Red String of Fate

Shades of Blue

As it turned out, the only thing on the list of Henry's things to worry about that he actually needed to be concerned over was how to survive Chamber Choir. There were very few notes to take in History, which was a rare treat for him and his peers. Usually Dr. Reeves had them writing down what they felt was the entire chapter, instead of just the highlights. Though, as Ryan pointed out as they walked to their next classes, the chapter they'd been covering was much shorter than normal so, for all they knew, they could have very easily written the entire thing down. Later, to his immense relief, Henry discovered that his Math homework had indeed been finished, and had been placed in his backpack where it belonged.

Chamber Choir hadn't been as bad as he'd imagined it would be, but he knew that he wasn't imagining Erik's cold stare on his back as he slunk to his seat in the tenor section at the beginning of class. He slid down in his seat to make himself smaller as Erik chided his section for not attending their practice that morning, but Erik's mismatched blue eyes fixed him with the most dangerous "I dare you to forget what I've trained you" look he'd ever seen and he quickly fixed his posture. But as class wore on Henry got the sneaking suspicion that something else besides the missing tenors was affecting the choir teacher's mood. He would work his class very hard, but he always managed to get a laugh from them at least once. Today he wasn't even trying to be nice-he was just going through the motions.

And it wasn't just the students that he was cold with. About half of the choir noticed the tension between Erik and his bespectacled pianist, a man named Haydn Sangster, during the entire class. They barely spoke at all to each other unless Erik was telling him what parts he needed to be played or Haydn was clarifying where they were starting from. Highly unusual for the two, seeing as they usually kept up a very playful banter with each other that could sometimes be called 'flirting' if you squinted hard enough. The students decided it would be best just to follow Erik's directions and make their hypotheses about why exactly the two musicians were exhibiting such odd behavior at a much safer distance.

As soon as the bell rang, Haydn gathered up his folder of music and disappeared out the door before any of the students had finished gathering their things. Henry could have sworn he saw Erik's shoulders rise and fall as if he'd sighed very heavily. He was moving somewhat slower than his peers, having decided that he was going to stay after to apologize for his absence from the sectional. He didn't think that his apology would do anything to improve Erik's mood, but it was the thought that counted, right? Henry slowly made his way to the music teacher's side as he stuffed his music into his personal folder and closed it. "Mr. Triste?" Henry spoke up tentatively. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Erik glanced up at him, calculated his answer for a few seconds, then turned to face him fully. "I hope what you wish to talk about is why you missed practice this morning," he murmured, his voice still as icy cold as it had been in class. Whatever tension he had been feeling hadn't disappeared quite yet. Henry saw Ryan slowly making his way to the classroom door, prepping for a quick getaway if something in the discussion took a turn for the not-so-cordial. "I was very surprised to see you weren't there," Erik noted as he folded his arms across his chest, "especially since you're my best tenor in class." Henry straightened up a little with pride at the praise. Erik only said things like that when he genuinely meant it. "So. What's your story?"

Henry crossed his fingers for good luck behind his back, hoping his story would appease his teacher. "It's rather silly, sir," he said, "but I overslept today." Erik raised a thin blonde eyebrow, though he remained otherwise expressionless. "We had a power outage at my house in the middle of the night," Henry hurriedly explained, "so our clocks were reset. Which mean that my alarm didn't go off, which meant I was almost late for class...you get the idea..." He bit his lip nervously, hoping that Erik would be somewhat appeased by his answer. It was the truth and nothing but the truth, as lame and silly as it was.