Disclaimer: Hey y'all, it's the Lone Writer again. I've decided to write a
story that I can actually relate to being that car racing is only a sport I
watch. I play the string bass and bass guitar as though it were my life-
support. I'm in the chamber orchestra and all that stuff. ANYWAYS, most of
the events in this story has happened to me or one of my best friends. So
in a way, this is a biography. Which brings me to my next statement: I do
not own Gundam Wing in any way shape or form. Sad, but true. I am merely
using them as *pawns* (such a harsh word) to convey the events in my
orchestra/dance life. So sit back, relax, turn on some Vivaldi (the best
composer EVER!) and enjoy! ---oh and by the way, these characters are
NOTHING like they are in the shows. Especially Relena...so just look at her
as someone...completely different!!! Thanks!
Call it my Forte
Chapter One: Meet the Chamber
Heero, so far, hated the school. Everyone was a frickin prep on drugs. Why the hell they had to move here was beyond Heero. His first year in a high school as a sophomore and he just had to end up here. His father couldn't keep a job longer than a year but that didn't mean they always had to move out of the city, hell, or even out of the state!
Heero walked into the orchestra room just as the bell rang. So he got a little lost, it was his first day.
"Class, for the last time, would you please SHUT UP!?!" The teacher screamed. "God, thank you." She muttered.
"Ahem." Heero sounded coldly.
The teacher nearly threw the baton at him and called him Relena.
"Re---oh, hello, I believe you're the new student, right?"
Heero just nodded and looked around.
"Instrument?" The teacher asked.
"Don't you want to know my name?" Heero inquired, looking at the teacher's list.
"I give nicknames according to your abilities; names are of no meaning to me. However it is important that I place you in the correct instrument section, now isn't it?"
"Cello."
"Ah, the melodic cello. Take cello number two-eighty-one, over on the rack and unpack. It's a good cello you should find, we save the best for chamber, which brings me to my next statement. Welcome to Cole High School's chamber orchestra the---"
"Sorry I'm late!" A girl called hauling ass into the classroom.
"Relena, how many times have I told you, you go to the bath---"
"I wasn't in the bathroom this time, Mrs. Jones; I was in the counselor's!" Relena protested running over to one of the unpacked basses on the rack. It was the oldest bass there but looked as though it possessed the best quality.
"And what, pray tell, were you in the counselor's for again?" Mrs. Jones asked, fixing the absent mark on her roll sheet.
"So my science teacher thinks I have problems!" Relena said in an exasperated tone picking up the bass in one arm. Her long, elbow length hair was in two messy buns on either side of her head and loose wisps fell on her perfect skin. Her sea green eyes danced with social friendliness. When she picked up the bass her right arm's muscle bulged and it appeared the she, heaven forbid, actually lifted weights like a guy. She was skinny and her curves were a little behind the average fifteen-year-old but that didn't at all take away from her stunning beauty.
She carried her bass and bow in one hand and in the other was her music. She took her place in first chair. Heero immediately noticed she was the only girl bassist and she had to be good to be first chair in the chamber orchestra.
"By the way, that is our first chair bassist. Relena Dorlian, but she better responds to Bass Babe, or..." The teacher grimaced. "Luke." The teacher sighed. "I rather prefer Bass Babe."
"It's nice to meet you, Heero, you're in my accelerated math class!" Relena said none too quietly.
Heero just nodded and turned back to the teacher. "So you don't need my name."
"Well from what I gathered from Miss 'Loud-Mouth' over there, I'm guessing you're Heero Yuy. Get your cello, get in that back empty seat, so you'll be sitting right in front of Relena, and just look off of Ellen's music."
Heero nodded again and got his cello and took his place in the orchestra.
"Now class." Mrs. Jones started, stepping up to the podium. "Today I have our State-wide competition music to hand out. It's a Vivaldi piece..." Half of the class grimaced waiting for the inevitable...
"WOO-HOO!" Relena cheered. "Alright, Vivaldi, it's about time we get some good music."
"That's quite enough, Miss Relena." The teacher interjected. Half of the class giggled. The bassist next to Relena gave her a high-five.
