to you, 2000 days ago

8

"I'm telling you, Isaac Newton was a genius!" Callum exclaimed, a spark ablaze in his eyes. He began setting up his instrument, pulling out his endpin while talking with Nathan, who was sitting in front of him.

"Right, and I'm a neon pink unicorn," Nathan said dryly.

Behind him, Juliette snorted but stifled it with a cough.

Since the bell rang, Callum and Nathan had been going back and forth about their new physics unit in their science class.

"He's the father of Calculus!" Callum reasoned, positioning his cello upright. "I don't understand how you couldn't be fascinated with his work."

"For god's sake, please decrescendo your voice," Quinn said from behind them, rolling her eyes. Their constant debate for at least five minutes straight had begun to get annoying, it was all she was hearing since class started. 

Callum turned around to face Quinn. "Don't you mean diminuendo?" he shot back.

"Actually, they're the same," Juliette pointed out. "They can be used interchangeably."

"See?" Quinn said, now looking at Callum with a sly grin, who ignored her remark.

"I'm just saying, Callum, all Newton did was point out the obvious," Nathan explained, returning to their previous topic of conversation. "An apple fell on his head. Boom, gravity."

Callum turned back to his friend. "Dude have you even looked at his three laws of motion? It's more than just gravity."

"Okay Sir Newton, if matter can't be created nor destroyed then what the fuck happened to all my hair ties?" Juliette questioned.

Callum opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out, rendered speechless by the oddity of her question. Even Josh had turned around, their conversation piquing his interest.

A grin slowly creeped on Juliette's face at his reaction.

"She's got a point, though," Quinn agreed, who was ironically tying up her dyed hair in a ponytail. It must've taken a lot of effort and toning appointments to maintain the perfect shade of blue all the time. 

"Why are you smiling?" Callum asked cautiously, turning his attention to his stand partner.

Juliette tilted her head a fraction, strands of hair swaying with the movement. "Hmm? What smile?"

Callum raised both of his eyebrows, as if he was saying, Seriously?

Their conversation was interrupted by the click of the doorknob, as one of their fellow cellists entered the classroom with a yellow slip in hand.

Mrs. Moon stood up from her seat, walking towards the door and taking the yellow office pass from her. "Vivian! Just in time! Go ahead and get set up, we'll be starting rehearsal soon."

Vivian nodded in acknowledgement before heading to the storage area at the back of the school. Juliette happened to be watching her, noticing that her eye bags were more prominent than usual.

As Vivian neared their section, averting her eyes, Juliette realized that it was because Vivian wasn't wearing any makeup at all.

Now, under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have been a big deal. But after years of being acquaintances with her, Juliette knew that Vivian would rather be dead than caught outside without her standard lip gloss and mascara, occasionally some concealer when she felt it was necessary.

But seeing that Mrs. Moon was about to begin rehearsal soon, Juliette planned to check in on Vivian towards the end of class.

She had hoped that maybe she was reading into Vivian a little too much, after all they didn't know each other personally, but it wouldn't hurt to talk at all.

***

Juliette flexed her fingers, inspecting the red indentations on her fingertips on her left hand. With her cello still held upright with her right hand, she slumped back in her wooden desk chair.

She rubbed her left hand over her face, her mind drifting to the end of rehearsal in orchestra today. Once they finished their last piece, Mrs. Moon promptly requested to speak with Vivian, stealing her opportunity to talk to her. 

Dragging her worn eyes to the clock on her nightstand, she realized that it was already well into the night, exactly 9:37pm.

For at least an hour, without fail, Juliette drilled on their orchestra pieces, practicing every note, every rhythm, and every dynamic.

She supposed that she had somewhat of an innate desire to become a perfectionist.

After all, it was the goal she had become dead set on after being ridiculed by her music teacher in the 5th grade.

Juliette held a grain of sympathy for music teachers, especially because managing such a large group of beginning musicians was no easy feat. However, her old teacher was definitely in the wrong for calling her out in front of the whole class and criticizing her playing.

Contrary to what most people assumed, playing the cello never came easy to her like Josh or Quinn, who probably had private lessons and ages of experience on her. She had to work day and night, forcing her to continue music even when she felt like it was impossible. It was the only way that she could earn a respectable place in orchestra.

There was a soft knock at her door across the room, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Come in," she called, setting down her cello.

The door knob turned before her mother stepped inside her bedroom.

"How's the practicing going?"

"Good," she said, offering her standard response to pretty much anything her parents asked.

"Head to bed soon, okay? It's pretty late," her mother suggested, and Juliette acknowledged her with a nod.

Her parents hardly knew much about orchestra, let alone how the cello worked. Their only expectation was that whatever extracurricular or class she picked, she excelled in it.

It was the only way that she could keep them proud.

Juliette picked up her bow again, sitting up in her seat, suddenly feeling empowered to practice again. She began running through her major scales with half a thought, the sound of scales and arpeggios echoing throughout her room and into the hallway outside.

Her head trailed off to her conversation with Callum the other day. He seemed so adamant on holding on to the one chance of playing the solo, that she found it almost crazy.

But maybe she was a little crazy too, because secretly, she hoped that she would be the one to play the solo during their concert day too.

*** 

AHHH NOT ME POSTING THIS CHAPTER AT EXACTLY 9:37PM RN JJSA

every single day we lose a person in our cello section istg one day its gonna be just me and my stand partner carrying the whole section 🧌

writing this literally makes me relive middle school orchestra im thriving here 

LOVE YALL SEE YOU IN THE NEXT CHAPTER<33

(word count: 1107)