Previous Key played – F Minor…… All the way home dad kept repeatedly asking me if the kisses had been deliberate or not and just couldn’t believe they hadn’t been staged for the crowd’s benefit, to the point that my face was scarlet colored by the time the car was inside our garage.

Glossary: CMR - Crazy Music Recordings. WTO William Tell Overture. EOI – Expression of Interest.

A Different Key – G Major (finale).

Friday nights now equated to late suppers after the game. Tonight’s supper however also meant having to put up with mom and dad talking about the two stolen kisses and offering outlandish remarks during the entire meal. Judging by their grins they loved every moment of teasing me too. After I’d cleared away the dirty plates into the dishwasher mom told me I could have an hour of phone time to catch up with friends before I’d have to give the phone to mom to keep until tomorrow morning, same as last week.

Since most of my ensemble friends had already unloaded on me during the football game, after answering my most important friend’s texts first, I saw there were only 14 unanswered texts when I begrudgingly handed back my phone to mom. The most important call I didn’t make though was going to have to wait until tomorrow and I wasn’t really looking to talking to Jenny and explaining to her I had no idea that Michael was going to kiss me and because of where we were, couldn’t scream out an objection under the circumstances.

Saturday morning was always grocery shopping day and usually we headed off to the shops around nine o’clock. Because I’d already talked to mom about phoning Jenny later, she cut me some slack and said I could phone her first and we’d go leave about 9.30am. The moment I heard Jenny’s voice answering I began bleating my complete innocence to her and blabbered on for about two minutes before her loud laughter made me pause.

Finally when she stopped laughing she told me not to panic and that her and Michael had been planning to kiss her last night in the performance anyway, then added that she now had a broken her nose and loosened two front teeth slightly but was otherwise OK and she’d be back at school on Monday. When she told me that Michael had already phoned her this morning to tell her all about the performance and also about how he and Geoff Smartz had decided between them to double prank me for fun and hopefully mess with my head, even I was laughing at the audacity of the pair. My vow to her that I’d get even with Geoff had Jenny telling me she just hoped that her and my friendship wasn’t hurt and told me I should knock myself out getting revenge.

At school on Monday I took the expected teasing in my stride and laughed along with everyone else over what had happened. Michael and Geoff were also going around hinting that the other one was holding a secret crush about me (all with Jenny’s ok I found out the next day) and by the time “that” prank became common knowledge, I’d once again found myself with the unwarranted tag of being a bit of a hottie.

During Band class Mr. Dean told the class that last Friday night’s performance had been exceptional although it could have done without my publicly pashing off the two male singers during it, which had everyone laughingly roasting me for a few minutes that even had “Old Sid” chuckling, having obviously been made aware of the prank.

The local paper when it came out on Thursday wrote how despite the last minute change of the expected female lead, the performance had gone off brilliantly and that the singers took on the roles so seriously as to exchange tender kisses, which the reporter said made the performance even more captivating. Fortunately the TV station showing the game hadn’t filmed the pre-game entertainment.

Mr. Dean was already having us prepare for the hoped for final football home game which if everything went to plan and both teams won their games this week, would see the final game being played between undefeated (so far) FDR High and the also undefeated Cleveland High for the right to claim the region’s championship and possibly get invited to compete in the playoffs for the state championship.

The away football game against Ibrox High that week saw FDR High winning fairly easily which saw the hype around the school the following Monday at fever pitch. In a twist from allowing the ensemble to practice by itself at our usual park, “Old Sid” had been given permission to rehearse at our own arena. As soon as word got out that the ensemble was rehearsing KISS music, Monday and Tuesday afternoon’s practices saw the grandstands filled with FDR students all wanting to see how we sounded. About halfway through Tuesday’s practice the noise of the student’s singing along with our own playing and singing saw the football coach walking over and animatedly talk to Mr. Dean, which saw practice cut short. Evidently our rehearsing along with the student’s singing was distracting his players “Old Sid” told us.

So the next afternoon after school saw the ensemble along with “Old Sid” going down to the nearby park to practice. It wasn’t so much a “practice” but more of a “fine tuning” which saw “Old Sid” conduct us and after each song, critique where he felt it appropriate to. Since the “Phantom” game we hadn’t had to use the park to practice at, as we’d been using either the Music room or else our sporting arena.

It didn’t take long though for the wooden seats over the far side of the park to start to fill up once we turned up and did a very quick sound check. Someone among the spectators must have phoned the mobile food truck guy, because about an hour after we arrived I spotted his large white van pulling up to his usual space and quickly start opening up his shutters.

We had already practiced playing the 6 songs that had been chosen, which quickly saw the locals joining in lustily. Because of the need to allow our singers to rest their vocal chords, “Old Sid” allowed a ten minute break, which he used to walk over to the seated locals to talk. When he came back he had our sound tech geek turn up the volume of the park’s speaker system as well as our electrical musician’s amplifiers and singer’s sound equipment before telling the ensemble he wanted us to play loud enough to rattle the windows of the houses over the other side.

