Author's note: This is my first published fanfic, and for a while it was a collab with my friend, but after a while she gave up, so I took over her P.O.V (her OC is Piper BTW) This is an OC in which we have immersed ourselves as OC's into the world of the walking dead. Enjoy!
Jaime P.O.V. Day 1
"Oh my God Jaime, stop doing that!" Piper yelled at me. I quickly withdrew my hand from the bus window and stopped tapping out my pointless rhythms. "Thank you. Now hand me the map from my backpack."
"Alright," I said as I reached into her faded old thing covered with pins with different anime and video game logos. I pulled out the map of the area we were in and handed it to her as I sat up over her shoulder to see it.
"Okay, so if we're here," she said and pointed to a space on the highlighted road. "We need to find a spot to stop and get out in the next ten miles or so." We both scanned the map and looked for somewhere that seemed safe to stop at. About six miles off, I saw something.
"How about here?" I said and pointed. It was the old prison. Sure, it wasn't a traditional locale, but it seemed secure enough. I thought Piper would think the same way but I was wrong.
"Are you drunk right now?" she asked me. "That's a huge place, and it's probably full of those things. You're insane, Jaime."
"But that's the only place that's close enough to reach before nightfall."
"I don't give a shit!" She was being incredibly stubborn. I tried a new tactic. "Would you rather just stay here and sleep on the bus?" I asked her.
"Hell no! I'm sick of sharing a space with you!"
"Well, your choices are stop at the prison or stay on the bus. Besides, a few deadbeats are easy to kill." She huffed at me. "Fine. Prison it is." She put the bus in gear and headed toward the prison. As soon as she did, I sank back down in my seat and smiled. My idea worked, and we both could finally get off the bus for a while.
Piper P.O.V.
I hoped this prison wasn't totally overrun with those… things. It will take all night to clear out a place to sleep if it is. I didn't know why Jaime even thought this was a good idea but it did beat sleeping on the bus again, plus we needed to stock up on supplies.
"I swear to God if you throw another grape at me I will not hesitate to toss you out of this bus and let you walk to the prison!" I snapped at Jaime as she got ready to throw yet another grape at me. I swear that girl is hyperactive. She sighed and without even looking at her I knew she was pouting.
"My God I need some music." I muttered and put my favorite CD in and pushed play. I instantly relaxed when a Legend of Zelda medley filled the bus.
"Why don't you go lie down," I said to Jaime, "It will be a little while till we get to the prison, so you might as well rest up a bit before we get there."
-time skip-
"I'm gonna go piss, hold down the fort while I'm gone." I shouted back at Jaime as I parked the bus and got ready to go. I grabbed my swords and walked down the stairs of the bus not waiting for a reply. I started to walk into the woods, intent on pissing fast and getting back to Jamie before she did something stupid.
"Turn around and put your weapons on the ground." The voice of a man stopped me. I put my hands up and slowly turned around. There was a man with a crossbow pointed at me and a black woman with a totally sweet katana threatening me. I slowly slid the straps for my swords off my arms and gently placed them on the ground before slowly standing back up, and I took a step back for good measure. At that moment I saw Jamie starting to come out of the bus.
"Hey I heard voices what the shit's going on-" Jaime cut off when she saw the man and the woman.
"Just put your hands up and cooperate." I said to her, not wanting either of us to end up with one of those bolts in our skulls. Jaime put her hands up and I could see the fear in her eyes and, well, I was scared too, lord knows who these people are. Both people relaxed slightly before asking, "Do you want to come to our camp with us?" the woman spoke first.
"Depends on where it is." I answered carefully.
"We're in the prison not too far from here." I raised my eyebrows at that. Of course they're at the prison. I looked over at Jaime and saw that she had a smug look on her face as she nodded. That's all the confirmation that I needed.
"Sure," I told them.
"First we have three questions to ask." the man finally spoke up.
"Three? That's awfully specific." Jaime joked and I couldn't help but chuckle, but the other two didn't look amused.
"How many walkers have you killed?" The man asked, disregarding Jaime completely
"I didn't know I was supposed to keep count, next time the world ends I'll make sure to keep count." I answered sarcastically.
"How many people have you killed?" he completely ignored my comment, how rude!
"None," Jaime answered for me.
