Schubert - Serenade
Ciarra was practically imprisoned in her home so she kept to her room studying. It felt suffocating and frustrating at the same time she begun to wonder if this was the definition of her life. Not that she didn't know, she did but after associating with the other girls from Nelson's she just realized how routined her life was and that she was practically ascetic. So what happened next practically shot her temper to the roof.
Her door swings open and she looks up from the stationary wave equation she was trying to comprehend.
" Your report just came in, you had three B's. Why? " Her Dad asked.
" We're thinking of taking you out of that school, I mean you walked into that school and suddenly you're sneaking out with boys and talking back and your grades are slipping. " Her mom goes on.
" I mean look at that, Chemistry B, P.E B and Integrated Science B. How junior?" Her father asked and she looked away.
" Look at me when I'm talking to you young lady." Her father sternly warned.
She didn't know what they were going to do next. She was grounded with a gazillion chores, three violin masterpieces to rehearse and books to read, if they didn't think that was punishment enough then they might as well kill her.
" I don't want to leave Nelson's." She knew her opinion didn't matter but she was ready to try.
" Look at you junior, that school is changing you, I don't know how much more of this nonsense I can take!" He bellowed and stormed out of her room.
After finally getting the equation she returns to rehearsing a Chopin piece. It was very challenging but she had to get it right, the moment she missed a note again she threw the violin unto her bed and run her fingers through her hair in frustration. But she still needed to get it right so she went back for it and made sure to get it right the next two hours.
When she did, she collapsed unto her bed exhausted and threw the violin across her room. Just then she heard a car pull into the driveway. She glanced from her window and almost forgot she was grounded and couldn't go out to hug her sister.
" I am usually met with a traditional Ciarra greeting what's up?" Jasmine asked as she walked into the house.
" She's grounded, keep an eye on her. We'll be back by eight." She heard her dad say. So they were stepping out without telling her?
" Dad, what happened?" Jasmine whispered to her father so Ciarra wouldn't hear from her room.
" Your sister is trying to ruin herself. You know her mother found her with a boy in town when she was supposed to be home?"
" Come on Dad, she's a teenager now she's bound to get a little naughty." Jasmine explained.
" Jasmine you were never naughty, I don't know how naughtiness is a good thing. She had three B's in her report. Not one, three and that's a lot for a girl with an IQ like hers." Her mom went on
Jasmine sighed and glanced over at her mom, " Mom, don't take this the wrong way but Ciarra is very different from me. She hasn't had any other female friends other than Rufidat, and not as many classmates as the 47 other students in her class. This is her first time in a public school, it will take a while to adjust."
She continues,
" All this is quite new to her and she's trying to find her place in all of this With what happened to her a few weeks before her exams I am not surprised her grades slipped. Ciarra is a very strong girl, I always say that but I affirmed it the moment I saw her boldly return to her normal way of life after such a traumatic experience, not every girl is able to do that. To be able to bounce back so efficiently, it requires a strong mind so never underestimate her maturity. You two raised one matured little girl, you need to trust her now."
Her parents were suddenly in deep thought realizing she had a point.
" Now if you'll excuse me, I have a younger sister to cheer up." She informed them before turning to the stairs.
She could hear the sound of the violin from the stairwell. As soon as she opened the door, Ciarra hurled the violin unto her bed.
" What's going on?"
" I can't do it, is it possible to hate something you once loved?" Ciarra asked in a bored tone.
" Not really, unless something is choking it out." Jasmine said picking up her violin from her bed as Ciarra sat in her study chair. She was silent.
" Ciarra, a lot of things can make you hate something but the one thing that can stop you from doing something you love is when you suddenly start doing it for the wrong reasons."
" What do you mean?" Ciarra wondered.
" Ciarra you've stopped playing for yourself, you're playing because mom and dad want you to and that is a very awful mindset."
" I don't want to Jasmine. It's suffocating in here. I constantly feel imprisoned and I feel like no one really wants to know anything about me. Everyone wants to know what they want to know about me."
Jasmine realized how right her younger sister was. Apart from herself, no one else took Ciarra's personal life seriously.
" Maybe you need to spend more time with mom and Dad."
" They don't have time anymore. Maybe when you were younger but lately they are never here, how do you think I got stuck in a car ride with a pervert?" All the emotions held back during Kobby's boat ride came overflowing at once.
Jasmine didn't really know what to say so she hugged her.
OoO
Working with Chanel's workaholic boss wasn't an easy task at all. Heather finally finds out what Chanel had been going through to pay her fees and swore to work herself out during the next semester to produce excelling grades that will befit her sister's hardwork.
