Hie there!! This idea came out after a sudden burst of inspiration and
'whoop!' the first chapter is out! This story (which I really hope you guys
will enjoy!! ^^) is one of my first fanfictions and I'd finally gathered
enough guts to post it. The inspiration for the title came from Ballade
Pour Adeline, a beautiful piano piece played by Richard Clayderman. I was
listening to a pianist playing that song when this idea came waltzing its
way. Yeah, I'm both a music and fanfic lover!! Last but not least. Please,
I hope you guys would have a heart and spend a measly 30 seconds to write
me or just leave a review! Pretty please! I'll really appreciate it!!!
Thanks a million! ^_^
~Love is just a four letter word with so many meanings...~
Standard disclaimers applied.
Ballade Pour Selenity
~Love... like music... is magic~
Ballad 1: Memories. Legato.
By, Fantasia (Milkybluestar@yahoo.com)
Darien Montegory twitched his fingers nervously as he ran a long hand through his dark ebony bangs. Tapping his feet in different tempos with his arms crossed in front of him, he waited patiently while calming his racing heartbeat. He looked down at his hands and realized that his palms were getting all sweaty now. Uh-huh. That was certainly not a good thing. Not a good thing at all. Hurriedly, he tried to wipe his palms dry on his black expensive tuxedo pants, which was worth a million bucks. Not that I care about that right now, he thought rigidly.
A few moments of waiting later (something Darien was hardly good at), he went to peak behind the curtains of the huge enormous stage where an entire full orchestra sat. The music was beautifully floating in the air, but it did nothing to calm his nerves. Tchaikovsky. He knew he was correct. There was no doubt about it. The music was definitely a Tchaikovsky piece. Darien closed his eyes for a moment to fully appreciate the amazing music coming from the orchestra on the other side of the curtain. When he opened them a few seconds later, his previously racing heart beat had slowed a little bit and he was less agitated.
Darien then moved his attention from the playing orchestra to the audience in front. The lighting on the audience was very dimmed because all of the light was directed at the big orchestra. Though he could not see a thing in the audience, he knew that there were probably thousands and thousands of people sitting there, mesmerized by the sound of the music controlling the atmosphere. He tried scanning the audience, looking for something. However, he surprised himself not knowing what he was looking for but he knew he most probably would not come out with any luck. The only woman who he had cared for most had already left him all alone to tend for himself years ago. He sighed heavily and ran another cold hand over his neatly combed bangs as old memories came flooding back to him.
That was one of the things he hated most. Whenever he was waiting for his performance to come by, his past would start to haunt him crazy. That also leaded back to the reason he loathed waiting. It was not that he despised his past.quite the opposite in fact. It was just that whenever he thought about his past, his jumbled-up emotions would overcome the ice barriers he built around his heart. And he could not let that happen! Especially now, when he had a performance to perform!
He had replayed and replayed over a thousand times the pieces he was going to perform in his head while he waited. He could not bear to have a single blunder in his performance. Everything needed to be nothing short of perfection. If his emotions were to get in the way of his playing, he knew his whole performance would be ruined. Wrong expressions might be used at the wrong time. He might forget the slurs and rests which are supposed to be there. There were possibilities that he could play the piece in a different mood from the music and ruin the whole piece. The worst of them all was that he might even play the wrong notes or forget them!
He frowned deeply, trying to shake off the paranoia he was feeling. Rubbing his thumb against his throbbing temples as a soothing motion, his mind went back to the one woman he was thinking about. His mother. His past.
His mother would always come to each and every one of his performances when she was still around. No matter whether it was just a simple church service, or perhaps in a grand philharmonic hall with hundreds of thousands of people in it. No matter the weather was stormy or boiling hot. His heart warmed immediately at the feeling that she always used to give him whenever she went to his performances. She knew that he needed her to be there and she did just that, always there by his side, until she no longer could. His eyes glazed over as his past memory floated back to him together with the music from the orchestra.
~*~*~
Twenty years ago, Darien Montegory was just a tall scrawny young boy of six living in the small Kenns Town where anyone knows everyone. The first thing people would notice when they look at him was his unruly mob of black hair, which with or without combing would be still as wild as ever. His mother though, a lovely woman she was, never complained about his hair or take the extra effort to straighten for him. In fact, she LOVED his hair, she said that it had came straight from his father, who was an unfortunate victim of war a few years back and left him an orphan. However, Darien had never ever felt like he lived in a broken family though. His mother always made sure that she did everything that her husband could not with their son. She took him fishing in the deepest rivers, camping in the darkest forests, kite-flying in the largest and most windy fields, teaching him to play football and a million more other things that he could not name.
He would always followed his mother around whenever she traveled through and forth every morning to sell bread in the market place. She owned a bakery shop, which was situated in the corner of the small peaceful town. She could make the BEST cake and bread or anything one can make from white flour in Kenns Town, and in his opinion, the whole world. When he was not helping his mother around in the small tiny shop they owned, which was also their home, he would be running around in the hills or playing around with his next-door neighbour who was a little plump blonde girl with twinkling blue eyes. In Italy, not many people has blonde hair, and from what his mother had told him, his next-door family had been from another side of the world where people are white and have sunshine-coloured hair.
He was in the girl's house one day playing hide-and-seek with her when he saw a huge black object, which changed his entire life more than he could ever imagined. The object was tall, he guessed around 2 feet taller than him. The middle part was bigger than the rest because it looks like a like a small table sticking to a long closet. Weird. There was a long bench in front of the black object so he supposed it was for sitting on. Then he noticed it. The 'small table' can be opened! Being a kid of six, he was as curious about the black object as a.well, kid of six should be.
