Amy's Guitar
It's no surprise that Amy Mizuno has played a mean violin for most of her life, but what happens when all her friends find out she has a secret affinity for another stringed instrument that's just a little more familiar? One-shot.
"
I own none of this and I'm just trying to have some fun.
"
"So just to be clear, in the future, when you scout out an enemy location, you're actually trying to figure out what's going on, what the situation is, and determine the best course of action for the group," Rei instructed, unmistakable condescenion in her voice as the two walked down the sidewalk on the brisk autumn morning.
"Yeah, I know!" Serena said, scowling. "I did scout the location, Rei! And I already took, like, thirty percent of the blame for what happened, we don't need to talk about it any more!"
"Thirty? Try a hundred!" Rei said. "Thanks to your bad intel, we scorched an entire tomato garden! It's a miracle no one was hurt! Think of the poor gardener who had to show up the next morning and find his crops gone!"
"It was your stupid attack that caused the explosion!" Serena snapped.
"Because you told me it was safe to attack!" Rei countered.
"You always do what your told, Rei?" Serena said, frowning.
Rei sighed. "Are you serious right now? I mean, that could have been really disasterous, and you're trying to be funny?"
"Look, I know it was my fault, okay? Like you would have known if it was you scouting," Serena said darkly.
"And I'm sure I don't need to remind you that, if it wasn't for Amy's quick thinking, the fire would have probably spread to that apartment complex." Rei stuck her nose up in the air, folding her arms over her chest.
"No, Rei, you don't need to remind me. And yet, you always do, every day."
"Because you learned nothing from it," Rei said.
"Yes I did!" Serena insisted. "I learned that flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. Now can we please bury the hatchet about this?" The two had stopped in front of Amy's house, slowing making their way down the two-car driveway, up towards the walkway to the front door.
"Probably not," Rei said. "But I suppose Amy doesn't need to hear all this."
The two went up to the front door, Serena lifting her hand to knock. Just before she did, she made out a faint, soft melody coming from inside the house and paused.
"You hear that?" Serena asked, putting her ear up to the door. "I think it her playing."
"Yeah, I hear it," Rei said. "You know, come to think of it, I've never really had a chance to see her play."
"Oh, she's really good," Serena said. "Not exactly my favorite tune." She knocked several times.
"It's open!" Amy called out, the music pausing. Serena twisted the knob and the two girls admitted themselves, taking their shoes off as they entered.
They went into the living room to find, indeed, Amy Mizuno, violin tucked underneath her chin, bow in her right hand, seated on the couch.
"Alright!" Rei said, coming into the room and clapping. "Parents out of the house, domain to yourself, and kicking off a little jam sess!"
Amy went slightly red. "Hardly."
"So...I've heard you're really good. Heard, not seen, hows about we change that today?" Rei said, sitting down next to Amy on the couch.
"Well...alright, then," she said. "The school wants me to show some things to the other music students next week, and I wanted to do some nice, simple things."
"Alright, let's hear it!" Serena said, plopping down on a fat chair in the center of the room.
Amy lifted the bow up to the instrument, lightly resting the ribbon on the strings. "I'm rather fond of this one. Air on a G String, it's a Bach piece."
"Man, so much for inappropriate themes in music being a recent development," Serena mused to herself.
Amy sighed. "I knew you were going to say something like that."
"And yet, you still said it," Rai added. "Well, go on!"
"Alright, alright. I'm not really used to playing in front of people," Ami said quietly.
"What's the point of spending all that time learning how to play it if you're not gonna share it with everyone else?" Serena asked.
"Looks nice on a college application," she said. Slowly, fingers of her left hand resting on the strings at the neck. Slowly, she pulled the bow right above the bridge, drawing vibrations from the strings. The air was filled with a slow, mournful note as she pushed the bow upwards. Her left hand vibrated as she pressed her fourth finger down on one of the strings, drawing just the right note by manipulating the tiniest of variables.
After a few seconds of that single note, she quickly brought the bow back down the string before erupting into a quick succession of notes, petite fingers quickly dancing along the neck. Serena could hardly understand how such a lovely, lilting piece could be extracted from a simple, small instrument.
The pattern continued, as Amy alternated between playing that single, lone note and swinging into a fast-paced series of them. Amy claimed it was a simple song, but as far as her two present friends were concerned she may as well have been reaching into the very essence of the universe and extracting the music from the great beyond.
"
"That was really something, wasn't it? She's real good," Serena said, holding the coffee cup in both hands as the steam rose up towards her nose.
"Oh, very," Raye agreed. Amy was still playing in the living room, this time a more upbeat and quick song. Raye wrinkled her forehead in concentration. "I...I know this song, I'm sure of it."
