Page 18 of Substitute for Love

Inside was only one sheet of paper with these instructions: “Have students play the set list on the white board for the first half of class, then the choir will come in and sing as they all go over the songs together. Keep kids on task. These are the songs they’re performing at the competition in two weeks.”

Choir. The choir class was coming into the band room. Each class period, all day. Avery was coming in. All day. His heart skipped a beat. He cleared his throat and smoothed his shirt as if it would help him erase anything he was feeling.

Should he clean up the band room a bit? It wasn’t like this was his apartment or something. But the band room was about as messy as his place. Stacks of music covered every surface; extra band instrument cases littered every corner; the students’ chairs were set up every which way. Gabe normally didn’t pay attention to such things, but today was different.

He wrote “Mr. Manwaring” on the white board. “Before we get started, let’s move our chairs in a more circular formation.” He had noticed on the rolls that each band class indicated each class size wasn’t big, but the instruments did take up a lot of space. “The choir class will be joining us later and we need more space for them to stand.”

“Wait, the choir is coming today?” a student asked.

“Isn’t Miss Williams subbing in choir today?” one student commented.

“Should we be on our best behavior?” a snarky kid joked.

“Oooooh! Miss Williams. He totally saved the day in her class yesterday. Are they dating yet?”

Gabe rolled his eyes. He’d already gotten a few comments of people assuming they were dating. Was it because they were similar ages—or had he already been caught looking at her? He should be less obvious.

Gabe tried to ignore their comments. “Who wants to be band leader today? Let’s get started on the set list, shall we?”

There was always, always a student in band who was more than willing to act as band director and do a much better job than him. He chose one of the students, who got right to work getting started on the set list. They sounded pretty good. Now that they were busy, he got to work on tidying up the place. Moving extra chairs and band instruments. Putting all the music away on a shelf. Picking up garbage off the teacher’s desk.

So many teachers’ classrooms looked like this. They didn’t have the time to do anything but teach, grade, and go home. Maybe he should tidy up more often to help them out.

Gabe kept checking the clock. Only a few minutes left. Would Avery be okay about having to come into the band room? With him? If the students got rowdy, he’d at least be able to help.

In between songs, a knock came to the door. His attention jetted to the sound. Should he go answer it like a doorman?

“Uh, come in!” he yelled.

The small choir class filed in and Gabe directed them to stand around the band. At the end of the line was Avery.

He wasn’t sure where she should stand. Not that he would tell her what to do.

She looked around, found his eyes, and a friendly smile. Gabe wasn’t sure if it was a co-worker smile or a happy to see him smile. Then she headed toward the keyboard at the front of the class and sat, placing sheet music in front of her. Avery nodded at the student band leader, who waited for everyone’s attention.

For once, he wasn’t involved in anything going on. His hands and feet were antsy—they needed to be doing something. Was there a stress ball anywhere?

Then Avery started to play. Gabe looked at the board. “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. Her hands flew across the keys, thesound vibrating through his chest. He closed his eyes for a minute, getting lost in the music.

The band played the intro, followed by the choir. Their sound filled the room, and they hit the notes and blended well. Gabe opened his eyes. The band leader was trying his best to keep everyone together, and for the most part did a good job. But Gabe only had ears for the piano and eyes for the pianist.

They hadn’t even practiced the entire set list together by the time the bell rang, so everyone scattered before he had a chance to talk to Avery. Second period passed like the first, except this was concert band, and concert choir joined them. They did different songs than first period, and they were just as impressive. Third period was a freshman class of band with a year one choir class that came in, and their simpler songs needed a little ironing out, but still they held their own.

Each time Gabe never got tired of listening to her play.

Finally, it was fourth period. Prep period. All the students had left, and Avery stayed seated at the keyboard, tinkering around.

“Wait,” he said, “do you have prep this period, too?”

She nodded.

“Then lunch is after.” His stomach rumbled thinking about food. But he’d be lying to himself if he hadn’t anticipated spending prep and lunch with Avery. “You want to, you know, go get some food?”

Avery stopped playing and looked up. “Uh, are we allowed to leave campus?”

Gabe offered a goofy grin. “We’re subs. What are they going to do, fire us?”

She went back to playing as he approached. “Or we could stay here, and you could keep playing,” Gabe said.

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