Serena Williams, his short and a little stout neighbour, whom everyone (except him of course!) loved and adored, was hiding in the closet when she realized soon enough that he was not looking for her as he should be. A little annoyed, she went out to search for him, all the time wondering and dreading what he was up to. He was not exactly the most well behaved kid around and sometimes he could come up with pretty nasty things to do. Thinking of the last mischief which had both of them ended up grounded for one week, she shuddered. She did not have to look for long when she heard loud music notes playing in the air. Oh, please tell me he didn't."DA- RRRIEN!!!"
She ran all the way up the steps of her house with her tiny feet and when she reached the top her chest was heaving heavily as she gulped down large quantity of air. She reached the small room in record time. Darien stopped and turned to stare at her fuming face. With a smirk, Darien regarded her, "Meatball Head! What's the hurry? Hmm.you know, you kind of bear such an uncanny resemblance to a red fire engine truck now that it scares me. Your long lost brother perhaps?"
Her round face, if possible, went from red to black in seconds and steam seemed to be coming out from her little ears at the both sides of her head. Even two small 'balls' on the top of her head, which had been the source of the much-hated nickname, seemed to be bouncing around in anger. But that picture did not even evoke a tiniest bit of fear in Darien, instead he found that look really funny and started laughing outright. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he tried to control his laughter. So funny was the situation to him that he hardly realized that Serena stormed up to where he was sitting.
The first thing she did surprise him as he thought she was going to hit him till he go nuts. Instead, she closed the cover of the black object with utmost tenderness while Darien, whose laughter had subsided quite a bit, just stared as she did so. Then he faced the storm. "Darien Chiba Montegory!! How could you?! How DARE you play on MY piano!!"
"Huh? Piennoe? You mean this thing here is called a p-pien., uh, what is it again?" He ran a hand through his long unruly bangs, a habit he had adopted since his bangs was long enough for him to do so.
She glared at him with daggers in her eyes and there was enough fire in her going-to-be-four-year-old-soon body to shake the entire room. "It is called a PIANO, short for pianoforte! P-I-A-N-O!! You don't even know what it is call and you had already started messing around with it?!"
Such a small girl with such loud mouth. He frowned and immediately became defensive. "I was not 'messing' around with it as you so 'nicely' put it! I was j-just touching the black and white woods on it!" Then weirdly, he began to get enthusiastic. "Oh! And when I pressed on it, guess what came out, Meatball Head! Um, well I supposed you know. but the SOUNDS which came out is amazing! I haven't heard of anything quite like it before. It's. it's so different and almost enchanting.!"
Bit-by-bit her anger began to fade as she listened to his excitement in wonder about the piano her daddy had just bought recently for her. Daddy said that girls should learn how to play the piano and had taught her to play a few notes by herself. However she had never seen any boy as excited about a piano as Darien was then. Not that she actually knew many of the older boys around the town, they are usually too stuck-up and never bothered with her. Darien was practically the only boy she knew who play and hung out with her every day. But, back to the matter at hand, she wondered what was Darien up to because she did not believe one bit that he was actually interested in the piano. Music is for girls!
Frowning slightly, she crossed her arms as she glared at him suspiciously, actually more worried over his mental well-being. "Umm, Darien, are you sure you are all right? You seemed a little well, excited. Hmm, you do know what's the meaning of en-en. er, the word you said just now, don't you?"
"Of course I'm alright and I DO know what enchanting meant! It meant wonderful, amazing, and unbelievable. Well, I wouldn't want to explain further as you probably don't understand a single thing I said." He turned up his chin haughtily as he brushed her off like she was a bug.
Her anger returning at the speed of light and soon enough the small girl was chasing the young boy out of the room and around the house with the broom she got from the corner of the room. "Ooooh you just watch it Darien!! You stupid stupid. mop of black hair!! I do KNOW the meaning of wonderful!!"
"ONLY wonderful? My my. why don't you just go back and read your ABC books."
"Argh!! You just stop there and let me knock some manners into you!"
He laughed heartily as he took the flight down the stairs with her broom waving dangerously close to him. Such a restless spirit for a small little girl, sometimes he wondered with admiration. Today was just like any other normal day for them, chasing around, making each other's life miserable. Adults called them childish, but hey, they were still children so it was basically their JOB to fool around. But. one thing good about today, as he thought wryly, was that he got to play that black object, which the most beautiful sounds he had ever heard magically come out from, called piano for the first time in his life. He amazed himself by getting so excited over the beautiful sounds he MADE (that made him grinning ear to ear with pride) by himself! He swore the melody he played sounded a tiniest little bit like Mary Had A Little Lamb, one of the songs his mother used to sing to him when he was young. He smiled. Today might be the first time he played on the piano, but he was dead sure that it would not be the last.
~*~*~
Nope. Definitely not the last.
Ever since that fateful day Darien touched the black instrument called the piano, he could not stop going to Serena's house everyday to touch it or play a few tunes from it. He asked and even pleaded with Serena's mother to give him a chance to play the instrument and she happily permitted him to do so. Serena used to grumble often about the loud noises he was making for a few hours each day. Serena's father had learned music once before and was deeply impressed with his enthusiasm to learn and was even more amazed with his ability to just listen to any easy tune then playing it out on the piano perfectly. He introduced Darien to the keys and how to play a few merry tunes.
Everyone thought that it was just an interest in the beginning, which will fade away soon enough. However, he proved them wrong one day when he played Beethoven's Für Elise with astounding talent. Serena's father knew there and then that this kid is highly gifted and without a real teacher to guide him, it would be a great waste to his talent.
