Anna

My fingers trail along the piano's keys. I have the sheet music in front of me but I ignore it. I've gone beyond what the little black dots are telling me to do. The little scribbles that would restrict my speed, my volume, my passion are unimportant to me. The piece is mine. I'm in control, not some corpse's somewhere in Germany. The speed is faster, the pedal help less precisely, it's mistier. The sonata always reminded me more of the sea instead of the moon Beethoven named it after. Now, with the glowing pale disk in my mind's eye, I have changed it. I play the final notes and hold them as I breathe out calmly. I close the piano and check the time.

Ugggghh I have maths next. I pick up the bag and head over to Mr. Davidson's class, fully prepared to be bored. I mean, what am I ever going to need trigonometry for in my life anyway? How would it help if I was getting robbed, for example? I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be able to summon the holy demon of Pythagoras to come do my bidding. I should be studying for my next performance; that would be useful. I've pretty much committed Moonlight Sonata v2.0 to muscle memory but to be perfectly honest I could play it all day and not be bored. Not because I just love my version so much, I'm not that narcissistic, but simply because I love playing. I can just lose myself in the notes and let the music melt all of my worries; it helps me focus on what's truly important. However, enough deep philosophy. Time for a world of never ending boredom.

Maths went by slowly and with nothing to report. I paid attention and definitely didn't fall asleep. Look I tried ok? Don't look at me like that. Davidson's voice is just so monotone, I can't help but fall asleep. I head towards the music room again. Usually I spend my lunch breaks having lunch with my friends but today I really just want to play some more. I'm sure Kristoff will understand. I swear I had such a hard time keeping from tapping the music on my desk during class. To be honest, only Davidson's threat to kick me out of the class a week ago kept me still. My test scores are nothing to be proud of already, I don't need a bad reputation on top of that. As I approach the music room. I hear something I definitely wasn't expecting. Someone's playing the piano. I deadpan for a second. I'm the only one who uses the piano. I'm the only one who plays the piano. I'm not too good at remembering people, but I'm pretty sure I'd know if anyone had joined my informal piano group. It's going really well by the way, there's this really nice redhead there who just loves to play so much. Oh wait no, that's me. Oops. Sigh.

Anyway, I've never heard anyone play this piano apart from me, which is a shame really because it would be a great help if I had someone else bugging the music teacher to get it tuned. Last time I managed to convince him was almost a year and a half ago and even though it still sounds alright, it needs a little TLC. I approach the door carefully as to not alert whoever's inside. They seem to be taking a break, and I listen carefully when they start playing again. My eyes widen. Damn, those are some fast notes! It's missing… something, but there's no denying that they're good. They must be at least a few years older than me and been studying for that whole time. Then, suddenly, in the middle of a really nice chord (maybe an inversion of a minor seventh?) they seem to let go of the keys and the harmony quickly fades. That's a shame; why would they just stop playing like that? Sure the piece was classical which that chord was definitely not, but I'd have at least experimented with it a bit.

Taking a deep breath, I knock and slowly open the door to find a girl with long blond hair with her face buried in sheet music. She looks at me and I must say, I'm surprised by how young she is, I'd expected her to be a lot older but she's only a couple of years older than me. She continues to look at me blankly and I realize I'm off in the clouds somewhere. I shake my head slightly and bring myself back to the room.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude it's just I've never heard anyone else play this piano here before. Well not apart from me, although I only come here during first break so if you only come here at lunch, then I guess that explains why we haven't met before." I decide to stop myself before I ramble more. Looking at her, I notice the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Wait, did i do something wrong?" i ask, pretty sure I'm interrupting something here. "Uhh, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to interrupt or hurt your feelings or anything, I just wanted to ask why you stopped playing when you did cause it was really good and that chord was beautiful so it seemed strange to suddenly cut if off like that but obviously you don't want company so I'll... go now." I try to run away before I can embarrass myself any more until I hear her voice.

Elsa

"Wait, no, you can stay if you want."

Wait what am I saying? Of course I want to be alone, but I can't just leave her thinking it was her fault I'm crying or something. Wait, I'm crying again god damn it. Shouldn't have come in here in the first place. I look at the redhead paused at the door, looking me both surprised and worried.

"Oh…" she says. "Ok then." She stays where she is and an awkward silence stretches. "Why are you crying?" she suddenly asks.

I look at her, as surprised as she was a moment ago. Should I tell her? She plays the piano as well she said, she might be able to help me. No, don't be stupid, she'd probably think I'm crazy or something.

"Uh… it was nothing" I manage to say. She looks at me suspiciously, but thankfully drops the subject. Another silence. "Did you say you play?" I tentatively ask, trying to break the ice somewhat.

"Yeah, I love the piano!" she answers excitedly. "I've been playing ever since I was really little when I finally managed to nag my parents into letting me change to a music school. I wanted to play the guitar back then but they only had a spot for a piano student so I got landed with that instead, can't say I'm too sorry to be honest." She smiles. "For how long have you been playing?" she asks.

"For a long time as well. I started when I was little, probably because my mother always played me the piano back then. One day apparently I just started playing this song one of her students had made and there we go, my mother started teaching me." I notice my voice has dropped to a whisper and clear my throat. "I've been playing ever since." I say, completing the very general history of my musical life. Only what she needs to know, I remind myself.

For a while she doesn't answer and i think another silent minute is going to pass when the loud school bell rings, signaling the end of our lunch break. The girl looks at her watch, even though it seems slightly pointless.

"Well, we'd better get going for class. I'll see you later!" She says, running off in the direction of the science labs.

What a strange girl.

A/N: Hey guys!

How did you like the first chapter? I've had this idea in my google docs for a while and I actually found this yesterday when I was checking if drive worked on my phone with no internet (I thought I was gonna have to write while we waited in line for some stuff). I read through the general summary of my idea and I really liked it so here we are!

I suppose this is when you guys realize that I'm an anime fan. If anyone knows where this is from and recognized the title, here's an imaginary high five!

*high fives*

If anyone reading this likes anime and hasn't seen "Your Lie in April" (Shigatsu wa kimi no uso) I could not recommend it highly enough. It is right there with Attack on Titan and Anohana in my favorites list, especially since I play the piano myself.

Oh an btw, I thought long and hard (hehehe) about whether to use music terms like arpeggios and stuff like that in this simply because not all you might know them, but it just wouldn't feel right writing this without doing so. None of them will have any importance to the main plot I don't think and if you really can't stand not knowing, research it.

See you guys next time!

Max