Blood, Sweat, and Hanon - A Ranger's Apprentice fanfiction

Chapter Six - Alyss

The hallway outside the auditorium is completely packed with students. George is swept away almost immediately, and Alyss waves at him. She is wearing her violin case like a backpack; there is less chance of damaging either her instrument or someone else this way.

It's loud in the hallway. There are excited shrieks coming from the bulletin boards on the other side of the hall as students find out their placements. The students waiting in line are all talking, although how they can hear each other, Alyss has no idea.

She waits in line by herself, moving slowly towards the bulletin boards and the audition results. It seems to take forever.

Cassandra stops next to her for a few moments, beaming wildly. "I got into Ms. DuLacy's studio!" she shouts over the fracas.

"Congratulations!" Alyss shouts back. "Did you see where I got put?"

Cassandra shakes her head. "No, sorry - I didn't notice where your name is." She waves and wades away through the crowd. Alyss hears her shriek, "Madelydd!" and looks over in time to see Cassandra hug a smaller, brown-haired girl.

Finally, Alyss makes it to the front of the line. The hallway is much quieter by now; the majority of the students have found their placings and have left either to go back to the dorms or to go practice. Alyss finds the area of the board where the violin listings are placed. For studio placement, each teacher has their own sheet of paper. She scans the top three. The last sheet is for Ms. DuLacy's studio. Alyss carefully reads down the list, her heart in her throat. Her name has to be on here. It has to. It's not on any of the other sheets.

It's not. Alyss frantically looks through the list again. Her name isn't on the list. Blinking back tears, she looks more carefully at the other sheets. Her name isn't anywhere. She feels like she's going to throw up.

Get ahold of yourself, Alyss! she tells herself firmly. Taking a deep breath to hold herself together, she steps to the side to look at the orchestra placings. Her name isn't on there, either. She notices that Cassandra's name is at the top of the list of first violins. She made concertmaster.

Her head held high, Alyss heads to the administration office. There must have been a mistake. She has to take lessons somewhere, doesn't she?

The secretary looks up as she approaches his desk.

"Hi, how can I help you?" he asks. 

"My name isn't on any of the audition results sheet," Alyss explains. "I was wondering if there's been a mistake or something, because I did audition."

"Hold on," the secretary says. He rummages through a stack of papers on his desk. Then he looks up. "Can you wait for a few minutes? I don't have the information to help you. I can see if Mr. Baron is busy or not. He'll know how to help you."

"That's okay," Alyss tries to say, but the secretary has already disappeared into a back room. Alyss waits anxiously for a few minutes before he reappears.

"Come with me," he says. "Mr. Baron can see you now."

Alyss follows the secretary through a door and down a well-lit hallway of offices. The lights are off in most of them. The secretary opens a door at the end of the hallway and ushers Alyss in.

"Here you go, miss," he says.

Mr. Baron looks up from his desk and smiles. "Thank you, Martin," he says, dismissing the secretary. Martin closes the door behind him as he leaves.

"You must be Alyss," Mr. Baron says kindly. "Please, have a seat."

Alyss sits in one of the chairs across the desk from the principal, setting her violin case carefully on the ground next to her.

"Well, Alyss, what seems to be the problem?" Mr. Baron asks. He folds his hands on the desk in front of him.

"I'm sorry to bother you, sir, but my name isn't on any of the audition results sheets. I looked very carefully in all the violin studios, and I'm not listed in orchestra, either."

"It's no problem, Alyss," Mr. Baron says. He opens his laptop. "I have the email with all the results right here." He scanned the screen, and frowned. "Violin, you said?"

Alyss nodded. "Yes, sir."

"You're right, you're not on here. That's very strange. Let's see, you would have auditioned with Pauline, right?"

"Yes, I auditioned for Ms. DuLacy," Alyss replied.

"Give me a minute," Mr. Baron says, pulling out his phone. He taps the screen a few times and puts it to his ear.

"Pauline, it's Arald," he says. "Are you still in the building?" He listens for a moment, then says, "Good. Listen, I have a violin student here whose name didn't make it to the audition results."

There is a pause, and he says, "All right, that sounds great. We'll see you in a few minutes." Mr. Baron ends his call and says, "Ms. DuLacy is still in her office. She has a few minutes to spare, so we will go speak with her about this mix-up. If you would just follow me?"

Alyss puts her arms through the straps of her violin case and follows Mr. Baron back down the hallway and out of the administration office. He leads her down several hallways and then stops in front of a door, knocking three times.

"Come in," she hears Ms. DuLacy say.

Mr. Baron opens the door. "It's me," he says. Alyss follows him inside.

The office is large and well-lit. There's a big window on one wall, and a large, neat wooden desk where Ms. DuLacy sits. The walls are lined with bookcases carrying both books and sheet music. There are several pretty rugs on the floor, and a vase of flowers on a little table by the door.

"Hello, Arald," Ms. DuLacy says, and then turns to Alyss. "Hello, Alyss. I wasn't expecting to see you. What a nice surprise."

"Thank you for taking the time to help me out, Ms. DuLacy," Alyss tells her.

Ms. DuLacy smiles. "Anytime, dear," she says.

"Alyss's name isn't on the audition sheets," Mr. Baron says. "Would you mind simply telling her what studio she's in and where she's sitting for orchestra?"

"Certainly," Ms. DuLacy smiles. "Alyss, I've put you in my studio. I'm looking forward very much to working with you."

Alyss can only gasp a thank-you.

Ms. DuLacy checks a sheet of paper on her desk. "And you'll be the concertmaster this year," she continues.

Alyss feels like she's going to cry again, only tears of joy. "Thank you, ma'am!"

Ms. DuLacy smiles again. "I think you're going to be an excellent student, Alyss. Now go get some rest. I'll see you at two-thirty tomorrow for your first lesson!"

Beaming, Alyss excuses herself, heading back towards the dorms. The hallways are loud and full of students, and she has to work her way slowly through a knot of people blocking the hallway to get to her room. She lets herself in, closing the door behind her. The lights are already on, and Jenny's sitting at her desk.

"Hey, Alyss," Jenny says. "You were gone a while. How is your placement?"

"There was a mix-up with the violin results and I had to go the administration office to find out mine. I got into Ms. DuLacy's studio, and I'm to be concertmaster for orchestra."

Jenny smiles. "Congratulations! I hear Ms. DuLacy only accepts the best students."

"What about you?" Alyss asks. "Did you get into Mr. Chubb's studio?" While they'd been unpacking earlier, Jenny had talked nonstop about the head percussion teacher.

"Yeah!" Jenny says, somehow smiling even wider. "I'm so excited! And I made orchestra and honors percussion ensemble, which I guess first-year students don't normally do!"

Later, after lights out, Alyss lies on her back in bed. She's too excited to go to sleep. She still can't quite believe Ms. DuLacy wants her as a student. And concertmaster? She'd thought it would be a stretch for her even to make it into the first violin section.

She turns over and closes her eyes. Ms. DuLacy is right; she needs her rest. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.