His mother took charge from there, very delighted of this new-found talent in her only son, asking around all the people she knew, searching for a good piano teacher around the small town. She asked every customer who came to her shop and every single friend of hers whom she known. Luckily enough, she found a teacher who knew how to teach piano. Unfortunately though, he lived in the nearest city, which was quite a distance away, and she would have to bring Darien there by bus everyday for his lessons. Though Darien at first refused because he knew how tiresome it would be for her to run her bakery shop and also take him for lessons in the city, but she insisted that he goes for the lessons because she could see how much he loved learning the piano.
She would patiently wait outside on a small bench for him while he was having his lessons, proudly telling any curious passer-by who asked, that her son was learning 'to make music' in there. The price for his lessons a month was around half of the money she made, something that she could still afford. He attended every single lesson without fail and had remarkably progressed after two years under the teacher.
The teacher, knowing that he was no doubt a music prodigy, at the end of two years, had recommended to his mother that Darien should go under a professor in a famous college of music who was said to be 'one of the best music teacher in the world'. His mother instantly agreed, knowing Darien would have a very bright future under this professor. The teacher contacted the professor and the professor, who was a she, arranged a date and time for Darien to come to the university so that she could hear him play.
That day quickly came by and his mother took him to the college boarding several buses before they could reach that place. She was reassuring him all the time that he need not worry and just try his best and show this professor what he had got. He was still very nervous for the odd reasons and his knees were trembling when they walked through the halls of the large campus. He was after all, just a boy of nine years, even though his musical talents might exceed one of an eighth-grader.
Darien tried to comb his still untidy ebony bangs behind, which had now went passed his eyes because he had not bothered to cut it for a long time. Soon enough, a teacher escorted him into a room and his mother was told to wait outside. Deep respect was the first thing which came into his mind when he saw the lady professor. She was very tall and quite bony, had dark long hair which she tied into a small bun on her head. He noticed that when her very neatly combed hair caught the light in the room, it would looked a little.green? He gave himself a kick in the head, thinking that he must have been having hallucinations now. Her stern looks however were to enough for him to scream bloody murder and dash out of the room. However, he stood tensely in the room as if awaiting her orders, while curling his toes tightly inside his shoes.
She raised a questioning eyebrow at him when the room was silent for a few minutes.
"Well, let's start with a good afternoon shall we?" Her face was expressionless and cold all the while she said that.
Darien gulped. "G-Good afternoon, Madam."
She just gave a nod. "Sit down on the piano over there. Adjust yourself with the sound of it for a few minutes. Then perform for me two pieces of work, one by a baroque composer and the other, a classical."
After listening intently to her instructions, Darien gave a nod and immediately turned around to face the grand piano before him, not only to avoid her piercing gaze but also so that he could find solitude in the instrument. It was a beautiful grand piano, perhaps made by one of the best piano-makers in Italy he presumed. He was awed by the great beauty before him and eagerly ran his long fingers along the keys. Pianist fingers. That was what his mother always told him. Suddenly remembering his mother, he determined at once to make this one of the best performance that he had ever played, knowing that his mother would be so proud if this professor, no matter how cold or scary she was, would teach him.
For the Baroque piece, he choosed to play Sonata in C minor by Domienco Scarlatti. Scarlatti was one of his favourite Italian Baroque composer, besides Corelli. Whereelse for the classical piece, he picked Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. He told the professor the pieces he wished to play then sat on the soft piano bench awaiting her next instruction.
"Okay, if you're ready. Start with Scarlatti."
He played. He gave his best effort into the piece, taught by his previous teacher who had made him play a lot of music pieces by composers all over the world. Music filled the room and he lost himself in it as his practiced fingers ran through the keys. He played both of the pieces with surprising ease and calm that would make a tightrope walker proud. Confidently, he finished with the last chord of the second sonata. Either the music still seemed to linger in the air or that the situation was rather tensed because neither Darien nor the professor made a sound for a good five minutes.
"What's your name?"
Darien's heart was beating too loud for him to hear her question properly. "I-I beg your p-pardon?"
She frowned disapprovingly and was obviously annoyed at his lack of attention. She cleared her throat and repeated her question again with a deeper and louder voice, which of course made Darien cringed inwardly. "I asked you a question. What is your name?"
"D-Darien Montegory."
Darien was quite nervous looking at her while she wrote something, which he could not quite make out, on a few pieces of paper. When she finished writing she looked up at him with the same stern look. He wondered whether she was always like that towards everyone or probably it was just towards him.
"You will begin your lesson with me Thursday morning at eight sharp. You need not bring anything except a few books of which you might want to play. My name is Setsuna Meioh. From now on, I will be known as Madame Setsuna to you, understand?" No praise. No nothing. Just 'begin your lesson tomorrow'. Hugely relieved, that was enough for him. He knew, there and then, that when she gave directions to her students, he wondered again how many did she have, she expected them to follow her orders accordingly.
"Crystal. Thank you, Madame Setsuna." Darien turned and bolted out the room with a grin on his small young face. If he would had stayed a bit longer, he might notice a small very thin barely there smile when Madame Setsuna pursed her lips together.
~*~*~
"Wow! You mean you really did that??" Exclaimed the young girl of six to the boy who was a few years older than she was. They were both lying on the grass, forming a straight line like the handle of a clock when it reads 6 o'clock. Her, lying facing the north and the boy, the south, and the top of their heads barely touching. "Running out the room like that is rather. rude, you know."
As he chewed on the straw in his mouth, while staring aimlessly at the blue sky, he muttered. "Well, if you were me on that day. I bet my whole great collection of gems, that you would grasp your skirt and dash out of the room before the professor could say a thing."