So we did….. and although it did sound slightly distorted, after a few tweaks and slides of controls it had us hearing our music reverberating back quite clearly, very loudly but still clearly understandable, although this time without the crowd’s singing distracting us. Our four designated male singers, Michael, Jeff, Geoff and Rick were absolutely excited at finally being able to sing without any restrictions and the rest of our male voice chorus along with our female chorus were really bopping. After a 2nd run through, “Old Sid” decided to spend the final ninety minutes going over the hospital performance program although this time with the volume turned back down to more normal levels.

The next afternoon (our final dress rehearsal for tomorrow night’s game) saw us playing the exact same performance although this time the crowd had printed lyric newspaper sheets. The local police had to arrive and oversee that the crowd now overflowing onto the road, weren’t delaying passing motorists too much. A number of the locals had even gone to the effort of putting on KISS makeup and were definitely adding atmosphere to the rehearsal. I along with everyone in the ensemble had never seen so many people here before to listen to us and it really helped to fine tune us so that even Mr. Dean could find little to fault about our rehearsal. After we had finished the ensemble stood up and applauded the locals who were applauding our final rehearsal.

Mom and dad had to put up with one really hyped up daughter that evening although they could understand how I felt. That didn’t stop mom however from announcing time for bed at 10pm. Part of my hype could have also been because dad informed me (and mom) that he felt he’d been sent my final CMR - EOI song that morning and once the ensembles commitment to the football program was over, he wanted me to listen to it for myself and see if I agreed.

It was impossible to ignore the hype around FDR High the next day. Although the principal had made it very clear that no one was to come to classes wearing KISS makeup, he had conceded just enough to allow the cheerleading girl's to do so. The cheer girls then stretched his concession even further by including the male cheerleading squad aides and tumblers who they had face painted so it was impossible to avoid seeing a KISS face somewhere around school. All three lunch periods saw the canteen walls echoing to the loud and out of tune student caterwauling of KISS songs and being encouraged to do so, by the cheerleading squad members designated for that lunch period. Several of the canteen staff even wore KISS makeup on as a sign of old fart’s solidarity for the football game.

In another first, the principal had agreed to allow ensemble members to be allowed to miss afternoon lessons so we could set up and sound check the instruments and electrical equipment for the 6.00pm kickoff start. This also allowed everyone involved to afterwards head for the temporary “makeup” station behind the Western grandstand and get made up as well. It had already been agreed to that each person using the facility would have to pay $2, which would be handed over to the PCYC to purchase further equipment for kids using their facilities.

By the time the first Cleveland High bus pulled up, any car parking spaces surrounding the arena were already taken as were most of the surrounding streets. The Cleveland area’s populace had been informed about FDR’s Theme Night by their local community newspaper as well as the radio stations and both had encouraged everyone to participate by wearing KISS makeup if they were going to the game.

When the extent of the possible numbers of people attending this evening was becoming more obvious, Mr. Dean had quickly organized for the ensemble to begin playing music from our repertoire to entertain a very quickly filling arena before the Cleveland High musicians turned up. So by 4.30pm the arena was very noisy as spectators and supporters from both schools had been invited by “Old Sid” to sing along (if they knew the lyrics) to our playing and were certainly doing so.

By the time 5pm rolled around and it was the turn of the Cleveland High musicians to commence “their” pregame program, the arena’s gates had had to be closed (for safety reasons) as the arena’s officially stated spectator capacity of 7,800 had already been over extended by approximately 1,600 additional people, and almost everyone was wearing KISS makeup! The Cleveland High School band like our own ensemble used electrical instruments as well as normal musical instruments in their performances and it was a pity that they hadn’t had the opportunity to do a sound check before they commenced playing.

But although they didn’t sound bad, the extent of the noise volume created by the larger than expected crowd or possibly “nerves” perhaps, saw them only receiving modest (although arena wide) applause when they finished performing.

When the arena’s announcer introduced our ensemble and asked everyone to show their support, it was the first time I’ve ever felt a cold shiver up my spine as the loud roar both from our side of the arena as well as from FDR supporters across the field showed they were anxious for us to start playing. Our program had been pretty well mapped out several weeks prior to this evening and although no one had ever thought it was possible to have a crowd so hyped up already, our opening song was meant to do just that.

“Shout It Out Loud” soon had even our sound technician frantically struggling to overcome the noise of the crowd singing while allowing our own performers to be heard clearly. The two portable video screens showing the lyrics on either side of the field didn’t help either. “Old Sid’s” shouting out “play louder” was almost lost in the noise although quick shouts from the ensemble’s section heads soon had everyone trying to do so.

