Page 7 of Inside Out
“I have them saved on my phone,” he offered.
“Sure,” I said, meeting them halfway when they started crossing the room toward me.
Curtis clicked on his phone and opened the Microsoft Word app. “Here you go,” he said nervously, and I noticed his hand trembled when he handed it to me. It had to be unnerving to let a stranger read the words he’d ripped from his soul and put on the page.
I wasn’t prepared for the depth of emotion or the way his words would reach inside my chest and squeeze my heart. “Oh wow,” I said once I’d finished reading the first song. “This is…this is…” I had a hard time conveying just how impactful his lyrics felt to me.
“Awful?” Curtis asked.
“Mind-blowing,” Ellie supplied.
“Yes, Ellie. These words are stunning, beautiful, and mind-blowing. How many songs are there?” I asked while scrolling down to the next song.
“Five,” Curtis said. “Each of the main characters has a solo performance and there are two songs for the entire cast to sing together.”
I knew I was crazy even to consider composing music when I’d already committed to coaching tennis on top of my teaching duties. I knew there would be a lot of late nights ahead of me, but I already had a melody playing in my head. “Can you send me a copy of the script and the lyrics right away?”
My cell phone pinged in my pocket letting me know an email had arrived. Clara giggled, pulling my attention to her. She wiggled the phone in her hand. “Done,” she said. “Your school email address is provided on the school’s website. I didn’t hack into your personnel files,” she added when my brow lifted in question. Even though what she said was true, I was certain my musical background wasn’t something the school bragged about on their website. Someone who’d read the resume I’d submitted to the board had shared the information with her. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “My apologies if you feel I was too forward, Mr. Shepherd.”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to respond, so I changed the conversation back to our original topic. “I’m definitely willing to assist you with the melodies for your lyrics. Have you marked in the script where the songs will go? I really want to get a feel for the scenes.”
“Yes, sir,” Curtis replied quickly. “Everything you need to know should be found in either of the documents.”
“We have our first planning meeting tonight at five o’clock,” Clara said.
“We have the mandatory fall athletics meeting tonight,” I reminded Ellie. I wasn’t sure if Clara or Curtis played sports, but I knew her attendance was required as was mine.
“Yes, and we took that into consideration when we scheduled the meeting with the new director,” she said cheerfully. “We only want to come up with a production timeline tonight, so we’ll have plenty of time to get over to the auditorium for the big meeting.”
“There is a proper chain of command we must adhere to,” Clara said, deepening her voice to mimic the stick-in-the-mud athletic director.
“Oh my gosh,” Ellie said, giggling. “You sound just like him.”
“You need to sound drier,” Curtis said. “The man always sounds like he has something stuck in his throat.”
“The entire auditorium will start clearing their throats and sipping water because he sounds so uncomfortable,” Ellie told me. I’d met the athletic director, of course, and noticed his dry voice. I’d have to remind myself not to smile when the guy started in on his speech.
“Okay, so where is this meeting taking place?” I asked, prodding them along. I had a lot of stuff to do between now and then.
“Dr. Bradley’s office,” Clara calmly said, completely unaware of the grenade she’d lobbed at my feet.
“Dr. Bradley?” I asked. “The superintendent?”
“Yes, that’s him,” Clara replied, searching my face. Had my voice sounded odd to her? “Is there a problem?”
“No,” I said hurriedly. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting the superintendent to direct a school play.”
“He probably wasn’t expecting the chemistry teacher to write the music for it either,” she countered. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions about people.”Touché.“Anyway, meet us in his office at five, and we should have it wrapped up in less than thirty minutes.”
I should’ve told them I changed my mind, but my pride wouldn’t permit it. I would attend the meetings, write the music, hand it over to the music department, and walk away. My interaction with the man would be minimal. “See you guys at five.”
I returned the AirPods to my ears and cranked up the music to drown out my thoughts so I could continue setting up my classroom. When I stepped back at quarter to five, I was excited about the progress I’d made. It would only take me another two hours tops to get my room exactly as I’d imagined it. I hustled out of the high school and across the parking lot to reach the Board of Education building. There was no one behind the desk out front, but I didn’t need anyone to tell me where I needed to go. I followed the excited voices of the three kids who’d turned my orderly world upside down in a matter of minutes.
It was hard to be irritated when the object of my fantasies glanced up at me from his desk as I lightly rapped on the open door before entering the room. The kids were so busy chatting they hadn’t heard me arrive. Dr. Bradley’s surprise morphed into joy as a smile spread across his handsome face. The kids stopped chatting immediately, and I felt their attention shift to see who’d stolen Dr. Bradley’s attention. Hadn’t they told him I was coming or had he not believed them when they did?
“Oh great! The gang’s all here so we can get started,” Ellie said.
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Clara said, but I didn’t hear a word she said after that because the bluest eyes I’d ever seen ensnared me. I remembered my mom’s advice hours earlier and how I scoffed at her words.
Don’t think dirty thoughts. Don’t think dirty thoughts. Don’t think…Too late. Romeo Bradley grinned like he knew exactly what I was thinking.