Prodigy

Chapter Six

Tuesday morning came way too quickly. I was having a nice dream about a celebrity crush when my alarm clock began to blare. I groaned, shutting the noisy pest off and slowly crawled out of bed. I pulled back the curtains and looked out the window to see that it was still dark outside. That was something I'd have to adjust to again, waking up at the crack of dawn.

The house was uncharacteristically quiet this morning. I guess my dad was out riding his bike and my mom was still asleep. Ann was already in the kitchen, quietly hunched over a steaming cup of coffee and scrolling through her phone. I greeted her and she responded with a nod. She wasn't much of a morning person.

I quietly fixed myself breakfast and a lunch for later. Ann asked me to pack her a couple snacks and I obliged. After breakfast and lunch were taken care of, I headed back upstairs to get ready for the day. Thankfully, I wasn't assigned too much homework yesterday, and I would have time today to take care of my one math assignment. Hopefully my classes today would go as easily as they did yesterday.

Hopefully I wouldn't have anything with Emmett.

The school felt less congested this morning. Maybe more kids had off blocks today. Hopefully this meant that the practice rooms would be less crowded, too. Thankfully, jazz band rehearsals didn't start until next week, so this week, I was going to make sure to get started on my audition pieces. I could use all the extra practice I could get.

To my surprise, although the school seemed significantly less crowded, the practice rooms were all full again. So, I slipped into the piano lab room. And much to my dismay, someone was once again seated at the piano bench. As frustrated as I was with the piano lab that only myself and Mr. Miner used being occupied, I was happy to see that the person causing my frustration wasn't Emmett.

A girl was hunched over the keys, a pair of headphones in her ears. She was obviously plying along with the song she was listening to, but every few seconds, she would pause the music, mumble to herself, and write something down. I was too far away to see if she was writing the actual notes on staff paper or if she was just scribbling down chord names. I didn't recognize her either. She had long, curly blonde hair, a stick thin figure, and big brown eyes that reminded me of a deer. I waited a few minutes, watching her process until she finally locked up and noticed me standing in the doorway. She jumped back in surprise, taking out both her headphones.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." She stammered. My anger began to fade away upon realizing that she had most likely stumbled in here and wasn't trying to pick a fight like Emmett. "I read the sign and saw it was a classroom, but all the other practice rooms were taken and I was just trying to work on this song." She babbled.

"What exactly is it that you're doing?" I asked, approaching the piano bench.

"I'm trying to figure out an interesting way to play Regina Spector's Fidelity." She handed me her staff paper and I glanced over the notes she had written in so far. A whole four measures. "It's taken me two days to get this far." She groaned, leaning her head on the music stand.

"Why has it taken you so long?" I asked, my fingers itching to test out what she had so far on the piano.

"I can't read music. So I have to listen to like ten seconds at a time, figure out with my ear what notes are being played, write the notes down, and then make it cool from there." She explained. Jeez, what a terribly exhausting process.

"If you'd like, I can help you learn how to read music better so you aren't spending so much time figuring out which notes are which and how to write them in your staff paper." Her eyes lit up at my offer.