Chapter 7- The Concert
Hey guys! I'm back, and it feels like it's been forever. I'm so glad I finally got to finish this chapter. In this one, it's the day of Concert, let's see how it goes! I hope you all like this one! Don't hesitate to put comments down if you want to make any suggestions. Okay, well that's enough outta me, enjoy!
Chapter Seven-
POV Change: Morgan
I wake to the adorable sound of Jarred's slight snoring and my stupid alarm clock. Thank God yesterday wasn't a dream. His arm is still wrapped around me, and sadly, I have to move it off so I can get up. I punch the button to the alarm, slightly tempted to smash the damned machine to bits altogether. I stand, stretch, and walk over to the closet. I pull out my choir suit, which looks like a tuxedo. It has a black blazer with a satin collar, a black vest, a crisp white shirt, black pants, and a purple tie to sport one of our school colors,(Purple and gold are our colors.) I take the heavy hanger of garments and hook them onto a towel-holding fixture on the bathroom door and start up the shower. I try to wash myself squeaky clean, I want this concert to be perfect. As I wash out the area of white fur on my chest, there's a knock on the door. "Yes?" I ask loudly over the sound of the running water. A groggy and sleepy voice answers back, "You took my tuxedo silly husky. I have yours here." "Oh, shit, I'm sorry. Come in, it's hanging on the door. Hang mine up would you?" The door opens, and I hear him hang my suit up. "Thanks..Jarred." I hesitated a little because I'm worried if I call him 'babe' too much this early, it might get annoying. He responds with a quiet "Mhm," before walking back out. Poor guy, he's tired.
I get out, wrap a towel around my waist, and wipe the mist from the mirror. I look at myself, and the wet reddish-brown fur on my head looks spikey and ridiculous. I dry myself off, then grab my brush to begin to fix the fluffy mess I see in the mirror. After I dry off and my fur looks a little better, I slide on my underwear and pants, put on my shirt and button it all the way to the top, put on my vest, throw on my blazer, and lazily rest my tie around my neck. (I'm terrible at tying this thing.) I see Jarred throw on his blazer, and he turns to face me, adjusting his tie. "Do you mind helping me with this?" I say pointing to my purple "noose," as I like to call it because I always have it on too tight. "Not at all. Come here." He says. He looks me in the eyes briefly and ties it for me. "You look cute," he tells me quietly with a grin. "Look who's talking," I say wearing my own grin. He moves my muzzle up with a few fingers and gives me a little kiss. "Eww you guys. Stahp." Dean says, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he sits up. Don't think I'm not still mad about what he did last night, believe me, I'm still pretty ticked off. I just ignore him, and as a little act of rebellion, I kiss Jarred again.
I leave the wolf standing there grinning while I spray a bit of cologne on my chest and arms. He asked to use some, and I let him. I grab our sunglasses, and we head out the door to go to our usual coffee place. We go down the hallway, and when we turn the corner, we see Sam and Isabel standing there. The retriever wears a beautiful red satin dress and a matching bow near her right ear and the bobcat wears a tuxedo much like ours, except with a little red bowtie. "Ooh, look at you two kids lookin' snazzy," Isabel says, giving us a little wink. "You guys look good too," I say with a playful smile, "Wanna come with us to get breakfast in style?" I dramatically put on my shades as I say this, earning laughs from the group. "Sure," Sam says, "lead the way."
We hop onto the elevator and eventually make it to the lobby. There's a few other choir students down here, easily found wearing their own school choir uniforms. When we walk out the door, Jarred puts on his shades and takes my paw. My heart flutters a bit as we walk down the sidewalk to find the little cafe. Once we're there, I'm the last to order, and I grab my coffee and join the rest. We all walk out snickering and joking around, making our way to the Auditorium. Mrs. T sends me the usual "Are you boys ready?" text. I reply with, "Yes, we're at the Auditorium now." We get in line in the second floor hallway with the rest of all these nicely-dressed furs. We sign in, and unfortunately we're not as early as we usually are, so Jarred can't stay and talk. He surprises me with a quick peck on the cheek and walks over to the tenor section, leaving me with my heart fluttering like mad. Once again the otter next to me gives me a weird look, so I glare at him with a look that says, "What are you looking at?" before turning to face the front of the room.
Dr. Bolivar, the old jaguar, takes her spot at the podium in the front. She is dressed elegantly with a long black dress with a golden sash around the hip. "Buenas dias," she says. We of course reply the same and she continues. "I hope you all are ready for our concert this afternoon! I'm certain that it will be beautiful." We applaud a bit before standing tall, ready to sing. The piano begins to play the beginning of our first piece, and I take a big breat to make the best sound I can. When we start singing, my mind wanders. An anxious knot is tied in my gut thinking about having to go back home. I begin to quiet down until no sound escapes my muzzle at all. I'm just standing here, frozen in thought. What am I going to do when we get back? What will my friends think? What if my family finds out? What if he leaves me?... Why now? Why can't I just be satisfied with what I have now, damn it? This little 'reality check' I'm having now is stressing me out. I croak out a sound attempting to sing again to keep my mind off it. It's too early for all of this doubt. Shut up brain, please. I'm trying to sing.
