Chapter 9
May the Force Be With You
The PE teachers let us out of class extra early, and consequently, I was early for my last period symphony orchestra class in the basement of the main building. I went to one of the music lockers lining each side of the end of the hallway and pulled out my clarinet case and sheet music.
The orchestra practice room was empty when I went inside and took my seat in the clarinet section. The bell rang as I was setting up a music stand, and Mr. Fulger the orchestra teacher entered the practice room soon after.
Our orchestra conductor was a tall and very large man with blonde hair and a red face that turned purple whenever he was frustrated. He was usually easy-going and had a great sense of humor, but could be a perfectionist at times when it came to a piece of music. He was obsessed with his collection of conductor batons and kept them in a special box. He had a lime green baton that he called his "special occasion baton" and he only it used during concerts. He played every instrument in the orchestra, but specialized in the trumpet. Mr. Fulger was the head of the symphony orchestra and the assistant marching band director. He was a brilliant musician, and offered private lessons to everyone who was having trouble with a piece of music.
Within the next few minutes, the members of the orchestra started trickling into the practice room. A tiny freshman boy holding a trombone case that was almost as big as him staggered into the room and took a seat in the back of the trombone section. Behind him, a tall girl with chin-length sandy blond hair and a slight hunch entered the room. She carried a snare drum on its stand, and proceeded directly to the percussion section in the back of the room.
"Hi Nichole," I said to her.
"Hey," she said, "sup?"
"Thankful that it's the end of the day," I replied.
"You're lucky that your day's over," she grumbled, setting down the drum. "I have soccer practice after school today."
"Have fun," I chuckled. She complained about soccer practice all the time, and claimed that her coach was insane. She clearly had never met Coach Schlater. Nichole knew absolutely nothing of insane coaches and hard, agonizing practices.
More members of the orchestra entered, including my friend and fellow clarinetist Taylor. She waved and took a seat with the other first chair clarinetists two rows in front of me. As she was putting her clarinet together, she turned around to face me.
"Emily seems to be feeling better today," she replied, "and she seems to be back to normal."
"Yeah," I said, looking away from her.
"I wonder what was wrong yesterday," she said, greasing the cork of her mouthpiece.
"I dunno," I lied. I still had reservations about keeping Emily's Jedi powers a secret from our friends. I didn't feel right lying to them like this.
"Yo yo my man Fulger, wazzup?" I heard a guy say in a fake gangster dialect. I looked up and saw my fellow third chair clarinetist Alex walking into the room doing his really bad but funny gangster impression. Behind him, his girlfriend and second chair clarinetist Becca was laughing merrily.
"Yo yo Alex," Mr. Fulger replied without looking up from the sheet music he was reading.
Alex laughed, and he and Becca took their seats in the clarinet section. I laughed as well and proceeded to set up my music.
Behind them, Arleen entered the practice room lugging her cello. "Hi Lia!" she called as she set her cello down by her seat in the cello section. Taylor looked up from reading her music and waved to her. Arleen took an empty seat in the clarinet section and talked to us.
"You guys will never believe this," Arleen said when she sat down. "Emily left in the middle of class again."
"What?" Taylor asked in alarm. "When did this happen?"
"Last period, in the chemistry class we share," Arleen replied, "she just got up and left, and was gone for like twenty minutes."
"The teacher didn't notice?" Taylor asked.
"He didn't seem to," Arleen responded.
"And I just got through saying to Lia that Emily seemed to be back to normal." Taylor replied, tightening the screws on her ligature.
"She's still acting a bit weird," Arleen said, "and quite frankly, I'm a little worried about her."
"I'm sure it's nothing," Taylor answered, "and I'm sure that she'll be back to normal in no time. What do you think, Lia?"
"I dunno," I said quietly, hoping to stay out of the conversation.
Just then, someone dressed in a black trench coat came up behind Arleen and started tapping her head with a pair of drumsticks.
"Liz, will you cut it out?" Arleen cried, covering her head with her hands.
Liz laughed and sat in another empty seat in the clarinet section. "I figured that I'd come visit you guys before class started," she said, "after all, the marching band has practice this period right across the hall."
"We love to have you with us," Taylor said with a smile.
"So, what are you three up to?" Liz asked. "I haven't seen you since lunch, and that was so long ago!" She said the last bit with a tone of sarcasm and laughed again.
"I'm failing Chemistry," Arleen replied, "just found out today."
"That sucks," said Liz, "I'd offer to help you, but I'm failing too, so I'm not exactly a good person to get help from."
"I know," Arleen said, "when I see Emily again I'm going to beg her for help."
"Doesn't she have orchestra with you guys?" Liz asked.
"Yeah," said Taylor.
