Mistaken For A Girl Singer - Chapter 1

ALL STORY LIST  |  Chapters: CH 2 | CH 3 | CH 4  | CH 5 | CH 6 | CH 7 | CH 8 | CH 9 | CH 10 | CH 11 | CH 12 | CH 13 | CH 14 | CH 15 | CH 16 | CH 17 | CH 18 |

Summary: Terry had an incredible singing voice, but he was a loner throughout high school. For one night only, he fills in as the lead singer in his twin sister's country band, but there's a record company representative in the crowd. He confuses Chris for a lady and offers an irresistible proposition to the band. Chris's life takes some unexpected turns when the band's female members and a few of their moms become involved.

Hey, I never said I was a singer," Terry said as they finished running through the song that she and Margo had written. Terry and Margo had been best friends since seventh grade, when Terry had been promoted from fifth grade to seventh, skipping sixth.

 Now, as college freshmen, the girls had convinced two other classmates, Grace and Gina, to form a country band. They'd been working on a lot of cover songs by The Dixie Chicks, Sugarland, and other country bands for about two weeks now and the instruments were all sounding good. Unfortunately, none of the girls were really 'lead singers,' so they weren't really ready to play out yet.

"Well," laughed Margo as she slipped the heavy bass guitar off of her shoulders, "I think we need a fifth member to our motley crew if we're ever going to make something of this."

"All right. I will put up a sign in the student union tomorrow and see what happens," Terry sighed in agreement."

"I don't think we'll be ready for the open mic at the student center next week, though. Oh, well."

The conversation about what kind of a person they needed as a singer continued. A great voice, obviously, a team player, maybe a songwriter, too, etc.  Just then, they heard the door at the top of the stairs open and someone coming down from Terry's mother's house.

The conversation quieted, and the girls all turned to see Terry's twin brother, Chris, coming down to the basement. He smiled at the girls and excused himself.

"Sorry, ladies, I just have to put my guitar away. I didn't mean to interrupt. You guys are sounding great!"

He squeezed his slender frame between the drums and an amplifier to put his case in the corner.

Chris and Terry had been born within minutes of each other - Terry was six minutes older - but they had lived very different lives. Both loved and excelled at music, a legacy left to them by their late father, but while most things came very easily to Terry, Chris struggled. When Terry skipped sixth grade, all those years ago, Chris felt left behind and lonely without her. Then, when he was in seventh grade, Chris was diagnosed with a life-threatening blood disease that landed him in the hospital for months resulting in him having to repeat that grade.

Now, Terry was a college freshman and Chris was still a high school junior.  It wasn't just the academic stuff, though. At five-foot-eight with a 26-inch waist and a C-cup bust-line, Terry was slender and beautiful.

At five-foot-six with a 24-inch waist, Chris was very small for a guy and down-right scrawny.  As Chris was squeezing back towards the stairs, Margo, called over to him.

"Hey, Chris! Are there any good singers hanging around at your school?"

"Chris is a great singer!"

Gina interjected. I heard him at a coffee house I went to at the high school last week.

Chris smiled at the compliment. He wasn't aware that Gina had seen the performance. He was the quintessential quiet kid at school, but he liked to sing and play whenever he could.

"Thanks, Gina."

"Well, wait a minute!"

Margo said.

"No offense, Chris, but we are looking for a girl singer, just for rehearsal purposes, would you mind singing a few songs for us?

It would be a huge help!"

'Let's see,' Chris thought, 'Go upstairs and veg out in front of the TV, or hang with my sister's three beautiful college friends.' "Sure, I'll give it a shot," he said with a big grin.

Terry moved away from the mic to give Chris some floor space. She held out a list of songs for Chris to peruse.

"Do you know any of these songs?"

She asked, honestly wondering if he did. Terry listened almost exclusively to country stations, but Chris was really into his dad's old classic rock CDs. He particularly loved Boston, Journey, and Rush - the bands with singers with insanely high voices.

That's how Chris sang, too.  "I think I know some from your iPod in the car. I can try."

Margo was looking through the lyric sheets and found a song she thought that he might know, I'll Stand By You, by Carrie Underwood.

"Here, you know this, don't you?"

"Sure. It was a Pretenders song before it was a country song."

Margo came over and put the music on the stand in front of the mic. She was a good 3 inches taller than Chris and he had been doing a lousy job of hiding a crush he had on her for years.

She put her arm around his shoulders and explained how they played the song. When she was done, she rumpled his shaggy, slightly long hair and went back to her bass.  "Just relax," encouraged Terry, "and sing. If you need to drop it down an octave, don't worry about it. I just don't sing well enough when I'm playing guitar."

Then she started playing the introduction.

Chris listened and closed his eyes as the song began. Then he started to sing. He kept his eyes closed and got into the song as the music continued. He'd never sung with a band before and it was easy to lose himself in the sound that was all around him. He knew the words and just kept singing without opening his eyes.

He was truly lost in the music and felt a deep connection to all the sounds around him.  When the last note stopped ringing off the concrete walls, he opened his eyes and looked at the shocked faces of the young women around him.

"Chris, honey," Terry said, "that was astounding!

You're amazing!"

All the others agreed.  Grace said, "Maybe we should rethink our 'chick-band' idea. After all, there have been tons of bands made up of men with a girl in the front, but I've never seen an all-girl band with a guy out in front. It could be a great gimmick for us."

"Possibly," Margo said, "but for now, anyway, Chris, will you consider helping us out? Terry and I have written a couple of songs we'd really like to do at the open mic on campus next week. We could tweak it a little for a guy. Would you learn them and sing with us next Thursday?"

"Sure," he said as Margo hugged him and gave him a peck on the check.

"Ok!" Terry said.

"I'll teach it to you and, girls, let's get back to this tomorrow and see if we can make this all work! I'm excited about this!"

For the next three hours, Margo, Terry, and Chris sat in the living room and worked through the songs the girls had written. Not only did Chris master the song, he came up with some background vocals for the girls to sing that made the songs sound much better.

They took a break for dinner with Terry and Chris' mom - just some pizza. All three were excited about the progress they'd made in such a short time.

"You know," their mother said, "it's wonderful to see you guys doing something together for a change. I miss having my twins around. You two used to be inseparable, but you haven't done anything together in years."

"Mom, you should hear him! He is unbelievable! He sings like an angel," Terry gushed as she gave Chris her best 'big-sister' hug.

"It's true, Mrs. Walters. He is great! And he's so creative, too," Margo added.  Chris was surprised that the girls liked what he could do, and he was looking forward to keeping at it. So, after dinner, he asked the girls into the living room again and they started working on writing some new songs.