THE SOUND OF MUSIC

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, MUSIC

By the time we got to the music room, only about a third of the class still had their fingers on their lips. But all of us had "peeped" along the way.

The girls started it. The cool girls and Abigail's posse had some minor spat over whether Abigail's walk was fake or not.

After that the boys got irritated and peeped too... Actually, they bleeped. Hahaha..and then the girls bleeped back.

My class pretty much bleeped all the way down to the music studio.

"What on earth is going on?" Our music teacher, Ms Pitera asked when we arrived. Some girls giggled a little and eventually someone told her.

"Oh, you got scolded on your way here?" Ms Pitera was rather sympathetic, "Next time come down quietly."

Since it was the last music lesson of the term, Ms Pitera decided to do something "fun". But because she was also the one who felt performing a whole new world with a classmate of the opposite gender in front of everyone was fun, no one was particularly enthusiastic to hear her idea.

Nevertheless, Ms Pitera explained how she had been very moved by the drum music performed during the Ceremony of the Departed.

I was quite impressed because she could even explain that this wasn't actually a Green Packland custom, but one originating from wolves in the Red Packlands.

"If you listen carefully, you might notice the distinctive sound from the drums." Ms Pitera elaborated, "These drums were made from the hollowed trunks of very old trees native to the Red Packlands."

I hoped it wasn't the same trees that Bell had set on fire.

"Did you know, that the very old wolves who live in the Red Packlands call these trees Spirit Stakes?" Ms Pitera asked. I smelled a Lycan tale and gave her my rapt attention.

"At night, the trees produce wisp of mist. The local wolves believe are the spirits of the departed warriors who were slain on their land during the Great War."

See, I knew it was going to be a Lycan tale.

Ms Pitera continued, "These drums are a symbol of a warrior's heart. Completely filled with a warrior's enduring spirit!"

Jasmine leaned over and whispered to me, "That's exactly what they said on TV."

Ah... Suddenly, I couldn't quite trust Ms Pitera's retelling of this Lycan tale. If TV was her reference source - specifically if it were a LyNCh, I reserved the right to doubt its accuracy.

Plus, maybe Ethics and Moral Class had made me skeptical, but technically, it didn't make any sense. Why would you play drums containing the spirits of warriors to send of spirits of warriors? Like seriously, wouldn't the older spirits from the Great War say, "Hey, youngster - go find a tree and wait your turn!"

Anyway, nevermind the factual accuracy of the tale, Ms Pitera's "fun idea" did not require any real knowledge in the history or origins of the Spirit Drums. We weren't even going to use real Spirit Drums - I mean, it wasn't like those were sold at supermarkets.

But what was sold at supermarkets were plastic buckets, large two gallon metal boxes, and a whole assortment of emptied and washed recyclable items.

"We are going to make our own music." Ms Pitera clapped her hands together in excitement.

I looked at our pile of instruments. I don't know about this, in fact, I had a decidedly bad feeling about it.

"Oh f***." Henry said from behind me.

Marcus sighed his long suffering sigh.

"It can't be that bad..." I said, but mostly to myself, "Come on guys, it might even be fun."

Ms Pitera couldn't wait, she kept clapping her hands.

"It's so refreshing to see young enthusiastic teachers these days." Ivan commented dryly.

"Ivan!" Ms Pitera clapped once more, "Why don't you be the drum major of one team?"

Ivan opened his mouth and close it again.

Ms Pitera looked around and I tried very hard to not make eye contact with her, "And the Alpha Princess can lead the other team."

Now that the two team leaders were selected, Ms Pitera revealed her "fun idea" in full. We were going to have a little friendly competition.

"It's a friendly, Sam." Henry smirked at me, "Don't kill anyone."

"I think I want to be on Sam's team." Zara decided, "Her hair looks strong."

"It's a drumming competition!" Ivan snapped.

"I know!" Zara snapped back, and then she muttered, "But better to be standing behind bullet proof hair than in front of it."

Ivan rolled his eyes.

Anyway, the rest of the class would be split into two. I think Ms Pitera meant us leaders to pick our team, as if we were playing a sport.

But Troy had loudly shouted from behind Ivan, "Don't let any girls in our team!"

So I calmly said, "I pick the girls."

"You can't have all the girls!" Troy protested. Which was dumb because our class was half and half boys and girls, and he was the one who said he didn't want any girls in his team.

None of the other kids minded, in fact we all preferred it, so the battle lines were formed and it was boys VS girls, each team taking half the room.

"Let's have our own little drum off." Ms Pitera announced as she checked her watch, "I'll give you fifteen minutes to get ready."

"What do we do, Sam?" Jasmine asked.

"We win." I decided. We had to win - what with Henry and Marcus on the other side - we might never hear the end to their gloating, or at least we'd have to bear with it for the whole rest of the term.

I can't let this ruin my precious last week to make beautiful memories in Winderhill.

"Yeah, duh." Krystal rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, we can't let that Ivan win." Zara was determined.

"Ooooh... You're going to fight against your true love?" Leia teased.

"Ivan is not my true love!" Zara shouted.

Ivan winced, and then shrugged. I thought he was going to pretend like he didn't hear it, but then he suddenly spun around and pointed to us girls who had gathered the other side of the room and shouted, "YOU GIRLS ARE GOING DOWN!"

Which was akin to a declaration of war and the rest of the class responded as such.

Half the girls reacted by jeering, gesturing, and calling such rude things across the room that I was quite sure Mum and Mrs Beta and the other ladies back home would be shocked. But I wasn't back on packlands, I was in school, and the social norms are different here. The cool girls, in particular weren't the kind of girls I'd want to trade insults with. Some of the things Zara hurled across the room would make a warrior blush.

