Soaring Keys

Chapter Nine: Soaring Families

Katy Romero

Carson and I are apparently a thing now. He gave me an origami flower and asked me out during lunch. Let me explain one thing though, even though I only met him yesterday, we connected. We talked on the phone until midnight and it was epic. He knew and understood a lot of things that I was talking about. People start liking each other quickly, I found out.

I had one period left of this crazy day and after that, I was going to hang out with Carson. I had Mrs. Williams who taught music class. It was supposedly one of the classes with the least students so I wasn't worried about other people. She seemed like a bold woman because she was standing proud on the stage when I walked in. I decided to sit way in the back to not get picked to do anything.

While everyone started piling in, I grabbed my sketchbook out of my backpack. From the auditorium, you could see the trees outside. The sky that engulfed the trees was a light tan. It was the same color you would get at seven pm on a summer day. I started sketching what I saw. As best as I could, with a little color and line art, I tried to display the shape and the different shades.

I jumped a little when Mrs. Williams started talking. She was a loud, loud woman. I zoned out a little and continued to draw, not paying attention to what she said. A little while after, I looked up and saw that everyone was paired up together. I quickly put my sketch book away and stood up to ask Mrs. Williams what was going on. She was sitting at her desk on the stage while doing work.

"Uh, Mrs. Williams?" I asked while looking around, "What's going on?"

"Hooooney." She said in a loud, dramatic voice. "Go to your partner, he knows what to do." She went back to working but I didn't know who my partner was.

"I'm sorry but who's my partner?" She looked back up from her computer and sighed.

"Look around you, find the one who doesn't have a partner." She tapped the side of her head like I was dumb and continued to work.

I scanned the auditorium once more and walked around to see if people had partners. Walking around the four pairs of partners, I grimaced as soon as I found out who my partner was. Ross. I walked up to the piano he was leaning on and just stood there. He was sitting in a fetal position with his knees up to his chin while he was holding his legs. I didn't think he was okay since he was staring into space so I kneeled down and shook his shoulder softly.

"Hey Ross, are you alright?" I removed my hand from his shoulder and waited for a reply.

"Hmm?" His reply seemed a little distant. "Oh, Katherine, right." He immediately shook his head lightly and smiled.

"Are you okay?" I asked him softly but he just shrugged.

"So, are you excited for the project?" He looked up at me like nothing happened. "You do know what we're doing, right?"

I shook my head and he just scoffed. He went to get a piece of paper and two pencils, while I just stayed kneeling down, confused. When he came back with his pencil and the piece of paper, we both sat down.

"Basically, we have to write and compose a song. Like an actual song." Ross looked annoyed but I just smiled.

Music made me happy. Even if I was going to get a grade on this, I wouldn't be annoyed. I continued to smile as I took the pencil out of his hand and started writing down different ideas of songs. Most songs included romance so I wrote that down. I also thought about emotional songs with feelings behind them.

"How are we going to make the music for this? Do you know how to play any instruments?" I put down the pencil and passed him the paper. Ross hesitated before he sighed.