Although I would really be happy to get a comment (I may even send out virtual cookies), I was just happy that XxPhoenix-LilyxX added this to their story alerts. I really wasn't expecting anything, so I'm happy I got at least something, so I decided to make a second chapter. I don't want to make Rachel a perfect charcter, like most people do. I want to make her normal, but unique in some ways. She isn't going to be able to just present the ability to play every instrument in the world and do other super amazing stuff. She's a normal girl, not a musical genius. Anyways, I don't own School of Rock or any of the characters, or any of the bands or songs I mention in this. Enjoy and please feel free to comment!
Don't Doubt The Unexpected
Chapter 2: Unexpected Discovery
I grinned and enjoyed the sound of the surprisingly good group. I clapped endlessly as they finished up the performance.
"You guys were amazing!" I cheered excitedly, "How'd you all get so...good?"
"We used to play classical at music class in school." The boy with the glasses answered, as he tapped his fingers over the keyboard keys. The grin suddenly disappeared from my face, replaced by a worried expression.
"We have a music class at school?" They all nodded as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Hey! I came from a public school! We didn't have to do that. It wasn't a required subject like Language Arts, Math, Geography, History, or Science.
"and we're REQUIRED to be able to play an instrument?" I mumbled, hoping, just hoping I'd for once be lucky enough for them to answer with a "no". No such luck.
"Yeah. So what?" The blond jerk answered. Curse my bad luck.
"Darn. Now I'm definitely going to fail!" I whimpered. The blond girl with the braids gave me a questioning look, before shrugging and taking a seat next to me.
"What do you mean?" She asked, stroking my back.
"Uh...I totally suck and have no musical talent?" She let out a small laugh, causing me to glare at her. How can she just sit there and laugh at my torture?
"C'mon. You can't seriously be that bad."
"You wanna bet?" I ask, grabbing the neck of the guitar off the stand it sat on. She stopped running her mouth, forming a thoughtful look on her face. Her eyebrows furrowed and and she frowned.
"Yeah...I'd rather not."
"That's what I thought." I replied smirking. She sighed and gave me a small hopeful smile. Yeah, there was absolutely no hope for me and my lack of talent at anything.
"Well, with a little practice...maybe..." She trailed off.
"Maybe I could pass with a C- or something...I don't even understand why you guys get graded on it. Why would you grade someone on how talented they are? At my school in any type of arts classes like music, home ec., and other stuff, they'd grade us on how hard we worked, not on how well we did." I rambled, furiously. "Your school is sick and over-rated, and they make everyone of their students miserable. I saw how harsh they were on y-"
"But Horace Green IS YOUR school now." The drummer kid protested. Oh god. I almost forgot that everyone was still in the room. My teeth sank down into the flesh of my lip, after remembering that I now went to that horrid school. Oh how I wish I was back in Ohio. I mean, Martha and Zach are nice, but still...I would have said something back, something close to the lines of "I don't consider THAT PLACE my school. That is most definitely not my home." but I didn't want to offend the other kids who didn't deserve that kind of talk, so I kept my big mouth shut.
"Whatever. We'll help you practice for music class." Zach offered, "Have you ever played anything?"
"Hmm..." I tapped my finger to my chin, in my thinking position, before I finally remembered something. "My mom used to teach me violin...not that I was any good at it."
"Well, I guess that's a start, since you do have some experience with it."
"I'm free on Saturdays!" Martha announced, "We could go to my place, and I could help you!"
"Sure." I agreed, letting the conversation carry on to when anyone who wanted to help was free to do so. To be honest I was queasy about the whole situation, after all, I hated performing anything. What was I going to do, I mean I could just tell them that i didn't want to go through with their "help". When it all comes down to music class, I'm not going to end up playing anything anyways...
"And that's a D note." Zach explained. I set the rest against my chin, and let the bow glide against the string, sending out an ear-bursting high note. Martha held her ears and frowned, looking as though she was going to faint or something.
"For the 23rd time, that's an E note!" Martha screamed at me.
"Why are you yelling at me?" I retorted, just as loud as she'd spoken to me.
"Maybe that's because I can't hear anything anymore! You just busted my ears." She shouted back at me.
"Whatever."
"What? What'd you say?" I grumbled a bit, before getting back to the violin.
"So which one's the D note then?" Zach pointed to the second string, and I once again rested my chin on the stand, this time stroking a low sounding long note. It actually, for once, sounded smooth and kinda...nice. I could feel my face light up as soon as the note sounded.
