Symphony of Sound.

Zack is awoken the next morning in a particularly rude fashion that tells him it’s Paul and David before he even falls out of bed. What they could possibly want at quarter past eight on a Thursday morning is beyond him –especially considering there’s a good half an hour left before everyone’s called down for breakfast. And Zack has today off since he flew all the way from California yesterday.

“Good morning, Zachary!” David says loudly as he swings open the door, waiting for a second to see if the blonde curls sticking out from under the bed sheets move. They don’t. David purses his lips for a moment before moving forward and kicking the end of Zack’s bed.

Zack sits up in his bed and ruffles his curls messily, muttering a curse in Italian.

“What the hell do you want, Blaise?” He grumbles, narrowing his eyes at the other boy. David laughs at him, and Paul rolls his eyes almost affectionately.

“Well we’ve been put in charge of planning the end of year showcase and we were wondering-”

“Oh God.” Zack interrupts. “You’re kidding, right? Who put you in charge of what’s probably the most important event of the school year?”

“That’s what I said!” A voice yells from the corridor. It takes Zack a moment to realize that it’s William.

“I don’t know. Dr Walker?” Paul replies with a shrug. “But who cares.”

“Anyway,” David continues, looking at Paul in what he hopes is an intimidating fashion, “we wanted to know if you wanted to perform.”

“What, solo?”

“Yes, solo.”

“Huh.” Zack says, thoughtful for a moment as he twists a lock of hair around his forefinger. “I’ve never been asked to solo before.”

“So you’ll do it?” Paul interrupts, his eyes excited as he leans in a little from the doorway.

“I suppose.” Zack says with a shrug and a smirk.

It appears that David holds back a squeak and claps his hands together, tugging a notepad from the pocket of his school trousers and writing his name.

“Who else is performing?”

“Well, there’s you, obviously, Hayley, the brass and woodwind band and Tegan and Sara.” David recites before turning the notepad to Zack so that the blonde can read for himself.

“And who’s planning it?”

“Us, Greta and Nick.”

“Kill me now.” Zack comments loudly, shooing the two of them from his room and flopping back onto his bed. He hears David and Paul laughing as they slam the door and leave to annoy someone else.

Zack has a fabulous few hours sleep until class is over and Rian appears to leap on him and wake him up.

“A hug would’ve sufficed.” Zack grumbles as he stands and throws the covers messily back into place.

“Sorry.” Rian says sheepishly, perching himself on the edge of Zack’s bed.

“What do you want?” Zack asks, his voice rough with sleep as he moves over to his closet and rummages around for his uniform for tomorrow.

“I just wanted to see you.” Rian admits awkwardly and shyly, blushing across the top of his cheekbones. Zack smiles softly to himself as he pulls out one of several gray v neck sweaters and throws it onto his bed.

“I missed you, you know.” Zack comments, more into his clothes than to Rian, but the older boy hears him anyway and grins fondly at him, even though he’s not paying attention.

“Oh, has David or Paul talked you into playing the showcase yet?” Rian asks, as if the thought has just hit him.

“Yes, unfortunately.” Zack sighs, pulling out a white shirt and one of his many green ties and throwing them back with his sweater. “He asked me this morning, and because I was half asleep and not really paying attention I said yes.”

“Foolish.” Rian says with a shake of the head. “I’m just waiting to hear if the woodwind band are performing.”

“You are.” Zack says, tugging out a pair of gray dress pants and putting those on top of the rest of his uniform. “David told me this morning.”

“Great.” Rian sighs almost sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “That means I actually have to practice.”

“I think they’ll trying and get the orchestra to do something too.” Zack speculates, pulling out clothes to change into since he has a sneaking suspicion that Rian or someone will drag him outside –sooner rather than later.

“Wonderful.” Rian sighs.

“You’ll survive.” Zack laughs at him as he tugs his too tight blue jeans up his legs, straightening the baggy black and white striped sweater when he’s done battling against his zipper.

“Zachary!” Alex yells suddenly, dragging out the ‘a’ sound in his name as he swings the door open and leans around it.

“What?” Zack replies just as obnoxiously, drawing out the ‘a’ sound too in a pathetic attempt to mock him.

“Nick wants me to get more people and acts for the showcase. Or something.” Alex shrugs. “And the theatre kids scare me and Jack wants to practice some cello suite so he won’t come with me. And the show choir kids like you; they’ll only talk to you out of all of us so will-”

“Fine,” Zack sighs, “I’ll help you help them. Since all of you are too lazy to do it yourself. Come on, Rian. You can go sit with Jack or something.”

