Poison Sonata

Chapter 1

Scotty Klein was having one of the worst days of his life. A lovely, sunny day was being wasted with chasing around the most annoying person who had stolen his apron.

‘Come back here with my apron, you git!’

‘Eh Scotty....this is for your own good. Nah, scrap that it’s actually for OUR good, because we don’t want to stomach your horrid mess ever again!’

‘You are absolutely insufferable! HOW Dare you call my mother’s scone recipe a MESS?’

‘NANANANA! Can’t catch me, never ever, ever – THWACK DAMN OUCH!’

Alexander sighed. This was absolute hell for him, and the worst thing was, he had to endure this almost every day in some form of another. He walked past the offending apparition known as Martin and put his heavy music book on the shelf behind them. He turned around to face a very angry Martin snarling into his face:

‘YOU BARMY IDIOT! This time I almost made off with his precious apron, and you ruined it!’

‘Well you can’t just run off with other people’s belongings...this is a boarding house and we all must respect each other as educated adults!’

‘Look Alexander, I know that you are a habitual liar and everything, but surely not even YOU can eat his revolting cooking – ‘

‘You git! Whose cooking are you calling revolting? Surely it can’t be as revolting as your face!’

‘Gyahhh!! I can’t be bothered arguing with you anymore, Scotty.’

‘Don’t call me that!’

Scotty stared at the retreating figure of the man he hated so much in the doorway with dread. Alexander’s fiancée Leoni came out from the study with her close friend Claire Reim hearing the commotion. Alexander sighed again, and touched Scotty’s shoulder, maybe as a gesture of pity, of sympathy. Scotty shrugged it off, and silently walked upstairs to his room.

Scotty Klein, 23 years of age this April was a short figure with green eyes and he had been stuck in this students’ hostel for about 2 years. What bad he had done to get stuck in a hostel house full of insane people he failed to comprehend. However, as he weighed his options in life like he always did after a particularly nasty encounter with Martin, he figured that he was pretty well-off. Studying on a scholarship in Tudor History was no mean feat, and he knew very well that the people he called ‘idiots’ were all brilliant students in their respective fields. Alexander, originally from the Vienna music conservatorium was studying music, his fiancée Leoni was a chemistry student. There was Matthias Kruger who was studying to be a doctor and his brother Martin took classes in psychology. The Italian twins Giordano and Carlotta Rizzio were studying art agriculture. There was Jean from France who was pursuing a degree in literature, and Robert Reim was in a class of accounting. His sister was too young for university but they were orphans and had no place to live, so somehow or other Robert arranged for Claire to live in the hostel where she settled in soon enough.

Scotty lay back on the settee. He could hear the faint sounds of Leoni’s flute and Alexander’s violin moaning in the music room. Alexander, although he was annoying and snobbish sometimes played beautifully, Scotty had to admit. He veered his eyes to the window and looked outside to see Claire and Robert Reim outside in the garden. They were walking with a bucket full of honey down the path, for Claire kept a beehive down the sheds. Close siblings, Robert was someone the Scotty didn’t like, and Robert himself had no problem whatsoever with that as he didn’t like anyone except Claire. 

‘Lunch is ready!’ Carlotta beamed at the people hungrily stuffing themselves with her cooking. She was a fine cook, and believed that cooking to be an art that required dedication and love. She wouldn’t sit down until everyone else had eaten, even amid protests. Claire and Leoni came in late, looking quite red in the cheeks.