He ended up abandoning the music sheet he created because in his opinion, it sounded like absolute shit. It was too loud and contained too many sixteenth notes.
The house the next day was empty because Carla, Grisha and Mikasa worked for the whole day, meaning Eren had the house all to himself just to listen or create music. He did it all the time when no one was around because his parents would often come up to his room to tell him that his music was too loud. of course he had headphones, but it was so much better if he could just blast out his favourite songs.
Of course he couldn't really do that today because he had school and after school he had to invite Levi over so they could immediately started working on their score and he was not looking forward to it at all. He just wanted to finish it as soon as possible so that he would never have to see him again. He didn't really want to make an effort to make a good song but then again, he just had to win. In his town, he was known for never getting lower than third place.
He dragged himself down stairs after he got dressed and brushed his teeth. He snatched his backpack and headed out the door into the new, sunny morning. He always skipped breakfast because everyday at school he would always have band class as his first block and if he ate, it would most likely dirty and damage his saxophone and clarinet reeds.
He didn't want them to snap or mold up because they often came in packs of ten and they were quite pricey.
His school was right across the street from his house so he didn't have to worry about fainting for not eating and having enough rest. It didn't matter since the band room was the loudest classroom in the entire school and people from other blocks could often hear them play from down the hallways.
He hobbled his way to his first class while dragging his feet and his backpack with him. He was so tired but nothing would ever stop him from playing music. He entered the giant classroom and was surprised when he saw that the chairs and music stands which was pretty rare to him because the teacher would always tell them to set things up themselves.
He was greeted good morning by some of his friends as his best friend Armin came running up to him with a big smile plastered on his face.
"Hey," Eren said. "What are you excited about?"
"Mr. Clarabang finally retired and you know how rude and sour he was. Hopefully we get an even better music assistant," he explained.
"Where did you get this piece of information? I wasn't informed about this last friday," Eren stated and raised an eyebrow.
"Mr. Rutlee told all the students that arrived early and told us to spread the news. You're late so you should get your saxophone out before they arrive."
"Alright," Eren sighed and walked into the storage room where all the instruments were kept. He carefully brought his saxophone case to his assigned seat and gently opened the case. The first thing he did was wear the saxophone strap around his neck and inserted a reed into his mouth and made sure that it was fully moist.
(a reed is a wooden piece that is attached to the mouthpiece by the legature. it's thin towards the tip then thick towards the end and is one of the most important part of the instrument. it makes air pass smoothly through the mouthpiece, down the neck and out the horn. all wood wind instruments require one hence the name. im really bad at explaining things i am so sorry okay continue)
Eren was calmly sitting in his seat patiently and nearly spat out his reed when their music teacher walked in with the new so called assistant. Everyone's head spun quickly to see who it was and a lot of them looked very pleased.
"Hi, kids," Mr. Rutlee said with a smile on his face. He was a jolly, old man who was very kind and enthusiastic about music and reminded a lot of people of Dumbledore because of his glasses but he was absolutely terrifying when someone messed up more than once. He thought that achieving perfection was easy and he wanted everyone to have that. "Splendid Monday morning, eh?"
Everyone groaned out their responses but their attention was only focused on the new guy. He was fairly young and wore casual dress that consisted in black jeans and sneakers and a white t shirt that hung low to reveal what Eren called 'man cleavage'. His black hair was styled in a messy matter which was probably just bed head, but no one could blame him since it was Monday anyways.
"This is Mr. Ackerman. I know a lot of him know him since he is very talented therefor he is known so treat him with your highest respect. You've been in competitions with this man right, Eren?"
The boy nodded stiffly and flashed his best forced smile.
"He also won first place with him last night. I was there!"
"Eren competed with him many times, sir!"
"Isn't Eren so lucky to be as talented as him?"
The room irrupted with praise towards the two music genius' work but was soon silenced when Mr. Rutlee lifted a hand in the air with a swish and flick as if he were holding his conducting stick.
"It will be an honour to be working with Mr. Ackerman so try your best of not disappointing him," the music teacher joked.
"I am very pleased to be here," the new music assistant announced in a low voice, making the female students in the back go crazy. "I am looking forward to working with you all but fair warning, I am not going to go easy on you all at all."
Eren mentally groaned as he slumped in his seat while Mr. Rutlee got up on the small podium and whipped out his conducting stick but everyone usually called it a wand. Levi was carefully watching everyone and making sure their posture was perfect. As his eyes skimmed over the crowd of students, Eren noticed how their eyes would meet a few times but he ignored it as he finally placed his reed to his mouthpiece.
"Alright, kids, I want to go over all the pieces for the next school concert which is Part Of Your World, Once Upon A Dream and A A Whole New World," he declared. "Oh and Reflection too."
Their music instructor settled for a Disney theme this year because each year, he would always have a different theme. Last year they did a bunch of action movie soundtracks but Eren knew that this year was probably going to be a little better. He loved Disney when he was small so this was a great opportunity.
They were doing a Disney medley and it was pretty long so it was going to be little difficult to try flipping the pages when playing and Eren also had to play piano for some of the songs' bars. They were a challenge for the other students but to him, not really.
Mr. Rutlee raised his wand and started to conduct as they played while Levi watched. He looked impressed but flinched when someone would play a wrong note or when they played the wrong dynamic. Eren was out of breath; running to the piano and coming back to his alto saxophone when it was the time. He seemed to be the only one that Levi didn't yell at since he played flawlessly.
Levi was being quite intimidating but in a polite way. He would smile and firmly tell them what they were doing wrong through a whisper to their ear, which terrified the girls but they also seemed to be squealing internally. They finished the medley with a bang and they all waited to hear what the new assistant was going to say.
"I want more emotions," he said apathetically as he walked around the room. "You play very well and yes there are a few wrong notes here and there but you're all pretty good for your age. I want to see your emotions written on your face and actions when you play these pieces. Also, the piano needs to be closer to Jaeger so that he doesn't have to run back and forth a million times because if he does that, he'll he short on breath and it will be impossible for him to play the saxophone properly."
"What do you mean by wanting see emotions?" Mr. Rutlee asked.
"Well it is Disney, right? Play the songs like you're actually having fun because if you don't, it won't make the performance complete, now will it?" Levi explained with a small smirk plastered on his face. "You don't even have to do much to do so."
"So...what you're telling us to do is to be...emo?" a student squeaked.
"In music, isn't everyone emo? There's no such thing as a musician who isn't because emo is the same as emotional and being able to show what you're feeling through music is extremely important because you want the audience to remember you," Levi continued. "For example; look at Jaeger over here. Ten years ago, we were in the same competition. He was only eight and I was around fourteen but I still remember him because of the way he played Rhapsody in B minor Op 79 no. 1. He looked very determined and also looked very...very sad while he played it."
Eren tipped his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows and was wondering why he seemed to not remember him when they finally met again at the café. He acted like they've met before, but he didn't say anything that proved that he was the same boy from ten years ago. Eren remained quiet and looked away when Levi looked his way. It was true that he played it very sadly but that was only because he knew Levi had a high chance of beating him.
That Mr. Ackerman sure was watching closely.
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AN:
kind of a shorter chapter than usual bc im saving the good stuff for the next chapter lelelel
anyways i hope you enjoyed this chapter! dont forget to comment and vote if you did c:
also i deleted the draft of my gigolo fic and decided to do a vampire au instead
bc you have to admit, vampire au's are hot
~Your Friend Takeshi