Like Mother, Like Daughter

Chapter 1

Annastasia

It was a Tuesday morning, and I walked into the Music Conservatory where I had my classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, grumbling the usual stuff. I sat down in a corner of the long lobby bench and decided to pull my little personal notebook out of my backpack and work on some lyrics I had started writing the previous day. I heard everyone gradually arriving and ignored them. No one bothered me either, as usual. Soon, the lobby was full and noisy.

The History and Culture of the Arts teacher, Mrs. Taylor, arrives just in time and we followe her upstairs to our classroom. The class goes smoothly, and when it's time everyone leaves in a hurry, wanting to savor every second of our 10-minute break. I'm about to leave as well when Mrs. Taylor calls me.

I turn around, and as everyone else has already left, she gets up and closes the door.

"Anna" she starts "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. Why do you ask? Is something wrong?"

Her face softens at my worried tone of voice and she gives me a reassuring smile.

"No, nothing is wrong. But your mother talked to me and she was worried about you... she told me you went through a couple of things and that you don't usually hang out with your friends, and as I'm new here and I've been told this class went through some changes with students leaving the course and new students coming in, I just wanted you to know I'm here if you need to talk."

I'm taken by surprise at her words. My mom doesn't usually say much to my teachers. I appreciate her concern, but at the same time, I get worried about how she's feeling about me.

I turn to the teacher and smile at her. She seems really nice and I'm grateful for her concern.

"Thank you" I tell her "But I really am fine. I don't have a lot of friends or anything and I'm okay with that. So don't worry about me. If anything happens I'll tell my mom and she'll let you know if she thinks it's necessary."

She seems convinced and sends me on my way with a smile.

With a little bit of time left until my next class, I drop by the bar hoping to grab something to eat. I go in, holding the door open for the light-brown-haired girl behind me, who thanks me shyly. We both head to the ordering area and say good morning to the lady behind the counter who's looking at us expectantly.

"I'd like a toasted croissant with cheese, please" we say simultaneously.

The lady laughs and turns around to prepare our croissants. We look at each other and laugh as well.

I expected her to say something else. I don't know what exactly; maybe something along the lines of 'you have good taste'. It just seemed like anyone would say something else in this situation, not that I'd ever be that person. I was surprised by the fact she wasn't that person either.

A few moments later, we are handed our croissants, mumble our 'thank you's and leave. The girl goes ahead of me and I start to feel uncomfortable as it looks like I'm following her; she's going the same way I'm supposed to.

Turns out she was in my class.

I didn't have any idea if she noticed me following her and ending up hanging around the same room as her. A lot of students were already there waiting for the Acoustics teacher, who seemed to be late, so I'm thinking maybe she didn't.

I couldn't help looking at her, wondering about her. She was only a few steps away from me, but there were a lot of people in between. I was expecting her to be talking to her friends or something, instead of just eating her croissant in silence, while looking out the window opposite to the wall she was leaning into.