Sophomore Year || Parenthood Series, Book One || WATTYS 2018

Chapter Thirty-Four

SOUNDTRACK: "Next Girl" - The Black Keys

MONDAY

"Kate, please come into my office," Kate's counselor said, opening her door for the teen.

Kate stood and walked into the office, sitting down in front of the woman's desk. "Hi," she said.

"I brought you here because we need to discuss your instrument requirement for this semester," the counselor began. "There are openings in Junior Orchestra and Beginning Choir, but you'd have to audition for that. Junior Orchestra takes everyone, regardless of skill level."

"I guess I'm taking that one then," Kate replied.

"Excellent," the counselor remarked, typing on her keyboard. "Did you give any thought to the instrument you'd like to play?" She turned her screen so Kate could see.

There was a list of instruments with names underneath. Most of them had been filled up, but a few were still open. Her eyes scanned the page and something drew her to the top of the screen where the violins were listed.

"Violin," she said instantly. "I'll do the violin."

Her counselor looked at her apprehensively. "Are you sure about that? It's a lot of work if you aren't musical at all."

Kate shrugged. "I can always switch next semester, right?" she asked.

The woman nodded. "Yes, you can." She took a deep breath. "Alright, well I will go ahead and enroll you in that class. You can go by Professor Hall's office in the Music Building after school today and pick up your instrument. I'm sure she will want to have a few words with you about private lessons, et cetera."

Kate nodded. "Am I free to go?" she asked.

"Yeah. Have a good rest of your day."

Kate smiled politely and left the office, heading across the Quad towards the Languages Building for her French class. She didn't know what possessed her to sign up for violin. From everything she'd ever heard about the instrument, it was a bitch and a half to learn to play. But she just saw it and figured it was her best hope. If nothing else, she'd suffer for a few months and then switch to something better in the fall. She could imagine the squeaky, scratchy sounds of her practicing would piss Jared off to no end and part of her took some pleasure from that knowledge.

~~~

"Wexler!" Coach Andres' voice met Kate's ears as she came into the locker room later that day. Kate turned to see her coach as well as the head coach of the main soccer team approaching her. "You remember Coach Miller," Andres said, introducing the man.

Kate shook his extended hand. "Yeah - yes, hello. Nice to see you again," she said, trying to sound slightly more professional.

"I'm here today because I want to formally invite you to join the main team," he said with a smile. "We've been keeping an eye on you and we think you're ready to join us."

"Are you serious?" she asked in excitement.

"Of course, you'd be second string initially until we saw what you could do and how you interacted with the rest of the team. But we are very excited at the prospect of having you," Miller said with a smile.

"Oh my God, of course. Yes!" Kate exclaimed. "When do practices start?" she asked.

"You can come over now, actually," Miller said. "We've got a team meeting and you can introduce yourself to the players."