Dawn's Acapella (3 page)
“
We should tell Nick
Lucy’s got a crush on him,” Dawn said.
“
Sh! We can't do
that!”
“
Why not? They’d be great
together!”
“
Because that’d make
things really awkward if things didn’t work out! Look, I’ve got a
better plan. Sort of. I think we should do something bigger. Like a
fundraiser for charity.”
“
Like a choir
concert?”
“
I was thinking more like
a bake sale. Lucy’s dad owns a bakery, we could do it!”
Dawn nodded. “What charity should we
do it for?”
“
I was thinking about
that, too,” Rose said. “Nick’s mom is a cancer survivor. If we
wanted to do something that would actually mean something to Nick,
instead of just embarrassing him with your silly ideas, we could
raise money to donate to cancer research.”
“
So, Lucy’s dad’s got a
bakery, Nick’s mom is a cancer survivor... What about your
parents?”
“
What about them? No
struggling small business, no battles with major diseases...” she
shrugged. “We’re pretty lucky and ordinary.”
“
Except you’re
weird.”
“
Obviously. But what’d you
think? Does that sound like a plan? If it goes well, we could do it
again, maybe once a term or even once a month, and pick a different
charity every time.”
“
Yeah! And we could do
choir concerts!”
“
Okay, let’s just be where
we are and start with the bake sale.”
“
Can we still
sing?”
“
No one’s stopping you,
sunshine.”
But the next day, Rose didn’t hear her
Dawn singing. She was quiet all day. “Something buggin’ you,
freshman?”
She sighed. “I got C- on my biology
test. When my parents find out they’re gonna kill me.”
“
Hard class, huh? At least
you passed.”
“
Barely.”
“
Why do they have to find
out?”
“
They’ll know when I get
my report card. And I really wanted to go to the beach! If I get
straight A’s, they take me there for a weekend…” She pulled out her
phone, and started to search through her pictures. “Here, look… My
dad took this the last time we went…”
There she was, silhouetted against a
sunrise, jumping for joy.
“
Classic,” Rose
giggled.
“
But no more of this!” she
said, tossing her phone back in her bag.
“
Come on, there can be
plenty more of that. You’ve got time to get your grade back up,
right?”
“
Yeah, I guess
so.”
“
See? You’ll be fine. Go
to some study groups or something.”
“
Yeah, okay, I can do
that… But what if—”
“
Stop right there. You’ve
got a plan now, so there’s no more reason to worry. Is anything
wrong right here and now? Sitting at this table?”
“
No.”
“
So be here, freshman. Be
where you are. I’ve got great news about the bake sale, we’re on
for next Monday! You better be able to come by Lucy’s Sunday
night.”
“
If I’m not
grounded.”
Rose went to Lucy’s that weekend.
Lucy’s dad had reserved his bakery for them alone, to prepare for
the bake sale. The two girls, Nick, and Lucy’s parents began their
work before Dawn arrived. Rose hadn’t heard a word from her, and
would have been worried, if not for the intoxicating smells of
cookies and brownies.
Dawn finally called her and said she’d
made some plans of her own to help them make money, but she refused
to tell Rose what they were.
“
Come on, we need to be
prepared!”
“
Just make lots of cookies
and we’ll be fine!” Dawn said. “I’ve got to go, I haven’t started
my homework yet!”
“
Wait! Wait! Dawn?” She’d
already hung up. “I’m gonna kill that girl!”
“
What’s her plan?” Lucy
asked.
“
She wouldn’t tell me! She
said it would help us, but...”
“
Well, maybe let’s see if
it helps us first, and then decide if we’re gonna kill
her.”
“
Got it,” Rose said,
stuffing another cookie in her mouth.
As Rose, Nick and Lucy set up the
table the next day, Rose’s mind was still on the freshman and her
mystery plan. “She’s late.”
“
So?” Nick said. “We can
run the show without her.”
“
Wait,” Lucy said, “do you
hear music?”
There she was, walking down the
hallway, speaker in hand, blasting music. Two other freshman walked
on either side of her, a boy and a girl.
“
These are some of my
friends from choir,” Dawn said. “For every fifty dollars we make,
we’ll sing a song.”
“
And this is just a
you-guys thing, right? You’re not gonna make me sing?” Rose
asked.
“
Anyone is welcome to
sing, no one will be forced,” Dawn smiled. “Now let’s sell some
cookies!”
The treats flew off the table. Dawn
and her choir friends sang their first song, which of course, only
drew more people, and more sales. Before Rose knew it, Dawn was
singing again.
“
We’re gonna sell out!”
She turned and greeted her next customer. “What can I get for
you?”
“
Two chocolate chip, one
of the pink cupcakes, and... That’s it for now. Hey, what’s this
for?”
“
Well, this bake sale is
to raise money for cancer research,” Rose said. “And since it’s
going so well, we’ll probably do another one later, for another
charity. We’re trying to do random good deeds and such. Kind of a
new school year resolution.”
“
Were you the ones who put
all those nice notes everywhere?” he asked, handing Rose the
money.
“
Yeah,” Rose smiled,
giving him the treats. “That was us.”
“
That was really sweet. So
is this a club? Because I’d love to join.”
“
It’s not an official
school club yet, but we were thinking about it,” Rose said.
“Especially if more people are interested.”
“
Great.
Thanks!”
Dawn’s choir was beginning another
song, a too-familiar chorus of “Na na na na na...”
“
Dawn? What are you
singing?”
“
Rose, the customers!”
Dawn said, and quickly turned away and began to sing.
