Concertos and Charcoal
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters just the idea behind the plot.
Prolog
Welcome to our spring recital. My name is Susanna Stackhouse and I will be your mc, to night. I am also as many of you know one of the featured composers for the evening. The piece that I wrote for this evening is a love story, my story. Now to understand the music you need to know the story behind it. It all started seven years ago.
Chapter one
Today is my first day at Bon Temps High School. I have been looking forward to this day for the entire summer. My older brother Jason is a senior this year and is captain and quarterback for the football team. He has been telling me how great high school is going to be and how much fun it is going to have. Jason and I have always been really close. He has been extremely protective since our parents died when we were children. He has already told the entire football team that I am off limits and that they need to protect me like their own baby sister. Jason's protectiveness is only surpassed by our grandmother's strictness on what I can and cannot do. I know all of this protectiveness comes from their fear of losing me. Gran is also determined that I make something of myself. That is why she has had me in every pageant, dance, music and art class she could afford to get me into since I was six. Now I did the pageants to make her happy, but I never liked them. The only part of them that I did enjoy was the talent portions where I got to do two of the things that I love most play my cello and dance. If I could have figured out how to incorporate drawing into the talent portion as well I would have. Gran said that this year I could pick my own extra-curricular actives and classes. Jason however, had other ideas he all but forbade me from joining the cheer squad while in his truck on the way to school. He said "I don't want to watch you dancing around in one of those tiny cheer uniforms in front of all my friends. They will think that you are fair game if you are prancing around with the rest of those sluts. You are a good girl Sookie you should be practicing you cello instead, those music and art geeks won't know that you are a girl let alone how to ask you out. "
"Jason this is my choice and not that it is any of your business but I am registered for Art and Orchestra along with Freshman English, Swedish, Algebra II, Chemistry, and US History I. I was going to try out for the dance team, not cheer so that I could get out of having to take PE, but if you want me go out for cheer I will. I just know that you would love to have me tell the girls about how when you were seven and you dresses up with me for my third birthday as a prince and princess. I can even show them the picture that Gran has of us with you in the tights." I retorted.
He griped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white and his face lost all his color. He stammered "N-nnoo you should do the dance squad they are nicer girls anyway and besides are you going to have time to do the squad and orchestra along with you privet lessons for cello and dance and still keep up in your classes?"
"Well you know that I have always been pretty good a juggling all the classes that Gran wanted me in along with the pageants and my studies. When was the last time that I got anything less than an A-. I have to do all of this if I want to be able to get a scholarship for college. You have your sports to get you there. I have got it under control." I answered.
"As long as you have you priorities straight I don't see the harm. Just don't go and get yourself stuck in a relationship with a guy that will destroy your dreams. Anyway none of the guys at school are good enough for you; just wait till you graduate to date someone. If you get asked to the game on Friday I get to veto if they are no good and if you really want to go I can get one of the guys to ask their girlfriends to sit with you. I am expecting you to come and support me so you might as well sit with them or even better you could always sit with Gran and her club while they talk about their last GDG meeting." He rambled.
