this took so long- I\'ve been busy. But I do have big plans in store for this- you\'ll have to keep reading to find out what! Keep your eye out for updates on this and \"Oh Professor\". Thanks all!


Chapter Two: Initiation.

The remainder of the school day progressed relatively slowly for me- I was pumped for the theater meeting, to hear what the shows this year would be, to see my friends all together in one room again... to get an excuse to see that girl again. She was in my mind nonstop! I was antsy, jiggling my foot in class, earning sarcastic remarks from my teachers about ADD.

Finally, the day ended with AP Statistics. Mr. Knott let us go a few minutes early, and I quickly dashed out of the room on the second floor. I crossed the lobby and entered the door to the Tech Booth. The familiar hum of the theater lights, the messy but intentional scheme of the booth just as I\'d left it at the end of last year. Writing in white chalk covered the black walls, quotes, inside jokes, names of techies past, toys and pictures posted all over. The poster of John Stamos on the ceiling above the sound rack, the sound and lights boards, all our cables organized (for the one time of year that they were, that is). I looked down to the floor of our black box theater, to see no one there. There were no lights hung yet on the clouds, no set pieces scattering the floor. Only a leftover root beer from last spring in the mini fridge we installed late freshman year. The catwalk was neat and clean, with no extra curtain racks to hit your head on as you walked along the catwalk to the office on the opposite end of the theater. I dropped my backpack on the ground near the lights board, and headed down the catwalk to where our Tech Director, Music Director and Performing Arts Head lived.

I was greeted by Mr. McGale, our tech director, Mrs. Quaile, the performing arts head, and Miss Lothgan, the music director. All of whom know me quite well. Mr. McGale was a man in his late thirties, with waspy blonde hair, glasses, and a friendly, geeky smile. The big brother I\'ve never had. Miss Lothgan- HOT. Only came into the school my sophomore year just out of New York City. She\'s blonde, long legs, nice voice, nice rack. Mrs. Quaile is like my other mother. The theater is my home away from home, and she\'s mommy. Mommy that makes terrible comments, has a hoarse, loud laugh and short, dyed blonde hair and an attitude that initially intimidates, but eventually welcomes. She calls me a brat about six times a day.

Mr. McGale high fived me. \"How was your summer, bud?\"

\"Good. Well. Somewhat good. Interesting. Yours?\" I smiled. I truly have missed these guys.

\"Pretty good. You look good, man. Did you grow?\" Mr. McGale asked. I laughed and shook my head no. Miss Lothgan was on the phone, but she waved and mouthed a hi. Then my eyes settled on Mrs. Quaile, and I realized, this is the last year here. Make it worth your while.

\"Caine.\" She said softly, standing up with a huge smile on her face. She gave me a hug, and then patted my cheek with one bony hand. \"You look older already. And it\'s only the beginning of the year.\"

\"Don\'t get all sentimental on me, please. Save it for graduation.\" I smiled down at the woman in her late forties.

\"Remember, Ryan, when he first came into this office as a freshman? This time three years ago, and he was a short, scrawny little thing?\" She started.

\"So... what\'s the fall play, Quaile?\" She laughed and patted my arm.

\"Well aren\'t you one for getting down to it!\" She exclaimed. \"Not telling.\" She said, serious.

\"Aww, come on! Tell me!\"

\"We go through this every year- you have to wait the twenty minutes until the meeting at the end of the day.\"

\"Not even a sneak preview?\" I asked, attempting to employ every ounce of charm in me.

\"Sorry, chickadee. You know the rules!\" She laughed, crossing back to her desk.

The bell rang just then, and Mrs. Quaile gathered up a stack of papers and her planner, propped her glasses on her pointy nose, smiled, and headed down. \"Another opening, another show!\" She said cheerfully, and headed down the stairs to the theater.


~*~


I spent the rest of my classes doodling in the margins and thinking about the meeting. What would everyone and everything be like? I wanted to know everyone and everything- Rachel made it sound so cool, I wanted to get involved!

And her brother- wow. Thought about that, too.

Finally, the bell rang, and I left the classroom after giving a tight lipped smile to my teacher. I found Rachel where she said she\'d meet me; first floor, outside the entrance to the theater. She smiled at me, and reached out and grabbed my hand. \"C\'mon!\" She said, pulling me into the theater. She greeted so many people it was hard to keep track- I recognized faces from all over the halls, some even in my classes, some from lunch, but I couldn\'t find the one I wanted to look at. \"Let\'s sit.\" She said definitively, and I smiled and sat with her, crossing my legs and sitting Indian style. I brushed my hair back nervously from my face, and listened to the music that was playing from big subs in each corner, suspended from a curtain track. Who was playing it? My eyes flitted all around the theater, I hadn\'t been in here even for my Musical Theater class. I saw an office on the end of the theater we did not sit at, and on the other end, where the tech booth must live. I saw him then- fiddling with controls, focused, his shaggy hair falling in his face as he found the track- smiled to himself, and headed down the stairs from the booth to the floor. He leapt over the railing once he got close enough to the ground, and landed with a light thud. He grinned, pushed his hair out of his eyes, and nodded in my direction. I looked around, and behind me, saw walking in, two of the guys I saw him with earlier. Hope sank. I blended in with all the other newbies, no doubt.

