Airplanes | Spruceworth 6.1 | Wattys2019

Chapter 19: The Ex-Friend

       "Yep."

       "How could you tell?"

       "Because I had a friend who also got accepted into the conservatory," I said. "Keyword being had. After I got arrested and lost my scholarship, he refused to talk to me. And he didn't even tell me he didn't want to be friends anymore. He just all of a sudden stopped replying to my texts and calls."

       "Which lowlife scum is this?" Grant asked, surveying all the members of the orchestra with an evil eye as if everyone were culprits.

       "You don't have to glare at all of them," I said. "And it's the one wearing the blue plaid shirt. His name's Fred." Grant stopped glaring at all of them and instead, just glared at Fred who wasn't even paying attention. "Grant. Stop glaring."

       "Fine, but just so you know if he says anything bad to you, I'm going to lose it," Grant said.

       "Well, I don't think you have to worry about that," I said. "Considering he, you know, stopped talking to me."

       "I don't care. If he does, I'm decking him in the face."

       "You're not." 

       "I am and you can't stop me."

       Ms. Priya had already talked to the conservatory's orchestra's maestro about them playing the song for the cast to see if it would sound differently and therefore help her and Mrs. Goldsworth spot what was wrong, and he agreed to it.

       We had to move away from our seats and to the audience seats, leaving our instruments behind for the conservatory to use since they left theirs at the hotel. 

       As if things couldn't get any worse, Fred, who was a violinist, ended up taking Grant's spot. "He's lucky that's not my violin and it's the one I'm borrowing from the school," he said. "Otherwise I'd deck him."

       I didn't even bother telling Grant to calm down because I was starting to get very annoyed with Fred as well. He finally noticed that I was here and instead of ignoring me like I hoped he did, he just smirked at me.

       Why did all of my friends turn out to be complete jerks? Out of all the friends I've had, Grant and Vikram were the only ones who hadn't turned their back on me. Honestly, I was kind of expecting Vikram to since he was also friends with Hennessy and whenever it came to my friends taking sides, they never took mine.

       But Vikram was trying his hardest to stay neutral with this whole situation going on. 

       Mrs. Goldsworth told the cast who were in the opening number to get into their places once the orchestra was ready to go. Once they started performing together, I decided that this was officially the worst day of my life.

       They sounded good. Really good, especially for an orchestra who never had any prior practice with this song. Yet they still sounded better with the cast they we did.

       I knew it wasn't some sort of competition. I knew the conservatory orchestra probably had a lot more training than us since they were going to a professional music school, and them playing would help Ms. Parth and Mrs. Goldsworth figure out what was wrong, but I still couldn't help but feel bitter.

       Because I was supposed to be part of that orchestra. Because of the smug look Fred gave me before they began.

       Because it felt like I was failing as a pianist.

       It felt like a huge step down for me; going from the conservatory to the school's orchestra. I didn't want it to feel like a step down. I genuinely loved being part of the school orchestra. While I wasn't really a social person, I did enjoy the time I spent with everyone in the orchestra. I felt like I belonged her.