Never Have I Ever

Chapter Two: The Rehearsal

The Saturday morning sun straggled reluctantly across the sky as Ness walked towards the Conservatorium of Music, violin bouncing against her shoulders as she entered the familiar doors. Here was where she spent... an embarrassing amount of her life, to be perfectly honest. While her friends were sleeping in, hanging out and forgetting to do their homework, Vanessa was rehearsing for hours on end as she strove for perfection. But the Con had become something of a home to her, and it was a relief of sorts to be back in the comforting space after a troubling week.

The events of the previous day still hung heavy on her mind as Ness made her way to her usual practice room. Was she really that dissatisfied with her life? Never have I ever been truly happy. Vanessa had always accepted her role as a musician as an inevitability, never questioning the necessity of her demanding schedule. She had been training her whole life for the kinds of opportunities she would experience in a few years time, so it seemed idiotic to even consider stopping now. Wait - stopping? Ness's footsteps ground to a halt in the hallway. Had she really just thought about quitting violin? She shook her head incredulously, banishing the ridiculous thoughts from her mind. She really needed to snap out of it - with a competition on the horizon she didn't have time to care about a budding existential crisis.

Ness strode into the practice room and started setting up her music. Closing her eyes, she absentmindedly let her fingers run through a regular warm up, letting the notes ring out around the empty space. Vanessa felt a swell of joy as her fingers expertly picked out the melody. She would never be able to get enough of this feeling. The euphoria of performance had always been enough to tide her over the long haul of constant rehearsal, and she was sure it would continue to be that way. Her parents were right. She just needed to get back in the practice room - with her hands on her instrument, Ness felt a sense of rightness that she just couldn't find anywhere else. Vanessa slowly finished her warm up, delicately plucking the strings of her violin as a shaft of sunlight illuminated her sheet music. She glanced up to catch sight of a familiar figure in the doorway.

"How long exactly have you been standing there?"

"Uhh... not that long, I mean, I didn't want to interrupt... in fact, I pretty much just arrived - yeah, that's what happened."

Ness raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I just like watching you play. You look..." Leo swallowed. "You look happy."

Leo. Ness's childhood friend seemed more than a little sheepish as he stepped through the door into the practice room. The boy ran a hand through his shock of dark hair, lugging his cello behind him as he pulled up a chair across from Vanessa. The two of them had been playing together since before they could walk, and they had the embarrassing photos to prove it. While the two were close, their relationship was a little... complicated. Leo tugged at the hem of his sweatshirt as he turned to grin at Vanessa.

"I mean, you still obviously sound terrible, but at least you don't look ugly while you're subjecting the whole Con to your playing. You ever heard of shutting your door?"

"Complimentary as that little speech was, I still don't know why you're here."

Leo looked blankly at her. "Do the words 'Duet Competition' ring any bells?"

Unfortunately, it did. Bells of the alarm sort were sounding loud and clear in Ness's mind. "We're doing a duet?" As if her week could get any worse.

"Your intelligence never fails to amaze. Have you not been listening to your parents at all for the past few days? Mine haven't shut up about it since Tuesday." Leo walked across the room and reached over Ness's shoulder to tug some sheet music out of her file: Vieuxtemps' Duo Brilliante. "Didn't you notice the piece had two parts?"

Vanessa groaned internally. Competitions were stressful enough without having to rely on someone else for success - especially when that someone was as irritating as Leo. Imagining the many hours that would be spent in rehearsal with him felt like staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Wow," Leo observed dryly. "The prospect of spending some quality time with me clearly doesn't appeal to you as much as I expected. Bad day?"

"More like a bad week." Ness sighed and picked up her bow. "Well, we'd better get started." She began playing the first few notes of the piece, sounding out the unfamiliar melody as she scanned the music. She glanced up.

"Look, this isn't going to work if you just spend the whole rehearsal staring at me."

"Right. Uhh... should we just go from bar 4?"