That's My Spotlight | ✔

xxix. start of something new

AFTER A WEEK OF festive vacations, sleeping in, and massive college tours, classes at Meadowbrook High School were back in session. Even though the students wouldn't get the opportunity to sleep in until the weekends rolled around, it felt good to be back where they spent most of their time for the past several months.

On the Wednesday after school resumed, Dr. Terry decided to gather her choir for an hour-long intensive choir rehearsal after school. Meadowbrook's Advanced Mixed Choir was stoked for their last performance of the year, especially since they'll be singing two iconic songs, Man In The Mirror, composed by Micheal Jackson and adapted by Joyful Noise and We're All In This Together from the hit movie, High School Musical. Having the Troy or Gabriella part in the musical's song was everyone in the choir's dream, even as a small child.

But unfortunately, not everyone in the choir could have the part. Troy's part was handed down to Jayden, while Gabriella's part was handed to Angelica. Even if those were two major parts of the song, there were still other solos that were just as important, like Ryan or Sharpay's part. The part for Sharpay was given to Jolien, who was completely stoked about it, and the part for Ryan was given to Alexander.

Inez didn't mind all that much, however. As much as she liked having solo parts, blending in with the rest of the choir was just as great. But that didn't mean she didn't have an important solo in the choir's other song, Man In The Mirror. By Dr. Terry, Inez was given the solo part, which was a major part of the song. Because the choir had been working on this particular song for a few weeks before spring break approached, Inez already had all the lyrics memorized and locked into her brain.

If anything, she was ready to crush rehearsals and class times going forward.

Speaking of rehearsal, the choir was gathered in the school theater on the singing platform, centered towards the middle of the wooden stage. Dr. Terry ordered specific students to stand in specific places based on many factors, such as volume, voice projection, vocal range, and height. Sometimes, it would take a few minutes, usually five at most, possibly six if the choir director decided to push it. If anything, however, Dr. Terry wasn't the kind of choir director who'd waste valuable time worrying about everyone's positions on the choir platform.

Once everyone's position was perfected enough for the choir director's liking, she stood in front of the rim of the stage on top of a podium, flipping through her two-inch binder of her score sheets of each and every vocal part of this particular choir's songs. Then, she clasped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, everyone, thank you for coming to this after-school rehearsal," she announced. "Time is ticking away and I don't want to go over my time limit, so let's get started with Man In The Mirror since we just did We're All In This Together in class today. We'll revisit it later." Taking a sip of water from a clear thermos cup, she gestured to Inez to step to the front of the stage, where a microphone on a stand was set up.

With care, she yanked the microphone off of its stand, she stood before everyone else, feeling her body sway left and right slightly. To pass time, she ran a few fingers through her fresh medium box braids, which hung from her head to her hips. Dr. Terry gestured to her laptop, which sat on a rolling cart, connected in many electric cords to connect with the theater's speaker system. Before she could press play to the audio for the song, she raised her hand in the air to prepare the choir to begin singing the song as she quietly muttered. "One . . . two . . . one, two, three, four."

Inez synced her voice with the start of the song, which was the light chime of a piano key. The end of the first line consisted of her hitting one of the lower notes. This time, she nailed it, due to months and months of training in the scales the choir used as warm-ups. It was certainly convenient that Dr. Terry always considered practicing scales as important. Even if they were annoying at times to the choir, they were absolutely necessary.