Treble In Paradise

If only I could have prevented everything from going wrong. Everything from the fight to my heartbreak to getting kicked off the acapella team to losing my scholarship to one of the best performing arts schools in the country. And now, losing my best friends. Senior Year is the worst.

You wanna know what happened? Well, This is how it all started.

“John, you have 45 minutes to get dressed, eat breakfast, and be in the car. Starting...NOW!” yelled my older brother. I peeked up from under my pillow to realize that my clock read 6:15 am. I hastily get up out of my bed and into the bathroom. When you are living with someone in the military, it can be hard to move at your own speed. Everything always has to be go, go, go. First official day at my new school, what a nightmare. I thought as I brushed my teeth.

If you haven’t guessed already, my name is John Allen and I go to South Park High School in Oakland California. I just transferred here from Boston, MA because my brother is stationed on the Alameda Naval Base, and my mom thought it was a good idea for me to live with him and my sister-in-law. She said it would help me build some character, which in my opinion is stupid for two reasons. Number one, it’s the middle of the frickin’ school year, and, two, I’m applying to go to Berklee College of Music—which is in Boston, I might add. I know the real reason why she sent me here is so that I can impress other high-ranking Naval Officers and earn an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, however, I don’t want to go, I belong at Berklee.

Anyway, as I walked into my Intro to Poetry class, I saw the most beautiful girl. I know it’s a bit cliche, but she looked like an actual angel. The way that her light curly brown hair glistened in the morning sunlight and the way her dark blue eyes sparkled was truly magnificent. She wore a pair of jeans, converse, and a shirt with a band name I didn’t know about. The way she recited Still I Rise by Maya Angelou was so eloquent and graceful, it just made me melt as if I were a popsicle sitting in the sun. While walking through the hallway towards lunch, I was pushed out of the way by two other seniors that were twice my size wearing letterman jackets. “Move Loser!” one of them said.

Yep, typical, you know this isn’t the 80’s. People have something called courtesy nowadays.

I hiked up my backpack and proceeded to the cafeteria. As I entered, I was overwhelmed by the sweet aroma of pizza and Philly cheesesteak.

Well, at least the food smells good, let’s just hope it tastes as good.

Finally, I found a table unoccupied over by the window.

Soon after, Scarlett and five other people came my way. “Hi.” She said “you’re John right?” she asked.

“The one and only,” I said, trying to play it cool. Wait...What?Did I seriously just say that?!? Such an idiot. “Wait...How did you know my name?”

She gave a light chuckle, “You introduced yourself in Intro to Poetry, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Right, I remember”

A long silence went by

“ Oh, John. These are my friends...Dylan, Ariana, Will, and Zoe,” she said. I gestured to them with a head nod. “So, since you are new, are you thinking about joining any clubs here?” asked Ariana.

“Um, I don’t know, too many to choose I guess,” I said, staring at my food.

“What are your interests? Zoe asked.

“Well, I like music” I responded.

“Can you sing? Are you any good?” Ariana curiously asked

“I’m alright, I mean, I’m no Steven Tyler, but I have some pretty good vocals,” I said

“Oh, well you should join our a cappella group, Voices In My Head,” Ariana continued, while picking up her veggie burger. “We need a new male soloist.”

I looked over at Scarlett, who was eating a chicken caesar salad, staring at me with anticipation of my answer.

“Yeah, sure. It would be fun,” I said. I looked over again at Scarlett and her eyes were wide with excitement.

“Okay, Great. We meet in the auditorium from 3-4,” Zoe said.

“I’ll be there,” I said. “What are the other vocal ranges in this group?”

“Well, I’m mezzo-soprano, Zoe is an Alto, Dylan is our bass, Will is the beat-boxer, and Scarlett is our female soloist,” said Ariana.

“Wow, that’s pretty cool,” I said.

“Just wait until you hear us perform” Will added.

After Lunch, I had to drag myself through the rest of the day. I couldn’t get Scarlett out of my head. I swear, in every class, the image of Scarlett would just appear in my brain. Anyway, after school, I went straight to the auditorium. On the outside lies a tiny set of mahogany doors, but the inside was huge. There were rows upon rows of red theater chairs, and the stage floor was neatly polished. This reminded me of the time when my brother had sent me pictures of the Budapest Opera House while he was stationed in Hungary.

