Hello!
Thank you for choosing to read my little project that got me into writing again. This was a dumb little idea that made me laugh, so I figured I'd post this little prologue-ish first chapter and see if anybody likes it. I did proofread it, but it is currently 4:30 in the morning, so I may have missed some stuff. I will be re-reading it again after I have the second chapter posted to look for sentence fragments and grammar inconsistencies.
Enjoy!
When Blake woke up this morning, she thought it would be a good day. They had no classes today, no prior commitments, and the new Ninjas of Love volume came out the other day. She planned on finding a quiet spot in the center plaza and get though it at least twice before the Sun went down, What she didn't account for was being disturbed from her reading by bad guitar playing; scratch that, really bad guitar playing. Climbing out of her perch in her favorite tree, Blake set out to find a new reading spot; that was until she saw whom was playing.
"Jaune?"
A mop of blonde hair swooshed to her direction. "Oh, hey Blake! What are you doing here?"
The ghost of a frown plagued her lips. " Well, I was reading my new book, but then I heard...well, you. What are you doing?"
"Um...playing guitar?"
"...I can see. What I meant was why here? Why not, like, your room?" Frustration was beginning to set into her voice.
"Oh, I got kicked out," he said almost too casually. "They said that they needed to study. Nora too, which is a bit strange. I know it's bad now, but if I keep practicing, I'll get better; I know it!" Conviction was beginning to set in his.
Blake looked at him, her usual stoicism beginning to unnerve him. "It would help if you made sure to open up your hand enough so all the notes can be heard in the chord."
"...huh?"
"Your fingers are not supposed to be that flat, generally. Open up your hand by trying to only use the fingertip."
He did as instructed and the chord he was trying to play did in fact sound better.
"Why the sudden interest in guitar? Last I saw that, you were trying to ask Weiss to the dance. For like the thirtieth time or something."
"oh...yeah, that."
She could see the reddening of his face in embarrassment. "Well I heard that she really loves music; Weiss, that is..."
"I would never have figured." Blake deadpanned.
"Funny," Jaune replied in a deadpan of his own, "laugh it up."
"I try."
"But yeah, so I figured if I could learn to play music, maybe she'd see me as not just an idiot or something."
"Hm, good luck with that," Blake turned to leave Jaune to his devices.
"Hey, Blake," he called to her. She paused, half turned to meet his gaze. "Do you play?" She cocked her head a bit in confusion. It was subtle, but everything about Blake was subtle. "Guitar, I mean," Jaune clarified.
"No, I don't play guitar, Jaune. I just happened to do some reading on the subject," she turned and began head back to the dorms. She could almost feel the disappointment coming off him. Maybe he was looking for some help?
The blonde in question wholly believed her answer. Why would Blake Belladonna, introverted bookworm, know how to play guitar, let alone any instrument, was beyond him. Literature was on a completely different end of the spectrum. He had no clue why he even bothered to ask. That was until:
"Also, make sure it's in tune next time."
Maybe his sub-conscious was onto something after all. He would get to the bottom of this.
Well, that was the teaser. If anybody likes it, I will be posting the next chapter, which is quite a bit longer-about 3,000 words-in a couple days. For those that read the chapter, I would greatly appreciate a review as it has been a long time, about 5 years, since I have last seriously written anything. Also if anyone could comment on if I got the characters' voices down right.
Thank you all!
