This Is Not an After School Special

"Good luck," Matt smiled as he pulled his truck up to the curb in front of the recording studio.

"Thanks," I told him wholeheartedly. "I'll talk to you in a bit."

I leapt out of the truck, and I could hear the engine idle as Matt waited. He was, no doubt, making sure that I could get inside the building before he drove away and left me stranded. I had to give him some credit for that; he was a lot more caring than I usually acknowledged. I twisted the doorknob slowly, half expecting it to be locked. But the door gave way beneath my fingers and I found myself facing a long hallway lined with framed photographs.

I smiled at Matt over my shoulder before slipping inside. As soon as I closed the door, the light in the corridor was cut in half. I couldn't help but pause to look at the various photographs as I passed. I was surprised to see that I recognised a lot of the faces; clearly this recording studio was a bigger deal than I'd thought. I mused that Josh's father must have been something of a celebrity in the music world.

I found that one door about halfway down the hallway was propped open. I tentatively walked inside and found Josh sitting in a chair behind a large switchboard. He was fiddling with a few dials, and he didn't seem to notice my arrival.

"This is really cool," I said, breaking the silence.

Josh looked up at me, grinning. "I love this place."

I gestured toward the hallway that I'd just left. "Is that your dad in all those pictures?"

He nodded. "Yeah, and my mom is in most of them. Notice any other familiar faces in them?"

I laughed. "I may not know the mechanics of music, but I know the people. AC/DC, really? That's amazing!"

"Yeah, my mom gave their singer vocal lessons."

"Holy shit," I murmured, almost knocked breathless by the statement. He really hadn't been lying when he'd told me that she had worked with the best.

"Here," he said suddenly, shoving a few papers in my direction. "I have an idea for how we should get you started."

I took the papers and looked them over. It was sheet music, and it looked more complex than what I'd been looking at during choir.

"I don't-"

"Trust me," he interrupted. "The next door down is unlocked, go in there."

I followed his instructions, and found myself in the recording studio itself. I could see Josh through a plate-glass window. He hit a button on the switchboard, and suddenly his voice was amplified in the small room.

"I'm going to play you a song, and I'm pretty sure you already know it, so just sing along. But while you're singing, follow along with the sheet music. It'll give you an idea of which note is which."

"And then what?"

"Then I'll start you off with a test tomorrow," he grinned impishly.

"A test? Tomorrow?"

"Oh," he seemed to suddenly remember something. "I didn't even ask you. Sorry. Do you want to have another lesson tomorrow night?"

"Sure. But why does there have to be a test?"

He laughed. "Relax, Becky. It's nothing you can't handle, I promise. It won't even be a challenge after we're done today."

Somehow, I didn't totally believe him. He didn't say anything more, and he began fiddling with the soundboard again. Suddenly the room was filled with familiar music. I gave him a questioning look, but I felt a surge of happiness at the familiar guitar chords. He hit the intercom button again.

"Matt may have told me that you like the Foo Fighters when I asked him earlier today. I hope it's okay that I got his help with this. By the way, I like your taste in music. This band is one of my favourites." He didn't give me a chance to respond before he restarted the song and waved a hand to indicate that I should sing along.

"Run and tell all of the angels," I began, trying my best to do justice to one of my favourite songs. I had been listening to Learn To Fly only a couple of hours before when I was doing my homework.

Josh cut the music. "Don't be nervous," he directed.

"Easier said than done."

"Calm down. You're doing fine," he assured me in a gentle tone.

He started the song again, and this time he let me sing it all the way through. When I finished, he was smiling at me through the window.

"Did you even look at the sheet music?"

"Fuck," I cursed, noticing that I'd completely ignored the papers that I was still clutching.

Josh laughed. "Come back in here, okay?"

I walked back into the other room and sat down in an empty chair at the end of the switchboard. "Sorry," I apologised.

"Don't worry about it," he looked incredibly amused. "Just keep that sheet music. Look it over tonight. You obviously know the song well enough without it if you didn't even need to look at the words. Here, let me show you something."

He reached out and took the papers from me, then scribbled something on them in pencil. He handed them back to me, and I saw that he had labelled a few notes with their appropriate letters. He had also written letters on the lines.

"I'm going to teach you some memory tricks for these, okay? This will help you when you need to name a note."

We sat there for a long time, and I found that my head was actually starting to hurt from all the effort I was putting into this. I had really wanted to impress Josh, so I was pulling out all the stops. I was actually willing to study for this. As we talked and I learned, I noticed that we had moved our chairs closer together. I couldn't recall actually doing it, but my chair seemed to have crossed the most distance. I supposed that it was just easier to read from the piece of paper in his hands if I was sitting closer to him.

"Oh, crap," Josh mumbled suddenly as he looked up at the clock. "It's after nine already."

"I guess I should call Matt."

"Why? I thought the two of you weren't together."

I gave him a puzzled look. "We're not. He's my ride. My parents wouldn't let me borrow the car. They don't trust me enough to drive downtown alone."

"Don't call Matt. You can't live too far from me if we go to the same school. I'll drive you."

"Are you sure? I don't want to make you go out of your way."

