Rock Prodigy

Chapter 4

Dedicated to simplebutawesome for making me a beautiful cover! Thank you!!

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

The next day I walked to school in a daze listening to Janis Joplin singing Trust Me. Her raspy voice was giving me the chills and I felt a stupid smile stretch across my face as I walked through the metal doors of the school. I blinked when I realized that I was standing in front of my locker. I couldn’t even remember getting there I was so lost in the music.

I spun the combination on my lock and pulled out the calculus homework I’d ignored the night before. I shut the flimsy metal door and headed to the music room, barely noticing the hordes of students walking by me. Just as I was walking in the door, Janis started singing Cry Baby and I paused, closing my eyes as she opened the song with a primal scream that reverberated through me, sending emotion from my ears to my toes and back up again making my cells come alive with feeling.  

I took a deep breath and when I opened my eyes, Mac’s face was right in front of mine. I jumped back a little, shocked at his sudden appearance. His mouth started moving but my music was way too loud to hear any outside noise. Plus I had those headphones that wrapped over your entire ear, blocking out any other sounds except for the music.

“What?” I asked, as I reluctantly pulled the speaker off my right ear.

He scowled at me. “I said, what the hell are you doing just standing there with your eyes closed? You look insane.”

I scowled back at him, feeling some of my good mood vanish. Brushing past him, I said, “I’ll try to work on that,” and sat in one of the folding chairs.

“Some things can’t be changed,” he mumbled, taking a seat across from me. 

I ignored him noticing that only Mac and I were in the room the bell was about to ring.  “Where is everybody?”

He shrugged as he opened his guitar case and pulled out the instrument, setting it on his lap. “I told them we’d be having auditions today so if they wanted to sleep, they should do it elsewhere.” He looked up and his indigo eyes connected with mine. “I thought you were going to switch classes.”

I shook my head, my eyes glazing over at the memory of the amazing music I’d listened to all night last night and I knew that it wasn’t enough. I wanted more and I needed time to cram it all in. “I decided that having a free period isn’t such a bad thing.” He nodded, putting his head down and focusing on his guitar once again. I took off my headphones and pressed pause, not wanting to miss any of the song even though I’d listened to the whole album four times already. “I’m not a Ke$ha fan.”

He looked up at me and his mouth twisted into a half smile. “Yeah right,” he said in disbelief.

“I’m not kidding. She’s awful. Her songs have no meaning and her voice is completely computerized.” I shook my head in wonder. “How can that kind of music be popular when there are artists like Janis Joplin out there who sing from their soul?”

His eyes met mine once again and this time there was surprise in his gaze. “I wish I knew the answer to that,” he said quietly and for a second we just stared at each other in silence. I was caught by the look in his eyes, a reflection of the feeling blossoming in my chest towards music. He broke eye contact first, looking back down at his guitar and I blinked, wondering if maybe Mac Parker and I had just agreed on something.

“I’m here!” Troy said, walking into the room just as the bell rang. “Hey Rose, what’s up?” he asked, grabbing the seat next to mine and giving me a broad grin.