"Why?" Mr. Bad to the Bone questioned.
"We've been lucky to avoid most people so far." I told him truthfully. He lowered his crossbow and miss samurai sheathed her sword.
"Do you have any questions for us?" the redneck asked.
"What are your names?" I asked, "I don't think you'd appreciate the nicknames i've come up with for you."
"Daryl," Mr. Bad to the Bone said gruffly gesturing to himself, "and Michonne" he said, gesturing to the woman.
"I'm Piper."
"And I'm Jaime." My companion spoke up.
"Let's get going, before dark," Michonne cut in, "we'll lead the way," Daryl and Michonne headed toward their car and I looked over to Jamie.
"Well, we'd better get going, don't want to get left behind." I told her while picking up my swords and slinging them over my shoulders. She stepped into the bus and I followed, sitting in the driver's seat. I put the bus in gear and started to follow after Mr. Bad to the Bone and Miss Samurai.
Jaime P.O.V.
I couldn't keep the smile off my face as we followed the other car up to the prison. As we approached the gate, I prepared our bags to go inside. I had my stuff together, so I got up to cross the bus for Piper's stuff when she braked, so hard I fell.
"Hey, what the hell?" I asked as I sat up.
"They closed the gate on us. I almost hit their stupid kid." she leaned out the driver's window. "Hey! What gives?" she shouted at the man and kid that were controlling the gate.
"Just checking you out," the man said calmly but gruffly. "They say you're alright, but I need to give you clearance."
"So suddenly he's the king?" I said just loud enough for Piper to hear. I got her to laugh, but then the gate opened again and he was telling her to pull forward, so I shut up. We pulled forward and she stopped the bus. She opened the doors as the guy walked up.
"Step off the bus," he said. We hopped off the bus, and he called over the guy from earlier. "You think they're alright?"
"Yeah, they seem harmless," Daryl said. "And if they're good with the weapons they've got, they could be a real help."
"Alright." the gate manager said. "My name is Rick Grimes. You two can stay with us if you like, but if things get bad, you'll have to leave, understand?"
"Yes, sir," Piper said quasi-sarcastically. Rick shot her a look, then proceeded. "You can park over there," he said, pointing around the left side corner. "And afterwards, I'll have Carl take you inside."
"Thank you," I said before Piper could piss him off further. We both climbed back on board so she could park, and when we left the bus, we were greeted by four kids. Well, more like two teens and two kids. The kids looked like they were sisters, both girls, blonde with brown eyes. On the other hand (now this was all from appearance, don't judge) the two teen boys looked like polar opposites. One of them was nearly as tall as I was, with curly brown hair and glasses. the other was a quite a bit shorter than I am, he had kind of wavy kind of straight hair, a freckly face and blue eyes. He was kind of cute, even though he was short. That aside, I introduced myself and Piper.
"Hi, I'm Jaime and this is Piper," I pointed back to her with my thumb. "Rick told my partner and I that once we parked our bus, he'd have Carl show us inside, so could you tell us where he is?" I asked.
"That's me," the shorter of the two boys replied. I stifled a laugh as he turned and said "Follow me." We'd taken about three steps when he stopped to call out to someone. "DAD! Which cell block do you want them in?" Dad? Who's this kid's dad?
"Put 'em in D for now, we might move 'em later!" Rick called back. Question answered. Carl then proceeded to take us up a small set of stairs and through a metal door to a cell block bustling with people. We were taken up a central staircase. Three and four cells to the right of the top of the staircase, he stopped and opened the doors.
"Here's where you'll be for now, but my dad might move you later." He gestured inside one of the cells. "Make yourselves at home." I watched him leave, partially to remember where the exit was, and partially because he was still cute. As we proceeded into our cells, Piper started up her antics again.
"I really like that Daryl guy," she said and I heard her swords clatter to the ground. "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
"How do you know this? You don't even know him," I said as I put my beat up old bat through my makeshift holster on my back.
"He has great biceps, that's all I care about," she said and we both emerged from our cells. I laughed out of pity as we headed outside. We found Rick in a patch of vegetables outside the prison.
"Excuse me," I said to him as we neared.
"Yeah?" he said before I could finish my train of thought. No matter though.
"You let us join you, how can we help?" I asked.
