Dawn's Acapella (2 page)
“
I promised one verse.
That’s all that was agreed upon.” She was already shaking, and her
cheeks were burning. But Dawn was happy, so Rose didn’t fight too
hard when the freshman snatched the paper out of her hand to
continue the song.
“
Is the tune the same,
going on?”
“
I’m not telling! Give
that back!”
But Dawn had already begun to
sing:
Neither of us thought I
would ever go
And I thought I was strong
but now it’s hard to hold on
What do I know?
I’ve dreamed of a life for
us since so long ago
And I thought I could stay
but now I’m fading away
What do I know?
All these memories, coming
back and haunting me
I can hear your voice,
saying love please stay with me
I will be with you, we
will meet again someday
I will be with you,
always
“
Oh this is sad!” Dawn
said.
“
Then stop singing,” Rose
smiled, but she had to admit she didn’t mean it anymore. Dawn had a
lovely voice, and she was surprised to find herself enjoying
hearing someone else sing her own words. And just as she suspected,
nothing was going to stop Dawn.
I’m still here, watching
you
I’ve seen it all from the
start, and it breaks my heart
Knowing all you’ve been
through
And I can’t believe,
what’s been done
I could see it happening
to me
But your life had just
begun
All the memories, finally
let them fade away
I am with you now, open up
your eyes and see
It’s all over now, lover
you are safe with me
I will be with you,
always
Dawn put the paper down at last. “Is
that the end?”
“
It’s past the end,” Rose
giggled.
“
What’s it
called?”
“
I just call it ‘The Lost
Girl’s Song.’ What do you think?”
“
I think I wanna give this
to my choir teacher!”
“
Don’t you
dare!”
“
Okay. But I am going to
sing it all day long! Try and stop me!” She skipped away, singing,
“Na na na na na...” to the tune of Rose’s song.
Rose danced through the rest of the
day, surprised to find herself so excited. She couldn’t get Dawn’s
voice out of her head. She didn’t think anything could bring her
mood down, after all, not even the assignment of a research project
had. But when Lucy came to her table during lunch, her eyes were
red from crying.
“
Are you okay?”
“
Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just
Tiffany again…”
“
Why do you still hang out
with her?”
“
I know she doesn’t
mean
to upset me… I like
her, I like them all, I’m just... I don't know.”
“
Well, do you want my
advice, or do you want to just forget this?”
“
Just to forget it. I need
cheering up.”
“
Okay.” Rose tried to hide
her frustration. Somehow, Lucy had fallen into the “popular” group
last year, and still spent time with them often, even though they
treated her horribly. The more they found out about who Lucy really
was, the more they picked on her. But for some reason, Lucy liked
spending time with them. Rose knew she wasn’t about to change her
mind, no matter how hard she tried. Lucy didn’t want Rose’s advice
because she already knew exactly what it was: stop pretending to be
friends with people who don’t care about you.
“
Have you heard Dawn
sing?” Rose asked.
“
Oh, yeah I have!” Lucy
laughed. “I’m so proud of you! You shared!”
“
I did not! She made
me!”
“
You know she’s singing it
all over the school, right? People are starting to copy
her.”
“
What? No!”
“
Calm down, no one knows
it’s your song. This way you’ll get honest feedback.”
“
Stupid freshman! I’m
gonna kill her!”
“
Here she comes now,” Lucy
said.
Dawn danced over to their table. “I
brought cookies!” She dropped a bag of chocolate chip cookies on
the table. “I baked them last night!”
“
Rose?” Lucy nudged
her.
“
Fine,” she said, taking
one. “You brought cookies, I won’t kill you.”
“
Here, take a
bunch!”
“
Thanks, sunshine, but for
some reason I’m too shaken up to eat.”
“
Everyone loves the song,
though.”
“
Shut up with the song!
Yummy cookies though, for real.”
Dawn brightened up at the compliment.
“Let’s go walk around!”
“
Why?”
“
Maybe someone else wants
cookies!”
“
You wanna come with us,
Lucy?”
“
No thanks, I should wait
for Nick.”
“
Are you okay now?” Rose
asked.
“
Yeah. Thanks.”
Rose got up, and she and Dawn began to
wander.
They spotted a boy in a gray hoodie,
sitting on the floor in the middle of a dark hallway, hanging his
head. Rose couldn't tell whether or not he was upset. His hood was
up. He might have just been tired, bored, or cold. Whatever reason
he had for slouching in a hallway alone, she decided he’d
appreciate a random treat.
“
Dawn,” she nudged
her.
The freshman marched right up to him
and tapped his shoulder. “Here,” she said, “have a cookie.” She
handed it to him with a smile.
He looked up, frowning at her, “Um...
Thanks, but... Do I know you?”
“
Nope. You just looked
like you needed a cookie.”
“
Oh.” Rose couldn’t read
his expression. “Well, um... Thanks.”
“
You’re welcome.” Dawn’s
smile didn’t fade, despite his less-than-enthusiastic response. She
skipped ahead of Rose, eager to find another person who could use a
kind gesture.
The next day, Rose was unloading her
things in her locker, blinking away sleepiness when Lucy hurried
toward her.
“
Rose, I gotta tell you
something.”
“
Too early,” Rose
muttered.
“
I just... I have to tell
you before you find out from someone else,” Lucy said. “Tiffany and
them started talking about us—I mean, you, Nick, and Dawn, and...
