Listen to the Sound of Our Song

Chapter One

"Heyyyyy, wait up!" I heard a familiar voice in the distance, slowly getting closer.

I sighed and turned around, seeing a girl stumble over herself, panting heavily. She stopped in front of me, leaning over trying to catch her breath.

"...Good morning, Spade." I muttered as she seemed to pull herself together a little more.

She looked up at me, still running off of adrenaline. She smiled weakly and stood up straight. "Good morning, Dirk!"

I ushered her along with and we started walking to school.

"Man, my heart's still racing! Wait for me next time!" She said, still trying to catch her breath a little more.

"I thought you might've been sick..." I sighed. "You haven't been waking up on time recently. Even after I agreed to join the Music Club."

"Sorryyyy..." Spade chuckled nervously. "I had to eat breakfast."

"Right." I replied and she skipped alongside me. "You're skipping? Did you already get your energy back?"

"Nah, I'm just in a good mood!"

"I guess that's just how you are, isn't it?"

Spade smiled and laughed lightly. "Yep yep!"

***

The hallways were slowly draining of the students still lingering, the sound of lockers shutting and the soft murmur of the students being the most notable sound. Footsteps hit the marble floor and Spade seemed eager to head to the club room.

"Are you excited, Dirk?" Spade smiled as she faced me.

I put my hands in my pockets and I looked at the ground in front of us. "I guess." I flicked my ears and I saw her look away in my peripheral vision. She looked slightly dissatisfied but we soon stopped in front of the club room.

"Here we are!" She smiled and opened the door. "Oh! Amelia made cookies for you joining."

"Word got around fast..."

"Apparently."

In the room were three girls with I'm guessing their respective instruments, other than one. On the other side of the room in the corner, a grand piano shimmered slightly in the faint light.

The first girl sat with a flute. She was looking at a stand before her eyes shifted upwards and her gaze met mine. Her hair was tied back into a loose braid and her lips curled into a soft smile. The next girl had ruffled short hair and she was strumming randomly on a ukulele before she looked up and saw Spade and I. The last girl turned around as it appeared she was conducting the other two.

"Ah! Welcome." She started walking from the others to greet me. "It's...Dirk, right?" I nodded and the other two came after her. "My name is Dawn! I'm sure you got the letter that pretty much introduced us to you, correct?"

"Yes. I'm not sure who is who, though..."

The girl with the braid looked down shyly and fiddled with her sleeve.

"Right!" Dawn perked up and pointed to the girl with the braid. "That's Sheika, and this is Amelia." She motioned to the girl with shorter hair. "We have cookies!"

"So I've heard." I replied, and Spade chuckled slightly before walking over to one of the walls which had her guitar's case leaning against it.

Amelia set down her ukulele and skipped to the other side of the room and grabbed a plate of cookies, running over to me and holding it out. "Go ahead, take one! They're chocolate chip."

I hesitantly grabbed one. "Er...thanks, Amelia."

She smiled and her eyes glimmered slightly. "Mhm! Tell me how it tastes, m'kay? Feel free to grab some more!" I nodded and she walked over and handed everyone else a cookie before setting the plate down on the table again. She picked up her ukulele again and began randomly plucking the strings once more.

"So, you play piano." Dawn walked over to me again and she motioned to the grand piano sitting at the opposite side of the room. "You can improvise, or you can ask me and I can print out some music for you. Today, since you're new, we're planning on just relaxing, improvising, and getting to know each other before we really get into the music part of the club."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it! I hope you feel at home here." She smiled. "We've been looking forward to having a new member for a while. We're thrilled to finally get one. However, go ahead and give that piano a try. The school bought another one since the old one was extremely out of tune and some of the keys were missing or didn't work."

"Alright." I went over to the piano and put the fallboard up, the ivory keys reflecting in the light from the room. The lights for this side of the room flicked on as Dawn flipped the switch, and it was easier to see. It was definitely in good condition, which is expected from a brand new piano.

"It might be a little dusty," Dawn walked over to me and the piano. "It came about a week ago and none of us really played it. We reserved it for you!"

I nodded. "That's fine, though. Thanks." I looked up at her and she nodded before walking back over to Sheika, Amelia, and Spade.

I pressed down on one of the keys and it played well. Wasn't out of tune, which is really nice considering how nice it sounds while it is. Although it was a beautiful note, it was slightly muffled by the fact the lid was still down.

"Can you play anything?" Amelia appeared behind me as if she could teleport and I flinched and faced her.

"I...not a whole piece. Maybe a scale right now." I flicked my ear and her eyes twinkled slightly.

"Can you?"

I nodded and turned back to the piano before Dawn's voice rang out.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but can you two come over here real quick? I want to talk to everyone about some things." Dawn's voice was melodic and it echoed throughout the room sweetly. I nodded and Amelia ran over to her and immediately sat down.

Once I got closer, Dawn smiled and stood proudly. "Alright, just a few things to review! Mainly for Dirk to get the gist of things. We do a few different things in the Music Club, mainly using our instruments to play music. However, we can also record songs that we can play using the stereo within our little room here. We will also compose music as well, and I'm pretty sure we might be able to do vocals at some point! If we do sing, getting our starting pitches will be a lot easier now that we have a pianist. One more thing I would like to mention, the club isn't limited to just doing music related things. It's important that we all maintain good relationships as that's a key point to keeping a happy, welcoming club atmosphere. So, along with writing music, working hard on your projects will sometimes mean that I'll just have us take a free day where we can do other things! So it's...mainly a break, to say."

Spade piped up after Dawn finished. "Basically having a free day means you can do different things. Some of those things include bringing food or drinks for everyone to share, books, writing pads, notebooks, sketchbooks, and other things for us all to enjoy as thanks for your hard work." She smiled after finishing. "Or if we feel like we're kind of having an off day, we might have a free day as well. It has happened before...lack of motivation plus a possibly bad day sometimes means the club will just take things easy for the day."

Dawn nodded. "Yep! Any questions regarding anything can be asked." She fixed her gaze on me and her facial expression shifted to something unreadable. "You can ask any of the club members. We're all eager to help you, as you are our new member, after all."