On the fourth day of school, Airin was thrilled they finally got to sing a whole song in chorus.

Why is everything so slow? Do they always spend so much time on paperwork?

It felt like they accomplished nothing on the first day of chorus with Niara. Rolls were called, music was distributed, and they set up their music folders. They also selected people to do various jobs, though few students volunteered for anything, so if you wanted a job or even if you didn’t, you probably got one.

Airin was nominated by Bellona to be one of the three music librarians for the class. Airin didn’t know if it was a hard job or not, but it seemed nobody else wanted to do it. It sounded like they wouldn’t have to be in front of the class very much, so that suited Airin.

Bellona herself campaigned to be class representative, but Ephy was elected, much to Bellona’s chagrin. Ephy tried to decline the position, but everyone insisted that she was being too nice and that this made her even more perfect for the job.

Bellona ended up with the job of erasing the whiteboard at the end of class.

The whiteboard could be used as a touch computer screen, too. Airin had never seen anything like it before. I’d rather have that job.

On the second and third days, they did private auditions. Niara said that the auditions were mainly so she could place everyone in a voice part and make sure the sections were equal, but Airin suspected there was more at stake than voice placements. Nearly all of the boys were in the tenor section, though a few were altos.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Bellona bragged that she had prepared a piece for the audition, but Niara skipped all her private students, including Airin, during these auditions. In the last half of the third class, she arranged everyone within the voice parts by height, which put Ephy in the back row of the altos and Airin on the front row of the first sopranos—next to Bellona, of all people.

By day two, Airin was ready to sing, but it wasn’t until the fourth day that they finally opened their music folders.

They started off with some stretching exercises and then gave each other back massages. Bellona had hands of steel, and Airin was worried they would have bruises later. Airin wondered if that was one of her powers or if she was just randomly strong. Kaya, the girl on Airin’s other side, was so gentle that Airin could barely feel anything when she massaged them.

Then they sang warmups, singing “La la lalalalala” up and down the scale.

Finally, Niara asked them to open their folders to “Forest Farewell.” At last, a song.

The song was slow and pretty. Airin squinted at the music on the page, but it didn’t make any more sense than it had the first day.

Thankfully, Niara played each voice part on the piano.

The song was about a young bird saying goodbye to the forest where it was born and migrating to a warmer climate for the first time. Niara kept saying how beautiful the lyrics were, but Airin was a bit puzzled by them. Were they pretending to be birds? Did the song mean something else?

The music was beautiful, though, and the melody was fairly easy to learn. At least the first sopranos got to sing most of the melody, except for a few small parts.

“Sopranos, you’re too loud. See the little notation above the staff that looks like a letter ‘P’? That means piano, or softly. You need to pull back a lot.”

Bellona was so loud that Airin’s right ear began to hurt after about ten minutes. Niara asking them to sing quieter didn’t change Bellona’s volume one bit.

Kaya, on the other hand, sang so softly that Airin could not hear her. And yet, she studiously marked her music with a pencil whenever Niara gave them any direction.

Airin cast a glance back at Ephy, wishing they had been able to sit by each other. Ephy caught her glance and grinned.