“Hey, glad you’re on time. We are just about to start.” Scarlett said. I couldn’t even manage to say anything, so I just followed her and sat down in the first row of seats.

Ariana took over. “Okay, here are the lyrics to the song, so you can follow along, so just jump in when you’re ready,”

As the group started, I looked down at the sheet. The song was called Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake. Just listening to the first verse, I thought Oh, my God, they were actually really good.

Finally, I decided to jump in: “‘Cause I got that sunshine in my pocket, got that good soul in my feet, I feel that hot blood in my body, when it drops, ooh, I can’t take my eyes up off it, moving so phenomenally, room on the lock the way we rock it, so don’t stop.” I did it, I sounded good too. I hope Scarlett is watching because I am on fire!!!! As we neared the end, I needed to bring it home. “Everybody sing. (Got this feeling in my body) Got this feeling in my body. ( I can’t stop the feeling) Wanna see you move your body. Break it down. Got this feeling in my body. Can’t stop the feeling. Got this feeling in my body, Come on.” As the song stopped, everyone was looking at me with a puzzled look on their face. Suddenly, I realized that I was kneeling on the floor. Feeling like I overdid my big ending, I quickly stood up and to my surprise, everyone started applauding like I was Justin Timberlake himself.

“Oh, My God!!!! You were soooo goood, where did you learn to sing like that?” Zoe squealed.

“I didn’t, I just let the music move me,” I said.

“Spoken like a true musician,” said Will. I looked over to see if Scarlett would say anything about my performance, but she was talking to Dylan. Ever since I met Dylan, I had gotten a bad feeling about him. I didn’t know exactly why, I had just gotten this bad vibe from him. It was like a dark presence looms in every time he walks into a room. Curious, I continued to look at the two of them. As the conversation went on, I saw Dylan wrap his arm around Scarlett.

Okay, John, I said to myself. Don’t jump to any conclusions just yet.

After Scarlett called for a 10-minute break, I decided to investigate.

“Hey, Will. What’s going on between Scarlett and Dylan?” I asked, with a confused look on his face.

“What do you mean?” he said.

In a slightly irritated tone, I said, “I mean, are Scarlett and Dylan dating?”

Now with a more amused expression, Will said “Ohhhh. Yeah, they are. They have been dating for about two years. Isn’t it obvious? I thought everyone knew, including you. Why do you ask anyway?”

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “ No reason.”

“Mmmmhmmmm, yeah okay,” he said, as he gave me a questioning look. A sudden buzz hits my thigh. I took out my phone and looked at my screen at a text from my brother. “You need to report to the car at 1600 or you can take the subway back to the base,” it said. I glanced at the clock. It read 3:55. “Oh, shoot,” I muttered under my breathe. “Hey, Scarlett, I have to go. I’ll catch y’all tomorrow!” I yelled.

Scarlett slowly looked up from the sheet music that she was scribbling notes on and said “Oh, okay. I’ll text you the assignment, what’s your number?” she yelled back.

Frantically, I pulled out a pen and searched for some paper, but didn’t have any. Desperate to save time, I just wrote my phone number on her hand. For a moment, there was a spark that went off. Just for a few seconds, everything went quiet and still as if we were floating in space. As I take a quick glance, she had the most excited expression on her face. “What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said.

We just stared right into each other’s eyes. Everything was still frozen in time until it quickly resumed again when Dylan said with an irritated tone in his voice “ Ummm….. I think you’d best be going, don’t want you to be late for your ride home”. I look at the clock again, it reads 3:57. “Right, okay, gotta go. See ya,” I said while sprinting out the auditorium. As I’m speeding through the halls, I feel like I could wrestle a bear and win, but at the same time, I feel like locking myself into my room and never showing my face again.

Anyway, I made it to my brothers' car as soon as it hit 4:00. “Good job, just barely made it,” my brother, Jackson said. “Another second and I would have left your sorry behind.”

“Yeah, well, I was busy doing something.”

Jackson looked at me and said, “Doing what exactly?”