The performing arts chair explained the process- a fall play, three student directed winter shows, and a spring musical, the first and last of which she herself directed. She was a real character, making jokes with the more familiar faces, laughing, and explaining where things were. She explained opportunities, yadda yadda. My eyes kept shifting from Mrs. Quaile back to him, staring intently at her, whispering to his friends who sat next to him.

\"And without further ado, to introduce people in charge around- Caine!\" Mrs. Quaile called. He jerked up, caught. He made an attempt at a cute smile.

\"I sincerely apologize, won\'t happen again. And might I say you look younger than ever?\"

\"I catch you talking to Jake again this season, we\'ll show the freshmen the meaning of definistration, you brat!\" She cackled at the end, he shrugged, and his friend stood up, made a motion to follow him, and when Caine refused, pulled him up by the collar.

\"Hey, Mrs. Quaile, where are all the windows?\" He asked. A lot of people laughed, he smiled, and pushed Caine back down into his seat on the ground.

\"Good question Trey, where are all the windows? Gee, it\'s a black box theater! Duh! You\'ve only been here, bothering me for four years, you brat! For those of you who don\'t know them, here is the Brat Squad, you have them right here, Trey, Caine, and Jake. They\'re cute, but stay away!\" She said, ruffling the one called Trey\'s hair.

\"What are the shows?!\" The other one called, presumably Jake.

\"Good question, what are the shows?\" She smiled. \"Well, first off,as you can see from the lovely coral pink flyers-\"

\"Ooh, coral!\" Caine crooned as he recieved the paper, and people, including myself, giggled.

\"We have a fall show you might call Two Gentlemen of Verona, and a spring musical we like to call Sweeney Todd. How bout that?\" Applause and cheers ensued. Sweeney Todd? No way! High schools don\'t just *decide* to do Sondheim. Then again, it was a theater school. I sang Johanna\'s song for an audition once- I\'m a perfect soprano, my voice teacher loves it. But Shakespeare? Not so great with that. I love reading it, but for some reason the iambic pentameter throws me. Well, guess I\'ll just have to do tech first season. With hotboy.


~*~


The meeting ended soon after; it was filled with different coloured flyers (last year they were lavender, this year, coral pink), and, of course, Mrs. Quaile picking on me, Trey and Jake.

The meeting finished up, and I immediately approached Mrs. Quaile.

\"Why, Mrs. Quaile, I love that colour purple on you-\" I started.

\"I\'m free lunch tomorrow, since you want to apply for designer.\" She smiled at me. I returned it. She knows my ways.

\"I\'ll be there.\"

\"Ca-aine!\" The all too familiar harmony of an annoying brat echoed in my ears. Ahh. How refreshingly painful.

\"What now, Rachel?\" I groaned, turning around. She stood there, and I remembered her friend all of a sudden. She was even hotter up close, she had these incredible blue eyes-

\"You said you\'d drive us home! Can we go?\" She groaned.

\"Take a chillaxative. I\'ll be right there.\"

\"Jeez, Caine, your sister\'s still seven.\" Trey grinned and tugged on Rachel\'s ponytail. She squeaked, turned around, and swatted his arm. The girl looked at them, a smile on her face. She was astonishingly beautiful- it was almost unreal. Maybe it\'s cause I\'m kind of a geek, but there\'s no other way to accurately describe her vibe. Her hair was long and wild and sexy, her body was flawless and curved in all the right places. She was shorter than I would have thought from afar- almost a whole foot shorter than I was. She was fiddling with one of her silver rings that was on her pointer finger, twirling it between her thumb and forefinger. Sexy, clouded blue eyes looked up at me from thick lashes coated in black mascara, and a small smile curved on her lips. She had three peircings in each ear, and her worn bracelets were assorted- black rubber ones twisted up in each other, worn brown leather ones with things carved into them among coloured rubber bands. Normally I\'m not into the funky girls- I\'m more a fan of the simple, loud types that are all athletic- like Natalie. But this girl was... I don\'t know how to explain it, but she was more than just hot- and she was HOT.

