charity

“Emelia! Get out here right now! You’re going to be late for school!” my mom yelled from the kitchen. I came running into the room with my backpack slinged over on my shoulder. “Hun, here’s your lunch for the day and here’s some money for you to ride the metro. Now hurry off to school! You’ll need an education if you want to get a good job,” my mom always told me this every morning. “Mom, I already know what I want to be, a singer,” I said my usual response. “Stop filling your head with these crazy dreams. Now you need to get your head out of the clouds and go to school!” My passion in life is to sing. I loved nothing more, except maybe my family. My family of 3 lives in a small town home in downtown Houston. Our home is barely big enough and we can hardly pay the rent. Just my mom working at the beauty shop around the corner and her job at the grocery store is not enough. My family can’t afford for me to have voice lessons, so for now I’ll have to find another passion in life that will help pay the rent.

Still steamed from earlier, I slammed the locker door, “ Nick it’s just so unfair. She doesn’t seem to get it. If I become a famous singer I can pay for the rent and much more. I know I can do it, if she would just let me try.” “Emelia, you should probably step into her shoes. Think about it, she only wants the best for you and more. She wants for you to have a better life than she does,” Nick replied. “I know, I know. But, I don’t see a problem with her life. It’s just fine. When she won’t even let me try to break into the music industry, it makes me think that she thinks I’m not good enough. What do you think?” “I think that you are an amazing singer, but I also see where your mom is coming from.” “Never mind, it’s no use talking to you.” “Hey!” “Nick, are you going to choir practice after church on Sunday?” My family are believe very strongly in our faith. We have been going to church every Sunday, ever since we converted to Christianity about 5 years ago.“Ya, I really want that solo that Mr.Pieper is giving out,” Nick replied. “Same here. Well, I’ve got to go to class, see you on Sunday.”

I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart Down in my heart Down in my heart I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart today…..

“Okay, everyone. Thank you to those who tried out for the solos. I will come back with the results next rehearsal and we are done for the day, so have a good day.” Nick and I were just about to leave when a brilliant idea popped into my head. “Oh my gosh, Nick,” I nudged Nick in the arm. “What?” “I’ve got a brilliant idea! How ‘bout I ask Mr. Pieper to give me voice lessons.” “Emelia, I know you really want this, but don’t you think that maybe this is too much. You have enough on your plate of activities. There’s school, working at the coffee shop, choir, babysitting your sister whenever you can and some other stuff.” “Nick, I’m serious. I can quit my job at the coffee shop. It’s not like I like the job anyways.” “Well, won’t your mom notice when you don’t have money?” “That’s true. Fine, I won’t quit my job at the coffee shop. I’ll just add this to my list of things to do.” “Okay, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you. By the way, I don’t want you to get the idea that I don’t believe in your dream of becoming a singer. It’s just that, I’m trying to look out for you and this might effect your work in other aspects of your life.” “Well thanks, I guess. I’m going to go talk to Mr.Pieper.” I slowly walked over to the piano, where Mr.Pieper was gathering all of his sheet music and stuffing them into his forest green, messenger bag. “Um… Mr. Pieper,” I stammered. “Yes, Mrs Rodriguez.” “Mr. Pieper, I was wondering, if it would be any trouble at all, if you could give me voice lessons. You know that I probably won’t be able to pay you, but maybe you have some job that I can do for you.” “Emelia, I’m not sure about this.” “Please, sir. You of all people know how much I want this. I have no one else I can turn to for help. I would really be honored and appreciative if you would teach me.” “Okay, but I must tell you that the job I’m about to give to you may not be something you can fit into your busy schedule.” “I don’t mind, what is it?” “Can you babysit my daughter Cindy on Wednesdays?’ “ Yes, no problem. I babysit my sister all the time. When can I expect to have a lesson?” “Does this Tuesday sound good to you?” “Yes, that should be fine. Thank you so much Mr. Pieper, you won’t regret this.” “I sure hope not,” said Mr. Pieper. As excited as I was, I skipped back over to Nick to tell him the good news. “Guess what?” “What?” Nick probably already knew the answer. “Mr. Pieper is going to give me voice lessons!” “That’s great, I guess. But, how are you going to tell your mom?” “I hadn’t really thought about that, should I tell her or should I lie to her?” “I think you should tell her.” Nick replied. “She may not be happy, but at least you will feel better about the whole deal.” “Nah, I’m just going to tell her that I took extra shifts at the coffee shop,” I had never lied to my mom before. Throughout all of my 16 years, I had been taught that you shouldn’t lie. But, in this case, I thought it would be better for her not to know, if she found out, she would probably not let me have the lessons. “Emelia, then why did you even ask me about it?” Nick and I had an odd relationship, most people didn’t really understand it. But, Nick has always been there for me and tried to help me the best he could. “I don’t know, I was just trying to include you. Hoping that you would agree with me and say to lie to my mom.”