Serena picked the sugar can up from off the counter, ears perked up to listen. "Not ringing a bell." She started to dump sugar into her cup.
"It was...yeah, it was in the credits of some movie..." Raye put her hand up to her chin. "Wait, that's it! It's the song in the credits from There Will Be Blood!"
"Sounds like your kind of movie," Serena said, pouring the stream of sugar into her drink.
"Shut up," Raye snapped, glancing over at her. "And stop putting so much sugar in your coffee!"
"Oh, what do you care?" Serena ignored her, continuing to sweeten her drink.
"It's not even your sugar!" Raye said indignantly. "It's rude!"
"Oh come on, it's sugar! They sell it in giant bags at every marketplace, I'm sure Amy won't mind." Serena kept right on pouring the narrow stream into the cup.
Raye brought her right hand up and brought it back down on the back of Serena's hand in a sudden flash of movement. Serena gasped, losing her grip on the can and watching it drop to the floor. On impact, the lid popped off and powdered sugar was spread across the linoleum in front of Serena.
"Ohh, way to go, Raye!" Serena whined, putting her cup down on the counter. "Now nobody can use it."
"You'll thank me when it saves you from diabetes," Raye said haughtilly, striding back towards the living room.
"Yeah, I hope you're real happy now, Raye," Serena groaned, carefully stepping away from the mess as she grabbed her cup.
"I am!" Raye replied faux-cheerfully.
"Because that's how you get ants," Serena grunted, following her back into the living room.
"I totally knew that last one, Amy!" Raye said, walking back towards her friend. Amy put the bow down by her side.
"Oh really? What's it called then?" Serena called out as she brought up the rear.
"Uhhh...that's not important!" Raye said. "The...the music is what matters! Not that you would know anything about that."
"It's Violin Concerto in D Major," Amy said. "Don't worry, you're hardly the first people to not know the names of classical music pieces. In any case, I'm sure you guys had better plans for today than listening to me play boring music, so-"
"Oh, don't be like that," Raye said. "You're really good, and I like listening to you play! Really! Maybe it's not my favorite, but I don't dislike it."
"Thank you, Raye," Amy said. "But what was the plan for-"
"Oh my god, Amy!"
The three jumped in surprise, then spun around to look over at the threshold between the living room and the back house hallway. Mina stood there, a happy grin on her face, holding a light brown, acoustic, six string guitar up in her right hand. Immediately, Amy put her right hand up to her mouth and gave a small gasp.
"I had no idea you had a guitar!"
Amy looked away, face going red.
"Yeah, it's a real nice one, too!"
Lita appeared from behind Mina, waving to the three cheerfully as she dropped a small bag on the floor next to one of the seats.
"When did you guys get here?" Serena asked, raising an eyebrow at the two.
"Oh, we just got here a minute ago," Mina said, pressing the body of the guitar against her stomach, holding it in a rough playing position.
"...through the back door?" Raye asked.
"Lita bet me that I couldn't climb up the side of the house and get in through Amy's window," Mina explained, pointing at Lita. "Then I bet her that she couldn't. We both lost."
"Uh huh," Raye said. "Did the bet include anything about poking your nose where it doesn't belong and going through someone's belongings?"
"I saw the case in the closet when I came in!" Mina insisted. "Seriously though, this is cool, when'd you get it?"
Amy looked away, face still crimson. "Uhh...I, uh...it was my father's," she said quietly.
"Aww, passing the tools of the trade down from father to daughter, that's too awesome!" Mina walked over towards Amy. "I play a bit myself you know. It's been awhile." She set the guitar down on the couch, neck on the armrest.
"Uh, I...I actually don't play." Amy waved her hand dismissively at Mina. "I just...just keep it around to look at for...reference! You know, music theory...things..."
"You...have a guitar to...look at?" Serena said, leaning in towards Amy. Amy leaned away nervously.
"Y-yeah, I just...look at it?" She gave an embarrassed little grin.
"Oh, give me a break, Amy, am I supposed to believe that?" Raye asked. "Come on now."
"Okay, I've...played it a bit. For educational purposes! Just to understand...theory, rhythms, tie it into my classical music knowledge-"
"Oh really, Amy?" Lita interrupted with a snide grin. "For someone only interested in general theory, you sure have an awful lot of specific literature up there!"
"Lita!" Raye said chastisingly. "That's her room!"
"Sorry, they were right under the guitar case," Lita said, shrugging.
"What was under the guitar case?" Serena asked. Amy tried to interject, but Lita was quicker to reply.
"Only about twenty books of guitar sheet music from a decidedly non-classical age!" Lita exclaimed.
