Four thirty-three

Chapter 7

"But everybody seems to know Chen is in the military."

"Well, yeah, it's no secret that Chen is part of it. Hell, with his magical abilities, they'd be idiots if they didn't take advantage of him. The higher ups, Bara, Jordon, and the others, are also well known. But no one knows the actual extent of our military force. I don't even think the actual soldiers, like Chen, know it either."

Brett had hummed, deep in thought, and hadn't said another word for the rest of the meal. When Ibo and his friends had gotten up to go to their rooms, he had followed them mindlessly, head up in the clouds, his meatballs left untouched in his plate.

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Brett had been so lost in his own thoughts, thinking about what Ibo had told him, that he had gotten himself lost again. He found himself staring at the doors of the library and realized that he had walked down more stairs than he should have. He glanced at his clock. He only had five minutes until the lesson. He rushed back up, his legs burning, but the complex was so big, and still so unfamiliar to him, it took him nearly 15 minutes to find the classroom.

"You're late", Chen barked when Brett finally got there. He was standing next to the other student, a girl around 6 or 7, correcting her posture.

"I know, I'm sorry. I got lost," Brett answered. He stood there, in the middle of the room, panting, not really knowing what to do.

"Are you going to stand up the whole time or are you going to sit until I'm done with Lea?" Chen asked.

Brett blushed and quickly grabbed a chair at the back. He was so tense, he didn't realize he should've put his case down on the floor before sitting, and he was too worried about attracting unwanted attention to do it afterwards. So he just sat there, violin strapped to his back, deadpan face on, watching his new teacher give instructions to the other student. Eddy glanced at him through the corner of his eye and rolled his eyes.

"Okay, Lea, you can sit now. It's Yang's turn." At that, the girl took her sheet music and went back to his seat to put her violin away. Eddy turned his eyes to him. "Are you going to take out your violin or are you going to keep wasting both our time?"

Brett sprung to life. He took the violin and the bow out of his case, held one in each hand, and looked up at Chen.

"Well, I know sitting is very comfortable, but if you're expecting me to teach you, you might want to come forward and stand next to me." Eddy snorted. "Come on, Yang. I won't bite you."

So everybody kept telling him, Brett thought as he moved to the front of the class; and yet.

The next half an hour was one of the most painful ones Brett remembered. Eddy had started explaining the basics, and at the end of the lesson had him do some open strings. The violin sounded awfully bad, the bow kept making crunching noises and touching several strings at once, and his back and arms hurt after a while. But the worst part came when the lesson ended and he went to put his violin away. Lea had already left, so it was just him and the teacher. Brett felt acutely aware of Chen's eyes boring into his back, and got so worked up about it, he forgot to unwind the bow, as Eddy had just told him he should.

"Yang."

Brett winced.

"Were you listening to me, or are you deaf?"

"Sorry?"

"I just spent ten minutes trying to teach you how to take proper care of your violin, and lo and behold, first thing you do is totally ignore what I just said."

"I don't..."

"Didn't I warn you to unwind the bow after playing? Do you know how expensive bows are? Have you any idea of how difficult it is to repair a bow down here?"