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"Jerome Clarke." The music teacher with a funny shaped nose and thin red glasses stopped in front of his desk. They were in the music rooms, where everyone had separate desks, on his left he had Alfie, on his right, Eddie. Everyone looked up, she was giving out their results. Most of which were really quite poor, not many of them played musical instruments, and not too many of them really cared about it. A pointless subject. "13%."

"Really? I was not expecting anything that high," Jerome answered sarcastically, earning laughs from around the room, he folded his arms and smirked up at the teacher. Even though inside, he was disappointed, he hadn't tried in the test, and he hasn't actually answered many of the questions, but still, he didn't like it when he got a bad score. Of course, he would never show that.

"This is appalling," she threw the paper onto his table "You should be good in theory, Jerome! This is a disgusting standard of work!"

"How will I live with myself?" Jerome muttered under his breath, high-fiving Alfie. Alfie had managed 51% on the test, answering 'Trumpet' to every question. Luckily they were studying Jazz, so he was mostly correct.

"You will stay behind after class." The teacher glared at him, and they had to spend the rest of the lesson, going through their mistakes.

"Psst, Jerome." Eddie whispered, passing Jerome a folded piece of paper "Pass it to Joy,"

Jerome nodded, taking the paper subtly between his fingers and pretending to pass it on to please Eddie who then turned back his work. But Jerome hid it between his hands, and opened it

I think we need to talk.

M

Jerome's eyes widened at the note, first of, Mick's handwriting was disgusting, it made Jerome sick just looking at it. And second, no, no no! Jerome knew that that meant, heck, everyone who had ever seen any movie or read a book in their entire life knew what that meant.

Mick was going to break up with her! No, that couldn't happen. That would only result in bad things if that happened. Mick would dump Joy, then make his way over to Mara. An suddenly, Jerome didn't want that to happen. Mick made Jerome sick, the very thought of him, every fibre of his being made Jerome's stomach churn. That blonde was slowly making his way through the Anubis House girls, Amber, Joy, then Mara. He might eventually even get Nina!

Jerome turned to see Mara, she was doing nothing. Which he found odd, but then it made sense, she had got 100% on her music, he had a sneaking feeling she didn't revise, because her voice sounded only strained when she was comforting Joy and telling her she had revised for days to get the score.

It was a lie. Jerome watched her, twiddling the pen between her fingers, she was looking at the clock, counting each second that went by. Jerome stifled a laugh, was she really that bored? If he had been sitting next to her, she would be laughing so hard. But he wasn't sitting next to her, and that was when Jerome felt the sudden urge to sit on the other side. It made his heart ache slightly, he coughed.

Crumpling the paper in his hands and leaving it on the floor, where it would remain undetected for a while, until a janitor swept it up, and it was to never be seen again.

When the bell finally did ring at the end of a tiring hour, Jerome tried to slip out undetected, only it didn't work so well. "Get back here, Clarke," the teacher called. Jerome straightened his bag strap, turning slowly, shocked to see Mara still sitting at her desk as well. The teacher pointed at the desk beside Mara, that was occupied by Patricia only a few minutes ago.

"What?" Jerome groaned, leaning forward on the table

"I know you are more capable than this," the teacher nodded at him "You can play the piano, Jerome!"

"You can?" Mara asked, turning to look at Jerome in utter shock. Jerome tried not to meet her eyes, fighting off the blush. He hated it, he hated that she knew. What did they think he was? Some sort of Mozart? Because he wasn't. Sure, he could put the notes together and make a half decent sound come out, but that didn't mean anything. And the worst part was, he was self taught. He had learnt from a young age

"Mum? Mum? Can we go the park today?" asked the young six year old boy, with light fluffy blonde hair. Dressed smartly.

His mother looked down absentmindedly "No, not now Jerome. Ask later," and with that she walked off, baby in her arms, towards the kitchen. Jerome frowned, looking down at his polished brown shoes. She had said that an hour ago. He went upstairs to his Father's study. His father had left a while ago, but there in the corner of the room, facing the window, was the large black grand piano. The one which Jerome wasn't meant to touch.

Jerome walked quietly across the carpeted floor, everything in the room had been preserved, as if a shine to his dad. The dad that every day for a year was coming home in just a while. He sat down on the bench, and with careful fumbling fingers, lifted the lid. He pushed down on a note, curiosity peaking at a low pitched sound came out. He glided his fingers gently along all the notes, hearing them get higher and higher. And it came almost naturally, but he placed his other hand on the keys, and started to play.

While he played he looked up thought the window, at the sun shining brightly onto their large garden. And he promised himself, one day, he would look out there, and see his dad on his way inside.

"Yeah," he said reluctantly.

"You will come up with a composition by next Friday, and Mara will help you," and with that the teacher walked out, leaving the two of them in the music room. Mara stood, removing her blazer and hanging it on the back of her chair, moving to sit on the bench of the black grand piano.

"Aren't you going to come, Jerome?" she asked.

"Nah," he sighed, leaning back, kicking his feet up to rest them on the table "You do it for me, or you know the deal, Mara," he closed his eyes. Mara nodded, playing a gentle tune on the piano.

Jerome opened one eye, watching her, as she moved into a sad melody, the notes flowing perfectly. He moved to sit beside her, watching her fingers glide up and down the keyboard. She didn't stop when he sat beside her, instead kept her head down, repeating the melody. Jerome watched her hands, and quickly learnt the notes. He set about playing it in the lower chords, and the two of them played together, in unison, beautiful music surrounding them.

Mara grinned, playing faster, adding a more complex tune

"A challenge, Jaffray?" Jerome laughed, nudging her, he played an even faster, more upbeat tempo, without chords, using the whole octave. Mara tried to do the same, unfortunately her hands were not so big.

"That's cheating," she laughed, gliding her fingers down the scale from the top up to where Jerome's fingers were resting, then drifting back up. Jerome looked down at her, and a small rush flew through him.

He cleared his throat, trying to occupy his mind "You're just a sore loser," he smirked. Mara laughed again, before starting up a different tune, one to which Jerome actually began to help her with.

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