"Oh, I wanna see that!" Serena squealed, jumping to her feet and bolting for the staircase. Raye, Lita, and Mina were quick to follow, all of them out of the room before Amy could even say anything.
Amy sighed, face still bright crimson. "First thing tomorrow I'm getting a padlock for my closet."
A light scratching at the glass door to the backyard drew her attention, and she glanced over to see Luna and Artemis standing there. Slowly, she got up and walked over, opening the door a crack to admit the two entrance.
"Four out of six allies in the fight against evil still know how to use a door, apparently," Amy said wistfully.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Luna asked, stretching her front legs out.
"Today's not going to be a good day," Amy moaned.
"
"Wooow!" Serena gasped, flipping through the thick paper book. "This is the entire discography! Look at all this!"
All four girls were looking through the large stack of books, generally oohing and aahing at the laundry list of songs and artists that Amy had.
"If I had any idea what I'm supposed to be looking at, I'm sure I'd be really impressed!" Raye said, flipping through one of the books.
"Ask Mina, she says she knows this stuff." Lita looked over at Mina, who was going through one of the smaller books.
"Well, sort of," Mina said. "And yeah, some of this stuff is...pretty hard to play! But more than that it's just a lot of stuff!"
Amy edged into her room, face still red and a meek little frown on her face.
"Oh, hey Amy! We were just checking out the 375 kajillion awesome songs you know how to play but never told us about!" Serena said, holding the fattest one up in the air. "The entire Beatles discography, that's amazing, really!"
"I...I don't know how to play all of that!" Amy said, looking down at the floor. "Uhhuh-any of that, I mean, I don't know to play any of that! Or any of this!" She waved her arms around the room. "Now could you all please go back downstairs?!"
"Which is why you have them in your closet?" Serena said mockingly. "Come on, Amy."
"N-no, really!" Amy squealed. "Uh...you see, a...a...uh, couple weeks ago the music store had a big sale! You could get...uh...eighty percent off your purchase of sheet books, but you had to buy fifty or more books!"
"Eighty percent?" Serena repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Y-yeah! Crazy, right! So I just bought what I wanted, but I'd save money if I qualified for the deal, so I...just grabbed a bunch of random books that I had...no interest in, and I haven't been able to throw them away yet!" Amy nodded frantically.
"Really?" Serena said, opening the book up to a random page and holding it up towards her. "And how would you explain this?"
"Uh...he's going out of business and is having a secret liquidation sale?" Amy said desparately.
"Not the music store sale that you're totally lying about!" Serena said, standing up and walking towards her with the book open. "You've written notes on like half of these pages! Your handwriting!"
Amy groaned. "Right...right..." She crossed her arms over her chest and heaved a sigh. "If I was half as smart as you thought I was, I'd be a better liar, Serena."
"What's there to lie about?" Serena asked, leaning up against the wall next to Amy. "So your musical talents aren't all stuck back in the ages of cavemen."
"I'm just going to ignore that low hanging fruit," Raye said, smirking.
"Shut up!" Serena snapped. "So what's the big deal?"
"I...I don't know, it's just...embarrassing!" Amy looked around the room. "It's not really something I'd like advertised to everybody. I just look like a huge dork with a guitar, playing contemporary music."
"Elvis Presley is hardly contemporary," Lita interjected, holding up one of the books in the air.
"Ooooh! Elvis? Amy, you naughty girl!" Serena shrieked. Amy went even redder.
"See, you're making fun of me right now!" Amy said. "These songs, and the guitar, are a guilty pleasure, you don't tell everyone about your guilty pleasures! And to that end, could you guys please not tell anyone about this?"
"Oh, don't worry about that, Amy," Serena comforted, patting her on the top of the head. "But I, for one, wanna hear you play!"
"I don't want to," Amy said quietly.
"Oh, come on!" Mina goaded, flipping up into a standing position and coming over to crowd her. "Just a little bit? I wanna see Amy Mizuno rock out!"
"I...I don't know how to...'rock out'," Amy said meekly. "Can we please just go out?"
"After we hear you play!" Raye said, clapping her hands together. "Come on, let's take the books downstairs and see what kind of show we can cook up!"
"N-no, I don't want to-"
In record time, the four had scooped up the bundle of books and made a mad dash for the staircase. Amy didn't have time to voice her full objection before their backsides were out of sight, leaving her to just stand there in her room, hand covering her face, debating crawling back into bed and hoping everyone else would leave eventually.
"
"Oh, c'mooooonnnn!" Raye begged. "Please?" The two were seated on the couch, Amy hunched over, the guitar in her lap. Raye was right next to her, right arm draped on the back of the couch behind Amy.
