The next few weeks passed by, and everyone slowly settled in to their own routines. It was interesting to see how everybody handled the freedom of college. Some, like Ino, stayed up late at night (often at parties) and woke up before classes with minutes to spare (somehow Ino managed to look great every day despite that). Others, like me, came up with a complete practice schedule and even planned extra hours in the morning to work out all of the music they were assigned. There were even some students who seemed like a wreck, but managed to have everything put together at the last minute (think Naruto).
"Ugh," Ino groaned. "I don't see how you can do this."
I shrugged. "It's not that hard, you're just over-thinking it. Look," I pointed to one of the Theory problems that Ino was struggling with. "If you just keep the key signature in mind, that's a perfect fourth."
She shook her head. "There's too much going on. I think Kakashi's trying to fail me." Ino was making a B, but barely.
Kakashi hadn't promised to go easy on us, that was true. After three weeks of Theory I had gone by, I was grateful for taking some extra classes in high school. Thankfully, nothing was very new in Theory I, besides counterpoint.
"You can do this," I promised. "It just takes a lot of practice."
"Everything takes a lot of practice," she mumbled, but continued to work on the problem anyway.
It was a Friday evening and we were sitting in the student union building - a few buildings away from the music building, which was where we spent most of our time. After being cooped up inside a practice room for an hour and a half, Ino demanded that we go somewhere else to study. On Monday we were having our first music theory test, and everyone was sort of freaking out.
"I can't believe we have to do this right now," Ino complained. "All I want to do is think about the party Kiba's having tonight." Kiba Inuzuka, a percussionist, was becoming well-known for his parties. Ino, along with Naruto, frequently attended them.
"You're almost done," I insisted. "You don't want to worry about this later tonight."
"You should come with me this time." Ino looked up from her work. I could tell she was dying to do anything else. "It's actually a lot of fun, you'll get to know everyone better. Well, everyone who goes to the parties." A few people who were regulars that Ino talked to included Tenten (a horn player in the orchestra), Chouji (a tuba player, who was also Shikamaru's best friend), and Karin (a vocalist who I hadn't had much of a chance to talk to).
"I have to practice tonight." I practiced every evening, unless it was Saturday. That was sort of my break day.
"You always say that," Ino replied, "and while I do admire your dedication to the violin, wouldn't it be fun to take a break?"
"That's what Saturdays are for." I replied, erasing something on my own homework.
Ino shook her head. "Well, we're doing something fun tomorrow, whether you like it or not."
I considered this. Sometimes my mom would worry about me practicing too much and not socializing, but she didn't understand. No one did. I had to practice regularly - I loved it. Plus, I wouldn't have gotten this far if I hadn't been practicing constantly. Still, part of college was making friends. Friends who weren't your roommate or part of your string quartet...
"Okay," I agreed. "We can do something fun tomorrow."
"I think we both need to find more balance." Ino grinned, now that she was getting her way. "You need to have more fun and I need to study more. Why don't we just agree to help each other?"
"Deal." I couldn't help wondering what I was getting myself into.
Once we were done, I made my way to the music building. At this point, I had already scoped out all of the practice rooms and picked out my favorite one. To my delight, it was open. Since it was a Friday night there were less students in the building, but I could still hear the faint sounds of others practicing from my spot in the building.
I decided to work on violin first. At this point, I had learned all of my Grieg (it was still a little rough, though), most of the Chopin, and all of the Elgar ('Salut d'amour'). Sighing, I pulled out my part to 'Salut d'amour'. My lesson that week had gone alright - Tsunade was happy with my progress on the Grieg, at least, but when we got to 'Salut d'amour', she had a lot to say.
"Sakura." Tsunade considered me for a moment. She was sitting down by her desk and had a pencil in her hand that she was using to write comments on my music. "You have all of the notes right, but in every other way that was completely wrong."
"Er," I stared back at her. "What do you mean?" I had been used to Tsunade's blunt demeanor - I had even heard of her reputation for this before I went to college.
