My Little Bird

Part Two

One of my personal specialties was being able to read people like a book. So when Monday morning’s seminar swung around and I was sat next to Grouchy Gretchen, I knew within the first ten seconds that I was going to hate her.

She earned her unpleasant nickname from some stuck up college jocks, but it had carried through to university along with her hot-headed arrogance. As I shuffled into the lecture room five minutes late because my alarm didn’t go off, I smiled politely at Gretchen as I took the only remaining seat beside her. I was given a scowl in return.

The hour of Theory and Analysis dragged painfully slow. Every so often, Gretchen would cough, shift in her seat so that it squeaked, tap her stupidly long nails along the wooden surface of her desk, or find other ridiculous habits to irritate me. I was growing increasingly more impatient and frustrated until it got to the point where I had to actually resist smacking her. The cold smirk on her face told me that she was enjoying watching me quietly simmer. Bitch.

When eleven o’clock swung around and I was due to practice for a solo performance, I was the first person to bolt out of the lecture hall and speed-walk my way down to the music departments.

This was my favourite part about my course; actually picking up an instrument or singing the lyrics of songs I already knew, and getting praised for my background practice and my natural talents. It always made me feel better about myself.

But of course, because my day had already been given an awful kick-start, it could only get worse.

“Harper!” my teacher called brightly as I strolled in, dropping my bag to the ground and immediately heading for the guitars lined along the wall. I flashed Miss Clayton a dazzling grin as I picked up my favourite; an acoustic black Fender.

“Hi, miss. I’m practicing today, right?”

Something like regret flooded the aging woman’s eyes and I immediately felt my heart sink. “Actually hon, I was hoping you’d spend this lesson doing me a massive favour, considering you’re already so far ahead of the others with your practicing.”

Despite the praise she had openly offered to me, my spirits had sunk to wallow in misery. Two hours of alone time with this gorgeous guitar was something I looked forward to every day. I only had the lesson twice a week, and a lot of my free time was occupied by the girls’ persistence to ‘socialize’, so this was really the only chance I would get to play until Friday.

However, I tried to mask my disappointment in front of Miss Clayton, because she was truly the greatest teacher in the world. “Sure, Miss. What would you like me to do?” I hung the guitar back on it’s stand along the wall with the others as I spoke, giving it one last longing look before turning to the lady.

The other students in my class hadn’t arrived yet, so she took a seat across the room. “The university is organizing a huge event for the music department,” she gushed excitedly, and I couldn’t stop the smile on my face at her enthusiasm. “It’s in the middle of January and lasts a week. Oh, it’s fantastic, Harper! Basically, we’re having the hall every night for a week to host some music, dance and drama performances to friends, family, the like – but the thing is that we’re going to have some really important people there to watch each night.” She hesitated, suddenly nervous.

“Who?” I pressed curiously.

“Some people that have been in the music industry for years. Not performers, but famous people that work on the technical side of it. They’re looking for new, young faces to enter the music industry. In other words, the music students at this university are being given an enormous opportunity.”

I couldn’t help the wave of excitement that flooded over me – especially because her enthusiasm was contagious. Her words meant that I had a chance to be somebody. I had never thought in my entire life that I would make it big somewhere, doing the thing I was most passionate about; I was already having images flashing in my head of paparazzi, bright lights and stages with audiences of thousands. It was the big dream, and I had a huge opportunity coming up in three months.