A gaggle of students were gathered at the entrance to the karaoke place. The other student council members weren’t the trendiest people in the world, but Reina as a plus one would help. Much to my surprise, there was one Mr Johnny among their number. When our eyes met, I could swear that he slinked back behind one of the other girls. That was his sister! Had she brought him along?

“You hiding from me Johnny?”

He re-emerged with a frown, “Why are you here too?”

“Reina brought me.”

Reina had already gone about greeting every member of the group, of which there were seven beside me and Johnny. One of them was Johnny’s sister, Sae. The council ignored us for the moment. “Did your sister drag you here?”

“Yeah, she said she was too nervous about it. I wouldn’t mind if you weren’t here.”

“I’m here for the exact same reason Johnny, cool it.”

“I thought your sister was a social butterfly?”

“She is in school, but when you ask her to sing…”

“I get you.”

The group stopped patting Reina on the back for a moment as she ushered me over. “This is my sister; she looks like a delinquent but she’s really nice once you get to know her.”

“I object to that.”

To be honest I’d chosen the most delinquent adjacent clothes I owned. I had a blue jacket with a tiger pattern stitched on the back, jeans with holes ripped in them, and a shirt with one of my favourite bands on it. Sae hummed as she looked over my choice in fashion, “It’s like looking at a Reina who’s gone down a dark path.”

“Alright, try not to insult my friends too much,” Johnny sighed.

Reina introduced me to the rest of the party. Most of their names bounced right off of me – there was a lot to remember in a short time period. What were the odds I’d need to know anyway? Reina herded the council members into the building’s lobby. It was lit in light blue and pink and had a polished wooden reception desk.

The woman behind the desk smiled, “Welcome! How many people are with you?”

“Ten.”

“We have a big room available…” the woman prattled off information about how long the session would last, and how to order food and drinks.

I turned to Johnny, “Do you come to karaoke often?”

“No. I prefer to practice at home.”

“I wouldn’t think that you’d use karaoke for practice.”

“Yeah, it’s too distracting for me. I like to hear myself, so I know I’m hitting the notes.”

The room was fairly small. It had a pair of tables surrounded by padded seats, and in front was a slightly elevated stage with the karaoke machine on top of it. There was dim violet lighting that gave it a nightclub aesthetic. The council members all piled into the seats, one after the other, Reina, I and Johnny ended up sat on one end.

“Who’s going first?” One of the councilmen asked, pushing the song catalogue across the table, an outdated idea considering that modern karaoke machines could search the list for you. I grabbed it and slid it in front of Johnny.

“Show ‘em how it’s done Johnny.”

He nodded and flipped through the pages, finding something that caught his eye. He entered his selection into the machine and pulled the microphone from the stand. Johnny had shown some tact for once – and had chosen something not too alienating for the council members. It was still pretty fast paced, and let him show of his favourite high notes, but it wasn’t the usual punk fare that he was so eager to perform in the club.

The song ended, and everybody gave him a polite applause. One of Reina’s friends, Hiro spoke up, “That was great, as expected from the music club I guess.” He took the book and looked up his own song. “I’ll go next.”

This continued for quite some time, the book being passed between each member. Everyone had a different level of singing skill, but nobody could quite leapfrog Johnny. He wasn’t even warmed up. Reina was terrible. I wasn’t going to mince words – she was resistant to projecting her voice and couldn’t really keep up.

I didn’t tell her that, but…

Then the book finally found it’s way to me. I had been thinking on what to pick for a while. I was happy with pretty much anything. I wasn’t picky. I listened to nearly every genre in my free time. But picking something to show off to the others was tough. One of the others only knew anime openings so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Alright.”

I hopped onto the stage and entered my own choice of song. It was a slow-paced song called “wandering heart.” It was pretty obscure. As the beat started it took a minute for the rest of the group to learn it’s rhythm and clap along. The next few minutes were a blur to me. I sang my heart out. My lungs burned as the notes flowed from me like I was an expert.

So yeah, I’d been practicing.

Before I knew it, the song was over, and the group burst into an applause that made Johnny’s seem modest by comparison. I blushed, bowed slightly, and hurried back down to my seat. Whoops! I was trying to keep myself on the down low. Johnny punched my shoulder lightly, “Showing me up.”

“Sorry.”

The book returned to the first person in the line. The festivities continued for another hour. Reina didn’t have any problem at all interacting with them with me around, and I got to know a few of them better in between rounds of cheering and clapping. We had a great time, but our money could only go so far, and after the first extension we decided to call it there.

As I was leaving, Johnny sulked by the doorway. “I’ve never seen you have as much fun as you did right there. Didn’t you want to sing in the club?”

I shrugged, “A bit, I guess. But you wanted to do it more than me, I was happy to play guitar.”

“Come on,” he said, sounding half like he wanted to convince me one way and another half the other.

“No. It’s the music club Johnny. I’m not going to fistfight you over who gets to be the singer. We’re doing this for fun, aren’t we?”

He ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated, “You know, this is the problem with you. You can never be selfish for once.”

“So do you want me to take your spot?”

“I don’t know, do you?”

“No, not if you want it.”

Johnny was clearly frustrated with me. “You’re a better singer than me. I’m not afraid to admit it. If it makes the band better, or more successful, you should just go out and do it.”

I sighed, “Can’t we just leave it there?”

Before we could continue arguing, one of the council members – Tanaka, tapped me on the shoulder, he held out his phone and pointed to it, “Hey, isn’t this you?”

“Huh?” I looked down to see a video on his feed. My veins turned to ice as soon as I realized whose back I was staring at. It was mine, from when I scared off those pick-up artists downtown.

“It’s going viral right now; it blew up yesterday for some reason. I was wondering, that was you and Reina, wasn’t it?”

The video was clear as day. Somebody had pulled out their phone and recorded the whole damn thing. The comments I could see were talking about how amazing and badass I was for standing up to them – but I knew that for every second that the video spread, the higher the chance of somebody seeing it that I didn’t want to. Like the teachers at school, or my parents.

“I’m in so much trouble.”