Keanu Montgomery sat on the cushioned bench. His large, tan, callused hands flew across the keyboard like feathers, but still, a rock-and-roll fashioned Für Elise echoed across the stadium. Keanu didn't even have to look at the notes or the keys, he just closed his eyes and played from memory. As the last few notes trickled out, scattered applause started up, but it had barely begun when Keanu, not wasting any time, jumped into an upbeat version of The Nutcracker March, which had the room of journalists and other people on their feet, dancing. Keanu smiled to himself, and finished off his performance.
"Mr. Montgomery! Mr. Mongomery!" the press shouted as Keanu made his way out of the room. He grinned his trademark lopsided grin.
"Please, call me Keanu," he said, and left the room.
Three weeks later, Keanu is laying on the beach. His long, unruly black hair, instead of being in the ponytail his mother made him put it in for his performances, was around his tan face. His best friend, Nikolas, or Nick, Heller, was sitting next to him. They were lucky to be able to be out on the beach at this time of year. Although it was the only time that the Nova Scotia water and weather was warm, it was also frequently interrupted by storms. The sun was setting, as it was nearly eight, and Keanu was about ready to go inside his beach home behind them. Suddenly, Keanu heard some piano music float through the wind and Nick popped up.
"Ah, he left again?" Nick moaned. Keanu groaned and grabbed his towel. He threw it into Nick.
"Shut it," he said, closing his eyes. Nick liked to poke fun at Keanu whenever possible. Nick knew full well that Keanu was making good money off of his pianist career, but he could never stop making Keanu feel like an idiot.
"Well, now that you've woken me up, I'm going to go for a swim." Swimming was the only sport that Keanu had time for anymore, because he and his parents were traveling the western hemisphere so much. Keanu stood up, shook the stray sand from his muscular arms, and went into the ocean.
If possible, the ocean was even warmer than the air outside. Keanu started to wade in further, and soon, he dove in.
Water was the only place that Keanu felt free. The water flowing through his hair, his vivid green eyes surveying the ground and seeing fishes and tadpoles darting away from him. He started doing laps from one strand of buoys to another, and had gotten three in when the first sound of thunder struck. Keanu raced for the shore, where Nick was laughing at him. The lightning had a tendency to hit the water, and Keanu didn't feel like being electrocuted. He dove out of the water before any of the lightning struck it, and tripped, promptly falling into a sand castle that powdered him in white sand. Keanu spat some out of his mouth in disgust, and stomped past Nick, who was still laughing.
After Keanu had quickly rinsed himself off, he and Nick entered the household. Keanu immediately ran up the stairs to get some dry clothes on, and promptly collided with his younger brother by a year. Jamie smirked at Nick as the cold, wet Keanu raced up the stairs, muttering curses at everyone from Jamie to random people in England. Jamie and Nick left Keanu to himself, and entered the kitchen, where Daisy Montgomery was stirring some spaghetti sauce and talking on the phone at the same time. She offered the two a short smile. "No! I said I wanted TWO rooms, not THREE!"
"Where are you guys headed off to this time?" Nick asked.
"Tuscon, I think," Jamie said. "Mom and Dad won't let me stay here, unfortunately, because I'm only fifteen! It's not my fault they chose to have Keanu first. Why couldn't my younger brother be the musical magician? Then maybe I could stay instead of going everywhere. I hate being home schooled too."
Nick smiled with sympathy as Jamie grabbed some plates. Nick was just grabbing some cutlery when Keanu came down the stairs, his hair pushed behind his ears, just the way his mother hated it. He also had his glasses on now, the square shape of it making Keanu look very intelligent. He grabbed some glasses from the shelf and started helping Jamie.
"Thank you, Keanu," their mother called, and Keanu rolled his eyes. Behind him, Jamie, who had inherited their mother's red hair, now spiked up, made a rude gesture at Keanu, causing Nick to snort and Keanu to whirl around where Jamie was busy straightening a fork. Keanu shot Jamie a warning glance, and went back to setting out the glasses. Jamie mocked him then trudged downstairs to play his X-Box.
Finally, Daisy Montgomery got off the phone. "Hello, Nick, how are you?" she asked. Nick smiled.
"I'm good, and I must say, Mrs. Montgomery, you look dashing today."
Keanu caught the eye of his little sister, Harriet, or Harry as she preferred, and winked.
"You look dashing today!" Keanu and Harry mocked in high pitched voices. Daisy threw the towel at Keanu who was laughing. Harry squealed with delight then turned back to Spongebob Squarepants, the four-year-old's favorite show.