"Hey now!" Piper said. "Don't we get a day to get our bearings?" She immediately began to protest. Typical. I elbowed her in the side to stop her. She grunted, but didn't continue.
"As I was saying, is there anything you need our help with?" Rick thought for a moment. The sounds of deadbeats against the chain link fence broke his train of thought.
"Well, I guess we could have a few of you try to take out the walkers along the fence. You up to the task?" he asked. I looked at Piper and she nodded.
"Sure," I responded for the both of us. Rick nodded in agreement.
"That's great. But you two can't take out all of those things on your own, so I'll get you some help. Wait here," he said gruffly. We waited for a few moments as he headed inside for a minute and came outside with Daryl, Carl and the other teenage boy.
"Daryl, Carl, and Patrick can help you out," Rick said. "Get to it." The five of us headed to the fence. Daryl pulled an arrow from his crossbow and stabbed through a few of them, Piper doubled up on them with her swords, Carl used an old railroad spike, and I used the screwdriver I kept in my pocket. We'd taken out a few of them when I noticed Patrick wasn't being of any use at all.
"Hey Piper!" I said as I went after a particularly stubborn one. "Why's Patrick just standing around? Hah!"
"Which one's Patrick again?" Piper slashed through four at once.
"The one that's not doing anything, you dipshit!" I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. Taking out deadbeats was hard. I almost got my hand bitten off and I lost it.
"Hey, dipshit!" I called at Patrick, so loud it startled him. "Why are you not helping us!?"
"He just comes to observe," Carl pointed out as he shoved the railroad spike through the eye socket of one. "We're getting nowhere with this!" He yelled, clearly exasperated. Then, I got an idea.
"What if I went to the other side of the fence with someone and took them out that way? I can get quite a few in one swing, and if Piper comes with me, we could get the most of them out of the way."
"Fine by me," Piper stuck her swords through the eyes of one.
"If you're sure you'll be alright, go for it," Daryl said. "Carl can get the gate for ya, and then you'll be set." We headed off in the right direction, but Carl looked concerned.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? There are ten times as many walkers than there are of you two," he said, uncertain.
"Relax, kid, we'll be fine," Piper said. "Besides, it's not like you're real close with us yet, and what's two more biters for you to kill?" She really wasn't being helpful.
"We'll be fine," I reassured him. He didn't look convinced, but he went through with it. Daryl kept them distracted for a bit so we had time to get out there, and I tried to devise a plan.
"Alright," I thought aloud. "We go in on three." I checked our backs and said this to Piper. "One‒Hey where the hell do you think you're going?" she ran away from me!
"Screw you, Jaime, I got this," Piper took out three of them with a left-handed swing, but a wave came at her from the right, and she faltered. I tried to take a few out with my bat. It worked, but then we had guts all over us.
"Thanks," Piper said sarcastically. I grabbed her hand and helped her up as we swung our weapons violently. The bodies started to pile up when Piper said something that threw me off my game.
"So, when will you start going out with that Carl kid?" Her glasses got blood on them. "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
"What? Where on earth did that come from?" I had taken aim at one of the deadbeats when she said that, so it had gotten closer because I didn't swing. I took a quick and careless swing at it, missed, and fell on my back. I couldn't very well stab it with my old bat, so I kicked it in the stomach. Big mistake. It was so old it came in half, the top half landed on top of my chest, the snapping jaws were only inches from my face. I threw my head back to avoid a bite, but then I couldn't see to hit it in the face. SHHNK! One of Piper's swords went through the side of its head.
"Honestly Jamie, I don't know how you've made it this long," Piper sighed and shanked another one. "You really are stupid."
Piper P.O.V.
"You really are stupid," I said to Jamie as I helped her up.
"Shut your whore mouth," she said back to me.
"Yeah, whatever bitch just get your ass to work. Jesus." There were ten more of those things out there. I chased after a few of them and took them down with my swords. Four to go. Jamie got two with one hit, and I shanked the remaining two. Piece of cake.
"You did good," Jamie said, panting. God, if she got tired any more easily I swear.
"I could've done better if you'd get off your lazy ass," I said as we headed to the gate. I ran my hand along the fence.
