Music Teacher

Chapter 2

My eyes had just started to open when something soft hit my face.

"Get up already." It was the girl from the bunk above me. Tasha (Natasha). She was one of the many that didn't care much-or at all-about me. But ironically enough, about the the only one I mildly got along with. She had never picked on me like the others did but never went to my rescue either. She was her own person and as long as you stayed out of her way she stayed out of yours.

I grabbed the sweatpants she threw at me and mumbled a thank you.

"Don't mention it." She shook her hair out of her towel before returning to look at me. "Are you just gonna sit there and look at me? Go take a shower, you reek! You would think after years of you out in that grass I'd be used to the smell."

"What smell?"

• • •

I walked out of the shower and changed. After brushing my teeth I stared at my self in the mirror. Blue eyes looked back at me as they roamed my face, following the length of my brown hair and back up.

"Seventeen," I whispered and walked out.

Instead of heading to the dining room where everyone else was, I headed into the kitchen where I knew Helga was waiting for me. Today was the only day of the year I didn't spend the whole day in the meadow.

• • •

It started on my tenth birthday.

She found me at a table by myself, where I'd been drawing a cake from leftover ketchup on my plate. She was going around picking up the plates when she got to me about to blow on the ketchup candle.

"Happy birthday!" she cheered, making sounds of a huge crowd and clapped.

I smiled at her and looked back down at my plate and smeared the ketchup again.

"Just birthday," I said.

She took my plate from me and asked me to follow her. When we got to kitchen door I stopped.

"Oh don't worry love, it's alright come on." She grabbed my hand and pulled me in. "How would you like a real cake?"

When my head popped up she laughed and led me to the fridge. "Yeah I thought you might. Now, I don't have a full cake for you but, there are some cupcakes I made just yesterday."

She reached into the fridge and took out a round container with a lid on it. The lid was the biggest part, so when she twisted it the cupcakes were sitting on a platter. They all seemed to be chocolate with white frosting and sprinkles but when she twisted it so I could get a better look, there were some red ones too. But there was one that especially caught my eye, and Helga must've noticed because she reached for it and handed it to me. It had all the colors of the rainbow.

I took it from her and was about to bite into it when she stopped me.

"I almost forgot," she hurried to a cabinet and retrieved something before coming back and setting something on the cupcake, "alright, now make a wish."

The fire flicked back and forth as I stared at it, I made my wish, and I blew. I removed the candle and took a bite. When I looked back up at Helga I couldn't help but laugh because the pastry did taste what I would imagine rainbows to taste like.

"Thank you," I managed to say on the last bite.

"No worries sweety," she smiled. "Tell you what, you help me clean up the mess in there and you get to come in here every year for your birthday," she offered.

"Okay," I grinned, and we walked back out to the dining room.

That day was the only day I didn't spent in the meadow and the day Ms. Honey secretly gave me my first present. An MP3 player with songs already installed in it. I kept it hidden in my pillow case most of the time and only used it at night or sometimes at the meadow.