Chapter 1 - THE BLUE ROBE
The blue acrylic paint struck Elias Reed’s white choir robe with a wet slap.
For half a second, nobody reacted.
Then Chloe Mercer laughed.
“You can hum from the back row.”
Paint ran from Elias’s collar in thick lines, soaking the front of the robe and dripping onto his canvas sneakers.
Twelve choir students stood around him in the backstage hallway of Westbridge High School’s auditorium.
Almost all of them had their phones out.
Recording.
Elias had transferred to Westbridge only three weeks earlier.
He knew almost nobody.
Yet after the school’s blind solo auditions, he had been assigned the center position for the district showcase.
The position Chloe had occupied for three years.
She had not taken the result well.
“Look at him,” Chloe said.
“He's shaking.”
Her friends laughed.
Elias stared at the floor.
He was shaking.
Not because Chloe frightened him.
Because twenty minutes earlier he had received another anonymous message.
YOU STOLE SOMETHING THAT WASN'T YOURS.
The center position?
Probably.
But this was the fourth message.
And the first three had mentioned things Chloe should not have known.
His old school.
His father.
His scholarship.
Chloe stepped closer.
“Take off the robe.”
Elias looked up.
“No.”
Her smile faded.
“Excuse me?”
“I said no.”
“You aren't walking onstage like that.”
She grabbed his collar.
Elias moved.
Not toward her.
Toward the heavy microphone stand beside the wall.
He lifted it just enough to slam the metal base against the tile.
CLANG.
The sound echoed through the corridor.
Chloe jumped backward.
Elias released the stand.
“Don't touch me.”
His voice no longer shook.
Chloe's eyes narrowed.
“You're a nobody.”
Elias wiped paint from his chin.
“I run this choir.”
“No.”
Someone snickered.
Chloe spun toward them.
Silence returned.
She looked at Elias again.
“Give me the robe.”
“No.”
“I'll make sure you don't sing tonight.”
Elias glanced at the phones.
Then toward the live microphone mounted on the stand.
He removed it.
Chloe smiled.
“What are you going to do? Cry into it?”
Elias closed his eyes.
He breathed.
Then sang one note.
Nothing complicated.
One sustained tone.
Pure.
Controlled.
Perfectly centered.
The live microphone fed into the auditorium system.
His voice exploded from backstage monitors and through the empty main hall.
The lockers along the corridor seemed to vibrate.
Every laugh stopped.
Chloe's expression changed.
For the first time, Elias saw what she actually felt.
Fear.
Not of him.
Of being replaceable.
The metal stage door opened.
Mr. Harrison stepped into the hallway.
The choir director looked first at Elias.
Then the ruined robe.
Then the students holding phones.
Finally Chloe.
“Well.”
His voice was cold.
“I think we're going to need to review the audition tapes.”
Chloe's confidence returned instantly.
“Mr. Harrison, Elias threatened me with the microphone stand.”
Several students nodded.
Of course.
They had already decided on the version.
Mr. Harrison looked at Elias.
“Did you?”
“No.”
Chloe laughed.
“He slammed it right beside me!”
“After she grabbed my robe.”
“She was helping him take it off,” said Madison Cole, Chloe's closest friend.
Mr. Harrison looked around.
“Phones.”
Nobody moved.
“Every recording.”
Chloe crossed her arms.
“You can't take our phones.”
“No.”
Mr. Harrison agreed.
“But you can preserve the recordings and send copies to administration.”
One student quietly lowered his phone.
Mr. Harrison noticed.
“You especially, Trevor.”
Trevor swallowed.
“Why me?”
“Because you've been recording since before Elias entered this hallway.”
Trevor froze.
That mattered.
Elias turned.
Trevor had been recording before the paint incident?
Mr. Harrison continued:
“No deleting anything.”
Chloe laughed.
“This is ridiculous. He ruined the rehearsal.”
Mr. Harrison looked at the paint cup in the trash.
Then at her.
“No, Chloe.”
“You did.”
Her face hardened.
“You're taking his side because of one note?”
“No.”
Mr. Harrison said.
“I'm taking evidence seriously.”
He stepped toward Elias.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Do you want the nurse?”
“No.”
“Do you want to leave rehearsal?”
Elias hesitated.
Every instinct told him to go.
Transfer again.
Start over again.
Disappear before people learned more about him.
Then he remembered the anonymous messages.
Someone wanted exactly that.
“I want to sing.”
Mr. Harrison nodded.
“Then we'll find another robe.”
Chloe stared.
“You're still putting him center?”
“That depends on the audition record.”
Mr. Harrison looked directly at her.
“Which we're reviewing now.”
Chloe suddenly went pale.
Not annoyed.
Pale.
Elias noticed.
So did Mr. Harrison.
He walked toward the auditorium office.
“Everyone stays available.”
Then he stopped.
“Chloe.”
“Yes?”
“Come with me.”
She didn't move.
“What for?”
“You're choir captain.”
He looked at her.
“You should be very interested in proving the audition process was fair.”
Elias watched her.
And for the first time, he wondered whether Chloe was afraid of more than losing a solo.
Maybe she knew something about the auditions.
Something Mr. Harrison had not seen.
Behind Elias, Trevor whispered:
“Oh, man.”
Elias turned.
Trevor was staring at his phone.
“What?”
Trevor's face had drained of color.
“The audition folder.”
“What about it?”
Trevor looked toward Chloe.
Then lowered his voice.
“My video caught her saying something before you came in.”
“What?”
Trevor swallowed.
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“She said your score wasn't supposed to survive.”
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