Chapter 7: Guitar Classes with You are a Pain
By: Kiku Nakamura


Before Christie left, Fine had gotten the telephone number of the Arts place that Christie had suggested.

Walking to the stereo, Fine lowered the volume. Dialing the number written down on a memo, Fine waited. The weird thing about phones in Hong Kong was that the owner of the number got to choose what the person calling would listen to. There was no ring-ring-ring. The girl was startled as someone picked up on the other side stopping the swan lake theme that was playing.

Just as she clicked the red "end call" button, Fine squealed and jumped around before falling onto her couch again. The Center for Arts had exactly one room left in the private lessons!

~xxx~

The next morning went by fast. She got out of work, ate a snack, and bought a bubble tea with tapioca. It tasted so splendid as well as filled with sugar. She had no idea if it was the thought of guitar or the drinks and sweets she had, but it made her so auspicious she wondered if she was in seventh heaven. People walking by her just looked into her shining eyes and smiled back. She seemed to have this effect on people.

Fine heard wedding bells ringing and just grinned. Even the chirping birds seemed to be in high spirits as she raced passed them in a jog around the park.

Jogging had made her sweaty and tired, but a warm shower would do the job. The heat soaked into her bones as she stepped in the shower. The honey smelling body wash matched well with the pale yellow tube top with a small red bow on the side and jean shorts she wore. She felt that it was cute combination and twirled in front of her mirror. Picking up a jean jacket, Fine walked to the kitchen. In the fridge, she found a coffee and grabbed a donut from the counter.

With her items, she sat cross-legged on her armchair. The girl with pigtails pulled out her best buddy "Laptop-san" –Say that with Dora the Explorer's tone. I'm not kidding; find a laugh today.- and checked emails. Nothing new. She sighed and decided to turn on some music and just listen. Fine agreed with the wonders multitasking. Eating a donut in one hand, a book in the other, she was listening to some soft pop.

~xxx~

Time passed; before she knew it, she was supposed to leave five minutes prior. Packing her book and some guitar accessories that she had bought earlier, Fine was rushed. She picked up the soft leather hobo bag on one shoulder, guitar bag on the other and ran with her phone in hand.

Lucky for her, she got to her art center with 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, that was exactly how much time it took Fine for registration.

As she walked to class, she heard a familiar voice from the room. She couldn't quite put a finger down on where she had heard it though. Fine pushed the door open and walked in.

The teacher was of course familiar. He smirked as Fine walked into the room. The sheepish expression that Fine had prepared fell from her face. She was planning to say sorry for her tardiness, but since it was him, she just let that plan drop.

He sat in his chair, guitar balanced on one leg. Mockingly, he said "I'm glad you could make it, Fine."

The girl just stared at him with her mouth wide open. "Chrysanthemum told me about you after you left Starbucks."

"That girl is dead," Fine said through gritted teeth. Under her breath she mumbled, "She set me up!"

"Hey, calm down. I'm not a bad person," Shade answered trying to convince his student. "I'm not going to do anything."

Fine glared at her "teacher". Where this was going to go, she didn't know. From her uncertainty, she just gave him a look and an okay.

Acting like a teacher, Shade asked, "Do you know how to play an instrument?"

"Yeah, I played bass guitar for my middle school band, but that was like years ago." This brought a laugh out from Shade.

"Do you remember anything though?" he questioned.

"Nope, not much."

"Oh well, we'll just start with the basics again. Place your song book on the stand," he said gesturing to the black music stand.

~xxx~

The lesson ended good she thought as she walked out of class. Fine realized that Shade wasn't a terrible person, just a bit more egotistical. She thought that it was to make her laugh. Was he flirting with her? She couldn't tell. She just wanted a friendship. She wanted to start slow.

Remembering her lesson, she felt her lip quirk up.

Flashback

The teacher and student sat side by side. Fine was surprised by the amount of things that she remembered. It might have been recognition in her muscles. She knew all the notes and their places on the fret board. It was the chords that she had forgotten. She started from the C major to the rest. She couldn't nail the F chord though.

It was frustrating her. Fine loved challenges. The worst part was having something but not being able to do it right. She was starting to hate herself. A small grunt escaped her lips accidently.

Next to her, the blue-haired boy just chucked at the unexpected. Reaching over he took her hand in his and strummed the chord. It was almost perfect. The pitch, not the scene, you…

Flashback End

Walking down the hall, Fine stopped at a painting. It was beautiful. The picture of a true depicted half in autumn and the other in winter. Who was the artist? Fine wanted to know. At the bottom of the painting it said, Mirlo Waters.

"Do you like the painting?" someone asked from behind her.


Hey guys. Screw the 5 review thing. I only got one so, meh. I love writing this story so much I won't care what response to this I'll get.

I want you guys to know that originally, I had planned for Fine to go to art class and since I'm not a person with drawings. I decided to change it to guitar. I'm in my school's band for bass guitar. Seriously! So I love my instrument and what could be better than writing about something that I like?

Do you want this to end with a Shade and Fine break up or should I put them together?

Tell me what you guys think about this story.

If you think this chapter was bad, honestly just type in "crap" or "bad" at the reviews. If you can, tell me what you would prefer.

If you liked it, just write "good" or whatever you wanna type. With that try to tell me what you would want to happen. It will be put in consideration.

Thanks a lot guys. Continue to write!

Signed,

Kiku Nakamura