The first week at the academy wasn't as much of a struggle as I had thought it would be. We began learning songs for piano and chorus. When I came in on Friday morning, Mr. Jared handed us permission slips. I knew what they were for. Both me and Hector got excited.
"This is the permission slip to the Clear Waters Art Society Expo. It'll be in a month so let your parents and guardians know about it ahead of time." Mr. Jared said.
"I'm so excited for this year's trip. We get to be on a mini cruise for a few days." Hector said, grinning.
"Yeah, maybe you can scout out some islands you could 'practice' on." I say elbowing him.
"We'll literally be out in the Atlantic, I'm gonna beat my luck on the known ones."
"Uh, Mr. Jared, are you coming on the trip this year?"
"Unfortunately no. I have to attend my mother-in-laws wedding. Oddly. Unfortunately, I'll be dreading that." A few people snicker at his millennial humor. But most of us cringed. Despite his jokes, that were painful at times, he was probably one of the most down to earth and charming white men I knew. "I know you all will do fine without me. Anyways, take out 'Spring Sunrise.' Let's try to work on that today."
Later, I went to chorus. We all filed into the room and took our spots in our respective sections. It was a fairly normal morning. But I saw Alexis walk up to Henderson. I couldn't hear what they were saying, I was sitting on the back row. I slyly watched from the corner of my eye as she walked up the risers and sat in the alto section. She had been a soprano before. Why'd she move? Was it too difficult for her? Maybe she can't actually sing so she's moving. I snapped out when I heard a hey.
"You good Kari?"
I say, "Mhm," absentmindedly.
Jackie Yamato. She wasn't necessarily my friend at the time but she would sit next to me in this class. Occasionally I struck up conversations with her. She was energetic, but kind and attentive, of course she would notice something was off.
"You looked like you zoned out for a second. But you also looked a little scared." She awkwardly laughed.
"Nah I'm fine. I just zone out like that sometimes." I say tapping my foot rapidly.
"Mhm," she says with a skeptical tone, looking at me for a second with her big brown eyes. "Well, today is sectionals. Come on." She grabbed me by the hand and began going down the risers heading for one of the practice rooms. I hadn't even noticed that everyone else was leaving as well.
When we all got to the practice room I took a seat by the piano in the room. Jackie sat on the piano stool. Our section leader began speaking.
"Ok, Henderson wants us to practice 'I Believe.'" Adrian said authoritatively. "Take out your music." Someone sighed for everyone else in the room. Adrian wasn't horrible, but sometimes he was annoying and frankly unbearable.
As we flipped through our music to pull out the piece I looked up and directly in front of me was Alexis. I couldn't get rid of her. She was looking sideways, into space. I was starting to realize she never looked like she was in the room.
As class was coming to a close we re-entered the class room.
"So what are you doing this weekend, Kari?" Jackie looked up at me.
"Uh, going skating with my friend. You can come if you'd like. It's the rink downtown, Nightlights."
"Omg! I would love too come, what time?"
YOU ARE READING
Two Isles
Adventure"You know, we were kinda like two islands being pushed together by seismic pressure." "Except we aren't islands, Kari." - Kari and Alexis have been schoolyard rivals for a while. So Alexis being at the same summer academy as Kari raises an eyebrow a...
