November 3, Woodfield Primary School 1997
Almost as soon as I started practicing the past papers for the math challenge and learning more knowledge by seeing new things and receiving revelations, I had to stop. Half-term break had started, giving me a week's rest but this Monday had twisted my trajectory in life considerably. Not that I knew it at the time. In the morning, I had sharpened my mind with Mrs. Ramsdale's papers and after our lunch we had our last class - music.
Mrs. Moss seemed unusually chipper for the day and I found out why very soon.
"Today, we will be doing an impromptu audition for Oliver! Not you Ollie, Oliver is just the name of a play. We will putting on a production, that means children, you can play on the stage and sing for your mums and da's!" Mrs. Moss started on her pitch.
Kids muttered but most were acting their age and while some showed excitement most were drooling and not paying attention. Few even seemed to want to take a nap after their lunches.
"Do all of you want to sing? Maggie, would you like to sing?" Mrs. Moss tried to get the kids more enthused about the project, "Anyone want to dance? Who wants to dance, raise your hands!"
Half the kids raised their hands but they almost always raised their hands even if they didn't agree with anything. Sometimes I wondered if schools only created discipline rather than actually teach something useful.
"Okay! We will all be dancing and singing, who likes Christmas here?"
This time the kids all shouted their approval and raised their hands,
"Me! Me! I love Christmas!"
"We will put on the best and the most beautiful play, your year and the older kids will all be able to act in it. But even if you're not selected, you will still be able to watch and have fun okay?"
At some nods, she bulldozed on and got out a stack of papers to hand out while explaining what it was. It was a troublesome thing and she had to fight to get kids to not fight over what appeared to be printed lyrics.
"Let's see if you all can read. This is a song from the play and a very fun one at that. Come on read with me!" Mrs. Moss got everyone started by first orienting us on the line.
Revelations never came to my mind, this was something that I seemingly had never heard of in my past life. Something that seemed to be becoming more common as I remembered more and more things.
[Food Glorious Food] was the title of the song. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell the tune as it had no notations and only included the lyrics. Mrs. Moss did her best to get the children started on reading and it was a rough going from then on. Not all of my classmates had mastered reading and they still had problems with the words that they hadn't encountered so far resulting in everyone reading and repeating the lines in discordant harmony.
After reading through the first verse and repeating the chorus twice, Mrs. Moss sat on a stool so that she could play the piano. We started the vocal training that we had become used to ever since our first class with her. She played the major scale and we repeated it back to her, we started quiet and short until our vocal cords were warmed up enough to sustain notes longer. She also had a brilliant method of doing silly bits that we had to repeat by doing tongue trills or blowing raspberries. Kids really liked trying to spit at each other and I hated that part the most.
Mrs. Moss picked up her speed on the piano, shifting fully into a song. She bid us listen and sang the first verse and got us involved quickly.
Is it worth the waiting for?
If we live 'til eighty-four
All we ever get is gru…el!
Ev'ry day we say our prayer --
Will they change the bill of fare?
Still, we get the same old gruel!
There's not a crust, not a crumb can we find,
Can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge?
But there's nothing to stop us from getting a thrill
When we all close our eyes and imagine
I started to enjoy the verse even with how awful we sounded. Mrs. Moss wasn't disappointed and continued to dive into each line and notes we should hit, and once the attention span of children started to diminish, she would immediately move onto the next lines. Teachers had their methods and Mrs. Moss manipulated us brilliantly and kept things interesting.
Chorus was everyone's favorite, it was enjoyable to sing about food items that we all loved eating. I mean who didn't like jelly and mustard? Who doesn't fancy a pudding with a side of sausage? I almost laughed out loud after realizing why we were having this class after our lunch.
Mrs. Moss' teaching method was enlightening, each repetition of a line sounded better than the next and she let us rest our voices inbetween. Soon, we were moving on to singing by ourselves. One by one we sang with Mrs. Moss taking notes after each performance, yet even as I knew that she was judging us and scoring us in that sheet of paper, she seemed so genuine with her compliments and encouragements toward every shy children singing terribly.
"Wilf! Your turn. Which verse do you want to sing?"
"First verse." I replied and sang it to Mrs. Moss' accompanying piano.
Kids around me looked at me jealously as I sang but most were smiling and visually excited in my stead. I could only thank my revelations that had taught me so much about singing and my mum who put up with me practicing in my room. My singing, I think no one minded but vocal training had exercises that sounded batshit insane, trills, humming and gliding notes of all kinds were exercised and sounded like crying babies or tortured animals. It was however the only way to get better at singing and I liked having a talent for something and felt like I owed it to my past self to learn what I presumably were good at in my last life.