He scoffed. "It'll be more in my way than Matt's. Why is it so much easier to make him drive all the way down here just to take you home than it is to accept a ride from me? Are you scared of me or something? I won't abduct you, I promise."

"I guess you kind of have a point. And if I was scared of you, I wouldn't have come here and spent the past hour and a half alone with you. And thank you, I would really appreciate a ride home."

"It's settled, then," he stood up and handed me the sheet music. "Just let me grab my stuff, and we'll get going."

I got to my feet as well and waited patiently while Josh gathered a few things and stuffed them into a bag, which he tossed over his shoulder. A ring of keys jingled in his hand as we walked down the hallway together. Once again, my attention was claimed by the photographs. This time, however, I managed to continue walking and kept pace with Josh. As soon as we reached the street, he locked the door behind us and we walked over to his car.

"So, we haven't actually gotten a chance to talk about anything other than music," Josh began. "What are you into?"

I shrugged. "I read a lot, I guess. And like I said before, I like listening to music, I just don't totally understand it yet. And I guess other than that, I just hang out with Matt a lot. What about you?"

"I really have no interests that don't revolve around music. I've recorded a demo using my dad's studio, and I'm just kind of trying to get my name out there right now."

"Seriously? That's so cool, Josh. You're an amazing singer. Do you play any instruments?"

He brushed his hair from his face as he spoke. "I play eight, actually."

"Wow." I couldn't seem to come up with an intelligent response to that. "Hey, if you ever need someone to play piano-"

Josh's laughter cut me off. "You can't even read sheet music, yet you're telling me that you can play piano?"

"Actually, I was going to say Matt is really good."

"Oh," he seemed a bit embarassed. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I'm not easily offended."

"Good, because I tend to speak before I think. And if we're going to be spending time together, you're going to hear some strange things come out of my mouth."

"Free entertainment; I like that thought."

Josh smiled warmly, as though he was relieved that I wasn't reconsidering hanging out with him now that I had this new piece of knowledge.

"So," I said, remembering that we had been trying to learn about one another. "Your parents just give you free reign over the recording studio? Are you an only child?"

"No. I don't really get to do whatever I want there, and they try to stop me from spending too much time there. And I'm definitely not an only child. I have two sisters. What about you?"

"It's just me, unfortunately. I think that's why I'm so close with Matt; he's like my brother."

"Doesn't he already have a sister, though?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Amanda's a really nice girl. They're pretty close, too."

Josh's brow furrowed as he considered something. "Hey, you said before that I'm a really talented singer. You've only been in choir one day; how do you know what I sound like?"

"I've been to some of your choir performances, Josh. I go to support Matt. And once you had a solo piece in a song."

"That was over a year ago," he murmured thoughtfully. "How long have you lived here?"

"About two years. Let me guess: you never noticed me until yesterday when I sang in front of everyone."

He shook his head quickly. "No, that's not it at all. I've seen you a lot with Matt. It's just that I can't remember ever seeing you alone."

"Make a left at this set of lights," I told him. "And I'm not alone very often. Time goes by faster when I've got someone to talk to."

"I guess I see your point there. So, there's really nothing romantic at all between you and Matt?"

I laughed a bit, even though it wasn't a comical question. "Absolutely nothing. I don't get why that's so hard to believe for everyone. Take a right here."

"And Matt isn't going to be mad that I'm monopolizing all of your evenings?"

"Nope. I mean, he'll grill me for anything of interest that happens, but other than that it's no big deal."

"And did anything of interest happen tonight?"

I shrugged. "Well, I got to know you a bit better, and I learned a lot about sheet music. Oh, and I learned that we both like the Foo Fighters. That's definitely a high point. It's just this next house on the right."

Josh pulled into my driveway and put the car in park. I was about to thank him for the ride, but I found that he was staring at me with intense eyes.

"So we're still on for tomorrow night?" He confirmed.

I nodded, but all breath seemed to have evaded my lungs. After a long, silent moment, I inhaled. "Yeah, for sure," I could hear a small quiver in my words. "I mean, we have choir again on Friday, and I need to know what I'm doing, don't I?"

"Good. Now that I know where you live, I'll drive you. It's not that far from my house. I'll swing by at seven, okay?"

I nodded again, feeling a bit numbed by the way his eyes lingered on mine. "I'll see you tomorrow, Josh."

He grinned then, and the heavy air vanished. "Have a good night, Becky."

I smiled back, feeling a bit more at ease. I climbed out of the car and hurried inside my house. Immediately, I reached for the phone.

"Hey, hun," my mom greeted me from her place on the couch. "Who are you calling?"

"Matt," I replied instinctively.

"I thought you were just with him."

"Yeah," I mentally cursed myself for forgetting my alibi. "I just forgot something at his place and I need to make sure he brings it to school tomorrow."

"Well be quick about it, it's getting close to ten."

"Yeah, okay." I hurried to my room before dialing the phone.

"Becky?" This time there was a question in Matt's voice, like the caller ID had left him unsure.

"Hey, Matt."

"How did you get home? I was waiting for a call."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Josh took me home. He didn't want me to make you drive all the way downtown to come and get me."

"Oh. So what happened on your date?" Matt's tone switched to his usual light teasing.

"Nothing. But I've got another one tomorrow night."