The Bare Necessities (Non-Profane Edition) (9 page)

Jack changed some
of the settings on the equipment to accentuate certain parts of her
vocal range, and he told her to continue as she stopped to watch
him. Paige closed her eyes, and they listened as she sang her way
through some classic songs with Jack nodding towards Claire and
smiling at Paige, who barely noticed.

“I can use these
settings a pre-set.” Claire nodded and hummed. “I mean, we need to
adjust it with each song, but it's good as a base. You want a go?”
Jack asked his friend. Claire looked at Paige who stepped away from
the microphone, but Jack had retrieved a further microphone and
stand. “Together,” he suggested.

Claire was nervous
– she had never sung in front of Jack – but Paige giggled and held
her hand and whispered in her ear. “We could do this naked,” she
teased. “I always sing better that way.” Claire shook her head and
launched into an upbeat rock song, followed by Nirvana.

“No offence,” Jack
told them as they took their headphones off, “but you murdered
Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

“It was an
interesting take on a classic,” Paige spat back, but Jack just
grinned at them.

“It was awful. But
the rest of them were good,” he quickly added, and Claire glanced
up at the clock.

“I better go.”

“Yeah, Mum and
Dad'll be home soon,” Jack told her and swayed his shoulders. “How
about Saturday, do you want to give it a go? Drop some tracks,
Paige?”

“Drop what?” Paige
asked. “What's he on about?”

“Record some
music,” he muttered.

“Then say that,”
she teased. “Trying to act cool, honestly! But yeah, it'll be good.
Great, even. If you don't mind.”

“Course not,” he
said and raised his eyebrows. “I can even give you a lift home,”
Jack offered. “It's only a 1 Series, but I can get to Croydon in
thirty minutes. I don't mind.”

“No,” Paige told
him firmly. “We'll be fine.” She grabbed her coat and bag and
looked back at Jack shifting his weight. “And thanks,” she muttered
begrudgingly.

Jack smiled her,
but she averted her eyes and looked for Claire, waiting by the
front door. “See you Saturday?” He asked the two girls. “9am?”

“Yeah, that's fine
for me,” Claire replied. “I'm not working this weekend.”

“No problem here,”
Paige added. “9am is fine. I'll get my dad to give me a lift to the
station. He's working at the factory on Saturdays.”

“See ya then,”
Jack said and waved them off at the door. Paige looked up and saw
him, watching them from the window of his recording studio as they
skulked the thirty metres to the gate and then out down the
exclusive road towards the village and the railway station.

“He's nice,” Paige
told her friend as they reached the end of the road. “But hell,
isn't he spoilt?” Claire laughed.

“Yeah, he is. You
should meet his family. If you think he's bad, wait 'til you see
them.”

Paige shook her
head. “I don’t want to. But why’s he doing this? What’s he want? It
can’t be money.”

Claire sighed. “I
dunno. I guess, I think he’s lonely,” she suggested. “He’s a nice
guy and, it’s just a feeling, but I think he just wants something
different to do.”

Paige giggled. “Is
that something, you?” She teased and Claire shook her head,
blushing.

“I think it's you
he likes. I mean, he wanted the kiss off you.”

“Better not be,”
Paige snarled. “I can't deal with posh bastards!”

“Yeah, but he's a
posh, rich bastard,” Claire teased and Paige's face remained
unmoved.

“So?” Paige
snapped. “He's still a posh bastard, and he better not be
interested in me. I could never go out with him in a million years.
We've got nothing in common.”

* *
* * *

“I've got us some
lunch in the fridge,” Jack announced, the moment he opened the
door. “And some beers, there's Pimms and Lemonade, all that sort of
stuff.” Paige smiled and gulped.

“Right. How much
do I owe you?” Jack dismissed her with a wave of the hand, but
Paige crossed her arms and glared at him. “I can pay my way,” she
spat. “I'm not a charity case.”

“Yeah, I know,”
Jack offered in defence and smiled at the fiery girl as she took
off her coat. “This is for me too!” He took a moment to admire her
slim body in her pale yellow T-shirt and pale shorts that showed
off her toned legs. Paige cocked her head and gestured with her
hands.

“What?”

“Sorry,” he
apologised quickly. “I was just thinking how pretty you looked.
Sorry.” Paige raised her eyebrows at Claire and hesitated as her
host walked into the small recording studio.

