Belle grinned and handed her brother's bubble tea back.
"Thank you, Belle."
"For what?"
"For giving my bubble tea back.. and for making me realise something important."
------------------------------------
Back at home in his bedroom, sitting at his little study desk, Eddy was so annoyed with himself.
He felt really bad about what he had said to Brett.
I told him to speak at a normal volume.
The poor guy must get that all the time.
Eddy leaned back into the backrest of his chair and gazed up towards the ceiling. He was annoyed that he won't have an opportunity to apologise to Brett till the following weeks' maths tutoring lesson.
Or so he thought.
The next day was Saturday and Eddy excitedly got out of his mother's car as he was brought to the music hall where the first gathering of his youth orchestra was about to take place. He walked into the community music hall where they were meeting up. He smiled looking up at the top of the stage and saw all the chairs placed in an orchestral arrangement.
Then he noticed Brett sitting in the front row of the audience!
"Brett...!?"
Eddy stepped up to him as Brett raised his gaze. His expression looked neutral.
"Hi Brett. Nice to see you."
Brett's lips lightly parted. Eddy took one extra step closer.
"I beg your pardon, Brett?"
Eddy took the seat next to Brett and listened intently.
"Hi Eddy, good to see you, too."
Eddy smiled.
It seemed all the other students around Brett had given up too early. Eddy had very good hearing, which was probably why he "worked it out" so quickly, that in fact Brett could hear and answer back, it's just that those around him couldn't pick up the sound! And it was narrow-minded of Eddy to tell Brett to "speak at a normal volume" when for whatever reason, Brett's volume must have been "normal" for him.
"Brett, I wanted to apologise for saying something so stupid to you yesterday. About asking you to speak at a normal volume.. this is your normal, right?"
Brett looked at Eddy in surprise. He then broke out into a smile. His lips parted again. Eddy listened intently again.
"Thank you, Eddy. That means a lot to me."
Eddy smiled as he nodded.
"Brett, I can hear you. I just need a bit more practice, if you would please be patient with me."
Brett smiled and nodded back.
It was time for the orchestral practice to begin. After the director of the orchestra introduced herself and the new members of the year, including Brett and Eddy, she invited everyone to the stage and announced the allocation of seats.
Brett and Eddy became deskies at the orchestra. They were the youngest members that had joined the orchestra this year and must have been put together for that reason.
The director then introduced their conductor and together they started handing out the musical scores for their first piece. The conductor smirked;
"...I thought it would be a good opportunity to check your sight-reading."
Many groaned. Eddy noticed Brett hadn't and wondered whether Eddy just had not heard him groan or whether he was fine by it. Eddy turned his head to look at his deskie.
Brett noticed Eddy had turned towards him and looked up from his score and smiled. Eddy smiled back.
No, he obviously doesn't mind at all.
Eddy's guess was confirmed when they started to play. Eddy thought his own sight-reading skills were pretty good but Brett's was something else. His crisp sound and rhythm were on point, Eddy wondered whether the guy ever needed to practice more than 5 minutes. He told that to Brett and his lips parted again.
"Thanks. But I want to make it sound much better. I try to practice 40 hours a day."
Eddy burst out laughing.
The two did become very good friends very quickly. With a similar age, background and interests, it wasn't difficult. Eddy was always looking forward to catching up with Brett at maths tutoring and at orchestral practice. He would be sitting next to Brett at both venues and he never got tired of chatting to him, learning more and more about his friend.
3 weeks later
"Eddy Chen, may I speak to you during the break?"
"Um.. yes sir."
Eddy was called into the staff room of the tutoring school.
Eddy stood in front of his teacher and fidgeted uncomfortably.
"Um.. am I in any trouble, sir?"
His teacher furrowed his brows but his facial expression remained kind.
"No Eddy, I just heard a few things and I checked myself and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."
"..I.. I don't understand sir."
"Well, is everything okay? At home? At school? ..At tutoring?"
"Yes..?"
"Do you do any extra-curricular activities? Apart from maths tutoring?"
Eddy bit his lower lip, trying hard not to grimace.
Bleh, are you meant to regard maths tutoring as an extra-curricular activity?
"..Well sir, I play the violin.. I take lessons and am in the youth orchestra."
"Great! And is that going well?"
"Yes."
"Okay.. look, it's just that I've heard a few people tell me that.. they've seen and heard you.. talking to yourself a lot."
Eddy furrowed his brow.
"...talking to myself?"
"Yes."
Eddy's teacher lowered his voice.
"Now Eddy, ever since you enrolled in our maths tutoring class 3 weeks ago, you've been at the top of the class, which is extremely competitive. I just wanted to make sure you're not under too much pressure."
Eddy tilted his head in question;
"I...I don't think so, sir. But it worries me a bit because I wasn't aware that I have been talking to myself."
"So no one else has ever mentioned this to you? That you talk to yourself? People at school? Not even your family members?"
"Um.. no, sir..?"
"I've actually seen it with my own eyes, Eddy. So perhaps you are only doing it at tutoring?"
"You have, sir!?"
Eddy bit his lower lip again, this time with concern.
"Yes, you seem to always turn to your left and you appear to be engaged in a deep and interesting conversation"
Eddy's jaw dropped.
Brett sat to Eddy's left in tutoring class.