It was dinner time and mom had made her famous fried chicken with mashed potatoes and peas. Me, my mom and my sister Selena were sitting around the wooden table, waiting for someone to start up a conversation. “So girls, how was your day?” mom asked. My sister was quite the suck up and answered first. “ I got an A on my math test today and Mrs. Brooks said that it’s possible that I could move up to challenge math.” “That’s great dear, see Emelia, she’s younger than you. You should be setting the example not her.” Mom was always comparing me over my sister. She did better than me in almost everything, so I just stopped trying to overcome her, once I realized that I was never going to win. “Well, I took and extra shift at the coffee shop,” I said this hoping that she would be satisfied enough to believe the lie. It actually felt good to lie to her, maybe I should try it more often, I thought. “That’s good. I suppose that would help with the rent,” mom had seemed to believe this little white lie, but still had a look of apprehension. But, I still wasn’t happy. It has always been this way, that whatever money I made, it would always go to something else, but I could never do anything that I wanted to with it. So, I decided to speak up, “Mom! Can’t I for once, just use MY money on something I would like to buy?!?!?!?!?” “EMELIA!!! Don’t use that tone with me, young lady! You know that I try very hard to support you and Selena! It would be nice, if I could have some help! I thought maybe you would understand that, but apparently not!” It wasn’t really that unusual for my mom to start yelling. I was sort of used to it, after all the trouble I get into. I knew that if I stayed there any longer, I would have to endure more of her lecturing, so I threw my plate into the sink, ran into my room and locked the door. “Emelia! Get back out her, right this minute!” I heard her, but ignored it by blasting my stereo as loud as I could with my Ipod set to music by Fall Out Boy. After that, she left me alone to my thoughts.

