Just a Newsboy

Chapter 3

Los Angeles, California

•••••Josh's Perspective

"That's thirty seconds." Sky said, crouching down in front of us with a smirk on his face. "And now we wait."

Ben glanced over at me. "No one will blame you if you forfeit."

"I'm not forfeiting." I snapped, but my wrists were cramping up, and the blood was starting to rush to my head.

Competing in a handstanding contest might have been one of the strangest things I'd done for food, but the remainder of Natalie's cookies were worth it.

Sky snickered at us. "Your faces are redder than my hair."

"Shut up, stupid." Ben's voice trembled, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that his arms were beginning to shake as well. "You're interfering with my concentration."

Despite the years upon years of physical training and conditioning, my muscles were threatening to fail me too, but there was no way I was going to let him win.
Not only would I lose the cookies if I gave up, I'd also lose the bragging rights.

And bragging rights were something that you never took chances with.

Just then, the door to the hotel room flew open with a 'bang', startling all three of us, and to my triumph, sending Ben toppling over.

"Aha!" I exclaimed, before muttering a small declaration of surprise at the pounding pain that rushed up to my temples.

"That's not fair!" Ben protested, wincing at a headache of his own. "I got distracted by the noise!"

"Shh!" Sky swatted at us, gesturing to the door.

Aiden stood in the doorframe, staring at the three of us with the gaze of a disappointed mother, before exhaling sharply, storming past us, and set her violin case down on the nearest bed.
She unzipped the case and removed the violin's protective blanket, looking down at her instrument with a distressed expression.

Sky, Ben, and I exchanged a wary glance.
Ben, being the bravest of the three of us, silently walked up behind her, and tentatively peeked over her shoulder.

His jaw dropped.

Not wanting to be left out of whatever the drama was, Sky and I followed after him, and gaped in shock at the sad sight before us.

Aiden's violin, Cephas, was painted a bright shade of turquoise, accompanied by a drawing of Jack Skellington from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', proudly perched atop a black hill with the moon hanging in the sky above him.

At first, I couldn't tell that there was anything wrong with Cephas, until I noticed that a crack stemmed all the way from the chinrest to the silvery moon, splitting the image in half.
The strings were loose and useless, falling limply about the fingerboard, and the bridge had been snapped off the body altogether.

"Oh, no." I murmured, glancing over at Aiden's face.

She looked completely crushed, staring down at her more valued possession in pure dejection.

"Dang." Sky took her hand in his, attempting to convey his sympathy for her loss. "What happened?"

"Someone decided not to tell me that the theater's air conditioner spazzed out yesterday. The music room is freezing." She explained, her eyes still on Cephas. "Violins are crazily temperamental. The screw probably snapped first, causing the bridge to get knocked out of place," she pointed to bottom of the instrument, and trailed her finger up to the fracture, "and then that happened."