The Prodigy

Chapter 3

After school, I decided to do something very daring of me. I picked up a Conerto Competition flier and walked over to the orchestra room. A room that was full of posters about being good musicians and of course the viola jokes.

"Danielle!" I heard a voice cry, the director of the orchestra program here. She knew me because my mom wanted us to know each other even though I pleaded to not take orchestra. 

"Hi, Mrs. Stevens." I said as I walked into her office. 

"What brings you here?"

"This."

I handed the flier to her and she smiled. 

"I knew you'd come around."

"Yeah, well I've decided to participate in it." I said. "I think it would be a good expereince to play in front of my peers here."

"Not so fast." said Mrs. Stevens, smirking. "Danielle, I'm glad you want to participate, but we've already got the amount of participants we need."

I looked at her. "What?"

"Now, you could participate, only on one condition."

I raised my eyebrows. 

"Can you play viola?" she asked. 

"Viola? Well, I can physically play it, but I mean, I'm not very good at alto clef..."

"Thats's fine, I just need you to cover for us for our winter concert. We're playing the Nutcracker with the band and our three violas just can't hold up."

"So you want me to play viola for you?" 

"Intially, yes. If you do, then I will see if I can squeeze you in between our second to last person, and Breanne." 

I knew this was part of her scheme to get me to join the school orchestra, but I wasn't going to fall for it, even though I decided I would help.

I sighed. "Alright, I'll do it." 

"Yes! Thank you!" cried Mrs. Stevens. 

"Why is Breanne last?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. 

Mrs. Stevens sighed. "She's the grand finale of the winter concert. She's playing a Beethoven concerto with the orchestra and band, and the only way we'll get a full house is if she plays last."

"That seems unfair." I said. "Why does she get the whole show to herself?"

"We need to raise money to keep this struggling program going, Danielle. We need a full house to cover all that."

"Oh wow." I said. 

"It's absolutely depressing that this is how it has to be, but it's just the way it is."

"Mrs. Stevens, what if I went last?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if Breanne goes second to last, everyone will be pretty amazed at her solo-ing, but then afterwards, I could come out, and play a real finale, and then everyone would be even more amazed, and would either cheer for an ancore of something, or want to come back to another orchestra concert. Teenage audiences love competiton."

"And what would you be playing, Danielle, that is any better than Scherazade?"

I smiled. "Scherezade."

Mrs. Stevens' jaw dropped. "You can play that?"

"Since I was eight."

"But...how?"

"I am uh..." I couldn't say it. I couldn't spill my big secret. Mrs. Stevens knew I was really good, but she didn't know that I was better than Breanne. 

"I'm a child...prodigy."

Mrs. Stevens laughed. "Danielle, stop messing with me. You can't play Scheerazadel, it's one of the hardest violin pieces to master!"

"Do you have a violin?" I asked. 

Mrs. Stevens pointed to the back of the classroom were all the cases were. "Take the one in the gray case, it's a full sized student renal violin."

Eww, student rental violins. They were so gross. I unpacked the case and picked up the glossy red violin. I put ont the soulder rest, grabbed the bow, tightened it, then tuned the instrument up. Mrs. Stevens was watching me the whole time. 

"Alright, this is going to sound a bit squeaky since I've never played on this violin before, and since it's not a Strad."

"You have a Strad?" Mrs. Stevens asked, her eyes bulging out of her head. 

I nodded. "It's been in my family for generations."

"I see." She said. "Then it must be worth millions."

"12 million, to be exact."

Mrs. Stevens gasped. "Would you play it for the concerto? And could I tell everyone about how special your violin is at the concert?"

I thought about it. Would it be safe to tell everyone that my violin was worth 12 million dollars? 

"Just as long as no one comes near it." I said. I lifted the gross student rental violin under my chin and placed the bow on the strings. 

"Mrs. Stevens, this is Schera-"

"Hiya!" Came a loud voice from behind. "Mrs. Stevens, can I practice?" I put the violin down and turned to see Tommy O'Neil from lunch come into the classroom. "Oh, hey, it's you!" He said, smiling. He dropped his backpack on the floor and sat on a chair. "Are you going to play something?"

"Uh-

"She was about to play Scherezade, Tommy."

"Cool, but what's Scherezade?" He asked. 

"It's a very complicated violin piece, Tommy, only a professional violinist could play something like that."

"Oh, so is Miss 'Highly Skilled' here going to play it for us?" Asked Tommy, smirking. 

He made me nervous. I didn't want to perform in front of him because he would gossip around the school about how amazing I was, then everyone would find out that I was a prodigy. 

But I guess it was bound to happen at the winter concert.

I put the violin up under my chin and flicked my bow arm up. "Mrs. Stevens, Tommy, this is Scherezade."

With one flick of my wrist, I began playing.