"We'll be doing Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn---naturally the abridged version to get them all into one fifteen or even twenty minute piece. So, I'll be handing that out right now." The teacher explained. "And by the way, if you didn't hear Relena's loud remark we have a new student in the chamber today. His name is Heero Yuy, I trust all of you will be nice and be a friend to him even outside of chamber."
Heero could hear Relena hold back a laugh. She slightly leaned over to Duo. "And I know who he's gonna hang with."
"Not with us." Duo scoffed. "He seems like a clean one."
"Probably never even heard of the word depression." Relena muttered, though the constant sound of laughter was on her voice. "But who knows, he's pretty cute."
"We'll just see who he decides to blend with. And maybe he's not as clean as we think."
"MR. MAXWELL, MISS DORLIAN! Could you at least be quiet for five minutes?"
"Yes ma'am." Duo snapped, leaning back into his normal position.
The teacher rolled her eyes. "Now, if you'd all please look at measure twenty-four, that's where the melody really gets started..."
~*~
The bell finally rang and everyone started out of the room.
"Relena, Mr. Yuy, a moment from both of you if you will." Mrs. Jones snapped.
Relena rolled her eyes. "You might want to stand back from this one. She's pissed." Relena whispered to Heero. She lightly punched his arm. "If anything's got you in trouble blame it on me, believe me, she'll forgive you."
Relena took a deep breath and walked up to Mrs. Jones' desk.
Heero looked admirably at the girl. She barely knew him and she had offered to take a blow for him.
"Miss Dorlian, I'm giving you one last chance to explain to me why your math grade is down to a seventy-five percent..." Mrs. Jones commanded.
Relena sighed. "Okay, okay, so I didn't completely understand those story problems and I got a C on my last test. I'm working on extra credit right now and we've got a test over matrices next week that I'm sure I'll get an A on. Please, Mrs. Jones, I'm working my butt of here. Don't report me."
Mrs. Jones sighed. "I'll make an exception for you. At the end of the semester, if that grade doesn't rise, Duo will be sitting first chair and you'll be an office aid, is that understood?"
"Yes ma'am."
"The semester ends January 15th, I suggest you get started now being that it's...November 4th, the first day into the second quarter. Now get!"
Relena blew a stray hair out of her eyes and grabbed Heero by the shoulder as he walked by. "Hey, what class do you have next?"
"Spanish." Heero whispered.
"Same here, I'll wait for ya." Relena replied taking a comfortable place against the wall.
Heero nodded at Relena and walked over to Mrs. Jones desk. "So Heero, what do you think of the orchestra?"
"They're a very talented group of musicians."
"The best in the state, Heero." Mrs. Jones corrected. "And Relena in almost stately famous for being the best female bassist. You're quite lucky to have transferred into an orchestra with such a reputation. But also like Relena, this chamber orchestra has strict rules. I do not allow my students to have a grade in any subject below a B, and I do not accept less than thirty hours of practice time a quarter, and I do not, do not accept my students to be under the influence of any substance whatsoever. Is that clearly understood?"
"Yes ma'am, that's understood." Heero repeated.
"You are extremely talented, Heero, I'm seeing you in first chair soon. Don't screw up. I like you already, so try not to push my buttons. Okay?"
"Yeah." Heero replied, a little taken aback by those brash comments.
"You're dismissed." Mrs. Jones said, already turning to her computer.
Heero turned on his heel and walked up to Relena.
She jerked her head, motioning to follow her and the two walked out of the room. Once they were a save distance from the orchestra room Relena spoke.
"Damn her, that bitch." She cursed. "Relena's the best *female* bassist, but she's a screw up. And her grades suffer, and she's *under the influence*, what the hell does she know?"
Heero couldn't stop himself. "Well are you?"
"What, under the influence?" Relena asked, in shock. "Hell no! My god, bass and tap dancing are the only things I have left. Drugs would just screw me over...but then again if you're always screwed up what does it hurt to be screwed over?"
Heero couldn't help but let out a small smile. She did have a strange, almost attracting sense of humor. "So I take it you don't like Mrs. Jones."
"We have our differences. But everyone knows she won't let me off the chamber because I'm the best bass player she's ever had."
"What about that Duo guy?"
"Duo? Man, he's almost as good as I am. But his passion lies in the bass guitar. He never practices his string bass."
"Oh." Heero plainly stated.
"So, where are you from?"