"This is a love song, Sakura." She picked up her own violin and moved to stand beside me. "You have to treat it that way if you want it to sound anything like the composer intended. Now," Tsunade positioned her violin, ready to play. "Listen."
I listened to my teacher, who was also a world-renowned violinist, play through the first few lines of my piece. She played the same notes that I had, but it was incredibly different from how I had played the piece. Tsunade stretched the phrases at the right parts, creating something so poignant that it almost brought tears to my eyes.
"Do you see?" She gave me a small smile, seeing the look on my face. "You have to give it the attention it needs, and it will pay off so well. I know you think this is simple, but musically it can be rather challenging." I watched as she made a few notes on my music, mostly where I needed to focus on bringing out the melody and stretching the ends of phrases. "I want you to research the piece for your next lesson. Maybe that will help. Besides, you should be researching all of your pieces..."
I had done my research. 'Salut d'amour' was written by Edward Elgar as an engagement present for his wife. A translation of the title (which had originally been in German) was "love's greeting". It was beautiful and very romantic.
Too bad it was hard for me to relate to those feelings at the moment.
I took a few seconds before I began to play the piece, thinking about if I had ever been in love. There had been Sasuke, of course, but I hadn't been ready to delve into those emotions since our breakup.
I sighed. For me, the best way to emote to a piece was to make up a story in my head while I performed. It had worked great before. I didn't have to think about Sasuke, I decided. It had sounded a little better that time, I thought. Maybe not as great as Tsunade, but I hoped that it would be enough progress. I had even worked on stretching the phrases at the right times.
After I was done with 'Salut d'amour', I moved onto my Grieg. It had easily become one of my favorite pieces to work on, and it showed. I focused on working on specific sections that were still giving me trouble. Then, I worked on the last half of the Chopin that I hadn't learned so far. That was harder, but satisfying. Part of me was excited for how it would sound with Sasuke's part.
When I was done with my violin, I reluctantly moved on to the piano that was in the room. Piano class had been the bane of my existence since I came to college. I cursed myself for never taking lessons before. We had a scale quiz about every week and a playing test every two weeks. By some horrible turn of events, I had both next week.
"Stupid fingers." I mumbled, trying to work out the fingering for an E Major scale. It shouldn't have been that hard, the fingering was all the same after all, but for some reason my left hand couldn't keep up.
Someone knocked on the door. I stopped playing immediately, feeling embarrassed. To my surprise, Sasuke was standing outside the door.
"Come in," I said.
He opened the practice room door, smirking. "I thought I heard beginner piano in here." Sasuke had been friendly to me the past few weeks, when we talked. Which wasn't much.
"You could hear me?" I resisted the urge to put my face on my hands. "God, this is awful."
"Can I help you?" He offered.
I looked at him blankly for a second. "You don't have to do that, Sasuke. I know you have a lot of stuff you need to practice too."
"I was just working on my accompanying music." He brushed it off like his offer was nothing. "Let me help you. I need a break."
Hesitantly, I watched him close the door and walk over to where I was still perched on the bench. "I don't know if this can be saved," I admitted. "I'm sort of hopeless at the piano." Strangely, talking to him wasn't as awkward as I had thought it would be. We could be civil adults, right?
"Play your scale again," Sasuke instructed.
Clumsily, I played my sad two-octave E Major scale. Somehow, my fingers seemed to get off in my left hand even worse than ever.
"Do you see this?" I complained, indicating my hand, which was somehow two keys off from where it was supposed to be.
He nodded. "You're switching your finger over too early here." To demonstrate, he played the scale perfectly, even while leaning over the piano. "See? That's supposed to change with your fourth finger."
"Okay..." I attempted the scale again, this time getting better results. The pacing was still way off, though.
"That was better," he encouraged. "Just make sure your hands are a little more curved, like this." To my surprise, he reached out and adjusted my hands with his own. It was the first time he had touched me since we had broken up, and I suddenly felt a little hot.
"I'll try to remember that." I was suddenly feeling a little out of breath. God, I thought, get ahold of yourself, Sakura.
"Are you okay?" Sasuke looked concerned.