"I don't want to," Amy said, drumming her little fingers on the face of the guitar. "Really, it's not like I'm any good at it, there's nothing to see."
"How about we be the judge of that?" Lita said. "Okay, you're in a bad mood, maybe lunch will pick your spirits back up."
"It won't," Amy replied.
"Well, I'll start making lunch anyway, and we'll see where that gets us." Lita turned around and walked into the kitchen, Mina following.
"And I'll help," Mina offered.
"No you won't," Lita countered. "But you're welcome to watch me do something you'll never be able to do."
"And I'm taking a bathroom break," Serena announced. "Raye, you keep working on her. We're not leaving until we get something from her!"
"I have eighty dollars worth of starbucks gift cards in my desk upstairs," Ami said quietly to Raye as she leaned up even closer to her. "They're yours if you help me escape."
"Come on, Amy, you're gonna have to play something for us eventually," Raye said loudly. "I mean, what, you're gonna learn all this stuff and then never play it for anyone?"
"Yes," Amy replied. "That was the plan."
"Well, call an audible, I wanna see you play the guitar." Raye grabbed the neck of the guitar and put the back of the face up against her stomach. "So make it happen."
"This is just like my recurring third grade nightmare," Ami moaned. She then put her left index finger in her mouth. "Except I still have my teeth."
"
"Who would go through all the trouble of learning to play the guitar then not want to play it for anyone?" Mina asked, scratching the back of her head. "Teach me just one sweet guitar lick and I'll play it to anyone who'll listen!"
"Only our Amy," Lita said, getting out a bag of lettuce from the fridge. "Ugh. I hate this pre-packaged garbage. Tastes like paper."
"Huh. Never took Amy for the slob type," Mina said, looking down at the floor. Lita followed her gaze and saw the mound of sugar on the floor, next to an open tin can.
"No kidding," Lita agreed, glaring at the small mess. "That's how you get ants."
"Make lunch for six," Serena said quietly, striding into the room and casting a sideways glance towards the living room.
"I'm just making salad, fatty, you don't want two servings of this," Lita said, smirking to herself as she poured the lettuce into a bowl.
"Not for me! Darien's coming over!" Serena snarled. "He wouldn't want to miss this."
"Didn't Amy say she didn't want us to tell anyone else about this?" Mina asked rhetorically.
"Oh. Yeah, I guess she did," Serena said, shrugging. "Oh well."
"That's just classic you, Serena," Lita said. "Now a hot boy knows her secret, she's gonna freak out."
"Amy's not really the freak out type," Serena said. "She'll thank me later."
"
"Darien?!" Amy shrieked, peeking through the curtains behind the couch. "What's he doing here?!"
"He's here to rock out!" Serena said, nodding. "He came all the way over here just to hear you play, so you better get ready!"
"You said you wouldn't tell anyone!" Amy glowered at Serena.
"Ah, no, I merely implied that," Serena responded, smirking to herself.
"Augh," Amy moaned, watching Darien come up the walkway towards the house. "That's just classic you, Serena."
In a flash of movement that seemed much quicker than she was typically capable of, even in her Sailor form, she jumped up from the couch, dashed past Raye and Mina, onto the front foyer, and locked the door. She gripped the doorknob tight in both hands, pressing her body weight into the wood.
"Seriously?" Lita said, peeking into the room. "Come on, Amy. He's already here, just let him in."
"Not yet he's not!" Amy grunted as Darien knocked.
Lita sighed, then walked over to Amy. She stuck her hands into her armpits, lifting her up into the air with ease, then tugging her away from the knob.
"Hey!" Amy shouted, fingers slipping away from the brass. "Lemme go!"
With a quick jerk, Lita had separated Amy from the knob, lifting her up into the air with one hand while she undid the lock with the other. "Come on, Amy. Try to be a little cooler. Come in!"
The door slowly creeked open and Darien walked in, watching Lita carry Amy back into the living room. "Bad time?" he asked.
"Not at all, come right in!" Lita said as she set Amy back down on the couch. Darien discarded his shoes by the door and walked into the main hub, waving at the girls as he did so.
"So, Amy, Serena said you had something cool to show me?" Darien said expectantly, sitting himself down one one of the chairs and putting his hands on his knees.
"N-no...well, yes, she did say that, but...she actually suffered a minor hallucinatory episode and lost control of her Broca's area, which caused her to involuntarily call you and spout off some-"
"Oh come on, Amy," Raye chided. "You don't actually think that one would work, do you?"
Amy sighed. "No, I don't."