"I did it!"
"See? Practice does make a difference. If you keep at it you may be really good." Zach congratulated me. I threw my arms around him.
"Thank you guys so much!" I grinned, motioning for Martha to join us in the hug.
"Even if it did take you 2 hours to do a single note right." She added with a smirk.
"Hey! Remember my lack of musical talent? You can blame it on that!"
"That aside, good job, Rachel. I knew you could do it!" She smiled. I pulled her into a tight hug, but she soon pulled away and held the violin oput to me. I grumbled and grasped the neck of the instrument, and started up with my lesson again.
"Now let's try an A note." Crap. I hate life.
I clutched the wretched instrument's case, while singing Guns n' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine" to myself. Lately I'd been addicted to that song. The stupid chunk of wood was so heavy. Me being one of the weakest people I knew, had trouble carrying this stupid thing. Zach had previously offered to walk me home, but no, me and my stubborn self wanted to be alone. I kinda like having time to myself sometimes to just think and sing quietly to myself. At last, I finally got tired of carrying the instrument around, and found a small bench to sit on.
I sighed in relief, dropping the blasted thing onto the ground, and slumped onto the bench, still lightly singing the song. I absolutely loved whenever a breeze blew by, it was always so clam and soothing, so I just sat enjoying the small breezes as they brushed by, and singing random songs to myself.
"No musical talent my ass."
"Thanks a whole lot for disturbing the peace." I grumbled, immediately recognizing one of the things I hated most about this place. "And for your information, I kinda do suck at playing any instrument. If you want, you can here me play." I grinned playfully and kicked the violin case with my foot. He gave me a thoughtful look and shuddered.
"Nah. Don't want to blow my ears out."
"That's what I thought." We sat in an awkward silence for a pretty long time. Mostly due to the fact that I didn't particularly like this kid, and he probably knew that. I think I made it pretty obvious already. Heck, I didn't even know his name. I never bothered to ask.
"What's your name?" I asked stupidly, breaking the silence.
"It's Freddy Jones." I nodded quietly, and then there was more strange silence. I nervously started singing a random Queen song to myself, just to stop from becoming bored.
"I bet Dewey would let you in the band."
"No." I answered too quickly. As soon as I heard the word band, the 'no' just slipped from my lips. An annoyed look suddenly crossed Freddy's face. He frowned.
"Why? You don't like bands? You don't like rock?" He asked, sounding way to defensive. I shook my head quickly, so that my ponytail whipped around and hit me in the face.
"No! That's not it! I love bands...I just can't...ever...never." I gave him a small trembling frown, hoping he would just leave it at that. As expected, he didn't.
"Then why?" He argued.
"Please...just drop it. I just can't." I pleaded. I sounded so weak. God, I hated when I sounded like this, when I had to plead for things to go my way. I couldn't tell him why, I just couldn't. His expression still didn't seem calm, and i was guessing he was going to press on further. Why couldn't he just leave it be? It wasn't any of his business anyways. If I didn't want to join the band, I didn't want too. I'm not even that good anyways.
He suddenly smirked, and before I knew what he was doing, it was already too late.
"Hey! Give that back!" I yelled, turning bright red in frustration. He grinned.
"Give me a good reason why you won't join the band. Then you can have this back." He demanded, shaking the violin case in the air. "I guess otherwise, you'll just FAIL music class." I glared at the blond boy and grumbled a bit. Would it really be that bad? Why not tell him? Oh right, maybe because he doesn't exactly seem the...trustworthy type.
"Fine. But you have to promise to keep it a secret." He grinned and nodded his head.
"Yeah, whatever."
"You promise?" I clarified, "Like you swear you'll keep it a secret, otherwise I'll hunt you down and kick your sorry ass."
"Sure." His answer didn't sound too promising, but I guess there was no way around it.
"Fine. I can't preform in front of more than one ot two people. I get...scared, okay?" I sighed.
"Ha! Seriously?" He laughed. Not the reaction I was expecting. God, I hate this kid even more. "Then we'll just have to fix that, won't we?"
"What?"
"My brain's dead. Don't worry, I'll get someone to think up something for me. We can help you."
"I don't want your help!" I cried, but it was too late, he had already dropped the violin case and was on his way. I groaned and slumped down onto the bench once more, holding my head in my hands. Why does life suck so much?
