Symphony of Sound.

They sit in as organized a fashion as they can, Rian next to Zack, Alex and Jack on their left, Nick, Greta and David in front of them with everyone else scattered around wherever they can fit in. Dr. Walker walks on to the stage, immediately starting to talk on about how these two years are the most important, how mock finals will be cropping up for the seniors very soon.

Rian rests his elbow on his knee, his hand on his chin and Dr. Walker starts another speech on how these two years matter the most, how they’re vastly important to their future.

Rian actually starts to fall asleep then, slumping right forward until he finally goes, smacking his head on the back of Greta’s chair. He pulls up suddenly, rubbing his head and pouting.

Zack immediately starts giggling at his stupidity, his hands over his mouth in an effort to keep himself as quiet as possible. Rian glares at him for a second, trying to stay serious, but he gives up a few seconds later, snickering and trying his best to shut himself up.

They finally compose themselves, sobering up and smoothing out their facial expressions, only to take one look at each other and burst out laughing again, this time covering each other’s mouths. Greta turns around in her seat, makes a ‘shush’ gesture with her finger over her mouth, before giggling and turning back.

“You’re a bad person.” Rian hisses, elbowing Zack carefully.

“Yeah? You’re an idiot.”

The assembly only lasts another five minutes or so, and then they all trail out, heading out to their extra-curricular classes that they always have on the first day back –either orchestra, theatre, extra art or modern music.

Zack spends the whole walk reciting Rian’s idiocy to Jack, Alex, and everyone else they pick up along the way.

They file in, quickly sorting themselves into their instrument sections –Rian wanders off on his own to the woodwind section, grouping up with Cassadee and William. Jack, Alex and Zack head off to the strings section, finding Jersey, Mike and Kara.

Mr. Johnson appears then, slamming his baton down on his music stand and making everyone look up at him in shock.

“Good afternoon everyone, nice to see you back in one piece.” He says with a broad smile. “And it’s nice to see you’ve arranged yourselves in your sections without me having to ask, awesome.”

“Right, I want first violins over here, Jeremy, Mike, Zack then Alex L. Second violins next to them, Evan, Danny, Vincent then Elliot. The violas should go beside them, Greta, Jonathan and Shaant in front, with Austin, Chris and Marc behind. Cellos go to the right, Jack and Jersey with Matt, Mike T and Jeff behind them. Lisa and the oboe to their left, then Cassadee and Paul and the flutes to the left. Hayley and Brian on clarinets behind them, with Alex M and Alex J on their left with the bassoons.”

“Double basses on the right of the bassoons, Alex Gaskarth, Alex Greico, Robby and John. Martin and the contrebasse go behind them. Tuba, Juliet, behind the bassoons, with Christofer and Caleb on the trombones to the left. Trumpets, Nick and Eric, to the left and then the French horns, Gabe, Matt C and Andrew to the left again.”

“I want percussion in the far left corner, with the timbale, cornet and piccolo. So, Dan, David, Michael, Mike C, Alex D, Joey, Andy, Adam and Gavin. I want Alex S on the snare next to Gavin and Adam. In front of Alex, I want Rian on the contrabassoon and William on the cor anglais, with Nate on the bass drum and cymbals in front of them.”

“Victoria on the organ should go somewhere between Rian and Martin, and the last two are Andrew G on piano and Kara on harp over near Michael.”

He moves to hand out an intimidating stack of sheet music, which Zack sighs at when he sees that it’s Spring by Vivaldi –which has a somewhat menacing violin solo, which he will no doubt have to play.

Jack frowns at the sheets when they’re placed on his music stand by Mr. Johnson. He turns in his seat to talk to Alex.

“Er, it’s not in the best shape, is it?” He says awkwardly, looking down at the coffee stained, crinkled up paper.

“It looks like it’s been pissed on and then washed with toilet water.” Alex replies, flicking absently through it.

Jack raises an eyebrow at his expression, before mumbling ‘God, you’re so British sometimes’ under his breath as he turns back around.

“That’ll be because I am British, loser.”

“Right, guys, I want this learning for next week. Zack, you’ll be taking the violin solo,” At this, Zack sighs, grumbles under his breath but doesn’t really protest, “but, Mike, you should learn it too, as you take the backing parts. Alright, have a good first day back and good luck!”

They trudge out of the rehearsal hall, regrouping with their friends and heading towards their common rooms to relax and have a better catch up with everyone.

