Paper Heart - Bradley Will Simpson

Chapter 1.

            Chloe resented her mother's old piano, whose keys often jammed. The young woman was the only one of her siblings not to play an instrument, she only had her voice, but she wanted more, so, between two readings for her dissertation, her youngest sister Laura taught her the rudiments of the piano, with varying degrees of success.

"Frankly, it's Imagine, one of the easiest partitions to learn! grumbled the eldest of the three sisters.

- Chloe, relax, you've only spent two afternoons on it, you can't do it all at once," tempered Laura.

- Yes, I can! That's what I'm good at! »

             Chloé did not calm down and played the partition again. If she had already memorized the notes well, tying them together while playing with both hands at the same time proved to be much more difficult than the young woman had anticipated. It was true that Chloé had always been an easy learner and, academically, she had always done very well, making her parents proud, even if they had found it hard to accept that after the baccalaureate, she would turn to studying history. They had hoped that their little prodigy would go on to prestigious schools, but she had preferred to follow her passion. And, after grumbling for a while, her parents had finally accepted their elder daughter's choice and had seen with joy that she was flourishing in her studies even more brilliantly than before. David and Sylvie were proud of their three daughters: intelligent, pretty, talented, polite, attentive, they got along very well and had founded since childhood a small music group with which they animated family parties. Laura was at the piano, Alexandra, the second one, on the guitar and Chloé was the lead singer. The three sisters were always together and rarely was there a more beautiful brotherly complicity than theirs. Oh, of course, like all sisters, they would bicker, sometimes even violently, especially Chloe and Laura. They were four years apart and this age difference meant that things often got heated between them. Chloé criticized Laura for being selfish, for doing as she pleased, for believing that everyone was at her service and for not participating enough in household chores. The younger sister, on the other hand, felt that her older sister was too stressed, rigid, resentful, emotional, reserved and had an unfortunate tendency to want to run things. This last point was sometimes a problem for the group. Luckily, most of the time the three sisters were as close together as a couple of fingers. It was true that Chloe and her younger sister had very different characters, unlike Alex and Laura, the older sister having had a stricter upbringing than her two younger sisters. Chloé had developed a serious, combative, stubborn personality, always attentive to others but also shy, reserved, stressed and afraid of not meeting the expectations of those close to her. Singing was a real passion for her, even if it had taken her some time to realise the potential of her voice. This small group of sisters gave her self-confidence and strengthened the bond between the three young women.

"No Chloe, it's a B, not an A! exclaimed Laura, interrupting her sister's introspection.

- I'm fed up, I'm still blocking this passage! Chloe got angry.

The door of the guest room, where the piano was, suddenly opened with a loud crash.

- Fuck, you're making a racket for a song that's supposed to be about peace! Railed Alexandra against her sisters. In case you haven't heard, there are people who are working here! By the way, Laura, don't you have a law exam to study for? »

          The youngest one made a pout and then left the room grumbling to go to her bedroom. The two youngest siblings were both studying law, but Laura, who had so far relied mostly on her natural ability, was struggling to keep up with the level of effort required in her first year of law school and so needed Alexandra, in her third year, to kick her up the arse from time to time.