Art camp
For Delia, it was "art camp". She had no idea what that meant but being of the sensitive type, the artsy type maybe, even as a guy she had been a touch more emotional than others, more likely to feel something that to think it. And what either version of this person wanted to do was express these feelings in some way. So "art camp" was what fit her best.
When she got there, she found it divided into three sections, Pictures, Sounds, and Stories. The picture side was for painters, photographers, and was image focused. The sound side was for bands and musicians, and the story side was for writers and actors. You could move from one section to another, but you only had so much time to complete whatever project you wanted to work on. Delia started with paint, and was told to draw a self portrait, which took her all day to complete, because every time she looked in the mirror she had to reassure herself of her own face. It came out ugly, and she saw that she had worried some counselors and so quickly moved on to a different area.
She had always liked listening to bands, a key part of emo culture is the music, but she had never played a thing, nor sang a song. Here she was asked to, she didn't know what her singing voice would sound like, it was like meeting a new person, you hope the voice matches up with the face or else it's strange and unsettling. She only knew as a boy she had no talent for it. Her first attempt was...well she was trying to do an Alanis Morisette thing, but it came out like a screech, so much so that she was stopped short. Then a kind looking young lady came up to her, and asked her to try again, but first to have a drink. She handed Delia a glass with a yellow liquid in it, she was told drink it all in one shot, then hold her breath. She did this, and as she waited to breath again and hold down the elixir which tasted horrible, she was told to sing from her chest into her mouth and to let her vocal cords do what they felt came naturally. She was then allowed to take a single breath, and then let out a note. What followed was a tune with the sweetness of Arial from little mermaid and the power and sass of Adel, it stunned the room, no more so than Delia herself.
"Oh my God! Was that my voice?" was the question that followed from Delia in a new soprano unlike her old voice which was more of an alto. Her new voice had a lyrical quality to it and that same sweetness and power that existed in her song. It was alluring.
The lady replied. "It's an old trick, careful, you'll lose the effects before long if you don't work at keeping that voice in your head. You can still sound like the old you if you really want, but you can lose your voice from doing it if your not careful."
Before Delia could ask more questions the lady insisted, turning on the mics: sing. and Delia did, for a full hour, she sang every song she knew and all of them were recorded. Till at last her voice got tired and cracked, like a teenage boy going through puberty. When she tried to speak again her voice was returning to normal.
She slept that night only hoping to return to the studio, when she sang, when she had that voice she felt something she had never had before, she felt beautiful, as if the face in the mirror was only recognized and released in her song and speech.
She returned every day for a week, took the tonic, and worked on her voice, she wanted to keep it, but that meant coaching. Seeing herself on tape, she recognized a difference in how she felt about herself with either voice, her natural voice was out of phase with her body, because she talked like a boy, but her enhanced voice was so sweet and soft that she felt in synch as she spoke, as if she had been made whole by that voice.
Before she knew it summer was over, she had refined her voice from flat unexpressive dull, to something of character, a feminine character, but that was what fit her, she had found Delia's voice and learned it's tricks. She no longer needed tonics or coaching, what came from her now flowed from her voice box as naturally as water down a hill, and she found people responsive to it, as if her voice now had a power to command with it's sweetness, she found this particularly with guys, which made her giggle, even her laugh had changed, from a single blather to a soft repetition of hehehe's, always in threes.
The final weekend involved a talent showcase, and for her talent Delia took the stage. She had never sang for a crowd before, and they prepared her with all the tricks of the trade, gone was the emo, for her voice didn't fit that range, what came out of the dressing room and on to the stage was a pop star, who sang what she taught of as an ironic version of "Oops I did it again" but what most would call a perfected version. The crowd went wild for her, wanted more, which she didn't have to give them. She loved the experience, she loved being in front of people and having them get so excited, for her, that they would cheer. She had to find a way to do this again, start a band when she got home, something. She took with her a list of songs and artists to try and build her sound on...all the classics like Madonna, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears. Music she never would have related to became alive once she found she could participate in it. Everything changed, from the contents of her ipod, to her wardrobe to her dreams. All she had to do was say the words and the sound would carry her. As a final treat she went back to the Picture place and she drew another self portrait, an image of a diva named Delia.
