Chapter 5:

The Best of Friends…

I watched from my chair as Brian and Nick tried to plink out all of “Chopsticks” on the piano before Mr. J came in. The song had been banned from the choir room since as long as I could remember. (Probably since some little kid decided it was a good idea to drive their teacher insane with it.) Bri and Nick were hopeless. They kept getting nervous and screwing it up.

“Nick! Come on, man! He’s gonna see us! Let me do it quick!” Brian hissed. He was as bad as Aaron. I think he hangs around them too much.

“Nah, Bri, I got it! Listen!” Nick attempted to play the chords. It was the most hellacious sound I’d heard all morning and it was only 9:02 a.m.

“God, Nicky,” Howie commented, just coming in. “You trying to kill music forever? Stop it before Mr. J comes in! He’s gonna never let you touch the piano if you keep that crap up!” Howie tried to steer Nick away on his way by, but Nick smacked him and continued in his determined quest to tickle the ivories with his damn clumsy fingers.

“Hey morons!” I called. “The thing’s only got, like, six chords to it!” I snickered. “And ya better not be over there when Kev comes in either, or he’ll whoop your ass!” I pointed out, knowing how he, for some reason, always liked to sit down and play some little song of his before we all started.

I watched those three mess around. Brian was standing at the piano now, playing “Mary had a Little Lamb” with one finger. Howie was trying to barge in.

“Howard,” I said in a mock-serious tone. “That’s a PIANO,” I explained placing a lot of emphasis on the name of the instrument. I walked over to them. “A piano, D. You’ve never touched one! You’re probably worse than B-Rok is!” I tried to duck as Brian took a playful swing at my head.

“Shut up, Jay,” Brian warned. “I play good! Let’s hear you do that!” he challenged. His eyes lit up at the thought. “Or how ‘bout this?” he asked.

Brian was in the middle of happily playing what I think was supposed to be “Peter, Peter Pumpkin-Eater” when the bell started ringing. Mr. J came in and put his crap down on the piano, raising an eyebrow at Brian’s song and hiding a smile.

Mr. J was cool. My favorite teacher of all time. I’d had him since last year, when I first made concert choir (the top level). All the guys had been in the class since they came. Howie had been here since he was a freshman. Brian and Kev were placed in after they transferred here from Kentucky. Nicky was also a ‘transplant’ kind of. He’d been stuck in varsity choir for a quarter before he got on Mr. J’s case about how much he hated it. Mr. J had him audition and he joined us second quarter. So he’s still pretty new to everything, but he had the talent, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he was where he belonged.

Kev blew in the door when the bell was about done ringing. I don’t usually pay that much attention when he comes in the room because there’s so much damn noise all the time anyway, but something about the look on his face made me keep an eye on him. He looked shifty—-like he was gonna pull something.

Why the hell did he look sneaky? I’m the one usually pulling the pranks. Or Nick sometimes. But he’s not really that bold yet.

Kevin was walking real slow over to the chairs, so he was only just passing the piano when Mr. J said to take our seats. Brian got up from the bench, thank God, about the same time.

So, Brian’s walkin’ to his chair, right? And Kev walks up alongside him, like, minding his own business. And all of a sudden he reaches down and rips open one leg of Bri’s snap-pants. You know, the kind the jocks wear sometimes? With snaps all down the outside of the legs?

And then Kev just kept walking along, all nonchalant like he hadn’t done a thing! The class was cracking up. Even Mr. J was laughing. I think only reason he was cool with it is because they’re cousins, and Kev is not known for pulling stunts like that.

It took a second for Brian to react but shit was it ever funny to watch. He glanced down and his face totally drained. Then all of a sudden he just ran after Kevin and jumped on his back—and his dumb pants leg was still wide open!

“Get off me, Bri!” Kevin managed, between a lot of laughing. Brian let go of his cousin’s neck and dropped to his feet obediently.

I held my laughter in as Kevin whispered that the whole damn class could see his skinny chicken leg. (Okay, so he didn’t say skinny chicken leg, I added that.) Uncomfortably, Brian bent and fixed his problem.

Well that just MADE my damn choir period! Especially when Brian insisted it was “No big deal, ‘cause they were family.” ...It woulda been more effective if his ears weren’t bright red.

I didn’t think I would ever stop laughing! Especially when Kev came up to sit near by me and I saw that he was still trying to get his shit together after pulling something Nicky should have thought up.

“Never expected that, didja Jay?” he asked, looking kinda gleeful.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from intentionally screwing up the solfege and shook my head a little.

“Nope,” I managed.

Never in a million years did I expect Kev to pull some shit like that in a class of 80 people! I was proud inside, but didn’t know how to show it. So I contented myself singing my version of solfege softly under my breath.

Kev caught my eye and cracked a smile.