Darien's so-called great collection of 'gems' was actually normal rocks which he found 'interesting' and kept them in a small black box, his only past time besides the playing piano. Serena snorted, replied carelessly. "Who would want those dumb rocks anyway? . However, you were wrong. I will most definitely not do such things! If I ever get a chance like yours, I will do exactly what she told me with pride and confidence. I'll play so well that I'll drugged her with my music to believe that I'm the best pianist in the whole of Italy."
"Oh yeah." Sarcastically, he replied, rolling his eyes heavenward. He was too tired to use his wit to shoot back a smart remark. Everyone knew Serena had no interest whatever so into being a pianist, she just liked to play the piano for fun.
"Oh yeah indeed."
Their conversation dwindled on as they lied on the soft green grasses of the nearby hill, basically enjoying each other's company. Since Darien's musical 'flight' had taken off, he never have got many chances to be what he actually really was. just a young boy of nine at heart. He had closed many of his childhood doors for his love of music. One of the things he missed doing most in the last two and a half years was spending time to play with his childhood friend, Serena, no matter how troublesome of a pest she sometimes could become. He missed their games, he missed their fights, he missed their jokes, he missed the pranks they play on each other. most of all he missed her.
Sometimes he wondered to himself, was it right for him to feel so much for just a mere girl? He was after all just nine. Probably it was because he did not have many friends and Serena was basically the only real friend he ever had. Or probably it was something else.
He shook out of his train of thought when he realised that the girl lying on the grass above him had asked him a question. "Pardon?"
"Day-dreaming? Again? Darien, you really should stop spacing off. What if one day you spaced off during one of your practice sessions? Then the oh-so- stern Madame you told me about might perhaps kill you, you know? And it's just too bad I couldn't be there to watch it or else I'll DIE of laughter!"
Darien blew a raspberry at her. "Ha-ha. Very funny. Oh and you're the one talking about spacing out. *YOU* spaced off practically all the time."
"So you're saying that the habit must had rubbed off to you then."
"Exactly."
"Pathetic excuse Darien."
"Wha--"
"Forget it. I'm not arguing with you today." Serena closed her baby blue eyes for a moment.
'Strange,' he mused, tugging his lips up. 'She seldom seems to be interested in using her spitfire mouth these days. Perhaps it had really been a long time since we last hang out together. She seemed. different.' He wondered silently whether he actually liked the difference a not.
When Serena opened her eyes again, she repeated her previous question which he missed just now. "Well.I asked. do you really, I mean *really*, want to be a pianist when you grow up?"
"Huh?"
Annoyed, she snorted. "I *said-*"
"I heard what you said this time. Gee, no need to get fussed up." Darien pondered over the question in his head for a few moment, wondering was music really what he wanted to spend all his life with. He remembered the very first time he played the piano in her house. then to the time Mr. Williams, Serena's father, taught him piano notes. till he finally got a proper teacher who had spent two years teaching him everything he could. before handling him to Madame Setsuna. Madame Setsuna, the strict master who worked him like a music slave for four hours every single day. He smiled. "Yeah., I think I have always dream to be a pianist."
"Good." Serena pursed her lips, her eyes expressionless, she allowed a smile to form on her pink lips. "You'll be the BEST pianist in the whole of Italy one day Darien."
His heart was touched deeply with the sincerity in her words. He knew that Serena rarely ever spoke nice of something, unless it was something she really cared about, let alone give any compliments. She used to say that it would just cause some people's ego, (namely his, he supposed. After all, she was glaring at him all the while she said that.) to swell if she offers praises too lightly. He realized that her previous compliment, probably the only one he had ever heard from her, came from deep down in her heart and she really meant it. Keeping that thought in mind, he beamed brighter than the warm afternoon sunray streaking on his face.
With the huge blue sky hanging high above his head, while his deep blue eyes traced white puffy clouds trying to form some patterns in them, breathing in the clean clear air which smelt of grass, and most importantly with Serena's warm and comfortable company. Darien knew he was in perfect bliss.
~*~*~
An enormous applause from the audience snapped Darien out of his trip down memory lane. The orchestra must have finished their pieces now, he concluded. That could only meant that it was his turn to go on the stage and face the world. All the world's a stage, he smiled inwardly to himself at that thought. He was proven right when stage assistant waved briskly at him to inform him to prepare himself to step out into the limelight as soon as he was prompted.
He kicked his remaining reminiscences of his past into the cold prison in the farthest dark corner of his heart and locked the huge metal door before throwing the key far far away. He hoped that he would not have to open the lock, knowing that all the memories would come flooding back like water in the dam being released. His heart was now again cold and unfeeling. No wonder the paparazzi, which loved him so unbelievably much while he loved to hate them, proclaimed that he was frozen stiff inside.
Shaking his head amusedly, he stretched his lean body and his long fingers before straightening his back and stood upright with a perfect posture. Upon noticing the prompt from the stage assistant who gave him a wink and mouthed 'Good luck. Do your best.' to him, he winked back before stepping out into the stage with a dead-gorgeous charming smile on his perfect mouth and the soft brilliant spotlight immediately flew to him.
When the first note from the piano drifted into the air, the whole philharmonic hall became very silent. No doubt even the sound of a pin-drop could be heard if it were not overlaid by the superb music filling the atmosphere. Darien performed magnificently without a single flaw, like he always did. He put his whole heart, body and soul into the music, which he called his life. There was nothing more important to him right now than the beautiful music pulsating through his body while his skilled fingers danced along the keys.
When the charm of the music that held both him and the audience spellbound was over, the hall was silent for a full minute before exploding into a deafening roar of applause.
Darien Montegory knew that he had done it and the performance was one of the best that he could ever deliver. Grinning charmingly, he bowed elegantly and thanked the audience.
