Airplanes | Spruceworth 6.1 | Wattys2019

Chapter 19: The Ex-Friend

Chapter 19: The Ex-Friend

       It wasn't often that we got cut off in the middle of a song for the musical rehearsals. Normally, it was just if one of the actors forgot their lines or Mrs. Goldsworth wanted to fix the blocking because it didn't look right.

       Today, she cut us off for a whole other reason. She didn't even say. She signalled for everyone to stop and then gestured for Ms. Parth to walk over for her. The two of them talked for a bit in a low voice, not giving us any indication of what was going on.

       Grant's seating in the orchestra was close to mine so he stood up, placing his violin gently on his seat before walking over and sitting down beside me on the bench. "Is it bad that I'm hoping they realize Hennessy is a poor choice for Belle?" Grant asked.

       "I want to say yes but after what she said to me, part of me wants to agree that it isn't bad," I said. "But that's probably very unlikely. She was cast for a reason."

      "Unfortunately."

       Mrs. Goldsworth and Ms. Parth finished talking and finally decided to tell us what the problem was. "Something just feels very off with this song," Mrs. Goldsworth said. "This is the opening song of the production but it just seems very dry. Now we don't think it's either the castor the orchestras fault. Maybe you're all just not ready to rehearse the songs together as a whole unit."

       "There's going to be an orchestra arriving here any minute," Ms. Parth said. "They're staying in Spruceworth for about four days for the music festival happening on Saturday so I invited them to sit in on the rehearsal. Maybe we could try switching. Get them to play for one run-through."

       "Until they arrive, you can just chat among yourselves," Mrs. Goldsworth said.

       Grant leaned close to me. "Sounds to me like they really are blaming us."

       "Tell me about it," I said. "And what's this music festival on Saturday?"

       "You don't know about it?" Grant asked. "It's a huge deal here."

       "Yeah, and I'm still fairly knew to Spruceworth," I said. "Don't blame me for not knowing anything. So what is the music festival?"

       "It's pretty self-explanatory," Grant said. "It's a festival of music. Some local bands play songs, orchestras come too, there's even some karaoke. And there's also a lot of food. It's just something for the whole village to enjoy and come together."

       "Come to think of it, that's probably the reason why my mom has been staying in Spruceworth for a while," I said. "If orchestras come to the music festival, especially ones from a music school, she's going to use the opportunity to try to get me to apply to one."

       Grant winced. "Music schools do come to the musical festival as well."

       I sighed. "Great. I really do want to go to the festival, but it means I'm going to have to avoid her the whole time and that will just ruin the mood for me completely. The only thing that would ruin my mood even more is if the school I'm supposed to go to shows up."

       I spoke too soon. As soon as the orchestra Ms. Priya invited showed up, my mood immediately went all the way down.

       It just had to be the orchestra from the conservatory I was meant to go to.

       "You okay, Ollie?" Grant asked.

        I sighed. "Guess who just showed up?"

       Grant looked at the orchestra before looking back at me. "That's from the school you were meant to go to?"