Strings

Chapter 1

Crap. It was only my first day, and - of course - I was already running late. I mean, it was only the national orchestra, which I had spent months practicing to audition for and years dreaming of getting in to, run by Carola Greenfield, one of the world's best violists - and also the most terrifying. If I arrived late to our very first session, at best the result would be a long and painful death.

I grabbed my keys off the kitchen counter and swung my violin case dangerously close to the table-top lamp and onto my shoulder, simultaneously shoving my phone in the pocket of my jeans.

"Bye, mum!" I yelled, not waiting to hear the mumbled reply from upstairs before I dashed out the front door.

The clock on the dashboard of my car read 6.54pm. Six minutes. The concert hall where the orchestra rehearsed wasn't too far away from my house; nonetheless I drove much faster than was probably advisable, seeing as I'd only had my license for about a month. By the time I had found what seemed like the only parking space left outside the hall and swung my violin case on my shoulder, again extremely close to the car I was parked next to (I really had to learn to be more careful about that) my phone read 6.58pm, meaning I had precisely two minutes to be inside the building, unpacked and ready to play. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself before hurrying inside.

Thank God Carola wasn't there yet as I found my way into the hall, although I got a few sideways glances from the first violins as I entered, but luckily no one said anything. I unpacked as quickly as possible, taking care not to further embarrass myself by dropping my bow or something (which had happened before) and when I stood up, a little flustered, a tall, Asian boy with round, horn-rimmed glasses was standing beside me.

"I'm George," he said, "first violin. I take it you're Hannah?"

I nodded.

"You'll be sitting in that empty seat over there," he said, gesturing to the only vacant space left in the room, at the very back of the second violins. "Please try not to be late next time. And you better hope your strings are in tune, because we won't be tuning again just for your sake."

I nodded again and mumbled a quick apology before hurrying off to my place. Hardly daring to say a word to anyone, despite the low rumble of conversation emanating from the orchestra, I took my seat. Without making eye contact I whispered to the boy I was sharing a desk with, "Can you give me your A?" before softly tuning my strings, and no sooner than I'd finished the one and only walked in, and a hushed silence immediately fell.

Carola Greenfield was much shorter and rounder in person, although this did not stop the clear sense of respect, albeit mingled with terror, in the atmosphere. I noted, not unhappily, that she was also much less beautiful, although I supposed that that was due to the lack of makeup and lighting present in all her photos and videos. I could feel my palms beginning to sweat and I hoped it didn't deter my playing, because I didn't fancy getting on her bad side.

"Is everyone tuned?" she asked, her voice loud and brash. George nodded from his seat, catching my eye and quirking his eyebrow slightly. I blushed and looked away.

"Good," Carola continued. "I thought we'd start with a bit of Mendelssohn. Who has played Fingal's Cave before?"

A few people, including George, raised their hands, and were rewarded with a slight nod of approval from Carola as she handed out the music for each of the part leaders to pass back. I knew the piece quite well, although I had little experience with playing anything in an orchestra. I'd only ever been a part of my school's string ensemble, which consisted of about ten people in total and barely ever rehearsed, let alone performed. In this huge concert hall with fifty other competent musicians, I couldn't help but feel a little intimidated.

"Here," the girl in the desk in front of me said, handing me the last page of sheet music. She had a nice smile, perfectly straight teeth and short, wavy blonde hair. "I'm Jenna, by the way."

Damn, she was brave. I opened my mouth to reply, although it was unlikely anything would have come out considering the lump that had formed in my throat, but before I could even attempt speaking Carola was tapping her pencil on her stand and calling for silence. I closed my mouth again, instead reverting to a small smile which probably turned out more like a grimace, and Jenna gave me a bit of a weird look before turning to face the front again. I sighed.

"Okay, let's just sight read this slowly," Carola said, here piercing gaze daring anyone to protest. Not that anyone would.

I skimmed over the page as she decided on a tempo, and was relieved to see a pleasant key signature, not too many accidentals and easily sight-readable notes. I sighed in relief, then almost jumped out of my skin as everyone started playing, before realising I had completely missed Carola's count in.

"Fuck."

The word slipped out against my will, and I could see the boy next to me shuddering from silent laughter. I glared in his direction before finding my place in the music and joining in, praying Carola hadn't noticed anything, before realising we were sitting at the back of the second violins and she probably couldn't care less what we were doing as long as we didn't cause a commotion.

And so the evening continued. I focused very hard and didn't miss a single cue after my first mistake, although I was sure the boy next to me was still silently laughing at me. I didn't dare look his way until the very end, when it seemed Carola had finally had enough of us and, after telling us we better practice for next week or she would make us each play our parts alone in front of everyone, dismissed us.

Everyone stood at once, causing a huge commotion of scraping chairs, and I just spotted Carola make her escape without so much as a second glance. I felt a wave of relief wash over me as her figure disappeared through the doorway, and finally, without fear of being attacked, turned to the boy next to me to call him out for laughing at me, but as soon as I did so my breath caught in my throat once more.

As we made eye contact, my witty comment died on my lips. He was smiling right at me, his dark eyes crinkling around the edges as they stared into mine, his warm chocolate skin stretching over his cheeks and forming two of the most adorable dimples I had ever seen.

He was fucking gorgeous.

"Hannah?"

I cursed the sound of George's voice from behind me, but I didn't dare ignore him, seeing as I had already got myself on his bad side. With what seemed like great effort, I tore my gaze away from Dimple Boy - though it had actually only been a couple of seconds since we made eye contact - and turned to face George, taking great effort not to fold my arms and demand what he wanted.

"Can you just fill in your details?" George asked, handing me a clipboard and a pen, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just ruined my wondrous moment. "You missed out at the beginning. Because you were late, and all."

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I took the clipboard and scribbled down my phone number and email address as fast as humanly possible before handing it back to George. But when I turned back to face Dimple Boy, hoping my second attempt at wit would be more successful, he was nowhere to be seen. I looked around frantically but he had well and truly disappeared amongst the crowd, and I was left standing alone, feeling like my heart had dropped to my feet.

***

Hiya! And yes, another new book, sorry. I always seem to have a creativity rush during exams, which is not exactly great seeing as I should definitely be studying right now. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please let me know if you did! I'll probably only continue with it after exams, but I really enjoyed writing this chapter so you never know, it could be sooner, because procrastination is a thing. Anyway I'll stop waffling now. Please vote, comment etc. if you enjoyed. Ta!