They were saying really mean things, and... I’m really sorry, Rose,
I went along with it, I didn’t want them to shut me out, I didn’t
think...”
Rose slammed her locker shut. “Well,
I’m awake now!”
“
Rose I’m...”
“
Sorry? Are you kidding
me? So you’re gossiping about me now? What makes you so sure
I’m
not going to shut
you out?”
“
Because you’re my best
friend.”
“
So why isn’t that enough?
Why can’t you stand up to them?”
“
Rose, I’m really, really
sorry. Can you forgive me?”
Rose was trying to decide what to say,
torn between anger and pity, when Dawn appeared by her
side.
“
Hi!” Dawn said. “What’s
up?”
“
Wait one minute,
freshman!” Rose snapped. “I’m not happy with you, Lucy, but I’ll
forgive you if you promise never to do it again.”
“
Talk about you, or hang
out with them?”
“
I wanna say both!” Rose
said. “But...” she sighed. “That’s not fair. Do whatever you want,
just leave me out of it.”
“
Okay. I promise I won’t
gossip about you anymore. I’m really sorry—”
“
You won’t talk about me,
or Nick! Or the freshman!”
“
Of course. I promise.”
She left them.
Rose let out her breath. “What’s
wrong?” Dawn asked.
Rose almost shouted at her to mind her
own business, but she realized she wanted to talk to someone. “Come
on,” she said, leading Dawn into the cafeteria. They settled down
at a booth, and Rose began to explain. “She’s basically got a
double life. It’s ridiculous. She’s weird like us, and she needs to
just own it already.”
“
Own it? Maybe you should
take your own advice.”
“
What do you know,
freshman? I know who I am and who my friends are, what does it
matter if I don’t share everything I write? This is about
Lucy!”
“
Right,” Dawn said. “So
you and Nick are her only real friends?”
“
It’s up to her, in the
end. I’ve tried to talk to her about it, but I can’t make decisions
for her. Better for us to just be there for her. She’ll come
around.”
“
You’re so wise,” Dawn
said.
“
Are you kidding?” Rose
laughed. “We’re fools, Dawn. If I was half as great as you think I
am, I’d be able to get Lucy out of this mess.”
“
Maybe we can!” Dawn
said.
“
We can’t. We just have to
be patient.”
“
Yeah, I know, but if we
do something a thousand times more awesome, she’ll have to hang out
with us more!”
“
Dawn, let it go. She
always makes time for me. She’s there when I need her, that’s what
matters.”
“
But listen to me,” Dawn
said. “I’ve got an idea!”
Rose shook her head, but allowed her
to speak.
“
I think I’ve been making
people happy with all the singing and giving out cookies and such,
so I’ve decided I’m going to do something nice for someone every
day. Want to join me?”
“
What’s that got to do
with Lucy?”
“
Her fake friends are
mean,” Dawn said. “It’ll be much easier for her to pick us over
them if we’re… If we’re like heroes. And I was trying to do this
before I knew about Lucy, so it’s not just a sneaky
plan.”
“
But isn’t it
now?”
“
No! I was going to ask
you anyway, that just gave me extra motivation!”
Rose nodded. “Forget about any plan to
get Lucy on the right side. I like this idea, so let’s just use it
to distract ourselves.”
In every book she’d ever read (and all
the movies and TV shows she’d watched), teenagers hated high
school. So of course, when Rose arrived as a freshman last year,
she expected hell. To her surprise, this little school she ended up
in was… nice. People were actually nice, and teachers were
generally supportive. Of course there were a few bad eggs—mean kids
out to ruin people’s days, and grumpy teachers who took out their
stress on students. But in general, it was a close-knit school.
People were open to the silly ideas of freshman like Dawn. At
least, Rose’s kind of people were.
At lunch, Rose, Lucy, Nick, and Dawn
gathered to write decorative notes with positive messages: “You’re
awesome.” “Have a spectacular day.” “You’re beautiful.” “Believe in
your dreams.” “You matter.” They made them bright and colorful,
hoping to inspire some smiles.
“
How many copies of these
do you think I should make so we can put them in everyone’s
locker?”
“
Everyone’s?” Nick said.
“I don’t think they’ll even let you make that many
copies!”
“
You know, if we want to
actually do this, it’d be easier if there were more of us,” Lucy
said.
“
What do you
mean?”
“
Like, if this was an
official school club,” Lucy said.
“
Yeah, like they’d go for
that,” Nick said. “We’re just a bunch of weirdoes. They probably
don’t consider what we’re doing meaningful at all.”
“‘
The Weirdo Club’,” Dawn
said. “I like it.”
“
I prefer to be called an
oddity,” Rose said.
“‘
The Oddities Club’,”
Lucy said. “That’s better. Maybe it should just be us. I’ll make as
many copies as I can at the library and use some other copy machine
after school. We’ll drop these off tomorrow.”
With the new “Oddities Club” and their
daily plans of good deeds, Rose found herself looking forward to
school every day. Their first burst of activity was quite a
success. The notes were the talk of the school, and everyone was
smiling, wondering who was behind them. Rose didn’t reveal herself.
It was fun to be an anonymous do-gooder. People spoke very highly
of such people.
The group met at lunch to discuss new
ideas for what they could do. Handing out cookies. Random bursts of
song. Paying for someone’s lunch, or even just leaving coins in the
vending machine to surprise the next person. Compliments. Kind
notes. Dawn was the only one more excited about it than Rose was,
though the ideas she suggested were sometimes odd.
