222 Unexpected Surprises

222 Unexpected Surprises

The next morning at school, I arrived a little early to make up for being almost late the day before. I also didn't try to include Amy this time as I spread out the hugs, cheek kisses, and fist bumps with the popular crowd around them. This did not go unnoticed and Amy herself looked sad. Before the bell rang for us to go to class, I turned to her to speak and she shook her head with a sigh.

I shrugged and walked off. I had better things to do if she was going to completely reject me. I mean, I don't think we're even friends at this point and Vicky looked like she was grinding her teeth as I talked to her clique like I had known them for years. Telepathy for the win!

Classes were getting better as I matched my pace to both the teacher and the students, asking questions during class to make things clearer for the students to understand better. Well, when the teachers allowed it. Some of them were only there for the high paycheck and it showed.

When lunchtime came around, I laughed when I was one of the first students that entered the cafeteria, because there were now six squares of table setups among the many straight tables. One was for the popular kids, one was for the nerds, one was for the jocks, and I was sure a couple of them were just for the hell of it to copy the popular table.

“Lunch is on me!” I declared loudly as the cafeteria's tables started filling up. “One main meal, one side dish, one dessert, and one drink only!” I clarified, in case anyone tried to get smart or be an ass. There were a lot of cheers and a few groans from the nerds, which made me grin at them.

There were only five people in front of me in the line, so I had to keep making an approval signal, like nods and thumbs-up when each of them reached the cash register. When I reached the register, I handed over my credit card and gave the girl a few mental commands to not overcharge me and to stick to my restrictions. She was to also give it back at the end of the period.

“You really are serious?” She asked me and slipped the card into her shirt pocket after swiping it.

“Sure.” I said and nodded at the other workers. “It applies to you and the staff, too.”

“Can we order out instead?” One of them asked.

I thought about it for a moment. “As long as you order individual means and not party packs or anything, unless you're sharing the party packs, then get a couple of those.” I said and then chuckled. “I doubt you're going have any pizza specials delivered before lunch is over, though.”

“You'd be surprised, kid.” An older man said and took out his cell phone. “Hey, Frank. I need three lunch specials stat. One with the works, one meat lovers, and one cheese and pep.” “Uh huh.” He said and held out a hand to the girl and he quietly read out the credit card number.

“Better make it five and both meat lovers.” I said and he changed his order.

“Twenty-five minutes? Sweet. I'll swing by.” The man said and hung up. “Thanks a lot.”

“It's no problem.” I said and picked up my tray. “I'll be over there at the popular table.”

Both he and the cashier laughed. “We know.”

As an afterthought, I pulled out a twenty to hold out to him and he looked confused. “Gas money. I'd be paying that for a delivery tip anyway.”

The man took the money and nodded. “You're all right, kid.”

I nodded and walked over to the popular table and Jessica and Brittany were already there. “You're not getting anything?”

“PIZZA!” They both yelled and laughed.

I chuckled and sat down. “It's meat lovers.” I warned them.

“We looooove meat.” Brittany said in a sultry voice and Jessica blushed hard.

I was glad I wasn't chewing on anything, because I barked a loud laugh and would have spit it out. Brittany grinned and reached over with a tentative hand to hover it over my french fries. I nodded and turned my tray to make it easier for her and Jessica to pick at them.

“You're the best!” Brittany said and snatched the biggest one, of course.

I cut up the chicken fingers on the second plate into bite-size pieces and both girls let out happy sounds at me making my whole meal into easily eaten finger food. A few minutes later, Jensen, Chelsea, and Clarice showed up with trays of food and sat around us.

“You're insane.” Jensen said and gave me a quick kiss. “You're buying the whole school lunch?”

“If they can get it during the period.” I said and she nodded.

“And he ordered two pizzas.” Brittany said and tossed a piece of chicken finger into her mouth.

“I knew there was a reason you hadn't grabbed a meal yet.” Chelsea said.

“It's meeeat lovvverrrrs.” Brittany purred and every girl at the table blushed and how suggestive it was. She laughed at flustering them so easily and ate another french fry.

“The list of phrases is on the standing piano.” Paige said and pointed.

Greg let the intercom button go and walked over to the piano. He sat down and looked at the list where the sheet music was usually held and nodded. There was a microphone on a swivel mount stand and he checked that it was plugged in and flicked the little on switch.

