Romany
'how was school sweetheart?' Harlow asked as I got into the car, school was fucking terrible, after playing the piano for two hours I was attacked by a bunch of girls, physically and verbally and I took it out on myself afterwards. I could never tell Harlow that though, she'd tell me to toughen up. I have Mr Wellington for English and he gives me so much anxiety, I almost had an anxiety attack after he yelled at me for half an hour today because of what happened this morning at roll call.
'It was good' I fake smiled, buckling my seatbelt and tickling Eden. Not long after Elsie joined us in the car,
'How was school Els?' Harlow asked as Elsie buckled her seatbelt, Elsie had a huge smile on her face
'It was amazing momma, the teachers are amazing and I made so many new friends, they didn't even know who I was until after we'd gotten to know each other really well, and when they found out they didn't care' Harlow smiled at Elsie
'Who's your favorite teacher?' Harlow asked Elsie, as she drove to pick up Emerson and Will
'Mr Wellington, he's awesome' I shot up at the mention of his name, I hated him, and he was Elsie's favorite teacher, of course
'what about you Roms?'Harlow looked at me through the mirror
'I like Demi' Harlow chuckled and mumbled typical, while Elsie rolled her eyes
'Demi's okay, she thinks you're insanely talented' Elsie said, with a hint of jealousy in her voice. I've never been better than Elsie at anything, except for music. Elsie couldn't even tell you what a bass clef was let alone read and play one
'I know, she told me, after I played Chopin Prelude Op 28 No 16. for her'
'is that the one you've been practicing everyday?' Harlow asked, I nodded
'You'll be seeing a lot of Demi, she's been really helpful for the past couple of weeks, she even offered to show you kids around one day when I'm working, you'll be going around L.A on Saturday with her' That will be kind of awkward in a way, seeing as she's my teacher, but Demi's nice so I don't really care. Saturday is only three days away, since Harlow insisted we started school on a Thursday so we would have time to unpack.
We got home about thirty minutes later, Will and Emerson seemed to have a good day, both of them made friends. Looks like I'm the only one in the family who can't seem to do that.
Of course I went straight up to my room, it connected to the soundproof music room which meant my room was also soundproof. It also had a connecting bathroom, that was all mine. After placing my things back down I grabbed a book with a whole bunch of sheet music in it and walked into the music room. The music room was quite large, it had to be, it had two components, a recording area and then the main room where all the instruments were. We had a black Steinway and sons grand piano that had fitted microphones in it, so if we wanted to record the piano we could. We also had a vast collection of guitars, and a drum kit. In the recording area there was a Neumann TLM-102 microphone, a laptop used specifically for recording and editing and a mixing board.
There were also a couple of other things in there too, it was really quite cool. I placed the music on the music rack of the steinway and flipped to a new song. I'd been learning quite a few popular songs recently, I was going to start recording with my vocals, but I'd never show anyone. I happened to flip onto Take a bow by Rhianna, I decided to practice it a few times before recording it. Of course I would record the piano first and then do the vocals.
After making sure I had the song mastered I used the remote to make the program start recording, another thing I loved about this system is you could record without needing anyone else. I began to play and found myself lost in the music. It happens all the time, I'm playing and I can't feel anything but the piano, I can't hear anything but the music, it's so calming. I love the feeling of being lost in the music, I love music.
Once I had recorded the piano I walked into the studio, I was quite excited to record, but I'm super nervous that someone will find it and do something with it. I put on the headphones and started to record again.
Oh, how about a round of applause, yeah
Once I was finished I took the headphones off and stopped the recording. I then sat down at the laptop and put on another pair of headphones and listened to it. I sounded okay, and I was quite fine with leaving it the way it was. It was quite raw, and very acoustic, with the only things being my voice and the piano and I was going to leave it like that. I liked acoustic, it was easier to connect to, I felt like I was listening to a real person sing, it was just better in a way. I saved the file and put it on a USB so that I could put it onto my laptop, where I keep all of my recordings of me playing piano. Harlow has put a few sneaky videos of me playing piano on her snapchat which can sometimes be annoying because she like freaks out about how 'good' I am, I just wish she wouldn't make such a huge deal about it.
'Roms, time for dinner' Elsie called, I rolled my eyes, she should know this by now, I don't eat dinner with the family. More like I don't eat dinner at all but the people I live with think I do. I opened my door to see Elsie holding Eden to her hip
'I've got to practice for this performance, can you bring it up here please?' she sighed
'the one night mom is home and dad isn't on a business trip and we can eat as a family you have to practice' I looked down, a wave of guilt flew over me and the urge to harm myself became overwhelming,
'Harlow' I corrected her, 'Henry is not my father'
Elsie rolled her eyes, 'get over yourself' I shook my head, 'I'll bring your food up, you're not apart of the family anyways, bastard.' I thanked her and shut my door, going back to my laptop and placing the USB in it. I put the file into my iTunes, and then shut my laptop. A few minutes later a knock was heard, I opened the door and Elsie handed me my food
'have fun practicing' I nodded and shut the door again, then dumped my food into the trash. I heard my phone go off,
Lillian (Lilly): Hey Romster, I heard y'all have moved out to LA now, can we finally have that coffee date, maybe I could pick you up after school, we could go shopping too!
It was sweet of her to reach out, and at least she was trying and making an effort but I just wasn't sure anymore. I was scared she was going to hate me. I threw my phone onto my bed.
I really didn't want her to hate me, secretly I already loved her, I adored her. I so badly wanted to be all sisterly with her, have sleepovers and talk to her about boys, but I was just too scared she was going to spend five minutes with me and hate me.
It was nice to have something that was mine though, Harlow and Henry had been on a break when Harlow got pregnant with me, and after she gave birth to me they got back together. I was the only one who wasn't Henry's biological child. Harlow didn't make that public knowledge though, everyone thinks I'm Henry's child. Harlow had only enrolled me as Davies-Hill, my actual last name because I begged her too.
She calls the three months she spent with my dad a drunken mistake. I don't know how a three month relationship can be a drunken mistake but apparently she was drunk for three months. I'll admit, it hurt, a lot, she was practically saying that I was a mistake as well. she had said I was a mistake.
bastard child
It was made worse when dad died two months ago, Harlow wouldn't let me go to the funeral, so I never got to say goodbye. I still hadn't forgiven her for that. She acted like we didn't have a relationship, when in reality I was at his house every weekend. Harlow said he was an abusive asshole and dragged his name through the mud in the media, but he was the best dad ever, he got drunk and yelled sometimes, and maybe sometimes he was a bit abusive, but he still acted like he loved me when he was sober. She seemed to ignore my presence for about two years. My relationship with Harlow was strained, obviously. My relationship with dad wasn't though I knew he was sick and he didn't mean some of the things he did. He always cuddled me when I was sad, and he made sure I knew that he loved and cared for me. He tried to do everything he could to be the best he could.
I found myself sitting in the window and crying into his sweatshirt he had given me, my vision was clouded but it was clear enough to see the slim figure walking up to the house next door
Lilly
Had Harlow unknowingly moved next door to the sister she refused to let me meet?
