December Spotlight Series – Christmas Karaoke Party – Part 7

Remember a little while ago when Onrey ran out on his first meeting with Ava? After he left, Ava went to visit with some friends. Enjoy!

Reinforcements

Roll Call: Ava, Emilin, Teera, Onrey
Song: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Scenelette Type: Meta

Ava waited at the door for a few minutes before knocking. She could hear the girls practicing inside – just their regular duets, not their Christmas songs – and she didn’t want to interrupt. Also, it was sort of nice to just listen. They really were so talented.

The song ended, and when Ava heard the sisters start giving their feedback to one another, she knocked.

“Come in!” Came the cheery call. It was Teera. Lovely name.

Ava carefully let herself into the room. “Good morning Teera. Emilin. My name is Ava.” Even though the curse that made Ava feel nameless didn’t affect her over in the MetaSpace, she still felt the need to keep repeating her name to people. It was a reflex, but the girls had always been sensitive towards her about it.

“Hey Ava,” Emilin said, cleaning her flute with a soft cloth. “What’s up?”

“Well, I was actually hoping you could help me,” she said, holding out the neatly folded paper Hannah had provided her. “This is the song I’m supposed to be singing. I’m afraid I don’t know the tune.”

“Oh! Neat,” Teera said, setting her violin aside and reaching for the page. “Let me see?”

“Thank you, Teera,” Ava said, and added quietly before she could stop herself, “My name is Ava.”

Teera, bless her, didn’t comment that she already knew her name. Knew it a thousand times over. Her eyes scanned the page, lips pulled to one side in concentration. “Well, I’ve never actually heard of this song, either,” she admitted. “But the melody looks simple enough,” She hummed a few bars experimentally before showing it to her sister. “Em? What do you think?”

Emilin reached for her flute and picked out a rough version of the notes from the sheet music. Less than a minute of experimenting, and the sisters were looking at each other with little nods of understanding. “Yeah, okay,” Emilin said. “You’ll sing it?”

“Sure,” Teera answered, holding the music and lyrics out so they could both read it, and humming the first note a few times until it was in tune with the soft note Emilin was playing.

The characters would receive their ‘MetaSpace Autotuning’ on the night of the actual party, but Teera and Emilin were two of the very few characters who didn’t need it. While neither of them really identified as signers, they both had nice voices and an uncanny ear for notes and pitches.

With Emilin accompanying on flute, Teera sang ‘March of the Wooden Soldiers,’ and Ava listened with a wide and honest smile on her face. The song was sweet and fun, and there was something very whimsical about it.

“Oh, I love it!” Ava proclaimed when they finished.

“I do, too, actually,” Teera admitted, scanning over the lyrics again. “Now, technically there’s a second ‘verse’ but it’s just the same lyrics listed twice.”

Emilin also nodded her approval as she set about cleaning the flute again. “It has a really classic ‘storytelling’ feel to it, doesn’t it? Sounds like the sort of thing you might hear in our world.”

“Yes! Exactly,” Teera said with feeling, and then an impish smile curled her lips. “Of course, you would have made the name longer. ‘March of the Wooden Soldiers on a Snowy Christmas Night under the Adoring Eyes of Dollies and—’”

“Shut up,” Emilin sighed, snapping the soft cleaning cloth at her sister, who dodged the attack with a giggle.

There was a knock at the door, to which Teera responded, “Yep!” but the new visitor hesitated and knocked again instead of coming inside. The sisters exchanged shrugs and then Emilin went to answer the door personally. There was a small boy outside.

“Oh, sorry,” he said immediately when he saw the curly-haired girl. “I was looking for…” his quick eyes scanned the room and landed on Ava. “Oh! Her, actually,” he said, pointing.

“Onrey,” Ava greeted with a smile. “So nice to see you. My name is Ava. You left our first meeting so suddenly. Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, M’fine,” he said, fidgeting uncomfortably and biting his lip. “Um, sorry I ran off like that.” He paused, making a face, and then reluctantly adding, “Ava.”

Ava beamed, not just for hearing her name, but for the knowledge that Onrey was back. “Well, come in. We were just talking about our song, actually.”

“Yeah, I listened to it,” Onrey said, looking around the room as if memorizing it. “It’s all right. It’s kind of a weird story.”

“Yes, a story,” Ava said. “That’s exactly what we were thinking!”

Teera cleared a spot for Onrey to sit. “You guys should sing it to each other,” she said. “Think how cute that would be? Like, Ava, you’re telling Onrey a bedtime story or something, and then Onrey you can repeat it back to her.”

Something about the idea was so simple and wholesome that Ava felt her eyes prickle with tears. But it wasn’t just her decision, so, “What do you think, Onrey?”

“Sure, why not?” The boy said. “Won’t that be a little boring for other people to watch, though? Just us singing at each other?”

“What if,” Emilin said, eyes wide and excited, “We acted it out. You know, like a ballet in the background while you two were singing?”

“It’s just us, though,” Onrey said, pointing between himself and Ava. “We’re the only ones in the song.”

“I bet Hannah would let you bring in backup dancers,” Emilin said, getting out her phone and punching out a quick text. “And I bet lots of people would be willing to do it, because there wouldn’t be ‘dancing’ so much as ‘marching.’ I’ll do it.” Without even checking with her younger sibling, Emilin added, “Teera will do it, too.”

Ava looked to Teera to see if the girl minded being spoken for. She just smiled and gave a quiet thumbs-up.

Emilin’s phone chimed loudly, and she announced, “We have approval to bring in as many backup dancers as we want.”

This was great news, of course, but the idea wasn’t going anywhere until the original members of the song were both on board, so Ava looked to Onrey and patiently waited for his decision.

Onrey chewed his lip for a moment before saying, “I’m not wearing stupid pajamas.”

Ava smiled. “I can live with that.”

“Like, I’ll wear pajamas,” he clarified. “Just not stupid ones. I’ll wear cool pajamas.”

“Cool pajamas,” Ava repeated with a serious nod. “The coolest pajamas we can find, Onrey. I promise.”

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!