The CHARMing Five

School was going well for Moira and Severin. It has been nearly a month since their first day and the days had now grown into weeks. Severin had become very good friends with Nathan Surcaston and spent much of his time with him doing random acts of kindness to everyone they could. Moira had become fast friends with the whole oboe section, especially Molly, Carey, and Winterwood. She also had become quite popular among the flute studio due to her outgoing and friendly nature.

As the members of the various major ensembles had become set in stone it was now time for the chamber groups to begin forming. People all over the halls were discussing groups they would like to do. Severin had already found himself as part of a woodwind quintet with Nathan, Ben, Trey, and Armando and was enjoying being coached by Dr. Kye. Moira loved quintet music and was quite excited to start thinking about forming one. Aslan had already agreed to play bassoon whenever she got the people together to play.

"Would you want to be in a woodwind quintet?" Moira asked Carey as they sat in biology. They had recently discovered that they had somehow both signed up for this class in between theory and music 101 and had become very good friends within a single class period. They now always sat together right in the front row near the door so they could run out and hurry back to the music building.

"That would be awesome! I've been thinking about it myself. Y'think we can round up five freshmen?" he replied, his eyes wide with excitement.

"I hope so," said Moira. "Aslan said he'd play bassoon if I got a group together. I'm sure there's enough freshmen to do it. Are you in?"

"I'm in! In like... winnnn-sauce..." he replied, thinking for a minute on a word that started with 'in' before giving up, making Moira giggle. "I guess you're the one organizing this," he went on. "Who do you want to coach us?"

"I was hoping Dr. Sorela could coach us," she replied with a shy smile.

"Well I don't see why he couldn't. He'd probably... consider it a high honor," he said, imitating Dr. Sorela's voice with amazing accuracy. "Who do you know who's a freshman that we could possibly round up for horn and clarinet?" he asked.

"I was thinking we could get Ravosilu to be our horn player. He's probably in a brass quintet or something by now but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Besides, if he was in it with us and we had Dr. Sorela as our coach he'd be fine speaking Catin."

Carey laughed in agreement before he suddenly interjected. "Wait! I know who we can get to play clarinet! Remember in theory the other day when Hsan Ba was talking about wanting to play regular clarinet once in a while? I bet he'd love to do this! Here- I'll text him right now!"

Moira tried to pay attention to the lecture while frantically writing down names on her notebook while Carey discreetly texted Hsan Ba with his phone awkwardly peeking out from under his textbook.

"Oh yeah! I forgot about Sean!" Moira exclaimed as she wrote down the composition of a sugar molecule next to Carey's name. "...Wait... what do you mean when you say 'regular clarinet?'"

"He plays bass clarinet in band, remember?" he said without looking up from his phone which had lit up already. "By the way he says he'd love to play clarinet for us," he added without missing a beat.

"Yay! That's 4 out of 5! I guess we can talk to Ravo before music 101," Moira thought out loud as she wrote Hsan Ba next to her own name. "How long have you known Sean?" she asked Carey.

"Oh he went to Pathreeah West High School with me all 4 years there. We ended up doing a lot of musical stuff together. He's straight from the Tellish quarters, if it wasn't obvious from his name. If you see any Tellish person in band you can pretty safely assume they're from Pathreeah," he said laughing.

"Really? Like who?" she asked, amused.

"Um... well, I went to school with Pierce, y'know, the horn player..."

"Oh yeah! He's my neighbor!" Moira exclaimed smiling.

"Oh really?! Awesome! Then you know Hugo too. They're best friends and I know them both well." He thought for a moment before speaking again. "Oh yeah! You know Rebecca, the trumpet player? The girl with blonde hair?"

Moira just looked at him confused.

"...The girl... with... no thumbs?" he added suggestively.

"Oh! Yeah, I know who you're talking about! She's hilarious!"

"Hehe. Her name is Rebecca and she's from Pathreeah too. She was a senior when I was a freshman. I know a lot of her younger brothers and sisters though. Almost all of them sing, if not play some sort of instrument... But anyway, see? All Tellish, all from Pathreeah!"

