When I Let Him Go

Chapter 1

First Day of Freshmen Year

"Mom, I think we made a g-good choice in coming here?" I whisper to my mother's ear as we stand in front of the bulletin board.
"Hmmm… Class C? Why would you be in Class C? You had higher grades than Mia back in elementary and she's in Class A."
"I… don't know."
"Should I complain about this to the Principal's office?"
"Know what, mom? Nope. I think going a little low profile in highschool would fit me."
"Leia and low profile? That's new."
"Trust me mom, I know this will be a good choice."
"Okay, okay. I trust you. Now go there and get them!"

After bidding goodbye, I quickly search for Class C in Building 2. The place is really huge, with a total of 4 buildings around. Each is fairly big, and ours is not an exception. I surveyed the whole first floor, assuming all freshmen classes would be held there. Turns out, Class C and D will be in the second floor along with the sophomores and juniors. This will be one hectic ride.

I finally found my assigned classroom after what seemed like forever and some people were already there. I see this Asian guy at the back, and a girl somewhere in the front with thick glasses and she was meddling with her phone.

I take the seat which is 2 chairs away from the lady, but she barely even noticed me. Hmm… that's pretty rude. Or maybe she's just shy? But she can act like she doesn't care either. I'll just let her be then. I grab my own phone, play a few rounds of Candy Crush to pass time and make a mental note of what to do during lunch time when I'm definitely going to spend it all by myself.

It doesn't take long before the whole class gets filled with new faces and our teacher comes in. We all greet her in glee and yes, as we all anticipated, another round of boring introductions to start the school year.

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In arts class, two months later

"Okay guys, get to work!" Our arts teacher yells from his desk, signalling everyone to start right away.

We were assigned to make one of those collages, this time about Health. I silently work on my own piece and plug my earphones, ignoring the whole lot.

Well, you won't believe it, but I was elected president of the class on the third day. Ugh, don't get me wrong, I certainly didn't have any motive for that. I guess they all judged by the way I spoke? These people are definitely in Class C for some reason. Introductions are definitely boring but I wanted to snore during ours. Almost everyone had a hard time talking in front!

"Is that a violin? Who owns that?" Sir Clove exclaims, breaking through my chain of thoughts.
"It's Leia's!" Everyone replied in chorus.
"Really now? Can you play for us, dear?"

I was supposed to play my instrument for a graded performance in our homeroom subject, but I guess the performance just got earlier.

"What do you want me to play, Sir?"
"Anything you like, Leia."
"Alright. Here goes."

I decided to play my own violin rendition of A Thousand Years by Christina Perri and I poured my soul into it. I could hear a little bit of noise in the intro, but Sir Clove's statement caught everyone off.

"I want everyone to close their eyes and feel the music. Stop what you are doing right now and just allow yourself to get lost and indulge. Let every note of the song take you away to a land you never knew existed."

After that, the whole room was pitch silent. I figured that they followed Sir Clove's instructions so I didn't want to let everyone down. I added rubato (*push and pull of musical rhythm or dynamics) in every suitable corner of the song just to add that feeling of intensity and poured every emotion I had into the melody. I let my body take over and swayed throughout the entire show with my own eyes shut as well, letting my hands do the work and my soul - lost in that place where only harmony existed.