"Does it involve that guitar?" Darien asked, pointing at the instrument leaning up against the side of the couch. "Because it looks like a pretty good guitar to me!"
"You got it!" Serena said happily, grabbing the guitar and skipping over to her boyfriend. "Check it out!"
"Alright, let's see here." Darien took the guitar carefully in both hands, propping it up in his lap. "At least a couple decades old, I'd say. You mind if I, ah..."
Amy shook her head a couple times, head down and face red. Darien plucked a small blue pick from a tiny pocket on the face. He strummed a couple times, sending some simple little melodies through the air, then slowly started going through some easy fingering on the frets and string plucks.
Do do do di di...di...
Dodi do do dooo...
Dodi do di dooo...
Do di do do do do do di di...
He continued the pattern for about a minute as the girls sans Amy watched in fascination. He took it nice and slow, clearly demonstrating every finger movement he made.
Du du do do du du duuu...
He puts his lips together with a small hole between and whistled the tune back.
Whoot-whoot-wheet-whoot-whoot-wheet-whooooot...
"I definitely know that one..." Serena mused to herself, putting her hand up to her chin. "That's...that's Yankee Doodle..."
"It's Dueling Banjos," Amy said quietly before she could stop herself.
"Pretty close, meatballs," Darien said. "That's an awful lot of music books too." The collection of sheet music was spread out on the coffee table. "A lot."
"Yup, Ami's been holding out on us!" Lita said. "It's all hers."
"So...let me guess." Darien got up and walked over to Amy, handing the guitar over towards her. She didn't immediately take it. "You want to learn how to play the guitar and want me to help you?"
"Ehhhhh...not quite," Amy said sheepishly, taking the guitar.
"Well? What's up then?" Darien shrugged his shoulders.
"You were pretty close, actually," Raye said. She looked down at Amy. "That's your cue."
Amy sighed. "I hate you all so much." Reluctantly, she put her left hand up on the guitar neck, pulled the pick out from the holder, and placed it on the strings.
"You guys have to promise not to tell anyone else. And I mean it this time."
"Yeahyeah, we all promise, now go ahead!" Serena insisted.
Dodidododododododidi-Dodidodododidodido
Dududododududu-dududododooodi
All five of her friends stared. It was the same song Darien had played, the same beat, rhythm and notes, but much faster. Her little fingers danced along the neck as she picked the strings one by one at lightning speed. She didn't look particularly happy, but she dutifully kept on playing, repeating the two refrains. Every time through, she picked up speed until you could barely see her movements, and could never hope to keep track of them.
Dodidododododododidi-Dodidodododidodido-Dududododu dudu-dududododooodi
After a couple rounds, Darien smiled, then gave a small laugh. The other girls started to glance among themselves as well, smirks sneaking out.
"Alright, Amy!" Darien said, starting to rhymically clap hoedown style as she kept speeding up.
"See!" Amy grunted, stopping immediately and pointing her pick at Darien. "You're making fun of me!"
"I am not!" Darien said, still smiling. "That's actually really cool, I swear. That's awesome. I mean, that's really hard!"
"Okay, I played something, can you all stop pestering me now, please?" Amy said, putting the pick back in the slot on the guitar.
"Oh, forget it!" Darien said, kneeling down next to Amy. "I gotta see what else you can do!"
"But I don't want to," Amy said, putting the guitar at her side. "It's not exactly something I like to advertise all the time."
"And why is that, Amy?" Darien asked.
"Because...it's just not really me! I mean, the violin, the piano, that's me." Amy shrugged. "It's just kind of a thing I like to keep private."
"Okay, fine, private...but we're your friends!" Mina said, clapping Amy on the shoulder. "We're not asking you to start playing on a street corner!"
"I think I'm all guitared out today," Amy said lamely.
"All these music books and you're not gonna give me anything but a few refrains?" Darien said. "Come on, I came all the way over here!"
"
"I am beyond sick of working with teenage girls," Luna groaned, the two felines spying on the half-dozen in the living room from the kitchen. "There are a hundred opportunities to get a leg up on the negaverse out there in the city right now, and they've spent almost half the day trying to make Amy...play an instrument!"
"Nevermind that," Artemis said, looking over towards the floor by the counter. "Let's snarf this down before the girls notice."
"Snarf what down?" Luna asked, striding over to the section of floor Artemis was looking at. A mound of sugar and an open container lay there.
"That, my dear, is more sugar than we should be seeing in a month," Artemis said. "So I say we move quickly."
"I am not eating floor sugar!" Luna huffed. "And you shouldn't either!"
"Oh I know I shouldn't," Artemis replied, going up to the pile. "I mean, there's not much disputing that." He stuck his face into the sugar, lapping it up with his tongue.
