Free Dawn's Acapella by Libby Robare Page A

did that
happen?”
    “ Oh right, you didn’t
share that one!” Rose glanced at Lucy. “Oops!”
    “ Rose!”
    “ What’s that about, Lucy?”
Nick said.
    “ Let’s talk about
something else,” Lucy said. “Rose? Anything new?”
    “ I’ve got a freshman
following me,” she shrugged.
    “ You’re not changing the
subject!” Nick said.
    The three of them laughed and argued
until a voice distracted them. “Rose? Can I sit with you
guys?”
    Rose turned around. “Oh, hey there
sunshine! Pull up a chair!”
    Dawn smiled, and took a seat beside
her.
    “ These are my friends Nick
and Lucy,” Rose said. “This is that freshman I was trying to tell
you about. Dawn.”
    “ Nice to meet you,” she
said. “What are we talking about?”
    “ Lucy’s killed me in her
story!” Nick exclaimed.
    “ Oh, chill
out!”
    “ Are you a writer too?”
Dawn asked.
    “ Yeah, we all are,” Nick
said. “I’m mostly poetry, Lucy does short stories, and Rose,
well...”
    “ Rose doesn't share,” Rose
said.
    “ She’s got a novel,
though!”
    “ Cool!” Dawn said. “Can I
read it?”
    “ I haven’t let my best
friends read it, freshman! You think I’ll let you?”
    “ Maybe when it’s
done?”
    “ Okay. When it’s totally
done.”
    “ Never,” Lucy
muttered.
    “ Rose, where did you get
that dress?” Dawn asked. “I really like it.”
    “ What? Oh, someplace at
the mall. I don’t remember.”
    “ Well, you know, my
birthday’s coming up...”
    Rose giggled, and exchanged looks with
Lucy and Nick as Dawn went on.
    “ Oh, and you’ll have to
show me the choir room again, I already forgot where it is. Do you
sing? You should join!”
    “ What if I don’t
sing?”
    “ She does,” Nick said.
Rose shot him a glare.
    When the bell rang, Rose quickly
showed Dawn to the choir room before hurrying off to her own class,
meeting Nick at the door.
    “ Shook her off, did
you?”
    “ No thanks to you,” Rose
laughed.
     
    A week later, Rose was busy finishing
her homework before class when someone interrupted her. It took a
moment for her to recognize her. “Dawn? What did you do to your
hair?”
    “ Do you like it?” She ran
her fingers through her new brown hair, cut above her shoulders
just like Rose’s.
    “ It looks like mine, and I
like my hair, so yeah, I guess I do. You look cute,
sunshine.”
    “ Thanks! What are you
writing?”
    “ I’m not, freshman, this
is math.”
    “ Then what’s that?” She
pointed at another sheet of paper Rose had in front of her. “It
looks like a poem.”
    “ That’s not a
poem.”
    “ Is it a song?”
    “ It’s a nothing, is what
it is.”
    “ Sing it!”
    “ No!”
    “ Please?”
    “ I’ll make you a deal.
Give me five minutes of silence to finish my homework, and I’ll
sing a verse for you.”
    “ Deal!” Dawn said,
extending her hand. Rose shook it. Dawn took out her phone, and put
it down in front of her. “Stopwatch. Five minutes. Go!”
    Rose rolled her eyes. But to her
surprise, the little chatterbox was silent. Rose bent her head over
her homework again, only glancing up every now and then to check on
the freshman. Dawn was quiet for a whole five minutes. She finished
her last equation, dropped her pencil, and swore quietly. “I really
didn’t think you’d do that.”
    “ I wanna hear you
sing.”
    “ Okay. Fine. Just don’t
stare at me like that or I won’t be able to do it.” Rose averted
her eyes from Dawn’s too-eager face, and began softly singing the
song she wrote:
     
    We’ve been through such
crazy times
    And I can see you’re
scared for me
    But I will be just
fine
    But I’ve never felt so
strange before
    Feels like my world’s
turned upside down
    And I can’t take no
more
    All these memories coming
back and haunting me
    But in front of me, lover
you are all I see
    Love I need you now, and I
know you’ll stay with me
    Always, always
     
    “ Awesome!” Dawn said.
“Sing more!”
    “ I promised one verse.
That’s