Legacy Mutation (Book Eight)

Chapter 22: Some Leader You Are

Asher wanders through the halls on his free period, bored. Dakota is in class, as is Lukas and Kelly. As he passes a slightly ajar door, soft strains of music slip through. He stops, listening closer.

Asher, despite being mainly interested in technological advancements and science, a part of him wants to play music. He never asked his Auntie Taylor to teach him, assuming that music was Copeland's thing. He inches closer, wondering if it's his talented cousin in the room.

He nixes that thought immediately. The music is that of a violin.

He nudges his way into the room, mismatched eyes flicking over the space before him. It's a small room with a few music stands and stacks of chairs. A grand piano is pushed to one corner, and a girl with short blonde hair and pale green eyes sits in front of a music stand, lithe fingers drawing a bow over elegant violin strings.

"Is that Mozart?" Asher asks.

The girl jumps, her corkscrew curls bouncing. She blushes and pulls the instrument from her chin.

"Um...yeah, it is," she whispers. She glances back up at him. "Oh! You're Asher Hamato, right?"

He rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah."

She grins. "You're the one who made that awesome robot presentation in Mr Hefner's science class! He's mentioned it."

He tilts his head a little at the sound of his grade ten science teacher's name. From what he can deduce, this girl is in grade ten, one year younger than him, and loves music and science.

Not bad, he thinks.

"He has?"

"He said that you and your twin were incredibly brilliant. He still has the robot to demonstrate..." She trails off. "Wow...I sound like a fangirl."

He laughs. "Well, I've never had a fan before." He moves closer, hands in his pockets. "I just overheard your concerto. It was beautiful."

She tucks a stray curl behind her ear. "Thanks."

He motions to a nearby chair. "Can I stay here? I'm on my spare and it's kind of boring."

She nods. "Sure." Once he sits, she introduces herself, "I'm Ruby."

"Asher, but you already knew that."

She laughs. "I didn't expect you to be musical."

He looks at his feet, shuffling them a bit. "It's more of a hobby. Scientific discovery is my passion, but music is like...a forbidden love."

"Oh? Why not?"

"Copeland is the musician in my family, like my Auntie Taylor."

"Copeland? She's your cousin that played guitar at the end of year wind up and that one talent show band, right?"

"That'd be her."

"She's so pretty! I wish I could play guitar like her..." Ruby trails off again.

"Why wish to play guitar? Violin is obviously your forte."

"Music joke?" She smiles.

He shrugs. "I tried."

"If you like music, why don't you take lessons?"

He purses his lips, thinking about trying to play with three fingers. Copeland did it with guitar, but a violin seems a lot more difficult.

"I don't really have that much free time."

"Well...we have the same spare. If you wanted, I could teach you violin. You'd have to get your own though."

He grins brightly. "Really? You'd do that?"