Hidden In Plain Sight

first impressions

And with that, I’d like to formally welcome you to the first day of the rest of your lives! Music Applied students: you stay here and Music Production students: you can follow your programme director to the recording studio now.”

Sadie picked up her bag while half of the room pushed their chairs back noisily along the wooden floor and stood up. Awkward grins were exchanged between who she could now see were her classmates: to be fair, most of them were guys. She could pick out at least three other girls, all of whom stood alone shyly. They meekly followed the guys out the door, led by the white-haired, middle-aged lecturer.

It was the first day of college but it sort of felt like the first day of school. The campus was huge and intimidating and the school of music and creative arts was a labyrinth of corridors and identical grey doors.

How will I ever get to know my way around this building?

Sadie followed the pack and fell into step with one of the girls.

“Hi, I’m Sadie!” she greeted brightly.

“Oh my God, hi! I’m Alyssa” the young woman beamed at her, clearly grateful for anyone to talk to her. Her long blonde kinky hair framed her youthful face.

“It’s nice to see a couple of girls in the class. There are so many guys!” Sadie spoke lowly.

“I know right?! We gotta stick together then!” Alyssa smiled brightly.

“For sure! This place is crazy big. So many rooms...”

The group walked past a cafe kiosk and the smell of coffee wafted by pleasantly.

“Yeah, how we will ever remember our way to the studio?”

“Well, I guess it’s near the coffee shop!” Sadie giggled, noticing that the guys in front of her came to a halt as the class filtered into the narrow corridor which led into the recording studio complex.

Everyone trickled into a brightly lit room that housed a huge recording console between two of the biggest loudspeakers Sadie had ever seen, an Apple computer, and racks of studio outboard equipment. A large glass window behind the console viewed into an even bigger room where a drum kit was set up and an upright piano stood in a corner. Sadie’s heart started beating fast: this was exactly where she wanted to be. She could already envision herself sitting at the desk, looking out at a drummer smashing out a killer beat to an exciting song.

I wonder what all those colourful buttons do? Will I ever know what each one of them does?

Her classmates sat on plush, soft seats which lined the entire room, and three male lecturers stood at the mixing desk, grinning broadly at them.

“Welcome future class of 2026!” the white-haired lecturer smiled a 100-watt smile, his eyes twinkling behind his neat stylish glasses. He wore a crisp navy shirt tucked into straight-leg blue jeans and yellow Caterpillar boots. He was formal yet casual and he seemed very friendly and approachable.

“Wow! Morning everybody! My name is Patryck and I’m the programme director. I designed the course myself over many arduous years and I’m absolutely delighted to welcome so many fresh, bright beautiful faces to campus today! I will be teaching you many classes myself along with many fine lecturers who have years of industry experience. Two of which are standing beside me. Let me introduce your year convenor, Professor Goore, and also Professor Persson.”

Clearly, the youngest of the three men, Professor Goore looked to be in his mid-thirties although he was dressed like a student: he wore tight blue jeans, Converse sneakers, and a black Iron Maiden Number of the Beast t-shirt under a black unzipped hoodie. He was slim and of average height, although his jeans made his legs look quite long. He wore his jet-black hair in a short, choppy cut with a quiff at his forehead.