A Day in the Live of a Musician
By Ethan Whitman
"I wanna be a musician when I grow up." I say, looking at my classroom.
"And why?" my teacher asks me.
"Because my friend showed me The Beatles and I wanna play the guitar like them." I smile widely. She looks hesitant to my career choice.
"I see...but, do you know how hard it is to become a musician?" she asks me. "Wouldn't you rather be a doctor? Or a Mathematician? You know…something that you could actually be?"
"But…but…but the Beatles." I stutter.
"Haha! Look! He's crying!" someone laughs. I feel tears running down my cheeks. The laughter increases but the teacher just stands there, sighing.
"Haha, he wants to play music." A kid laughs, pushing me down. "You can't play music."
"Yes I can." I say, standing up.
"No you can't!" he pushes me back down.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" someone runs over. It's my Centaur sister Clairia.
"What's a Centaur gonna do? My dad said monsters can't touch us humans." He laughs.
"We're called Non-humans and you can't hurt us either!" she shouts, spreading her arms to defend me.
"Leave my sister alone!" I shout, standing up.
"Come on Ethan, let's go." She says, helping me up. She's 3 years older than me, at a crisp age of 8.
"Chicken?" he laughs. I turn around and pick up a rock, throwing it at him. It hits him in the eye, sending him down onto the ground. He shouts in pain. "The Centaur did it! The Centaur did it!"
I begin to get angry. "It's ok Ethan, its ok. There are cameras all around here, so they'll catch it on film." She says, hugging me. "Thank you for defending me. Come on, why don't we go play Knight?"
"Yeah, ok." I say, wiping my eyes. She kneels down so I can hop on her back as she goes sprinting across the field. I laugh as she runs faster and faster.
"Feeling better bro?" she asks me.
"Yeah, thanks sis." I say, hugging her.
"Ethan, I have a present for you." She says.
"Is it skittles?" I ask, getting excited.
"No, was it you who took some of the skittles this morning?" she asks, laughing.
"Um...N-n-no." I say, embarrassed.
"Well anyways, hop off, lemme show you." She says. We slow down and I hop off. "Ready?"
I nod. "I'm ready."
Suddenly, she begins to tickle me. "I gottcha now!"
"Ah!" I laugh. "Nuu, stop, it tickles!" I try to run away but she's faster than me and grabs me from behind.
"Can't escape now." She laughs in my ear, tickling my armpits and gut.
"Nonononono stop! I'll tickle you back." I warn, trying to sound intimidating.
"Clairia, did you throw a rock at a poor boy today at school?" My Centaur mom asks.
"NO! IT WASN'T HER! IT WAS ME!" I shout, stomping my feet and clenching my fists.
"Ethan? Why are you fussing?" she asks.
"He's right mom. I didn't throw it. You can check their cameras, Ethan threw it." Clairia says, putting down her book.
"I threw the rock! Andrew was being mean to me and pushing me on the ground. Then he called Clairia a monster!"
"Ok, ok, ok, Ethan calm down." She says, picking me up. "I believe you. But you know we don't throw rocks at people. What if it really hurt him?"
I cross my arms. "He was mean. It's good he got hurt."
"Ethan," she sighs. "I'll talk with the teacher and Andrew's parents. Why was he pushing you? Did you provoke him?"
"Ethan told me he wanted to be a musician when he woke up. But the teacher said he should be somethings else because it's hard to be a musician. So he started to cry in class and everyone laughed." Clairia says, walking over to us.
"Well that is not a good teacher and I'll have a talk with the principle as well. Tell you what, how about we go out to dinner tonight?" she asks, smiling.
"Yaaaay!" I cheer. "Thanks mom!" I hug her tightly.
"Thanks mom. Where to?" Clairia asks.
"I was thinking,"
"Pizza World!" Clairia and I shout, running inside. We look at the games around like guitar hero and crane games and etc.
"Slow down kids. Let's find a place to sit first? Then play games?" Mom asks, grabbing us by our shirt collars. We go pick a booth with blue seating and she asks us as she pulls out her wallet and hands us both a $10. "Now I want you to spend this carefully. Don't lose it. Now what toppings would you like?"
"Pepperoni." I say.
"Green pepper." Clairia says.
"All right. Now go play and have fun." She says, shoeing us off. We run off and look around.
"I'm gonna play skeeball." I tell Clairia.
"All right, I'm gonna play this." She says, walking over to a coin toss. I insert my money and get a bunch of coins. I push some into the skeeball machine and begins to roll them up the track. I land some in the 100, some in the 300, one in the 1000 and the rest in the 400, over all 2200. I get some tickets and put them in my pockets.
"Ethan, the pizzas there." Clairia says, tapping my shoulder.
"Ok, just a sec." I say, dropping the crane on a bunny stuffed animal "Come ooooonnn." I say. It picks it up as I watch closely and drops it into the receiver. "I got it!"
"Good job Ethan." She says patting me on the back.
"Here, it's for you." I say, handing to her. She blushes.
"Oh, thank you Ethan." She slowly takes it. "Whats the other bunny for?" she asks.