Cassadee, Kara and Evan all hang back, waiting for Zack, Rian, Jack and Alex. With them being in the grade below, it’s harder for them to have a good, long catch up session.

“Hey, Care Bear.” Zack says with a smile, pulling Kara into a tight hug and lifting her slightly.

To anyone who doesn’t know them, it looks very much like Zack and Kara are dating. They’re not.

Kara is a great girl, Zack isn’t going to deny that –honey brown waves of her hair to the washed out emerald green of her eyes. And she’s talented, too –Zack’s never met another harpist quite like her.

And for a fifteen year old, she’s wise beyond her years.

Evan stands and watches them, buries his hands into the pockets of his trousers, smiles weakly at Alex when the older boy directs a grin towards him. He knocks his head forwards, forcing his blonde bangs to fall into his eyes, obscuring his view of Kara and Zack in front of him.

He’d be lying if he said that he didn’t have a crush on the girl –she’s probably the most perfect person he’s come across, well, ever. But she’s not to know that.

Cassadee stands with him, tugging at the hem of her gray pleated skirt to try and get it to sit right around her knees. She pushes her bleach blonde and dark brown bangs from her eyes, elbowing Evan gently and forcing the slightly older boy to look away from the two.

“You alright?” She asks, linking her arm with his and leading the group away in the direction of both of their dorm blocks. He shrugs, looking down at her a little with dark chocolate eyes and glancing behind him a little at the rest of them.

“I suppose.” He says, biting at his soft lower lip as Cassadee pushes open the doors to the sophomore block.

“Cheer up.” She says, pulling him up the stairs towards their dorm rooms. “Besides, I have some of my mom’s cookies; I know how much you like them.

“Damn, Cass,” Evan says through a mouthful of chocolate chips and dough, “you have to steal this recipe from your mom for me.”

“I’ll try,” She giggles, taking another bite of the cookie she holds in her hand.

“So you like Kara, then?” She asks a moment later, when she’s done chewing.

“I guess so. But, I figure Zack will always be ahead of me. He’s better than me at everything, anyway.”

Cassadee scoffs, rolling her eyes and passing the boy another cookie in an attempt to make him feel better.

“Remember, he is a year older than you anyway. And he started playing at eight, you started at eleven. He’s had way more practice than you.”

Evan is about to reply when they hear loud footsteps come echoing up the stairs and Kara’s voice yelling ‘Ooh! I smell Pope family cookies!’

“So, do you like Kara, then?” Alex asks Zack from the floor of Rian’s dorm, the boys having decided this time to congregate in his room.

“Ew, no.” Zack replies, disgusted. “It’d be like dating a sister. And besides, you guys know I’m about as straight as a roundabout.”

“This is true.” Alex says, laughing. “Nice terminology, by the way.”

“It’s being friends with you; it does things to my head.”

Alex pouts.

“That’s not very nice.”

“Your point?”

“You’re mean.” Alex says, jutting out his lower lip even further and folding his arms.

“How old are you again? Six or sixteen?” Jack says, rolling over onto his stomach on Rian’s bed and rolling his eyes at the older boy.

Alex narrows his eyes at him and Jack just laughs, elbowing Rian as the lighter-haired boy tries to push him off of his bed.

There’s a thud a few seconds later, accompanied by a whimper from Jack and a whoop of triumph from Rian, and Jack glares up at him from the wooden floor.

“You’re all horrible.” Jack says, standing to leave, catching hold of Alex’s shoulder and dragging him with him. “Come on, ‘Lex, let’s leave them to flirt.”

“We do not flirt!” Rian yells indignantly after them, folding his arms.

Zack laughs at him from the floor, only to make the older boy pout at him and make fake sniffling noises. Zack shakes his head, trying to stifle the undying urge to kiss the older boy that he just experienced.

“Movie?” Rian asks, moving to dig around through his bag. “Toy Story 3 and The A Team just came out on DVD, Mom bought me them to tide me over until Christmas.”

“Alright, sure.” Zack replies, swallowing at the mention of ‘Mom’. He still lets it get to him far more than he’d ever let on, but he can deal with that on his own.

As the title screen of Toy Story starts up on Rian’s laptop, the older boy glances sideways at Zack, just for a second.

“We... We don’t flirt, do we?”

“Dude, no.” Zack says, serious and almost panicky for a second before continuing. “You’re letting Alex and Jack get to you, Ri.”