CHAPTER VII

- all our shows are secret shows –

[Liam]

Maths dragged a little, as it tended to do. Liam was starting to realise he only really liked the subject in theory: spending an hour doing basically the same calculations over and over again got boring quickly. 

In his Further classes, at least he had Anthea, and between the two of them they usually finished the worksheets in a fraction of the time set and spent the rest winding each other up. He didn't talk much to the people in his regular Maths lessons, because they drove him crazy. All they did was ask for answers to the worksheets.

Once the lesson let out, he fell behind the stream of students heading to their next class, pausing by the water fountain to get a drink. Midway through filling it up he felt a familiar figure brush past him.

He looked up and recognised her immediately.

It was Jen, just her, walking quickly and confidently down the corridor. Thrill jolted through him; he'd seen her around school a lot since the lecture, but she was always with Ally and Diana at the very least. This could be his chance to make a good impression, or at least a better impression than last time.

His water bottle was overflowing now, spilling over the rim and running down his hands. Hastily, Liam switched off the fountain scrambled to catch up with her, shaking his hands to dry them.

"Hey," he said, as casually as he could manage. "How's things?"

Jen looked slightly surprised to see him, chewing a couple of times on her gum before replying. "Can't complain," she said finally, still walking. Liam upped his pace slightly to keep up with her.

"You're not with Ally today?"

"I don't have to be with her all the time."

"I thought you two were friends?"

"We don't share the same lessons," she replied. "The others have Spanish right now."

"Oh, that makes sense. So, what lesson did you just have?"

"Physics."

"Cool. I do physics, too. What's it like in year thirteen?"

"Surely physics is physics."

"Yeah, but I mean the content and stuff. Like, should I bother taking it for A2?"

"You just started year twelve; isn't it too early to be thinking about these things?"

"I like to plan ahead, I guess."

She shrugged. "Well, the topics we're doing right now are basically just a mixture of GCSE Stars and Space and dumbed-down quantum theory," she explained. "So the content is interesting, it's just not really that hard right now."

"Okay," Liam said. "Nothing to worry about then. Although I regret ritually burning all of my GCSE notes now," he added, managing to make her smile.

"Sounds better than ritually filing them, I suppose," she replied. Before Liam could reply, his phone buzzed twice in his pocket and instinctively he checked the message.

From: Dom :)

> We got a show, guys! Get excited!

> Practise room 5 at 4:15 or EARLIER if you can.

Liam read them over again, slightly confused. A show? And then he remembered Jen and looked up quickly, but she'd already walked away, leaving him alone in the middle of the corridor.

Damn.

There is was again: that cold efficacy just when it seemed they were starting to connect. If he could just find some way to be with her for...like, half an hour, he was sure he'd be able to get through to her, but that was the problem. It was hard to find her on her own, and he didn't want to talk to her with her friends around. If they were anything like Ally he wouldn't stand a chance.

He sighed, silently cursing Dom for his poor timing, and then turned his mid back to the actual message. He'd heard the others mention shows briefly, but he didn't know why. And why did they have to meet so early? School finished at half four; he'd still be in History at quarter past.

It wouldn't be hard to leave early, of course, but they could have easily waited fifteen minutes...he shrugged and pocketed his phone again, his curiosity getting the better of him. He'd see what they were up to soon enough.

So later, in History, at ten past four he grabbed his bag and walked up to the front desk, putting his completed worksheet on the table. "Mr. Bennett, I have a doctor's appointment at half past to go to. Is it ok if I leave early?"

Mr. Bennet gave the worksheet a quick-once over and nodded. "Of course. See you on Friday."

It was that easy. Liam climbed the stairs to the practise rooms and soon opened the door to room 5, letting it close silently behind him.

"Keats, hey," Dom said, without looking up from his phone. He had an odd ability to text and still stay engaged in conversation at the same time, something Liam figured he'd probably honed with experience. Someone's I-pod was on the table in the middle, playing one of the songs they'd been rehearsing out loud. "You excited? First show of the year!"

"I don't even know what we're doing," Liam said.

"Oh, course you don't. Don't worry about it, we're just gonna sing the four songs we've been practising. We want to start just when people are leaving lessons, that's why I wanted you guys up here earlier. We all had a free period now, so we've been doing warmups without you."