"I thought so," Liz said. "I wonder where she is."
"Who the hell knows," Taylor said dismissively.
"By the way," said Liz, "a couple of friends and I are going to hang out downtown Friday night, and we would be thrilled if you all came with us."
"Sounds great," Taylor replied. "I'll bring my girlfriend."
"I dunno," said Arleen, "I'll have to get back to you on that."
"What about you, Lia?" Liz asked. "Are you in?"
"Sure," I said. "I never turn down an opportunity to go hang out downtown."
"Sweet!" Liz said, clapping her hands together.
"Gewd afternoon, Monseiur Fulgehr," I heard a girl say in a phony French accent. My friends and I looked toward the door, and saw a mass of pink and blue walk into the practice room. Aurora, wearing a knee-length pink and blue dress, a blue beret, and her pink stilettos, waved to Mr. Fulger as she passed by him. She looked at the lot of us with disdain and turned her nose up in the air. In one hand she held her music folder and her flute case. She removed her rose-colored sunglasses with her other hand and flipped her hair back as she did so. Almost every eye in the practice room focused on her, and the eyes of every guy fell on her breasts, which were bouncing as she walked and were pinned up so high it looked painful. I saw that Taylor and Liz's eyes were on her chest as well, and laughed.
"What?" Liz asked when she saw me looking at her. "She's hot, and I'm bi, so I'm allowed gawk at her."
"You would gawk at a preppie?" I asked. "That's something I never imagined would happen."
"She looks so uncomfortable in that bra," Taylor commented.
"I know," Liz replied, "I didn't think it was possible to jack your boobs up to your chin." We laughed, and Liz placed her hands underneath her own breasts and lifted them up. When she finally got them to the height of Aurora's breasts, a look of disbelief crossed her face. "Ow," she said, "this hurts, a lot."
Taylor placed her clarinet in her lap and tried lifting her own breasts that high. "That is painful," she commented, "I wouldn't last five minutes like this."
"It's important to have good support," Liz said, "but this is ridiculous!"
"Um, guys," Arleen said, "people are staring at you. I think you two should stop."
They complied, but Liz continued to stare at Aurora. "I know she's a preppie," she said, "but damn, she's hot! I think I might ask her out, just to see if she would say yes."
I burst out laughing. I knew Aurora better than all of them, and knew exactly what reaction Liz would get. "I would love to see the look on her face if you did!" I said through my fit of laughter.
"Do you want me to?" Liz asked.
"Would you?" I asked hopefully. "That would make my day!"
"Sure," Liz replied.
"Hurry though," Arleen said, "class is going to start soon."
Liz and I got up and hurried to the flute section on the opposite side of the room. I kept within hearing distance as Liz approached Aurora and stood next to her chair. Aurora looked up with contempt at the goth that dared to be near her.
"Can I 'elp you?" she snorted in her high, squeaky voice.
"I know this is forward of me," Liz said, "but I wanted you to know that I think that you're really pretty."
Aurora turned her nose up and looked very pleased with herself. "Vell thank yew," she said snobbishly.
"And I was also wondering," Liz continued, "will you go out with me?"
A look of horror crossed Aurora's face, and she seemed to choke on her gasp. "Excus-eh moi?" she asked after a brief period of silence.
"Yeah," said Liz, "I would love to get to know you better, and I was wondering if you'd like to go on a date with me sometime."
Aurora's jaw dropped, and one of her wide eyes began to twitch. She looked utterly repulsed, and I had to clap my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing hysterically.
"Of course not!" she squeaked after a while. "I vould never date a gewrl, let alone a freak girl like yew!"
Liz pretended to be offended and put her hand to her chest. "Oh baby," she said in fake sadness, "that hurt me deeply."
Aurora gasped in horror and scooted her chair backward. "I am not yewr bebe!" she squealed. "Now get avay from me!"
"Come on," Liz persisted, leaning toward her, "would you at least give me a chance?" She smirked suggestively and added, "you haven't even kissed me yet."
I snorted and began to tremble from the suppressed laughter.
Aurora let out a tiny scream and looked terrified. "I… vould… never…" she sputtered.
"That's too bad," Liz sighed, "but if you ever change your mind, just come and find me. Okay, doll?" She winked and smiled again as she walked away. Ready to burst from laughter, I followed her back to the clarinet section. Once we were on the other side of the room, I let my laughter loose.
"That… was… brilliant!" I gasped in between laughs.
"She's a goddamn homo-phobic," Liz said, glaring in Aurora's direction.
"I take it she wasn't interested," Taylor said.
"Nope," Liz replied, "she was quite rude about it too. She could have just said 'no thank you, I'm straight, so I'm not interested', and I wouldn't have been offended. But nooo, she doesn't seem to know the meaning of 'polite'! That woman is a bitch!"