There were countless sheets of advertisement to be printed, huge billboard prints to run through the plotter, laminations, binding and branding of souvenirs. The deadlines were seemingly impossible to meet even with her on board.
Heather was a quick leaner and that was a great advantage for her because within three days she was already handling the binder, laminating sheets until they got a five day worth of work done in four days. Her sister was the typist and usually worked on the plotter as well.
Despite the intensity of their work they managed to help around the house as well when they got home. This kept Heather's mind busy from her predicament and other issues going on. She had vacation lessons with a fellow student in her class, Alicia. They met up on one of the parks in Accra to study Elective maths together on weekends.
On Sunday right after lunch , after all their chores, Heather returns to the compound to take of their dry clothes from the drying line and found a white Santafe parked in front of the house. Ashanti?
Heather walked over and knocked on the windows of the car, Ashanti rolled it down.
" Can we talk, like anywhere but here?" She asked Heather from behind the steering wheel.
" I'll be right back."
Heather went back inside to inform her siblings she'll be out with Ashanti.
As she got into the car she received inquisitive stares from her neighbors.
" There's a community library down the beach. They have a quiet sitting area under a mango tree, I'll direct you."
The place was pretty silent since it was a Sunday. No one was around as they sat on one of the benches around.
" I need your help and maybe not just you but all your sisters." Ashanti pleads.
" Why? what happened?"
" You know my grandma will be arriving in Ghana soon, she expects an entire distribution team to have been set up and in operation by the time she arrives and I think it's too late to find quality workers I can trust within a short period of time. Please help me with this one, it's a close deadline."
" Talk about close deadlines." Heather scoffs in reckoning, " I've been doing just that for the past couple of days at Chanel's workplace but thankfully we will be finalizing everything this week for the holiday break."
" That's great. But do you think your sisters would agree?"
" Depends on the size and kind of project we're dealing with."
" We're mobilizing a distribution team for a new department, we're recruiting but it's pretty slow because I don't know if I can trust all these people but I trust you." Ashanti says,
" There's a pay for the job, we need logistics, networkers, programmers, Cost and evaluation officers and the like."
" I'm sure a lot of people in this community would be willing to get employed immediately. Give me three days to find the right ones. How many staff workers are we looking at."
" Twenty for the meantime, I have five CVs under scrutiny so I'll be expecting yours. You get a 20% cut if you make this happen, deal?"
Heather shook hands with her best friend.
" How have you been anyway?" Heather asked knowing she lived alone.
" Surviving alone, I've been bored out of my mind. Zaron came over though, we had dinner together, he loves your cooking."
" Oooh, so now you two have dinner together alone." Heather teased.
" You know it's not like that. I kinda needed him to be my boyfriend for the day."
" Can you hear yourself? Boyfriend for a day? Trust me he wouldn't do that for just any girl, he likes you."
" You're getting it all wrong, Zaron isn't into highschool relationships, he seems to be interested in something more... permanent."
" And don't you? Don't we all?"
" I don't want to admit to that because I'm fond of using people. I don't want to use Zaron, he's a good person, such people are rare."
" I get it, how far with the case in school?"
Ashanti face palmed," To be honest, I'm in big trouble with my grandma. Turns out she got the news before Rebecca updated my file. Now Mrs Asare says I have to get a haircut by next semester.
" When is she coming? Your grandma?"
" Two days before the release of our new product." Ashanti sighs," That's why I want to get everything together together to impress her just so she'd believe I am responsible enough not to spend the night with a boy in a chapel of all places."
" She sounds hard to impress."
" Oh she is." Ashanti agrees with a sigh, " My mom wouldn't care less, she has a western outlook and therefore literally allows me to do everything my way. My grandma on the other hand is morally upright and takes her culture seriously so she's probably this close to disowning me."
" That's harsh."
" Tell her that and you'll be scrubbing the neighbors gutters for a week." Ashanti informs Heather and she laughed.
" Keep laughing." Ashanti chuckled, " Anyway, Kobby's having a party at his father's lake house on the last day of the year, if you'll like to go I'll come pick you up."
" Sure, is Ciarra coming?"
"
" She's out of the equation, her parents have her under lockdown after her mom found her with Egypt. Gosh parents of these days, they weren't even doing anything but her parents already concluded everything in their minds."
" My mom says it shows she cares and doesn't want her children making the same mistakes she made."
" I wonder how big their mistakes were for them to be so restrictive." Ashanti mumbled as they both look on at the smoldering sunset.
" I think I should get going now, I'll call you to see how far things go."
OoO
Holding her baby in a warm fussy towel, Rebecca grinned to herself. She couldn't imagine this moment ending anytime soon. A couple of days ago, Eric had made a lavish dinner for her, making her wonder where he got the help from.
