Chapter 10
" NANI???!!!"
Syaoran looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. " Since when?"
" Since the guy who was supposed to play told the school that he'll be moving to
America on the last week. So you are the boss of this year, Syaoran."
" Iiiiiiiiieeeeee!" Syaoran wailed.
Eriol didn't like it either. Normally, the winner of the fifteen-year-olds and under go the week before the last week, and the last week is saved for the best-the philharmonic orchestra and the sixteen to seventeen-year-olds, with their usually difficult concerto. This year, however, the winner of the piano concerto competition was moving to America to attend the Julliard School of Music on the very last week, so Syaoran was to play on the last week.
Which means he gets the spotlight.
Which means he is in big trouble.
And no one knows it more than Syaoran, who was wailing out his distress to his sisters and mother, who comforted him the best they could. What more could they do? Syaoran got himself into this. He won the competition. If he didn't win the competition and gave it to Rika, well, he definetely wouldn't have to worry about concerts!
The problem was, Syaoran was one of those proud people that bite off more than they think they can chew, but they bite it anyway. Syaoran wasn't going to back off.
Eriol briefly remembered the experience last year. He had walked out between the rows of violas and violins, trying his best not to get poked with their dangerous bows. He was awed by the audience ( actually, he was awed before coming on the stage. He had even vomited for five minutes before appearing to prove it.) That time Eriol was so nervous he could barely bow, and when he sat down in the chair he thought he would faint. Then he sighed, trying not to let the audience see ( they get really discouraged when they see you're discouraged) and then nodded to Terada.
The good thing about the concerto was that there was a nice introduction, as most concertos are, and this one was quite long. Eriol remembered reaching into the piece and began concentrating on what he was doing, not on what the audience was doing. That usually works. It pushes the nervousness away.
After what seemed like a short time, Eriol finished and got up. He could barely bow,
and when he did, he nearly fell over. He remembered shaking hands with Terada
and his hands were trembling and sweaty. Fortunately, Terada's hands were too ( he
could not imagine why-all the guy was doing was waving his arms and holding a
baton that was almost broken) and after a shaking of sweaty hands he shook hands
with the concertmistress, whose hands were also sweaty ( he didn't know what was
wrong, maybe it was because it was in May and nearly June. May wasn't supposed
to be that hot, right?) and then he went down and the orchestra began tuning and
practicing again. Terada followed him down and congratulated him and all Eriol was
able to manage was a
" Huh."
Now that it was Syaoran's turn Eriol wasn't too happy. He didn't want Syaoran to vomit, first of all, because Syaoran was physically weaker than he was. Also, he didn't want to think of the sweaty hands ( even for boys, sweaty hands could be quite disgusting) but come to think of it pianists usually do have sweaty hands. Some have cold and sweaty hands, which was even worse because besides your fingers slipping on the keys, you can't move them either. Then he thought about another situation. Uncontrollable hands. That was when you can't control your fingers and they run all over the place. There was another one, sudden memory loss. You suddenly forget the next note, try to guess, guess wrong, and your finger follows your guess when it shouldn't.
With all these possibilities, how is Syaoran going to survive?
" I'm going to die!" Syaoran cried to him.
" Oh, iie." Eriol said quickly. " You'll be fine. Remember me? If I can do it, you can
too."
He didn't mention that he barely made it.
Sakura could relate. Although Tomoyo's concert was a long way off, and Syaoran
was a pianist, she could understand the pressure. She, like Eriol, had decided to spit
out the contents of her stomach five minutes before her appearance. Of course, that
dragged on to ten minutes, because she needed to revive. Then she went on stage,
bowed, and stood there facing the audience.
The disadvantage of a violinist, is that you actually can't focus on anything other than the people in the dark. She was so happy that they decided to turn off the lights. She decided that it was because that way you can't count how many people there are. Unfortunately though, that often leads to thinking there are more people than there actually was, which was worse. In this case, she decided to focus on having less people. Namingly none.
