Cytisinth: Javier is kind of the odd one out when it comes to the ROR brothers, so he does have a tendency to come up with some odd ideas. :P The RORs are popular, but I personally think that this is due to how good of scarers they are and not to their friendliness. I haven't ever taken a music class before, so I'm guessing that the class is more like band than like music theory? Perhaps I should have researched music classes a bit more before writing these chapters. Hm, well, I wouldn't say that Javier wants to have a threesome with Susan and Reggie. I think that he's trying to either get revenge on Reggie for taking a girlfriend without "his permission" even though that's extremely childish or he's trying to get Susan to dump Reggie and hook up with him instead. Thanks so much for the review!
BloodRedRoses04: That is true about Chet being in so much denial, poor guy. :( I'm so glad that you liked the last three chapters! Thanks for reading them!
james95: I have to admit that I didn't really know what I was doing when I was writing about the music class. I don't know anything about music myself, so I just sort of made up the music class as I went along. Sorry if it's really inaccurate compared to what a real music class should be like. Chet's mind does work in an interesting, sometimes comical way, I agree! Thank you for the comment!
Guest: Haha, I'm thinking the exact same thing as you! Chet and a trumpet would certainly not make a good match. I can just hear all of the awful noises that Chet would make with that thing. *shivers* You'll find out whether or not he gets the trumpet in this chapter! Hope you like it!
Chapter XXV
I have no interest in playing the piano, so I keep my big mouth shut for once and try to stay still even though I'm inwardly jumping up and down in anticipation. I want Mrs. Kimball to ask who wants to play the trumpet next! It still seems like it's calling to me with its shiny brass color and mouthpiece. It's as if the trumpet is begging to be played! I'll play it! I like the nice, loud sound that it makes. It will help me get other monsters' attention, which is something that I seem to need to do a lot of the time.
Two monsters end up wanting to play the piano. One of them is one of the PNK girls with sea foam green skin and bright pink hair. The other girl is blue and has webbed fins on the sides of her head along with three eyes on the front of her face. Huh, both of the girls have three eyes! Three eyes must be common in girls…
I end up thinking about random things such as this while Mrs. Kimball has both girls try out the piano. The piano holds no interest for me. I just wanna play the trumpet! Luckily, the tryout doesn't last long and the PNK girl, apparently called Britney Davis, ends up winning the title of this year's piano player.
Next, Mrs. Kimball looks behind her before motioning to a set of drums. Raising an eyebrow at us, the teacher asks, "Who would like to be our drum player this year?"
A wave of hands rise into the air at Mrs. Kimball's question. Wow, I guess that drums must be popular! Looking to my right, I see that Javier has one of his four hands in the air. Javier doesn't normally get excited over things, but I see a longing look behind his pink irises as he gazes at the drum set across the room from us. For my fellow Roar Omega Roar brother's sake, I hope that he gets to play the drums.
Mrs. Kimball proceeds through the process of elimination just like she did before. She calls each monster interested in playing the drums up to the front of the classroom one at a time. Each monster demonstrates what he or she can do before returning to their seats. When it's Javier's turn to try out the drums, I give him an excited look and whisper, "Good luck!" into his ear.
Javier walks calmly down to the front of the classroom, picks up the set of drum sticks and starts tapping a rhythm on them like a pro. Whoa, it was like he was meant to play the drums! I must not be the only one proud of Javier because the entire classroom is looking at him with impressed expressions on their faces by the time Javier gets done tapping out his beat.
"Well, I think that it's clear who our new drum player is!" Mrs. Kimball exclaims when Javier is done playing the drums. Looking up at him since the bug-like monster is a few inches taller than her, Mrs. Kimball asks, "What is your name?"
"Javier Rios," Javier replies calmly, an almost smug expression crossing his face. I can tell that he's pleased with himself for becoming this year's drum player and, well, he should be! A lot of other monsters wanted to play the drums, but he proved that he was the best out of all of them!
"Congratulations, Mr. Rios. You may return to your seat for now," Mrs. Kimball informs my friend before turning to look at the remaining instruments. I cross my crab claws and hope that she will call out the trumpet next, but instead, Mrs. Kimball asks, "Who would like to play the French horn?"
I look over at the French horn in interest, automatically attracted to it since it's an instrument that I can blow into. However, after examining it for a few minutes, I realize that the French horn looks a lot more complicated than the trumpet. I think that it will be safer just to stick with the trumpet. After all, a few monsters already have their hands up in the air anyway.
