“Thanks, Amy” Steven said as she passed him in the doorway that led to a very large, brightly lit room, the tables were pushed to the walls which left a space in the middle that was taken up by a huge black Grand Piano. Steven leant against a wall and watched Amy walk as she ran her fingers along the smooth surface of the piano; he could see her eyes almost flicker with light from excitement at this very beautiful instrument, this made Steven smile to himself. It was just Amy and Steven in the music room at that time, Mr Meadows, the teacher, was in the staff room getting his morning coffee and, as usual, arrived 5 minutes late to his lesson. When he did arrive, he came in and almost spilt the coffee on the floor as he tried to shut the door quickly. Mr Meadows was a very young teacher; short, thick blonde hair, hazel brown eyes and he always had a small smile, this made him look young and also approachable and friendly, when he scanned the small class as he was sat at his desk sipping his coffee, he ticked the 12 names that were on the register. Amy looked around at the small class and knew why she loved Music so much; it was barely full and the people that were there actually wanted to learn music. Mr Meadows breathed heavily and looked at the class, who were dotted around the room, standing quietly as they had nowhere to sit.
“OH YEAH, sorry I forgot to put a note on my desk for you to just get chairs out and put them in a circle around the piano!” Mr Meadows exclaimed in a light, chirrupy voice – too cheerful and active for the morning, but Amy thought it was probably the coffee talking. The class moved silently and sat around the piano, Steven stuck close to Amy and sat right next to her by the side of the piano. “Nice to meet you mate, what was your name? Steven was it?” Mr Meadows asked Steven as he walked between him and Amy’s chairs. Mr Meadows wasn’t at all tall; he was quite short so he didn’t have to look down very far to see Steven.
“Yeah, I’m Steven, sir...” Steven answered quietly as Mr Meadows nodded and walked over to lean against the polished piano.
“Now, today we have a special surprise for you!” Mr Meadows started, looking around to see if there was excitement building at his words – there was no reaction at all. With it being a Monday morning. “We’re going to have someone play for us on this lovely new piano that the music department has let us invest in, now, they didn’t know they were going to be doing this, which makes it a better surprise! I’ve noticed that over these past few months you’re all amazing musicians – except you, er, Steven, I don’t know what you can do, but we’ll get onto that later – and I’ve realised that a few of you could go on to do brilliant things, so today I’ve selected one student to play a piece and really show off... her talent” Mr Meadows said slowly, Amy sunk in her seat; she knew he meant her by the way he turned his head slightly to Amy and Steven’s direction. Mr Meadows smiled at how Amy reacted; he knew she knew, so he beckoned her up to take the piano stool “Come on up, Amy, I knew from the moment you picked up the guitar you’d be a good musician, you’ve played the piano before apparently, but I wasn’t there to hear it unfortunately, so now’s your time to shine!” the teacher said enthusiastically as he jumped out of the way and sat in Amy’s seat next to Steven. He crossed his arms against his chest and leaned back to relax as he listened for the music to start. Amy blushed and quickly sat down, feeling everyone’s eyes bearing into her, she breathed quietly, closed her eyes and counted to 10 “Keep calm” she thought. Amy hadn’t needed to be worried, she’d been playing the piano for 8 years, the last time she’d played the piano was last night, on her keyboard in her bedroom. So feeling a little more confident, she stretched her fingers and put them into position over the main keys and chords, Amy had no need for sheet music; she could play this song by sound and memory alone, her favourite piece of piano music Amy had ever come across, this piece spoke out to her in a time of need, it was called “Mélancolie”; the melody was ethereal, the emotion was so strong and every time it was played it transported Amy to another world in her mind.