We’ve been through such
crazy times
And I can see you’re
scared for me
But I will be just
fine...
She heard Lucy’s laughter from
somewhere in the distance. “Are you okay, Rose? You like you’re
about to pass out or something.”
“
I’m just going to kill
that girl is all,” Rose said. Her heart was racing and she was
aware of how huge her eyes were. Probably popping right out of her
face, she thought. It didn’t matter. People were still buying, and
no one knew it was her song.
“
So what if they knew it’s
yours?” Nick said.
“
What? What, the song?
It’s not... How did you know that?”
“
Why else would you be
freaking out? Look, the crowd seems to like it, right?”
“
You think so?” Rose
smiled.
As the sale went on, several other
people asked if this was a club and if they could join. Even the
staff said it should be a club. Before lunch ended, they’d sold
out, and soon they were in the office setting up a schedule for
their club, meeting after school every Tuesday.
“
Looks like the oddities
club is a thing!” Nick said.
“
It’s ‘The Everyday Heroes
Club’,” Lucy said. “A little cheesy, but I like it.”
“
Better than ‘The Weirdoes
Club’,” Rose said.
“
It should be ‘The
Everyday Heroes Choir’!” Dawn said.
“
Keep working on that,
sunshine,” Rose laughed.
In the next few weeks, it became
common to see people wearing capes or superhero shirts to school.
Encouraging notes appeared in lockers almost every day. There were
about fifteen or so people who showed up the club every week, but
far more people were participating in the club’s activities. Some
people even invented superhero names for themselves.
Rose bonded with a few other people in
the club. Sylvia, who had taken over bake sales, dressed in black
and yellow stripes, and went by the name Sugarbee. There was a
class clown that began calling himself Captain Clown, and a
straight-A student who proudly declared herself Geometry Geek.
There was Shadow Star, Brilliant Brit, Lacey Lighting, and several
others who just put the word "Super" in front of their names, or
"the Amazing" at the end. Rose couldn't pick a name, but several
people had started calling her "Super Spacey." Dawn picked a new
name for herself every other day, from Super Sunshine to
Dawn-capella.
“
I don't know what to call
myself,” Lucy said. “I like the idea of Lady something. Not Lady
Lucy, that’s too obvious.”
“
I like it,” Rose said.
“And I could be the Lady Illusion.”
“
I wanna be the Lady
Illusion!” Dawn said.
“
No, you’re the Lady
Dawn-capella.”
Rose was happier and more confident
than she thought possible. She was even beginning to open up to
Dawn about the private world of her book. After school, the two of
them went to Rose’s house, and Rose gave in to Dawn’s request to
hear about “The Mansion’s Twins.” Rose decided she could talk about
her characters, but still refused to show Dawn any of her actual
writing.
“
I want Ellie and Savannah
to be like... This symbol of light and hope, you know? Not like
other heroes who have to kill people. There is a battle in the
second book, and yeah, the twins have a part in it, but it’s not
about fighting.”
“
So they’re real heroes
like us!” Dawn said.
“
Huh. I wish we could be
like Ellie and Savannah,” Rose said.
“
Are there villains in
your story?”
“
Of course!”
“
Do the twins kill
them?”
“
I’m not telling you if
the villains die or not!” Rose said. “Maybe they win."
“
No they
don't.”
“
Do you want to read it or
not?”
“
Yeah!”
“
Okay, so chill. Anyway,
just because the twins aren’t killers doesn’t mean I don’t need
villains. Someone’s always trying to stop people trying to do
good.”
“
Why?”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Really Dawn?
You think I’ve got an answer?”
“
You’ve got an answer for
everything else.”
“
No I don’t, silly
freshman.”
Next Tuesday after school, Rose and
Lucy were walking together to the choir room, where the Heroes
meetings took place.
“
Something’s weird,” Lucy
said.
“
True,” Rose said. “I am.
You are. What isn’t, really?”
“
Rose. Look at the
door!”
Rose looked. The entire door was
covered in red paper. In large black letters was written: “THIS IS
A WARNING.”
Rose tore away the paper and opened
the door. “What happened here?”
Chairs and tables were strewn about
the room. All of their art projects from last week, from the small
kind notes to the largest signs to hang in the hallways, were torn
to pieces and thrown in a pile. Someone, or multiple people, had
written on the walls, and there were many messages:
“
No light without
darkness.”
“
Every hero will be
tested.”
“
There’s no stopping
us.”
“
THE VILLAINS ARE
HERE.”
Nick and Dawn showed up next, shortly
followed by her choir friends, and more of the club.
“
Who did this?” Dawn
said.
“
Doesn’t matter, for now,”
Rose said. “Phones out, people! We’ll take pictures of the evidence
before cleaning this stuff up. Dawn! Let’s get a song going, shall
we?”
“
But all of our
stuff...”
“
We’ll make new stuff.
This is just a test from some fools who think they’re villains.
Let’s show ‘em they can’t shut us down!”
“
Right!” Dawn gathered her
choir friends and began to sing. Several others started snapping
pictures. Soon they had everything recorded and cleaned
up.
Then the art supplies came out. Dawn
had a habit of making all of her signs and notes super glittery,
which irritated Rose to no end.
“
It gets everywhere, and
we just got this room cleaned up!”
“
Oh calm down, I’ve got
it,” Dawn said, rolling her eyes. “But ooh, once we find out who
did this, I’m gonna cover
them
in glitter. And get it in their locker. So much
glitter they won’t ever be able to get it out!”