A pianist gets to stare at the keys. Or the insides of the piano. The violinist gets to stare at the strings. That often doesn't work because you still see the audience. In her case, Sakura was staring at her strings. That didn't work, of course, so she got the " uncontrolled fingers syndrome". Luckily, her fingers ran, but in one direction. Her bowing was sloppy but she managed to fool the audience. Music has its special way of cheating, because no one understands about it so they just assume you're right.
So now Sakura heard that Syaoran was taking the place of the sixteen year old. She
deeply sympathized. Syaoran was new at this. How is he going to get through?
" Wish me luck."
" You don't need luck."
She didn't mention that everyone needs luck.
Sakura looked at her papers carefully. All A's. Each and every one of the three
juries gave her A's. She remembered one time when she only had two judges. The
third one went down for lunch and forgot to come up again. It was a stupid grade.
She got an A. But that hardly meant anything because there were only two judges.
Syaoran had A's. Eriol had A's. Tomoyo had A's. Rika had A's. Yamazaki had a B, Chiharu had a B and a B+, Noako had an A- and a B. In actuality, it was fairly easy to get A's.
It just demends who you had for a judge.
So now all that's left is the concert.
Oh boy.
The next Saturday, the last Saturday of the whole year, Sakura went to school as
normal and went through her classes. She got her grades, had candy and donuts,
and then went through her private lesson, where she received six new pieces to
work over the summer. Everything was nice.
Now comes the concert.
There was a lot of commotion. First, the announcements of the seniors and what school they were going to, along with their quotes. The four choruses performed-the junior, youth, women and senior chorus. Of course, that came a long time after; there were many who were graduating.
Finally, comes the concert. Sakura, Eriol, Yamazaki, Tomoyo, and Meiling sat together, with Meiling giving her best glares towards Sakura, who sat far away from her. Three men picked up chairs and brought them upstage, which was cleaner by now and the lights were fixed. They placed the stands onstage, adjusted the piano and took off the risers. Gradually several youngsters appeared and sat in the seats. As if on cue they began playing some weird nonsense. Scales, arpeggios, chords, triads, parts of the piece they were playing. More students came in, some draggin in basses, others trying to adjust the drums the best they could. It was remarkable how loud these little ones could play.
It was quite a while before Eriol went upstage, followed by Tomoyo. Sakura didn't notice what happened to Yamazaki because she was talking with Touya.
" Hai, I'm nervous for him." She said.
" How odd." Touya answered. " Eriol was nervous too. Syaoran was basically
freaking out but let's hope he'll be alright."
With that, Terada nodded to her and Sakura went onstage.
Going up to the stage to bow and play the " A" key on the piano was not something worth going to the mental hospital for. She knew where the A key was anyway. Normally the oboe would be the one to set the tunes but since the piano takes hours to tune, they just follow the piano. Three times, first the woodwinds, than the brass, then the strings. It took some time for the strings; they needed to tune four while the blowers only needed to adjust one handle.
Sakura finally sat down and waited. As was the custom, as soon as Syaoran appeared with Terada, the orchestra students began to stamp their feet as an applause, since their hands were occupied.
Syaoran bowed and looked unbelievably pale. From the other side Sakura saw Eriol bite his lip in worry. Syaoran sat down and adjusted the chair. He sighed and...smiled? Then he nodded to the conductor.
The performance was perfect. In fact, if that wasn't perfect, Sakura didn't know what is. Syaoran was confident. The orchestra was excited and into the music. The audience applauded beautifully.
She guessed that they didn't really care about Swan Lake after that performance. Nor did they care about the philharmonic orchestra. Because quite frankly, everyone was rushing up to Syaoran during the reception where they were having cheese and cookies. Syaoran didn't faint. Syaoran didn't throw up. Geez, what happened to him?
But it's hard not to understand why. Especially since he's perfect now.
They were going to leave each other. Sakura and the gang gathered together to say
goodbye. Meiling still didn't like Sakura but she was there anyway.
" We're going to try to form a quintet." Eriol told them. " Syaoran, Sakura
Tomoyo, me, and possibly Meiling if she gets in. We wrote her name down
anyway."
" Oh dear." Syaoran groaned. " Promise me you'll behave, Meiling."
" Of course." Meiling chirped.
Sakura blinked. Why did she have a feeling that it will be a very interesting year that followed this one?