"Ugh," Luna said, shaking her head. "I thought Amy was more responsible than that." She glanced at the sugar. "That's how you get ants."
"Exactly," Artemis said. "We're doing her a service by cleaning this up."
"
Darien ran his fork around the rim of his empty salad bowl a couple times before setting it down.
"The Smashing Pumpkins?" He held one of the sheet books up in his right hand. "Didn't know there were many fans in our age demographic. That's pretty cool. How about you give us a nice Bullets With Butterfly Wings rendition?"
"No thanks," Amy said, looking off to the side, still blushing.
"So Amy, which one shakes you up downstairs? John, Paul, George or Ringo?" Lita held the Beatles book up.
"I...don't know what you're talking about," Amy said quickly, going redder still.
"Yes you do." Lita set the book down. "Maybe if I read all your notes I'd figure it out."
"Amy actually owns a Metallica sheet music book," Raye said, holding another large white book up in her right hand. "Sorry, that's just funny to me."
"See, I knew people would make fun of me!" Amy moaned, putting her face in her hands.
"I'm not even making fun of you...it's just funny," Raye said.
"Here's an idea," Darien said, standing up. "How about we play something together?" He pointed at the mini-grand piano in the corner of the living room. "You play the guitar, I'll sing and play a little piano?"
"Oh, please no," Amy said, shaking her head. "It's embarrassing enough to play by myself."
Darien ignored her, picking the Beatles book up and flipping through it. "Let's see what I can find here."
"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
The girls and Darien turned to the kitchen, from where Artemis had just emerged, darting through the living room and towards the back hallway. Legs pumping back and forth wildly, he sprinted all the way down the hallway, then ran back, peering at the crowd of eyes.
"Hey, Luna!" He shouted. "If I jump off the roof, would that prove how much I love you?!"
"No," Luna deadpanned, poking her head into the living room and glaring over at her crepuscular confidant.
"Okay, that's cool, I'll do it anyway though!" Artemis yelled, dashing up the staircase.
"What was that all about?" Serena asked, staring where Artemis had been a second ago.
"An idiot," Luna answered. "Doing idiot things. Because he's an idiot."
"You might want to go stop him," Amy said. "I don't have a pool."
"Do I have to?" Luna groaned, nevertheless marching towards the staircase.
"Actually, I think we should all go stop him!" Amy said, jumping to her feet.
"Artemis will be fine," Darien said, putting his hands on Amy's shoulders and pushing her back down. "I'm gonna go get some water, and when I get back, I'm gonna start singing this one." He put the open Beatles book in her lap. "I'm sure you can play this one."
"Y-yes, but I don't want to," Amy said, eyes downcast.
"Well, when I get back, I'm going to start singing it, with or without you. So unless you want to make me look like a big idiot..." he shrugged.
"Uhhhh..." Amy looked down at the book. "Well..."
"Maybe I'll even dance a bit too," Darien offered. "I'll look like such a big dork, no one will even notice you. I'll look ten times more dorky than you!"
With that, he disappeared into the kitchen. Amy slowly picked her guitar up from the side of the chair and put it in her lap.
"You might actually have some fun!" Mina said. Amy slid the book out of her lap and set it down on the table.
"I already played for you guys, that was supposed to be the deal," Amy said, putting the guitar in playing position.
"I want to hear something recorded after 1960!" Darien called out from the kitchen. He put a full glass of water up to his lips and drank greedily. After downing the entire glass, he set it down on the counter and cleared his throat. His eyes glanced down and saw the damp sugar pile on the floor.
"May as well start an ant farm in here," he said, grabbing a large wooden spoon from a jar on the counter, re-entering the living room and shrugging off his jacket. He threw it on the back of the chair, cricking his neck back and forth.
"Alright, Darien, one song." Amy strummed the strings. "I mean it this time."
"Wonderful," Darien replied, going over to the piano and lifting the wooden cover off the keys. "I'll start off, I'm sure you know what to do."
"AIM FOR THE BUSHES!"
The girls turned around just in time to see a white streak come down from above, crashing into a hedgebush, shaking the plant and causing several leaves to break off.
There was silence for a second. Then, a voice from the bush.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"
"Oh, thank God," Lita said as Artemis emerged from the bush, shaking himself off.
"I wish they'd stop talking in public like that," Raye said. "Someone's going to hear."
"Alright," Darien said. "The piano doesn't come in for a bit, so..." he put the wooden spoon up in front of his mouth.
"Wow, Amy, he's right. He's such a huge dork, no one will ever notice your dorkiness," Serena said.
"Quiet in the peanut gallery," Darien said. "Ahem."