-Later-
It's time for lunch, thank God. I'm starving. I collect Sam quickly before we get lost in the crowd and rush to the back to meet with Jarred and Isabel who stand there waiting for us. "You ready to go?" Jarred asks, sliding his hand into mine. "Yup," I reply. We exit and descend the stairs. My phone's ringing, so I answer. "Hello?" "Hi hun, I'll be there soon," my mom replies. Oh shit, I totally forgot she was coming. "Awesome, we're headed out for lunch right now, and we'll head back a while before the concert starts. Maybe you can meet with us before lunch is over?" I half ask her, half the group who all agree it's fine. "Sure, if I can make it in time," she replies. "Awesome, okay Mom, I'll see you later then, bye." I hang up and join my friends before beginning to walk toward the plaza. Isabel chuckles a bit and asks as we walk, "You're not going to be embarrassed by your mom being with us?" I give her a sarcastic look before saying, "No way, my mom's awesome," earning a little laugh from her. Honestly, I've never have been embarrassed of my family, I never understood why some people are.
We cross the street and enter the square. Jarred has a concerned look on his face. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Nothing, I was just thinking. You think she'll find out about us?" he replies with a worried tone on his voice. "Nah, not if we're careful," I assure him. "It'll be okay, don't worry." With that he looks at me, gives a grin, and nods. The real truth is that I am worried we'll be discovered by my family at some point. Not because they'll judge necessarily, after all, my parents are both pretty cool and I'm sure they'd be supportive..I just, I'm not ready. I don't know.
We continue our little promenade in search for a place to eat, joking and laughing along the way. Trying to avoid the expensive stuff, we decide to go a couple of blocks down. We all get some odd looks from furs we pass by, and I give them all my signature glare before I realize we are dressed pretty ridiculously for a random group of kids. Jarred slips his paw into mine, and I look up to see him smiling. I chuckle and ask, "What's your deal, why are you so happy?" He gives his head a little shake and then looks at me, "Nothing, just you." Oh Lord. I blush and say, "D'aww." Before I can say any more, Sam points to a little Mexican Restaurant and asks, "Is this place good?" We all look at each other for approval and agree that it'll work. Once Inside, we see Mrs. T and Howard seated at a table.
"Hey guys!" she says in a cheerful voice, "How was rehearsal?" "Good," I answer. "Good," she replies. She offers for us to sit at the table since they have not yet been served and we join them. This place is terribly busy, it seems as if every fur in Pasadena decided to eat here. It's going to be a while yet until we can even get our orders in, so we chat. Mrs. Talob asks about rehearsal and our music, Sam and Isabel joke around, Jarred pulls up funny videos on his phone, and we all enjoy our time together. My phone buzzes, and I look to see that my mom just arrived. I tell her where to meet us, and she says that she's going to park and join us.
"My mom's on the way, save her a spot, would you?" I ask. "Of course," Mrs. Talob says, "I'm glad she's coming." My mom and she have gotten close since I joined choir, they're pretty much best friends at this point. Mrs. Talob turns to Jarred and asks, "Is your mom coming too?" "Eh, I dunno. We'll see," he replies with a bit of an attitude. I give him a concerned look, but he shakes his head as if to say to ignore it. "Ah, okay then," Mrs. Talob says. A little tension fills the air, and I'm a little worried about Jarred. Is something up? My thoughts are interrupted when my mom enters the restaurant.
"Hey everybody, sorry for taking so long, I couldn't find anywhere to park," she says. Before she can say any more, I stand up and give her a hug. I'll be honest, I missed her a bit. She chuckles and say, "Alright, alright, hi there, son." I introduce her to my new friends, and they greet her politely. She already knows Jarred, but still he gives her a kind "hello." Mrs. Talob greets her, and just as I begin to think I'm going to starve, a waiter finally shows up to take our orders.
-Later-
Once we finish eating, we pay and collect our things, and then me make a beeline for the door. Us kids might be late, so we better hurry, Mrs. Talob is already on our case about it. I bid my mom a little farewell before we leave the adults and rush to the Auditorium. If we were getting weird looks before, we're definitely getting them now. We look even more ridiculous than before, tripping over ourselves in our formal attire. Poor Isabel has to hold her dress to keep up with us without falling face-first into the sidewalk. We quickly make it to the plaza, and rush through the street. I make sure to flip off the driver that beeps at us for running across. Instead of going to the Gold Room as we usually do, we head for the auditorium. (I know we're already technically in the Auditorium, I mean the room where the stage is and stuff.)
Once inside, we join the rest of the many other choir students as we wait to be placed in our order on stage. Jarred's name is called, and he surprises me with a kiss before running up to his spot. A bunch of furs are looking at me, and I can't help but blush and look away, especially after hearing some faint whistling behind me. I wait for the directors to call name after name until I hear mine. I am placed on the second-to-last riser, Sam is almost directly behind me on the riser above, but I can't see Jarred or Isabel from where I am.