Heero scoffed. "You'd laugh."
"Try me." Relena parried.
"Boise, Idaho."
"So you're a cowboy?"
"Not really, my best friend was though."
"I find cowboys sexy. Probably because you don't find them around here. Me, I'm from Fresno, California. And LA, and Las Vegas, and Salt Lake, and Ontario, and Daytona, and New York City, and Chicago, my parents just can't stay put."
Heero couldn't believe what he was hearing. "It's strange you say that. My dad, he can't keep a frickin job for more than a year. That's why we're here right now."
"So what do ya do? You become antisocial; you try to avoid making friends because you know the inevitable is going to happen: you're going to move again. That's what I thought for a long time, and then my mom died and my dad married this bitch right off the bat. It's like he didn't even miss my mother. God, I hate my step mom. But at least she keeps him grounded where he is."
Heero sighed. "I never knew my mom. She died when I was a baby."
"Sorry to hear that. You know, we have a lot in common. I thought you and I weren't going to rub the right way."
Heero raised an eyebrow at her. "I guess we do have some in common."
Relena just laughed. "Yeah, some." She agreed. "Alright, here we are, room two-eleven, Spanish One."
Relena led Heero into the room and Heero assumed a seat next to his newfound friend.
"On time for once, Relena, and from the e-mail I got today, I'm guessing you're Heero Yuy."
"Yes sir."
The blonde-haired man nodded. "I'm Senor McKinney."
"Hola. ¿Como esta usted?" Heero asked in a perfect accent.
"Muy bien, gracias." Senor McKinney answered. "Now if you'd all get your text books open to page forty-five, let's get started on our oral assignment. Turn to a person close to you and just follow the instructions. Pronto!"
Relena turned to Heero. "Might I have the honors?"
Heero gave her as much of a smile as he could. "Se, es un placer."
Relena smiled. "Igualmente."
Heero nodded and started up the Spanish assignment the text instructed him to do, taking on the roll of Francisco and asking Relena, who played the part of Alma, all the things he was supposed to ask.
The bell rang and Relena walked up to Heero's locker. "So do you walk home or ride the bus?"
"Walk." Heero simply replied.
"Same here. Where do you live?"
"Streamside Park."
Relena laughed. "Okay, this is really getting uncanny."
"You live there too?"
"You betcha." She laughed. "Well then, looks like you've got a walking buddy!"
Heero threw his backpack on and silently thanked god for Relena. "Guess so." He replied shutting his locker. They walked to Relena's locker, got her stuff, and started out.
On the way home, Heero and Relena struck up an agreement. If Relena helped Heero out in History, being that he was way behind in all the constitution stuff, then he would help her with her math.
Relena's house was the first stop. It was a nice large house, like all the other houses were around. Heero had never lived in a large house before, but since his father had earned a new job that actually gave him the home; Heero found himself enjoying the near-mansion sized houses.
"Well, I'll be seeing you tomorrow. You walk to school?"
"Yeah." Heero replied.
"I'll meet you at the front sign at 6:50, okay?"
"Alright." Heero agreed. "See ya Relena."
"RELENA DORLIAN, GET YOUR ASS IN HERE THIS INSTANT!" A woman shrieked from inside the house.
"Medusa calls; I'll see ya tomorrow bud!" Relena groaned before she opened the door and slammed it shut.
Heero left the front porch and walked home slowly taking in the day's events. He had started the day out cursing the city's very existence and by the end of the day Relena had turned it upside down and made in enjoyable. And she was the only one that could ever, or had ever, done that for him.
Heero walked in the door to see his father actually working on the computer avidly.
"Hey son!"
"Hey." Heero replied.
"Enjoy school?" The father asked timidly.
Heero gave as much smile as he could. "Actually, yes, father, I enjoyed school."
Heero's father, Odin, gave a relieved grin. "I'm glad to hear that Sport. I've gotta get back to work but we'll have dinner together, sound like a deal?"
"Sure thing." Heero replied happily. His father was in a great mood. Maybe it was the large house, maybe it was the city. But whatever it was it was doing both Odin and Heero a great deal of good.
Heero walked up to his room and threw his backpack on his bed and started to type an e-mail to the address Relena had given him.
Hey Relena, just wanted to see if this was the right address, I'll meet you at the sign at 6:50 in the morning.