However, what Darien never noticed was a pair of twinkling sapphire eyes watching him.
There.!! Hope you enjoyed reading.!! I'm sorry but I can't promise the next chapter unless I get enough feedback for this installment. It will really make my day to know that someone read this story and like it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Review or write me!!! ^_^
Cheerios~,
S.Fantasia
~Love is just a four letter word with so many meanings...~
Standard disclaimers applied.
Ballade Pour Selenity
~Love... like music... is magic~
Ballad 1: Memories. Legato.
By, Fantasia (Milkybluestar@yahoo.com)
Darien Montegory twitched his fingers nervously as he ran a long hand through his dark ebony bangs. Tapping his feet in different tempos with his arms crossed in front of him, he waited patiently while calming his racing heartbeat. He looked down at his hands and realized that his palms were getting all sweaty now. Uh-huh. That was certainly not a good thing. Not a good thing at all. Hurriedly, he tried to wipe his palms dry on his black expensive tuxedo pants, which was worth a million bucks. Not that I care about that right now, he thought rigidly.
A few moments of waiting later (something Darien was hardly good at), he went to peak behind the curtains of the huge enormous stage where an entire full orchestra sat. The music was beautifully floating in the air, but it did nothing to calm his nerves. Tchaikovsky. He knew he was correct. There was no doubt about it. The music was definitely a Tchaikovsky piece. Darien closed his eyes for a moment to fully appreciate the amazing music coming from the orchestra on the other side of the curtain. When he opened them a few seconds later, his previously racing heart beat had slowed a little bit and he was less agitated.
Darien then moved his attention from the playing orchestra to the audience in front. The lighting on the audience was very dimmed because all of the light was directed at the big orchestra. Though he could not see a thing in the audience, he knew that there were probably thousands and thousands of people sitting there, mesmerized by the sound of the music controlling the atmosphere. He tried scanning the audience, looking for something. However, he surprised himself not knowing what he was looking for but he knew he most probably would not come out with any luck. The only woman who he had cared for most had already left him all alone to tend for himself years ago. He sighed heavily and ran another cold hand over his neatly combed bangs as old memories came flooding back to him.
That was one of the things he hated most. Whenever he was waiting for his performance to come by, his past would start to haunt him crazy. That also leaded back to the reason he loathed waiting. It was not that he despised his past.quite the opposite in fact. It was just that whenever he thought about his past, his jumbled-up emotions would overcome the ice barriers he built around his heart. And he could not let that happen! Especially now, when he had a performance to perform!
He had replayed and replayed over a thousand times the pieces he was going to perform in his head while he waited. He could not bear to have a single blunder in his performance. Everything needed to be nothing short of perfection. If his emotions were to get in the way of his playing, he knew his whole performance would be ruined. Wrong expressions might be used at the wrong time. He might forget the slurs and rests which are supposed to be there. There were possibilities that he could play the piece in a different mood from the music and ruin the whole piece. The worst of them all was that he might even play the wrong notes or forget them!
He frowned deeply, trying to shake off the paranoia he was feeling. Rubbing his thumb against his throbbing temples as a soothing motion, his mind went back to the one woman he was thinking about. His mother. His past.
His mother would always come to each and every one of his performances when she was still around. No matter whether it was just a simple church service, or perhaps in a grand philharmonic hall with hundreds of thousands of people in it. No matter the weather was stormy or boiling hot. His heart warmed immediately at the feeling that she always used to give him whenever she went to his performances. She knew that he needed her to be there and she did just that, always there by his side, until she no longer could. His eyes glazed over as his past memory floated back to him together with the music from the orchestra.
~*~*~
Twenty years ago, Darien Montegory was just a tall scrawny young boy of six living in the small Kenns Town where anyone knows everyone. The first thing people would notice when they look at him was his unruly mob of black hair, which with or without combing would be still as wild as ever. His mother though, a lovely woman she was, never complained about his hair or take the extra effort to straighten for him. In fact, she LOVED his hair, she said that it had came straight from his father, who was an unfortunate victim of war a few years back and left him an orphan. However, Darien had never ever felt like he lived in a broken family though. His mother always made sure that she did everything that her husband could not with their son. She took him fishing in the deepest rivers, camping in the darkest forests, kite-flying in the largest and most windy fields, teaching him to play football and a million more other things that he could not name.
He would always followed his mother around whenever she traveled through and forth every morning to sell bread in the market place. She owned a bakery shop, which was situated in the corner of the small peaceful town. She could make the BEST cake and bread or anything one can make from white flour in Kenns Town, and in his opinion, the whole world. When he was not helping his mother around in the small tiny shop they owned, which was also their home, he would be running around in the hills or playing around with his next-door neighbour who was a little plump blonde girl with twinkling blue eyes. In Italy, not many people has blonde hair, and from what his mother had told him, his next-door family had been from another side of the world where people are white and have sunshine-coloured hair.
He was in the girl's house one day playing hide-and-seek with her when he saw a huge black object, which changed his entire life more than he could ever imagined. The object was tall, he guessed around 2 feet taller than him. The middle part was bigger than the rest because it looks like a like a small table sticking to a long closet. Weird. There was a long bench in front of the black object so he supposed it was for sitting on. Then he noticed it. The 'small table' can be opened! Being a kid of six, he was as curious about the black object as a.well, kid of six should be.
Serena Williams, his short and a little stout neighbour, whom everyone (except him of course!) loved and adored, was hiding in the closet when she realized soon enough that he was not looking for her as he should be. A little annoyed, she went out to search for him, all the time wondering and dreading what he was up to. He was not exactly the most well behaved kid around and sometimes he could come up with pretty nasty things to do. Thinking of the last mischief which had both of them ended up grounded for one week, she shuddered. She did not have to look for long when she heard loud music notes playing in the air. Oh, please tell me he didn't."DA- RRRIEN!!!"
