United

Music from the Past

I was abruptly awaken by someone speaking really loud on the loudspeaker. "Attention Royal Conservatoirians!"

I moaned rolling on my bead. I covered my head with my pillow to stop listening the unbearable voiced, but it didn't really work because I could still hear the secretary, Ms. O'Ryan, voice.

"You have exactly 10 minutes to report to the music room for you annual artistic examination. As you know, we take a dim view of failures, so be prompt and be ready for giving the perfomance of your life."

The artistic examination. I was always looking forward to this everytime classes started, but I wasn't feeling very excited after what happened yesterday when I had the brilliant idea of following Harry. I still can imagine Harry and Celine kissing. I made such a fool of myself. Why didn't I stay with Jasper? No. Why didn't I stick with my plan of 'crush-free'?

I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I took a quick shower. Then I brushed my teeths and I thought about what Harry could do for the artistic examination. No. Stop torturing yourself! I think last night made clear enough that Harry was not available, besides I told him I was going to stay away from him, didn't I? For my own sake, I better put Harry and Celine out of my mind.

I put on my uniform and headed to the music room. Oh, my favorite room. It was a huge hall, with high celings and a exquisite Renaissance style. There was so many instruments in that room, but the one that always catches my attention was the beautiful old piano. 

"Home sweet home." I whispered. I glanced at Stella who was near the door. “Stella,” I called out.

Stella's eyes were groggy. “So beat,” she moaned. “I karaoke’d way too hard last night. Thought I’d compensate by trying to at least look decent.” I laughed as Stella arranged her skirt. “What happened to you last night, anyway?” she asked. “You never came back to the party.”

I stil haven't thought about was I was going to say about not going back to the party, and Stella knows how a bad lier I'm. Shit, what am I going to do? “Well,” I said. “I decided to-”

“Gaaahh.” Stella covered her ears. “Every sound is like a jackhammer in my brain. Tell me later?”

“Yeah, sure” I said. “Must have been a hell of a party.” I laughed. The double doors to the music room were thrust open. Ms. Gomez, the music teacher, stepped out holding a piece of paper with what it seemed were our names written on it. She waved the students forward, and one by one we filed past to be assigned our instrument.

“Todd Hammond,” Ms. Gomez called as one of the posh kids approached. “Guitar,” Ms. Gomez instructed.

“Stella Barrett,” she yelled next, causing Stella to cover and press her palms against her ears again. “Piano,” Ms. Gomez commanded.

“Elena Windsor,” Ms. Gomez continued, after consulting her list. I stepped forward and was relieved when she said, “Also piano.” 

“Celine Gottschalk ” Ms. Gomez said next, and I turned around to see my new least favorite person stand up. Her skirt was really short. 

Anything but piano, I mentally willed. Anything but piano. “Piano,” Ms. Gomez said. GREAT! I mentally slammed myself against the wall.

Stella and I walked over to the shelf where the music sheets were. I tried to avoid looking back at Celine, who picked what seemed to be a Beethoven classic. Instead, I focused on selecting my song.

“Affections Touching Across Time by Juliet Cavendish?” Stella asked, throwing back a couple of aspirin with a swig of water from her bag.

“You know it's my favorite.” I smiled.