Find your faith

Chapter 53: Crystal helps a band player

Crystal's POV
"Good work today Crystal," Fiona Chan said as we packed up the ropes into the bag Mrs Teo gave us. (That was for one of our sections)

"Thanks," I replied, keeping all the collection books in my luggage for three of our girls.

"Also Crystal, one of the girls said today that one of her friends has been yelled at during western orchestra, regularly. And that person is Lucas, that's what I heard. She isn't sure about it what to do, and me neither. She isn't in a position to help, but so am I. We can only rely on you. Her friend is a xylophone player and the piano is similar to the piano. Can you help this friend? Like just see what her problem is and troubleshoot."

"Sure, send me the details so I can help this person."
Ria's POV
I'm Ria, and my class is 2 Peace. I'm a xylophone player in the western orchestra and probably the worst. Only I get grinded by Lucas harder than a rock. He keeps bellowing at me and I can tell the whole orchestra doesn't like his shouting. I've got a band group, but being shouted at by the student conductor sucks.
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"Me? Get xylophone mentoring?" I asked my friends suspiciously.

"Apparently, there's someone in our school that plays something close to that," they explained. "And she's an experienced mentor too, she'll help you better than we can."
The next day
"So you're the person that wanted to help me?" I asked suspiciously. She nodded, and that's when I realised it was a face all too familiar. It was Crystal, no—the Crystal was mentoring me.

"I got this from Carousel," she explained coolly, presenting two kid xylophones. "Now show me what've you got." I took a deep breath and picked up the sticks, playing with gusto and with my usual style. And when I finished, Crystal took out what seemed to be a claw clip and place it in between the xylophones.

"So from what I'm hearing you're struggling to switch between the two bars, huh?" She asked. I nodded, and she then put another claw clip on top of a Maths textbook.

"So when you play the top bar of the xylophone, look at the maths textbook and the claw clip for the bottom bar," she explained calmly. I decided to give it a try again when I played the xylophone again, and it felt I was playing in the clouds! The music seemed to be a lot more upbeat, and Crystal and I enjoyed ourselves revising the music a few times until it reached our perfect.

"Thanks for today," I replied, still panting from how breathless I was. I never had so much fun playing in my life. True, playing an instrument was fun, but not when you discover someone like minded exists.

"Don't sweat it, it's essential for my living," she responded surprisingly coolly. "And I guess I'll be seeing you a lot more. That piece—isn't that for the school talent show? The one where they play Omoi Yi Hitotsu ni Nare?"

"How do you know?"

"I'm in the school musical, and I've got the lead role. I've read the script, I'm learning the lines and the moves. And yes, do you want to know what happens after that scene?"

"Does she run away? Because we've got somber music to play after that."

"Yes! She performed a bit too much and her grades dropped, so her parents weren't happy with it. And to become a Wanderer, you need the performer's abilities and brains. Any more, and I'll be giving spoilers. The plot is now yours to speculate."
Lucas' POV
"Me? Consider mentoring?" I asked Crystal out of confusion.

"Well, I think mentoring a larger group of people for Starlight Centre would help," she replied coolly. "You need to mentor a larger group of people before you start mentoring people 1 to 1, or you're going to traumatise them. How about physics and chemistry-related Lower Secondary Science online lessons?"

"Like for topics." Crystal nodded, and so did I. That sat well with me. Call that a problem solver at her prime.