She ran all the way up the steps of her house with her tiny feet and when she reached the top her chest was heaving heavily as she gulped down large quantity of air. She reached the small room in record time. Darien stopped and turned to stare at her fuming face. With a smirk, Darien regarded her, "Meatball Head! What's the hurry? Hmm.you know, you kind of bear such an uncanny resemblance to a red fire engine truck now that it scares me. Your long lost brother perhaps?"
Her round face, if possible, went from red to black in seconds and steam seemed to be coming out from her little ears at the both sides of her head. Even two small 'balls' on the top of her head, which had been the source of the much-hated nickname, seemed to be bouncing around in anger. But that picture did not even evoke a tiniest bit of fear in Darien, instead he found that look really funny and started laughing outright. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he tried to control his laughter. So funny was the situation to him that he hardly realized that Serena stormed up to where he was sitting.
The first thing she did surprise him as he thought she was going to hit him till he go nuts. Instead, she closed the cover of the black object with utmost tenderness while Darien, whose laughter had subsided quite a bit, just stared as she did so. Then he faced the storm. "Darien Chiba Montegory!! How could you?! How DARE you play on MY piano!!"
"Huh? Piennoe? You mean this thing here is called a p-pien., uh, what is it again?" He ran a hand through his long unruly bangs, a habit he had adopted since his bangs was long enough for him to do so.
She glared at him with daggers in her eyes and there was enough fire in her going-to-be-four-year-old-soon body to shake the entire room. "It is called a PIANO, short for pianoforte! P-I-A-N-O!! You don't even know what it is call and you had already started messing around with it?!"
Such a small girl with such loud mouth. He frowned and immediately became defensive. "I was not 'messing' around with it as you so 'nicely' put it! I was j-just touching the black and white woods on it!" Then weirdly, he began to get enthusiastic. "Oh! And when I pressed on it, guess what came out, Meatball Head! Um, well I supposed you know. but the SOUNDS which came out is amazing! I haven't heard of anything quite like it before. It's. it's so different and almost enchanting.!"
Bit-by-bit her anger began to fade as she listened to his excitement in wonder about the piano her daddy had just bought recently for her. Daddy said that girls should learn how to play the piano and had taught her to play a few notes by herself. However she had never seen any boy as excited about a piano as Darien was then. Not that she actually knew many of the older boys around the town, they are usually too stuck-up and never bothered with her. Darien was practically the only boy she knew who play and hung out with her every day. But, back to the matter at hand, she wondered what was Darien up to because she did not believe one bit that he was actually interested in the piano. Music is for girls!
Frowning slightly, she crossed her arms as she glared at him suspiciously, actually more worried over his mental well-being. "Umm, Darien, are you sure you are all right? You seemed a little well, excited. Hmm, you do know what's the meaning of en-en. er, the word you said just now, don't you?"
"Of course I'm alright and I DO know what enchanting meant! It meant wonderful, amazing, and unbelievable. Well, I wouldn't want to explain further as you probably don't understand a single thing I said." He turned up his chin haughtily as he brushed her off like she was a bug.
Her anger returning at the speed of light and soon enough the small girl was chasing the young boy out of the room and around the house with the broom she got from the corner of the room. "Ooooh you just watch it Darien!! You stupid stupid. mop of black hair!! I do KNOW the meaning of wonderful!!"
"ONLY wonderful? My my. why don't you just go back and read your ABC books."
"Argh!! You just stop there and let me knock some manners into you!"
He laughed heartily as he took the flight down the stairs with her broom waving dangerously close to him. Such a restless spirit for a small little girl, sometimes he wondered with admiration. Today was just like any other normal day for them, chasing around, making each other's life miserable. Adults called them childish, but hey, they were still children so it was basically their JOB to fool around. But. one thing good about today, as he thought wryly, was that he got to play that black object, which the most beautiful sounds he had ever heard magically come out from, called piano for the first time in his life. He amazed himself by getting so excited over the beautiful sounds he MADE (that made him grinning ear to ear with pride) by himself! He swore the melody he played sounded a tiniest little bit like Mary Had A Little Lamb, one of the songs his mother used to sing to him when he was young. He smiled. Today might be the first time he played on the piano, but he was dead sure that it would not be the last.
~*~*~
Nope. Definitely not the last.
Ever since that fateful day Darien touched the black instrument called the piano, he could not stop going to Serena's house everyday to touch it or play a few tunes from it. He asked and even pleaded with Serena's mother to give him a chance to play the instrument and she happily permitted him to do so. Serena used to grumble often about the loud noises he was making for a few hours each day. Serena's father had learned music once before and was deeply impressed with his enthusiasm to learn and was even more amazed with his ability to just listen to any easy tune then playing it out on the piano perfectly. He introduced Darien to the keys and how to play a few merry tunes.
Everyone thought that it was just an interest in the beginning, which will fade away soon enough. However, he proved them wrong one day when he played Beethoven's Für Elise with astounding talent. Serena's father knew there and then that this kid is highly gifted and without a real teacher to guide him, it would be a great waste to his talent.
His mother took charge from there, very delighted of this new-found talent in her only son, asking around all the people she knew, searching for a good piano teacher around the small town. She asked every customer who came to her shop and every single friend of hers whom she known. Luckily enough, she found a teacher who knew how to teach piano. Unfortunately though, he lived in the nearest city, which was quite a distance away, and she would have to bring Darien there by bus everyday for his lessons. Though Darien at first refused because he knew how tiresome it would be for her to run her bakery shop and also take him for lessons in the city, but she insisted that he goes for the lessons because she could see how much he loved learning the piano.