It was finally Tuesday and I was more than ready for my first lesson. All day at school, I had been counting down to the moment I could leave and go over to the church. “Hey, Emelia!” Nick said. He nudged me to make sure I wasn’t asleep. “Are you okay, you haven’t taken any notes and we have a history test tomorrow.” “OMG, are you serious? Can I borrow your notes later. Sorry, I guess I’m just really excited for later.” “Oh ya, you’re having a lesson today.” “Yep.” The bell finally rang, to let us out of this prison. “Yes!” I darted out of the classroom as fast as I could to go get my books out of my locker. As I was walking out of the door, I started to warm up by singing some of my favorite songs and kept singing the whole way to the church. When I got there, I slowly walked up the steps as I was admiring the beautiful stain glass window with a cross and was painted with many different colors. As I walked in, I saw that Mr. Pieper was sitting at the piano, apparently unaware that I had come in. He was playing a most beautiful song, that I had never heard before. It sounded like a lullaby and helped me calm my nerves. “Um…. Hi. That’s a really pretty song, is that what I’m going to sing?” “No,” Mr.Pieper was more stern than usual and it really wasn’t helping anything. “Ms.Rodriguez you are 5 minutes late. We have a lot of work to do and there is not time for foolishness. Next lesson, be here on time, or there won’t be another lesson.” “Yes sir. I’m so sorry. It really wasn’t my fault. There was a lot of traffic……” He cut me off. “Ms. Rodriguez, like I said we have no time for foolishness. I do not really care about your excuses. Just make sure you are here on time.” I wasn’t really sure what was provoking him to be so mean, but I shut my trap and listened to what he had to say. “Today, we will be practicing on note accuracy. First, I need to see how high and low you can go.” Mr.Pieper place his bony fingers on the keys of the piano and started to play one note at a time. “Sing me the note, please,” he said. The first note was pretty low for me, but I tried the best I could to impress him. “Lower, lower. That is still not the note! Lower!” I finally thought I had the note, and when I hit it all he had to say was “ That will do,” and he went on. This kept going on for another half hour, until it seemed he had played almost every note on the piano. “Okay, I see that you do not have a very nice range. I would presume you to be an alto and that is the type of music you will sing.” WHAT?!?!?!?, I thought. I knew I was better than that, but knew better not to open my mouth. He flipped through his pile of music, until he found a song that he thought would work for me. “Now, I want you to go home and practice this song. The next time you come back, you should know every word and note. By the way, I will drop Cindy off at your house tomorrow night for you to babysit her.” A surge of panic went through me. “Would it be okay if I babysat her at your house, it’s closer to my school and I could get there sooner,” I said. The real reason why I couldn’t have the little girl at my house, was because I knew my mom was off tomorrow and I think having a strange little girl over would probably signal her off that something was going on. “I guess that could do. Okay, be at my house at 4:30. Be on time! Here is my address,” he handed me a slip of paper. “I will see you tomorrow.”

“Nick, I have no clue how I’m going to be able to handle, school, the coffee shop, voice lessons, and babysitting,” I had called up Nick, so that I could let out some steam. “Emelia, I told you this might happen. Why don’t you quit your job at the coffee shop?” “I can’t. I need the money to help out my family.” “Well, I guess for now, you’re just going to have to deal.” “I guess, well I have to go. I just came home to get some food. Talk to you later,” I hung up the phone and took a bus over to Mr.Pieper’s house. I walked up the stairs to my doom and rang the doorbell. Mr. Pieper answered the door and let me in. Unlike Mr.Pieper his house was bright and welcoming. There were pictures all over the walls and awards that he must’ve gotten from musical festivals and competitions. “Hello, Mrs.Rodriguez. I will be back in two hours, my number is on the fridge and Cindy is in the living doing her homework.” Then he just walked out of the door. I looked around the corner to find little Cindy, to my surprise, doing her homework. I guess her dad was pretty strict on her too. “Hi,” I tried to seem as friendly as possible. She said nothing back. So, I walked over to the couch and plopped down on it. I pulled my books out of my backpack and started my homework, because right after this I had to go to the coffee shop. “So, what’s up?” I asked Cindy. “I’m doing homework, obviously,” she sounded a little stuck up. “Okay, what’s your favorite subject in school?” “I guess Math,” she replied. Cindy still wouldn’t look at me, so I continued my homework. We sat in silence for another 15 minutes, before she spoke up. “You like to sing?” I was somewhat surprised by her question. But then again, her dad was a musician. “Ya, I don’t just like it, I love it. That’s the reason why I’m babysitting you right now.” “I don’t need a babysitter, I’m old enough to be on my own.” “Well your dad doesn’t think so. How about instead of me babysitting you, we can be friends hanging out?” I figured that if I get her to like me, the easier this job would be. She looked at me with a confused look on her face. “Why would I be friends with you? You’re a lot older than me” “So……. I don’t really care that I’m older than you.” “Okay, I guess we can be friends.” “Good, is it okay if I do my homework? I have a lot and I need to use what ever free time I can get.” “Sure, I don’t mind.” I thought to myself, that maybe this won’t be so hard. Finally, the 2 hours were up and Mr.Pieper came home, I was so relieved. “Thanks for the lessons Mr.Pieper. When will my next lesson be?” He pulled out a planner and flipped through the pages to see what day would be good. “How about Saturday?” “That’s good. Well, got to run, see you on Sunday.” I ran as fast as I could to get on the bus that would take me to the coffee shop. As soon as I got there I clocked in and jumped behind the counter. Today I had to work there till 9:30, then go home to study some more

