Big Time by Tom; Ryan Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t try out for Big Time if they aren’t interested in being famous.”
    We arrive outside the doorway to Ms. Kogawa’s classroom at the same time as Tyler.
    â€œWhat do you think Kogawa is going to make us do?” he asks me.
    â€œWho knows? This is all new to me.”
    â€œI should have picked school paper,” he says before opening the door and walking into the classroom.
    â€œIs h e in choral club?” asks Meg.
    â€œYeah,” I say. “He’s doing it for the extracurricular.”
    â€œI wonder if there are any spots open,” she says, peering through the doorway at him.
    â€œI don’t think they use Auto-Tune in choral club,” I tell her. “I have to go. I’ll text you later.”
    Ms. Kogawa passes me some papers as I come into the room. It’s more sheet music, but a lot simpler than the music we used in practice.
    â€œThe goal over the next few weeks,” she says, “is for the two of you to become comfortable with basic sight-reading. I don’t expect you to get up to the same level as everyone else in the group, and that’s fine because a lot of this will be memorization, but you’ll find that a bit of hard work on this end will lead to a better understanding of things down the road.”
    For a few minutes we run scales and do some vocal exercises. Then we start to work on the music she’s given us. We stand next to her at the piano as she plays variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “The Farmer in the Dell.” It’s dead boring, but I slowly begin to make the connection between the notes on the musical scale and the words I’m singing.
    After a little while we stop for the day. Ms. Kogawa writes a website address on the board and hands us more sheet music.
    â€œCopy this address down,” she says. “This is an online tuning fork. Use it to find middle C and then practice doing these songs at least ten times before rehearsal on Sunday.”
    I glance at the songs. I’ve never heard of them, which will make it more interesting when it comes to singing them blind from sheet music.
    â€œTyler,” says Ms. Kogawa, “I’ve been having a hard time finding a bass to join us in the club. I was wondering if you have any friends who might be up for it. What about Patrick from the track team? He’s got a deep speaking voice. Maybe he’d be interested in trying out singing.”
    Tyler starts to laugh. “Sorry, Ms. Kogawa, but there’s no way Patrick is going to join choral club. Let’s just say it’s not his scene.”
    â€œWell, think about it anyway,” she says. “You too, Gerri. If anyone comes to mind thatmight be interested, let me know. They don’t even have to go to our school. They just have to be high school aged. We can push through without a bass, but we’d sound a lot fuller if we could find one.”
    I walk out of the school with Tyler. “Man,” he says. “The guys have been giving me a hard enough time about joining chorus without me trying to recruit them.”
    â€œIt’s fun though, isn’t it?” I say.
    â€œYeah,” he says. “I like it all right. I’m not telling them that though. They all think I’m only doing it because I need the extracurricular.”
    â€œSo why are you doing it?” I ask.
    He shrugs. “Because I love to sing, I guess.”

    Sudden death is the point in every season of Big Time when all the semifinalists have to compete against one another in front of the judges. I usually love sudden death—it’s one of the most exciting and stressful parts of the show—but this year all I can think is how happy I am that I don’t have to go through it. Dealing with the judges is hard enough, but the other competitors can be even worse.
    I’ve never thought about how much of a reality show Big Time really is until now.