December Spotlight Series – Christmas Karaoke Party – Part 5

Those of you who have met Bethany from A Book Without Dragons know that she doesn’t have a whole lot of self-confidence, so this will be an interesting little challenge for her.

O Holy… What??

Role Call: Bethany, Kaeya,and Teera
Song: O Holy Night
Scenelette Type: Meta

Bethany received her little bag of ornaments and instantly regretted agreeing to participate in this at all. Her song / partner request had been that she would rather a classic or serious song than a silly one. She thought that seemed like a good enough way to stay within her comfort zone during this odd gettogether. She was wrong.

Her assigned song was Oh Holy Night, which was one of the most famously difficult Christmas songs available. True, the briefing packet had stated that all of their singing voices would be temporarily heightened so they could stay on key (a MetaSpace autotuning feature employed specifically for events like this one. Because really, what was the point of having 95% of them up there struggling?) but that didn’t mean it would be easy.

She saw the song and had immediately found Hannah rather than trying to locate the others involved in it. “You’ll be fine,” Hannah told her. “Trust me, it’s in your range. And no dancing required. Strictly classy.”

But Bethany had never really thought of herself as ‘classy.’ She always felt so out of place in formal situations, as much as she wanted to believe she could belong there. Well, a tiny voice in her head suggested, maybe now is your chance to feel like you belong.

Maybe, the thought. But either way, it wasn’t like she had a choice.

Bethany’s song-mates seemed were both involved with additional projects, so the Oh Holy Night meeting was postponed a bit. But that was okay, truly. The song, while a challenging and powerful one, would be relatively simple to organize. As Hannah pointed out, no choreography.

Because she didn’t have anything better to do while she waited, Bethany offered her house as a meeting place for their group, and spent her free time baking things for them (and then buying things when the biscotti didn’t quite turn out.)

Kaeya arrived first. The woman was taller than Bethany remembered, but also slightly less intimidating because she was dressed in a casual, modern outfit rather than the fantasy-worthy gold-inscribed leathers that she’d worn at their initial meeting.

Teera showed up next, carrying a violin case and wearing a simple, comfortable-looking dress that looked like it would be better suited to the summer months. The girl didn’t seem cold, though. “Hi, Bethany!” she greeted. “Thanks so much for letting us meet here. Your place is amazing.”

Bethany’s house was nice but she certainly wouldn’t put it in ‘amazing’ territory. Maybe the girl had poor living conditions in her own story? But that wasn’t possible, because she’d said something about being a professional musician, which meant she’d have to have a decent salary. Well, that would have to remain as speculation, because it certainly wasn’t something Bethany was going to come out and ask her.

“Thank you,” she said, guiding them over to the table with her offered baked goods. Bethany certainly hadn’t planned on taking control, but given that they were sitting in her living room, it felt like the other two were waiting for her to officially call the meeting to order

They exchanged the standard niceties to get to know one another. Generally, Bethany found this kind of small talk tedious, but when your companions happened to be residents of actual fantasy worlds, it was significantly easier to find things to ask them.

Too soon, Kaeya put down her teacup and slid the conversation in the direction of the song they were going to perform.

“Right,” Bethany said. “I have the lyrics here. Did you want to figure out who’s singing which parts?”

“Oh, I’m not singing,” Teera announced brightly, holding up her violin case as evidence.

“You’re… not?”

Teera shook her head. “I’m just hear for accompaniment. I know a really good arrangement, actually, and I’ve been practicing.”

This definitely wasn’t what Bethany expected. Now instead of only being responsible for a third of a difficult song, she had to shoulder half of it. She looked to Kaeya and tried what she hoped was a brave smile. “Just you and me, then?”

Kaeya’s teeth flashed in a quick smile. “Sorry, hon. I’m pretty sure my job is harmony. Unless you’re also an alto? In which case, I think the author might have made a terrible mistake.”

Bethany felt ice settle in the pit of her stomach. She wondered what would happen and she lied and told them she wasn’t a soprano. Was there any chance that would work? No. No, settle down. No sense in making a scene in front of these two. “Well that…” she said at last, “… Not what I expected.”

Kaeya laughed quietly, but Bethany got the feeling it wasn’t directed at her. And besides, now she was feeling too overwhelmed to care. “Certainly sounds like the author, doesn’t it?” she mused, picking at one of the candied fruits on her plate. “Always needs to go for the highest level of drama.”

Bethany suddenly realized that her mouth was dry and gulped down the rest of her tea, which had been forgotten and cooling on the arm of her chair for quite some time. She planned on saying something productive, but all that came out was another, “Not what I expected.” This one weaker and more forlorn than the last.

“It’ll be okay,” Teera offered. “I’m sure she wouldn’t have assigned this one if she didn’t think you could handle it. And if you really don’t want to, maybe we could get her to assign a different song?”

“Good luck with that,” Kaeya said. “If the author wants to see you push through something difficult, she’s not about to change her mind.” The woman gave Bethany a sideways look and asked, “Any chance you found a green, glowing stone earlier today?”

Bethany didn’t know what that meant, of course. It was probably something very interesting and magical, and under different circumstances, Bethany would have loved to hear about it.

She didn’t even realize how much she was panicking until Teera was crouched at her side, resting a hand on her arm, looking so very concerned. Get it together, Bethany, she told herself in a tone her therapist had asked her not to use anymore.

“It’ll be okay,” the girl repeated. “Really. It’s just a party, and I think most people are going to be drinking too much to pay attention anyway.”

While alcohol was generally available and enjoyed at these gatherings, Bethany knew that drunken stupors weren’t normally part of the arrangement. Still, she smiled for the young violinist, who was trying so hard to clean up a mess that wasn’t her responsibility.

She nodded her thanks, and asked Teera if she would play the violin for them, and afterwards they made more tea and started talking about how they wanted to structure the harmony.

Author’s Note – I honestly love working with Teera in these little side things. Her own story is told from Emilin’s POV, who is a bit of an unreliable narrator, so Book!Teera gets painted as bit apathetic, but actually she’s super sweet.

Up next – Step into Costumes – The ‘Step Into Christmas’ group has some decisions to make about costumes and choreography

December Giveaway!

At the end of December, I’ll be giving these three bookish ornaments to one lucky person! I made these beauties out of upcycled novels (Left – Pride and Prejudice, Middle and Right – Sherlock Holmes)

To enter, just comment on any of my blog posts for the month of December! And, if you really want to increase your chances, you can also comment on the pinned post on my Facebook Page.

Last day to enter is December 30th. Winner will be announced on December 31st. Good Luck!