Pianist Problems

Chapter 1

It's about 3:00 in the afternoon and my patience has been spent. Still one hour to go. I don't dislike school, not one bit. But when it's your senior year and you've been in high school for 4 years, it gets kind of tiring. My school goes from 8 to 4, and specializes in arts and sciences. There is the performing arts department, and the environmental and marine biological sciences academy. I just so happen to be the rare hybrid that's really into both.

My liking for both is probably what has me really tired. I have a difficult schedule because it was so hard to fit an equal amount of time into both academies. In the performing arts academy, I am a pianist. That is Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday from 2:00 to 4:00. Of course becoming a successful pianist is my dream, but I still like my sciences. Science is Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday at the same times. I specialize in the marine biology because frankly, I found learning about bear feeding patterns and going on "peaceful hikes" to be quite monotonous. I needed some action. Something of the unknown. I needed the ocean, which man himself hasn't explored more than 5 percent of. Also, I really like sea life, so marine biology was my calling.

Being both a marine biologist and pianist is not easy, or normal for that matter. Marine Biology requires me to think outside of the box when it comes to effective studying, because textbooks don't excite me at all. I live across the street from the beach in southern Florida. I'm on the gulf side so that means the water is nice and warm, and full of wildlife. To help study, I sometimes just have to cross the street and spend an hour or 2 looking around, making discoveries, and relating the real life setting to my textbook. But at the same time, I have to manage practicing hours on the piano so I can accomplish my goal of being successful in the industry. So that explains why I am burnt out.

Today is Tuesday (Marine Biology) so we are out at the beach, Coquina Beach to be exact. It's a 10 minute drive from my school, so we all take the school bus to get there. It's a beautiful day, and a lot of stingrays are out in the shallow 3 feet water, which makes our research a whole lot easier. Our assignment is to throw a variety of dead fish (after cutting them up into small pieces) to see which ones the stingrays prefer. I know this sounds like a day at the aquarium, but this actually requires some brain waves. These little stingrays are picky eaters! But that's ok since this is a 2 week investigation. Week 1 is to figure out what the stingrays eat and week 2 is to find out the levels of fish in the habitat to see if the ecosystem is maintaining homeostasis (balance). My friend Amy and I are in a group with 2 other people that we aren't very familiar with. They seem friendly, but they are friends with these really arrogant girls from the theatre department in the performing arts academy. There is about a group of 4 of them, and they act like they run the school. They comment on everyones clothes, start rumors, and do many really immature things that should've stopped in 9th grade year.

Amy and I start to sort our fish out when this boy comes over to us and reaches in front of her, "accidentally" touching her breasts.

"Hey what was that for?" Amy reacts with a sharp tone in her voice.

"Oh, sorry, I was just trying to help you with sorting the fish," he responds, obviously embarrassed.

"Don't you see I have a group here, and you aren't part of it?" she snaps back.

"Sorry, I guess -"

"Get out, you horny bastard!" she says firmly, cutting him off.

The boy walks off laughing and we both watch him go over to another group of boys and get a couple punches on the shoulder.

"Wow, what was that all about?" I asked her.

"Just that group of boys, they are always trying to get up in a girl's grill. Guess it was me this time," she sighs as we both continue to sort our fish.

"You'd think that they would be a bit more adult now, considering they are both in science academy and seniors," I said.

"Boys are just going to be boys I guess..." she sighs.

We both continue to sort our fish until we have them sorted into 5 different piles fish: Ballyhoo, Bay Anchovy, Koi, Slender Mojorra, and squid. I think the koi was just something our teacher gave to mess with us and possibly kill a stingray with.

"Once you have sorted your fish, you may proceed to search for stingray and feed them, however, we will only be feeding them Koi fish today," my teacher shouts to all of the excited students.

"This bitch..." Amy rolls her eyes and laughs.

"Seriously, who sets kids up to fail, especially when the kids know it will fail?" I laugh.

We both share a laugh and start to head towards the water. Remembering to shuffle our feet so that we don't step on a stingray, we both start on our way in search of the poor test subjects that will be tricked into eating their last supper.

"Do you think they will fall for it?" Amy asks me, referring to the stingrays.

"I don't know. Probably not with all of the lively orange scales they aren't used to seeing," I respond.

I slide my foot a couple inches and feel a slimy piece of flesh. I scream and Amy bursts out into laughter.

"Found a stingray!" she shouts to everyone as my face turns red.

"Drop some Koi in and see what happens," I say, with a cold tone from the humiliation.

"Ladies first," Amy says, laughing even more.

I look at her with mixed emotions of anger and embarrassment, but I start laughing too. Almost seems as if I'm the test subject now.