Beth finished her toilet-lunch and placed her lunchbox back in her locker as she rushed to make the start of her first afternoon class.  Music. A class she actually enjoyed and one in which her teacher didn't make reference to her size or physical abilities. 

Beth walked into the classroom and the smell of dusty music sheets and the metallic stands filled the room. She could see most of her class already sat in their places and she scanned across their faces. Jessica and friends planted firmly front centre. Her hair now loosely fell over her slender shoulders and her makeup flawlessly reapplied outlined her perfect features. Her clothes hugged her perfect figure and she was smiling her perfect smile at Michael who stared adoringly into her perfect oval eyes. Beth purposely walked quietly and slowly towards the back of the class, unnoticed and invisible to everyone except Mr Swales. "Aah, Beth, excellent, we can continue with the piece we were working on last week!" he bellowed and Beth's shoulder's sank. She slid onto her chair, burying her face in her hands, cheeks glowing with the agony of his words. She'd forgotten entirely about the previous week's lesson and the humiliation she had endured. How could she forget? For that one, excruciating lesson she was no longer invisible to her peers and had suddenly found herself centre stage.  

Beth's eyes darted around the class as heads began to turn around in front of her and the colour in her cheeks began to darken.  Jessica eyed her incredulously and Beth looked away, afraid to catch her stare. Beth's eyes then rested on a softer face with a smile that warmed her heart and took the sting out of her cheeks a little. Miles. He grinned at her, raising one eyebrow and indicating to the front. Beth found herself smiling back and she looked back at the faces still glaring at her. But their expressions confused her. She was accustomed to blank faces as people looked through her and even looks of derision or disgust as they surveyed the size of her frame. But this was different. Their expressions were not of indifference, pity or dismissal but of ... expectation. Jessica's face was not incredulity, but anticipation. As Beth looked upon her perfect, radiant face, Jessica opened her perfect lips and spoke, "Don't be shy, Beth. We've been waiting to hear you sing since last week. Come on!" 

Beth examined her tone for insincerity and analyzed it for signs of gentle mocking, but found nothing untoward in her manner. She scanned around the class and they all shared the same expectant face with Miles clearly the most enthusiastic of them all. 

"Miss Evans?" the teacher inquired, "Do you wish to join me at the front or do I need to issue you with a formal invitation first?" 

Mr Swales' sarcasm dulled the moment for Beth as she continued to analyze the new experience of being vaguely admired. As she carefully extracted herself from her chair, making sure the arms didn't grip onto her thighs bringing the furniture with her, she slowly made her way to the front of the class. Mr Swales was already behind the keyboard, playing the introduction to the song. 

"Now, there's no time to warm up I'm afraid as I'd like to get started on the class learning the backing vocals, if you please" Mr Swales began to quiet squeals of delight from a few of the girls in the class. "Now, remember, Miss Evans, this song is about a woman who loves a man without reservation, with every fibre of her being." Beth blushed as her dusty old teacher spoke of romance and passion but without thinking, Beth glanced up towards Miles. His eyes instantly met hers and she could see laughter in his eyes as he grinned back at her, colour rushing to her cheeks once more, betraying her for one moment. 

"Now, she loves this man," Mr Swales continued "despite everyone in the town thinking she's crazy and while she knows he's wrong for her, she's appealing to them. She thinks that they couldn't understand the love she feels for this man unless they'd truly been in love." 

Beth turned back to Mr Swales, putting her back to the rest of the class and concentrated on the closing bars of the introduction, finding her starting note in her head. She cleared her throat quietly, took a breath and softly began to sing. 

"You can blame me, try to shame me, and still I'll care for you..."

Mr Swales stopped playing and the silence in the room was momentarily deafening. Beth gasped. Was she off key, did her voice sound terrible, was she singing the right words? Questions darted through her mind as she frantically tried to read his face for clues and then looked to the class. What were they thinking?

"Oh lord," Mr Swales suddenly began, startling Beth, "I'd forgotten just how good you sounded. Utterly sublime, Miss Evans. Where have you been hiding all these years in my school? Clarinet lessons? Pah! You should've been in choir all this time!" and he started playing the final bars of the introduction again, "Now once more, Beth, but really feel the words this time and then we will work on those backing vocals with the rest of you!"