"Mean," Liam said.

"Don't worry, when Scottani gets here we'll warm you two up and then blitz the run-through."

"I thought we're supposed to be secretive and stuff. Why are we singing when it's so busy?"

Dom smiled mysteriously. "We sing secretively, of course. Trust me, they won't know it's us. This place is perfect." Scottani pushed open the door then, and Dom waved him over. "Scottani, baby. What took you?"

"Biology practical," he explained, letting his backpack drop to the floor.

"Well, you're here now. Let's go! You and Keats, warm-ups."

By now, Liam was familiar with most of the vocal exercises they did, but Chen liked to mix them up so they didn't get repetitive. They did a couple of vocalisations, a quick physical warmup and then breathing exercises so Liam was slightly breathless and slightly pumped when they'd finished.

"Open with Watercolour, and then Falling," Chen told them. "Then Antigravity, and then straight into Pompeii. It's long, so we'll have to cut the last song a bit short. Go straight from the first verse to the second chorus, and then onto to the middle eight, yeah?" The others nodded. "Okay, go through it, quick. Put your phone away, Dom."

By the time they'd finished going through their songs, he was excited, and he could tell the others were too. They split up once they left the practise rooms, timing it perfectly to coincide with the mad rush as all the classes let out at 4:30 and the corridors filled with pupils, so when Liam and Dom peeled away from the main group of students nobody even noticed.

They headed out the back entrance of the school, round the back of the tennis courts, and onto the car park behind the school. Liam had no idea where they were going, and it just got weirder when Dom took him through an entrance that sloped slightly downwards, emerging into an underground bike storage area. 

"Are we having a séance or something?"

Dom laughed. "Maybe later. Look."

He pointed to the walls. The place was cold and dark and damp and smelled weird, but Liam could see ventilation pipes extending upwards and peeking over the brick wall that separated the business park from the college grounds.

"Those pipes will carry the sound over into the school. That way we can sing here without being found out."

"Will they know it's coming from here?"

"Dom and I snuck down here earlier and did some tests," Chen assured him. She and Scottani had got there before them. "I don't think they'll figure it out until we're done."

"See?" Dom said. "Perfect." Liam nodded, impressed, as the others Tweety and Wolfgang entered, bickering about something. Chen gave them a stern look and they broke off at once.

Dom grinned at them in the gloom, his eyes alight with anticipation. "Ready?" he mouthed, and they nodded in response. He licked his lips, ran something over in his head and then gently hummed two notes: Chen and Scottani's first chord and then Liam's note, an octave below the actual note, and then held up three fingers, counting them in.

"three...two...one...go."

Liam was so tense by this point that when Chen and Scottani hit their first notes, loud and clear, it startled him for a second. Then Dom started the tune and he remembered where he was, joining in with the harmonies a split second late, but the others didn't seem to notice.

"When I'm falling down," they sung together, their voices blending perfectly together in the half-light, and Liam closed his eyes and let himself get caught up in the harmony he was singing, riding up slightly higher and slightly quieter than the melody Dom was carrying.

Will you pick me up again?

When I'm too far gone,

Dead in the eyes of my friends...

And then the accompaniment started to get more intense, Tweety keeping up a steady drone on the bass and Wolfgang coming in with the percussion, rising up until they hit the chorus and Liam's voice soared over the notes below, until his lungs were straining for air and the back of his throat started to hurt a little.

They were singing loud now, loud and strong, and just over the music Liam could hear the beginning of a commotion beginning outside, the noise filtering in down from the pipes. Eager, excited voices.

Liam hadn't realised they had a following.

"It's them! Those guys are singing again!"

"Where's it coming from?"

"It's behind the shed, isn't it?"

"No, on the roof!"

Dom caught his eye and smiled at him, and Liam instantly understood what he meant about it being more fun this way. There was something exhilarating about singing like this, hidden in a bicycle garage while the school started to gather, getting more and more excited as the song progressed. By the time they finished the first song he was breathless with the adrenaline, caught up in the applause of the gathered crowd and the occasional whoop.

He wasn't singing the second song; it was the one they'd been practising the first time he'd met them, but that gave him a bit of time to recover, especially because singing the lead on Watercolour always made his chest feel tight afterwards, having to hold a note for a solid 20 seconds. 