"I know," I said, rubbing a tear out of my eye, "I hate her. Thank you so much for doing that, Liz. You just made my week!"
"No problem, babe," she said winking at me. Even though I was straight, I let her kiss me lightly on the cheek.
The bell rang, and Liz groaned. "I have to go," she grumbled, "I don't want to, but I'm going."
"Why don't you just skip?" Taylor asked.
"I would skip, believe me," Liz said, "but I'm the only person on the drum line who isn't completely incompetent with a snare drum, so I'm kind of vital." She got up, said a quick good-bye, and left. Arleen got up as well and took her seat with the other cellists.
I glanced over at the violin section and saw that Emily had arrived. She was quickly setting up her music and violin before Mr. Fulger started class. I glanced over at the flute section and caught sight of Aurora, who looked repulsed and ready to cry. I snorted in laughter and had to cover my mouth again to suppress another laughing fit. Still trying not to laugh out loud, I turned back to my sheet music book and opened it to the scales in the back.
"Okay!" Mr. Fulger said, taking an orange baton out of his baton box. "B flat concert scale, half notes please." He held up his baton, and I put my clarinet to my mouth. On his queue, we began to play the scale.
-----
"No, no, no!" Mr. Fulger cried, queuing us to stop. His face was turning a darker shade of violet, and I could tell that he was ready to scream with frustration. "You people are still playing the beginning way too fast! What do you think this is, cut time?" He said something under his breath and put his hand to his forehead. "Listen closely," he said, "I'm going to show you the tempo one more time."
He tapped his foot on the tile floor to the beat of the tempo, and everyone in the room listened carefully and tried to memorize the speed of the beats. "Has everyone got it finally?" he asked. We nodded and he sighed heavily. "Ready?" he asked, raising his baton. "Back to the beginning now, one, two three," he queued us, and we began playing the piece again. Class was almost over, and we had played Bach's Minuet about a hundred times. I thought we sounded fine, but Mr. Fulger was nowhere near satisfied, and wouldn't let us move on to another piece until we had corrected all of our mistakes. The one thing I didn't like about Mr. Fulger was his perfectionism. Perfectionists drove me nuts. Why couldn't something just be good enough?
"ARGH!" Mr. Fulger cried, waving his baton for us to stop. "What do I have to do to get you people to do this right?"
"Per'aps e'eryone jewst needs more practise, Monsieur Fulgehr," Aurora suggested. Taylor wrinkled her nose and mouthed Aurora's words, and I chuckled softly.
"I think so too," Mr. Fulger said, "that is a good idea, Aurora."
Several people moaned, and I heard one of the violists behind me whisper, "yes, thank you, oh holy teacher's pet. It's not like we have anything better to do."
"I want everyone to practice for five hours by Friday," Mr. Fulger said, "and I will be checking your practice logs on Friday as well."
Most of the orchestra and I scowled at Aurora. I looked up at the clock on the wall and thanked God that there was only five minutes left of class.
"Okay guys," Mr. Fulger said, putting his baton away, "I think we've all had enough for today. You can start packing up now."
We complied, and I heard Taylor swear loudly. "God damn it," she said, roughly taking her clarinet apart and shoving the pieces in her case, "I don't have time to practice for five hours! I have a Latin exam on Friday that I have to study for! And guess what? That takes priority over practicing this stupid song which sounds fine as it is!"
"Oh stop whining," I heard Becca respond, "I have two lab reports and an English paper due Friday, and you don't hear me complaining."
Taylor rolled her eyes and shoved her sheet music in her bag.
As I was packing up my clarinet, I saw Emily approach me. She squeezed in between the clarinet and viola sections and came to a stop behind me. She leaned over and whispered, "Lia, can I talk to you alone for a second?" in my ear.
"Um, I guess," I said, putting the last clarinet piece in the case and closing it. I got up and followed Emily to a relatively secluded corner of the room not far from the percussion section. When we stopped, she turned to face me. She looked very annoyed.
"What's up?" I asked.
"That was quite a stunt you did in PE last period," Emily replied, still looking annoyed.
"My, word does travel fast, doesn't it?" I commented, folding my arms.
"I saw you do it," Emily said. "I watched the whole thing in my mind's eye while I meditated during Chemistry."
"Tsk tsk," I laughed, "spacing out during class, how horrible of you!"
"Lia, stop it and be serious!" Emily snapped in annoyance.
"Oh for God's sake!" I cried. "Honestly, I didn't do anything special! I don't know what people find so amazing!"
"You may not think that you did anything special," Emily said, "but believe me, what you did was special. Most people couldn't do something like that without a lot of practice."