"I'm fine," I answered. "I think I've been in here a little too long, to be honest."
"Didn't want to go to Kiba's party?" Of course he would know about that.
"I should be asking you the same thing." I raised my eyebrows.
"I like practicing on Friday nights the best." Was his response. "It's a lot less crowded. I give myself more free time on Saturdays."
"Me too," I replied quietly. "Ino keeps saying I'm crazy."
"You've always been dedicated to your music." Sasuke answered. "How are your violin pieces coming?"
I shrugged. "They're okay... I'm having trouble with 'Salut d'amour'. Emoting, I mean. That's what Tsunade said." How awkward could I sound?
"I know what you mean." What was that supposed to mean? Was he having trouble too? "The Chopin's pretty interesting too. I've actually played that piece before."
"Of course you have," I smiled, despite myself. Sasuke had always been amazing on the piano. The way he interpreted music was brilliant, I thought, and I had always looked forward to collaborating with him, even when we weren't dating. "Tsunade says we need to start practicing together soon. The Chopin sounds like it's going to be hard to line up."
He nodded. "Kakashi said the same thing." He paused for a second. "Do you remember in camp, when we had to learn that Beethoven piano trio and you said that you would rather die than play with that cellist?"
I laughed, despite myself. "Yeah, I remember. She ended up not being that bad." I had actually been jealous of her, and way too dramatic. Thankfully, I had mostly grown out of my high school insecurities. "Why?"
"I think we finally started sounding like a real piano trio after that." Sasuke looked at me like he was considering something. I wondered if he talked like this to the other music students - probably not, it took him a while to open up to anyone. He probably felt more comfortable because we already had a history. "I hope that I don't get in the way of you connecting with your music." God, how could he say the one thing that I had been trying not to think about?
"You're not getting in the way of anything," I snapped. Then I sighed. "I'm sorry," I apologized. "I think I've been in here for too long."
"I know what you mean," he replied. "It's getting late."
"I should probably go now." I checked the time on my phone. It was already nine o'clock. How long had I been here, anyway? "Ino wants to do something 'fun' tomorrow, and I need to get as much rest as I can before that." I had always been practical.
Sasuke smirked again. "Good luck with that."
"I"ll try," I replied.
The next day, after she woke up, Ino and I ended up going to see a movie.
"I don't know if I can handle another party right now," Ino admitted, as part of her explanation. She was pretty hungover the next morning.
"A movie sounds great." I smiled, feeling like I had gotten out of something terrifying. Plus, it was nice to get off campus for once.
We ended up seeing a romantic comedy that came out recently. While I still wasn't feeling very romantic (thanks Tsunade), I still enjoyed the movie. It was a basic plot, with two attractive actors that ended up getting together in the end despite all of the odds. I wondered if real life could ever be like the movies.
After the movie, Ino insisted that we go eat in the city - after all, there were a few restaurants that looked pretty good close to the movie theater. I agreed to that, not feeling like eating in the dining hall again. Besides, this was Saturday and I was supposed to relax a little. We decided on a moderately-priced sushi restaurant down the road.
It was over dinner that I talked to Ino about what had happened last night with Sasuke. "I can't tell what he's doing," I admitted. "He's not even acting like himself." The Sasuke I had known had been more reserved, more aloof. It wasn't until we started dating that he began to open up to me a little more. After we broke up, it was like nothing had changed at all. "How can he go back to that like nothing's changed?" I asked Ino, after explaining everything that was going on in my head.
"Hmm." Ino took a bite of her California roll while she thought about what I said. "He's definitely being confusing. I don't know Sakura, maybe he feels bad. Maybe he does want to get back together. Would you even want that?"
"I don't know." I sighed. Out of all the chances, I had never thought I would even see Sasuke again. "After how he acted, I think I just need to be friends first. I don't know if I'm ready to put myself out there again like that."
"How bad was the breakup?" Ino asked me. I knew she had been curious.
"It wasn't bad for him at all," I replied bitterly. And for all I knew, it hadn't been. "I never heard from him again since we came here. And he seems fine."