By the time they reached the third song, he'd recovered a little, and the gathered crowd was even more energetic than before. Liam tried to shut out the voices around him: halfway through the song lyrics faded out and the song morphed into a cinematic piece. 

He felt comfortable when he was singing the melody with Dom – words were rational and came naturally – but this next bit was trickier; formless, vague. There was no obvious tune to follow and he had an awkward tendency to lose himself if he didn't focus on his part.

He closed his eyes, traced the journey of the notes, taking cues from the sound of the music around him to correct his voice until they reached the end of the song, and then they were onto the final one. Glad the hard part was over, Liam threw himself into the lyrics until their voices died out and dissolved into a split-second of silence before an almighty cheer erupted from outside.

Tweety grinned and put his hand out in front of him. "One," he said, loud to be heard over the crowd.

Scottani spoke up next. "Two."

"Three!" Chen shouted.

"Four!" Wolfgang pitched in. Dom grabbed Liam's hand and put it on top of the others', and then stuck his in the middle and yelled:

"FIVES FIVES FIVES! Thanks for listening guys!"

As the crowd gathered outside started to cheer again, Dom turned back to them and gave a mock bow. "Gentlemen," he said, in a ridiculous accent, "it has been a privilege playing with you tonight."

"Remember, Keats, you don't know us," Tweety said. "Split up as soon as possible."

"And then just take your time coming back," Scottani mumbled, just loud enough for Liam to hear.

"What the hell is your problem?" he shot back, irritated.

For a second it looked like Scottani was going to reply, but Chen glanced over at them, a warning clear in her reproachful glance, and he shrugged instead. 

Good, Liam thought. He'd been enjoying himself up until now, but the words dampened his mood. He hated how easy it was crash down from a good mood – just a few words, or even a certain kind of look; and for what? Because he'd showed up? The more he thought about it, the less sense it made. He didn't understand, and it pissed him off.

Belatedly, he remembered Chen's words earlier. Don't let it get to you. If Scottani wanted to be a dick, that was his problem, not Liam's. He took a deep breath in and tried to get back to the feeling he'd had before: that pumped, excited feeling, the music and the enthusiasm in the group and the crowd, dispersing now, buzzing in his ears. It was raining outside, that kind of quiet drizzle that hit the ground soundlessly and made everything smell damp and grassy.

Liam had missed the bus he'd normally take, but the walk wasn't long. He made his way back home with the music still echoing, the thin rain settling on his jumper and frizzing up his hair, and after a while, managed to put his earlier feelings of annoyance to the side. Not completely, but enough not to matter, and Liam was happy with that.

There was a distinctive buzz in school the next morning. As soon as Liam hopped off the bus he could feel it: a kind of restless excitement in the air, charged and electric. All day, he kept hearing offcuts of conversations as he passed by clusters of people in his form room, in lessons, in the corridors:

"Yeah! Yesterday afternoon, did you not hear..."

"...something different this time. Like a good different. I love how..."

"I think I'm in love with him. Is that weird? Like, I only know his voice..."

"Can't believe I missed it. Stupid Grandparents, making me come home early."

It had surprised him, just how much of a following they had at the school. The way Dom and Chen had put it, they were just a group of people who got together occasionally to sing, but they were slight celebrities at school, it seemed, and he liked the attention, even if nobody knew who he was really. Just another face in the crowd.

"So it looks like Fives are back in town," Robin mentioned, at lunch. "Did anyone hear them yesterday? I heard it was good."

"Aw, Robin, you missed out!" Eli said, eagerly slamming her fork down on the table. "They were incredible!"

"They sounded different," Esther said, thoughtfully. "I think they've got a new guy singing."

Eli shook her head. "You reckon? Why?"

"The harmonies on the last song," Esther replied. "It couldn't have been the person who normally sings the lead: he can't sing that high, and I'm pretty sure he was carrying the melody. And it was a guy's voice for sure, so..."

Liam was surprised she'd figured it out so quickly disguising his shock with a question. "What're you talking about?"

"Fives, they're this acapella group in school," Anthea explained. "Nobody knows who they are, but sometimes they do songs on the school grounds and then disappear before anyone can find them."