"You can blame me, try to shame me, and still I'll care for you. You can run around even put me down, still I'll be there for you ... " with her eyes firmly shut as they always were when she sang, Beth felt her way through the song, making sure she concentrated on each line, timing her phrasing to match the sentiment and with each, small crescendo, accentuated the sadness and resignation this woman felt by the hopeless love she felt for this man. She reached the end and Mr Swales played out the final bars. It wasn't until the echo of the last chord faded that Beth dared to open her eyes, adjusting them to the brightness of the room. The silence again pressing her ears. She allowed herself to scan quickly across the room and noticed at once how transfixed they all appeared, each of them occupying their own mental and emotional space and at once Beth realized that her singing had transported them there. Her singing. Her voice. She did that. 

She allowed herself to look at Miles, the only person who seemed to be looking in her direction. His eyes, usually looking moments from laughter were glassy and clouded. Beth felt a stabbing in her stomach, concerned that her singing had not reached him as it had the others, but then the solitary tear falling down his lovely, round cheek betrayed the glassy expression in his eyes. It had moved him more than anyone else in the room. A peculiar feeling churned around Beth's stomach and she momentarily analyzed it before recognizing something she'd not felt for a long time. Pride. 

"Right, now you lot have heard how it SHOULD sound, I think it's time you learned the backing vocals, don't you?" and with that with everyone's train of thought broken, they turned their attention to the front of the class.

Beth continued singing bars of the song as the class learned each line of the backing vocals, with harmonies saved for only the more skilled singers in the group. Jessica found herself in this group, much to her delight and Beth studied her as she saw her perfect face concentrating intently as they all learned the song together. Jessica would look to Beth for confirmation that she was getting her timing right and Beth found herself encouraging this goddess with each line, smiling at her approvingly as she sang.  

"Right, let's run through it all, come on then Beth, give it some welly for our final performance!" Mr Swales yelled as he began playing the introduction. Beth sang, her confidence growing with each line and with each note she sang harmoniously with the class, they all shared this perfect moment together. 

Beth sang the final lines as the bell for next class rang out and suddenly she found herself stood at the front of the classroom with the perfect moment fading in front of her eyes as the class began gathering their bags together.  Reality storming back into focus. As she made her way to the back of the classroom, she heard Michael announce to the world in general, "Wow, it really is over when the fat lady sings" and without waiting for response, he was striding out of the classroom with Jessica gliding out behind him. 

Her perfect bubble now pricked with the sharpness of his words. No matter how many times she heard the word "fat" it never lost its impact or venom and with her glimpse of adequacy gone, tucked away behind the self-loathing, Beth placed her bag over her shoulder and turned to walk out of the room and walked straight into Miles. 

"Oh, sorry," he flustered, backing away as their faces collided. Beth could feel his breath on her face before he stood back. "Um, I saw how Michael's ridiculous words affected you. It looked like you'd been shot in the stomach. Don't listen to him, please. He's a jerk."

Beth swallowed, the lump in her throat preventing her from speaking. She examined Miles' eyes and suddenly realized what a brilliant blue they were, like sapphires. "I could swim in the pools of your eyes" lyrics from an Annie Lennox song suddenly danced into Beth's mind as her cheeks felt like they'd caught fire. Miles' parting comment, however left Beth breathless and unable to follow after him. A comment that would change everything, although at that point, Beth didn't realize just how much, "Um, Beth, you were captivating up there. I mean, proper, stop the bus, wowsers, hubba hubba, deeee-aaaammm, sexy as ... well you get the point. Like I said, Michael's a jerk. He doesn't know sexy when he sees it. And you just totally rocked it." Again, that smile. That cheeky, wide, white smile of unbridled joy beamed at her and he was gone, bounding out of the room nearly taking a music stand with him.  With the words still swimming around her head, Beth left the music room and walked slowly to her next lesson. Time for a moment lost meaning as his words transported her into new realms of possibility and for once, self-loathing dampened she allowed herself to be nourished by the glow.