Caged (One Direction Fanfic)

Chapter One

"I get it," I sighed into the phone, running a hand through my frizzy, slightly curly dark brown hair, "And it's not that I don't care about the charity, not at all. I just don't want to play at it, y'know?"

"It's a charity for orphans and underprivileged children! How can you not want to play for them!?" My agent, Rebecca, demanded.

I groaned, throwing myself down on the couch. "Can't I just donate to them?"

"You are: you're donating your time! And you're going to donate a sum of money no matter what. Cadence, there are going to be big bands there, and really important people in the music industry!"

"I know Rebecca. But I have AP exams on the thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth! That's in two weeks! And now your asking me to go to some benefit on my last weekend to study!"

"But Cadence, this will be a fantastic opportunity for your career. It's hard to sell your classical piano music. You have a very focused audience. What's drawn the crowds for so long is your age. You're so young, a prodigy! But--"

"But I'm starting to get too old to sell the prodigy card," I sigh, knowing this all too well.

"This will give you an opportunity to get your music out to a larger audience. There will be pop bands there, rock bands, string quartets, you name it. It's a big deal, Cadence." Rebecca urged, trying to sell it to me.

I try to put my frizzy hair into a ponytail, but give up with a groan when it refuses to cooperate. "I'll think about it, Rebecca," I mumble, "But for now, it's a Sunday night and I have last minute homework to do,"

"Great! I'll reply to the invitation to let them know you're coming!" She chirped. Before I could even try to protest she hung up the phone.

I knew she had only called as procedure. She was my agent, and she made the calls. It really didn't matter if I wanted to or not. She said I was, and so I was.

I collapsed on my bed, staring at the posters my mom put up around my room. She would throw a fit if I took them down. All of them proclaimed the same thing: Cadence: Piano Prodigy.

We had one from each year, dating all the way back to 2005, when I was ten years old. All signed by yours truly.

I close my eyes, a sigh erupting from my lips. I should have never touched that piano.

I open my eyes and shake the thoughts away. Leaning over my bed, I stretch as far as I can and grab my text book, hauling it back up into bed so I wouldn't have to stand. Laziness at it's finest.

I opened up my AP Calculus book and begin to scratch out the work. Twenty minutes later I'm closing my book, boredom getting the best of me.

I pull out my Samsung Galaxy, plugging in my headphones and scrolling through my music.

Composers like Chopin, Beethoven, Horowitz, Brahms, and Rachmaninov greeted me. I chose a song at random, and the piano notes slowly drifted into my ear.

Sometimes I wanted different music-- like the rock from the 80's, the current pop music-- to fill my phone. But both my agent and my parents believed that listening to those types of musics would ruin my ear for the piano. And so I was constrained to classical.

Several songs pass before I hear a knock on my door. "Dinner," my brother, Aiden, announced in a bored voice.

"Be down in a second!" I shout back. I hear his footsteps leaving. With a groan I sit upright, throwing my Calc book to the foot of the bed. I can deal with that in first hour.

I stand up, putting my hair in a side ponytail. It didn't look good at all, frizz sticking out and som curls escaping, but it was better then it being loose. My mom hated it when I had my hair down at the table. She claimed that it got into all my food.