Spending time with her newborn was just divine and everything seemed perfect. One thing though constantly snapped her out of her house of cards, she was still only fifteen and had to go to school.
Her Aunt Louisa had reminded her once she found out Rebecca was pregnant, " He might provide everything for you and you may be living the most exquisite life but remember that you're still underaged and not married to him. You're not ready for this, you abstractly think you're capable but Becca... you're not. Because this baby changes everything."
What exactly made her aunt think that way? She wondered as she gently hugged her baby to herself. The warm feeling on her chest draws her out of her thoughts . Arlette had thrown up, she could see the whey all over her dress. She picked up her wipes and wiped it all off. Arlette whimpered at the touch of the wipe and soon it escalated into tears. Eric wasn't home today and it was the nurse's day off so Arlette's periodic crying really messed up her day, she could barely catch some sleep.
Somewhere close to dusk she manages to put her to sleep and stealthily rushed to her own bed to avoid waking her baby. She hadn't had a good rest in a while.
She was woken up by a kiss on the cheek, " How was your day sleepy head?"
" Shhhh, you're going to wake Letty."
" No she's not, I checked on her, the girl is asleep like a rock." He assures her. This time he kisses her on the lips drowning her in lustful passion but just when he was about unbuttoning her shirt , she pushed him away.
" What happened?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.
" Eric, I don't think I can do this... anymore." She explained, " We just had a baby and even though the chances of another pregnancy within this year is slim, I don't want to take chances."
" Where's this coming from, you do know I'm on protection right?"
" It's not about that alone, frankly, I feel different about this." She says with uncertainty and Eric sat down next to her to listen.
" How do you feel about this?" He gently asked.
" I feel like it's wrong."
" When did you start getting religious? Is Louisa planting things into your head?"
" It's not about my aunt."
" Are you breaking up with me? Where's this coming from?"
" You don't get it."
" Wait... don't you love me anymore?"
" You know that's not it, it's just..." Before she could finish her sentence, he crashes his lips against hers in an intoxicated make out spinning her sense of judgement. He practically turned on every fibre if infatuated passion and desires in her and all resolve to stop him just died.
Simply because she still didn't know the real reason why she didn't want to continue with it.
She was woken up by the sound of Arlette's cries from the baby monitor. Bright rays of morning sunlight illuminated the room blinding her for a few seconds as she felt the bed for her clothes.
Eric was gone just like he came in. That didn't stop the insane smile that crossed her face. Last night was remarkable, they hadn't been together like that for nine months. She threw on her clothes and walked into Arlette's room.
As soon as she picked the infant up and begun rocking her, her loud wails subsided, she then breastfed her. In the process she noticed her diapers were damp. Rebecca moved on to Arlette's bathroom and run her a warm bath. As soon as her clothes were taken off, she let out a loud cry and Rebecca sighs.
" I have never met anyone who hates showers as much as you do Letty." Rebecca teases her sitting on her stool and pouring in some antiseptic into the water with her baby on her lap.
Her cries emancipated as soon as the warm wet towels made contact with her skin, " What did I do wrong now?"
The tears increased and that was the beginning of Rebecca's music career. She started to sing made-up songs to her daughter and eventually that calmed her down. She stopped and begun to stare intently at her mother's face as she sung.
Rebecca had just discovered the antidote to her intense crying during bath time, she had to sing throughout the entire ordeal.
Arlette actually smiled after her shower while her mother put her in some overalls and this got Rebecca smiling to herself like an idiot. She gently run a comb through her thick curls and walked out of the bathroom with Arlette still in her arms.
She was greeted by the nurse who was back on duty.
" Oh hello Lateemat, you're right on time, kindly hold her so I get a quick shower." Rebecca asked politely and handed her over to the lady carefully, " If she gets cranky, sing to her." Rebecca adds leaving for her bathroom.
The nurse goes through her normal routine of checking her weight, temperature, giving her the vitamins she needed since she was born to an unconscious mother, and tried to get her to sleep but little Arlette wouldn't give in.
Even when the nurse sung to her she was still whimpering . Rebecca descended the stairs to join them in a new dress shirt with her blow-dried hair in a cute frenzy.
" Wow, she got mad quick." She commented from the stairs, surprisingly when Arlette heard her voice she stopped whimpering,
" That's amazing, she seems to know my voice."
" That must be because you probably had a lot of conversations with her when you were pregnant with her."
" That's true."
" She knows you." The nurse returns her to her mom.