"Class! Please!" Ms Pitera flapped her hands and tried to call out above the din. But by now, the class had officially flipped and went ballistic.

Zara called Ivan a particularly rude word, and Ivan yelled back something just as shocking.

"They're a match made in heaven." Leia commented from right next to me. It was very noisy and after a while, the ringing siren-like noise from this morning started whining in my head again.

This was about the time Troy, who in a too-loud voice began a rousing chant of "Girls go home!"

Which was dumb, yes, but this was Troy, so let's just not have any expectation for wit or sensibility regarding whatever came out of his mouth. His point was always made purely by volume.

And then some of the other guys joined the chant.

Which really ticked the girls off - like even more than before. Now, Abigail's posse had also joined the fray but they didn't have that united volume the guys had. They just screamed various things at the boys regarding their level of intelligence. One girl screamed into Troy's face, and Troy screamed back at her.

Away from the frontlines, Abigail was trying to get all the girls attention. She clapped her hands - very much like Miss Pitera did, and shouted, "Girls! Girls! We need to huddle!"

To what now? As in like what footballers did?

I went over to see how it worked, but it turned out that Abigail just meant to gather and listen to her think out aloud.

"Uhm... I think we need someone to give the count." Abigail said.

The girls around her nodded.

"Who should we ask?" Abigail said again.

"Why don't you do it?" I asked.

"Oh!" Abigail brightened, "I suppose I could."

"What?" Zara asked, "What did I miss?"

The cool girls and anyone else arguing with the guys had come over to see what the huddle was about too.

"Abigail's going to give the count." Jasmine informed them.

It was quieter now, the guys had also gathered around Ivan to prepare for the drum off.

"Shouldn't Zammi give the count?" Krystal asked, "She's the team leader."

"It's okay." I quickly said before this escalated into a civil war on our side. We needed to be united in this and if letting Abigail give the count would get her gang into the act, it'll be an easy win for us.

"But they've got Marcus on their side." Janice seemed to believe that Marcus' skill on the drums was a big enough threat to worry.

I thought about it. I've heard Marcus play, he wasn't bad at all. But he was just one guy.

"Okay, here's the plan." I told the girls, "When Abigail gives the count, everyone use the containers you get to make as loud a sound as possible."

"Urm... To the same beat right?" Jasmine prompted.

"Yes." I gave Abigail and her friends a wide smile, "To the beat of Abigail's count."

"Okay!" Abigail and her friends nodded with reassuring enthusiasm.

"No matter what. Just make sure we are loud enough to drown them out." I said, and just to be on the safe side, I added, "Don't forget, we girls have our secret weapon."

"Our sex appeal?" Abigail asked.

"Our tears." Leia corrected.

I shook my head, "If all else fails, we will scream them out."

"This... But this is a drumming competition..." Jasmine tried to remind us.

I nodded, my smile stretching to an evil grin, "Yes, but the warriors in the ceremony used their voices to shout and the wolves outside the hall howled too. Screaming is part of our performance."

Krystal smiled now, "Yeah. Let's 'perform' for the boys."

"I don't care what we do, we need to win those stupid boys!" Zara declared.

"I don't know why all the stupid and ugly boys are in our class." Leia wondered very aloud.

"Haha! The girls say you're stupid and ugly!" Troy informed Liam.

"Liam's not counted." One of the girls quickly amended in case there should be some misunderstanding that any of us felt Liam was ugly.

"Okay, class!" Ms Pitera started clapping her hands again, "It's time to start. Let's toss a coin and see which team will go first."

"No, no, Ms Pitera," Henry smirked now, "I believe it's ladies first."

Grrr... He probably had a plan.

I shook my head, "That okay. We're modern girls, so let's go with the coin toss."

"Alright." Henry smirked confidently. Oh, he definitely had a plan.

Ms Pitera tossed the coin, and it fell on tails. Lucky!

The boy's plan was to send out Marcus to solo on some pile of containers they rigged together while the rest of them played backup by clapping and stamping their feet.

They were surprisingly coordinated today. I guess Henry must have bossed them.

But he was fighting against me.

I grinned. If I were on mindlink with all the girls, I'd tell them to grin too. Show no fear.

And then it was our turn, Abigail called the beat and we all played really badly. The guys laughed and I could hear the girls behind me falter.

Guy's turn. They repeated their first performance with only Marcus playing a variation. This was really Henry's style. I supposed it was efficient. Give the main load to the one guy with talent, and use everyone else as backup.

I turned to the girls behind me, "If we can't beat them with skill, let's drown them out with enthusiasm."

And then for some reason, even though it wasn't our turn yet, Zara grabbed her two plastic bottles and started banging them together above her head.

"Are you a madwoman?" Ivan stopped playing to shout at her. So I banged on the biscuit tin with my wooden spoon.

"A one and a two!" Abigail gave count but seriously, nobody could hear her above the racket.

"Louder!" Henry ordered the guys.

"Boys shut up!" Zara shouted, banging her bottles to the beat of her chant. And I decided that was just as good as anything else we had, so I started chanting a la Troy because he was such an inspiration, "Boys shut up! Boys shut up!"

The rest of the girls caught on. I mean, at least now we were in beat.

"Now class..." Ms Pitera tried to say, but I couldn't hear the rest of it.

"YOU SHUT UP!" Troy yelled at us. I had to hand it to him, he was only one mouth, but he was louder than all us girls combined.

"TROY SHUT UP! TROY SHUT UP!" One of the girls had edited our chant and it caught on.

I don't think this was Ms Pitera's idea of fun... or music either.