"You tell lies thinkin' I can't see!"
Amy did a quick, violent strum across the strings, fingers taking position on the neck as she did so.
"You can't cry 'cos you're laughin' at me!"
Amy repeated the quick strum, then started some simple fingering and plucking as the song melody kicked off.
"I'm down! I'm really doooown! I'm down, down on the grooound! I'm down, I'm really doooown!"
It wasn't quite the original article. Darien knew how to have fun, but was no professional singer, and the acoustics weren't quite ideal. Of course, some instruments were missing entirely. But all things considered, it was put together pretty well. Darien compensated for whatever might have been lacking with manic injury, dancing around spasmodically and acting like a rock star up on stage.
"How can you laugh, when you know I'm doown! How can you laugh! When you know I'm down!"
"Man buys ring, woman throws it away! Same old thing happen ev-er-yday!"
Amy kept up quite admirably, strumming a simple series of string plucks when Darien went into the chorus, and providing an abrasive little stomp across the strings during the bridge. The girls stood up, the rhythm and energy of the beat infectious. Even Amy stood up, a small smirk playing across her face at Darien's antics.
"I'm down! I'm really doooown! I'm down, down on the grooound! I'm down, I'm really doooown! How can you laugh, when you know I'm doown! How can you laugh! When you know I'm down!"
He pointed at Amy, and she went into the solo, all the focus on her for several seconds as she went into a series of guitar notes with no vocals. It was a pretty simple series of notes, nothing compared to her dueling banjos bit, but a lot of fun regardless. Darien kept on dancing around, a huge grin plastered on his face, having the time of his life. He even did a little rock scream in the middle of the solo, which sounded sufficiently hilarious to send Serena to the floor in hysterics.
"We're all alone and there nobody else!"
"You still moan, keep your hands to yourself!"
"I'm down! I'm really doooown! I'm down, down on the grooound! I'm down, I'm really doooown!"
Darien went over to the piano, shaking his head a few times to get a few sweat beads off. He skipped sitting down, throwing the spoon on the floor as he put his hands on the piano. The girls decided to join in on the chorus.
"How can you laugh, when you know I'm doown! How can you laugh! When you know I'm down! YEEOWW!"
Darien started to hammer away at the piano, hands in stiff claws as he beat away violently at the keys that produced the melody he wanted. It was a pretty short piano solo, but Darien milked it for what it was worth, even playing the Glissando with his elbow, which drew some little shrieks from the other girls.
"Oh babe, you know I'm down! I'm really doown! I guess I'm down! I'm really doown!"
"I'm down on the ground! I'm really doown! Whoa! Down! I'm really doown! Oh, babe, I'm upside down! Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm down!"
Darien wound the song down into a repetition of assorted variations of the song title, Amy keeping up.
"Oh, baby I'm down! I'm really doown! I'm feelin' upside down! I'm really doown! Ooh, I'm down! I'm really doown! Oh, baby I'm down, yeah! Oh, baby, I'm down, yeah! Baby, I'm down! I'm really doown! Oh, baby I'm down! I'm really doown! Oh, baby, baby, baby! I'm really doown! Oh, baby I'm down! I'm really doown! I'm down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, yeah whoooa!"
Amy played the final note, then dropped the guitar to her side, unable to rid her face of the smile on it. Darien clapped a few times, coming up to Amy's side and clapping her on the shoulder.
"See? You had fun, didn't you!" he said. "Whoo, I know I did. You were perfect!"
"Okay, fine, it's...somewhat entertaining in moderation," Amy said, wiping some sweat off her forehead.
"That was a blast!" Raye said, pushing Amy's shoulder lightly. "Really, I don't know where you got the time to get so good at guitar with all the school stuff you have."
"Sooo...what else can you play?" Serena said.
"Now, now, meatballs," Darien said, palm out at Serena in a stop gesture. "I think we've had enough fun for today."
"As long as we're all here, I don't see why not!" Amy said, still smiling and guitar still in hand.
"
"That was a fun afternoon alright!" Lita said, clapping her hands a few times.
"Yeah, Amy. You're fantastic!" Serena concurred. "And it's a lot easier for me to relate to some guitar riffs over the violin."
"If I may, Serena, the violin is perfectly capable of producing some very, as you might, say, rocking tunes," Amy protested.
"She's right, you know," Darien said, entering the room with a glass of water in tow. "Respect the fiddle!"
"I'm sure, just...probably not anything I'd be familiar with," Serena said, shrugging.
"I think I can prove you wrong on that one," Ami said, kneeling down and removing her violin case from underneath the coffee table.
"You're not worn out yet?" Lita asked as Amy opened it and removed her instruments.
