By The Sea

Chapter Three

The rest of the week didn't calm down or get better in any way. Each day I was given more and more homework. On top of all that, every five minutes someone was making me feel guilty that I wasn't joining any clubs or involved in any sports.

"You're wasting your high school years," said a couple of teachers.
"You can meet new people," said the Sophomores.
"You can get extra class credits," said the Juniors.
"Don't bother. They just take up time," said the Seniors.

I ended up joining a beginning instrument club. I guess I wanted to give playing music a shot. I texted my mom that I would be late home because of the club. When I showed up, only six kids sat scattered around the seats of the vastly empty band room. Spare trumpets and cellos and drums sat against the giant lockers that had labels with instruments on them. I sat in the back of the room just as a very large woman in a tie-die shawl gracefully waltzed into the room. She had wild grey hair that stuck out of her careless ponytail. Her glasses had rhinestones that lined the rims all the way to her ears. She smiled and waved her hands as if she was conducting a large orchestra.

"Hellooo," she said in a sing-song voice. "My name is Ms. Willow and I am so excited to help you start playing an instrument. Today I have a selection that I want you to try out. Please please! Get up get up!" Each student rose from their chairs. "Oh wait, sit down sit down. I forgot. Put your chairs in a circle and we'll introduce ourselves." I was almost hoping we weren't going to do anything like that, but I did want to meet new people.

The students around the room had various looks of disgust and boredom. I wonder if they picked this class out of being forced to. This school was very passionate about its programs and clubs. Once extra chairs were pushed out of the way, we sat in a shape that resembled the shape of a warped lake or pond.

"Scoot closer together, but leave room for me, I'll join too," said Ms. Willow. She pulled a chair and sat in between me and another girl who had shoulder-length light brown hair that was pulled into a low ponytail. She wore a dark green jacket and a light purple shirt. She had bright blue eyes and a wonderfully genuine smile. "Okay, now everyone say your name and why you choose to be here. I'll start. I'm Ms. Willow and I'm the music teacher." She looked to her right towards the girl in the green jacket.

"Hi, I'm Paige, and Ms. Willow teaches band and I'm in the band and she asked me to help out," she said. She had a very punctual and matter-of-fact tone. She moved her hands with the highs and lows of her voice. The boy next to her squirmed and sat up in his chair.

"I'm Roy. I wanted to see what instruments I wanted to play," he said. And it went like this around the circle until everyone was looking at me. Some people pretended to be thinking about something else but their minds were focused on what I would say.

"I'm Lila," I said, taking in a quick breath to think about what I would say. I filled the awkward silence with some "umm"s and "I'm thinking sorry"s before I thought of something. "I just moved here and I wanted to meet new people." I shrugged as Ms. Willow congratulated me for doing something as simple as speaking and welcomed me to Monterey.

"I think that's about it. Why don't we get up and walk around and choose an instrument? Paige will assist you when you choose one. Okay, get up get up get up!" Ms. Willow excitedly jumped up and clapped her hands as she said this. Paige smiled and got up as the other students awkwardly rose from their seats. Ever since I had heard "Ashokan Farewell" on a Civil War documentary (yes in history class in eighth grade) I've wanted to play the violin. 

So I walked to the corner of the room where Ms. Willow had displayed the violins. I'm assuming Paige saw me looking around after I stopped at the violins because she ran over to assist me.

"Hi! Lila, right? You wanna play the violin?" she asked. Her words came out of her mouth a million miles per hour, but I was able to get the gist of the message...which I guess was a gist itself. I nodded and she smiled, waving at Ms. Willow to come over. Ms. Willow came around the chairs in a flurry of sparkles and colors. She smelled like coconut lotion and cherries.

"Wonderful! You've picked the violin. I used to play that in grade school. Please follow me," she said. She twirled impressively and lead me to a closet with misshapen black cases with white numbers on them. She picked one that had the shape of a violin and handed it to me. "You can have this for the remainder of the year. Just make sure to practice practice practice!" I could tell Ms. Willow liked saying things more than once for emphasis. When she walked away I opened the case on the floor. The violin inside was a gorgeous dark wood with silver strings. Maybe they weren't actually silver but I wanted to think they were. 

"It's beautiful," I breathed. I said it quietly so no one would hear me.

"What nerd plays the violin?" asked a voice behind me. I turned around, and it was the boy who had introduced himself as Roy. He held a case that resembled the shape of a saxophone. "It's just a stupid block of wood with some strings on it. You should leave before you get attached to a psycho like Ms. Willow and an idiotic instrument." He walked away, laughing as if he was very pleased with himself. I shut the violin case harder than I meant to and walked over to Ms. Willow's office, where she sat humming "Ode to Joy".

"Ms. Willow?" She turned around as she heard my voice. 

"Oh come in Lila! What can I do for you?" 

"I don't really think I'm cut out for this," I said. I set the violin case on the floor, and she laughed. I stepped back to ease my surprised look. Why was she laughing?

"Don't let Roy scare you," she kicked out her foot and moved the case back towards me. "He's been in this class for three years and hasn't gotten any better. He wants to, so he's scaring off the people he doesn't want to pass him. Don't you worry your pretty little head about him." I smiled a shy smiled and she gestured towards the violin case. I picked it up and said thanks and goodbye and then left the room. Class was over.

The end of the school week was finally here, and with that, I threw the violin in the back seat of Logan and drove home.