"We're not even sure if they're students here or not," Eli said. "They don't sing in any of the music and arts things."

"Huh, why not?"

"We asked them to do the festival a couple of times, but they keep turning it down," Anthea said.

"So you've talked to them?" Liam asked.

"No, we just left notes around the school, and then I got an email a couple of days later," Anthea explained. "The email address was just a bunch of letters and numbers, so they probably made it just to get back to me."

"I've heard someone saw them practising in the language labs once," Robin said. "But they paid them a bribe to keep quiet."

"They drive the Foxhill Newspaper team crazy," Anthea added, with a wry grin. "I think finding out who's in Fives is their ultimate dream."

Eli laced her fingers together. "After hearing them around for so long, it'd be kinda weird to find out who they are, though," she said.

"I kind of like keeping it a secret," Robin nodded. "It makes Foxhill more interesting. You never know, you could have classes with one of them, or walk past them in the corridor or something, and never know. I like the mystery."

"I'd like to know," Esther said. Liam wasn't sure, but he thought Esther looked over at him as she said it. "They're really talented. It would be nice to see the people behind all this, at least before I go."

"Well, you've got another couple of years here; plenty of time to start investigating, Sherlock," Eli said, nudging her with a quick grin.

"It'll probably end up being the last person you'd expect to be in an acapella choir," Anthea said. "Just to shake things up."

"Oh, God," Eli snorted. "Imagine if it was someone like Ally or Aaron or something? Or that weird skinny kid he's been hanging out with lately...not you, Robin."

The others laughed. "Wow, thanks," Robin replied, feigning hurt.

"What kid?" Liam asked.

"You know, one of Wyatt's friends. With the baseball caps," Eli explained, and Liam nodded. "Dunno why they've gotten so chummy lately. Since he started hanging out with him Aaron's got really moody and started slacking off in class and stuff, I've heard."

"I thought that was because he started going out with Ally?" Esther asked, innocently, making Eli snort with laughter. Liam smiled. Esther was pretty serious most of the time, but she had a sly sense of humour that he liked.

"It's a shame, because Aaron used to be a nice kid back when he first joined," Eli said. "He was in my Geography class. Quiet, a little serious, that sort of thing."

"No, he was still a dick back then," Robin put in. "I think going out with Ally improved him. Or gave him something else to keep him occupied."

"To be fair, they're perfect for each other," Anthea said.

"I don't know," Liam said. "It just seemed like Ally was the only terrible one. I don't even know Diana that well; she barely said anything to me."

"She's probably awful too," Robin said. "I wouldn't be surprised."

Eli leaned on her hand with a grin. "I'm detecting some bitterness here, Robin? Anything you wanna share with the group?"

"She's a bitch," Esther said suddenly, surprising everyone.

"Woah, you too, Esther?" Eli asked her. "You two used to hang out all the time; I thought you were friends?"

Liam looked at her, interested.

"Yeah," Esther said, "and then Ally started hanging out with her and she got a taste of the popular life and just ditched me for the cool kids. And that was about the time my mum left, too. Some friend, huh."

"Ouch," Eli said, sympathetically, but Liam's mind was already whirring. So she and Diana were friends? He saw Jen and Diana together all the time. Maybe if they were friends again she could like, oh, he didn't know. Put in a good word for him or something?

It was almost perfect...

"Yeah, year ten wasn't a good year for me," Esther was saying, when he zoned back into the conversation.

Robin patted her shoulder. "Hey, me neither."

They talked for a little longer, until the bell rang for registration, and they all scattered to get to their respective classrooms. As usual, Liam walked back to registration with Esther, the two of them keeping time with each other. Esther was finishing off the pot of yoghurt she had for lunch, so they didn't really say anything at first. After what he hoped was a reasonable silence (he didn't want to seem too eager), Liam broke the silence.

"It's kinda sad, what you said earlier," he said casually. "Losing a friend like that."

"Not really," Esther said. "She wasn't really a friend anyway."

"Did you ever talk to her, find out why she did it?"

"Why would I want to do that?" she asked, slightly incredulously.

"Maybe she had something going on too," Liam said, frantically making things up as he spoke. "And you just didn't notice because you were hurt yourself, or...or something like that. You should try and talk to her. There are always two sides to every story, you know."

