Hello and welcome to Strange Music! This is based on the movie Strange Magic, which I recently watched and absolutely adore! Being a very music-oreinted person and a member of a quartet for years, I thought that I could definitely put the characters into a little string group. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it!
Marianne was determined to have a miserable time at her quartet practice. Her sister Dawn had scheduled another performance during the regularly scheduled practices, and had once again relied on Marianne to fill in for her. Marianne did, however, prefer to play in a group rather than as a solo, as Dawn practiced the violin more diligently than Marianne. For all of Marianne's skill, she had struggled to learn the first violin part for the piece that Dawn's quartet had been working on, the part that Dawn had given her three hours before the rehearsal. Marianne had not played with a quartet for months, since her harsh expulsion from the group that she had started herself. Dammit, Dawn, Marianne thought angrily, looking up at the house she hoped belonged to the cellist of Dawn's quartet, Strange Music. The address had been scribbled down hastily by Dawn's manager, Sunny, as he was nervously trying to hustle Dawn out the door and to the concert she was headlining, and Marianne had already been to two bad addresses. A short staircase led up to the front door, and in front of a small porch a cheery rock covered in flowers and paintings of birds proclaimed that the house belonged to the King's. Marianne sighed and flipped her violin case over her shoulder, climbing the stairs warily. The house was rather simple and even a bit worn-down, as some of the siding was turning green with moss and some vines climbed the sides of the house, no doubt due to the large oak trees that shaded the entire lot. Marianne cringed when she saw the doorbell, which was very nearly brown with filth. She opted to knock on the pure white door, the only thing that didn't look old and dirty. A rather raucous voice answered the knock, though the door didn't open.
"Is that my Dawn?" the voice squawked, sounding very female and rather low. Marianne winced a bit at it, and considered answering for a moment before heavy footsteps sounded, approaching the doorway.
"I told you, Mother," a deep voice answered, and Marianne could hear the locks being fiddled with. "Dawn is not coming. She has sent a substitute." It sounded annoyed and Marianne found herself being rather annoyed with this voice. The door was gently pulled open, and Marianne looked up. And up. And up. And there was the face of a young man who looked quite bored, though his icy blue eyes sharply darted over her face and to her violin. Marianne's first impression was that he was not very handsome; his hair was a deep brown, which should have complimented those piercing eyes, but just served to steep his face in shadow. His chin and nose were both very long, but his nose was straight and pointed, which should've looked regal but combined with his very thin cheeks and prominent cheekbones made him look thin and weary. "You are the violinist to substitute for Dawn?"
"Yeah, I'm her sister Marianne," Marianne replied to this deep-voiced, somewhat annoying man. She almost stuck her hand out to shake his, but a screen door prevented her from doing so.
"You're late," the man replied instead of offering a name, and opened the door for Marianne. "Stuff and Thang are already here."
"It'd be easier to find your house if I could actually see it from the road," Marianne replied by way of explanation, and swept by the man into a fairly small living room that she doubted that the quartet could play in comfortably. A taller, pleasantly plump young lady was tuning a violin and a very nervous-looking young man with incredibly thick glasses was sitting next to her with a viola, whispering to her.
"Well," the young man who had greeted Marianne at the door glared at her. "I'll do my best to be more accommodating next time." Every word dripped with unamused sarcasm. "Stuff, Thang, this is Marianne, Dawn's sister. She'll be playing with us. Marianne, this is Stephanie Crowley and Thomas Buckley."
"Call me Stuff," Stephanie shifted her violin to one hand in order to shake Marianne's. "Everyone does. Don't ask me how I got it. And just call him Thang…he won't answer to anything else." Stuff gestured to the man with bottle cap glasses.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Thang shook Marianne's hand as well, and he didn't quite seem to be so nervous anymore.
"I'm very honored to sit in with you all," Marianne smiled at the two, and frowned at the young man who had shown her in. "Though I don't think introductions are over yet."
"Oh, yeah, I'm Bog," the young man muttered, turning his frosty eyes to a cello that sat beside a chair at the far end of a semicircle of four chairs. "I'm the cellist."
"I can tell," Marianne replied stiffly, and unpacked her violin. "Let me tune before I give the A." She began fiddling with the pegs on her instrument, a bit embarrassed that it was so out of tune, and was interrupted by deep plucking. She looked up to see Bog strumming his cello and plucking out a tune that she didn't recognize. "Do you mind?" Marianne glared at Bog over her scroll.
"Hm?" Bog asked a bit absentmindedly. "Oh. I usually give the A, if you're ready to tune."
"Are you kidding me?" Marianne's patience was already being tested. "The first violinist always gives the A."
"I just figured since yours is out of tune, I'd do it this rehearsal as well," Bog shrugged, giving Marianne a challenging look. "Just so you can get the hang of playing with us, of course."
"This is only for this week," Marianne glared at Bog. "Dawn will be back next week and you guys can all go back to normal, or whatever 'normal' is for you."
"Ha!" Bog let out a short bark of laughter. "You come to the first rehearsal, you are a part of the group. Even if Dawn could make the rehearsal next week, you're the one we're going to be used to playing with. You're our first violinist, Marianne."
"No way," Marianne stood up from her chair and nearly dropped her violin. "I don't do ensembles."
"Look, you're first violin, and you'll get the solos that I don't," Bog replied, a hidden challenge in his words. "You won't have to worry about not being in the spotlight, Princess."
"I don't care about being in the spotlight," Marianne protested, frowning at Bog. "I just…don't play well with others, especially if they're like you."
"Miss Marianne," Stuff cleared her throat as though she was going to speak, but nudged Thang between the ribs. Some whispering ensued between the two:
You tell her, she likes you better.
Really? You think so?
Sure! Bog likes you better too.
That's so nice!
"We'd be very honored if you'd play with us," Thang spoke up boldly, a confidant look on his face. "Bog here can't seem to keep a violinist for more than one rehearsal."
"Thank you, Thang," Bog hissed, turning a very violent scowl on the violist, who turned back to Stuff and began whispering again. "However, if you're not up to the challenge, we do have some very important gigs coming up, and we don't have time for a little 'fairy princess'."
"Oh, I'm not the fairy princess here," Marianne growled, but she sat back down in the chair for the first violinist. "Just give me a damn A."
"With pleasure," Bog smirked. "Once you're tuned, maybe you feel like giving us a bit of a demonstration?" Marianne noticed that Stuff sighed heavily and rolled her eyes while Thang flinched. She looked back at Bog, whose smirk contained something a bit malicious.
"Of course," Marianne replied haughtily. "Just don't get too intimidated there, King." Bog scowled at the name but provided an A for Marianne, and she went on to tune her strings in succession, ending on her E string.
I hope that sets the story up a bit well! I know it's a bit boring to read at first, but I hope you'll stick with it cause shit's gonna go down in the next chapter! Leave a comment below if you liked the story so far, and leave a comment if you didn't like it! I appreciate any and all feedback and I'll see you in the next chapter!