Perky Goth and the Court Composer

chapter 12

 16-year-old Cherry  enteredthe forced music classroom she was forced to take as a class. She liked the teacher, Mrs. Hale, she was fair, but strict, but Cherry just had no interest in playing a musical instrument or singing in a choir. This class felt forced to her because of that. When Cherry came in however, she saw at the teaching desk was Maestro Forte and not Mrs. Hale. Cherry marched toward Forte at the desk with anger.

"What are you doing here!?" Cherry sneered.

"I'm your new teacher, child," Forte replied, never-changing his emotionless tone of voice. "You will refer to me as Maestro Forte, not just Forte, am I clear?"

"I won't stand for this!" Cherry slammed her hands on the teacher desk.

Forte had to admit, her anger startled him, but it also made his heart race and stomach flutter like the millions of metaphorical butterflies inside. "Cerise, I am your teacher for the day, I suggest you sit down and go on with the lesson, you are not going anywhere for the next half hour. Now sit or else I'll be forced to call your parents or the principal."

Cherry growled low and sat in her chair, crossing her legs and folding her arms, glaring at him. Forte watched her as he took roll call and saw that Cherry didn't appear to have friends in this class. He also wasn't the official choice as the substitute, he took the papers handed to fill in and made it so he could spend more time with Cherry than just an hour after school. This would be the perfect opportunity, even though she clearly wasn't interested.

"Alright class," Forte stood after roll call, and held a book firmly between his bony hands. "Can any of you tell me the famed composer who had been writing symphonies since he was the mere age of five?"

A popular girl named Mackenzie raised her hand. "Mozart?" she guessed.

"Very good," Forte smirked. "You're smarter than you look..."

"Huh?" Mackenzie looked offended by his comment.

"I ask a question of Mozart, because according to the schedule, you're supposed to be taking a test on him," Forte walked to Cherry and handed her a handful of papers. "Cerise, would you pass these out?"

Cherry groaned and went to hand the papers to the other students of the class. The other students held their tests and pencils, and one of the boys named Austin raised his hand.

"Oui?" Forte pointed to him.

"Can we listen to music when we're done?" he asked.

Forte raised an eyebrow at him. "How on Earth could you do that unless I play the piano and others will be testing?"

"On an iPod... How else?" Austin was confused by his confusion.

"What on Earth is an iPod?" Forte asked.

The other students were shocked by his lack of knowledge on modern technology. They just shrugged it off and did their tests, even though most of them probably didn't care or bothered to study. Once Cherry finished her test, she came to him with a small device and a wire connected to it with headphones. "This is an iPod," Cherry told him. "You can download music from your computer and listen to it and these headphones play the music privately so only you can hear them and not bother anyone else."

"What an astounding idea..." Forte took the iPod and headphones in awestruck. He then looked back at her. "You finished your test?"

Cherry nodded.

"Good, good, you're a smart girl..." Forte patted her on the head, much to her disgust and annoyance.

"Whatever..." Cherry shrugged and put her hands in her jacket pocket. "What're you really doing here, Forte?"