It had been 4 days since my last lesson and now I was about to have my second one. I wasn’t as excited, because I developed a dislike for Mr.Pieper. When I got to the church, once again he was sitting at the piano. Luckily, I was on time today and I had my song memorized, so there was no need for him to snap at me this time. “Good afternoon, Ms.Rodriguez, you made it on time today, thank you for that. I trust you have the song memorized.” I didn’t want to speak, because I was afraid of what might come out of my mouth, so I just nodded. “Good, good, so I we shall practice that today.” He seemed to approve. He placed his hands on the key and began to play. When it was time for me to sing, I was a little nervous and in result I wasn’t loud enough. Mr.Pieper stopped playing. “Is it possible for you to be louder, Ms.Rodriguez you need to project.” I nodded once again and he started to play again. It was time for me to sing again, but this time it was different. There was like this weird connection between me and the music and I felt much more comfortable. I was able to sing with much more power and I had no problem with the song. The song was finished and Mr.Pieper looked at me with disbelief, but quickly erased any trace of it from his face. “Sing it again,” he said. I sang the song again, and it sounded even better than before. This time a smile was on Mr.Pieper’s face, which was a huge surprise for me. “Mrs.Rodriguez, I want to take you to go talk to a record company.” “But, I….” “Emelia, you are really amazing and you can write songs can’t you?” I nodded again, still in shock from his reaction. “Well, then please come talk to the record company and you will need to talk to your mom.” I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that. “Okay, I’ll talk to her and then call you back if I decide to go.” “I will see you later, Ms. Rodriguez. Seriously, consider talking to the record company.” I skipped my way out of the church and to the bus. Now, I had to think about what I was going to do about my mom.

I decided to call Mr.Pieper. I picked up the phone next to my bed and dialed his number. “Mr.Pieper I want to talk to the record company.” “That’s great Ms.Rodriguez. I will send them a demo, but first we need to make one. Can you come tomorrow?” “Ya, I think so.” “Okay, good, I will see you tomorrow at 3,” and we both hung up our phones. Yes I know, I should have talked to my mom first. But, I don’t think she would listen. So, what I’m going to do is we’ll send the demo and if the record company likes it then I’ll tell my mom. But, for now I have to keep it a secret.