“But-” Rian starts, looking at Zack like he’d just kicked his puppy.

“Just go.” Zack says, pursing his lips slightly. “I’ll see you later.”

He leans in and presses a soft kiss to the corner of Rian’s mouth and ushers him off to Jack’s room.

“He could’ve come with us, you know.” Alex comments as he and Zack start to move down the hallway and out of the common room.

“He’ll survive.” Zack rolls his eyes at Alex somewhat affectionately, and the brunette laughs with him as they head out of the junior block.

“So who do we need?” Zack asks as they stand uselessly in the middle of the courtyard between the music and art blocks.

“Well, Greta said that she wants the show choir and a few people from the school musical to perform, Paul mentioned something about the school band, and Nick said that some of the dance classes were interested.”

“And you needed me here because...?” Zack asks, trailing off and raising an eyebrow at his friend.

“The show choir kids actually like you. They won’t talk to me.” Alex shrugs almost indifferently. “And they’re kind of scary.”

“They are not.” Zack laughs. “But come on. I know where they’ll be. They have practice now.”

And so Alex finds himself standing in the auditorium, watching the school’s show choir singing an exuberant rendition of Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac.

“Chord! Chris!” Zack yells, moving quickly through the seats as the music crashes to a stop. Two boys on stage turn to raise their eyebrows at him.

“What is it?” The taller blonde, Chord, asks him. Zack runs up the stairs at the side of the stage. “It better be good, Merrick.”

“It is.” Zack assures him, nodding slightly. “Do you guys want to perform in the end of year showcase?”

Chord and Chris exchange a glance for a moment, as if conferring with their eyes over something.

“Can we talk about it for a second?” Chris asks, sliding his hand down Chord’s arm and taking hold of his hand, squeezing gently. Chord looks away from him and to Zack, as if reiterating his question.

“Sure. Go ahead.”

Chris pulls Chord off in the other direction and they talk furtively and quietly as Zack and the rest of the show choir keep their distance, but watch anyway. They seem to argue between themselves for a moment before they suddenly stop and Chord nods, ducking down to press a soft kiss against Chris’ mouth before pulling him back towards Zack.

“Alright, we’ll do it.” Chord says with a nod. Zack grins at him. “How many songs do you need?”

“Two should be fine.” Zack says with a simple nod, and the taller blonde smiles at him.

“We should be able to manage that.” He smiles softly, and Chris knocks their shoulders together. “Thanks for asking us.”

Zack grins at the two of them and tells them that he’ll see them around before waving and moving back to Alex.

“How do you get them to talk?” Alex asks incredulously as they leave the auditorium through the side doors and head towards the dance and band rooms.

“If you’re nice to them it usually helps.” Zack laughs at him as the brunette hooks their arms together. “If I remember correctly, the first time you met Chord, you asked him if he’d ever heard of colour protect shampoo.”

“Ah.” Alex laughs. “That might have something to do with it.”

After a swift chat with Demi from the dance class (it’s not exactly out of choice, mind you; she corners them and demands to know what they’re doing until Alex asks if she and her dance group want to be part of the showcase) they’re heading down into the band practice rooms, where they’re kind of praying Sierra and the boys will be.

They can hear them practicing from all the way down the corridor, which is a small relief. Zack knocks on the door and the music suddenly stops and Sierra leans out around the door.

“What?” She asks sharply.

“You and the boys up for playing the end of year showcase?” Alex asks, leaning against the wall. Zack rolls his eyes at him.

“Whatever.” Sierra shrugs, absently playing with the feather twisted in her hair as she thinks. “Sure. Free publicity, right?”

“Right.” Alex grins. “Awesome.”

When they return to the junior common room, David and Nick are thrilled to hear that they’ve talked a few more student groups into joining in and celebrating the seniors.

“Why didn’t you talk to the theatre kids though?” Greta asks, looking up from the new list of acts she has on her lap where she sits in front of the fire. Rian, Jack, Zack, Alex and William are sitting on the floor, either watching TV, bickering amongst themselves or attempting to listen to Greta.

“Have you met them? They’re terrifying.” Zack complains as he rests his head on Rian’s shoulder. The brunette smiles at him innocently; happily. “Every time I try and talk to them they start spouting Shakespeare or some other play I’ve never heard of.”

Greta stares at him incredulously for a long moment before she laughs, friendly and affectionately, and turns back to her precious list.