"Hey! Open up!" Jamie shouted. Daryl and Carl opened the gate for us, and I noticed that the nerd from earlier wasn't with us.
"Where's that nerdy dipshit?" I asked. "He was here a second ago."
"Patrick? He went inside, he wasn't feeling well." Carl said. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "Good God, it's hot out here." It really was, I hadn't noticed while we were fighting. Jamie took off her letter jacket that she insisted on wearing all the fucking time and threw it over her shoulder. I remembered I was wearing my hoodie and slipped it off, too. Well, shit. It's covered with biter guts.
"Why do bad things happen to good people?" I said as I looked at the guts covering my Attack on Titan hoodie.
"What?" Carl asked.
"What do you mean, what?" I snapped back at him.
"You just asked 'why do bad things happen to good people?'"
"So?" I didn't see why this kid was so stupid.
"That's her thing," I heard Jamie respond. "Like, you remember how in some TV shows, characters would have their own catchphrases?" Carl nodded, acknowledging what Jamie said. "Well, that's like her catchphrase. She says it all the time. Like, ten times a day at least." Jamie smiled and rolled her eyes at him and he laughed. I punched her in the arm and she cut it out, but then I had a thought. What if she and this kid started dating? I tried pitching the idea to her but she was turned around and having a conversation with him, so I decided to wait until later.
-Time Skip-
Jaime, Daryl, Rick, Carl, lots of other people and I sat around a large table outside for dinner. There was a barbecue and a huge fire pit, it kind of looked like Jamie's old backyard, actually. Good times. A woman with short gray hair was manning the stove and the girls from earlier were bringing plates to us. Jamie thanked the smaller one as she set plates in front of us. As soon as everyone sat and started eating, I asked who everyone was.
"So who are you guys?" they then proceeded to go around introducing themselves. The sword ninja lady from before said her name is Michonne, there's a little blondie named Beth and her older sister Maggie, Maggie's husband Glenn, Beth's dad, Hershel, the lady that made us dinner is Carol, the little girls are Lizzie and Mika, there's a couple named Karen and Tyreese, Tyreese's sister Sasha, a guy named Bob, some dude named David, and a doctor guy that everyone calls Dr. S. Then the questions started to fly.
"How old are you girls?" Michonne asked.
"I'm twenty and Jaime is seventeen," I said.
"How did you two get to know each other? Did you know each other before all of this?" Tyreese questioned next.
"We'd been in school together forever," Jamie said through bites of meat.
"Kinda, I mean we are three years apart so we hardly even saw each other at school but somehow we managed to keep in touch."
"So, Daryl‒" I got cut off by a terrified scream.
"Help! Help! Walkers in D! There are walkers in D!" A woman from cell block D ran outside.
"Shit! How did that happen?" Rick threw his chair out of the way and the rest of us followed his lead. We grabbed our weapons and followed her inside, ready to take them out.
"I don't know!" the woman replied. "Patrick came through earlier and said he wasn't feeling well, and then there were a bunch of us who'd been bit!" We hurried into the cell block and saw that it was worse than any of us probably imagined. It was infested, like it was left to sit for a year or so. Any of the people who were in this block were goners, and the few left wouldn't last long.
"What do we do!?" someone screamed before they were targeted.
"Just kill them all! Anything you can, kill it!" Rick said and we sprang into action. I sliced at them left and right, Jamie was grunting and swinging her bat everywhere at once. Gunshots fired around us as the walls got painted with the cascading crimson of freshly spilled blood.
"Whoa!" I heard and looked off to my right to see Carl pinned on the ground by one. I turned to help but Jaime took a flying leap, fell, then got up to take it out with her bat. "Thanks," he breathed as she pulled him up.
"There's too many of them!" Beth cried out and fired a shot. "We need to just seal this block off!"
"That may be what we have to do, Rick." Michonne said. I heard this and thought of our stuff.
"But all our stuff's in here! Where are we going to go?" I sliced through three at once.
"Take all your stuff and move into C with the rest of us!" Rick said without hesitation as he embedded his hatchet in the head of one of them. "Carl and Beth can cover you!"
"You heard him, Jaime, get your shit!" I said as I barged my way up the stairs, Jaime following right at my heels.