-Heero
Heero sent the e-mail with a content sigh and then sat back.
Relena.
What was so different about her anyways?
So what did you think? Better???? I hope so. Please, please, please review. If I don't get any reviews I'll just give this fic up and move on. I can't tell if it sucks or not so please give me some feedback. I hope the character's personalities weren't too over the edge for you. Thanks!!!
Call it my Forte
Chapter One: Meet the Chamber
Heero, so far, hated the school. Everyone was a frickin prep on drugs. Why the hell they had to move here was beyond Heero. His first year in a high school as a sophomore and he just had to end up here. His father couldn't keep a job longer than a year but that didn't mean they always had to move out of the city, hell, or even out of the state!
Heero walked into the orchestra room just as the bell rang. So he got a little lost, it was his first day.
"Class, for the last time, would you please SHUT UP!?!" The teacher screamed. "God, thank you." She muttered.
"Ahem." Heero sounded coldly.
The teacher nearly threw the baton at him and called him Relena.
"Re---oh, hello, I believe you're the new student, right?"
Heero just nodded and looked around.
"Instrument?" The teacher asked.
"Don't you want to know my name?" Heero inquired, looking at the teacher's list.
"I give nicknames according to your abilities; names are of no meaning to me. However it is important that I place you in the correct instrument section, now isn't it?"
"Cello."
"Ah, the melodic cello. Take cello number two-eighty-one, over on the rack and unpack. It's a good cello you should find, we save the best for chamber, which brings me to my next statement. Welcome to Cole High School's chamber orchestra the---"
"Sorry I'm late!" A girl called hauling ass into the classroom.
"Relena, how many times have I told you, you go to the bath---"
"I wasn't in the bathroom this time, Mrs. Jones; I was in the counselor's!" Relena protested running over to one of the unpacked basses on the rack. It was the oldest bass there but looked as though it possessed the best quality.
"And what, pray tell, were you in the counselor's for again?" Mrs. Jones asked, fixing the absent mark on her roll sheet.
"So my science teacher thinks I have problems!" Relena said in an exasperated tone picking up the bass in one arm. Her long, elbow length hair was in two messy buns on either side of her head and loose wisps fell on her perfect skin. Her sea green eyes danced with social friendliness. When she picked up the bass her right arm's muscle bulged and it appeared the she, heaven forbid, actually lifted weights like a guy. She was skinny and her curves were a little behind the average fifteen-year-old but that didn't at all take away from her stunning beauty.
She carried her bass and bow in one hand and in the other was her music. She took her place in first chair. Heero immediately noticed she was the only girl bassist and she had to be good to be first chair in the chamber orchestra.
"By the way, that is our first chair bassist. Relena Dorlian, but she better responds to Bass Babe, or..." The teacher grimaced. "Luke." The teacher sighed. "I rather prefer Bass Babe."
"It's nice to meet you, Heero, you're in my accelerated math class!" Relena said none too quietly.
Heero just nodded and turned back to the teacher. "So you don't need my name."
"Well from what I gathered from Miss 'Loud-Mouth' over there, I'm guessing you're Heero Yuy. Get your cello, get in that back empty seat, so you'll be sitting right in front of Relena, and just look off of Ellen's music."
Heero nodded again and got his cello and took his place in the orchestra.
"Now class." Mrs. Jones started, stepping up to the podium. "Today I have our State-wide competition music to hand out. It's a Vivaldi piece..." Half of the class grimaced waiting for the inevitable...
"WOO-HOO!" Relena cheered. "Alright, Vivaldi, it's about time we get some good music."
"That's quite enough, Miss Relena." The teacher interjected. Half of the class giggled. The bassist next to Relena gave her a high-five.
"We'll be doing Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn---naturally the abridged version to get them all into one fifteen or even twenty minute piece. So, I'll be handing that out right now." The teacher explained. "And by the way, if you didn't hear Relena's loud remark we have a new student in the chamber today. His name is Heero Yuy, I trust all of you will be nice and be a friend to him even outside of chamber."
Heero could hear Relena hold back a laugh. She slightly leaned over to Duo. "And I know who he's gonna hang with."
"Not with us." Duo scoffed. "He seems like a clean one."