"So what are you saying?" I asked.
"I'm saying that the Force is clearly very strong with you-" Emily said. The bell rang and interrupted her. We remained silent as the orchestra filed out of the room. When we were alone, Emily continued, "-because your little stunt was not normal."
A large bubble of excitement and hope swelled in me, and I suppressed a squeal of joy. "The Force is strong with me?" I asked, almost leaping with joy. "Does this mean that I can become a Jedi too? Huh? Does it? Does it?"
Emily sighed and put her hand on my shoulder. "I really hate to say this, Lia," she said, "but even though the Force may be strong with you, it doesn't mean that you are Force-sensitive like me, and only Force-sensitive people can learn the ways of the Force."
My bubble burst, and I glared at her in disappointment. "So the Force may be with me," I grumbled, "but I can't use it? That's not fair!"
Emily shrugged. "You may not be able to use it," she said, "but it is there for you when you need it, like today in PE. The Force works in very mysterious ways."
"I guess…" I sighed. Somehow this didn't surprise me. While I had hoped for a second that I was Force-sensitive like her, I had a gut feeling that I wasn't anything special. I knew in my heart that I was just an average girl who would never be anything special and was destined to lead a normal and boring life. Emily had no idea how lucky she was to be unique. I longed to be special like her. I had always felt that being normal was vastly overrated.
"Anyway, back to what I was originally saying," Emily continued, interrupting my thoughts, "your little stunt attracted a lot of attention. I'm sure the people who witnessed it are already talking about it, especially your friend Russell. I know that you didn't do it intentionally, but I have to ask you to try never to do something like that again. As I said before, most of these people aren't ready to know about the Force's existence. A stunt like yours only arouses suspicion."
"But how do you expect me to avoid doing something like that again when I didn't even realize that I had done something like that in the first place?" I asked, almost not understanding myself.
"Just be aware of the Force's presence with you," Emily said, "and try not to do anything extraordinary again."
"Whatever," I said, "I'll try."
"All I ask is that you try," she said. "Anyway, I hate to cut this short, but I have to go meet Master Seia right after school."
"Who's that?" I asked.
"She is my Master," Emily said, "she's the dark-haired woman you saw me with yesterday. I am her Apprentice, and she is instructing me in the Jedi ways."
"Nice!" I said. "I want to meet her!"
Emily laughed. "I knew you'd say that," she said as she grabbed her book bag and violin, "and yes, I think I can arrange a meeting."
I grabbed my backpack and my clarinet, and we walked out of the classroom and down the hall together.
"That's so cool!" I squealed. "I'm gonna get to meet a real Jedi Master! Maybe she can test the Midi-chlorian count in my blood and see if I'm Force sensitive?"
"You'll have to ask her that yourself," Emily said chuckling.
We rounded a corner and climbed up one flight of stairs to the ground floor. When we came to the first-floor locker area and the main entrance, Emily turned aside and said "Well, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Wait," I said, grabbing Emily's arm and stopping her from leaving. "There's one more thing I need to talk to you about."
"What?" Emily asked.
"It's about our friends," I said, "they know something's up with you, and they seem very upset at all your secrecy. I'm also finding it difficult to keep this whole Jedi thing a secret from them." I looked into Emily's face, which was void of any emotion. "I really think that you should tell them about this," I continued, "I think that they will be very receptive and open to it, because they are not like most of the people on Earth, and they can keep a secret. They understand what it's like to be different better than anyone, and I think that keeping this Jedi thing a secret from them is just a bad idea. It makes it seem like you don't trust them."
"I can't disobey the Council," Emily replied robotically.
"Then talk to the Council and try to get them to change their minds!" I hissed. "I mean, it's not like you'll be telling the whole world here."
"I will not question the wisdom of the Council," Emily said, "and even though you're not a Jedi, I would advise you to do the same."
I sighed in disgust and let go of Emily's arm. "Fine," I grunted, "but I think that this is a bad idea."
"It is the will of the Council," Emily said. She turned to go. "I have to go now," she said, "have a good afternoon, and may the Force be with you."
My mood instantly lightened. I squealed with joy and bounced up and down. "I have been waiting all day for you to say that!" I cried. "You have no idea how happy hearing a real Jedi say that makes me! Thank you so much for saying that! It makes Star Wars seem so real!"
Emily laughed at my enthusiasm and happiness. "You're welcome," she said with a sweet smile. She waved good-bye and left. I giggled with joy and practically skipped to my locker down the hall. I hummed the Star Wars theme as I dialed the combination. A pair of old gym shorts fell on my head when I opened the door, but instead of getting mad and swearing, I continued to hum and threw them back in.
It looked like this day turned out to be a little better than the last, and I was glad of that.