They continued discussing things and when they were dismissed from class they literally ran all the way to the music building and up the stairs where they caught Ravosilu Kribana just as he was walking through the door. Carey and Moira both ran up to him on either side and started talking to him excitedly.

"Ravo! Ravo do you want to be in our quintet?"
"We need a horn player, Ravo! Will you join us?"

He stopped and looked around, confused.

"N'za te tu hosa?" he asked, bewildered. "Oh, sorry! Ah... What is... is you want of me?"

Now that they had his attention, Moira mustered up the best Catin she could muster and said, slowly, "Kiki hosa tu... para... en... ermmm... woodwind quintet?"

Her slight grasp on Catin seemed to be good enough for Ravosilu to understand, for his eyes lit up and a wide smile came to his face. Thought her Catin wasn't as smooth as lots of the bilingual music students and was really a mix of languages he knew exactly what she wanted.

"Are you... asking me to be... nia en woodwind quintet with tutu?" he asked slowly, hoping every word he said was correct.

"Yes!" said Carey and Moira together, happily.

"Aiii, I'll do it!" he said happily. He then grabbed Fiara, who had just walked in, by the arm and began speaking fast Catin to her. She looked at him and nodded her head a few times before turning to Carey and Moira smiling.

"He says he hopes you're asking him to do a woodwind quintet," she said, Ravosilu smiling and nodding behind her, "He told me he's been looking for a quintet to be in since school started for it's one of his favorite things to do. Also, he wants me to let you know that woodwind quintet is his favorite and that he doesn't like brass quintet so much. Is this what you're asking?"

"Hooray!" they both shouted. "Yes it is! If he's in then our quintet is complete!"

Fiara turned around and relayed all of this to Ravo in flawless Catin. He asked her one more thing so she turned again to Carey and Moira who were setting their bags down on desks. "He wants to know who is coaching, and if it will be someone who speaks Catin as he's still not quite comfortable with the Kevian language.

"Don't worry," Moira said, looking at Ravo in his dark brown eyes, "Dr. Sorela will be our coach."

Ravo understood this and smiled widely. He wrote down his available times on a piece of paper and handed it to Moira. "It looks like you got yourself a quintet!" he said, smiling, confidently trying out phrases he had learned from his uncle.

"Isvari ni!" Moira replied, smiling at him. Ravo's mouth opened in pleasant surprise at Moira's good use of Catin and then took a seat nearby.

Two days later, Moira, Hsan, Carey, Ravo, and Aslan were all sitting in a classroom, Dr. Sorela standing tall and facing them with a smile on his face and love in his eyes. They had just finished reading through a couple of pieces that seemed fun and exciting to play and were packing up. All of them were pleased with how well they already blended together and really clicked. Moira had taken upon herself the leadership position and had listened to all of the pieces carefully.

"Now I want everyone to think about which of these pieces you really like so we can vote on what to play and everything" Moira said as they quietly discussed their favorites. Dr. Sorela gave them all a smile and a wave goodbye as he glided out the door and back to his office for Molly's lesson.

"We totally need a name for ourselves!" Hsan said, as soon as the door was again closed. The other four all agreed.

"How about an anagram of our names," suggested Carey.

"That's a great idea!" said Moira and Aslan together.

"What's an anagram?" asked Ravo.

Using his translator, Moira and Carey explained it to him. "Oo! That's a great idea!" Ravo exclaimed once he realizes what they were doing.

Carey walked to the board. "First, let's see if the first letters of our names spell anything. Sean, do you want your name to start with H or X... or S?"

"H, I guess," he replied, already a step ahead of Carey. "Cuz... if you spell it with H, then you can spell CHARM."

They all froze as the realization that their names really did spell out a word came upon them.

"That's awesome!" said Moira.

"It could spell MARCH too, I suppose," Sean went on, "but personally I find us all quite charming!"

Just like that, as quick as the idea had come to them, the CHARMing quintet was born along with the means of their introduction. They decided to have Moira introduce the four boys by letter, them playing a tuning A in response. When it got to Moira's turn, Carey or Sean would stand up and introduce her. They planned a couple short skits to present as a way to break the ice for the audience. Suddenly they couldn't wait to perform!