We rode the rest of the way in silence. I was starting to get nervous. I know that I had been going to school with the same group of kids since kindergarten but I wanted this year to be different. I have always be Jason's little sister, this year I wanted to be known for something else, anything else. I had worked really hard over the summer practicing my cello for hours on end, dancing till my feet bled, and drawing till I had more charcoal on me then the paper. When we pulled in to the parking lot some of Jason's teammates were already hanging around. I recognized some of them from when they were hanging out at the house over the summer. I had gotten to know a few of them too. They would all come barreling in the house and collapse on the floor in the living room. Usually with one of them almost knocking me over when I was practicing. My bedroom was too small to dance in and the living room also had better acoustics for when I played. The four that were at the house the most were Hoyt Fortenberry, Eric Northman, Alcide Herveaux, and John Quinn. They were like four more, older brothers to me. Hoyt and Jason had been friends since before I could talk. You would have thought that they were twins when we were younger because they both had the same short blonde hair and blue eyes. They became friends with Alcide when his family moved to Bon Temps in fifth grade. Alcide is one of the bigger guys in their group. He has broad shoulders dark espresso brown hair that he wears long and wavy. It tends to get in to his brilliant emerald green eyes. Next to John, Alcide looks kind of short. John has worn his hair short close to bald since they meet; he is also one of the tallest guys at school. John looks real tough but he is supper sweet. His dark gray almost purple eyes give him away most of the time. I think that I am the only one besides his teachers to call him by his first name. Most everyone just call him Quinn. John was then next to join their little group when then got to seventh grade. He and Alcide go into a fight and then became thick as thieves after the principle made them clean up the cafeteria. They spent most of their time trying to come up with a way to get back at the principle for making them clean. Eric was the last one to join their group he had moved with his father from Stockholm after his parents got a divorce his freshman year. His father decided on Bon Temps because it was close to the offices for his company in Shreveport but still had the feeling of a community that he wanted his son to finish school in. His dad was some kind of business man. They ended up moving in to the old Compton house across the cemetery from Gran's. Eric was also tall and he had the most beautiful blonde heads of hair I have ever seen. He wears it long down his back in a braid most of the time. He and Jason soon got to be good friends and Eric and his dad would be over for dinner a couple of times a week. Gran being the wonderful and welcoming woman that she is just had to have them over after she watched them order in food for supper three nights in a row. It had become a normal thing to see them at the dinner table. Eric tended to eat dinner with us more on his own when his dad had to stay late at work. Gran made him promise to come over for dinner whenever he wanted, after he about burnt the kitchen down making grilled cheese. It was after one of these dinners over the summer that Eric was the one who had told me that I should go out for the dance team and not waste my time with the cheer squad. He said that I was better than most of the girls already on the squad and team combined and that I would probably be safer too. Did I mention that the cheer squad has had more injuries do to collisions or falls for the last three years then the dance team has had in the ten years that the team has existed. For some reason the girls on the cheer squad were more concerned with the way they look then if they were keeping time. It is one of the sad things about going to watch Jason play the football players were more graceful then the cheer squad.
As Jason was getting out of his side of the truck he reminded me that if I wanted a ride home that I had to wait till his practice was over a six. "That is fine Jase, I can work on my homework or something till you are finished. Do you think it would be ok if I practiced in one of the practices rooms till you were done and you could come get me? I want to get to the first stand this year so I need to practice all I can." I asked.
"That could work but some of the guys are gona be driving home with us cause Gran is not going to be home till late and wanted me to have someone else in the house to make sure you are ok. You know how she worries. Also do you think that you could make dinner for us all too?" He questioned me back.
"Are you serious can't we just order pizza or something? Don't tell me that you promised them I would cook if they helped you babysit me even though I am old enough to take care of myself and you on my own. Is it just going to be the usual four or is Eric's dad gona be their too? " I chastised him.
Jason gave me a bashful look as he nodded his head "I don't know if Mr. N is going to be there to or not. Why don't you ask Eric?" he replied as we reached his group of friends.
"Ask me what Sookie?" Eric asked as he smiled hello to us.
"Well thanks to my generous brother offering my cooking skills out to you all for dinner I need to know how many I am going to be cooking for. What I need to ask you is if your dad is gona be there too or if it is just six of us so I can plan what I am going to make." I said.
"I think that he is going to be late at work so I think it is just the six of us. If it is a problem I can always help you." He offered sweetly.
"No I can do it you will be all tired from practice. Is there anything you guy would want for dinner? I think we go the stuff to make lasagna or a casserole or two and maybe a pie?" I asked the rest of the group as we started up to the door. They said that whatever I wanted to make was ok by them. Jason asked Eric and John to walk me to my home room because it was across the hall from theirs.