\"And who are yo-ou?\" Trey sang as he approached the other girl. She gave a light laugh and answered,

\"I\'m Aria.\"

\"Hot name. I\'m Trey Ravenstern.\" He replied, taking her hand, doing a stylized, formal bow, and kissed it. Please.

\"Strangely, not a raven or stern,\" I added. \"I\'m Caine, Rachel\'s embarrassing big brother.\" She laughed. I loved it. Her eyes were sparkling and her smile was unparalleled as she took my extended hand.

\"Nice to meet you.\"

\"Are you a freshman? I haven\'t seen you around here.\" I asked her.

\"Sophomore, but I\'m new.\" She replied. \"You are clearly very much a part of this- institution, if you can call it such.\" She said, jabbing her thumb over at Mrs. Quaile. I chuckled.

\"Yeah. She\'s like my mom.\" I laughed.

\"Only I wouldn\'t do her, like I did your mom last night. FROM BEHIND.\" Trey added.

\"Ohhh!\" We said in tandem, not actually finding it funny, which is why it was.

\"So let\'s go! Come on!\" Rachel whined.

\"Fuck, Rachel, chill out.\" I groaned. \"Yo, Trey, need a ride, buddy?\"

\"Nah, I\'m set. Minicohen, Aria, pleasure seeing you both. And Cohen, I\'ll see you tomorrow.\" He smiled, patting my shoulder. All of a sudden, a huge weight dropped on my back and I groaned as Jake slid down.

\"Dude! Quaile just said I\'m a shoo-in for Proteus. I have no clue who that is, but dude!\" He laughed.

\"Awesome. Jake, you remember my little sister, and this is her friend Aria.\" Jake\'s eyes settled on Aria, and that familiar, IamasexgodandcangetanyoneIwant look I\'ve seen so many times with girls at clubs, parties, concerts and school passed over his face.

\"Hey. I\'m Jake Harper.\" He said, that cocky grin passing over his face again.

\"Nice to meet you.\" She said.

\"You\'re interested in theater?\" He asked, his eyes flitting over her body and back up to hers.

\"I switched into a performing arts school. I thought that would be obvious.\" She retorted with a hint of a smile on her face.

\"Are you a techie, or actor, what?\" Jake asked.

\"My background is more of musical theater. But I\'m interested in tech, too. I think I\'m doing tech for the fall play, actually.\" YES! Take THAT, Harper!

\"Lights, perhaps?\" I suggested with a wry smile. She turned to me, a dazzling smile on her face.

\"Actually, that\'s what I\'m interested in learning.\" She smiled.

\"Well, you\'ve come to the right place to learn. I\'ll teach you.\" I offered.

\"That\'d be great.\" She smiled back.

\"So you sing?\" Jake interrupted. She nodded and turned to him, moment broken, thanks to prettyboy. \"You might be interested in trying out for our A-Cappella group. I\'m heading it this year with my friend Julie.\"

\"When are auditions?\"

\"Friday are primaries, then Monday are callbacks. We\'re called the Bulbous Belters, and we have one opening for an alto, and two for sopranos.\"

\"I\'m a mezzo-soprano.\"

\"Perfect. Well, check the announcements for where they\'re going to be, or maybe I\'ll see you around to tell you when they are. Rachel, you going to try out?\" He asked. My sister stopped drooling and snapped to attention.

\"Maybe.\"

\"You should. Look, I\'m gonna get going, buddy. See you tomorrow. And hey, Rachel, good to see you again, and Aria- I look forward to your audition.\" With a wink and a smile, he sauntered off, keys jingling in his hand.

\"We ready to go?\" I asked the girls. Rachel was still staring after him.

\"Yeah. Hey, Rachel, it looks like you\'re coming down with some Jake-fever. You all right, there?\" Aria asked her. Rachel snapped out of it, and I laughed.

\"Ha ha, bitch. Let\'s go.\"


\"Ahh! It\'s so beautiful out.\" I groaned as the sunlight hit me blindingly. \"It\'s never this bright in the theater.\"

Aria laughed. \"Where\'s your car?\"

\"Over there. The black Honda.\" I said, pointing.

\"It\'s a wonder he hasn\'t completely mutilated it already.\" Rachel rolled her eyes. \"Caine is the worst fucking driver on the face of the earth.\"

\"I am not. I got my license, didn\'t I? Which is more than I can say for you.\" I said as we headed over to the car.

\"He listens to shit music when he drives, too.\" Rachel said. \"We\'re listening to something good, okay?\"

\"My car, my tunes. Don\'t like it? Walk home.\" I replied with a smile as I unlocked the driver\'s door. I pressed the unlock button.

\"Shotgun!\" Aria called, hopping into the front seat.

\"Bitch!\" Rachel exclaimed, clambering into the backseat.

