A Taste of Candor

Chapter 17

~Declan.

Sure enough, the big day arrived. Mr. Paige's birthday had come, and our band director's illness still kept him at home. By now, all of us in the Paiges' band were on the same page (pun intended); there wouldn't be any boisterous full ensemble work tonight. Instead, we'd be banking on groups of five to seven musicians at a time honing their individual talents to present engaging performances of the different songs in our evening's program. A lot could go wrong, but it was our job to make sure it went right instead.

Anyway, by unanimous agreement between our section leaders, it'd been decided our last rehearsal before the big event would be bright and early the morning before. So through brisk and biting air I walked, my saxophone case in my hand and the aftertaste of corn flakes in my mouth. The sun barely began to show itself over the horizon ahead, so occasional street lights were all I could use to see my way by. Nobody at all walked the streets of Silverport with me, that was for sure.

Soon enough, I got to the Paiges' mansion, a servant let me inside, and I made my way downstairs to the cozy lounge room I'd been practicing in with the quintet I'd been assigned to. Our group was made up of Madden on piano, the band's bassist Zane Fury, Chip on drums, myself, and an antisocial trumpeter we called J.D. for two reasons. Because he said so, and because nobody knew his actual name, not even the director.

When I stepped into the lounge room, I glanced around and quickly realized only me and J.D. had shown up so far. I gave him a brief but friendly greeting, which he returned without the warmth. That done, I took a seat on the leather couch beside the upright piano and put my music on a stand.

My quintet would be playing three songs tonight, during the latter half of the performance. While the first set would be mostly upbeat, lively pieces to set the tone for the Paiges' celebratory dinner, the second would simmer down a bit to facilitate dancing. Since my playing tended to be more expressive than it was impressive, I could definitely see why I'd been relegated to the second half.

Though I'd always be the first to admit I had room to improve, even I found myself pretty happy with how I'd crafted my playing over the three tunes over the past several days. For once, I felt fairly confident I could bring out a moving performance.

Once I got my horn out, I started warming up. I worked my way through a challenging technique exercise I'd learned recently. Made up of a series of trills connected to arpeggios that ran the range of the instrument, it cycled through every key and made me move my fingers in ways I usually wouldn't in normal playing. But that was good, since it'd improve my dexterity by a lot.

Just when I finished stumbling through the exercise, Madden and Chip glided through the door. While Madden carried nothing but a binder of music and his charming smile, Chip stumbled along to cradle a slice of pizza in one hand, what appeared to be two long sandwiches tucked under his arm, and a plastic bag of miscellaneous snacks in his other hand. Oh, and he'd also sheathed his two drumsticks in his back pocket.

"Top of the morning to you two." Madden said, glancing between me and J.D., "We ready for the big day?"

"Big night, you mean." I remarked with a laugh, "But yeah, guess I'm ready as I can be."

"That's the spirit. It's gonna be great."

After what looked like a significant struggle, Chip set all his stuff down and plopped down at the drum set. He looked me in the eyes with a smirk. "You horn players are pampered, though."

"How's that?"

"Well, you lot only gotta play on a few tunes each tonight, since we split the band up. But almost every group needs drums, bass, and piano, so we don't get to relax like you."

Madden gave Chip a nod of agreement. "They've got us running all over the place today; so many rehearsals."

"That must be tiring." I said.

"It is, but hey, that's what we're getting paid to do." Madden went quiet for a moment before turning to J.D. "You said your girl got invited to attend the dinner, right?"

J.D. nodded casually. "Yeah, she'll be around."

"You'll have to point her out to me. I might steal a dance later, but don't wanna steal your girl."

"Yeah, I'll show you."

Even if J.D. had planned to let Madden's comment on stealing a dance slide without comment, I wasn't. With a furrowed brow, I locked gazes with him. "How're you gonna steal a dance if you said you're playing all night?"

Madden smirked, throwing a quick glance at our bassist. "Zane here likes me to take my hands off the keys when he solos. Leaves me a good opening."

"Oh, I see. Ever the charmer, I see."

"Candorian through and through, what can I say? You might wanna give Miss Paige a twirl if none of those other fine gentlemen get to her first."

I hung my head and laughed. "I'm not you, Madden. And last time I took her out ... I'll just say she got in trouble for it."

"Why?"

"Guess I was supposed to ask her dad's permission or something."

Madden scoffed. "A grown woman doesn't need her dad's permission to date somebody; are you kidding me?"

"That's what Keene Abrams told me when I ran into him the other day."

"Oh, did he? Of course he would; he's trying to throw you off the scent. Anyone with a pair of eyes could tell you he wants more than friendship from her, but wants to be slick about it."

I shrugged. "Maybe. She says they're just friends, so I dunno."

"That's what she says, but that doesn't mean a whole lot."

"I notice there's two types of guys out there." Chip chipped in, "There's guys who get what they want, and there's guys who want to get something."

Madden's eyes widened, and a loud laugh escaped his lips. "You're right; that's the difference between me and old Keene. I want something, I go for it, and I get it. Keene just seems to want stuff and that's about it. Seems to me, if you want something, you just try to take it." With a smirk, he poked J.D. "Isn't that right, buddy?"

"Yeah, you're right. But we should get to rehearsing already."

"We should." Madden straightened himself in his piano bench and stretched his fingers over the keys. "Still, Deck, I really think you should grab an opportunity to dance with Tahlia tonight."

I nodded. "I'll think about it."

So that was about it for that conversation. Madden effortlessly glided into the topic of our rehearsal and began guiding us through the tunes we'd play. We ironed out any residual flaws as we went, and all the while, I tried to tuck my thoughts in the back of my head to focus on playing.

* * * * *

A/N: There we go, short and sweet chapter there, hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please don't hesitate to vote and comment! ❤️

I've got a lot of notifications to catch up on here, so I won't spend too long on this note, lol. But as is the custom, I'll ask a random question for the day: What's something you've done within the last year that you're proud of?

(I have a few contenders, but I'm kinda settling on the fact I landed myself a good job where I'm able to use my talents well and add a lot of value to my company. I'm doing a lot more than they hired me for, which I'm glad to, but it would be nice for my pay to eventually reflect that. 😂)

Anyways, this has been our first Thursday update, and it kinda feels like I posted chapter 16 yesterday. Oh well, again, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next week! ❤️