She would patiently wait outside on a small bench for him while he was having his lessons, proudly telling any curious passer-by who asked, that her son was learning 'to make music' in there. The price for his lessons a month was around half of the money she made, something that she could still afford. He attended every single lesson without fail and had remarkably progressed after two years under the teacher.
The teacher, knowing that he was no doubt a music prodigy, at the end of two years, had recommended to his mother that Darien should go under a professor in a famous college of music who was said to be 'one of the best music teacher in the world'. His mother instantly agreed, knowing Darien would have a very bright future under this professor. The teacher contacted the professor and the professor, who was a she, arranged a date and time for Darien to come to the university so that she could hear him play.
That day quickly came by and his mother took him to the college boarding several buses before they could reach that place. She was reassuring him all the time that he need not worry and just try his best and show this professor what he had got. He was still very nervous for the odd reasons and his knees were trembling when they walked through the halls of the large campus. He was after all, just a boy of nine years, even though his musical talents might exceed one of an eighth-grader.
Darien tried to comb his still untidy ebony bangs behind, which had now went passed his eyes because he had not bothered to cut it for a long time. Soon enough, a teacher escorted him into a room and his mother was told to wait outside. Deep respect was the first thing which came into his mind when he saw the lady professor. She was very tall and quite bony, had dark long hair which she tied into a small bun on her head. He noticed that when her very neatly combed hair caught the light in the room, it would looked a little.green? He gave himself a kick in the head, thinking that he must have been having hallucinations now. Her stern looks however were to enough for him to scream bloody murder and dash out of the room. However, he stood tensely in the room as if awaiting her orders, while curling his toes tightly inside his shoes.
She raised a questioning eyebrow at him when the room was silent for a few minutes.
"Well, let's start with a good afternoon shall we?" Her face was expressionless and cold all the while she said that.
Darien gulped. "G-Good afternoon, Madam."
She just gave a nod. "Sit down on the piano over there. Adjust yourself with the sound of it for a few minutes. Then perform for me two pieces of work, one by a baroque composer and the other, a classical."
After listening intently to her instructions, Darien gave a nod and immediately turned around to face the grand piano before him, not only to avoid her piercing gaze but also so that he could find solitude in the instrument. It was a beautiful grand piano, perhaps made by one of the best piano-makers in Italy he presumed. He was awed by the great beauty before him and eagerly ran his long fingers along the keys. Pianist fingers. That was what his mother always told him. Suddenly remembering his mother, he determined at once to make this one of the best performance that he had ever played, knowing that his mother would be so proud if this professor, no matter how cold or scary she was, would teach him.
For the Baroque piece, he choosed to play Sonata in C minor by Domienco Scarlatti. Scarlatti was one of his favourite Italian Baroque composer, besides Corelli. Whereelse for the classical piece, he picked Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. He told the professor the pieces he wished to play then sat on the soft piano bench awaiting her next instruction.
"Okay, if you're ready. Start with Scarlatti."
He played. He gave his best effort into the piece, taught by his previous teacher who had made him play a lot of music pieces by composers all over the world. Music filled the room and he lost himself in it as his practiced fingers ran through the keys. He played both of the pieces with surprising ease and calm that would make a tightrope walker proud. Confidently, he finished with the last chord of the second sonata. Either the music still seemed to linger in the air or that the situation was rather tensed because neither Darien nor the professor made a sound for a good five minutes.
"What's your name?"
Darien's heart was beating too loud for him to hear her question properly. "I-I beg your p-pardon?"
She frowned disapprovingly and was obviously annoyed at his lack of attention. She cleared her throat and repeated her question again with a deeper and louder voice, which of course made Darien cringed inwardly. "I asked you a question. What is your name?"
"D-Darien Montegory."
Darien was quite nervous looking at her while she wrote something, which he could not quite make out, on a few pieces of paper. When she finished writing she looked up at him with the same stern look. He wondered whether she was always like that towards everyone or probably it was just towards him.
"You will begin your lesson with me Thursday morning at eight sharp. You need not bring anything except a few books of which you might want to play. My name is Setsuna Meioh. From now on, I will be known as Madame Setsuna to you, understand?" No praise. No nothing. Just 'begin your lesson tomorrow'. Hugely relieved, that was enough for him. He knew, there and then, that when she gave directions to her students, he wondered again how many did she have, she expected them to follow her orders accordingly.
"Crystal. Thank you, Madame Setsuna." Darien turned and bolted out the room with a grin on his small young face. If he would had stayed a bit longer, he might notice a small very thin barely there smile when Madame Setsuna pursed her lips together.
~*~*~
"Wow! You mean you really did that??" Exclaimed the young girl of six to the boy who was a few years older than she was. They were both lying on the grass, forming a straight line like the handle of a clock when it reads 6 o'clock. Her, lying facing the north and the boy, the south, and the top of their heads barely touching. "Running out the room like that is rather. rude, you know."
As he chewed on the straw in his mouth, while staring aimlessly at the blue sky, he muttered. "Well, if you were me on that day. I bet my whole great collection of gems, that you would grasp your skirt and dash out of the room before the professor could say a thing."
Darien's so-called great collection of 'gems' was actually normal rocks which he found 'interesting' and kept them in a small black box, his only past time besides the playing piano. Serena snorted, replied carelessly. "Who would want those dumb rocks anyway? . However, you were wrong. I will most definitely not do such things! If I ever get a chance like yours, I will do exactly what she told me with pride and confidence. I'll play so well that I'll drugged her with my music to believe that I'm the best pianist in the whole of Italy."
