1-122 - Endo, Respect
They all put a finger to their lips and jammed together at a reduced volume until Anna and Elsa returned with the food for the boys.
Stacey woke up at the sound of the door opening and peered at her friends.
"Huh? What? Where up?"
"You fell asleep, Stacey," Zanity poked at her. "Up is that way, toward the ceiling."
"B on F sharp wrong. G sharp on F sharp," Stacey yawned. "That what-what, back-back, side-side. Passing chord missing fifth. Could use six-four."
The girls fell about laughing at the seeming nonsense, while the boys ruffled through the amended notes to find the part Stacey was talking about. Ken seemed to have been enlightened.
"Stacey, darling. What are you talking about?" Vera drawled.
"No, no. She's referring to a part of the song. She just can't remember those lyrics. It was a fast bit. Wait. Wait. And it's… here. You're talking about this bit," Ken pointed to the paper and played the cadence, while Flail mumbled the rap, "right, Stacey?"
"Yes. Stop. There," Stacey pointed.
"There?" Chastity scratched her head. "I don't hear anything wrong."
"Me either," Zanity scratched her nose.
"Me neither," Vera put her chin on her fist, staring at the notes, while Elsa and Anna opened all the containers of food, releasing a stronger fragrance into the air.
"We should eat before it gets cold," Chastity said.
"Yes. No. Faster change," Stacey ignored the girls and directed Ken when he replayed the section with the change Stacey was trying to talk about. "Sus."
"What's sus?" Ken asked.
"Sustain. Sustain note," Stacey stumbled over her words and had to repeat herself more slowly.
"Oh, oh. I get it," Ken said with another lightbulb shining over his head, replaying the section.
"Hey, that sounds good," Vera sat up straighter. "That totally changed the whole feeling."
"Swing, swing, triplet," Stacey pointed at Flail, speaking in time to Ken's strumming. "Mordant. Or grace note. Hit high. You sing high note. Complete chord."
Flail tried but couldn't quite understand Stacey's instructions. Stacey kept stopping him and knocking a rhythm and telling him to use a high note. She rubbed her face in frustration, unable to communicate her thoughts properly, making her slur and stumble over her pronunciation.
"Ken," Flail reached over to his friend. "Help. Translate. I feel bad. I can't understand what she's trying to say."
"I think she's saying you need to sing this part more than rap it, in order to make it more musically sound."
"Not sing. Say," Stacey shook her head. "Say like sing."
"Oh, I've got it. Flail, you play the chords, I'll do the lyrics," Ken clicked his fingers in time with Stacey's tapping and went through the section, watching Stacey's hand gestures.
It took three tries before he got used to the words and Flail got used to the change in chords. Then another five times before he grasped the separate rhythm Stacey was giving him. And then another two times before he finally hit the notes in the way Stacey wanted.
When he finally got it right, Flail jumped up with excitement. Ken and the girls followed suit, jumping up and high fiving everyone who was near them in excitement. The result had been way better than they had expected.
"Endo," Stacey raised a fist in the air.
"Respect!" Ken and Flail replied with their fists in the air, and the girls echoed the word half a beat later.
"Whoa, that sounded so good, it gave me goosebumps," Vera rubbed her arms.
"When Stacey makes a suggestion relating to music," Ken told her, "she is right ninety-nine times out of one hundred."
"How did we never notice this?" Vera asked her roommates.
"We didn't get much of a chance," Zanity shrugged.
"I noticed," Chastity put up her hand.
"Pfft. Whatever," Zanity batted Chastity's hand down.
"There was not enough time and everyone was always too busy," Chastity pointed out. "Especially in the last week that she was with us. She was barely holding it together then. I only noticed it when we were all messing around in our room before things went absolutely crazy for her. And then there was her 'Sinking in the Dark'. Composed in one hour. We already knew Stacey was a genius."
"Like he said," Flail thumbed at Ken. "When the lady boss speaks, she's right."
Stacey cleared her throat and shook her head when all eyes turned to her. She pointed her left hand at all the food and commanded.
"Eat."
"Yes, boss," all the teenagers chorused at Stacey, making her roll her eyes at them.
"You girls eat first," Flail waved a hand at the girls, standing up so that they could have a seat at the rolling tables.
Ken followed suit. He and Flail swapped back to their original roles with Ken playing guitar and backup singing, while Flail did the rap. After they had gotten that same, difficult section right, they went from the beginning of the song.
Stacey's hand had begun trembling with fatigue and she kept accidentally drooling out the corner of her mouth, and so Elsa came over to feed her a bowl of thick chicken and mushroom flavoured porridge. Elsa patiently wiped her mouth after each spoonful, while Stacey was listened to the boys perform the song so far with a smile. While her mind was occupied, she had a bowl of jelly pudding and fruit puree for dessert without realising how much she'd eaten.
Seeing that Stacey was falling asleep during the last few mouthfuls of her meal, Elsa quickly had her take a few sips of water to help wash her mouth out. And then she left Stacey to sleep with a smile on her face while surrounded by all her friends.
The girls helped the boys finish writing the song, before they were all shooed out by Elsa and Anna who were worried that their excitement might wake Stacey up again.