"It sounds like you're still harboring some resentment." She grabbed another roll with her chopsticks. "I would tell you talk to him, but Sasuke doesn't seem like much of a talker."
"He's not usually," I responded. "Until recently, apparently."
"Do you want my advice?" Ino asked. "Don't do anything at all right now. Wait and see if he does anything else confusing, then call him out on it."
"I don't want to do anything," I mumbled. But I knew she was right.
"I think I'm going to ask Shikamaru out," Ino said, changing the subject. "He's cute."
I had, of course, seen Shikamaru watching Ino whenever we were in the same vicinity of him - something that happened when Ino was around most boys, actually. I knew that he would say yes if she just asked him.
"You should do it," I answered. "I think he likes you."
The next week, Tuesday, during our string quartet practice, Tsunade poked her head into the practice room where we were rehearsing. "I've been looking for you four." Without warning, she stepped into the room. I immediately tried to hide my frustration with Sai, who had been telling me that my bowing was wrong the entire practice.
"How would you like a wedding gig?" Tsunade began, when she saw that we were all just staring blankly up at her. Despite being in college for a few weeks, we were still a little shocked seeing her interrupt our practice. "The daughter of the school's President is getting married in late October and they would like a quartet from the university to come play. You'll get payed and it will be good experience. We decided to ask your quartet first seeing that you're made up of freshman and aren't entered in any competitions yet." She stared at us expectantly.
For a few seconds, we stared at each other, not knowing what to say. I saw Shikamaru shrug and nod. "We can do that," he said.
"It's a good opportunity," I replied.
Sai was the next one to speak. "What kind of music will we be playing?"
"I have a list for you right here." Tsunade handed Sai a sheet of paper. I saw his eyes widen when he looked at it. "The daughter wants more... popular music to be played at her wedding. Of course, we can find arrangements for you to use, I'm sure. It might be a good idea to play your 'Pathetique' movement, too." She added that last part as an afterthought.
She left shortly after that, promising to get the music to us as soon as possible. For a moment, I wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.
"It's a lot of music," Shikamaru remarked, before handing the paper to me. "But I think we can do it."
I looked at the paper. It looked like it had been handwritten by someone:
Wedding Music:
On the Radio - Regina Spektor
Starlight - Muse
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire
Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
Fidelity - Regina Spektor
Skinny Love - Bon Ivor
The Luckiest - Ben Folds
Home - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's
Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Stitches - Shawn Mendes
Cough Syrup - Young the Giant
Riptide - Vance Joy
Hey Brother - Avicii
Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Ray
"That is a lot of music," I replied. "How hard do you think it will be?" I handed the list to Hinata, so she could see what we had already agreed to play.
Shikamaru shrugged. "It's a lot of pop music, so probably not hard at all. We can probably learn about three or four a day."
"We'll have to meet up more," Sai decided. "Probably in the evenings."
I agreed. We would still have to practice our assigned string quartet pieces, especially since our Recital Hour performance was coming up. Thankfully, we only had to play one piece in front of our peers, and we had chosen the 'Pathetique' movement. "Maybe we can do Monday and Wednesday evenings?" That would mean seeing everyone four days in a row, but we had to learn the music. "At least, until the wedding's over."
"That works for me," Hinata nodded. "I'm here practicing then anyway." Most of us were.
"Good." Sai took the list back from Hinata. "I'll hold on to this." Since he was first violin, Sai acted like he was in charge of the quartet. "Let's continue the Schubert now..."
We looked at our music, finding the spot where we had left off before Tsunade interrupted. I decided not to focus on how stressful it would be to learn the entire list of music in a month by focusing on my part of 'Death and the Maiden'.
Author's Note: Thanks for all of your reviews! I'm trying to continue the story as fast as I can! I hope that this chapter developed a little more. I know Sasuke's a little AU in this, but I think that's normal for my writing anyway...
Please let me know what you think about this chapter! Also, the list of music for the wedding is all from Vitamin String Quartet music that I like. If you haven't heard of them before, I would look them up. :)