Blood, Sweat, and Schradieck

Chapter Two - Alyss

There's a run in the Sibelius that's driving Alyss insane.

She's been in this practice room for nearly three hours, going through this stupid run in every way possible - slowly, in different rhythms, in separate bows, and in what feels like hundreds of other ways.

And it's not helping.

Alyss exhales in frustration before lowering her violin, shrugging her shoulders a few times to help dispel the ache from being tense so long. She looks down at her violin and smiles, in spite of her frustration. She adores her new instrument. It's incredible what she can do on it. The violin is almost alive, it's so responsive. It's been a joy to explore its capabilities, even when working on a hard part like this. She hasn't found the limit of what this instrument can do. 

She sets it carefully down in her case, and shakes out her hands. Her left wrist is aching from playing the run so many times. Alyss frowns at it, but after a few moment the pain fades, so she simply shrugs. 

Her phone buzzes, and Alyss bends down to pick it up from the floor next to her case. It's Will.

Where are you? he's texted.

Practicing. Why? Alyss replies.

There's a moment's pause before his response comes. Just wanted to warn you that there's now a composition division for the Junior International and Gilan's the school representative. All of us instrumental representatives will perform one of his pieces at nationals.

Alyss sighs before replying. All right, thanks, she says. See you for dinner?

He responds quickly. See you for dinner. Want to meet on the front steps at 6pm?

Sure, she says. See you later! Love you.

Love you, he replies. It brings a small smile to her face.

She turns off her phone and tucks it into her bag so it doesn't distract her anymore. She's determined to conquer this run before she leaves this practice room, even if it takes her another three hours.

Alyss sighs, and glares at her music. It seems like she's tried this run in every way possible. And it's helped a bit. She's smoothed out the first half of the run, but there's one note she keeps missing halfway up.

If there's a problem you can't fix, take a step back and look at it from a different angle. Alyss jumps in surprise at the voice in her head. It seemed to come out of nowhere. And it brings tears to her eyes. She can't count the times her beloved Gran told her that. It was her chief advice for whatever Alyss was struggling with, both in school and in music. 

Then she has a crazy idea. It's so unexpected, it brings another smile to her lips. Alyss raises her violin, and plays the run backwards. Once, twice, three times. She finds the hitch in her shift that was messing up the passage, and she finds a way around it.

Then she takes a deep breath, and plays the run slowly, as written.

It's perfect. She plays it again, in tempo, and gets it again.

"Finally!" she bursts out. She's smiling so big, she probably looks like an idiot, but frankly, she doesn't care.

And then her phone buzzes again. 

"Now what?" Alyss asks aloud. She pulls her phone out of her bag, glances at the screen, and winces.

It's George.

Where are you?! Orchestra practice started five minutes ago!

"Drat," Alyss hisses, frantically stuffing her practice supplies into her backpack. She closes her case and slings it over her shoulder, keeping her instrument out. She turns off the light in the practice room and exits into the hallway, leaving the door open so people can see it's unoccupied. She jogs down the hallway carefully, mindful of her instrument.

Thankfully, the orchestra room is just around the corner. She quickly ducks inside and dumps her backpack and her case against the wall, then hurries to her seat. Ms. DuLacy gives her a disappointed look.

Alyss flushes with embarrassment. "Sorry, Ms. DuLacy!" she says. "I was practicing and I lost track of time!"

"Please see me after rehearsal, Alyss," Ms. DuLacy says, then returns her attention to the music score on her stand. "As I was saying, please take out the Dvorak."

Next to her, Cassandra looks smug. Alyss resists the urge to scowl at her stand partner, and simply holds the stand still, simmering, while Cassandra arranges the sheet music.

It's hard for Alyss to concentrate during rehearsal, but it doesn't affect her playing too much. The repertoire they're playing in orchestra isn't very hard, and they've been playing it for more than two months now. Alyss nearly knows it by heart at this point.

Rehearsal seems to drag on forever, but before she knows it, her section is packing up their folders and the orchestra begins to put away their instruments.

Alyss swallows guiltily and approaches Ms. DuLacy, who is putting her conductor's baton away in its little zippered protective pouch.

"I'm really sorry I was late, Ms. DuLacy," she says. "It won't happen again."

Ms. DuLacy looks at her seriously. "Alyss," she says, "I appreciate your dedication. I really do. But make sure it doesn't happen again. If it does, I'm going to have to demote you to assistant concertmaster. Orchestra is a required, non-optional class for string students. If you can't balance your competition repertoire and orchestra, then you can't handle the responsibility of being concertmaster. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," Alyss says softly. It's been a long day, and she can feel her eyes filling with tears. She blinks angrily, her throat aching with the effort of holding them back. She won't cry, not here, not in front of Ms. DuLacy. She turns away abruptly and puts her violin away hastily, almost running from the orchestra room.

She's done with classes for the day now. She had originally planned to get in some more practice time this evening, but now she just can't. Sniffling, she heads down the hallway towards the front doors of the building. She needs to be alone, and she knows the perfect place to go.