OoO
After three days straight of being cooped up at home doing extra chores around the house, Ciarra finally gets the full meaning of grounding. She had never been in trouble with her parents before, she was their baby girl for crying out loud.
Her cellphone was confiscated, her cable network disabled. The only exciting thing she had were novels she borrowed from Ashanti and her violin.
" Hey baby sis!" Jasmine beams barging into her room only to find Ciarra lying on her bed with her head hanging upside on the other side of the bed.
" I think I'm gonna die in here." She croaked. Her violin was far off to the east side of the room, it looked like she literally threw it. There was a bookmarked novel on her headboard.
She never realized having nothing to do was this hectic.
" Junior, what are you doing?" Jasmine asked trying to adjust her position on the bed, " Snap out of it."
" Please stop calling me Junior." Ciarra reminds her finally sitting up but rather reluctantly.
" Come on cheer up, mom says to babysit you today. Have you eaten?"
Ciarra nodded.
" What did you eat?"
" Toast." She replied monotonously.
" Toast is not real food, should I make you tea? I could rush to Cliques for your favorite Latte and croissants."
" No. Don't, I don't want anything."
Jasmine collapsed on the bed next to her little sister.
" Cece, you do realize mom and Dad are pretty old now, so they're going to be extremely protective of you."
She let out a depressing sigh and fell back onto the bed next to Jasmine.
" Anyway, I have good news for you. I'm supposed to be at the wedding of a colleague who was a great support at my wedding. So I'm going to leave you here."
Ciarra immediately turned to glance at her. She knew about how Ciarra felt about empty places, she was still traumatized from her experience with Roland.
" Relax, I've got you. Rufidat's going to be coming over."
" We're off!!" They heard Dr Asher call from downstairs.
" Alright, see you." Jasmine called back.
A few minutes later they heard the gates open and the car started. Soon it went out the gates and the gates were closed.
" Alright, they'll be here soon." Jasmine stated walking towards the door.
" I thought only Rufidat was coming, who are they?" Ciarra asked getting up.
Jasmine pretended she didn't hear that. Ciarra returned to lying on her bed.
" I'll be back in a few hours." Jasmine said in the doorway and walked out.
Ciarra grabbed her book to occupy her mind before Rufidat got there.
A tap on her window twenty minutes later alerted her. Someone was tapping her window. She was paranoid for a few seconds then leaned over to check. Who she saw totally surprised her. Nana Kwabena Johnson V
But seriously, Kobby?
She pushed open her window and glared at him.
" You know you could have used the doorbell right?" She asked in disbelief realizing he climbed the pear tree next to her window.
" Come on, I was trying to be romantic. Did it work?" He grinned balancing on a weak branch.
" You're gonna hurt yourself." She reached out to him and he took her hand slowly making his way to her window and hopped through the window. Both of them fell onto her bed with Kobby on top of her.
" Well someone's eager." Kobby jokes, " Missed me?"
" Get off of me."Ciarra seethes trying to get herself off of him.
" There there, I think I like us in this position." He teases holding her closer.
" Eh-erm." They heard someone clear her throat from her doorway and Kobby immediately let go and got up.
" I swear nothing happened!" He says in his defense.
" You can't keep your hands off my best friend for even a second." Ciarra sighed dramatically setting the box of pizza and her backpack on Ciarra's dresser, " I guess Jasmine was right when she said I have to be here to keep an eye on you two. I'm going to keep my eyes on you the entire time Kobby Johnson so don't you dare try anything funny."
" No problem." He assures her and turned to Ciarra, " I forgot to tell you Rufidat was going to use the main door." Kobby explained how Rufidat got in.
She glanced at Kobby in a white plaid long sleeved shirt over black jeans and vans. She was still processing the fact that he was in her room right now. He got up and glanced around her room.
" Just how I imagined Ciarra's room to be." He observed the alphabetically organized bookcase. Neat study table with organized stationary, the white room was spotless, her closet had an adorable sliding door enclosing it, his eyes settle on the book on her bed, "Seriously, James Patterson?"
" I think Manhattan girls have to read this book to realize the magnitude of having Velar keep a live tigress on the premises." Ciarra evaluates.
Kobby still kept glancing around with a stupid smile on his face. The only oddity was the violin still lying where she'd last thrown it.
" Hey what happened?" He picked it up and asked, " You're not going to the recital?"
" I have to, but I hate it."
There was a calming silence that engulfed the room for a few minutes.
" You should play something you like then." Kobby suggested breaking the silence.
" It's a classical music recital Kobby." Rufidat reminds him sitting on the chair behind Ciarra's study table.
" Let's please not talk about music again. Please." Ciarra pleaded with them picking up her book.
