The research on which this paper is based was a mixed-methods investigation into the factors affecting rates of singing participation amongst early adolescent boys and girls in schools in the UK. The academic outputs that resulted presented the findings of a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews using, respectively, conventional quantitative and qualitative techniques. Inevitably, however, these techniques left some stories untold and some voices unheard. This paper uses narrative methods to examine the emerging themes of the research through a very different lens. It is a fictionalised account based on rich and detailed material obtained from interviews carried out in schools. Whilst the precise sequence of events it narrates is not true in a literal sense, the concerns dealt with are those taken directly from the testimonies of pupils interviewed for this project.