5- BULLIES DON'T OFFER MUSIC, DO THEY?
By the time I got to my music class, the class had already begun. In other words, I was late. Great. I ducked my head and tried to scurry to the back without being noticed. The back, yeah, I know. Bullies don't offer music, do they?
“Yes, they do”. I muttered within as I sighted Drew sitting behind a piano. I looked around, searching for the others but they were nowhere to be found. I guess it's only Drew then. I heaved a sigh of relief as I made to sit down. But I was startled by a loud, high pitched voice.
"Hello there! You must be Samantha!" I almost winced. Why do almost all the teachers know my name? I guess I'm more popular than I imagined.
But of course! I am practically a new girl in senior year in CRYSTAL HIGH of all schools. Only someone with strong connections can be allowed in. Thanks to dad. And hello? News spread like wildfire in this school!
I slowly turned around to see a young petite woman beaming at me and about other pairs of eyes staring at me. I coughed awkwardly.
"Uh, yeah I am." Petite grinned.
"I'm Grace Berkeley, your music teacher. Just call me Grace. I assure you you're going to have lots of fun!" I smiled. I liked her already! Especially her innocent big brown eyes.
"Thank you." She nodded, her brown bob hair bouncing a bit.
"This is Stella, Aubrey, Donald, Gina, Lucas..." She started a long list of introductions. I zoned out until she reached the last person. Drew. "This is Drew, our best pianist. He's extremely good." My eyes met Drew's for a few seconds before I looked away.
Normally, I'd have loved to hear him play but right now all I could think of was the seething anger, if not hatred, I could feel growing inside me!
"Before you came in, I'd been telling them all about the music festival that's going to hold next month. It's the school's eighteenth anniversary. Every year, a different group hosts the anniversary so this year, the music section is hosting it!" She beamed.
"Which instrument do you play?"
"The violin." There were series of ‘aww ‘and ‘oo’ from everyone.
"Wow, that's great! We've been in need of a violinist ever since Crystal dropped music class." Grace said, muttering the last part. Crystal?
"Don't give me that look. There isn't much to do so stop looking bothered about us not going to complete the syllabus." I laughed. She did read me right. Grace grinned.
"Okay guys. Let's show Sam what we've got so far." And that was how I spent the remaining half-hour of the period listening to wonderful melody.
A blonde who Grace had introduced as Lucas was on the drums. Stella sang a solo, Aubrey and Donald did a duet, Gina was on the guitar and Drew was on the piano. Grace also permitted me to do a short solo. The kids were all great. I really can't wait to fully join them.
I guess listening to Drew play that piano did make me forgive him a little bit.
***
"Oh my gosh, that was awesome!" Cece beamed. I was at my locker when Cece had come up to me. She had told me she had heard a girl from my music class tell some girls from her P.E class in the changing room about me participating in the school's eighteenth anniversary as a violinist.
They really love gossip in this school.
She had insisted I played to her before heading to the cafeteria since it was lunch time. I had wanted to refuse, but since I had already played to Grace and my music classmates who had really loved it, I decided to honour her request.
So, we had gone to the music room. There, I had played to her.
"Thanks." I said as we walked into the cafeteria. Luckily the queue was now short, so in no time, Cece and I got our lunch.
I followed Cece to where she usually sat for lunch. I had avoided her yesterday, just because I thought she'd be with her other friends. But from what I saw yesterday, she clearly had no friends. Thus, I made it a point to sit with her today.
We began eating in silence before I heard footsteps approach us. I looked up to see Drew hovering over us. This dude's so tall.
"Hey." I groaned. What on earth does he want?
"What do you want?" I replied, coldly.
"That's no way to talk to your partner." He muttered. Was he seriously using that card?
And yeah, Grace got so excited about my talents, both vocal and violin-wise, that she demanded Drew and I work on a song we'd perform during the festival. I glared at him.
"Here." He handed me a manuscript.
"That's the piano solo. It would help while you're composing yours." He explained. I nodded as I glanced through it. It did seem nice.
"Okay. How're we going to meet up?" He shrugged.
"We can talk about that later. I'm quite busy now." He said.
"I see. Busy hacking locker codes or finding a new girl to glue?" I said in a sweet mocking voice. Drew laughed lightly.
"So that's why I've been receiving glares. I wasn't even the one who put the glue."
"What does it matter?!" I exclaimed. "For all I know, if I hadn't been given a new skirt, I'd practically still be stuck or walking about half butt-naked!" Drew winced a bit. Probably because I was raising my voice.
It was then I realized that it wasn't just the two of us in the cafeteria and everyone had stopped what they were doing and was staring at us. Cece had her jaw dropped to the floor and I had to resist the urge to snap it shut in irritation. I didn't see the big deal about these guys. They were mere mortals like me and everyone else in this cafeteria!
But what caught my attention was a group of four girls glaring holes at my head. OhOh, here comes the admirers!
"We knew you were going to find a way out, anyway." Drew shrugged nonchalantly. Were they actually being serious?
"Oh yeah?" I snapped. "And what if I didn't huh?" He grinned before walking away, saying over his shoulder.
"But you did." I could literally see drools on the lips of the entire female population when Drew gave me
that charming grin.
"What?" I asked Cece, giving her a dry look. She swallowed.
"He-He talked to you." She said. I nodded slowly like a child who was being taught how to use a nail cutter for the first time. Cece rolled her eyes.
"I know. But Drew doesn't just talk to any girl. The four of them don't." She said.
"Well clearly I'm not just any girl. I'm his music partner." I said, popping my last fry into my mouth. I licked my lips. Gosh some foods should continually be eaten forever!
"Still. A girl, Bessie, was paired with him as his music partner for the music concert we had last year. Dude barely talked to her so they literally got nothing done. Grace had to separate them at the last minute so they both ended up doing solos."
"So. you're saying I should be 'joyful'?" I lifted an eyebrow. Cece sighed.
"Not that. I just feel you should be careful." She said, genuinely.
"And why is that?"
"Because with this? Trust me, you already have lots of enemies."
On impulse, my eyes trailed to where those group of 'glaring' girls sat and sure enough, they were still drilling holes. Great!
Shirley!!!