"For mom." I tell her. We walk over to our booth and I hand it to her. "This is for you."
"Oh why thank you Ethan. How much did you spend on these?"
"10 coins." I say, smiling.
"Well thank you." She says as she serves us both our pizza. I sit on the inside of the booth, munching away as someone walks in. It's Andrew. I put down my pizza.
"Mom… I have to go to the bathroom." I say, looking down. She notices Andrew.
"You wait right here." She says, getting up and walking over to Andrew's Mom. Clairia and I watch. "Excuse me, Mrs. Arning, are you aware your son has bullied both my daughter and son?"
"I am aware that your son threw a rock at Andrew, thank god it didn't hit his eye directly, but it gave him a nice black eye." She answers back.
"After your son called my daughter a Monster and pushed my son to the ground, telling him he couldn't be a musician." Mom answers back. "And don't give me that crap, 'Oh it's hard to be a musician.' And, 'He'll never make it.' My son can be whatever he chooses to be."
"Well I guess we'll just see what the cameras at school say won't we?" Mrs. Arning says.
"Yes, we will." Mom walks back over to us and takes a deep breath. "Who would like a drink?"
"Pepsi!" we both cheer. She smiles and gets us a drink. I look at Clairia.
"Do you think I can be a musician?" I ask her.
"It'll be hard, but if you try enough I think you'll be like the Beatles." She smiles
"Thanks sis." I hug her and she hugs back.
11 years later.
"All right guys, 1! 2! 3! 4!" I shout, pick scraping my guitar. Jessie, my Dragoness friend, shreds on her guitar as my Hellhound friend, nicknamed Flare, plays her slapbass, and Ashleigh, my Arachne friend, pounds on her drums.
"I will not go quietly! I will not go at all! I will never ever let myself fall!" I sing loudly into the mic as we play. We proceed to play in my mom's garage as my sister arrives home from college. It being the summer.
"I'm home!" she calls as she walks in. "Can you play any louder?!" she shouts, slightly laughing.
I stop, "Hey, take 5 guys." I say, putting down my guitar. "Hey Clairia." I say, hugging her.
"Hey bro, how ya doin?" she asks, setting down her back pack.
"Just practicing, waiting to hear back from a friend of ours, seeing if we can get a gig or not." I say. "But what about you? How does it feel to be done with freshman year of college?" I ask as we all go inside.
"Oh it's a relief. I'll be back there in three months, but it's great to be back." She says.
"Hello Clairia." Mom says, walking in. They hug and Ashleigh walks up to me.
"Hey Ethan." She says, wrapping her arm around me. Her 4 other eyes close as she smiles.
"Hey Ashleigh." I blush slightly.
"Hmm…I can swear there's something happening in your pants. Maybe I should fix it." She winks, putting a hand on my thigh.
Ashleigh wasn't my friend until 2 years ago. To be honest I was afraid of her. I have arachnophobia so hanging out with an Arachne naturally frightens me. But I do my best not to freak out. Suddenly I see her playing with some of her silk. "Um, Ashleigh?"
"Shh…" she says, tying my hands up playfully. "I'm practicing my knot trying. You don't mind do you?"
"Ashleigh! Leave Ethan alone!" Jessie shouts, running over. Her scales shine off some light as she stands in front of us. "You two aren't even dating."
"He isn't dating anyone," she makes me look at her, "so he's fair game." She says, kissing me deeply out of nowhere. When she lets go Clairia and Mom have gone outside, so it's just my band and I. Jessie's draw has dropped and Flare is standing there with a Pepsi in her hands.
"Mind if I join the party?" she laughs, sipping her Pepsi.
"I don't think he'd mind a harem." Ashleigh giggles.
"Hey! Why don't we watch some TV?" I ask, getting up. I shake off my blush and go through my Netflix queue and pull up Breaking Bad, episode 4.
"I love this show." Flare says, flopping onto the couch. I go pop some popcorn and Jessie follows me.
"Ethan? Can I ask you something?" she asks, getting a drink.
"Sure, whats up?" I ask as I pop a Pepsi open.
"Do you like me?" she asks, looking down, embarrassed.
"What do you mean?" I ask, smiling.
She face palms. "I mean…do you…you know…wanna date me?" she asks.
"I can hear you. And I already called dibs." Ashleigh calls from the living room.
"Well…" I sigh. "I like both of you. But I've known you for like 10 years. And I know you don't like sharing." I open the microwave and take out the popcorn. I grab a miniature bowl and give some to everyone.
"So, is it because we've known each other for so long?" she asks, looking down.
"No, not at all. It's just that Ashleigh likes me too. And if I date you, then she'll get mad. And if I date her, then you'll get mad." I answer.
"Dude!" someone shouts, knocking on the door. It's my friend Taylor. "Dude! I got you guys a gig!"
"Seriously!?" I ask him as I let him in. "When and where?"
"The restaurant down the street at around eight-ish." He answers.
"Guys! We gotta practice! Now! No TV! Garage! In 5!" I shout, rushing to turn off the TV. We proceed to practice about 4 or 5 songs along with a cover of Slipknot's Psychosocial and Skillet's Hero.