" Since when were you interested in mystery books?" Rufidat asked.
" I find mystery quite fun now."
" You know what else is fun?...An Adam Sandler movie." Kobby declares.
" I'm actually gonna take you up on that but I have no network connectivity or device."
" Fear not, for your knight in shining armor came prepared." He fakes a British accent retrieving a flashdrive from his pocket, " Rufidat?"
She unzipped her backpack and brought out her laptop, a bottle of coke and disposable cups.
After booting the computer, they huddle up on the floor infront of her bed with the laptop ahead starting the Happy Madison production. Grown ups 1 starts as Rufidat poured them cups of coke and opened up the box of pizza.
She conveniently decided to sit in between Ciarra and Kobby, taking her job very seriously.
As the movie went on Ciarra stole a glance at Kobby.
How his long eyelashes batted everytime he blinked and the innocent glimmer that sparked once in a while in his eyes and his overall attractiveness. It was rare to find someone like him who would prefer to be locked down with you though this was a great opportunity for him to go hang out with his friends or other girls.
Rufidat notices the sudden absentminded Ciarra and cleared her throat making her quit staring at Kobby and back at the screen.
" Did Jasmine tell you I was bored?" Ciarra asked Kobby halfway through the movie.
" Actually it was a coincidence because I wanted to see you after everything that happened with Egypt and your mom. Also because I realized you wouldn't be able to make it to my get-together on the last day of the year." He answered, " Turns out you were actually really bored, why do you ask?"
" Nothing, just curious." She shrugged with a warm smile which he knew he had definitely earned.
After a few minutes of laughing at a very insane scene, Kobby asked,
" How long has that been lying there?"
The violin.
" Since I started hating it." The smile disappeared from her face.
" When was that?" Rufidat asked.
" Two days ago." Ciarra answered monotonously.
They both had panic in their eyes, the recital was that Saturday and she hadn't practiced for two days straight.
Kobby sighed, " Red."
They all turned to him as he paused the movie.
" Play me Red."
" I said I don't want to talk about music."
" Who said talk about it, I just wanted to hear that song, the one you played for me. The one you played at school." He said
Ciarra stared at the violin briefly and looked away, " No."
" Listen Ciarra, this time, don't play it for me...play it for Ciarra." Kobby elaborates, " Not a classical but a memorable song. "
He got up and reached for it, handing it to her. She glared at him.
" I'm with him on this one Ciarra, you love the violin. So play just this one song and if you really hate it, we'll all stop talking about it."
She hesitated but finally took it from him. After a few minutes of tuning it again she raised the violin unto her shoulder. This was the one song she'd mastered without a sheet that she loved to play so much, Taylor Swift would hate her own song if she lived with Ciarra.
Kobby minimized the movie and searched for the instrumental of the song and played it so she could just follow. As she hit the first note, it all seemed to come back to her. She hadn't liked this song because of Kobby but because that was how she genuinely felt about music. She couldn't help but smile when she hit the second verse and her friends clapped to the tune.
Kobby sung to it in a low tone.
And Kobby's smile was just so contagious as she ended the song.
" Nailed it." Rufidat gave her a high five.
" You know I used to think this song was for me but I later came to realize it was more about how you felt about music." Kobby told her.
" I guess."
" Don't stress ok, try to enjoy the music, not what comes with it. Got it?" Kobby asked as Rufidat fetched Ciarra's violin case and placed it gently inside zipping it up. This time Rufidat absentmindedly sat next to Kobby instead of in-between them while the movie resumed.
Getting towards the climax of the movie Ciarra snoozes off onto Kobby's shoulder. He hadn't even realized until the end credits of the movie and he smiled like an idiot.
Rufidat gestured for him to get her to bed while she sent the cups and box out to the bin.
Kobby gently lifted her up and placed her on her bed but being a light sleeper, she stared in her sleep and Kobby had to somehow while her back to sleep.
They cleaned up and waited for Jasmine to get back before leaving, Kobby left a note in the bookmarked page of the James Patterson novel Ciarra was reading.
Jasmine arrived on time as promised and they left the house at dusk. She was so glad her sister was asleep. She noticed the note peaking out of the book and decided to check it out.
Hi Ciarra,
Sorry you didn't get to see us leave. Just wanted to let you know that you are a very special person and music lives through you. People like you are still needed to heal our world so it's ok to fallback sometimes, the world is huge.
But keep getting back up because music is a superpower, it encourages, gives hope and transcends any treatment in the world. Music will forever remain in your heart and mind just like you would never leave my heart and mind .
Love,
Kobby.
Damn the boy was cheesy. Jasmine thought placing the paper back in the book .