“Testing, testing. One, two, three.” Greg said and Paige gave him a thumbs-up gesture. “Okay, let's see.” He read the first line in his head and nodded, then cleared his throat. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

The intercom clicked. “A bit slower and closer to the microphone. I missed a couple of pees.”

“You should get your kidneys checked.” Greg joked and then winced as Paige send a feedback whine through the intercom. “Right, sorry. Serious time now.”

Paige gave him another thumbs-up gesture.

Greg leaned forward slightly and spoke again. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Paige held up two fingers and he nodded and repeated the line again. Another thumbs-up and he moved on to the next tongue twister on the list of phrases. He had to repeat a few of the different lines as Paige worked to adjust the settings to catch everything he said.

Greg went to the next microphone and checked that one as well, going through the phrases again. There were only three microphones, so he was done fairly quickly and they were all working perfectly.

“All right, that's done. Great work, Greg!” Paige praised him.

“It was no big deal.” Greg denied. “A trained monkey could have done it. Oo-oo-oo-ee-ee!”

Paige laughed and shook her fist at him. “Don't you dare throw your poop at the window to prove it!”

Greg laughed, too. “The room's already monkey-proof, so that's not necessary.”

“Good.” Paige said and then schooled her face. “I need a few different samples of your voice, just to make sure everything is working right. I have your talking voice, your monotone voice, and your laughing voice.” She paused for a second and took a breath. “How about you try your singing voice?”

Greg shrugged. “Do you have any preferences on chirping style or should I just wing it?”

“Hardy-har-har.” Paige said and rolled her eyes. “Try something soft and we can go from there.”

Greg nodded and went over to the instruments. He picked up an acoustic guitar and went back to the main microphone and sat on the stool. He positioned the third microphone to point at the center of the guitar and tilted the main one to point at his mouth.

Paige barely stopped herself from asking what he was doing, because he moved like he knew what he was doing and wasn't just playing up an act to fool around with a guitar he probably never played before. Her eyes widened at what he did next.

Greg strummed the guitar a few times, shook his head slightly, and plucked each string individually and tightened or loosened the tuning pegs to get the right sounds. He strummed it again and nodded at it sounding right and took a deep breath, let it out, and started strumming as he sang.

“Some days, it don't come easy. Some days, it don't come hard. Some days, it don't come at all and these are the days that never end.” Greg sang with an angelic voice.

Paige was frozen stiff and all of the well groomed feathers on her head were now fluffed out.

“Some nights, you're breathing fire. Some nights, you're just carved in ice. Some nights you're like nothing I've ever seen before or will again.” Greg continued to sing and strummed the guitar. “Maybe I'm crazy; but, it's crazy and it's true. I know you can save me, no one else can save me now but you.”

Paige started trembling and she had to pull her hands away from the console so she wouldn't ruin the absolutely perfect recording she was getting of a song she had never heard before.

Greg started to strum the guitar hard. “As long as the wheels are turning. As long as the fires are burning. As long as your prayers are coming true, you better believe it.” He slowed the strumming to a soft prattle. “I would do anything for love, I know it's true and that's a fact. I would do anything for love, and there'll never be no turning back... but, I'll never do it better than I do it with you, so long, soo looong.”

Paige felt like her heart was soaring as she listened to him sing his heart out, professing undying love for her, and she couldn't help but think he was bearing his soul to her. Her nipples hardened, she grew wet down there, and her insides squirmed with need as her own feelings of love surged forth and wanted him to hear her bare her soul, too.

*

I had to change some of the lyrics and cut a lot of it out, since I couldn't sing the accompanying female part. I'd have to write them out and see if Paige would do them to give my own deep voice a great counter. Maybe make it a special edition or something, because it was a long song if you included all the extra lyrics.

“No, I woon't doooo thaaaaat.” I sang as I finished strumming the guitar and plucked the last few notes. I waited for a few seconds, just in case it was needed for a clean sound cut, then I carefully put the guitar down. Why? Because the door of the booth opened and an extremely horny Bad Canary rushed in and tackled me to the floor.

I never had the chance to use the intercom to call for help as Paige ravaged me, just as I had joked about before. I may have also slightly underestimated just how much Paige was going to enjoy finding out that I was a singer like her and could play the guitar, too.