"Oh yeah." Sarcastically, he replied, rolling his eyes heavenward. He was too tired to use his wit to shoot back a smart remark. Everyone knew Serena had no interest whatever so into being a pianist, she just liked to play the piano for fun.
"Oh yeah indeed."
Their conversation dwindled on as they lied on the soft green grasses of the nearby hill, basically enjoying each other's company. Since Darien's musical 'flight' had taken off, he never have got many chances to be what he actually really was. just a young boy of nine at heart. He had closed many of his childhood doors for his love of music. One of the things he missed doing most in the last two and a half years was spending time to play with his childhood friend, Serena, no matter how troublesome of a pest she sometimes could become. He missed their games, he missed their fights, he missed their jokes, he missed the pranks they play on each other. most of all he missed her.
Sometimes he wondered to himself, was it right for him to feel so much for just a mere girl? He was after all just nine. Probably it was because he did not have many friends and Serena was basically the only real friend he ever had. Or probably it was something else.
He shook out of his train of thought when he realised that the girl lying on the grass above him had asked him a question. "Pardon?"
"Day-dreaming? Again? Darien, you really should stop spacing off. What if one day you spaced off during one of your practice sessions? Then the oh-so- stern Madame you told me about might perhaps kill you, you know? And it's just too bad I couldn't be there to watch it or else I'll DIE of laughter!"
Darien blew a raspberry at her. "Ha-ha. Very funny. Oh and you're the one talking about spacing out. *YOU* spaced off practically all the time."
"So you're saying that the habit must had rubbed off to you then."
"Exactly."
"Pathetic excuse Darien."
"Wha--"
"Forget it. I'm not arguing with you today." Serena closed her baby blue eyes for a moment.
'Strange,' he mused, tugging his lips up. 'She seldom seems to be interested in using her spitfire mouth these days. Perhaps it had really been a long time since we last hang out together. She seemed. different.' He wondered silently whether he actually liked the difference a not.
When Serena opened her eyes again, she repeated her previous question which he missed just now. "Well.I asked. do you really, I mean *really*, want to be a pianist when you grow up?"
"Huh?"
Annoyed, she snorted. "I *said-*"
"I heard what you said this time. Gee, no need to get fussed up." Darien pondered over the question in his head for a few moment, wondering was music really what he wanted to spend all his life with. He remembered the very first time he played the piano in her house. then to the time Mr. Williams, Serena's father, taught him piano notes. till he finally got a proper teacher who had spent two years teaching him everything he could. before handling him to Madame Setsuna. Madame Setsuna, the strict master who worked him like a music slave for four hours every single day. He smiled. "Yeah., I think I have always dream to be a pianist."
"Good." Serena pursed her lips, her eyes expressionless, she allowed a smile to form on her pink lips. "You'll be the BEST pianist in the whole of Italy one day Darien."
His heart was touched deeply with the sincerity in her words. He knew that Serena rarely ever spoke nice of something, unless it was something she really cared about, let alone give any compliments. She used to say that it would just cause some people's ego, (namely his, he supposed. After all, she was glaring at him all the while she said that.) to swell if she offers praises too lightly. He realized that her previous compliment, probably the only one he had ever heard from her, came from deep down in her heart and she really meant it. Keeping that thought in mind, he beamed brighter than the warm afternoon sunray streaking on his face.
With the huge blue sky hanging high above his head, while his deep blue eyes traced white puffy clouds trying to form some patterns in them, breathing in the clean clear air which smelt of grass, and most importantly with Serena's warm and comfortable company. Darien knew he was in perfect bliss.
~*~*~
An enormous applause from the audience snapped Darien out of his trip down memory lane. The orchestra must have finished their pieces now, he concluded. That could only meant that it was his turn to go on the stage and face the world. All the world's a stage, he smiled inwardly to himself at that thought. He was proven right when stage assistant waved briskly at him to inform him to prepare himself to step out into the limelight as soon as he was prompted.
He kicked his remaining reminiscences of his past into the cold prison in the farthest dark corner of his heart and locked the huge metal door before throwing the key far far away. He hoped that he would not have to open the lock, knowing that all the memories would come flooding back like water in the dam being released. His heart was now again cold and unfeeling. No wonder the paparazzi, which loved him so unbelievably much while he loved to hate them, proclaimed that he was frozen stiff inside.
Shaking his head amusedly, he stretched his lean body and his long fingers before straightening his back and stood upright with a perfect posture. Upon noticing the prompt from the stage assistant who gave him a wink and mouthed 'Good luck. Do your best.' to him, he winked back before stepping out into the stage with a dead-gorgeous charming smile on his perfect mouth and the soft brilliant spotlight immediately flew to him.
When the first note from the piano drifted into the air, the whole philharmonic hall became very silent. No doubt even the sound of a pin-drop could be heard if it were not overlaid by the superb music filling the atmosphere. Darien performed magnificently without a single flaw, like he always did. He put his whole heart, body and soul into the music, which he called his life. There was nothing more important to him right now than the beautiful music pulsating through his body while his skilled fingers danced along the keys.
When the charm of the music that held both him and the audience spellbound was over, the hall was silent for a full minute before exploding into a deafening roar of applause.
Darien Montegory knew that he had done it and the performance was one of the best that he could ever deliver. Grinning charmingly, he bowed elegantly and thanked the audience.
However, what Darien never noticed was a pair of twinkling sapphire eyes watching him.
There.!! Hope you enjoyed reading.!! I'm sorry but I can't promise the next chapter unless I get enough feedback for this installment. It will really make my day to know that someone read this story and like it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Review or write me!!! ^_^
Cheerios~,
S.Fantasia