"I know, Piper! I'm not as stupid as you think I am!" We hurried into our cells and got our stuff as fast as we could, with Carl and Beth standing right outside the doors, firing occasionally. We opened the doors and headed downstairs with the other two trailing us. We made it through the door and Rick locked it, sealing whatever was left in there inside. All of us were panting trying to catch our breath. Jaime slumped against the wall and slowly sank to the floor. All that fighting seemed to have worn her out.
"Now what?" Carl asked. "If they're all dead and we don't know why, how do we know what to do?"
"We'll figure that out later," Rick responded. "Right now, I need you to take Jaime and Piper to block C. Then come back out to finish dinner." Rick took the others outside as Carl held a flashlight and took us to block C. Once there, he led us to one cell.
"Is this the only empty cell here?" I asked.
"Yeah," Carl said sheepishly. "So you two could share a cell since you already know each other, or we can give one of you the cell to yourself and see if someone will share with the other. What do you think?"
"Jaime can have this one to herself, I can share with pretty much anyone," I admitted. I just didn't admit that I was sick of sharing a space with Jaime.
"Okay. Would you mind sharing with Beth? I think you two would be friends," Carl offered.
"That's good with me," I said. "I'll go find Beth." I found my way outside and let Jaime get her shit together.
Jaime P.O.V.
I collapsed onto the bed in my new cell after I dropped my stuff onto the floor. I'm still not used to a crowd that big or so much physical activity. I tried to calm down but it wasn't easy with the air quality of that place. I closed my eyes and coughed.
"Are you okay?" I heard Carl ask. I felt his weight on the end of my bed as he sat.
"Yeah," I sputtered. "I'm just not used to fighting that many of them at once. And the air is really thick and full of gunk, so it's not helping with my asthma." I felt so pathetic because I was still gasping for breath.
"Are you sure? You don't sound too good."
"Yeah, I think I'll just stay here and rest some," I coughed more. "I don't really feel like going back out there." No sooner had I said that than the rest of them started trickling in.
"It started raining, so we had to bring dinner in here," I heard Piper say. She walked in and set my plate next to my head. "Eat this if you want. Holy shit, Jaime, are you okay?" She asked.
"Fine," I breathed. "Just tired and have gunk in my lungs."
"Are you sure you don't want me to get your inhaler out of the bus?" Piper seemed concerned for a moment, which I appreciated.
"No thanks, Piper. I'll be fine, but thanks," I sat up and put my plate on my lap.
"Good, cause I wasn't actually going to go out there, it's pouring!" That's what I expected from her. "I'm going to go see if I can eat with Michonne and be friends with her, cause we both have swords." She walked off to go eat with Michonne.
"That seemed kind of rude," Carl thought aloud.
"That's just Piper. She can be an ass lots of the time, but she's there when it's important." I said and took a large bite of food. Rick swung by to give Carl his plate, and Carl ate gratefully.
"Weird," he said and ate more. I was going to ask him where his mom wass, and if she's even still around, but I heard the small cries of a baby.
"There's a baby here?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's my sister, Judith," Carl said. "You want to see her?"
"Sure," I said and started to get up, but Carl insisted I stay.
"Stay and finish your food," He told me. I didn't realize he finished his food. "Besides," he said with a wry smile, "It'll be a nice surprise for her." I laughed as he walked off. He came back shortly with the cutest baby I'd ever seen. She had the bluest eyes and a little tuft of brown hair.
"Awww she's so cute!" I squealed like a little girl, and that made him laugh.
"You hold her if she's so cute," he smiled and handed her off to me. I held her around her ribs and spoke to her.
"Hi there," I said gently. "I'm Jamie." I bounced her on my knee and she smiled and laughed.
"It looks like she likes you," Carl said and brushed at her hair. I put my right arm under her legs and my left one around her back and continued to bounce her.
"What do you think could've caused the outbreak in D?" I asked. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"I'm not exactly sure, but that one you took out that had me pinned? That was Patrick."
"What? How?" I couldn't control my curiosity. "He was fine when we went out to the fence, right?"
"He went inside when you and Piper were outside the fence, said he wasn't feeling that great." Carl said and looked perplexed. "Whatever he had must've been pretty bad if he died that quickly."
"Maybe it wasn't him," I thought. I was really just as confused as him about all this. "Maybe someone else had turned?"