"Well in! Give Wilf a round of applause!" Mrs. Moss said excitedly, the exact same words as every other kid who sung before me had gotten.
I felt a pang of envy and remorse wash over me. For some reason, I was expecting a praise that would set me apart from the rest of the children. Yet, Mrs. Moss gave me the exact same comment as everyone else. My budding ego that I wasn't even aware about made itself abundantly clear and a revelation bounced in my mind as it warned me about ego. It was an odd feeling, I understood the revelation's warning but didn't want to accept it. I had sung better than all these other dumb kids and I should've gotten my laurels, wasn't it obvious to everyone? My emotions were heavy in my throat and I felt a tear coming to my eyes as I joined my classmates again.
Living my second life was weird and I had received many a revelation before that let me know what my current problem was. Namely, it had something to do with hormones and brain chemistry. Children felt emotions with more intensity, each chemical responsible for any emotion felt more heightened to the young'uns. I had experienced it the most when I was a wee toddler, at times it felt like I cried and laughed in the same breath.
Memories of meditation methods lay at the back of my mind, I had tried three so far with no success. But I retrieved one of the last ones I had been made aware of. For some reason, the my experience regarding meditation just didn't support the revelation's findings. In fact, it was all load of crock and this method was the same in that it did nothing for me. Maybe it would be effective when I'm older but so far, meditation just wasn't real.
"Very well done, Abbey! Giver her a cheer!" Mrs. Moss said and I felt myself clench my jaw, she wouldn't would she?
"That was everyone!" Mrs. Moss continued, "How about we sing it together just one more time, this time everyone together!"
That got me excited and I forgot my little grudge with her about Abby's different compliment. She had us stop a few times and repeat the previous line but we got through it without much interruption and sang it with increased proficiency. Mrs. Moss complimented us together and even had individual compliments for a Ronnie and Maude, who had stopped sounding like dying cats and more like kids with tone deafness. I really was starting to like Mrs. Moss, I knew what she was doing but I couldn't help but feel proud at each of her compliments even if it wasn't directly meant for me.
"That was amazing! Now, who wants to dance?" Mrs. Moss asked, answer was a resounding agreement.
I think it's better that I don't mention how that went. For how bad we sounded. we were much better singers than dancers, indeed. Mrs. Moss, bless hear heart tried her best to get everyone sorted and moving in tandem but kids wanted to dance silly and play. As good as she was, she had trouble managing to get everyone sorted. I wasn't much better, dancing was another field that my past self seemed to know well. But I hadn't practiced it before and muscle memory just didn't seem to be included in the revelations.
One thing that I seemed to have an advantage in was my ability to never be embarrassed about anything I did. For some reason, I didn't feel shy at all with doing something stupid or being perceived as an idiot, so I practiced as I watched Mrs. Moss and by the time she had me perform a jig, she had complimented me. It felt like injecting pure cocaine into my bloodstream, that was something I was almost sure my past self had done as I had too much knowledge surrounding that. My undeveloped brain would probably take the endorphins from pride, it felt more addictive.
"Thank you everyone! You all did an absolutely brilliant job! Now let's rest our voices and our feet, take a five minute break!" Mrs. Moss shouted over the kids who started to get louder, this was their favorite time, the break.
"Come here, Wilfred." Mrs. Moss called out, along with six more kids from my year.
"Seven of you were all first-rate. Well done, all of you can play a character in the production of Oliver! How do you like that?" Mrs. Moss asked.
Everyone seemed to like it as I did, "Love it!"
"Okay, we will do just one more exercise so I can know how high or low you can sing. Let's start with you Meghan."
Rest of the class went as usual, we sang the same old songs or did the same old exercises of repeating notes back to our teacher and doing cooldowns where we let our vocal cords relax. After the class, Mrs. Moss took me aside.
"Wilfred, I want to offer you one of two roles. You can be the lead character, his name is Oliver Twist, an orphan who goes on this adventure to find his family. Or if you want, you can play Artful Dodger. Erm, it means clever, real smart and up to no good." Mrs. Moss explained almost tripping over her words,
Wow, she was really laying it on thick, "Is Artful Dodger the villain of the show?"
"No, not at all! He is a thief but a good person inside, he teaches Oliver how to survive on the street. I think you'll be great at playing him because you're really bright and Artful Dodger needs to sound smart for everyone to like him."
"Ah right. Can I play the main character, though?" I asked, it sounded better to be the main character even if Artful Dodger sounded right up my alley.
"Yes, you could play either characters. I'd like you for Artful Dodger but it might make more sense to get the Year 6 boys to play him. He is older than Oliver, you see?"
I mulled it over in a short time but my revelations gave me a solution to this minor dilemma, "Could I read the script then tell you my decision?"