"Anyone home?" a deep voice echoed through the hall. Harry jumped up, but her twin brother, Albus, beat her to their father.
"Daddy!" he yelled, jumping into his arms. Henry Montgomery caught him, and immediately threw him into the air and caught him. Albus laughed.
"Hey sweety, how was work?" Daisy asked as she took the cooked spaghetti off the stove and dumped it into the strainer.
"The usual, got a huge order for some plates."
Henry Montgomery worked at a famous ceramics company. He was in charge of over a third of the company. Right now they were focusing on selling Chinaware.
Daisy had just gotten the sauce off the stove when a scream sounded upstairs.
"Sounds like Lillian's awake," Henry said unnecessarily. Harry raced by, closely followed by Albus.
"Hey!" Daisy yelled as she raced up the stairs, "no playing tag in the house!"
But Albus and Harry didn't hear her, and sure enough, just like usual, a ceramic plate that was seated high on a wooden mantle burst into pieces. Albus and Harry stopped. Henry shook his head. It was another one of those instances where something would just shatter or fall or float for no reason. Nick was even used to it by now. Jamie said that the beach house was haunted, but it happened everywhere, even to him and Keanu.
Daisy came back downstairs with her daughter, Lillian, or Lily, in her arms. Her black hair was in a frizzy mess, but she wasn't crying anymore. Keanu went over to the stairs to the basement.
"James, dinner time!" he yelled.
"My name's Jamie!" he yelled back. Keanu heard an explosion from the game he was playing, then all the sounds from it stopped and Jamie ran up the stairs. He punched Keanu in the arm-Keanu knew that Jamie hated being called by his real name, James.
"This looks great, Mom!" Jamie said as if nothing had happened, and Keanu rubbed his arm. Daisy didn't notice anything.
Finally, after what was ages, the Montgomery family and Nick sat down to enjoy dinner.
A month later, the Montgomery's were back from Tuscon. Once again, Jamie had complained the whole plane trip, and as usual, the feeling was mutual. Keanu didn't enjoy traveling so much. His parents argued that since he had this wonderful talent, he should share it with the world. The only people who enjoyed the trips were his parents and Harry and Albus. Even Lily hated traveling. She would scream and cry at the airports that they had to stop at. The only person she would listen to was Keanu, and only if he was speaking French or Spanish.
Since Keanu had to travel so much, he spoke French, Spanish, and English fluently, and knew bits and pieces of Portugese and Italian. His parents were starting to teach him the remaining Romance languages because they were planing a tour in Europe the next year. So Keanu had to learn everything from Portugese to Estonian. His parents could be come somewhat obsessed. They wouldn't just hire a translator either, said it cost too much.
When they finally reached the beach house after a long drive from Halifax, the first thing Keanu wanted to do was go to sleep. Instead, when they entered the house, they found a hassled young woman in it.
"Who're you?" Keanu asked, he was the first in the house. Jamie entered, saw what was going on, and went to get their parents.
"I'm Hermione Granger, and we need yo,"
That's all she got out in her English accent before his parents appeared. His mother was holding a stick and had shouted "Stupefy!" at the lady, causing her to freeze and fall over.
"What?" Keanu shouted, looking at his parents. His father shouted something and the lady disappeared.
"I'm sorry, Keanu," Daisy said, "Obliviate!"
Keanu woke up three hours later. He was in his bed, and had a splitting headache. He climbed out of bed, pulled some socks on and ventured downstairs. His parents were sitting at the island, drinking coffee.
"Keanu! How are you?" Daisy asked when she saw him.
"What happened?" he muttered, taking a seat.
"You were so tired after the drive, you collapsed when you came in the door," Henry explained.
"That explains the headache," Keanu muttered.
"Nick and Jamie are outside, why don't you go join them?" Daisy suggested.
Keanu stood up and walked out of the kitchen. He saw Harry and Albus watching TV again, but when he caught sight of the mantle, he froze.
He could have sworn that that plate that was sitting on top of it had been broken before.
"How're you feeling?" Jamie asked when he walked up to the chair and fell into it.
"Never better," Keanu said sarcastically. He closed his eyes, but felt to restless to just sit there.
"I'm going for a swim," he told the two. They nodded and went back to what they had been doing.
Keanu dove into the waves, his headache dissipating like it had never really been there in the first place. He started doing laps again, but before long, he heard thunder again. He sighed, he never could complete the ten he tried to. He started swimming for shore, but before he reached it, he slipped on a rock and collapsed. The last thing he saw before the lightning hit the water five feet away was the same bushy haired girl holding a stick.