I got in, and started the ignition. \"Put on your seatbelt, you\'ll need it.\" Rachel warned her. I glanced over at Aria, who slid the buckle into place and flipped her long hair over one shoulder.

I put the gear in reverse, and pulled out of the spot quickly, braking hard and putting it into drive as we accelerated hard out of the parking lot. Aria laughed at the speed, and I smiled at the feeling of power I got when I drove. \"There are some CDs on the ground at your feet, Aria. You can pick one out.\" I told her as she reached down and started flipping through the selection.

\"You never let ME pick the music!\" Rachel whined.

\"You\'re my sister. She\'s not.\" I reasoned as we made a sharp left turn onto the main road.

\"You have good taste.\" Aria commented, choosing a CD and replacing it with Ted Leo. The Dandy Warhols blared out of the speakers and I made another sharp turn. \"I have no clue what you\'re talking about, Rachel! Your brother\'s an awesome driver!\" She laughed. I pulled the volume up, and rolled down all the windows.

\"Ooh, Caine, you\'re *such* a badass.\" Rachel rolled her eyes. I laughed.

\"We drivin\' gangsta style, yo!\" I kidded. \"I\'m so white.\" Aria smiled.

\"We need to put in Rage Against the Machine if we want to go hardcore gangsta and serrrrve all those other playa\'s out thizere!\" Aria joked.

\"Ok, you guys are SO done.\" Rachel laughed.

\"I\'m done. But I am a badass driver.\" I said, stopping sharply at a red light. The car next to us pulled up, and I heard my name called.

\"Caine! Dude, what\'s up?!\" It was another senior, Gina Lombard behind the wheel, and her friend Lacey next to her. Lacey and I had dated a little bit our sophomore year, and we were still chill when she admitted she was a lesbian.

\"Hey!\" I called back. \"No drag races this time, Lombard, I have some younguns with me.\" Gina laughed.

\"My love! Come to Tally\'s party on Saturday!\" Lacey called.

\"Maybe, sure.\"

\"Caine, it\'s green.\" Rachel said, swatting the back of my head.

\"Later, beautiful!\" I shouted to the girls as we took off.

\"Jeez, Caine. She\'s a lesbian, even if you did date.\" Rachel rolled her eyes.

\"You dated her?\" Aria quirked an eyebrow.

\"Sophomore year, the girl in the passenger seat. Her name\'s Lacey. The other one is Gina. They\'re cool.\"

\"And dating.\" Rachel interjected.

\"In love.\" I corrected.

\"They\'re cute together.\" Aria smiled.

\"Yeah. Everyone\'s pretty chill about that stuff at our school-\" I was cut off by the tune of bad MIDI salsa music that was my ringtone. I picked up my cell phone from my pocket.

\"Yeah.\" I greeted.

\"Caine, dude, I totally forgot- we were gonna chill. You wanna meet us at Blaze Up Park?\" Trey\'s voice asked.

\"Oh shit. Yeah, I do. But I need to drive my sister and her friend home before I do.\"

\"They can come too, dude. More the merrier.\"

\"My sister? At BUP? Don\'t think so.\"

\"She totally came with us once last year, remember?\"

\"We were already high at that point, man. I\'m not gonna be a bad influence on her or her friend.\"

\"Who are you talking to? \"Rachel asked.

\"Trey.\"

\"You guys gonna go blazing?\" Rachel asked.

\"None of your fucking business, Rachel. I\'m taking you home. It\'s a school day.\"

\"You get high every day! It\'s not fair!\"

\"Dude- you still there?\"

\"Yeah. Shut UP, Rachel!\"

\"You guys are so atypical siblings. Look, you coming or not?\"

\"Yeah. I don\'t know if I\'m gonna get high, though.\"

\"What, smoke a cigg then go home?\"

\"Yeah, probably. I don\'t know. I have homework.\"

\"Boo!\"

\"I know.\"

\"You coming or not?\"

\"Nah, I don\'t think so.\"

\"You suck.\"

\"Tomorrow, though?\"

\"Yeah. Hold on. Oh, Jake wants you to bring her hot friend tomorrow.\"

\"I don\'t think so. We\'ll talk later.\"

\"Why not? Dude, that chick is sex on wheels!\"

\"And sitting right next to me. So we\'ll talk later.\"

\"Fuck you.\"

\"No thanks, I\'m not interested.\"

\"Har har, smartypants.\"

\"Yeah, yeah. Bye.\" I hung up the phone.

\"Sitting right next to you?\" Aria asked with a smile.

\"Yeah. Trey\'s a douche.\" And Jake isn\'t going anywhere near you, I thought.


REVIEW

3. Estimation -- Theater begins to get under way- and so does Caine and Aria\'s flirtation.