As Mrs. Kimball calls the students down one at a time to try out the French horn, I turn to Javier and give him an impressed look, whispering in a voice that is probably too loud to be considered a whisper, "Wow, that was amazing! I didn't know that you knew how to play the drums!"
"I don't know how to play the drums. That's kinda the point of this class, ya know, to teach us how to play our instruments," Javier points out wryly before glancing toward Mrs. Kimball and seeing that she's too distracted to pay any attention to us. Going on, Javier says, "I've always wanted to play the drums, but there was never enough cash to go round back at my parents' place and then I got kicked out of the house."
My face falls and I'm about to apologize to Javier for his misfortune when Mrs. Kimball motions to a shiny brass instrument next to her. Eyes on the trumpet, Mrs. Kimball asks, "Who would like to play the trumpet this year?"
"Me! I would like to play the trumpet! Pick me!" I exclaim loudly, waving a crab claw in the air so that there's no way that Mrs. Kimball can miss me even if she wants to.
Surprisingly enough, Mrs. Kimball's eyes pass right on over me. I continue waving my claw frantically in the air as Mrs. Kimball asks, "Would anyone else like to play the trumpet this year? Anyone at all?" Not sure why Mrs. Kimball is asking this since I want to play the trumpet more than anything, I actually get up from my chair in case she can't see me and start bouncing up and down with my crab claw still flailing around in the air. Sighing, Mrs. Kimball finally says, "No? Very well then. The trumpet will go to the crab at the back of the classroom. Next, we have the harp. Who would like to play the harp this year?"
I could care less about the harp, but I am extremely happy about getting to play the trumpet! I beam and send it an affectionate look, wishing that Mrs. Kimball would hurry up and go through all of the remaining instruments already so I can practice playing my new trumpet. Time passes by slowly while I wait, but finally the auditioning comes to an end and each student in the music classroom has been matched up with an instrument.
Without waiting for Mrs. Kimball to give us permission to go to our instruments, I immediately fly off of my chair and zoom as fast as I can toward my trumpet. Scooping it up into a claw as if it is my pride and joy, I put my mouth on the mouthpiece and let out a nice, long blare with it. All of the other students in the classroom look at me like I've lost my mind and Mrs. Kimball looks very shocked.
"Mr. Crab, I don't believe that I ever gave you permission to start practicing your instrument," Mrs. Kimball informs me with a slight frown before going on, "As a matter of fact, our hour of class time is up and it appears that practicing will have to wait until next week. Class is now dismissed."
My face falls and I look down at the trumpet in my claw with disappointment. I really wanted to play my trumpet for a little while! It's so beautiful and it makes such a pretty sound! Coming up with an idea, I follow Mrs. Kimball as she turns away from me and tug on her skirt to get her attention. Once I've succeeded in getting the teacher to look at me, I ask, "Can I take my trumpet to my dorm room so I can practice it?"
Mrs. Kimball debates about this for a long few moments. It looks as if part of her wants to say yes because she wants me to improve at my trumpet playing before next week. The other part of her doesn't trust me to keep track of the trumpet. I guess that she must really want me to improve though because she finally agrees, "Yes, you may take your trumpet with you as long as you promise not to lose it and to keep track of it. Can you do this, Mr. Crab?"
"Yes! Yes, I can do that! I pwomise," I nod my head up and down vigorously while Javier sends me a patronizing look out of the corner of his eye. Just in case she was wondering, I inform Mrs. Kimball, "My name isn't really 'Mr. Crab', by the way. It's Chet – Chet Alexander. I'm from the great Alexander household of scaring!"
Mrs. Kimball nods shortly and turns away from me, not looking like she cares whether my name is Mr. Crab or Chet Alexander. I follow her, about to ask her if she's heard of the Alexanders before when I feel a hand on my shoulder. Rolling his eyes at me, Javier pulls me away from the teacher and says, "C'mon, crab man, let's go get some lunch."
Lunch immediately distracts me from telling Mrs. Kimball about my family and so I nod and follow Javier out of the music room and into the hallway with a pleased expression on my face. As the two of us start in the direction of the cafeteria, I almost run straight into a tall, gray-furred monster. For once, Johnny isn't surrounded by his group of blonde PNK girls. Well, okay, they're not really blonde, but you know how the expression goes.
"Boss, Johnny, hi!" I exclaim enthusiastically at the prospect of running into Roar Omega Roar's leader. Wanting Johnny to be proud of me, I hold up my trumpet for him to see and say, "I'm going to play the trumpet!"
