Who is Mila Mathews?

Chapter 8

I waited a whole hour to get up from my corner of the room. I just kept asking myself why? Why me? What did I do to deserve this punishment? I finally got up and went back to my chair.

The room started filling with people. Deni walked in and his silver eyes met mine. He smiled but then frowned. He came over to talk to me.

"Hello Tally. What happened to your face, it wasn't like that this morning" He put his hand on my cheek. "Did my kiss on the cheek leave that mark. I didn't know you liked me that much" He started laughing at his own joke. I rolled my eyes at his immature behavior.

"No it was not left from the kiss. The principal slapped me" I leaned back in my chair expecting Deni to say something but I saw Deni had sat down and everyone was staring at me. Did everyone hear that? Why was everyone staring at me? Why is everyone so quiet? A hundred and one questions went through my mind as I tried to process what happened.

I looked up and saw the principal staring at me and everyone shifting their gazes back and forth. Finally Ms. Jade stood up and took her husband into a different room.

"My dad slapped you!" Dominik finally said.

"Well, yes he did" I replied. "But its not a big deal"

"Not a big deal! Of course it is! You have a mark on your face thats turning blue!" Deni yelled from across the room. Everyone started talking all at once.

Erika stood up and ran over to me. "Deni! Dominik! And everyone else stop! Your scaring her! Its already hard on her because she is new don't make it worse. Deni and Dominik mind your own business!" Erika screamed while checking my face. She said in a lower voice "Lets take you to the nurse"

She took me by the hand and led me out of the room. I stopped midway and shook my head. "No, I'm fine. I just want to sit down,eat and get used to this whole routine" I turned around and went back into the dining room.

Everyone was just talking. I sat in my chair and put my head on the table. I am so tired. The room fell silent again and I put my head up to see why.

Mr. Leroy walked in again holding his wife's hand. Ms. Jade was smiling trying to pretend everything was alright. Even tho it wasn't.

Mr. Leroy  came back to the room and sat down. He cleared his throat and picked up a newspaper. Then four chefs came out and put our food on the table.

It was croissants. They were in a little basket and next to them was little bowls. In the bowls were different things to put on our croissants. I looked for anything I liked. Chocolate! I grabbed the bowl and smeared half of the contents in the bowl on my croissants.

M.s Jade perked up and said" We try our best to make stuff from everyones culture." She smiled the continued" Today is France" I nodded even tho I don't really care.

Thirty minutes later everyone was done with their food and left the room. Erika dragged me out of the room and led me into another room. But this one was humongous.

When you first walk in there are several seats in the back. Some are on top and others were on bottom. There could be about hundreds of seats in this place. All the seats were red with a solid outer layer of gold. It was a comfortable seat and it made me feel like a princess. Then in front of all the seats was a stage. The stage was taking up about a quarter of the huge room. The stage was also about six -seven feet off the ground. The floor was wooden on stage even tho the floor on the bottom was a red carpet with patterns the color of gold. There were a bunch of black chairs on stage and a bunch of music stands too.

Everyone had either something in their hand or it was hanging off their back. The things that everyone had were different shapes or sizes. What the hell are these people carrying?

When we were allowed in everyone immediately started opening the cases and instruments popped out of every single case. Oh, so they were all carrying instruments. Was I really to stupid not to notice? Its a freaking correction school for performing arts! Well in this section at least... More kids arrived and I noticed I was just standing in the doorway.

When there was about a hundred kids holding instruments in their hands they all lined up in a line and walked on the stage. They all had music and once they were all sitting down a violinist (thats what I think the instrument she was holding was) Came up and made a gesture with her hand for everyone to... what was she telling them to do? Everyone started playing their instruments at once and I guess they were warming up or they are trying to play a really bad piece. I laughed at that joke to myself.

M.s Jade walked over and spoke" Tally, this is the concert hall, even tho we call this room the band room. What you see here is all of the music students in the school are here for two hours to do a full orchestra rehearsal." I gave her  confused look and she explained further on "When you have a band, that means that you have only instruments that you blow into or you hit like percussion but when you have an orchestra you have only instruments that you play with a bow or a piece of wood with horse hair stuck to the other side and when you put the two together you get a full orchestra" I flinched at the thought of people ripping horse hair from a poor animal.

"Do you play any instruments Tally?" I shook my head and felt embarrassed. Well I did play piano and I was amazing at violin till mom died. Then I stopped but I haven't played piano in five years. "Well, I used to play piano..." I didn't want to tell her about violin because it reminded me to much of my mother.

"Oh, well,well,well step right over here" She led me to a piano and asked Mia (who was currently playing it) to get up. Mia scowled at me for a minute then got up. I sat down and put my fingers in a comfortable position. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to remember one of my favorite songs. Everyone stopped playing and started looking at me. I got my fingers ready and started pressing the keys.

What came out of the instrument sounded like a dying cow. Everyone was laughing at me! They were all imitating me and one kid was laughing so hard he dropped his instrument. M.s Jade just made a 'that was one of the worst things I have ever heard but she doesn't need to know that' kind of face.

"Well, that was very good Tally but we only need one piano player" She smiled and looked away. This only made everyone laugh harder. I felt hotness come to my cheeks and just wanted to curl up and die right there. M.s Jade turned back around and I could tell she was laughing too. "Do you know how to play any other instruments?" Tell her or don't tell her?

"I play violin!" I said quickly. Her eyes widened and she swallowed. If I can make a piano sound like crap then I can make anything sound like crap. Piano is the easiest instrument to get a sound out of.

"Very well, Ema!" She cried. The girl in the first seat at the very first music stand stood up and walked over. She was the one who signaled everyone to warm up. When I saw her face I instantly recognized her face. Its the same girl with the incredible green eyes! Ema Horvat!

"Yes?" Ema said.

"Give her the violin and lets see if she can play" M.s Jade said. Ema handed me her violin and smiled.

I took a glance at everyone. They were all turning purple and ready to burst out laughing. I picked up the violin and took put my hands in a familiar place. I picked up the bow and set it on the strings. I was about to cry. This is what mom used to do everyday.

I started playing the first violin solo for my favorite full orchestra piece "Danse Macabre". It was difficult to remember at first but I did it. I  let my memory take place and that feeling I got when I played came back again. I felt supernatural, like I could rule the world and no one could hurt me. I felt as if my mother never died and my father didn't marry Mila. It felt good to play. It felt better than good. I couldn't describe it. This feeling that I love.

Why did I tell her I played violin. It was like mom was here with me again telling me what to do, making sure I was amazing. But she isn't here and that is why I was trying to get away from the past.

But I love this bubbly feeling and right now and I missed it. I finished the solo and was left standing there with everyone staring at me.

'Life is hard' my mother used to say. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

Pic of Dominik