“He's sweet,”
Claire whispered to her friend, but Paige shook her head; there was
something that didn't feel right about Jack and it made her feel
uneasy.

“Right,” Jack
cried as he clapped his hands. “What are we doing?” He saw Claire
put her electric guitar on the floor and then Paige hover by the
door. “What do you want? I'm here to help if you want me to. I
mean, I want to, but I'll go if you want or … what?”

“I'd really like
to get our version of Hot N Cold in and … er … one of my own,”
Paige told him. “I don't know how long this takes.”

“We did several
songs in a day once,” Jack boasted and then smiled. “But, it's your
day. I am totally sick of Physics and Maths, making music is an
awesome break, so I'm yours. All day. Do what you want!”

Paige smiled.
“Tempting,” she teased, and Claire unstrapped her guitar.

“I need to tune
mine, give me ten minutes.”

“Do you want to
borrow mine?” Jack offered and opened the cupboard to withdraw a
black leather guitar case. “I never play it, although I tuned it
last night. Just in case.” Claire carefully undid the zip and cooed
at the teal guitar.

Her eyes sparkled
like she was a little child on Christmas morning. “Wow. It's … it's
… how is this not used every day?” She asked, a little
aggressively. “If it was me, I would go to bed and sleep with it.
This is … what's wrong with you?”

Jack gulped. “Yeah
… well … it's, just a guitar. Right?”

“It's a Les
Paul.”

“Yeah, but it's
not a five grand model. It's just a …”

“One of the best
guitar makes around. Oh man, it's …” Paige smiled at her friend;
she was not used to seeing her so excitable, and Jack gestured
towards the nervous Paige.

“I got another one
around. That's not a Les Paul, but I got another one.”

“How much did this
cost?” Claire asked.

“Oh, a grand,
maybe. Perhaps two. I can't remember. The whole studio came to
seventeen or eighteen I think. I don't actually know for certain.
Dad just got a local firm in who had just done one at his mate's
house and gave 'em a blank cheque. It's no more than twenty.”
Claire's eyes bulged at the amount and she looked at Paige with a
curious expression. “OK, Paige. Let's get your track down first.
Without Claire and then do Claire afterwards.”

“Me? Don't we play
together?”

Jack hummed. “You
can do,” he said slowly. “But we don't. It's a bit raw if you do it
all together. Best to do the vocals separately and then each
instrument separately. But we always used to do the vocals first. I
don't know if it's the right way or not, I never had much help in
using it, but it used to work for us.”

“Christ!” Paige
hesitated and looked at the microphone Jack had set up for her. She
took a few breaths and looked at Claire. “This is … help, I'm
shaking.”

“It's only us
here,” Claire soothed.

“Just relax,” Jack
suggested and Paige put on the headphones that were lay on the
floor, waiting for her. “We can do a hundred takes if you need to.”
Paige nodded, and started singing a more up-tempo version of Katy
Perry's classic. Her voice trailed off as she reached the chorus
and apologised. “S'fine. Try again. We got all day.”

He pressed a few
buttons on the computer, and gestured towards Paige, who started
singing, but trailed off after a few seconds. Paige gulped and
swore at herself, before messing up again and taking the headphones
off.

“I'm sorry,” Paige
told Claire and took a few deep breaths. “I can't do it like this,”
she muttered. “It's too formal. It's …” She coughed and walked out
of the room. “Give me a minute.” Paige strode into the reception
room and looked out over the driveway and gate. She sighed and
talked angrily to herself. “It's just singing, we've done this
before. It's fine. Oh crap!” Paige muttered to the room, and took a
few deep breaths to calm herself, but she still felt tense and put
her hands on the back of the sofa.

“You OK?” Claire
asked, and Paige nodded.

“I'm sorry Claire,
I just …” She waved her arms around and put her hands together
resting them on the bridge of her nose. “I gotta do something.”

Claire bit her lip
and watched as Paige removed her T-shirt and shorts, throwing them
onto the sofa. “Paige … what you are you doing?”

“I'm sorry, but I
need to be naked.”

“What about Jack?”
Claire panicked. “There must be some other way.”

“It's fine,” the
underwear-clad girl snapped.

