“Lila, could I talk to you for a minute?” Blake asked, looking slightly uncomfortable as he stood next to me at my lunch table. Everyone in my pack just gaped up at him, and while Blake couldn’t see them, I knew he felt awkward and not entirely welcome.
“Of course,” I said, hopping to my feet, “See you guys, later okay?”
They all just gaped after me as I put a hand on Blake’s arm and led him out of the cafeteria.
“I take it your pack isn’t fond of me?"
I chuckled darkly, “Not really. But then again, they're not fond of many people. So what did you want to talk to me about?”
One corner of his lips quirked up in amusement, “Well, Mr. Tanner wants us to run through a bunch of songs and then get back to him by the end of next week.”
“Ugh,” I scrunched my face up.
Blake chuckled, “I know, right? He also wants us to show him a bunch of songs so we can decide which ones are the best for the dance.”
“Fun times,” I said sarcastically, “So what did you have in mind?”
He pursed his lips, “I have a few songs, but I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of them.”
I shrugged, “Maybe I have, and maybe I haven’t. Oh well, perhaps I’ll get some new music out of this.”
He grinned, “Do you have any songs in mind?” he asked me as we headed down the hallway to the piano room where Blake had been playing piano when Mr. Tanner called me to his room.
“Off the top of my head?” I questioned, arching an eyebrow, “No, I don’t. But I’m pretty sure if I thought hard enough about it I’d be able to think of something.”
He opened the door to the piano room and I walked in first, chuckling as I remembered his undead joke from last time.
He followed me in, closing the door shut behind me before he sat next to me on the piano bench. There were papers on the small shelf of the grand piano and I arched an eyebrow at them.
“Maybe this is a dumb question but why are there papers?”
Blake laughed, “I may be blind, but you’re not,” he said, “Those are for if you don’t know the words to the song then you can follow along.”
“Ah,” I said, “Smart.”
“Yes, I thought so too,” he said, putting his fingers to the keys. He played softly for a moment, “At the moment the only songs I’ve got are 'Angel' by Sarah McLachlan, 'Love Song' by Sarah Bareilles, 'Come On Get Higher' by Matt Nathanson,” he scrunched up his face as he tried to remember the rest.
“Someone did their homework,” I teased.
Blake smiled, “Well, I figured I might as well start with songs I already knew how to play on piano, but if they don’t work out I can learn others.”
“How long does it take you to learn to play a song?” I frowned, “How do you learn to play a song?”
“Depending on the song, how many times I’ve heard it and how much time I have to work on it I usually take about a full day to learn it by heart. But if I can only work on it for an hour or two a day then it’ll take me a bit longer,” he chuckled, “I learn to play music by listening to the notes in the song.”
“How do you recognize notes? I can barely recognize them when reading them off a paper,” I said, hearing the awed tone in my voice.
He shrugged, “I don’t know…I just can.”