At the completion of the song, our lead baritone vocalist Michael who this evening was the ensemble’s M C thanked everyone for being here and yadda yadda before allowing our tenor baritone voice and lead singer for the show Geoff Smartz to commence the next song “Sure Know Something”. It was planned for the first three songs to be a mixture of combined orchestral strings with a smaller contingent of brass, woodwind and timpani accompanying. Our electric instrument musicians were to be the main focus along with his vocals.

The volume of the crowd's singing had also subsided although it was easy to hear their muted singing, Mark our sound geek had just as quickly modified the volume though the amplifiers and speakers. When Geoff sang “Shandi” everything fell into place as the crowd obviously knew the song and the applause was one of genuine appreciation more than just hyped up enthusiasm.

We kicked up a quite a considerable notch for “Detroit City Rock” and followed it up with “I Was Made For Loving You” to have the crowd now extremely noisy and keen. Everyone in the ensemble had Googled KISS and the MSO during the past few weeks for inspiration and so the final song's introduction from Michael was so obviously plagiarized it was laughable, but it didn’t matter to the crowd before the ensemble launched into “Rock And Roll All Night”, which at the end saw “Old Sid” turn and bow for the ensemble before allowing the Cleveland High musicians to play their football team out onto the field while the crowd continued to voice their appreciation for the ensemble's pre game performance.

By now the kick off time was well past 6.00pm as Jeromy stood up to commence the WTO introduction. The enormous roar being emitted from around the arena drowned out any possible jeers that might have come from Cleveland High supporters and that was before the FDR High football team finally appeared, (on cue) which even had our opponents stopping in their tracks to watch our players race out onto the field and towards our own side of the field.

Mark and the entire vocal section then went and eclipsed even their best rendition before and sang the national anthem to an arena now emotionally choked almost completely silent, before the roar of appreciation and enthusiasm to get the game started swamped them. The ensemble meanwhile took the kickoff and the first few minutes of the game to catch our breaths and gather our emotions back together again.

The first half was as uncompromising a game of football as anyone had ever seen for a High school game. It was only surpassed by our half time show where our cheerleaders surpassed even their highest standards of cheer performing. Unlike some other half time shows where the opposition school’s cheerleaders would give up, Cleveland’s outfit raised their performing levels too (as we found out after the game when their female coach came over and congratulated everyone).

By the final whistle both teams had played themselves to exhaustion as had both music bands so enthralling and completive was the game. However there could only be one winner and “she” was FDR High 31-28 in O/T would you believe! The chaotic scenes as everyone swarmed out onto the field to congratulate the players had to be seen to be believed. The ensemble played “Sure Know Something” 5 (or was it 6 times) as the players milled with the crowd and everyone singing and raising their first finger’s high in the air to show who was number one.

Jenny finally got to perform her singing role as Kristen/Christine to sustained applause afterwards when the ensemble performed for the patients and staff of our region’s hospital three Saturday’s later. For the rest of the school year the ensemble performed at school baseball games and other fixtures as well as being invited to play at several fund raising events for charities or associations. Our final performance together was at our school’s graduation day, where I along with so many others said our goodbyes to friends going away to colleges outside our state.

I was one of the students who was leaving for far away climes. Even when I’d been Michael, it had always been my hope of attending USC and I was over the moon when I found out I’d been accepted for enrolment there. Mom and dad had already agreed to me going there if USC accepted me even though it was going to be expensive. This was all well before Jane received a full musical scholarship to attend college within our own state, curtesy of “Old Sid” having given a glowing written recommendation to that college’s recruitment officer about me.

Regardless of this I still wanted to go to USC and knowing that if I wasn’t accepted there I’d still have a college education awaiting me. Jeromy along with Michael and our 1st chair violinist Anne had also applied to USC among other colleges and in some instances were hoping for financial assistance from full or partial scholarships. I’m just not that certain however that it was Jane that won the scholarship to USC, because the day after the football match dad and I had sat down together and after listening to it together agreed the song he’d been sent was ideal for me to sing, so he and I spent all of Sunday recording it before sending it off to CMR.

Although we’d used my “stage” name “Jade” for the recording, everyone at FDR High was pretty well aware of who I really was. So it came as quite a surprise to find out through one of dad’s music friends that USC was hoping to recruit “Jade” for the start of their next term. It doesn’t matter now if it was “Jane” or “Jade” that got accepted to USC, (with a full scholarship I'd like to add) I was going to USC regardless.

Obviously part of that meant joining their marching band (which of course I was compelled to do already) although I declined to be part of their choral group after CMR had instructed dad that they wouldn't allow me (Jade) to sing there. That would have certainly meant changing keys!

I’d like to thank those of you who read “A Different Key” in all of its keys. I think (for a while) I’ll stick to writing solo stories. That way I can switch from one fantasy idea to another more easily…..To all of you out there, stay safe and healthy and try not to cough or sneeze (well not out in public anyway).