"Ah, so you are," Johnny nods once, looking in amusement down at my trumpet before his bushy black eyebrows narrow slightly and he adds, "I want you to remember that your most important class is your scaring class though, Chet. At the end of the year, your grades from that class are what will matter most."
"Oh, okay. So I should study scaring more than practice my trumpet?" I ask, feeling smart for figuring this out all on my own.
"That's exactly what you should do," Johnny says, giving me a pat on the head just like the way a dog's master might pat him on the head before he takes a step forward and says, "Keep up the studying, Chet. I'm off to advanced physics."
"Bye Johnny!" I wave at my hero frantically before sighing dreamily and turning to Javier, murmuring dreamily, "Did you hear that, Jav? Johnny is in advanced physics! He's so amazing. You have to be very smart to be in advanced physics. Um, Javier?"
Turning to my right, I see that all signs of the buggy monster have vanished. Huh, that's weird! I thought that he was standing right here next to me! It's almost like he tried to sneak away from me or something! Deciding not to take this to heart, I spend the next twenty minutes trying to find the lunchroom. Once I finally reach it, I only have five minutes for lunch. Grabbing whatever is closest to me, I dump some food onto my lunch tray and then plop down at the nearest lunch table. Before I can take a bite of my sandwich, a chair from across the table from me makes a loud squeaking sound as a furry green monster joins me.
"Hey, man, how's it going?" Reggie asks me, his three yellow eyes fixed on me as he unceremoniously drops his textbooks onto the table, adding, "Trig is a fuckin' bitch, dude. I dunno why I ever decided to take the damn thing."
"You're taking trig? You know, like trigonometry?" my eye widens in surprise as Reggie makes a face and nods. Looking impressed, I reply, "Wow! You must be really smart to be taking trigonometry. I just came from music class. I'm going to play the trumpet this year and Javier is going to play the drums."
Reggie yawns when I say that I'm playing the trumpet, but automatically perks up when I mention Javier. Frowning, the three-eyed monster asks me, "Speaking of Jav, where the hell has he been all day? I haven't seen him anywhere and I've been keepin' an eye out for him, dammit!"
"He sneaks away from monsters very easily. He was standing by me earlier, but when I looked over at him a second later, he was gone! I wonder if he can do magic or something. Hey Reggie, do you have a girlfriend?" I ask randomly, causing Reggie to give me a confused look before he shakes his head slowly, obviously wondering where I got this idea from. I go on to explain, "Susan Jensen came up to Javier earlier. He thought that she was your girlfriend."
Reggie snorts and replies, "Jav thought that? Shit, man, I'd never have a chance with a chick like Susan. I just sent her in Jav's direction because she wanted some of his stash and said that she'd pay him well. Jav is always goin' on about how he wants to make money and shit, so I was just helping him out."
"Oh," I say, realizing that Javier and Reggie have had a big misunderstanding. Javier thinks that Susan is Reggie's girlfriend when she's nothing more than a girl who was supposed to pay him to help him out with his low funds. I'll have to tell Javier about this as soon as I see him next!
Unaware of the miscommunication, Reggie yawns widely without bothering to cover his gaping mouth and says, "We've both got computers next. Funny thing is that I'm actually lookin' forward to computers. It's been a while since I've been able to use the net. Gotta check my usual porn sites and stuff, ya know?"
I open my mouth, about to ask Reggie why he's interested in pictures of half-naked female monsters when the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. Reggie immediately gets to his feet and grabs my claw, pulling me along after him as he says rambunctiously, "Let's go! I don't wanna be late for the one class I'm actually looking forward to. Computers are bound to be fun, don't you think? I mean, we might learn to hack into real important shiz!"
Unable to keep up with Reggie's rapid sentences, I just sort of nod my head and follow along as the energetic green monster drags me around a corner and causes me to bump into a one-eyed purple monster with two horns on his head. I open my mouth to apologize when Reggie gives me a frown and hisses in my ear, "Don't apologize to him, geez! That makes you look weak. RORs are scary, not weak, alright?"
"Oh, okay. I'll remember that," I nod, thinking that I've learned two things today. First of all, you don't say hi to other monsters in the hallway if you're part of Roar Omega Roar. Secondly, you don't apologize to other monsters if you run into them either. This fraternity is really going to change me, that's for sure. I just hope that it's for the better.
Review please? :)