"I don't know," He responded. "We'll need to ask around if we want to find out."
"But wasn't everyone in D killed? And, let's be real here, how many of them knew Patrick or were around him?" I brought that point up.
"Knowing him and being around him are two separate things," Carl replied hastily. He does have a point. "And not everyone in D was killed."
"Well, we've got two options: start cracking down on this now, or save it until tomorrow. It's fresh in our brains right now, but we'll have had time to sleep on it and think it over in the morning. Take your pick." I offered and gave the baby back to Rick. I came back and he answered me with, "Let's wait until tomorrow. For all we know, it could just be a wild goose chase."
"Sounds like a plan." I declared. He headed out and Piper came in with all her stuff.
"Why are you here?" I asked, not thinking to filter my thoughts.
"Thanks for the warm welcome," she retorted. "Beth wouldn't share with me, so I'm stuck with you for the time being." She chucked her overstuffed bag onto the top bunk.
"What about the other one? The black chick with the swords?" I asked.
"Her name is Michonne, and she wouldn't go for it either, so, like I said, I'm stuck with you for now." She swung herself and her swords onto her bed and sighed. I settled down myself, and as I rolled over to go to sleep I heard her mutter, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Piper P.O.V.
I realized as soon as I'd lay down that I wasn't sleeping that night. I just couldn't. So I waited until I was sure Jaime was asleep and made my way out to the bus. I lay there for awhile with my Skyward Sword CD playing and thought. I remembered things from before all this. Like how Jamie and I and our friends would always go to Starbucks before school on Wednesdays. How I used to play the flute in band with Jamie throughout school. How I quit and she kept going,. I saw her clarinet case on the seat next to mine and picked it up. It's covered in scratches and stickers and old papers with field coordinates. I put it back. I thought of the one year we were in choir together. It was great. That was my thing. I was lost in my thoughts when I heard Jaime climb into the bus.
"What are you doing in here? I didn't hear you leave," she asked.
"I couldn't sleep. I probably won't but you should," I said as she sat on the floor next to me. "There's seats for a reason you know," I pointed out.
"I know," Jaime replied. "I just feel like sitting on the floor." She leaned her head on the seat and I closed my eyes and listened intently to the music playing throughout the bus. Ballad of the Goddess came through the speakers, and we both sang the small bit that was in Hylian.
"En, Dashadu, no bei, seine du, dien, shu tu, kieranu, sa lei," we sang that twice, then let the brass fanfare fill our ears. When the song ended Jaime asked, "Do you remember that one time when you told me about your choir class where you almost passed out? That was some funny shit, bro." I laughed as I recalled.
"Oh God, Jaime. Yeah I remember. One minute I was fine and then the next I just saw white. I almost walked right off the stage."
"I remember Ms. Terpenning told us about it in band the next class. She said she had to guide you off the stage," Jaime reminisced. "I bet you looked so stupid. I wish I could've seen it firsthand."
"Kason told me I looked drunk," I remembered. "And freaking Mr. Maunu asked me if I was okay after the fact I had already sat down in the audience."
"Maunu was an idiot," Jaime scoffed.
"Melhorn was worse and you know it!" I retorted and laugh slightly.
"I still think they had a secret thing for each other," she had that suspicion for many years.
"You know Maunu was married though. His wife came to sing with us when we went to Italy. She had the voice of an angel."
"I know, you've told me this many times before." We sat in silence for a while before Jaime spoke again.
"I need to practice," she picked up her case, opened it up and popped a reed into her mouth.
"You should teach me to play the clarinet," I said, curious if she would.
"Alright, go look through what we have in the undercarriage for the other one," she said as she began to put hers together. She moves for me and I went down to the bus's undercarriage and dug through all our instruments to look for the other clarinet. I pushed past our quartet of saxes, a bass clarinet, a bassoon and a mellophone. "Found it!" I called to Jaime, even though I knew she couldn't hear me, and I crawled into the small space and pulled out the other clarinet. I closed up the compartment and headed back onto the bus. Jaime fidgeted with her reed and the thing that holds it in place. When she was satisfied, she tightened the screws and sailed through a three-octave chromatic scale.
"Still works," she grinned contentedly and looked at me. "Put yours together."