"Those songs weren't even hard," she said dismissively. "Now this one, on the other hands...I wanted to learn it ever since I was a little girl, it's taken a very long time to get down."
She inhaled a deep breath as she put the violin up to her chin, then exhaled as she placed the bow against the strings above the bridge.
"Take it away," Darien said, pointing at her.
She started to play a sucession of notes in a low, mournful tone, letting the sounds linger slightly as she moved from one note to the next. There was immediate recognition on Darien's face, but the girls weren't quite so sure.
The tune suddenly rose an octave or two, picking up the pace as Amy started to saw away on the strings rapidly, producing long notes mixed in with series of shorter onces. Her fingers danced and vibrated along the neck.
The pace picked up, the notes flowing out so quickly it seemed impossible than a single person could produce so much music. The girls glanced among each other, their faces brightening as they recalled the highly memorable tune.
The octave climbed again, and now Amy's bow was flying, moving so fast it was like she was trying to start a fire from friction on her instrument. In fact, Serena could have sworn she saw smoke rise from where her bow met the strings. Probably her imagination. Probably.
The entire piece was only a minute long, and after several seconds of drawing her bow across the bridge in tiny little flicks that happened so fast it was almost if they didn't happen at all. And then, with a quick flourish, she was done, and brought the two pieces of the instrument to her sides as she bowed.
"Well, meatballs, I'd say you've been proven wrong," Darien said, pointing at his girlfriend.
"I'm sure I know that song...this is gonna bug me all night if I can't remember the name..." she mumbled to herself.
"Oh come on, you don't know that one?" Darien said, hands out at his sides. "That's the violin solo from Baba O'Riley!"
"What's a Baba O'Riley?" Serena asked. "No, it's something else, if I hear the name of the song I'll know it."
"Uhhh..." Darien gave an aside glance. "Teenage Wasteland?"
"Yeah, that's it! Why didn't you just say that?" Serena put her hands on her hips.
"W-whatever, whatever, anyway...that was really something else, Amy. Seriously."
Amy bent down and put her violin back in the case. "I've always wanted to be able to do that. Finally got it down a couple months ago. I was going to save it for the school show, but now was a good a time as any."
Raye clapped a couple times. "It's amazing, I don't think I could play that if you slowed it down a hundredfold."
"Thank you," Amy said, standing up. "Well, it's starting to get late." She looked out the window, then strided into the kitchen. "I'm going to reheat something for dinner. I'm afraid I don't have enough of it for everyone, so-"
"Forget that, Amy," Lita said, pushing past her and going over to the fridge. "After the show you put on? I'm making something, you don't worry about it."
"Uh...okay, thank you." Amy nodded, smiling.
"I'm making something for everyone, so nobody leave." Lita waved as the other four entered the kitchen.
"Did the cats ever show back up?" Serena asked, looking around.
"Probably chasing each other around town. Artemis is probably in heat, would explain an awful lot," Mina said.
"And just for the record, regardless of how much fun we had today, I expect that all of you will refrain from poking your nose around in my closet in the future!" Amy said.
"Fine, fine, whatever," Mina said.
"What's the big deal anyway? We already discovered your closet secret," Serena said as Lita opened the freezer. "Unless you have...something else tucked away in there."
"Uhhhh..." Amy went red.
"
Amy slowly turned the page of the black, leather-bound book, hands shaking slightly as she did so. The book was large in page-size, though only contained a couple hundred pages, with gold lettering on the front and spine that said "Male Actors of the 1960s".
"Ohhhh...Burt Reynolds..." she said softly, face heating up as she looked over the page, consisting mostly of color pictures. "Sign me up for a mustache ride-"
She was jolted out of her chair by a knock at the door. "Honey?" Her mother.
"AHH!" she shrieked, dashing over to her open closer door. "Justasecond! Don't come in!" she said, quickly throwing the book into the closet and shutting the door. "Hold on!" She took in a deep breath. "Okay, come in!"
The door opened and Amy's mother poked her head in. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, fine," Amy said, nodding.
"What were you doing?" she asked.
"Uhhhh..."
"
"None of your business!" Amy said, crossing her arms over her chest and sticking her nose up in the air.
"Okay, okay," Serena said, chuckling to herself.
"Darn right it's okay!" Amy said, unable to flush her face of color. She looked down, eye catching the open container on the floor of the kitchen. "Hey..." she turned to look at the sugar pile. "Why is there sugar all over the floor?"
Serena quickly pointed at Raye. "She did that."
"Hey!" Raye protested.
"Ugh," Amy grunted, scowling down at the mess. "Do you want me to get ants? Because that's how you get ants."