My tutor says I should write a paper about 'the colors in my life' but I really don't want to. I wish March were here—she's really good at this stuff. She used to help me with all my papers and I'd always get good grades, but Agogo Forest is probably too far away to bother mailing the assignment over just so she could fix my grammar. Am I supposed to turn this paper in? I hope not. I already know my writing is crappy, so I don't need someone else to tell me that.
Of course, if I wasn't going to show it to her why would I bother writing it?
Okay, whatever. The first color on my list is black. Um... well, the outside of the big piano in the ballroom is all shiny and black, and so are some of the keys. Frederic says those are the sharp and flat keys, but I don't know what they white ones are. I like to play the piano sometimes, even though I'm not very good. And, uh, Jazz's hair is black. Frederic's hair is too, I guess, even though it's kinda more grayish black. What else? Salsa's pirate hat is black, and I always thought it looked funny because the rest of her is so bright and bubbly and then there's this one black hat sitting on her head.
White is next. That one isn't as hard, because white is the color of snow! There's snow everywhere, although the Captain says it should be melting soon. White is the color of Frederic's skin, lately, too; he says it changes color with the weather. I think he was being funny, but he doesn't always smile when he tells a joke so sometimes it's hard to tell. Oh, and there are white keys on the piano. I already said that, didn't I? I found out just now that a natural note is the opposite of a flat or a sharp, so I guess those keys must be called 'naturals.'
(Look, March, I used a semi-colon in that paragraph!)
Gray. Um, Retto's hair is gray, even though if you ask him he'll say it's actually silver, and the sky has been gray all week. Falsetto has these really high gray leggings that she likes to wear, and honestly I used to think they were kinda trashy looking. I think she just likes being able to move around easily, though. Speaking of Falsetto, some people think her hair is a weird shade of gray, but it's more of a dark blonde.
Lots of things in my life are brown. Viola's eyes are brown, and so are Salsa's. Jazz always wears leather, and my father did, too, when he was alive. We used to live underground in Andante in the reddish-brown earth, and then for a while we lived in the Andantino hideout, which is pretty much just a giant house made of wood. That really used to freak Frederic out, because he said every time we lit a match we were in danger of setting ourselves on fire. So now when I see browns like that I wonder if Jazz is living under the ground again, or if Viola is living in a house made of wood. Those kinds of thoughts make me feel closer to them somehow.
Red always makes me think of Salsa. Her hair is bright red, and her personality is pretty much the same color. Plus she used to have this scarlet blanket on her bed, and she'd tie it around her neck and chase us through the house like it was some kind of cape. Besides that, red reminds me of feeding apples to the horses and eating all the strawberries as fast as we could pick them. Polka always wore a pink dress everywhere when we were younger, and now I smile whenever I see a girl wearing pink even though Polka and Retto live all the way over in Forte now. I miss them. I hope they come to visit in the spring.
Oh! And I can't forget Arco. He's kind of reddish-orange, but it's hard to tell because he never likes to hold still long enough for people to look at him.
Orange is another color that just screams Salsa's name. She loves to wear orange and purple together even though I think she looks silly, but I guess maybe I just don't understand the fashion sense of Agogo Forest. My hair is kind of orange, too, although usually I say it's brown because that's easier. But really it's a weird orange-y, coppery color that's hard to explain to people, and everyone says I got my hair color from my mom. I don't know because I was a baby when my mom died, but I like to think that's true.
Yellow. Hm. I used to wear lots of yellow when I was a kid, and I even stole a yellow coat from a rich man's house once. (I needed it more than he did, I promise.) I liked the idea that people could see me from far away—I felt like some kind of beacon to the poor kids in the sewers. Sometimes I wonder if that's why Jazz wears those funny yellow boots everywhere, so the poor, suffering people can see him and know that help is coming.
I love the color green, and not just because it's the same color as my eyes. Green is growth and health and prosperity, even though sometimes it's jealousy, too. March had a beautiful, pale green bedspread when we were growing up, and it had this embroidery of fairies and elves and unicorns all along the edges. Frederic would sit with us and make up bedtime stories about the creatures on her blanket until we fell asleep, and when we got up in the morning we would go play outside in the green grass and trees until it was time for bed again. Back then it felt like we had nothing in the world to worry about, as long as the crops were growing.
Blue... hm. When I was little Allegretto used to always wear a sky blue sweater over his white shirt. That color makes me think of how safe it always felt to be with him, and it makes me want to try harder to be like he is—brave and sturdy and fearless. It's hard to be fearless sometimes when there are so many thing to worry about, but I try. The sheets on Frederic's bed are blue, too, and when I lay down next to him I always feel peaceful there, surrounded by that color. Maybe that's why Frederic spends so much time in bed.
Purple is easy, because it's the same color as the coat Frederic always wears. Well, he doesn't wear it very much anymore, because most of the time he doesn't leave our room, but it's still hanging up in the closet. Count Waltz wore purple, too; I remember noticing that when he attacked us. It made me feel... I don't know. It made me feel sorry for hurting him, because if he liked the same colors as my friends then he couldn't be totally evil. Oh, and March's hair is purple. Well, it's more lavender than violet, and sometimes it looks blue, but it still falls in this category.
Okay, well, that's all of the colors my tutor mentioned, so I guess I'm done now. That took way longer than I thought it would, but hopefully I'll get a good grade. When Frederic wakes up maybe I'll show him; he always has good suggestions for my papers. And if I do really well, I can show it to March when she comes back. I think she would be proud of me.