As I walked in the door, the phone rang and I threw my backpack down to go pick it up. “Hello?” “Hi, Ms.Rodriguez, this is Mr.Pieper.” “Oh, hi.” “I wanted to call you to tell you that, the record company liked your demo.” “What?!?!?!?!? I’m not even that good. Are you serious?” “Yes, I am very serious. They went to meet you and your mom. You can get an all expense paid trip to LA.” “OMG!!! I need to go tell my mom. Talk to you later, Mr.Pieper,” and I hung up the phone. The time finally came when I needed to tell mom that I’ve been lying to her and that I’ve been taking singing lessons. “MOM!” She came into my room and sat down on the bed. “Mom, I have something to tell you. I haven’t been completely honest with you. Okay, I’ve been taking voice lessons from Mr.Pieper and in return I babysat his daughter. So, I never took an extra shift at the coffee shop. Also, I got a D- on a test, but I brought it up and I sent in a demo to a record company in LA and they went to fly us over there to talk to them.” After this long speech, I took a deep breath. My mom’s face turned bright red and she didn’t speak for a while. I nudged her, to make sure that she was still alive, but I regret that I ever nudged her. After that, she went off like a bomb and started to yell at me like a crazy maniac, I had never seen her like this before. “EMELIA, ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!? DO YOU KNOW WHY I WOULDN’T LET YOU HAVE LESSONS? IT’S BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO PROTECT YOU FROM REJECTION AND GETTING HURT!!!!!! I THOUGHT THAT JUST THE CHURCH CHOIR WOULD BE ENOUGH!!!! YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO GO AGAINST WHAT I SAID AND GO HAVE LESSONS!!!!!! PLUS, YOU LIED!!!!! HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING IN CHURCH, THOU SHALT NOT LIE!!! YOU ARE IN SOOOO MUCH TROUBLE, YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT!!!!!!” and she said some other incomprehensible words. I built up the courage and tried to reason with her, “MOM!!! Calm down. I know that I went against everything you said and lied, but I had a good reason. You don’t understand that I’m strong enough that rejection isn’t going to hurt me. I really want to go to LA and it would be nice to get to do something for myself. I am always helping you out and Selena. I'm just 16, I should be able to have fun once in a while. It would really mean a lot if you would let me go to LA. Plus, if they like me, I could make me money for all of us, which would mean a better life.” Mom’s face went back to it’s normal color and she seemed to have calmed down. “Emelia, I’m going to let you go, but not by yourself. Me and Selena will have to come too.” My mouth dropped open and I was extremely confused yet happy that she said this. “Emelia, close your mouth. A fly might go in.” I reached over my bed and hugged her. My eyes started to well up with tears of joy. “Mom, thank you so much. This means a whole lot to me.”

“Look girls, we’re in LA.” After my mom agreed to going to LA, the record company sent us over right away. “Okay Emelia, so you need to be at the record company at 11:30, right?” “Yes, mom. So, we have 2 hours to drop our stuff off at the hotel and drive over there.” “Selena, you must be on your best behavior when we go to meeting. If you don’t you will be severely punished,” mom warned. Selena roller her eyes and said, “I know mom, I know.” “Good and don’t roll your eyes. Let’s hurry to the hotel.” We went as fast as we could and after we dropped our luggage at the hotel, we had about 45 minutes till the meeting. When we got to the record company, we had to sit in a waiting room and wait till the secretary called our names to go in the conference room. “Rodriguez,” the secretary called. My heart started to beat faster and my stomach dropped. We got up and followed the woman to the conference room. In the room was one man with slicked back hair and wore a black suit with a purple tie. “Good afternoon. I am Tom Hoffman and I am the head of Hollywood Records. Please sit down. Ms.Rodriguez, we were quite impressed with your musical talent and at such a young age. We would like to start making an album as soon as possible, but some changes have to be made.” “What sort of changes?” I stammered. “Well, first off you need to get some new clothes. Second, we probably shouldn’t advertise that you’re Christian…..” “Sir, I’m sorry, but I won’t do that. That wouldn’t be me and if that’s what it takes to get into this business then I’ll just walk out of this door right now.” “Don’t go crazy Mrs.Rodriguez. You’re too good to pass up. Would you please not make a Christian record label and change your style? It would be much better for sales if you would, don’t you want to have lots of money and a lot of people hearing your music?” “I’m sorry Mr.Hoffman, but not if changing who I am is the cost.” “Okay, Mrs.Rodriguez, I must warn you that your style isn’t exactly that common and you are pretty brave to go out there like that.” “I don’t mind. Thank you so much Mr.Hoffman for this oppurtunity.” “No problem at all. We love your music. We will send you the papers to fill out necessary to make the album and make an appointment. But for now, have fun in LA.” In the end, I knew that by being myself thing would be better and they were. After the album many people had heard my music and I had made enough money, so that I could move my family to LA in a beautiful house big enough for the 3 of us. I also think that by doing that I became a better person.