Chapter 8

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BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
My alarm went off at its normal time of 5:00 AM. I quickly hit dismiss and quietly got out of bed so I didn't wake up Josh. I quietly got dressed in my normal work clothes: a cute semi-formal blouse, leggings, and my shoes for the day, my black knee high horse-riding-style boots.

Josh woke up right as I was getting ready to leave, per usual, and I said goodbye and walked out the door with my bag in my hand. It was just like a normal day. Until it wasn't.

"Ms. Masters, can I please talk to you?" Gabriella, one of the trumpet players in my advanced band, said as she walked up to my desk.

"Of course, what's up?" I said, looking up from my computer screen.

"Uh, my uncle is visiting from L.A., and he wanted to know if he could stop by and pick up my trumpet after class and take it to the shop for me. It needs a new valve," she asked.

"If he wants to stop by right now, I have one you can use," I said.

"Oh, ok. He's actually out in the car, I'll go get him, he also wanted to know where to take it."

"That's fine, bring him on up."

Of course, my bad luck is horrible, and it strikes again. "Chloe?" I heard someone say.

I looked up and came face-to-face with Luke. I sighed. "Luke, please, leave. I don't want a panic attack right now, I'm about to talk to one of my student's unc... Gabriella is Lele's kid, I totally forgot." I said, talking about Luke's older sister Leanne, who we all called Lele.

Lele was my sister Charlie's best friend in high school. (A/N Another Quartet Chronicles crossover! This is a hint to my Fall Out Boy fanfiction, Hey Youngblood. You should go read it if you haven't. Anyway, back to the story!) When Lele went off to Bowling Green and my sister joined the Marines, they drifted apart, but I reconnected when I moved to Ohio for college. I was really good friends with her now, and co-workers since she was a math teacher here, and I'd honestly forgotten she was Gabriella's mom. "Look, Luke, here's where to take it, she knows where it is, now please leave before I have a panic attack," I said, handing him a card for instrument repair.

"Ok, thanks, but Chloe, I would really love to talk," he said.

"Yeah, no thanks. Bye."

Luke turned away and walked over to Gabriella. When I looked up, I saw him hand her five bucks. So, Gabriella could've waited to get her trumpet fixed. Luke had paid her so he could talk to me. It wasn't her fault. She doesn't know what happened, and neither does her mom.

As I planned to tell Lele what happened after school, Gabriella came up to me. "Hey, Ms. Masters? Thanks for that. My Uncle Luke just wanted to try to talk to you."

"Oh, no big deal. So, you can just come to me before your class and I'll give you my trumpet to borrow."

"Ok, thank you so much."

"It's my job."

She waved and walked out the band room. I waved back and went back to work. After a few minutes, I once again heard a male voice. "Chloe?"

My head snapped up, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Josh. "Hey babe, what's up?"

"Uh, two things: one, you left your phone at home, and two, you said you wanted me to help with your intermediate and advanced bands. Are you ok, you don't look ok," he asked, handing me my phone.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine, just a little frazzled. Luke had the nerve to pay Gabriella to get me to talk to him," I said.

"Does Lele even know what happened?" he asked.

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