“I think there is
a screen somewhere, we could put that up for privacy. I can look
for it or maybe if Jack and me move into the other room and …”

“Don't worry,”
Paige said dismissively and took a few deep breaths. “It doesn't
matter if he sees me. Loads of people have.”

“Paige ... umm …
are you sure 'bout this?”

“I can't sing any
other way,” she explained and added her underwear to the pile. “I'm
sorry if I scare your friend, but I need to do this naturally. I
never sing with emotion with clothes on and I can't start now.”
Claire watched as the red-haired girl gestured forcefully and
sniffed. “I had a disaster when I was sixteen at a school talent
show when I tried to sing with my clothes on, and I just can't to
it properly when I'm dressed. It feels all wrong.”

“It'll make for
some great gigs,” Claire teased. Paige muttered an apology, opened
the studio door and walked in, causing Jack to squeal in shock.

“What the …?”

“Yes I know, I'm
naked, I'm a natural red-head as well as you can see, and I've got
a birthmark on my lower back. But I can sing naked. I can't sing
clothed, but I can sing naked. Trust me.”

Jack scampered to
the end of the room to close the blinds and looked at Claire as she
entered the room behind the naked singer. “Did you know about
this?”

“Of course she
knew about this! I'm a naturist, and we met on holiday. And I
thought we told you, we won the karaoke competition and …” Claire
stared at Paige, and shook her head, but Jack understood their
secret before Paige stopped talking.

“Oh my God, you
two are both naturists. Do you …”

“No we probably
don't,” Paige snapped. “Apart from singing naked, which we did and
won. That's it. I can't sing with my clothes on. Now are you two
joining me textile or bare?”

Claire whimpered.
“Not in front of Jack.”

“You were going to
before,” Jack teased her with a grin.

Paige coughed to
interrupt Jack's teasing. “Let's try again. And please, treat me as
if I was dressed,” Paige asked. “And I will be able to sing. I feel
free and relaxed when naked.” Paige waited for the signal from Jack
who stared at his screen and waved his hands in front of him,
without turning to look at Paige. “Is that start?”

“Yes,” Jack said,
still staring at the screen and Paige giggled.

“Then do it
properly,” she snapped. “I don't care about you seeing me naked.
Just don't be a twat and stare!” Jack turned around to face her
with his eyes closed and gestured. Paige laughed, but composed
herself and sang into her microphone, pitching the song perfectly
and singing the track with energy and emotion. She beamed at the
two other occupants in the room as she finished. “How was
that?”

“Perfect,” Claire
cried. “Oh, I can't wait to add a backing track to this.”

“Yeah,” Jack
muttered. “Could we do that again?”

“Why?” Claire
asked. “That was perfect!”

“Ummm … a small
technical problem,” he admitted and withered under Claire's
questioning look. “OK, I forgot to start recording. I had other
things on my mind. It's been a long time since I've seen a naked
girl in the flesh,” he explained and Paige giggled.

“I didn't realise
I had that effect on you!” Jack blushed as Paige crossed her arms
and she took a deep breath. “Can we go again now?”

Jack nodded and
gave her the cue to the start. Paige performed her vocals three
times before Claire added her guitar track alongside the powerful
voice of Paige. The guitarist openly admired Jack's expensive
guitar, but had to keep re-recording as she kept making
mistakes.

Jack also made a
few rudimentary errors that he blamed on the length of time from
when he last used the set, but Paige kept seeing him sneak sly
glances towards her as she sat next to him, and got a pleasure out
of leaning across their host to touch things on his computer or
mixing deck so that her bare skin touched his body.

They listened to
the completed track, and Jack suggested that Claire should add some
backing vocals which was met with a scared look by his friend.
“Give it a go,” he encouraged her, and she reluctantly sang into
the microphone. “You're too powerful,” Jack interrupted after a few
notes and Paige got up from her seat to stand in front of the
dominant vocalist. “Sing with her, not against her.” Claire watched
Paige as she mouthed the song, but Claire shivered and stopped
singing.

“OK, get naked!”
Paige demanded and Claire's eyes bulged.

“What?”

“Come on,” Paige
ordered and Jack shrugged. “You are all over the place and you
weren't at the karaoke. All you need to do is get out of those
clothes.”

“I'll look away,”
Jack promised.