"Probably never even heard of the word depression." Relena muttered, though the constant sound of laughter was on her voice. "But who knows, he's pretty cute."
"We'll just see who he decides to blend with. And maybe he's not as clean as we think."
"MR. MAXWELL, MISS DORLIAN! Could you at least be quiet for five minutes?"
"Yes ma'am." Duo snapped, leaning back into his normal position.
The teacher rolled her eyes. "Now, if you'd all please look at measure twenty-four, that's where the melody really gets started..."
~*~
The bell finally rang and everyone started out of the room.
"Relena, Mr. Yuy, a moment from both of you if you will." Mrs. Jones snapped.
Relena rolled her eyes. "You might want to stand back from this one. She's pissed." Relena whispered to Heero. She lightly punched his arm. "If anything's got you in trouble blame it on me, believe me, she'll forgive you."
Relena took a deep breath and walked up to Mrs. Jones' desk.
Heero looked admirably at the girl. She barely knew him and she had offered to take a blow for him.
"Miss Dorlian, I'm giving you one last chance to explain to me why your math grade is down to a seventy-five percent..." Mrs. Jones commanded.
Relena sighed. "Okay, okay, so I didn't completely understand those story problems and I got a C on my last test. I'm working on extra credit right now and we've got a test over matrices next week that I'm sure I'll get an A on. Please, Mrs. Jones, I'm working my butt of here. Don't report me."
Mrs. Jones sighed. "I'll make an exception for you. At the end of the semester, if that grade doesn't rise, Duo will be sitting first chair and you'll be an office aid, is that understood?"
"Yes ma'am."
"The semester ends January 15th, I suggest you get started now being that it's...November 4th, the first day into the second quarter. Now get!"
Relena blew a stray hair out of her eyes and grabbed Heero by the shoulder as he walked by. "Hey, what class do you have next?"
"Spanish." Heero whispered.
"Same here, I'll wait for ya." Relena replied taking a comfortable place against the wall.
Heero nodded at Relena and walked over to Mrs. Jones desk. "So Heero, what do you think of the orchestra?"
"They're a very talented group of musicians."
"The best in the state, Heero." Mrs. Jones corrected. "And Relena in almost stately famous for being the best female bassist. You're quite lucky to have transferred into an orchestra with such a reputation. But also like Relena, this chamber orchestra has strict rules. I do not allow my students to have a grade in any subject below a B, and I do not accept less than thirty hours of practice time a quarter, and I do not, do not accept my students to be under the influence of any substance whatsoever. Is that clearly understood?"
"Yes ma'am, that's understood." Heero repeated.
"You are extremely talented, Heero, I'm seeing you in first chair soon. Don't screw up. I like you already, so try not to push my buttons. Okay?"
"Yeah." Heero replied, a little taken aback by those brash comments.
"You're dismissed." Mrs. Jones said, already turning to her computer.
Heero turned on his heel and walked up to Relena.
She jerked her head, motioning to follow her and the two walked out of the room. Once they were a save distance from the orchestra room Relena spoke.
"Damn her, that bitch." She cursed. "Relena's the best *female* bassist, but she's a screw up. And her grades suffer, and she's *under the influence*, what the hell does she know?"
Heero couldn't stop himself. "Well are you?"
"What, under the influence?" Relena asked, in shock. "Hell no! My god, bass and tap dancing are the only things I have left. Drugs would just screw me over...but then again if you're always screwed up what does it hurt to be screwed over?"
Heero couldn't help but let out a small smile. She did have a strange, almost attracting sense of humor. "So I take it you don't like Mrs. Jones."
"We have our differences. But everyone knows she won't let me off the chamber because I'm the best bass player she's ever had."
"What about that Duo guy?"
"Duo? Man, he's almost as good as I am. But his passion lies in the bass guitar. He never practices his string bass."
"Oh." Heero plainly stated.
"So, where are you from?"
Heero scoffed. "You'd laugh."
"Try me." Relena parried.
"Boise, Idaho."
"So you're a cowboy?"
"Not really, my best friend was though."
"I find cowboys sexy. Probably because you don't find them around here. Me, I'm from Fresno, California. And LA, and Las Vegas, and Salt Lake, and Ontario, and Daytona, and New York City, and Chicago, my parents just can't stay put."