"I need a reed first," I told her impatiently. She looked through her case and gave me one.
"You probably should start on a softer one than this, but this is what I have," she handed me a size 3. I stuck it in my mouth like she did and put the pieces together slowly, then held it up to her to see if I did it right.
"This look right?"
"Yup," Jaime remarked. "Now, do you know how to put your reed on?" I loosened the ligature and put the reed on the clarinet and started to tighten the screws when Jaime's hand gently gripped mine. "What?"
"Your reed's too high," she said and worked the instrument out of my grasp. "Scoot."
"Why?" My stubbornness got the better of me.
"Do you want to learn or not?" Jaime retorted. I huffed, but made space for her on my seat.
"The reed goes on there like this," she loosened the screws a bit, then pulled the reed down so it was exactly even with the mouthpiece, fidgeted with it for a minute because it was slightly diagonal, then tightened the screws. "Give it a test, make sure it works." I put it in my mouth and blew. A sharp squeak came from the instrument, and we both jumped.
"Hold your embouchure tighter," Jaime advised me and jumped back to the other seat. "You need to move your air a bit faster too, not like the flute." I tried again. A sound came out that didn't burst eardrums, and we both smiled.
"You're really flat, but that was a lot better. Now, for some notes." she held her clarinet up so I could see what she did. "When you don't hold any fingers down, that note is a G." she showed me how she wasn't touching any of the holes or keys. "Now play." I exhaled into the instrument and a note came out.
"Good," Jaime encouraged me. "Next, put down your left thumb." I did as she said. "That one is an F." I blew again and the new note came through after a squeak. Jaime laughed. "You're super squeaky, but that was good." We went down four more notes, with lots of shrill squeaking in between.
"I want to go up the scale," I said. "How do I do that?"
"Start on a B, and lift each one of your fingers," Jaime said and demonstrated, first slowly, then in a rush. I took it slowly, but it made a sort of melody. "That's so cool!" I looked at my instrument and smiled with delight. Jaime smiled too.
"Now that you know a few notes, do you want to learn the Song of Time?" she asked me, and without skipping a beat, I answered with "Yes." "Okay," she squinted as she tried to remember how the song went. She played it once, then another time to make sure she really had it down, then turned back to me.
"Alright, you're going to start on an A," she said.
"Which one is that again?" I asked, still kind of confused.
"That's the key above the hole for your index finger." She pointed on her own instrument and I played. "Good. Next is a D." she showed me and I squeaked when i tried to play. We laughed for a second, then continued. "now an F, or just your left thumb. Good. Now another A and another D. Dude you squeak worse than a rusty door hinge! Play an F. Now it gets harder. You're going to do a high C then a B natural. G, F, G, A,D, C, E, D." she finished explaining the song, then I tried to play through it. It sounded a little rough, but I got through it and Jaime high fived me and grinned.
"That was great, Piper! You're a natural," she said and we both fell into a fit of laughter. We were soon silenced by someone walking up the bus stairs. It was Rick.
"What are you two doing out here?" he questioned us.
"I wanted to learn how to play the clarinet," I answered simply. He gave me a confused look.
"It's true," Jaime declared. He gave his look to her, then to me again. He sighed exhaustedly.
"You two should get some sleep soon," he said. "You'll need it." He walked out of the bus and back inside.
"Teach me the song of storms," I looked at Jaime expectantly once he'd gone.
"I can't." she said and I frowned at her. "You don't know all the notes yet, and even if you knew the fingerings for them, you'd have trouble getting a sound out." She looked at me. "But I can play it for you if you want."
"Serenade me with the song of storms, Jaime," i said and she laughed before playing it. I hummed the notes as she played them and when it was over we both sighed, overcome with nostalgia.
"What if you taught someone here how to play an instrument?" I asked.
"Depends on if they'd want to and if I could teach them."
"If you could manage to teach me, I'm sure you can teach one of them." Jaime looked me square in the eye. "What do you mean by that?"
"Most people are a lot more patient than I am. You might have better luck."
"Well, whether or not that's true is something you'll have to wait to find out." Jaime said and yawned. "Holy shit I'm tired."
"Then go to sleep." I rolled over. The last thing I heard was Jaime closing up the clarinet cases.