For a second her eyes clouded with doubt, and she slowed slightly, thinking. Then she narrowed her eyes at him, suspicion darkening her expression.

"Wait a minute. Look me in the eye and tell me this has nothing to do with your tragic little obsession with Jen."

"What?" Liam asked, acting innocent. "No, of course not. It didn't even cross my mind."

"You're such a liar."

"I'll try not to be offended by that."

"Hm."

A pause.

"So...you're not even slightly interested in talking to her again? Like, not even a little bit?"

"No," she replied shortly.

"You were considering it, just now."

"That was before I realised you had ulterior motives."

"It's not about me, it's about the two of you, right?"

"If it's got nothing to do with you, then stop bringing it up, would you?"

"But didn't it upset you when she stopped hanging out with you, though?" he pressed, and she shot him a murderous glance.

"Liam, just leave me out of this, ok?" she said, annoyed now. "That was a while ago, and we don't even run in the same circles anyway. I don't want to talk to her, and that's final."

Liam sighed; this was getting nowhere. He couldn't understand why she was so adamant about this. "Fine," he said crossly.

"Good," she said, almost as shortly, and then didn't say anything else until about a minute later, when she finished her yoghurt.

"Do me a favour and hold my bag for a second," she said. "I'm just gonna throw this away."

Liam nodded, maybe a little too eagerly - and took her backpack, an idea already hatching. He watched her retreating figure until he was sure she wasn't going to look around, and then quickly unzipped it and started looking for her phone. It was too perfect an opportunity to miss; he acted instinctively, not even pausing to consider the action. He found the phone right at the bottom of the bag and pulled it out, quickly swiping to unlock it, thanking God she didn't have a passcode.

Her home screen was a picture of her and an older girl with the blurred lights of a Ferris wheel at night in the background, highlighting the edges of their profiles with gold light while the flash had caught the snow falling in the background behind them. 

Liam hesitated, looking at the picture. It was so different to the Esther he knew: she looked really, genuinely happy. She was normally so quiet and serious, or slightly cold and sarcastic with him; even when she joined in with their banter at the dinner table she'd always seemed slightly reserved, so it was odd to see her like this, smiling and carefree, and it took him by surprise. 

It took him a second for him to remember what he was doing, and with a jolt, got back to work. He opened up her contacts, and, like he'd guessed, found Diana's number still there. This is all too convenient, he thought, sending Diana a quick message. It was like someone wanted this to happen. 

He didn't have time to think up something long and meaningful, so he just went for something short: Hi, haven't talked to you in a while. How are you doing? and left it there.

Maybe Diana was a completely awful person, in which case she'd probably just ignore it, or worse, send back a bitchy reply, or maybe she'd changed her number since then, but there was always a chance she'd respond, and maybe something could come out of it. 

And if Esther and Diana were friends again, it would be an easy way to start talking to Jen, but that was definitely not the main objective here.

He heard Esther's footsteps approaching again and started, shoving her phone back into her bag and zipping it up with seconds to spare as she rounded the corner.

"Thanks," she said, when she got back, taking her backpack from him. "You ok? You look a bit flustered."

"It's nothing!" he said unconvincingly. "Let's go quick, or we'll be late for registration."

"Sure," Esther said, with a final suspicious glance in his direction, and started walking again.

Alright Diana, he thought to himself as he walked. This is all on you now. Help me out here.

----

a/n:

tut tut liam what are you like

hi guys!

sorry for the long wait - I took a bit of a break to do some edits on the first chapters and stuff. I'm doing this novel for nano this month as well (technically that's not allowed but whatever /dons shades/ ) so if all goes well then it will be finished by the end of this month. 

which will actually be really exciting because that will make this the second novel I've actually finished in my life.

there were a lot of songs in this chapter, but I decided to put Antigravity as the song for this one because I wanted to show you the cinematic part in question (skip to halfway) so you could feel Liam's pain. I wouldn't really want to acapella that, which is great because I don't have to (being an author is fun!) 

tbh I don't think there are enough parts in that bit for five voices but willing suspension of disbelief everything is ok

anyway, thanks for reading! next chapter has flashbacks and shit so you know, exciting stuff.

see you next update! 

(also i-pod or I-pod? I-Pod? they all look wrong to me.)