“Well, I made about five new friends and they invited me to be their new male soloist in their acapella group.” For the first time since I moved in with him, Jackson looked impressed.

“Wow,” he said with a grin. “Maybe you aren’t as big of an antisocial pessimist as I thought you’d be. Good work.”

“Thanks,” I said, with an embarrassing smile on my face. As we pulled up to our house, Jackson turned off the car and just sat there looking at me.

Oh, God, what did he want now, I thought.

“So here’s the deal,” he said. “I got word that the U.S. Naval Academy is considering you for joining their music program. But, this is YOUR decision. It doesn’t matter what I want or what mom wants, or even what dad would have wanted, it’s only about what you want and how you want to live your life, alright?” He said while crossing his arms. A continuous buzz hits my thigh, I take out my phone and to my surprise, it’s Scarlett who’s calling.

“RIGHT?” Jackson said in a stern tone. He hated it when people take their phones out when other people are talking.

“Yeah, whatever. Can I get out now?” After I said this, he unlocked the door and I bolted toward our very spacious, but crowded house. As an officer in the Navy, my brother, who is currently ten years older than me, had the option to live on base wherever he was stationed and he was able to have family live with him whether it was his own or his relatives.

As soon as I got to my room, I shut the door and answered the phone. “Calling again to get my autograph?” I said, mocking her.

“As if I would. Honestly no offense, but your handwriting is like chicken scratch,” she said.

“Wow, way to lower my self-esteem,” I said. I heard her laugh through the phone.

Even her laugh is adorable, I thought.

“Okay, so let’s be serious. So after you left, we talked about this year’s state competition. This competition is in Los Angeles—”

“Okay, so what’s the assignment?” I interrupted.

“Your assignment…. If you choose to accept it,” she joked, “is to find a song for V.I.M.H. to perform for the state competitions. Not just any song though, it has to mean something to you. Got it?” she asked.

“Yep, got it,” I said.

“Okay, good. See you tomorrow, byeee!!!” she said and hung up the phone. After that conversation, I frantically looked through YouTube to find the right song to blow Scarlett away.

No. No. Too cheesy. Too sad. I don’t even know what the heck this one was about. I thought as I searched through the endless stream of Youtube.

This is taking way too long, you know what…. maybe I should just skip practice and tell Scarlett that I’m sick or something. I thought as I got up to make coffee.No, you can’t give up, think about what Scarlett thinks of you. Keep looking, it’s bound to be here somewhere.

As I tirelessly scroll through youtube, working my fingers to the bone, my eyes turning red from staring at the screen, and my ears buzzing with endless streams of music until I finally found the right set of songs.

“Oh, my God, yes. I finally found it.” I said. I look at the clock and it read 10:15 pm. The titles of the songs were called No Promises by the Cheat Codes feat. Demi Lovato, Chained to the Rhythm by Katy Perry, and Imagine by John Lennon. Suddenly, Jackson burst into my room,

“You missed dinner,” he said.

“Okay,” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“ Just doing some stuff for school,” I said.

“ Yeah, okay. Just don’t stay up too late, alright?” He said.

“ Alright,” I said hoping that he would get out of my room.

The next day, while at my locker, Dylan walks over to me.

“Hey, John,” he said.

“Hey,” I said.

“Can you do a favor for me?”

“Uhh….Okay????” I said getting nervous.

“I want you to lay off Scarlett.”

Wait…. How did he know about me and Scarlett? It wasn’t that obvious, was it? Maybe it was Will, maybe he said something.

“Helllloooo, anyone in there,” Dylan said as he was knocking on the top of my head.

For a moment, I noticed that I was staring at him.

Say something don’t just stand there.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” I managed to say without getting angry.

“Oh, cut the crap, you know exactly what I’m talking about, I know you have a little crush on my Scarlett,” he said.

“What, you afraid of some competition?” I asked.

“No, but since you are new here, I’m cutting you some slack, hence this talk” He replied menacingly.

“Oh, and uh, don’t say anything about this to Scarlett.” He said before walking away.

“Yeah, well, I’m not afraid of you, so if you want a competition, then let the games begin,” I said with a smile.