Footballs and Textbooks

1 ~ New School ~ Lukas

"Don't worry!" She said, "You'll make tons of best friends in no time!" She said.

Lukas' mum was very wrong about that. It had been just over two weeks, he'd started on Thursday and today it was Friday, and Lukas hadn't met anyone he could even consider an friend. His new school brought nothing but loneliness as he worked silently, sitting down wherever there was a free seat.

That wasn't the case for his little brother, though. Oh no, Emil had made a group of friends in no time. Wherever Emil was, he's always be with someone. Wether it was the kind African girl, the Chinese boy who brimmed with confidence or that charming Italian who's older brothers were in Lukas' year. He always had someone to sit with at lunch or assembly or break times.

Actually, Lukas was glad about that. He was happy that Emil had made friends so quickly. He wanted nothing but the best for his little brother. He just wished he could have the same confidence.

As he walked into music, his favourite subject, the teacher beckoned him to stand up in front of the class. He'd done this is every class this week, and he was sure his new classmates were sick of hearing the same introduction.

"Class, settle down please. As you can see, we have a new student," The teacher began, her short brunette bob bouncing as she spoke.

"Yeah, we know. He's been in, like, every class!" Lukas heard someone whisper.

"So, would you like to introduce yourself?" She asked again, a wide smile on her face as her brown coloured eyes shone with excitement.

With a sigh, Lukas replied, "Uhm...my name is Lukas Bondevik." Luckily, unlike some of his other teachers, she seemed happy enough with that introduction and allowed him to sit down on the carpet with the rest of the class. Then, the teacher began to speak.

"For Lukas' sake, I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Miss Landen. Anyway, class, I'm going to take the register, so please bear with me." After her brief introduction, she sat at her desk and opened her laptop, a white Apple Mac with black music note stickers stuck on it. Then, she called out everyone's names, and people would reply. Shutting her laptop, she stood up.
"Right, you will be continuing your work on the keyboards. Go with your partners and sit at one of the keyboards. Lukas, partner up with whoever you see fit." She explained before turning away to organise some papers. Looking around, Lukas watched as everyone found their partner and grabbed headphones, plugging them into the keyboards and then beginning to play. His eyes fixed on a boy who sat alone, expertly playing the keys with a small smile on his face. He must've noticed Lukas' staring because he beckoned for him to come over.

"You're Lukas, the new boy? You can work with me if you want!" The tall boy said with a childlike smile, "My name is Ivan, Ivan Braginsky, by the way. I am playing Korobeiniki. Have you ever played piano before?" He asked in a distinct Russian accent. Lukas nodded.

"Yes. We played them in my old school. It's nice to meet you, Ivan Braginsky." Then, the fair haired Russian laughed.

"Oh, just call me Ivan. There's no need for you to call me by my full name!" He explained cheerfully, pulling out some folded paper and handing it to Lukas, "Well, here's the sheet music. I know the whole thing by heart, so feel free to practice. Let me get you some headphones and a splitter. The splitter let's us both use the headphones at once." Ivan stood up and walked over to where the teacher was, exchanging a few words with her before following her to a box and grabbing headphones and a splitter. He returned and plugged the splitter into the keyboard and then the two headphones into the splitter.

"There. You can begin playing now."

Although it took quite some effort, Lukas was able to, slowly, play the melody of the song. Ivan decided that he would play the chords and soon enough they were playing it perfectly, although it was definitely slower than the original song. They played it a couple of times before the teacher raised her hand and everyone went silent, taking off their headphones. Lukas saw this and copied.