Heero couldn't believe what he was hearing. "It's strange you say that. My dad, he can't keep a frickin job for more than a year. That's why we're here right now."
"So what do ya do? You become antisocial; you try to avoid making friends because you know the inevitable is going to happen: you're going to move again. That's what I thought for a long time, and then my mom died and my dad married this bitch right off the bat. It's like he didn't even miss my mother. God, I hate my step mom. But at least she keeps him grounded where he is."
Heero sighed. "I never knew my mom. She died when I was a baby."
"Sorry to hear that. You know, we have a lot in common. I thought you and I weren't going to rub the right way."
Heero raised an eyebrow at her. "I guess we do have some in common."
Relena just laughed. "Yeah, some." She agreed. "Alright, here we are, room two-eleven, Spanish One."
Relena led Heero into the room and Heero assumed a seat next to his newfound friend.
"On time for once, Relena, and from the e-mail I got today, I'm guessing you're Heero Yuy."
"Yes sir."
The blonde-haired man nodded. "I'm Senor McKinney."
"Hola. ¿Como esta usted?" Heero asked in a perfect accent.
"Muy bien, gracias." Senor McKinney answered. "Now if you'd all get your text books open to page forty-five, let's get started on our oral assignment. Turn to a person close to you and just follow the instructions. Pronto!"
Relena turned to Heero. "Might I have the honors?"
Heero gave her as much of a smile as he could. "Se, es un placer."
Relena smiled. "Igualmente."
Heero nodded and started up the Spanish assignment the text instructed him to do, taking on the roll of Francisco and asking Relena, who played the part of Alma, all the things he was supposed to ask.
The bell rang and Relena walked up to Heero's locker. "So do you walk home or ride the bus?"
"Walk." Heero simply replied.
"Same here. Where do you live?"
"Streamside Park."
Relena laughed. "Okay, this is really getting uncanny."
"You live there too?"
"You betcha." She laughed. "Well then, looks like you've got a walking buddy!"
Heero threw his backpack on and silently thanked god for Relena. "Guess so." He replied shutting his locker. They walked to Relena's locker, got her stuff, and started out.
On the way home, Heero and Relena struck up an agreement. If Relena helped Heero out in History, being that he was way behind in all the constitution stuff, then he would help her with her math.
Relena's house was the first stop. It was a nice large house, like all the other houses were around. Heero had never lived in a large house before, but since his father had earned a new job that actually gave him the home; Heero found himself enjoying the near-mansion sized houses.
"Well, I'll be seeing you tomorrow. You walk to school?"
"Yeah." Heero replied.
"I'll meet you at the front sign at 6:50, okay?"
"Alright." Heero agreed. "See ya Relena."
"RELENA DORLIAN, GET YOUR ASS IN HERE THIS INSTANT!" A woman shrieked from inside the house.
"Medusa calls; I'll see ya tomorrow bud!" Relena groaned before she opened the door and slammed it shut.
Heero left the front porch and walked home slowly taking in the day's events. He had started the day out cursing the city's very existence and by the end of the day Relena had turned it upside down and made in enjoyable. And she was the only one that could ever, or had ever, done that for him.
Heero walked in the door to see his father actually working on the computer avidly.
"Hey son!"
"Hey." Heero replied.
"Enjoy school?" The father asked timidly.
Heero gave as much smile as he could. "Actually, yes, father, I enjoyed school."
Heero's father, Odin, gave a relieved grin. "I'm glad to hear that Sport. I've gotta get back to work but we'll have dinner together, sound like a deal?"
"Sure thing." Heero replied happily. His father was in a great mood. Maybe it was the large house, maybe it was the city. But whatever it was it was doing both Odin and Heero a great deal of good.
Heero walked up to his room and threw his backpack on his bed and started to type an e-mail to the address Relena had given him.
Hey Relena, just wanted to see if this was the right address, I'll meet you at the sign at 6:50 in the morning.
-Heero
Heero sent the e-mail with a content sigh and then sat back.
Relena.
What was so different about her anyways?
So what did you think? Better???? I hope so. Please, please, please review. If I don't get any reviews I'll just give this fic up and move on. I can't tell if it sucks or not so please give me some feedback. I hope the character's personalities weren't too over the edge for you. Thanks!!!