Two Halves Make a Whole (Straight Furry Story)

1.4 - Skye

A large lioness walked out of a back hallway which likely contained extra instruments and sheet music. On the whiteboard behind her was her name: Ms. Jackson.

"First off," she began speaking, "I would like to congratulate you all that played at our concert before winter break. You did great and you definitely all got a 100 for the class."

She continued on to take roll call. My name was at the very bottom, being the new student.

"Jackson Foster?" She called out.

"Here, but I prefer Jax," I said.

She seemed a little surprised by my accent but chuckled shortly after. "So, we finally got somebody playing piano?"

"Uh, I guess so," I responded.

"So," she said, her eyes transfixed with mine, "How good are you."

"I-"

"He," Skye interrupted, "is a musical genius!"

Ms. Jackson laughed. "If that's true, then could you play a little something for us?"

Skye mouthed 'go on' and gave me a thumbs up. "What style music?" I asked.

"Anything your heart desires," she said. I grabbed out the sheets for my arrangement Alan Walker's Faded and spread them out. The first part was slow, and then the beat became quicker, hitting a fair 100 beats per minute.

I ended the piece about a minute in, partially because I hadn't completely finished it and also because I didn't want to waste any time. I looked up at Ms. Jackson, who smiled giddily and began clapping. I heard the people around me begin clapping as well, which made me grin. It was nice to feel welcome somewhere like this.

"That right there was fabulous! You will make a great addition to our orchestra," said Ms. Jackson, "Now, class, is time for the new music for our concert in a few months!" She passed out the music in a surprisingly quick amount of time, dancing to a song in her head while doing it.

The pieces contained some shockingly intricate fingerings and scales. We were to play Gonna Fly Now, the theme from Rocky, the Imperial March, and Chariots Of fire—all iconic songs.

After looking at them, I felt like I could play them with some effort. All of these pieces seemed like lead pieces, which was exciting. "I'll give you all 25 minutes to practice your pieces and at half-past, we'll recollect and play."

As soon as she said that, Skye scooted her chair and music stand over to me. "So," she leaned over to me, "Why did you start playing piano?"

"It was really just a good escape. My father had one that was only there to collect dust, so I wheeled it up to my room and began playing whatever I wanted. He never really paid attention as he was busy with... other stuff... but if he knew he would've been really mad."

She looked at me for a second or two before continuing. "And what about percussion?"

"I guess it was just something I picked up over the years. There's not really a backstory for it."

"Booooring." She made a cute pouty face.

We both laughed it off and continued talking and messing around. I was glad that I shared a lot of classes with her; she would keep great company and I really liked her as a mammal.

When it was time to play our music, Ms. Jackson went up to the podium where she conducted and everyone had their instruments ready.

When we were playing, I could hear the beautifully played Cello next to me—it was Skye's. I almost got distracted but stayed on track. For some reason, Skye stopped and I could feel her eyes looking over at me. I found it funny how she was staring at me.