chap. 1

21 0 0

by chvrrygem

by chvrrygem

I sat in my school library one early morning, unzipping my backpack and taking out my phone. It was too early for school to start, so I decided I'd come here and work on a few things. I untangled my earbuds and put on one of my recent jams--the one and only Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", which was produced back in the 30s. People call me old fashioned in terms of music, but I don't really care. The blues are the greatest. They need to make a comeback.

I got out my sheet of music I had gotten from my private vocal teacher here at school. I had vocal lessons right here at school with the greatest teacher of all time, Mrs. Cran. But as great as she is, even she doesn't understand my love for the blues. She wants me to learn classical because apparently I have a "talent like no other", and it would be a "shame for me to go into the blues with this kind of talent."

I opened up the pages of the classical music and started looking through it. My dream is to sing vocal jazz---the blues styled type of vocals. After a few seconds of looking through the boring pages I sighed and took out my "vocal jazz" song book from my bag. This wasn't given to me by Mrs. Cran. I had bought it from a local bookstore.

Then I started marking the notes and stuff, and where I'm supposed to sing higher, or lower, like I was taught to do, when the bell rang. I quickly put everything inside my bag and headed to 1st period math class.

Math class was pretty boring, and I accidentally fell asleep. I awoke to my teacher slamming her hands on my desk. I flinched. "y/n? y/n what do you think you're doing falling asleep in class while I'm teaching?"

"I-I..." I stuttered, not knowing what to say from being woken so suddenly.

"I'll tell you what, how about detention after school today?" She said, slamming a detention sheet on my desk that read,

Y/n L/n

Detention Slip.

Great. My first detention of the school year. I sighed as she walked back to the board to continue her boring lecture.

- Time skip -

After what seemed like an eternity, the school day had finally ended and I headed to after school detention. Luckily, the detention room is in the music room, so at least I'll be in a room I'd be happy to stay in for two hours. I opened the door and entered the music room. Only a few other people were in here. I recognized the supervisor of the detention--who was the guitar teacher here at my high school, Mr. Santis. I sat down at one of the empty desks and put my chin in the palm of my hand, tapping my other hand on the desk as I awaited for this to finish. 2 hours is a heck of a long time. All of a sudden the door opened and I looked up to see a boy who looked like he was in my grade. He had a mullet and wore a dark blue oversized sweater along with beige cargo pants. He also carried a guitar case in his hand.

"You said you needed me, Mr. Santis?" He came up Mr. Santis.

Mr. Santis spoke, trying to be quiet. "Yes." He said, clearing his throat. He brought the boy to the side. "Eugene." He sighed, pausing. "When you first came to me, I thought you were extremely talented, sometimes the word prodigy was thrown around. You have an extraordinary talent in classical guitar... and I don't want to see it squandered. I heard you play the blues as well as your classical studies here " He said seriously. I looked at "Eugene", who was staring at him blankly. "What if the other...is my talent?" Eugene said, chuckling a bit.

"Mr Martone, a word of advice; don't serve two masters." Mr. Santis said sternly. Eugene nodded then left the room. I looked at the door where Eugene had just exited from. "Can I use the bathroom?" I raised my hand from my seat. "Make it quick." Mr. Santis replied. I quickly got up and left out the door after Eugene.