Alex Ham the orchestra man

Chapter 2

Alex found them again at lunch, sitting in the corner and basically being a loud, rowdy mess. They were sitting with Angelica and Peggy, as well as another two people that he didn't know.

He stood uncomfortably five feet away, not sure if he should just sit down or wait for an invitation, but in moments John had spotted him and waved him over, shouting at Laf and Mulligan to scoot down the bench to make space for him. He squeezed in between Laurens and one of the people he didn't know, who had sparkling black eyes and translucent chocolatey hair pulled back in a low ponytail.

"Hi, I'm Eliza, Angelica's sister. I saw you in orchestra, I play violin - third chair," she introduced shyly, and he smiled brightly at her, sticking his hand out to shake. "I'm Alexander Hamilton. I go by Alex. " She shook his hand, him holding on perhaps a tad longer than necessary, but caught Angelica's scowl and hastily dropped her hand. She giggled a little.

"I'm at your service, miss. What can I get you?" he asked, bowing a little bit. She laughed brightly. "I'm good for now, thanks," she answered. He felt John shifting uncomfortably beside him and wondered briefly what was with that, but dropped it when the person sitting beside Eliza cleared their throat. He looked at them - they were pretty in a face covered with makeup kind of way, with plump red lips and sparkling eyeshadow that threw light whenever they blinked.

"Hello, I exist." Their voice was smooth and rich, with a soft quality to it. He liked it immediately. "I'm Maria spelled without an h, and it's pronounced like Mariah. She/her for today, sometimes they/them."

Intrigued, he moved closer to her, ignoring (maybe not so much ignoring) Eliza's slight squeak as he leaned over her. "Why no h?"

She rolled her eyes in one practiced move. "Because my mom decided to be cute when I was born and name me without the h." He tried to raise one eyebrow to show his reaction and received a tableful of people laughing at him. "What?"

Mulligan recovered first. "Ham, you got... like... you don't know how to raise one eyebrow, do you?" Alex glared at him. "Sure I can. Just because I'm not doing it right now doesn't mean I don't know how to."

"Yeah, sure, Hammy," chuckled Laurens.

"I can!" His voice strained with the force of his protesting.

"Prove it," challenged Laurens again.

"No." He looked away and tucked his body smaller, scowling.

"Ah, look at little Hammy, très mignon," Lafayette cooed.

"Ugh, you guys, stop it," he answered to all of them indiscriminately.

"Okay, fine," said Laurens, taking pity on him. "Oh, do you know about the big music festival at the end of the year?"

Maria pushed herself across the table. "Is this the infamous Greater Manhattan Festival by any chance? That we finish up by going to a amusement park and having the time of our lives? The one that the orchestra keeps getting a freaking gold on while we get silver every year?"

Alex cut in with "Wait, Maria, what do you play?"

"Clarinet," she answered without looking. Laurens nodded at her.

"Yeah, so we've gotten in the upper range every year with 98s, but last year we barely scraped a 96 and the band got a 94, which is too close a call I think, and I swear to God we will get a silver this year. The orchestra's just deteriorating. At least the band is worse." Maria huffed when he insulted the band, interjecting, "Excuse you, the band is just fine."

"Yeah, but the band has all the obnoxious idiots - Jefferson, Madison, Seabury..."

"I dunno, Madison isn't so bad -" Mulligan said as Laf indignantly exclaimed "Jefferson is not obnoxious! He is my friend! And people say he looks like me when I have my hair down. If he looks like me, then he cannot be annoying."