After a few minutes, I'm already annoyed to the point of wanting to punch someone in the maw. First of all, we're all squeezed so damn tightly on these risers, I feel like I can't breathe, then there are the annoying girls in front of me that won't stop gossiping with one another, and the otter next to me's breath is kickin'. Seriously, I can't even turn my head to the right without wanting to shove a box of Altoids or something in his mouth. Hm, if this doesn't end soon, he'll be the first I punch. And if this all wasn't annoying enough, the lights here are blaring down on us, and being huddled together in all these suits, it's gotta be 200 degrees up here. I know I may be being a little dramatic, but still, I just want to get this over with. Not so sound completely cheesy, but I already miss Jarred.
I'm making plans in my head to fight through these furs to get off the stage until my thoughts are interrupted by Dr. Bolivar. "You all look lovely! We shall run through the music as practice a few times, and the concert will begin shortly afterward." After she speaks with her bright smile and enthusiasm, I can't help but feel a little better. We do some vocal exercises to warm up, take in a few deep breaths, and begin to go through our set.
As we get to the last few songs, we are told that the doors will soon open to the public. Once we finish our last song, the curtains close and we wait patiently. I turn to look at Sam, and the bobcat sticks out his tongue to get a laugh out of me, and it worked. He must've noticed the annoyed look on my face. (Not that it was so discreet.) On the other side of the curtain, I can hear people filtering into their seats. The normal rush I get in my stomach before a show bubbles up in me, and I take a breath. I'm excited! I hear our conductor announce us, and the curtain begins to open. I make a quick search in the crowd for my mom, and when I see her, she waves a paw at me. Mrs. Talob and Howard are both sitting with her, and next to them, to my surprise, are Jarred's parents. Alright, let's do this! The piano plays the opening keys, we all get into performance posture,and in only a few moments, the moment we've been practicing for begins. We sound absolutely stunning.
Every note, every line fills the colossal space. You can hear the wall of sound echo from the walls and ceiling. Each song we sing gives off its own energy, from sacred to upbeat. I am actually somehow surprised at how good we sound. This is honestly nothing compared to concerts back home. I am stunned, and hearing us sing this beautifully reminds me just how much I love being a part of this sort of thing.
Our last song finishes, and there is a brief moment of silence before the auditorium erupts in applause. Jarred's voice still rings in my head as I recall the part with the small group, he sounded so phenomenal that my fur stood on end. I look out to the crowd and smile, proud of our performance and content with this entire trip. I'm sad that it's about to end, but I enjoy this little moment of glory. I look to my mom who gives me a grin just before the curtains close back up. Row after row we begin to walk off the risers and once we get back to the crowded foyer, I wait for Jarred and our friends to meet up before we seek out our families.
"You did so well," I tell Jarred before giving him a big hug. He reciprocates the embrace and says, "Thank you handsome, that concert was pretty good." We stare at each other with big 'ol smiles until we're interrupted by the call of the adults. "Hey guys, that was amazing!" Mrs. Talob says after Jarred and I quickly release each other. Our little group of students, directors, and now parents chat a bit before deciding to take pictures outside before hitting the road.
We find a little spot in front of the building and us students line up to take a picture, and then we each take pictures with our own families and directors. The four of us: Jarred, Isabel, Sam and myself join together one last time to say our final goodbyes. We all give each other hugs and swap numbers, promising to keep in touch with one another. "Well guys, this has been a lot of fun, we should hang out again sometime. You two don't live too far from us." Sam tells us. "Sure thing, bud." Jarred says, "sounds like a plan." Our retriever friend squeezes Jarred and I in a big hug and says, "I'm proud of you guys, you two make the cutest couple. Stay strong! I love you guys!" Jarred and I chuckle and promise her we'll stay strong and tell her we love her too. With that, Sam and Isabel waved us goodbye and joined their families.
Jarred and I face each other, and he lets out a big sigh. "I guess I'm gonna have to deal with my family now," he says. "Yeah, I suppose so. It'll be okay though," I say. "I'm going to miss you Wolfy. Even though I'll see you after this weekend." He laughs a little before responding, "D'aww, well I'll miss you too Pup." We give each other a big, warm hug for a long while before we see our parents and Mrs.Talob head our way. "You ready to go, hun?" my mom asks. "Yeah Mom, I'm ready. Bye Mrs. T, bye Jarred." Mrs. Talob says "Goodbye!" in her cheery little voice. Jarred just gives me his signature wolf grin and wags his tail. With that, I walk with my mom toward the hotel to collect my stuff with my tail wagging along behind me and my heart fluttering inside my chest.
-On the Way Home-
My mom and I talk about the trip, and just about everything that happened. (Obviously I left out a few details.) For a while our conversation goes silent, and I look out my window admiring the sunset and the places we pass. The only thing heard is the radio before she says, "So son, when did you plan on telling me you got a boyfriend?"